Cheeses made of human tears and snot, Kanye West’s address to Harvard design students and Zaha Hadid’s stadium for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup feature in our newsletter this week, along with news, jobs and reader comments from Dezeen.
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News: Dutch office UNStudio has won a competition to design a residential and office complex in the German city of Munich.
UNStudio‘s design for the city’s new Baumkirchen Mitte development features a 60 metre tower with a facade divided by horizontal ribs that continue across the front of an adjoining housing block.
“In the design for the facade of the building we chose for an articulated sobriety, incorporating contrasting scales of detail,” said architect Ben van Berkel. “The horizontal bands which wrap and organise the building present a sober articulation from a distance, however as you get closer to the building you discover a refined scale of intricate, complex detailing.”
Metal and wood will combine to create contrast on the building’s facade, which the architects explained will give the building “the appearance of a custom-made furniture piece for the urban space.”
The office building will house flexible work spaces with foyers, lobbies and meeting areas providing neutral and adaptable public areas.
Flexibility is also key to the design of the residential wing, with floor plans that can be configured in numerous ways and individual apartments that can be customised to meet the needs of their occupants.
A multipurpose roof garden will incorporate ornamental plants and grasses, vegetable gardens, bee hives, play areas and rainwater harvesting. The linear design of the landscaping is influenced by the building’s location on the site of a former rail yard.
UNStudio collaborated with OR else Landscapes on the design, which was selected over entries from firms including BIG and J. Mayer H. Architects. It will be built at the entrance to the Baumkirchen Mitte development, which is located between Munich East station and the Berg am Laim suburb.
Here’s a press release from UNStudio:
Ben van Berkel / UNStudio’s design selected as winning entry for the Baumkirchen Mitte in Munich
UNStudio’s design for the Baumkirchen Mitte in Munich has been selected as the winning entry from a shortlist of 6 finalists which included, among others, BIG Architects, Juergen Mayer H Architects and Schneider + Schumacher Architects.
UNStudio worked in collaboration with OR else Landscapes on the design for the 18,500m2 residential and office complex located in the east of Munich. With its 60 metre high tower the project will become the focal point for the entrance to the new Baumkirchen Mitte development.
Ben van Berkel: “In the design for the facade of the building we chose for an articulated sobriety, incorporating contrasting scales of detail. The horizontal bands which wrap and organise the building present a sober articulation from a distance, however as you get closer to the building you discover a refined scale of intricate, complex detailing.”
New work
Concentrated individual work, brainstorming sessions and impromptu meetings are fast becoming part of contemporary work culture and require spaces and layouts that can respond flexibly to these new demands. In UNStudio’s design neutral spaces, such as foyers, lobbies and meeting areas are used to establish the identity of the building. The design combines both zones that guarantee maximum flexibility for varying combinations of users and exclusively designed areas that provide spaces for communication and creativity.
New living
Changing demands and expectations in contemporary living form the starting point for the residential areas within UNStudio’s design. Flexible accommodation types are incorporated which afford variable constellations and offer the possibility to combine adjacent units. In addition, flexible floor plans enable a variety of configurations in the apartment layouts, thereby directly addressing the specific and individual needs of the residents.
Outdoor spaces vary in scale and form an integral part of the apartments. The living experience is therefore not confined to the dwellings alone, but instead begins as you arrive at the building and enter the circulation areas. Thereafter it extends into shared and private outdoor spaces. This extension of the living concept stimulates interaction between residents and creates a balance between activated public spaces and the need for privacy.
Duality
The facade design reflects the duality of the programme, with two contrasting materials defining the look and feel of the building. Bright metal forms the background, lending the structure a contemporary and light aesthetic, whilst the contrasting use of wood affords the building the appearance of a custom-made furniture piece for the urban space.
A sustainable living landscape
The remaining traces on the location of a previous rail yard form the blueprint for the structure of the roof gardens. The linear frameworks in the landscaping of the gardens accommodate fields of kitchen gardens and play areas, as well as rows of ornamental grasses and flowering perennials and are inspired by the spontaneous vegetation of the track fields. Through the integration of vegetable gardens, systems for rainwater harvesting, composting and beekeeping areas the roof garden becomes more than just a recreation area. It additionally plays an important ecological role by contributing to a sustainable living environment. The sustainability concept for the complex is based on a requirement specific application of different types of façade, while reducing active technical building components.
