Today's archidose #812

Here are a few photos of the Nordwesthaus (2008) in Fußach, Austria, by Baumschlager Eberle, photographed by Martin Krause.







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SOILED No. 6: Call for Submissions

Deathscrapers, of all things, is the theme for the sixth issue of SOILED, which has just put out a call for submissions. Deadline is March 15, 2015, with details below the drawing of a casket.


[Image courtesy of SOILED]

"I am not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens." –Woody Allen

Deathscrapers summons the architecture that surrounds the dearly departed. If Woody Allen’s aphorism generalizes a broad American apprehension for openly discussing matters of death, Deathscrapers is its architectural antidote and seeks to knock at death’s (literal) door to uncover issues of narrative, memory, and form. Deathscrapers spans all scales of spaces for the dead and the bereaved, from urns and caskets, to morgues and mortuaries, mausoleums and cemeteries, even enormous necropolises. Adolf Loos declared, “Only a very small part of architecture belongs to art: the tomb and the monument.” Deathscrapers will purvey playful stories that are simultaneously as serious as the grave. How can architecture bring new life into rituals and environments for the dead? How might aesthetics participate in a new necropolitan culture? Is it productive to render the morbid more social? Akin to previous issues of SOILED, Deathscrapers welcomes ideas that might transcend their mortality on the printed page. Queue the requiem and warm up the hearse: are you ready to go?

Guidelines and such can be found on the SOILED website.

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Andrés Jaque Wins MoMA PS1 Competition

Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation's COSMO continues MoMA PS1's selection of designs for its Young Architects Program with an emphasis on environmental issues. HWKN's Wendy in 2012 was covered in nanoparticles that cleaned the air; CODA's Party Wall one year later was made from the scraps of skateboard manufacturing; and The Living's Hy-Fi last year featured bricks made from organic matter.


[Rendering of Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation’s COSMO. Image courtesy of Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation.]

COSMO continues this trend with "an assemblage of ecosystems, based on advanced environmental design." To further quote MoMA's press release, "COSMO is engineered to filter and purify 3,000 gallons of water, eliminating suspended particles and nitrates, balancing the PH, and increasing the level of dissolved oxygen. It takes four days for the 3,000 gallons of water to become purified, then the cycle continues with the same body of water, becoming more purified with every cycle."


[Rendering of Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation’s COSMO. Image courtesy of Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation.]

The revelling comes in the form of "a stretched-out plastic mesh at the core of the construction [that] will glow automatically whenever its water has been purified." It's hard to determine which of the two released renderings (not much to go on) illustrate this state, if at all, but the installation's form has a very playful quality to it that will make sustainability fun...every four days, at least.

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Today's archidose #811

Here are a few buildings in winter, all photographed by iConte.

Herzog and de Meuron's VitraHaus in Weil am Rhein, Germany:


Le Corbusier's Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France:


Peter Zumthor's Kunsthaus Bregenz in Bregenz, Austria:


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AE31: Supershades

One of the standout projects in BIG's HOT TO COLD exhibition now at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, is what the firm calls "Magic Carpet," a media headquarters for the Middle East. The project stands out partly because it is located right at the start of the exhibition, which rings the NBM's huge four-story atrium, and because the draped "carpet" that covers a series of stacked boxes between two towers is a really interesting way of creating an outdoor shelter in a dry and hot climate. But it's not the first instance of the architectural element I'm calling "Supershades." This post looks at a few more projects that use expansive covers, most of them perforated and all of them in warm climates, to shelter exterior and interior spaces.

BIG's Magic Carpet:



(Top photo: John Hill, renderings via Design Boom)

The first project that springs to mind, mainly because of a similar draping of super-thin concrete, is Alvaro Siza's pavilion for Expo 98 in Lisbon, Portugal. Expos are often venues for temporary architecture, but Siza's pavilion remains to this day. Perhaps this is because it represented the home country, but I like to think it is due to the simple yet mind-boggling (still!) design of the suspended concrete roof.

Alvaro Siza's Portuguese Pavilion for Expo 98:


(Photos: Flavio/Flickr)

A project that came three years after Expo 98, but was never realized, is OMA's design for LACMA, which is now being carried out by Peter Zumthor in a much different manner. Koolhaas and the Gang proposed a huge translucent roof over LACMA's jumble of existing buildings. OMA treated the existing as a "Pompeian Base" with new layers over it, rather than simply adding more buildings or demolishing them to make way for something new, as Zumthor is doing. 

OMA's LACMA Extension:


(Images via oma.eu)

A project that is being realized, and is one of the most anticipated openings of 2015, is Jean Nouvel's design for the Louvre Abu Dhabi. His design, which dates back to 2007, puts about 250,000 square feet of exhibition space and other functions under a lattice-like dome that will create "a haven of coolness." The building is located on Saaydiyat Island, which will be home to more cultural institutions by big-name architects; the flattened dome makes a statement from the water. But it's the space underneath that is most amazing, with dappled light and cooling breezes coming across the water.

Jean Nouvel's Louvre Abu Dhabi:




(Renderings via Louvre Abu Dhabi website, construction photo via gulfbusiness.com)

The last two Supershade projects have been completed within the last five years. First is Michel Rojkind's project for the National Film Archive and Film Institute of Mexico, which is made up of old and new buildings and a plaza capped by a larger perforated canopy. The outdoor space functions like a lobby and a shelter for other programs (concerts, theater, exhibitions, etc.).

Rojkind Arquitectos's Cineteca Nacional Siglo XXI:



(Photos: Paul Rivera)

Last but not least is the New Orquideorama for Medellin´s Botanical Garden, designed by PLAN:B and JPRCR. Their design of the wood-slat canopy echoes the surrounding trees, rising from "trunks" and branching out in hexagonal pieces that shelter visitors.

PLAN:B Arquitectos' + JPRCR Arquitectos' Orquideorama:



(Photos: Cristobal Palma)

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BIG's HOT TO COLD

Head over to World-Architects for my review of HOT TO COLD, the Bjarke Ingels Group's exhibition now at the National Building Museum.

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Today's archidose #810

Here are some of my photos of the Princeton "Dinky" Station (2014) on the campus of Princeton University, designed by Rick Joy Architects.











Next door is a Wawa (2014) also designed by Rick Joy Architects.









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