architecturedesign

Architects: Vora Arquitectura Location: Rambla de Sant Francesc, Vilafranca del Penedès, Spain Design Team: Rui Santos, Eva Cotman Area: 8,500 sqm Completion: 2010 Photographer: Adrià Goula Sardà

The new Sant Francesc Boulevard brings the vineyards landscape of the Penedès region into the heart of Vilafranca and improves the versatility of this central space, scenery of many important urban events. The Sant Francesc Boulevard is the most important civic space in the center of the town. Due to its proportion it could be considered more a lounge than a boulevard. During the years it has been the collector of many important events in town (fairs, markets, concerts,…).

Our project covers a traumatic break for the town: the construction of an underground parking that entailed the logging of all the existing trees, robbing the people of Vilafranca a pleasant shadow and a strong community symbol. Symbology, centrality, memory and functionality. Complementary strategies to connect citizens with this important public space.

Symbology and Centrality. We have reproduced a piece of the wine-producing landscape of Penedès in an exercise of form alabs traction, trying to promote the role of the town as showcase and wine capital of the region. The floor design has also a great potential of plastic expression. Its singularity gives to the space the perception of centrality.

Memory and Functionality. We provide a new urbanization for a place which is a landmark in the collective imaginary but suffered a traumatic disfigurement recently. Our project tries to take advantages of this emotional connection in a new way. It establishes a perceptive continuity to bring back a part of its lost memory. Treesare a key element. Many uses are possible thanks to the great versatility given to the space.

Architects: Atelier Carvalho Araújo – José Manuel Carvalho Araújo Location: Braga, Portugal Client: Mário Sequeira Design Team: Nuno Capa, Raul Carvalhai Photographs: Pedro Lobo

  

It can be concisely summarized the project to a gesture. The respect for the site, not in the sense of the landscape, but of the habits and attitudes inherent in the “feel “of the place become evident when inserting the building in an area where are cultivated the principles of identity of the surrounding environment and a strong sense of preservation.

A project of an art gallery, with the particularities and needs inherent to an area with specific uses and functions, allowing it to “live” underground, where it can perform all the requirements that it had proposed.

The visual silence maintained on the surface increases the expectation of the observer before the duality of scale that he faces: nothing on the surface and much inside.

The growing scale of space imposed on the observer, as he is introduced into the building, stimulates him and enhances the contrasts of light, color, scale…

To complement its elemental nature – the simplicity of the program – a room, were we created zones of access, circulation, which in addition to enriching the set, increases the “public” character of the building.

The interior space, apparently closed, is open to the east side, establishing a visual relation with the outer space.

Architect: Hufft Projects Location: Missouri, USA Principal in charge: Matthew Hufft Design Team: Kendra Kirchmer, Dan Brown Casework/Custom Fabrication: Hufft Projects General Contractor: Kenson Goff Homes Area: 5,700 sq. ft. Completion: 2010 Photographs: Matthew Hufft, Andrew Fabin

 

This lakeside retreat is anything but ordinary. Taking design inspiration from a vintage Polaroid camera, the form of the building is intended to frame the scenic setting from every angle – creating ‘postcards’ from within. It is all about the views and the experience. The main materials for the home are aluminum and Western Red Cedar. It is also built in a low impact manner by placing the home on columns and minimizing impervious pavement.

The entire house utilizes natural daylight and natural ventilation. Recycled and Low VOC materials were used throughout. The back of the house is opaque, keeping the internal focus out toward the lake. Pea gravel was used as a low impact site material. The main materials are corrugated aluminum, aluminum fascia, and Western Red Cedar.

Architects: Murphy/Jahn Location: Guangzhou, China Completion: 2012 Height: 270M Area: 161,000 sqm Photographs: Courtesy of Murphy/Jahn

   

The Leatop Plaza development represents a key project for the completion of the “Gateway” at the North End of the central city axis of the Zhujiang New Town. The prominent location calls for an Emblematic Tower. The result is a simple, bold, clear and elegant shape, with a crisp geometry crowned by a sharply sloped roof. The glass layers of the façade create a sculptural image, as if cut from a block of ice.

The buildings strong presence derives from the simplicity of its form, the clarity of its structural systems and the expressive values of the shingled façade; transparent, translucent, opaque, reflective and luminous.

The Leatop Plaza Tower is light, transparent and energy efficient. It maximizes views and strengthens the urban connections and relationships of this challenging context. With very subtle moves, the tower redefines the conventional way we look at tall buildings. The efficient, multi-story diagonal braces on all four faces of the tower provide a tube-like primary bracing structure, stiffening the tower and minimizing the central concrete core.