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This holiday home on the southern coast of Nova Scotia perches on a row of narrow concrete fins just metres from the Atlantic Ocean (+ slideshow).
Designed as a holiday home for a couple by Canadian studio MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, the property is situated close to a small fishing village on a plot where a meadow meets the rocky coastline.
The clients asked for a sanctuary where they could look out at the sun setting over the sea, and the architects responded by designing the building as a “landscape-viewing instrument, with its side opened to the Atlantic Ocean horizon, and its end a focusing aperture to the sunset.”
The architects raised the building off the ground “to allow any rogue waves which might crest the granite edge to pass under the house,” but left one corner open to the elements to create a terrace overlooking the sea.
The exterior is clad in corrugated galvanised aluminium to provide a robust shield against the prevailing weather and the underside of the raised structure is covered in the same marine-grade plywood used in local boat building.
A series of broad wooden stairs lead to a covered opening with doors on either side connecting the master bedroom with the rest of the house. Large sliding barn doors can be closed to seal the building during storms.
The main living space is located next to the terrace and features glass walls that frame views of the ocean, while clerestory windows above the beds allow the occupants to look up at the sky and a low window provides views from the bathtub.
Interior finishes are kept deliberately minimal to focus attention on the views. “When seated in front of the warming hearth, the land between the house and the water’s edge disappears from view, and the plane of the polished grey concrete floor extends to the ever-changing surface of the ocean,” said the architects.
Photography is by Greg Richardson.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Sunset Rock
Place / Landscape
This home is dramatically sited along the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, on the southern coast of Nova Scotia, a landscape defined by massive pieces of exposed granite, and the drama of the open ocean. Running parallel to the rugged the shoreline, the house grips the edge fulfilling the owners desire to have as intimate of a connection to the ocean as possible.
Its cantilevered end reaches out over Sunset Rock, its namesake and the owners most loved place on their site. Many evenings were spent viewing the spectacular local sunsets from this location, long before the idea of placing a house here was conceived. As a result the house is an extension of the rock, creating a landscape-viewing instrument, with its side opened to the Atlantic Ocean horizon, and its end a focusing aperture to the sunset.
Program
Built as a vacation home for a professional couple who fell in love with the local people and pace of life of this small fishing village, it is a retreat from the pace of the major metropolis in which they work. A sanctuary just steps from the ocean, it is a place in which to read, reflect, and write, while living within the remarkable view.
On approach, the house appears as a long metal blade marking the transition from meadow to ocean, its monolithic form punctuated by a generous stair leading to the framed view of the ocean horizon provided by the covered entry deck. A series of barn doors allow for the metal skin to be completed, providing protection of the windows from any storms that may come. And as a further consideration to its environment, the house lightly touches the ground, resting on a series of concrete fins perpendicular to the shoreline, engineered to allow any rouge waves which might crest the granite edge to pass under the house.
An asymmetrical bite out of the end of the form creates a sheltered viewing deck from which to enjoy the sunset, while above this an interior loft allows for inhabiting the steel structure, and provides a cocooning space in which to work with focused views along the shoreline.
The narrow floor plate provides excellent cross ventilation, while generous windows to the view invite the sun in to warm the thermal mass of the concrete floors. The main living area has walls of glass to the view, with no partitions above 8’, allowing for the full expression of the volumes sculptural nature. Body scaled bedboxes open upward without ceilings providing views to the ever-changing day and night sky through clearstory windows. The bathing room again responds to the theme of water, with a long, narrow low window for viewing the ocean waves while seated in the bathtub. The master suite is separated from the public spaces of the house by the covered deck allowing for retreat and privacy.
Craft / Building / Material
With its grey metal skin the house disappears within the blanket of fog which frequents the site. The durable and economical corrugated galvalume was chosen not only for its minimal beauty, but also to endure the environmental conditions of the houses proximity to the ocean. The underbelly of the house is protected by marine grade plywood, a material used extensively in the local boat building industry. The calm sculptural nature of the house, expressed both in its form and materials, are drawn from the vernacular and ethic of the local buildings used in the commercial fishery. Many of those involved in the building of the home were equally comfortable building a boat for lobster fishing as they are building a house.
