Hasta La Ideas

Nike London vient d’achever une refonte de ses bureaux. Avec des travaux dirigés par l’agence créative Rosie Lee, la marque à la virgule dispose maintenant de superbes espaces avec des zones spéciales pour les univers ‘Air Jordan’, ‘Mercurial’ ou encore ‘Air Max 180′. A découvrir dans l’article avec images et vidéo.

MIT famously sued Frank Gehry back in ’07, as the undulating surfaces he’d designed for their Stata Center turned out to be perfect for harboring mold. Now comes news of an architecture gaffe with an even more dramatic problem. The so-called “Walkie Talkie” building in London, a 25-story curved glass structure designed by Rafael Vinoly, is capable of focusing the sun’s rays into powerful beams that can start fires!

Still under construction, the building’s glass panels are nevertheless able to harness the sun in such a way that they recently damaged a man’s Jaguar parked nearby, melting the side mirror and distorting panels and the Jaguar badge. Reflections from the building also reportedly set the doormat of a nearby barber shop on fire, and distorted the paint and de-adhered wall tiles on a nearby restaurant.

The announced temporary solution will be to erect street-level scaffolding to shield nearby businesses, though there’s no word as to what the permanent fix will be for the £200 million structure. In the meantime, the building’s acquired a second nickname: “The Walkie-Scorchie.”

Here’s a solar physicist explaining the problem:

(more…)

News: the world’s vainest skyscrapers have been revealed in the latest report from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which reveals the unnecessary “vanity space” added to the top of the world’s tallest buildings.

Of the top ten tallest buildings in the world at present (pictured), at least 27 percent of each structure is superfluous, according the report.

Without its 244-metre spire, the 828-metre Burj Khalifa – currently the tallest building on earth – would drop to a substantially smaller 585-metre height without any reduction in usable space. As the report states, the spire “could be a skyscraper on its own”.

“We noticed in Journal 2013 Issue I’s case study on Kingdom Tower, Jeddah, [currently under construction] that a fair amount of the top of the building seemed to be an unoccupied spire,” reads the report. “This prompted us to explore the notion of ‘vanity height’ in supertall buildings, i.e. the distance between a skyscraper’s highest occupiable floor and its architectural top, as determined by CTBUH Height Criteria.”

The Ukraina Hotel in Moscow, Russia, is revealed as the world’s vainest skyscraper, with 42 percent of the building’s 206-metre height identified as useless space. Meanwhile the vainest “supertall” building – a term given to structures over 300 metres – is identified as the 321-metre Burj Al-Arab in Dubai, whose curving spire makes up 39 percent of the overall height.

The report identifies the United Arab Emirates as the nation with the highest number of vain skyscrapers, with an average of 19 percent useless height across all of its tallest buildings. However it also contains the world’s humblest skyscraper, as the 328-metre Index in Dubai has a vanity space of just four metres.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is the world’s leading authority on the skyscrapers. Recent reports by the organisation have predicted the 20 tallest buildings in the world by the year 2020 and revealed the number of skyscrapers completed last year.

See more reports from the CTBUH »
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revealed appeared first on Dezeen.

Australian studio Edwards Moore has revamped a small brick house in Melbourne by adding a new storey and a translucent roof (+ slideshow).

Architects Ben Edwards and Juliet Moore were tasked with increasing the size of the single-storey terraced house, as well as improving the quality of space and light inside each of its rooms.

A new storey was added over the existing structure, with a translucent roof that diffuses light through the entire upper level. Unlike the lower walls, which are made from brick and feature peeling paintwork, the extension comes with a clean black facade created by standing-seam cladding.

The new level accommodates a living room on one side and a kitchen/dining room on the other, freeing up space on the ground floor for a reception room and two generous bedrooms.

“[We] considered the addition of the second floor not simply as the addition of horizontal plane perched atop the existing structure, but equally as a vertical room that creates a great sense of volume and unity within the dwelling as a whole,” said Edwards.

A layer of perforated metal sits above exposed wooden rafters to give a see-through floor to the living room, allowing light and views down to the spaces below.

“The translucent skin floods the spaces with natural light, and strategically placed openings create a central internal landscape,” added the architect.

Cantilevered wooden treads provide a floating staircase between the two floors, resonating with the rhythm of the exposed rafters above.

Edwards Moore also recently renovated another house in Melbourne, leaving peeling plasterwork to expose sections of brick walls.

Other residential projects by the studio include a house with a combined kitchen counter and staircase, plus an apartment with chunky chipboard lining its walls.

See more architecture by Edwards Moore »
See more houses in Australia »

Photography is by Fraser Marsden.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Lightbox House

A small single-storey terrace house, dwarfed by the surrounding urban fabric. The aim, to increase the quality and scale of the living spaces within, improve the sense of aspect/outlook and access to natural light, whilst maintaining a private and comforting oasis.