Bright Light, an app that tells you the sunnier spots of your city by Ray-Ban. (Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)

People get inspired by lots of things but have you ever heard of someone being inspired by the financial crisis ? Have you ever come across a product, or a piece of furniture inspired by prevailing economic condition? Spread 10 y by Antonio Maria Privitera is a handcrafted wooden magazine rack designed to combine the “news” with the now “(in)famous” graph. It also maps the transition between the Silvio Berlusconi government and that of Mario Monti. The Spread 10 y magazine rack is handmade by Zana Lab and designed by Antonio Maria Privitera @ Studio Inesistente. Finally we think that the Spread 10 y magazine rack  is not just a magazine rack it’s a statement !

You're reading Spread 10Y : Wooden Magazine Rack Inspired by Financial Crisis originally posted on Freshome. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Freshome on Twitter, Facebook and Google+

Explore these TEDTalks that discuss income inequality — what causes it, the brutal effects, and how we might fight it.

Start with this talk from Richard Wilkinson, whose 2009 book The Spirit Level gathers decades of research to draw this conclusion: Societies with more income inequality suffer — in utterly predictable ways — more than societies that are more equal.

(And read the TED Blog’s in-depth Q&A with Wilkinson, in which he talks about the moment he realized economic inequality was a measureable problem.)

Next, watch Van Jones’ powerful talk on a specific outcome of economic injustice: If you’re poor, your neighborhood gets trashed.

For a followup, watch Majora Carter’s classic TEDTalk “Greening the Ghetto” — which shows the effects of income inequality on her home in the South Bronx, and offers triple-bottom-line solutions for raising incomes and reducing environmental damage.

And do not miss Bryan Stevenson’s TEDTalk about economic injustice and its consequences — with a bold call for everyone to look honestly at the problem: “We have a system of justice in [the US] that treats you much better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent.”

Find more talks on inequality >>

A sculpture of a mushroom cloud made from feathers for an article on the threat of bird flu in the latest issue of Scientific American. Image by Kyle Bean & Sam Hofman (Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)

Architects: A-cero, Joaquin Torres arquitectos Location: Marbella, SpainPartner Architect: Rafael LlamazaresBuilt area: 2,872 sqmProject Year: 2011Photographs: Jacobo España (Negami)

The property is placed on the outskirts of Puerto Banús, in one of the most famous and exclusive developments in the Sun Coast. This development is located on one side of a mountain but very close to the coast, with plenty of Mediterranean vegetation.

The plot where the project is located has a notorious slope that goes down to the South from the street access. This fact would determinate the design to adapt the house to the environment and achieve excellent views of the Mediterranean Sea.

The possibilities of the plot and the wishes of the property appear in the execution of this huge project.

The floor is rectangular and places the most used spaces to the south façade in order to enjoy the views. Here is where the plot is open to the outside.

The north façade, where is located the access to the house, is more sober but forceful from an architectonic point of view, with walls and plans crossed and cut. There is a path with geometric forms covered with a layer of water that goes to the main door. The windows are secondary on the aesthetics of the house, but really important to give light to the corridors, distributors or common spaces.

All the rooms, both public and private, are located in the rear part of the house, with the porch, the pool, the garden and a tennis court.

In this part of the house, orientated to the south, the black glass windows are bigger to connect the outside with the inside, like the big one in the living room that hides in the floor automatically.

The greatest part, in architectonic terms, is the big volume over the porch where stays the main bedroom on the first floor. The property is “dressed” with Roman transventilated travertine stone.

Inside, the house has wide spaces, all of them modeled by natural light.

The property is developed in three levels.  The low floor is the most public space and includes the living-room, kitchen, dining room, laundry and a little service room.

The first floor is the most private area and here we can find the bedrooms and a little office.

The ground floor is dedicated to a relax area, with a spa, an internal pool, gym and garage. The large central courtyards that articulate the property core give light to this level of the house.

Modern pendants by Machine Shop Lighting of Austin, Texas. (Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)

Accompanied by Mayor Bloomberg yesterday in an early morning ribbon cutting, New York City-based practice Weiss/Manfredi celebrated the grand opening of the new Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Center. Embedded into an existing hillside at the Garden’s northeast corner, the sinuous glass building appears as a seamless extension to the existing topography as it leads into the 52-acre garden. In addition, the $28-million Visitor Center incorporates numerous environmentally sustainable features—most notably a 10,000-square-foot living roof—that are aimed toward earning LEED Gold certification. The project has been recognized by the New York City Public Design Commission with an Award for Excellence in Design.

Continue reading after the break for the architects’ description.

The 20,000-square-foot Visitor Center was conceived as a new threshold between the city and Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBC) that transitions from an architectural presence at the street to a structured landscape within the Garden. The Visitor Center invites visitors from Washington Avenue into the Garden via a curved glass trellis before opening into major garden precincts like the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden and Cherry Esplanade.