The interior pallet is restrained, almost completely white except for the horizontal surfaces of concrete and granite, and the exposed steel structure. This allows the interior surfaces to be of minimal distraction and dissolve into the background as the power and immediacy of the ocean is invited in. When seated in front of the warming hearth, the land between the house and the water’s edge disappears from view, and the plane of the polished grey concrete floor extends to the ever-changing surface of the ocean.
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by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
A wooden canopy made of irregular timber lengths sprawls across the ceiling of this Thai noodle bar in Warsaw, Poland, by Moko architects (+ slideshow).
Referencing Thailand’s covered street food markets, the Tuk Tuk bar by Moko architects is contained in a small room that features an angular timber installation.
“Thai cuisine in Poland is usually associated with expensive sublime meals in large restaurants,” said the designers. “The concept of TUK TUK was to bring the people living in Warsaw closer to the atmosphere of street food in Bangkok.”
The dining area is covered by the freestanding wooden structure, lit by tubular lamps attached along the timber lengths.
The walls and floor of the restaurant are painted in light green to the height of the canopy, then the tops of the walls and ceiling are coloured black so the wood stands out.
A granite work surface separates the open kitchen at the back from the dining area towards the front of the restaurant.
Photography is by Grzegorz Sztybal.
Here is some more information from the designers:
Thai cuisine in Poland is usually associated with expensive sublime meals in large restaurants. There is no tradition of eating fresh food in small restaurants in the city or street food.
The concept of TUK TUK was to bring the people living in Warsaw closer to the atmosphere of street food in Bangkok. In our opinion it seems rather like a lack of order and rules, a bit of chaos and food prepared with fresh local products which tastes and smells delicious.
An inspiration for this project were the structures which can be seen above the markets in Thailand. In this single room of the restaurant we have designed an installation of square timber elements which appears to be out of order. It constitutes the vault and roof supporting the installed lights. Additionally, its aim is to attract the consumers.
The restaurant is illuminated using fluorescent lamps mounted in irregular intervals and at various heights. The lamps provide two different shades of light – intense warmth and intense coldness. Under the above structure, small tables and colourful stools are placed irregularly.
Initially, we proposed to use plastic stools, which are very often used in Thailand, but since it was impossible to acquire them, as a temporary option we used standard tools which are easily available.
There is no determined method of placing the tables – they can be freely arranged depending on the guests’ needs. The entire design is matched with a neutral interior which features finishing materials so often used in Thailand street food restaurants, i.e. inexpensive terrazzo tiles. The kitchen is open and forms a stage where the chef is a starring actor.
The design of TUK TUK does not contain any strict principles or a mathematical formula – it is merely an impression and a freely transformed collection of memories and associations brought here from a trip to Thailand.
Project name: TUK TUK – thai street food bar
Project city: Warsaw , Poland
Designers/architects: Moko Architects / MFRMGR / Marta Frejda , Michał Gratkowski /
Collaboration: Monika Kolon, Zofia Wyganowska, Pamela Krzyszczak
Status of project: completed in 2013
Usable floor area: 35 m2
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Paris designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have installed a chandelier at the entrance to the Château de Versailles, France, comprising looping cords of illuminated crystal (+ movie).
The Gabriel Chandelier by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec is the first permanent contemporary artwork to be installed at the Château de Versailles and hangs over the Gabriel Staircase at the main entrance to the palace.
“We thought that in the final analysis it was not perhaps necessary to give a delineated form to this piece of lighting but rather to try to arrange it so that the form naturally found its line from gravity,” said the designers.
“Because it is effectively the number of pieces of crystal which make it up, the weight and the length determine this form rather than a curve which we would have drawn.”
Manufactured by crystal brand Swarovski, the 12-metre-high installation comprises 800 crystal modules threaded around a stainless steel skeleton containing an LED lighting system.
“It seemed to us that crystal was the best response because, historically, all the chandeliers at Versailles were made with this material,” the designers added. “This would ensure a link between past and present.”
The Gabriel Staircase was conceived by french architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1772 but was never completed. Work resumed in the 1980s, then Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec won the commission to create a permanent artwork to adorn and illuminate the finished staircase through a competition launched in 2011.
Photography is by Studio Bouroullec.
Film is by Juriaan Booij.
Here’s some more information from the designers:
A dramatic new chandelier created by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec with the support and expertise of Swarovski will light up the entrance to the King’s Grand Apartments at the Palace of Versailles from November 2013.
