Dutch architect Anne Holtrop has collaborated with green technology firm Studio Noach and botanist Patrick Blanc to propose an artificial floating island containing gardens and a spa. (more…)
Burton Baldridge Architects of Texas have completed a bed-and-breakfast hotel on a steeply-sloping site in South Congress, Austen Austin. (more…)
While the disheveled stacking of boxes seems to be a rampant gesture in today’s architecture, the new Vitra Haus by architects Herzog & de Meuron proves that, if done correctly, the conceit can create a thrilling, dynamic structure both inside and out. The new building (the first addition to the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany since Frank Gehry’s 1989 building for the Vitra Design Museum) serves as one giant showroom for the brand’s home collection of classic and contemporary furniture.
Comprised of 12 houses stacked upon one another like sticks, the five story structure begins with a base of five houses, with the remaining seven layered in intersecting paths above. While the layout seems quite random, the long volumes jockeying for position, the axes were carefully plotted to frame the most engaging views of the surrounding campus and countryside.
Herzog & de Meuron’s stroke of genius herein lies in their ability to transcend mere metaphor. Sure the Vitra Haus plays with the notion of a rudimentary A-frame structure, extruded and stacked like so many logs. But the building reads as a kinetic statement, the intersections and cantilevered volumes highlighting the way in which design (the furniture inside) is part of an exciting timeline where conflicting ideas collide, share space and veer off from one another once more.
Inside, walls slice through one another, floors run through vaulted ceilings and spiral stairways drill down through layers, adding a fluid curvature to an interior rife with angles. Each house within the structure serves as a unique showroom for the Vitra home collection, offering a variety of ways in which to view the furniture.
In one space, a grouping of Eames furniture commingles beside a window overlooking the car park. In another vaulted space, one finds Hella Jongerius Polder sofas lounging amicably with mid-century pieces like the Prouve lounge chair and Panton Living Towers. In still another space, individual pieces are displayed in more traditional showroom fashion, framed with blue taping on the floors.
The Vitra Haus looks fascinating from every angle. A few pictures can’t do the design justice. However, the U.K. design blog designboom has gotten a fantastic first look, publishing a stockpile of images (including these) from both the exterior and interior.
Japanese architects Suppose Design Office have completed a house in Hiroshima, Japan, where residents move between rooms through covered courtyards. (more…)
Les architectes du laboratoire Lava développent actuellement une méthode simple et économique pour transformer les anciens bâtiments de la ville de Sydney : il s’agit d’une seconde peau. Un cocon transparent qui agit et génère de l’énergie avec des cellules photo-voltaïques.
Un impact visuel important avec un effort matériel minimum, car la tour est enveloppée légèrement en matériaux composites de haute-performance.
Here are some photographs of the Centre Pompidou-Metz in France by architects Shigeru Ban of Japan and Jean de Gastines of France, which will open to the public in May. (more…)
When you think “theater” in New York, what comes to mind? Well, you’re wrong. You should have thought “starchitect Frank Gehry,” because he will soon be designing every new theater that gets built in the city. Or rather, he will if this current trend continues. Last month, you’ll recall that Gehry landed the Signature Theater commission, and now this week it’s been announced that his 2004-designed Ground Zero Arts Center is back in business. After years of wrangling, Crain’s reports that the city has “released the $50 million needed to construct the subterranean support structure for the center,” which was a fairly large hurdle for the developers to overcome and had long been seen as something of a longshot. But even so, now that they have that first go-ahead, there’s still a great deal of uncertainty, which is no new thing at all when it comes to building and the World Trade Center site. Here’s a bit:
But even if the foundation work moves ahead as planned, the project faces numerous challenges, leaving skeptics questioning whether it will ever be built.
For starters, once the underground work is finished, the city will have to wait at least four years to begin construction on the actual building, because the temporary PATH station that is on the site can’t be removed until the permanent transportation hub is finished. Estimates call for the Santiago Calatrava-designed station to be finished in 2014, but as is often the case with construction, there could be delays.
By then, building costs will likely be higher, and it is difficult to gauge what the fund-raising environment will be like.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
The Rolex Learning Center, a university study centre by Japanese architects SANAA, opens in Lausanne, Switzerland next week. (more…)
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