What Would I Want? Sky

Posted on enero 5, 2012 by socializarq

The open plan was supposed to free a building’s inhabitants from the historical, social, and psycho-spatial bonds that inhibited their creativity and general enjoyment, not to mention repressed their ludenic and sexual selves. Yet despite its lofty ideals, the partition-less plane engendered traumas and uncertainty, where the comfort of enclosing walls was obliterated by a perceived need for an abstract order and technological advancement. The effects wreaked on the behavioral health of workers by the modernist office building has been well documented, with blame usually placed on the static environmental quality of such workplaces. The greatest offense is the lack of natural light and air, where workers are submitted to the tyranny of fluorescent lights and air conditioning. Feelings of spacial freedom, then, do not necessarily arise from a particular architectural program, so much as from the variability of environmental conditions.

So says a team of German engineers at the Stuttgart-based Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, who have devised a virtual sky to ameliorate the 9-to-5 drudgery. The team developed a luminous ceiling comprised of some 34,560 LEDs embedded in 50X50 cm tiles over an area of 34 square meters. The display mimics the lighting conditions on a cloudy day–one characterized by passing clouds–using a combination of red, blue, green and white LEDs to yield a full light spectrum and generate over 16 million hues. This degree of accuracy was necessary to fully render the “dynamic changes” of moving skies which “promote concentration and heighten alertness,” says Dr. Matthias Bues, head of the IAO. Initial tests proved the team’s thesis correct. After working under the LED sky over a three-day period, a test group of 10 volunteers nearly unanimously preferred toiling away under the auspices of a “rapidly fluctuating” lighting program. So is the virtual sky coming to an office near you? Not any time soon, if current prices for units hold: one square meter will put your office back €1,000 ($1278).

Video: Wang Shu, “Geometry and Narrative of Natural Form”

Posted on diciembre 29, 2011 by socializarq

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Founder of Amateur Architecture Studio and Head of Architecture at the China Academy of Art, Wang Shu was the first Chinese architect to hold Harvards Graduate School of Design (GSD) Kenzo Tange professorship. The Harvard lecture honors architect Kenzo Tange by bringing distinguished architects from around the globe to the GSD.

Wang Shu’s practice caught the world’s attention with their pavilion for the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006. As a critique of the architectural profession, excessive building and the on-going demolitions caused by the rapid urbanization of China, their installation ‘Tiled Garden’ was constructed of 66,000 recycled tiles salvaged from demolition sites. Their work is embedded in the history and traditions of Chinese culture, referencing everyday building tactics and the Chinese vernacular tradition of building, hence their practice name “amateur architecture”.

Reference: The Harvard GSD

Video: Wang Shu, “Geometry and Narrative of Natural Form” originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 29 Dec 2011.

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GIVEAWAY: Testing to Failure–Design and Research in MIT’s Department of Architecture

Posted on diciembre 22, 2011 by socializarq

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Architecture hasn’t been architecture in quite some time. The ceaseless development and profusion of new digital processes have expanded the field far beyond the the traditional, even classical, models with which the role of the architect and the work of architecture have been historically described. Presently, architecture is perpetually widening its scope, hijacking and absorbing once-disparate fields such as computation and economics. At the center of this eddy of extremities is the student, who in gaining mastery over technological and informational domains learns to elide the singular agenda in favor of the speculative, the problematic, and the process. What is needed then is a new type of architectural school, one which not only offers a skill-set in building and practice, but, more importantly, fully prepares the student with the knowledge and critical judgment to “strategically operate on a shifting field.” Testing to Failure: Design and Rearch in MIT’s Department of Architecture argues just that.

With student work, department symposiums and lectures, and installations and pavilions collected over 400 pages, Testing to Failure offers insight into the emerging modes of architectural education. As Nader Tehrani, Head of the Department of Architecture at MIT, writes in the book’s introduction, “The only way to know if we’ve done right is if we go too farm if we test to failure and have to come back.” So, then, what does failure look like? It’s rather impressive, actually, and lucky for you, we’ve got a copy of the book to giveaway! All you have to do is follow rules below to win it!

To enter, send us a an email at [email protected] with your name, address, and the subject line: Testing to Failure, and we will choose one name at random to take home the prize. For those unlucky ones, don’t worry! The book is available on Amazon. We think it makes a great Christmas gift!

Diego Rivera Does Infrastructure

Posted on diciembre 22, 2011 by socializarq

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Photo: David Hiser/National Geographic

Diego Rivera may be best known for his murals of mythic proportion and subject matter. The artist traveled extensively, leaving a trail of murals in his path and landing himself famously with a retrospective show in at the Museum of Modern Art, which is now showing works from the same 1931 exhibition on its walls. Despite his international success, Rivera truly flourished at home in Mexico City, where he experimented widely with different media. There, he collected indigenous works of art, took inspiration from pre-Hispanic pottery, and produced sculpture. The artist was even commissioned to build a giant fountain as part of an overhaul of Mexico City’s municipal water system in the early 1950’s.