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec won the commission through a competition launched in 2011 by the Public Administration of the Palace, Museum and State Property Department for Versailles to create a permanent mobile artwork to adorn and illuminate the grand Gabriel Staircase at the main entrance to the palace.
The award-winning designers created a majestic chandelier made of Swarovski crystal whose sweeping grace and modern lines integrate harmoniously with the historically charged location. The piece, which is over 12 metres high, is suspended in loops from the ceiling like a luminous transparent chain. It comprises three interlacing strands, each made of hundreds of Swarovski crystals illuminated by luminous LED light-sources which diffuse a gentle, continuous and encircling light.
These immense, supple lines form an organic design ruled by the laws of gravity which each viewer will experience differently as they gradually ascend the two flights of steps of the Staircase.
To create the chandelier, the designers chose crystal, the material traditionally used in the making of chandeliers for ceremonial rooms, in order to establish a strong link between the past and the present. They called upon the expertise and technological mastery of Swarovski, the prestigious Austrian crystal business, which has a longstanding collaborative relationship with the brothers and has supported the Palace of Versailles for more than 30 years.
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s creation is a delicate yet complex alliance of crystal and innovative lighting, two areas in which Swarovski has long become the point of reference. The project forms part of Swarovski’s major programme of cultural support and ongoing patronage of art and design.
The Gabriel Staircase, a monumental space conceived by Ange- Jacques Gabriel in 1772, was never completed. Work resumed in the 1980s, but the finished staircase lacked a focal point. The installation of the ‘Gabriel Chandelier’ in November will enrich these historic surroundings, emphasising the entrance to the Grand Apartments whilst preserving the unique nature of the space.
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by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec appeared first on Dezeen.
News: Dutch architects Mecanoo have won a competition to design a garden and an underground pavilion with a corkscrew staircase in the Polish capital, Warsaw (+ slideshow).
The garden and pavilion proposed by Mecanoo will be located in the city’s popular Lazienki Park, which was designed around a series of buildings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Called the Garden of the 21st Century, this new addition comprises a triangular sliver of landscaped parkland criss-crossed by an undulating path, with exhibition spaces hidden underneath.
“The Garden of the 21st Century is special, because the design of the pavilion follows from that of the landscape,” said the architects.
Mecanoo collaborated with Dutch landscape architect Michael van Gessel, Delva Landscape Architects and Polish firm Jojko Nawrocki Architekci on the design of the landscaping and pavilion.
Entrances in the walls that run along both of the park’s long edges lead into the pavilion, which can also be entered from a public plaza that slices into the landscape.
“Two entry points are carved out of the side walls and another one out of the landscape,” explained the architects. “All give access to a central hall, which connects two major exhibition spaces and two smaller ones that have modular layouts.”
This entrance foyer contains a spiralling staircase connecting two levels and a series of skylights that appear above ground as rounded oculi embedded in the garden.
The pavilion is designed to house temporary exhibitions, while the garden will be used for educational as well as recreational purposes.
Here’s a brief project description from the architects:
Garden of the 21st Century in Warsaw
A team consisting of Mecanoo, Michael van Gessel, Delva Landscape Architects and Jojko Nawrocki Architekci has won the competition to design the new Garden of the 21st Century with integrated exhibition pavilion in Warsaw. In a ceremony at the Royal Lazienki Museum on Friday 16 November, the Polish Minister of Culture & National Heritage and the Minister of Environment jointly announced the result of an international competition with 80 submissions.
The new 2,5 hectare garden will be part of Lazienki Park, one of the most important touristic destinations in Warsaw that includes many 18th and 19th century buildings such as the Royal Baths, a Roman-inspired theatre and a water tower. The existing gardens in the park were all designed around these historic buildings. The Garden of the 21st Century is special, because the design of the pavilion follows from that of the landscape.
The 1800 m2, underground exhibition pavilion seems to grow out of the undulating walkway that surrounds the garden. Two entry points are carved out of the sidewalls and another one out of the landscape. All give access to a central hall, which connects two major exhibition spaces and two smaller ones that have modular lay-outs. Several oculi, or large round skylights, protrude through the walkway and the vegetation creating a mysterious play of light in the garden, but also providing carefully controlled daylight in the pavilion.
Both the garden and pavilion will provide new cultural life to the park with its many museums. The pavilion will host large temporary exhibitions, whereas the garden will play a role in local environmental education as well as be an example of 21st century landscape architecture.
