Gen3

Black Tree  by Miloš Milivojevic

• Tašmajdan Park, Belgrade, Serbia

Designed for the for renewable energy company Strawberry Energy, is a public solar charger which enables visitors to recharge batteries of their mobile phones, tablets and multimedia devices with the energy of Sun.

• Sustainable values:

Together with the trees around it, the Black Tree reminds us of the importance of preserving our nature and keeping the air unpolluted. As the real three absorbs CO2 and releases oxygen which makes our environment cleaner. The Tree transforms the solar energy into the necessary electrical energy and produces no detrimental substances so, in this way, also contributes to global CO2 emission reduction.

• Structural Engineer: Milan Zlatanović

Source:  Project’s website:

Munich Olympic Stadium by Frei Otto & Gunther Behnisch

• Munich, 1972

Often mentioned as a pioneer in lightweight tensile and membrane construction, yet overshadowed in the discipline of architecture, Frei Otto along with Gunther Behnisch collaborated to design the 1972 Munich Olympic Stadium in Munich, Germany.

With the Olympics having already been held in Berlin in 1936, Otto and Behnisch took the second Olympics games in Germany as an opportunity and a second chance to show Germany in a new light.  Their goal was to design a structure that would emulate the games motto: “The Happy Games” as more of a whimsical architectural response that would overshadow the heavy, authoritarian stadium in Berlin.

• Wikimedia Commons photo authors:

Poco a poco and Jorge Royan

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• Documental realizado por el cineasta canario Miguel Morales en homenaje al arquitecto, pintor y escultor lanzaroteño César Manrique. 2012

Personaje con una personalidad muy fuerte y con una visión de la realidad tan pionera en la España de los años 60 y 70, gran impulsor del concepto de sostenibilidad, de intentar conciliar el desarrollo con la conservación del patrimonio natural.

En la película, se recuperan abundantes imágenes de archivo, en las que aparece el artista con su vibrante discurso crítico y de defensa de Lanzarote. Se recoge el testimonio de diversos colaboradores suyos, además de valoraciones de personalidades del ecologismo y la arquitectura, como el naturalista Joaquín Araújo y el arquitecto alemán Frei Otto.

• Introducción por el programa Imprescindibles de tve2, 2013

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Annandale House by CO-AP architects nominated to the ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards 2012 in the category of Houses.

• Annandale, NSW, Australia. 2011

Living in a line. A narrow site containing huge architecture!!

This house response to the Victorian terrace renovation brief that is typical in the inner-city suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne. The two-storey front portion of the house is retained and used as bedroom spaces, to which its traditional cellular plan is ideally suited. At the rear, a serpentine pavilion weaves through the site, slinking low to the ground with new floor levels that correspond to the natural topography, and which are barely perceptible to its adjoining neighbours.

• Sustainable values:

“Inverting normal conventions, opening windows are solid panels and walls are clear glass, providing a visual connection to the courtyards. Sun-controlled skylights along the southern edge of the house capture daylight throughout the year. The glazed gallery hallway beside the main courtyard captures the winter sun and becomes a radiant heat sink for the rest of the house.”

• Project Area: 296.85 sqm

See an older entry in the blog.

1. 2012 Houses Awards | Winner | Alteration & Addition over 200m². Jury Citation.
2. 2012 ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards | Nominated | Houses.

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Edgeland House by Bercy Chen Studio

• Town Lake, Austin, Texas. 2011

The Native American Pit House modernizes!!

The house like the “primitive shelter”, living in a crack that protects us from the outdoor weather, provides comfort, security and at the same time enjoy a direct contact with nature. Living and feeling the passing of the seasons.

• Sustainable values:

A sustainable house, impeccable climatically that takes advantage of the earth’s mass to maintain thermal comfort throughout the year. Such an architectural setting presents an opportunity for maximum energy efficiency when combined with high performance systems such as the integrated hydronic HVAC system.

Both visually and functionally, Edgeland Residence touches on architecture as site‐specific modern house and as an extension of the landscape.