By considering the addition of the second floor not simply as the addition of horizontal plane perched atop the existing structure, but equally as a vertical room which, through its connectivity between ‘branches’, creates a great sense of volume and unity within the dwelling as a whole. The translucent skin floods the spaces with natural light, and strategically placed openings create a central internal landscape.

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Edwards Moore appeared first on Dezeen.

Robots could be sent to Mars to build caves for later habitation by humans, according to a proposal for the colonisation of the planet by German firm ZA Architects (+ slideshow).

The Mars Colonisation project by ZA Architects suggests that humans could colonise the red planet by living in underground dwellings dug out of the planet’s bedrock by an advance party of solar-powered machines.

“Curiosity sooner or later will bring human to Mars and wouldn’t it be nice to have permanent station to explore it?” said Arina Ageeva of ZA Architects. “It seems pretty logical to use caves as the main protective structure of the colony.”

Robots would be flown to Mars to carve out large voids in the basalt bedrock, choosing areas where the rock has formed into distinctive hexagonal columns, which can be removed to create cathedral-like interior spaces. The distinctive, tightly packed stone hexagonal columns, which are also found on earth, are formed where basaltic lava has cooled rapidly.

The robots would then weave web-like structures from basalt fibres to create floors within the caves. Basalt fibres, made by extruding molten basalt, are cheaper and more versatile then carbon fibres, and could replace traditional construction materials on Mars, according to Ageeva.

“We can weave minimal surfaces that will be used as floors on different levels in the cave,” she told Dezeen. “This material is already in use in the aerospace and automotive industries. It is stronger and lighter than steel, easier to operate, fireproof and it does not corrode,” she added.

The Mars colonisation project was undertaken by Dmitry Zhuikov, Arina Ageeva, Krassimir Krastev of ZA Architects as part of a research project at Dessau Institute of Architecture (DIA), HS Anhalt, in Germany.

Ageeva believes humans will be sent to live on Mars within a decade, and cited the Mars One project that plans to send volunteers to establish a colony on Mars by 2023. “Right now it is may not be possible, because such robotics do not exist, but generally we don’t see anything unrealistic in this proposition,” she said.

We’ve featured a number of space-related projects recently, including an orbiting factory that will use 3D printing and robots to fabricate giant structures in space and a concept for 3D printing buildings on the moon using lunar soil.

See more features about space »
See more robots on Dezeen »

Here’s more from the architects:

Mars Colonisation

The purpose of the project is in research of the possibility to build permanent settlements on Mars, using robotics and local materials, thus reduce the price and risks. At the moment there are several crucial restrictions, first of all unreliability, high cost and size limitation of cargoes that can be delivered there.

Further, building works that can be performed on the Mars are highly restricted due to severe conditions. Idea of this project is to split construction works on two general steps: First – creation of overall big shell that will be equipped with residential, technical and other units, which is the second.

First part is to be done by the robots using only local materials. Martian surface is primarily composed of the basalt – igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of basaltic lava. During the cooling it forms topology of the tightly packed hexagonal in section columns. Idea to use the digging robots that can hew cave system, using benefits of this topology is inspired by the Fingal’s Cave. This solution allows to avoid supply from the Earth, only robots are needed.

After cave is done, astronaut mission is sent to the Mars. Using ready-assembled compact facilities they must arrange water and oxygen supply from the soil glacier and mount basalt processing plant. Robot supply plant with the crushed rock, output – basalt wool, with which the same robots insulate the walls of the cave, and basalt roving, from which another weaving robots can make the spatial spider-like web that will be used as spaces and constructions to hold the domestic and technical facilities.

According to NASA, some martian soil appropriate for growing certain agricultures. When construction is finished and contour of the cave is enclosed it is possible to arrange agricultural processes and supply base with food.

Colonisation stages:
1. Rocket with digging robots and solar power supply units are sent to the Mars
2. Robots drop-off on the surface
3. Robots analyze basalt columns on strength value, then each chooses a weakest pillar that equidistant from the others – it is a start position
4. Robots drill basalt, moving down and increasing diameter of withdrawn rock with each step, until it reaches strong pillars that remain as columns
5. Crushed rock set aside to form network of the ramps, in order to protect skylight holes from the wind and dust
6. After caves are ready human expedition travel to Mars
7. Astronauts finish the construction and arrange technical facilities as water, oxygen, basalt processing line, etc.
8. Using generated basalt roving, robots weave spatial spider-like web, that will be used as spaces and construction to hold domestic and technical facilities

name: mars colonization
status: concept
location: Mars
function: industrial, public, residential
architects: Dmitry Zhuikov, Arina Agieieva
curator: Krassimir Krastev
year: 2013

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by ZA Architects appeared first on Dezeen.