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staircase underneath a garden in Warsaw appeared first on Dezeen.
News: Microsoft Kinect users can now scan themselves with the motion capture device and order a 3D-printed miniature model of themselves without leaving the house.
Developed by 3D scanning company Artec Group, Shapify.me offers a printing and delivery service for “3D Mini Me” figurines.
To create the tiny model, users can download an app to their computer and pair the machine with their Kinect device.
The Kinect must be positioned at chest height on the edge of a surface. The subject stands in front of the device, just over a metre away.
After striking the desired pose, the individual scans themselves and then turns 45 degrees before scanning again. This is repeated until a full rotation has been made and the same pose has to be held throughout.
The scan is calculated and appears on the screen so it can be viewed from various angles to check if it’s okay.
By pressing the 3D print button, the model one twentieth of the real height is ordered and delivered in the post in a matter of days. Figures can be ordered with or without a white stand.
The system is currently compatible with Microsoft Kinect for either Xbox 360 or Windows.
The service takes the self-scanning and printing process on a stage from British supermarket chain Asda’s in-store 3D scanning and 3D printing service.
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News: Danish architecture firm BIG has won a competition to design a new Museum of the Human Body in Montpellier, France.
The Cité du Corps Humain (Museum of the Human Body) by BIG will be part of a newly developed extension to the Parc Marianne area of the city.
The museum will focus on the human body from an artistic, scientific and societal point of view by hosting cultural activities, interactive exhibitions, performances and workshops.
The 7800-square-metre building will comprise eight curved interlocking spaces on one level.
Their roofs will slope up from the ground in alternate directions, creating accessible elevated areas of landscaping overlooking the park and surrounding city. Those that slope up from one side will be paved, while those coming from the other direction will be covered with turf.
“Like the mixture of two incompatible substances – oil and vinegar – the urban pavement and the park’s turf flow together in a mutual embrace forming terraced pockets overlooking the park and elevating islands of nature above the city,” said BIG founder Bjarke Ingels. “A series of seemingly singular pavilions weave together to form a unified institution – like individual fingers united together in a mutual grip.”
The main reception hall will be located in the middle of the structure and all the spaces will be connected with a corridor that nestles round the curved halls. There will be five additional entrances spread around the site.
The curvilinear outer walls will be screened with glass-fibre-reinforced concrete louvres. Their orientation will constantly change along the building’s length to maintain optimal shading despite the altering angle of the sun as the glass curves backwards and forwards.
Construction is scheduled to start in 2016 and due for completion in 2018.
Here’s the announcement from BIG:
BIG + A+Architecture + Egis + Base + L’Echo + Celsius Environnement + CCVH have been announced winner of the international design competition for the new Cité du Corps Humain (Museum of the Human Body) in Montpellier, France.
The Museum of the Human Body, which will be part of the newly developed area Parc Marianne, is rooted in the humanist and medical tradition of Montpellier and its world renowned medical school, which dates back to the tenth century. The new Museum will explore the human body from an artistic, scientific and societal approach through cultural activities, interactive exhibitions, performances and workshops.
The 7,800 m² (ca. 84,000 sqf) museum is conceived as a confluence of the park and the city – nature and architecture – bookending the Charpak Park along with the Montpellier city hall.
The building’s program consists of eight major spaces on one level, organically shaped and lifted to form an underlying continuous space.
Multiple interfaces between all functions create views to the park, access to daylight, and optimizing internal connections.
The museum’s roof functions as an ergonomic garden – a dynamic landscape of vegetal and mineral surfaces that allow the park’s visitors to explore and express their bodies in various ways – from contemplation to the performance – from relaxing to exercising – from the soothing to the challenging.
The façades of the Museum of the Human Body are transparent, maximizing the visual and physical connection to the surroundings.
On the sinuous façade that oscillates between facing North and South, East and West, the optimum louver orientation varies constantly, protecting sunlight, while also resembling the patterns of a human fingerprint – both unique and universal in nature.
The jury, headed by the City’s Mayor Ms Hélène Mandroux, chose BIG over 5 other shortlisted international teams and praised BIG’s design for combining innovative, environmental and functional qualities.
The new Museum will contribute to Montpellier’s rich scientific and cultural heritage, attracting tourists, families, as well as school classes, academics and art lovers. Construction is scheduled to start in 2016, and the building will open its doors to the public in 2018.
