Monday, October 25, 2010

BIG conference in Spain (ETSAM)


Bjarke Ingels @ ETSAM, "Yes is more" from mstrpln blog mx on Vimeo.

BIG

One+ by Add-a-room

I found this in my search for modular houses. It's interesting the fact that there are certain companies in the market that sell modular houses in tiny pieces and you can buy a full house or just buy little by little and end up with a regular size house after a while or just stick with one module and live there forever. It's pretty much architecture without architects, which I think it is a really interesting concept after all.
In this case the company is from Switzerland. Basic units start at 35,000 USD which is fair enough as some other examples listed before are not as cheap as this one.



Add a Room




Indoor Clouds (Cloudscapes) by Tetsuo Kondo Architects + Transsolar

I were in the Architectural Biennial in Venice last week, and one of the most promising things for me to watch was this indoor clouds. But sometimes destiny plays its own way and I end up watching a room full of humidity and thats about it. Even though it wasn't the Biennial fault nor the artist, the problem is that in order to make interior clouds there must be certain conditions (stacking a warm humid layer 25º and 100%RH between a lower cool dry layer 18º and 40% RH and a higher hot dry layer of 37º and 60%RH) without these conditions clouds won't form indoors.... So the problem there was that the door was open half of the time because it is an exhibition and you can't  forbid people from moving to the next intervention in their way, and obviously it was impossible to keep the air in the proper form. But anyway I still think that it is very interesting, hopefully for the first visitors during the morning they probably had the chance to watch these spectacular cloud formations.





Cloudscapes

Tetsuo Kondo Architects


Transsolar

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Ogaki House by Katsutoshi Sasaki+Associates

Somehow I had become passionate about wooden interiors lately and this house its another great example of an amazing wooden interior. The use of the daylight here is also very interesting, while at the same time they are adding some traditional japanese gardening brushes to make a little bit more complex the experience of living.

Tsubomi House by Yoshinori Sakano

Even I posted the pictures from the exterior what its truly interesting is the inside, maybe one of the best examples that I have seen of the mixture of concrete+wood, it's funny the way the wood has been rounded on the corners of the window it makes the house look almost like a science fiction spaceship. The wood looks seriously pretty here. Another thing I enjoy is the fact that from any point of the house you have a complicated view of some of the different levels, so the spacial experience gets more interesting than the average house.

Bird House (2010) by Katsuhiro Miyamoto

Usually I wouldn't post something that doesn't interest me as a whole, so this is an exception.... The typology itself its interesting, a house that is connected from the exterior in different levels by a ramp. Le Corbusier it's not one of my models but I am sure he would be happy with the idea of rout that is implicit in this piece of architecture (well or maybe not XD, I am just guessing).
Katsuhiro Miyamoto

Gary Chang's 24 - Room Apartment

One of the best useful ideas of how to make the most of the space... I have some trouble trying to figure out if this should be tagged as container architecture or sleeping units or prefab houses, so at the end I didn't use any of this options. What do you think about it? Maybe it could also have the tag Robotics and industrial design. Is quite hard to make decisions with something like this!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Skylifter

"SkyLifters are heavy-lifting aircraft in development."

This could be the answer to anyone who wants to carry heavy or big things with almost no ecological footprint. Even complete buildings, think of the possibilities... also would be useful for fast medical solutions, as you can move special hospital units in case of disasters and carry them to anywhere without the need to dismantle. Maybe could be spaces in use while you are being carried around the glob. You could have only one house and move it to different parts of the globe with not that much complications, you could even buy empty lots move there and after a while leave them empty and carry your house to other lot.

BrickStainable

I believe that it's important to rethinking our traditional materials to make them more sustainable. In this case I found a design competition that aims this with brick. I am posting last year's winner because he was able to achieve not only the sustainable point (by creating bricks that doesn't need cement or adhesive of any kind) but also because this new approach lets use brick as a much more flexible surface material, there is the chance to create wave and curve surfaces easily.

Gehry Buildings generating discomfort on surroundings

And I mean Physical discomfort on surrounding apartments. Read this:  GLARE AROUND THE WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL
As I found out, the apartments affected by the light reflexions created on some curve parts of  his titanium buildings could increate their temperature up to +15 Celsius which is almost a scandal.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Private House in Tinos by Zege Architects

Ok, dont' ask... I don't know why I am posting this, but it doesn't have anything to do with interior design or the furniture they are using.  Somehow I contemplate this pictures and see something relating with architecture that might be lost or not found by my self yet... The cavern, the white, the simplicity the roundness the natural (or the relation with the natural). The light effects, the slight amount of color (but still working really well), the recycling (I do not agree with the term restoration) or reusing, the previous footprint. I don't know I have mixed feelings here, I have the urge to analyze and find some meaning in this pictures and apply the concepts in my mind. Or that is at least what I feel right now, maybe a couple of years ahead I will look this post and go "naaaaaaah!!!"


Zege Architects