Under Rivera’s direction, a work of infrastructure was transformed into something much more: Rivera built a massive, tiled icon of the Aztec rain god Tlaloc, sprawling face-up in a pool of shallow water. Though deemed one of Rivera’s most important sculptural works, the project fell into disrepair, and it was closed off from the public for more than a decade. But according to NPR, the complex has recently been fully restored. Continue.

Photo via Omar Omar‘s flickr

Rivera’s fountain is a shallow pool that once served as the ceremonial entry point for water from the Lerma River coming into Mexico City’s main reservoirs, as NPR reports. The precious Mexico City resource came through the Aztec god’s face and then through a giant tank lodged inside a rotunda that sits above Tlaloc’s head. The tank, called the Carcamo, was lined with Rivera’s murals, themed around the glorification of water as the elemental origin of life. However, the murals were significantly damaged by the flow of water, and without maintenance, the fountain was “completely destroyed,” according to Lilia Huau of Probosque Chapultepec, an organization that helped raise money to restore the work.

Today, the main flow of water enters through a pipe into the city’s reservoirs, and Rivera’s unusual architecture has been painstakingly restored and preserved from elemental harm, once again prime for the public eye. Rather than have water run through the Carcamo, the team of restorers have added a pipe organ, which bellows a series of changing tones in lieu of a rushing stream. Though Mexico City’s monument to water has been proudly revived, its initial fragility in the face of nature’s currents is a testament in itself to the power of water, and Rivera’s choice to create an ornament of infrastructure that adopts the image of ruin over permanence is a bold one.

Photo via planeta‘s flickr

[via NPR]

Coming Soon: The Louvre 3DS

Posted on diciembre 21, 2011 by socializarq

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While Nintendo decides (or doesn’t) on whether to enter the smart phone gaming market, new prospects are on the rise elsewhere in. . . cultural institutions? Nintendo has partnered with the Louvre to upgrade the museum’s admittedly dated and unspectacular audio tours which have proved unpopular with the 8.5 million visitors who pass through its halls every year. Looking to appeal to a more contemporary (and younger) audience, the museum sought out Nintendo because of the company’s universal appeal and innovating portable console technology. “People’s habits have changed,” Agnes Alfandari, head of multimedia at the Louvre, tells the Agent France-Presse. “But that offers us a huge opportunity to extend the museum’s territory, and build a lasting relationship with our visitors.” Nintendo has promised the Louvre 5,000 3DS units, to be shipped to the museum beginning in March. The “Louvre 3DS” will be loaded with, among other things, gallery itineraries, in-depth commentaries, and educational programs. Nintendo will also produce exclusive content for the tour guide, and while it isn’t known what this may entail, it’s likely that the company will implement its glasses-free 3D display in some fashion. If you’re still puzzled by the partnership, then you clearly missed episode #22 of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.

The Crystal / Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

Posted on septiembre 20, 2011 by socializarq

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Courtesy of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

Architects: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Client: Nykredit
Landscape Architect: SLA
Project Year: 2010
Project Area: 6,850 sqm
Photographs: Courtesy of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

“Freestanding on the site, the building reads as a transparent, geometrical, glazed form which, resting only on a single point and a single line, floats as a visually light, crystalline structure above the plaza,” explained Partner Mr Kim Holst Jensen of schmidt hammer lassen architects. He continued: “The building and the plaza are designed to interact with each other and with the surrounding city.”

Courtesy of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

In terms of both form and scale, the building is intermediate between the city and the harbour, and harmonises with neighbouring buildings. On the southern side, it rises with reference to the gable apex of the “Elephant House” and creates space for the main entrance. From the corner of Puggardsgade and Hambrosgade, the passage under the building allows a clear view towards Nykredit’s head office building and the harbor.

Site Plan

The interior of the building complies with the demands for functionality, flexibility and efficiency. The typical floor plan is disposed in a Z-shape around two atria, ensuring that all workstations are well lit and enjoy a view. The disposition of the plan allows the accommodation of an open plan, separate offices or meeting rooms. The large three-dimensional steel structure constituting the building’s constructive system functions as an architectural element while at the same time freeing the building of columns, creating maximum flexibility in the office spaces.

Floor Plan

The double-glazed façade has integrated solar screens and is decorated by a subtle silk screen frit design that mitigates solar ingress, reflects daylight, and gives the building a homogenous expression which enhances its sculptural form.
“The architectural idea of The Crystal’s design is inspired by the fascinating shapes of nature, the premises and the potential of the site,” said Kim Holst Jensen. “The building distinguishes itself from traditional commercial buildings by being a precise sculpture rising elegantly from the plaza underneath.”

Courtesy of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

The design team has brought a holistic approach to the environmental strategy underlying the project. The scheme manages to combine a completely transparent office building with an exceptionally low energy-consumption at 70 kWh per sqm, which means that the building consumes 25 per cent less energy than the requirements of the existing energy legislation. The roof is covered with highly efficient photovoltaic panels generating 80,000 kWh per year. In addition, the triple-layered inner glass façade provides extremely effective thermal insulation, with a U-value of only 0.7 Wh per sqm.