Fincube by Studio Aisslinger

Even I added to this post the tag Prefab Houses, the truth is that isn't really one. It's a singular housing project. The fact that the tag Prefab Houses is showing, has more to do with the fact that I think this could be done as a serial house and the architects think the same way. The project doesn't have a main view of facade, it's distributed completely even. From a Structural point of view its really easy, and many bla bla bla. That makes this project perfect for being a Prefab House. It can produce its own energy, its high tech but really easy, its transportable too...

"It can easily be dismantled and rebuilt on a new site, and even more important for nature hideaways: it requires minimum soil sealing – just 2 m2 that are easily re-natured after the FINCUBE is moved to another location."

"The design is minimal, material-orientated, and in close touch with nature – the wooden space with a 360-degree triple glazing is furnished with a second facade layer, producing shade and giving the building a unique overall mushroom-like mono-shape."

"The horizontal ledges give privacy to the FINCUBE and embed the building into forests, meadows, mountain sides or any nature resorts. The combination of long-lasting design and the option of changing its location after a while make the FINCUBE a flexible home or hideaway and a lifetime companion."

So after all, the soul of the project is to become a prefab house.

Images of the project:



Images of the constructed house:




The architects are Studio Aisslinger

Restello by Piercy Conner Architects

I am not usually the kind of person who judges from the image... But  I have to say that the external renderings of this building are seriously atmospheric (to put it one way). Might not big the best architecture but the way the perforated steel makes this building disappear from the outside (except when the shutters are open) and opens the space to the exterior is well done. The effects of the light and shadow going trough the interior, and the openness inside the houses with the simplicity it projects. The used of a second skin completely glazed...
I don't know, I just have to like it. Also the detail of the green roof treated the same way as the rest of the flats its brilliant.







by Piercy Conner Architects

UK Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 by Thomas Heatherwick

The pity here is that this building already called The Seed Cathedral could have been done by R&Sie(n) or by Philippe Rahm but it's not. So back from that fact, I think that is a great Ad, and don't be surprise because thats what a pavilion is all about... Advertisement. It has always been by default the most iconic architecture reflecting the countries way of thinking, since the beginning of the World Fairs it always have been this way.

UK has one of the best education in Landscape Architecture, and the inhabitants of UK in general love and appreciate landscapes and working on landscapes. So this iconic building focus on this issue and adds the sustainable point of view, which is the obsession to collect every single seed from the earth so they could be preserve.

Also the buiding has a very abstract shape, thanks to an "enclosure that throws out from all faces a mass of long, radiating cilia. Their length means they gently sway in response to any wind movement. It rests on its soft forest in an urban field, surrounded by a concrete canopy that resembles unfolded wrapping paper." Giving a really contemporary aura to the building (and the country) while making the building perception a truly enjoyment.

"The pavilion is covered in 60,000 transparent rods, each containing seeds from the Millennium Seed Bank in the UK."







Images of the project during last stages of construction:
















Heatherwick studio

My only dislikable aspect is that is a copy from an older project also done by Heatherwick Studio called  Sitetooterie II in Essex Uk, meaning literally "sit oot" in a building.

The orange glow in that project are explained this way: "As the long thin windows all point at the exact centre of the cube, it only takes a single light source, located at this central point, to send light through every tube, causing the windows to glow orange. A small number of them also project into the cube to form seating."

Tokyo Baby Cafe by Nendo

This project is seriously interesting...  it's about making a space based on how kids perceive grown up furniture and dimensions in general. Making the cafe for adults like they were still kids.

Its a project from Nendo, they have completed this cafe for parents and their children in Aoyama, Tokio. Giving some furniture the ability to become a playground for the kids.

"Images of animals are hidden from parents’ eyes on the underside of the tables while shelves house books and toys."

In order to distort the space they have used floorboards that change in scale across the room. Which is a clever way to distort perception that I never had thought of.

Information is Beautiful

I see this as a web you should be keeping an eye at least once in a while. Basically its information presented in complex graphics that simplified the way of understanding the information provided. Most of them really well done, graphically speaking and also the information that they provide is really useful.
I think it's called "data flow"









Information is Beautiful

It would be like Visual Complexity but with worthy information to check and compare.

The Dutch Dialogues workshops

This is for sure clever thinking... if you are a city surrounded by water and you want to keep it that way for many years (from my point of view everything is ephemeral even if we don't want to recognize it, centuries of obsession with buildings that will stay forever is just illogical in every possible way), maybe you should look to the Netherlands... they have been fighting against water since centuries (probably since the beginning of the first shelters).

So what happened to New Orleans could have been prevented if someone had look to the Netherlands a long time ago. Obviously the French and Spanish (first colonies in Louisiana) wasn't prepared for what was surrounding the area. If the first colonies would have been from the Netherlands the history would have been different for sure...





Here you can download the First and Second Dutch Dialogs.pdf
And here you can see the main Dutch Dialogs webpage

Body instead of devices

As one of my main obsesions with atmospheric architecture, this could be also be the future of atmospheric technology... No need to produce waist and production of high-tech devices, when you can replace then all in your body as a natural interactive screen.








More info at Chris Harrison

Flat solar power surfaces less efficient than shaped ones

This is really useful information... specially now days when we are aiming for more sustainability.

"Such systems could produce relatively constant power throughout the day without the need for tracking, and produce significantly more power overall for a given area — for example two and a half times as much as a flat array when the height equals the length and width."


"The team believes that solar panels based on this concept could be shipped flat and then unfolded at the site to their complex shapes."

You can see an explanatory slideshow that wont leave you indifferent... MITnews

How to create Scent by Luca Turin

Luca Turin on the science of scent. Via TED


I find Fascinating, the fact that you can control, create and substitute one compound of scent for other that is exactly the same. Making natural scents in a complete artificial way.

Barcelona regulated LED lamps, high technology.

A great idea to reduce energy to reduce unused light, to focus on individuals and groups. To manage the intensity of light depending on different issues involving the surroundings of the lights and the hours and months when they are in use. A really efficient use of LED lightning technology. What I don't get is why everybody else don't do the same?