Source 1:  Project’s website:

High Line 23 building by Neil M. Denari Architects (NMDA)

New York, USA, 2011

The High Line has created new relationships between building mass and, in certain local situations, has engendered new forms of urban infill, far different than simple mid-block party wall scenarios. Where the High Line passes through the Chelsea Arts District at 23rd Street, one of these unique site conditions exists.

NMDA was commissioned by developer Alf Naman to produce a slim-fit, 14 story building for ground floor galleries and 12 condo-lofts rising next to the High Line. This structure is precisely shaped by a confluence of forces, that also like the High Line Park, are a combination of both found and implanted ecologies.

See a 3d model in the blog (design process).

Source 1:  Project’s website:

On January 15th, 2013 Balthazar Korab dies

Photographer of the architecture of Modernism

Impressive legacy of the work of Eero Saarinen, Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright’s among other great modernist architects.

Tribute by Architizer to Balthazar Korab, Photographer of Modernism.

Balthazar Korab’s BIO at Wikipedia.

Source: Miller house, Columbus, Indiana, 1953-57. Exterior detail. Photographer Balthazar Korab.

Fogo island Long studio by Saunders architecture

Completed in 2011, this 1,300 square foot contemporary artist studio is located on Fogo Island, the largest of the offshore islands of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

“The Shorefast Foundation works with the people of Fogo Island to find ways to preserve this special place and this special culture. We have chosen to find new paths by leading with the arts. We want to create structures that respect where we’ve come from and dignify this landscape that is so fragile yet so fearsome. We want structures that touch our imaginations and help maintain a connection between our past and our future.

The studios are placed on pillars at the end towards the sea, while the entrance area has a small concrete foundation for anchoring the construction to the landscape. With this type of construction, the studios can be placed in almost any place on the island. In addition, this allows for the studios to be pre-fabricated in a local workshop during the winter months, and then placed in the landscape in the spring.”

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Other Fogo island studios by Saunders architecture:

Catch the Wave - Canopy and beach pavillion by WXY architects

Rockaway Beach Park, Queens, New York, beach, 2012.

Renovated Rockaway Beach Park to be Unveiled. In addition, a new comfort station will be unveiled at the Beach 30th Street pavilion, which now features stone-shaped seats and a large white roof that the architect, WXY Architecture and Urban Design, says is reminiscent of gull wings and rippling fabrics.

The undulating roof of this 106ft long comfort station and play area at B30 Street allows it to double as a shade structure, serving a large athletic field, a dune preserve and a playground.

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Chop Stick playground by Visiondivision Through Anders Berensson & Ulf Mejergren

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“Com un Gegant Invisible” documentary by LaCol and Panòptica

Trailer de trabajo para “Com un Gegant Invisible. Can Batlló i les Ciutats Imaginàries”. (“Como un gigante Invisible. Cant Batlló y las ciudades imaginárias”; Teaser trailer of “Like an invisible giant. Can Batlló and imaginary cities”). Barcelona, 2012

Un documental recientemente publicado sobre la Barcelona actual, 2013

Los problemas y posibilidades de la ciudad contemporánea vistos desde la perspectiva de sus habitantes, como principales partícipes e interesados en mejorar la calidad de vida en las urbes. Se reflexiona sobre qué intereses se encuentran a veces ocultos, para que la evolución social y la mejora de lo público se vean truncadas.

Can Batlló, un gigante invisible en medio de la ciudad, escondido detrás de los muros. Un recinto pendiente de transformación y objeto de la reivindicación y la lucha vecinal desde hace muchos años, actualmente en proceso de reapropiación por parte de la ciudadanía.

“El urbanismo nació para ayudar a transformar la sociedad”

• Presentado al festival VideoUrbana dentro de la VIII BIAU (Bienal Iberoamericana de Arquitectura y Urbanismo), Cádiz 2012

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MegaCities. How do we prevent cities from collapsing?!

In 2050 80% of the world population will live in cities.
How do we prevent cities from collapsing? This is the official trailer for a new feature film series on the megacity issue. Join this exciting journey to Mumbai, Shanghai, Bogotá and Cairo.