The Museum of the Human Body follows BIG’s experience in museum design as well as contributes to BIG’s growing activities in France.
BIG recently completed the Danish National Maritime Museum, in which crucial historic elements are integrated with an innovative concept of galleries. Other current cultural projects include the LEGO House in Billund, the recently announced Blaavand Bunker Museum in Western Denmark, and MECA Cultural Center in Bordeaux, along with EuropaCity, an 80 hectare masterplan on the outskirts of Paris.
Partners in Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Klok Pedersen
Project Leader: Gabrielle Nadeau
Project Manager:Jakob Sand
Team: Birk Daugaard, Chris Falla, Alexandra Lukianova, Oscar Abrahamsson, Katerina Joannides, Aleksander Wadas, Marie Lançon, Danae Charatsi, Alexander Ejsing.
Client: Ville de Montpellier
Collaborators:
A+ Architecture (Local Architect)
Egis Bâtiment Méditerranée (Structural + MEP engineers)
Base (Landscape Architect)
L’Echo (Financial Consultant)
Celsius Environnement (Sustainability Consultant)
Cabinet Conseil Vincent Hedon (Acoustic Consultant)
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of the Human Body in Montpellier appeared first on Dezeen.
Dutch Design Week 2013: Portuguese designer Susana Soares has developed a device for detecting cancer and other serious diseases using trained bees ( + slideshow).
The bees are placed in a glass chamber into which the patient exhales; the bees fly into a smaller secondary chamber if they detect cancer.
“Trained bees only rush into the smaller chamber if they can detect the odour on the patient’s breath that they have been trained to target,” explained Soares, who presented her Bee’s project at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven last month.
Scientists have found that honey bees – Apis mellifera – have an extraordinary sense of smell that is more acute than that of a sniffer dog and can detect airborne molecules in the parts-per-trillion range.
Bees can be trained to detect specific chemical odours, including the biomarkers associated with diseases such as tuberculosis, lung, skin and pancreatic cancer.
Bees have also been trained to detect explosives and a company called Insectinel is training “sniffer bees” to work in counter-terrorist operations.
“The bees can be trained within 10 minutes,” explains Soares. “Training simply consists of exposing the bees to a specific odour and then feeding them with a solution of water and sugar, therefore they associate that odour with a food reward.”
Once trained, the bees will remember the odour for their entire lives, provided they are always rewarded with sugar. Bees live for six weeks on average.
“There’s plenty of interest in the project especially from charities and further applications as a cost effective early detection of illness, specifically in developing countries,” Soares said.
Here is a project description by Susana Soares:
Bee’s / Project
Bee’s explores how we might co-habit with natural biological systems and use their potential to increase our perceptive abilities.
The objects facilitate bees’ odour detection abilities in human breath. Bees can be trained within 10 minutes using Pavlov’s reflex to target a wide range of natural and man-made chemicals and odours, including the biomarkers associated with certain diseases.
The aim of the project is to develop upon current technological research by using design to translate the outcome into systems and objects that people can understand and use, engendering significant adjustments in their lives and mind set.
How it works
The glass objects have two enclosures: a smaller chamber that serves as the diagnosis space and a bigger chamber where previously trained bees are kept for the short period of time necessary for them to detect general health. People exhale into the smaller chamber and the bees rush into it if they detect on the breath the odour that they where trained to target.
What can bees detect?
Scientific research demonstrated that bees can diagnose accurately at an early stage a vast variety of diseases, such as: tuberculosis, lung and skin cancer, and diabetes.
Precise object
The outer curved tube helps bees avoid from flying accidentally into the interior diagnosis chamber, making for a more precise result. The tubes connected to the small chamber create condensation, so that exhalation is visible.
Detecting chemicals in the axilla
Apocrine glands are known to contain pheromones that retain information about a person’s health that bees antennae can identify.
The bee clinic
These diagnostic tools would be part of system that uses bees as a biosensor.
The systems implies:
– A bee centre: a structure that facilitates the technologic potential of bees. Within the centre is a beefarm, a training centre, a research lab and a healthcae centre.
– Training centre: courses can be taken on beetraining where bees are collected and trained by beetrainers. These are specialists that learn beetraining techniques to be used in a large scope of applications, including diagnosing diseases.
