Entries in Architecture (24)
An Office that feels like the Outdoors
Christian Pottgiesser Architects
Have you ever wanted to feel the sunlight on your face, breathe in the smell of trees and hide under their canopy while at work? What a wonderful project and work experience this must be. I can’t imagine a better work environment to be inspired and feel uplifted by each day. If I’m going to spend a 1/3 [third] of my life indoors working then this wouldn’t be half bad.
In addition to the sensational elements of this office, it has been studied that your work environment has a direct correlation to your productivity. This space will lower absency records, increase quality of life, lower stress levels and emotionally respond to the occupants subconscious. It is constantly astonishing to me that by being mindful of design decisions can have a literal domino reaction. It makes what we do all the more vital to civilization.
Giant Interactive Headquarter - Morphosis
Morphosis unveils their undulating campus of grass and glass in Shanghai. Giant Interactive Group headquarter is an engineering and architectural marvel.
NYC Astor Place Park
Image Courtesy of WXY architecture + urban design and InhabitatInhabitat Article
Quennell Rothschild & Partners
A large part of successful architecture is determined by the need and function in the community. The infrastructure of the city determines destination, in return gives vitality to its surrounding architecture. By creating purposefully designed landscapes, parks and pedestrian walkways you are engaging the community directly.
Astor Place and Cooper Union is an area in New York that could benefit greatly from these additions. Steps away is the legendary St. Marks Place, an attraction in itself, and the breathtaking new Cooper Union School [see Vlog for video footage] warrants the necessity for this project. The area, like most of New York, is dense and traffic is highly commercialized. This space could act as an oasis to the public and give safe haven from the urban environment.
We applaud W X Y Studio and Quennell Rothschild & Partners for teaming up and taking on this conceptual endeavor. RD+A is proud to support their ambitions and we hope to bring awareness to this, as well as other similar projects.
Seeing is Believing
Isn’t it difficult to visualise something on such a huge scale when you can’t even see it? Water, electricity, natural gas, these are just some of the resources we hear about so often. We love this idea of bringing the issue into visual / tangible form. And if you are going to expose something, why not do it in a beautiful expressive way.
Even when recycling seemed like a far fetched idea and no one really thought 1 can or 1 piece of paper would make a difference. Here we are years later and recycling is “arguably” common practice. Lets hope that more design will lead to positive inventions like this.
Make It Right
The images above are from RD+A’s personal library.
As RD+A continues to bring architectural liberation and research we are proud to bring you a post of personal grandeur. This is New Orleans Louisiana 9th Ward post Katrina.
Celebrity face, Brad Pitt + Make It Right, have teamed up to respond to the devastation left by Katrina. The images, we believe, are representative of where human condition and where the progressive nature of architecture is headed and being implemented.
Pre-Katrina you have a degenerative and unstable architecture. A community already is despair from socio-economic and cultural conditioning. It’s an unprepared design ideology that was hit with the worst mother nature could offer and the results were catastrophic.
Our nation and a strong community has stepped up to an unprecedented challenge. 9th Ward today is a model for preventative design efforts that could be main-streamed in similar topographies. The designs themselves are unyielding to what a thoughtful architect and team on philosophically minded individuals can construct.
Rural Studio
Architectural League - Andrew Freear - Podcast
About the Podcast:
Without knowing WHO & WHAT - Rural Studio was, I have to say that the beginning of the podcast is a little misinterpreting. The beginning can seem slightly obscure and uninteresting, but rest assured I wouldn’t post anything that doesn’t seem relevant. As the podcast develops and the perspective becomes more clear, I have to say that it really is finding a needle in a hay stack.
Rural Studio Explained:
Rural Studio is a progressive undergraduate course in architecture, based out of Auburn University. Andrew Freear, director and Wiatt Associate Professor is an architectural visionary genius. The school is comprised of a DESIGN BUILD theory.
Too many programs are about the conceptual and not associative with the literal. When it comes time to be thought of and acting as a prepared professional, the typical design student is anything but. Not the case with regards to Rural Studio.
Class lectures are held out of the classroom and held on site, in board rooms and in town halls. Field trips aren’t to architecture offices, but on location of the site. The hypothetical project assignment is non-existent, instead a real project pertaining to real community issues are examined and constructed.
I couldn’t imagine and more NECESSARY and WORTH WHILE experience for any person interested in learning about design and architecture.
Steven Holl Architect - LEED Skyscraper
Inhabitat Article [additional images]
HORIZONTAL SKYSCRAPER - VANKE CENTER
Shenzhen, China, 2006-2009
PROGRAM: mixed-use building including hotel, offices, condominiums, and public park
CLIENT: Shenzhen Vanke Real Estate Co.
SIZE: 1,296,459 sf
STATUS: construction phase
Ordinarily horizontal architecture is invasive and impractical, however Steven Holl Architects has achieved to dismiss that theory. In most cases sky is the limit, there are conditions that contradict that construction model.
By constructing the skyscraper on massive supports it opens up an enormous circulation area below. This also allows for court yards, parks and natural spaces to be implemented in the3 design. In addition to the proportion and scale of the structure, it has been designed environmentally, keeping in theme with the future of architecture. Not a single natural element was overlooked by the architectural team. In preparation for high winds and large tsunami’s the large skyscraper is formulated from vertical to horizontal, creating a bold yet crucial architectural decision.