Packed Cardboard Pavilion by Michele Leidi, Min-Chieh Chen and Dominik Zausinger

• Exhibition 3D paperArt in Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts, Shanghai, China. 2010

1. Construction system: dome.
2. Main elements: 490 cardboard cones.
   

The dome structure features a number of variable truncated cones made from corrugated cardboard, which were glued together and fastened with tie wraps. The 409 cones that make up the pavilion each have a different size, fitting together like a puzzle to form a network of circles. The overall goal of the pavilion is to demonstrate how architects can use parametric CAAD software to customize the design process. Here, each step was optimized by selfmade computers,

This work is the final project of the Master Advanced Study group at the Department of Computer Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

This pavilion has been designed and produced by Michele Leidi, Min-Chieh Chen and Dominik Zausinger with the help of Jeannette Kuo and the supervision of Tom Pawlofsky.

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Architecture without Architecture by Asli Serbest and Mona Mahall (Igma)

• Exhibition in Künstlerhaus 19/10–23/10/2012 Reuchlinstrasse 4b, 70178 Stuttgart.

In this exhibition we find architecture that does not have to meet the guidelines established, but it is also an exhibition that allows us to pause for reflection: In this world of the image, increasingly conquered by design, will not create a trend towards an empty architecture? Just volumes and spaces that we identify as architecture but is devoid of it? An Architecture without Architecture?

1. A project by Asli Serbest and Mona Mahall (Igma)
2. In cooperation with Adnan Yildiz (Künstlerhaus Stuttgart)

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Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center by Kengo Kuma

• Asakusa, Taito, Tokio, Japan, 2012

New, sustainable, modern design… always means Kengo Kuma!!

A family house for the people, social meeting point in the city center.

The center extends Asakusa’s lively neighborhood vertically and piles up roofs that wrap different activities underneath, creating a “new section” which had not existed in conventional layered architecture. Equipments are stored in the diagonally shaped spaces born between the roof and the floor, and by this treatment we could secure large air volume despite its just average height for high-and medium-rise buildings.

• Uses: Tourist Information Center, Office, Gallery, Cafe

• Surface: 2159.52 m2

• Site area: 326.23 m2

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Youth Center In Niafourang by Project Niafourang

• Niafourang, Senegal, 2011

Structures that going deeper than only the physical!

“The intention was to create opportunities, jobs and development in the village. An important aspect of the project was to involve the local community in both the building and planning stages, in order to create a sense of ownership and pride in the resulting building.”

1. Project Team Professors: Hans Skotte & TYIN Tegnestue
2. Project Team Students: Tore Hanssen Grimstad, Andreas Brunvoll, Assad Ansar

Sourse:

Reframe Amsterdam! by ZUS architects [Zones Urbaines Sensibles]

Adam Scales, Pierre Berthelimeau, and Paul Van Den Berg

Installation for the Festival of Lively Architecture, Amsterdam, 2012

A dynamic cube at the same time poetic and sensitive develops between the contemporary and patrimonial architecture.

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Stair of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Oscar Niemeyer

• Brasília, Brazil. 1974

The beauty of simplicity. And an impressive apology of stairs!!

In an age where security (essential), sometimes blindly kills the design and creativity that condemns us to a brutal homogenization of one of the most fundamental elements in a building: the stairs, the “promenade architecturale” and the way we fill space.

1. Very reomendable reading the book by the architect Oscar Tusquets, Réquiem por la escalera (Requiem for the Staircase), 2004.

Photo by Julian Weyer

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Tape Melbourne by Numen/For Use

• Art installation, Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia. 13-24/09/2011

¡¡Abre el armario de la cocina: busca un royo de film transparente y echa a volar tu imaginación!!

Open your kitchen cupboard: looking for a roll of packing tape and let your imagination fly!!

Last month, residents of (and visitors to) Melbourne’s Federation Square were invited to crawl through a vast network of semi-transparent tubes suspended nearly 20 feet in the air. If that sounds like a carnival ride you’d rather sit out, you won’t be comforted by the fact that the structure was made entirely of packing tape.

1. Numen/For Use are crazy about nets!! We invite you to see another examples of their work.

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