The primary entry from Washington Avenue is visible from the street; an additional entry from the elevated Overlook and Ginkgo Allée at the top of the berm bisects the Visitor Center, revealing framed views of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, and descends through a stepped ramp to the main level of the Garden.

The curved glass walls of the Visitor Center offer veiled views into the Garden, their fritted glass filtering light and deterring bird strikes. In contrast to the southern face of the building, the north side is built into a preexisting berm, which increases thermal efficiency. Its clerestory glazing—along with the fritted glass on the south walls— minimizes heat gain and maximizes natural illumination. A geoexchange system heats and cools the interior spaces, and a series of rain gardens collect and filter runoff to improve storm-water management.

The leaf-shaped living roof hosts over 40,000 plants—grasses, spring bulbs, and perennial wildflowers—adding a new experimental landscape to the Garden’s collection.

The green roof will change throughout the year, literally transforming the nature of the architecture each season. The Washington Avenue side of the building features a pleated copper roof that echoes the Garden’s landmarked 1917 McKim, Mead & White Administration Building and will ultimately weather to green.

Nearly 60,000 plants were installed around the Visitor Center, including cherry, magnolia, and tupelo trees; viburnums; native roses; and three rain gardens full of water-loving plants. In combination with the green roof, this ambitious installation seamlessly weaves the Visitor Center into the green tapestry of the Garden.

“Brooklyn Botanic Garden is an extraordinary oasis in the city and a living museum with a collection in constant flux,” stated Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, principals at Weiss/Manfredi. “We envisioned the Visitor Center as a living interface that creates an invitation from the city into the Garden—a demonstration of the compelling reciprocity between architecture and landscape. Just as the Garden inspires wandering, we designed the center so that it is never seen in its entirety but is experienced cinematically as an unfolding place of discovery.”

On Saturday, June 2, BBG invites visitors to Amble: BBG’s June Jubilee to experience the new Visitor Center and explore the Garden with free admission, music, and special urban gardening activities.

Architects: Weiss/Manfredi Location: Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York Visitor Center Area: 20,000sf Living Roof Area: 10,000sf Event Space Area: 2,500sf Landscape Area: 42,000sf of new plantings

Architectural Team: Marion Weiss and Michael A. Manfredi, Design Partners; Armando Petruccelli, Project Manager; Hamilton Hadden, Justin Kwok, Project Architects; Patrick Armacost, Jeremy Babel, Christopher Ballentine, Cheryl Baxter, Michael Blasberg, Kian Goh, Michael Harshman, Paúl Duston-Muñoz, Aaron Hollis, Jonathan Schwartz, Michael Steiner, Na Sun, and Yoonsun Yang

Structural and Civil Engineer: Weidlinger Associates Consulting Engineers MEP/FP and IT Engineer: Baum & Bolles Consulting Engineers Landscape Architecture Consultant: HM White Site Architects
 Environmental Consultant: Viridian Energy & Environmental, LLC Geothermal/Geotechnical Engineer: Langan Engineering and Environmental Services Lighting Design Consultant: Brandston Partnership, Inc. 
Curtain Wall Consultant: R.A. Heintges & Associates 
Food Service Consultant: Ricca Newmark Design Cost Estimator: AMIS, Inc. Retail Consultant: Jeanne Giordano Ltd.
 AV/Acoustics/Security Consultant: Cerami & Associates, Inc. Security Consultant: TM Technology Partners
 Traffic Consultant: Sam Schwartz Engineering Construction Manager: LiRo Group General Contractor: E.W. Howell

Materials: Architectural cast-in-place concrete; curtain wall of custom-fritted insulated glass and aluminum; canopy of custom-fritted laminated glass and stainless steel, architectural exposed structural steel, custom copper roof, green roof, wood paneling milled from ginkgo trees harvested on-site; specialty acoustic ceiling and wall panels

It’s a thrilling time of year for me, a former display artist, when I get to see emerging designers not only prepping their goods for exhibitions but also tinkering away to create unexpected, dramatic displays to showcase their designs. The booths deserve their own show for the amount of effort and creativity that go into making them. In honor of the upcoming design shows in NYC, I wanted to share this awesome ombre booth project from Rebekah of Wild Ink Press. With a few 4 x 8 boards and some oil-based monochromatic paints, she created this stunning ombre booth to hold her line of paper goods at NSS this year.

The blues are beautiful, and it has majorly inspired me to try this technique on a wall at home. How gorgeous would this be in a bedroom, bathroom or kitchen? Who am I kidding — this would look amazing anywhere! Now I know how it’s done, although I bet it’s a bit harder than it looks to get the fade so smooth. Awesome job, Rebekah! — Kate

Have a Before & After you’d like to share? Shoot me an email with your images right here! (Low res, under 500k per image, please.)

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