– BEE clinic: bees are used at the clinic for screening tests. These insects are very accurate in early medical diagnosis through detection on a person’s breath. Bees are a sustainable and valuable resource. After performing the diagnose in the clinic they are released, returning to their beehive.
Bee training
Bees can be easily trained using Pavlov’s reflex to target a wide range of natural and man-made chemicals odours including the biomarkers associated with certain diseases. The training consists in baffling the bees with a specific odour and feeding them with a solution of water and sugar, therefore they associate that odour with a food reward.
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“in ten minutes” says designer appeared first on Dezeen.
Architecture studio Renzo Piano Building Workshop has completed the extension to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, doubling the gallery space originally designed by American architect Louis Kahn (+ slideshow).
Renzo Piano Building Workshop designed a new building for the Kimbell Art Museum site to house the museum’s growing collection and provide educational facilities.
“The programmes and collection of Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum have grown dramatically in recent years, far beyond anything envisioned by the museum in the 1970s,” said the studio.
The new structure faces the west facade of Kahn’s building and is similar in height, plan and orientation to the existing museum.
Its front facade is split into three sections to echo the internal layout. Visitors enter the glazed lobby in the central third of the building, which has large gallery spaces either side.
The roof extends past the external glass walls, supported by a colonnade of concrete columns.
Daylight coming through the gallery ceilings is controlled by layers of stretched fabric, glass and aluminium louvers between the wooden beams.
Glazed passageways lead from the lobby and south gallery into the second half of the building, buried beneath a grass-covered roof so the extension doesn’t dwarf Kahn’s building and to insulate the spaces.
Further exhibition space, an auditorium of 299 seats and classrooms are all located in this underground section.
“Views through the new building to the landscape and Kahn building beyond emphasise the key motifs of transparency and openness,” said Renzo Piano Building Workshop. “The new facility will be highly energy efficient, requiring only one fourth of the energy consumed by the Kahn building.”
Louis Kahn designed the original vaulted concrete building to house the museum in 1972. Piano worked in Kahn’s office during the 1960s and cites the late architect as his mentor.
Photography is by Nick Lehoux, unless otherwise stated.
More information from Renzo Piano Building Workshop follows:
Kimbell Art Museum
The Kimbell Art Museum’s original building was designed by Louis Kahn in 1972.
The new building by RPBW accommodates the museum’s growing exhibition and education programmes, allowing the original Kahn building to revert to the display of the museum’s permanent collection.
The programmes and collection of Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum have grown dramatically in recent years, far beyond anything envisioned by the museum in the 1970s.
Addressing the severe lack of space for the museum’s exhibition and education programmes, the new building provides gallery space for temporary exhibitions, classrooms and studios for the museum’s education department, a large auditorium of 299 seats, an expanded library and underground parking.
The expansion roughly doubles the Museum’s gallery space. Furthermore, the siting of the new building, and the access into it from the parking, will correct the tendency of most visitors to enter the museum’s original building by what Kahn considered the back entrance, directing them naturally to the front entrance in the west facade.
Subtly echoing Kahn’s building in height, scale and general layout, the RPBW building has a more open, transparent character.
Light, discreet (half the footprint hidden underground), yet with its own character, setting up a dialogue between old and new. The new building consists of two connected structures.
The front section, facing the west façade of Kahn’s building across landscaped grounds, has a three-part façade, referencing the activities inside.
At its centre a lightweight, transparent, glazed section serves as the new museum entrance.
On either side, behind pale concrete walls are two gallery spaces for temporary exhibitions.
A colonnade of square concrete columns wraps around the sides of the building, supporting solid wooden beams and the overhanging eaves of the glass roof, providing shade for the glazed facades facing north and south.
In the galleries, a sophisticated roof system layers stretched fabric, the wooden beams, glass, aluminium louvers (and photovoltaic cells), to create a controlled day-lit environment.
This can be supplemented by lighting hidden behind the scrim fabric.
A glazed passageway leads into the building’s second structure.
Hidden under a turf, insulating roof are a third gallery for light-sensitive works, an auditorium and museum education facilities.
Glass, concrete, and wood are the predominant materials used in the new building, echoing those used in the original.
Views through the new building to the landscape and Kahn building beyond emphasise the key motifs of transparency and openness.
The new facility will be highly energy efficient, requiring only one fourth of the energy consumed by the Kahn building.
The post Renzo Piano completes extension to
Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum appeared first on Dezeen.
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