Renzo Piano’sShard is quickly climbing up London’s skyline. The 1,016 ft high skyscraper will provide the mixed use density the city needs, as it incorporates apartments, office space, a spa, hotel and restaurants within its sleek pyramidal form. Inspired by perhaps a ship’s mast from the Pool of London, or a modern take on the church spire, the Shard will become a prominent fixture in the skyline as it nears it completion. Check out these images illustrating the Shard’s progress – the crisp aesthetic commonly found in Piano’s projects is becoming evident as the low-iron glazing is applied to the structure.
Trained as a landscape architect, W. Garett Carlsonhas designed a 1700 sf residence entitled the Joshua Tree Boulder House. Situated on 2.5 acres in Joshua Tree, California, the residence is intended to seem as though it is emerging from the ground. This conceptual idea stems from the site’s proximity to the Joshua Tree National Park which contains some of the most fascinating boulder shapes in the world, according to Carlson.
More images and more about the residence after the break.
For JDS Architects‘ Encants Market in Barcelona, the firm employs their conventional strong geometry to create an open market place. The occupiable roof measures 7 meters in thickness and contains about half of the market’s activity (the other half occurs between the roof and the parking level). Inside, a ramp brings visitors to ground level, echoing the same circulation ideas found in Frank Lloyd Wright’s New York Guggenheim. From ground level, the open sides of the market create a feeling of permeability, allowing easy access for those passing by.
During the summer, we introduced Lindsay Brown and his San Diego Waterfront revitalization plan. While Browncontinues to push forward hisscheme that brings a new life into the area’s urban edge through the implementation of a pedestrian public realm, his firm has designed some great smaller scale projects, such as his Island residence. The project, which is situated in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, was inspired by the client’s passion for sailing and utilizes the site’s climatic conditions to drive many design elements such as breezeways, pools, covered areas and orientation.
More images and more about the residence after the break.
New York’s Sukkah City competition was a great success, as both the winning entries and the other proposals developed creative and thoughtful spaces. Check out Studiometrico’s proposal for the competition which is more of a do-it-yourself sukkah. People can build their own space using a triangular module that folds over itself to provide a sheltered condition. Interested in the actual construction of the sukkah, the studio built a 1:1 scale prototype to test its feasibility and decided to present the idea to the Citizens of New York by telling the story of how it was built once upon a time, in a hypothetical place, by three imaginary boys.
More images and information about the sukkah, including a short video after the break.
Check out this temporary installation, entitled “Life Will Kill You”, for the Revolve Clothing showroom in West Hollywood. For the installation, Molly Hunker and Gregory Corso of Sports used the standard zip tie to create a floating volume nestled below an existing soffit. The simplicity of the system highly contrasts the high fashion boutique clothing, which will be displayed in the space, as a way to show how the two extremes can compliment one another. “The design is intended to explore the edge between aggression and elegance through material sensibility, overall form, and visual effect,” explained the designers.
More images and more about the installation after the break.
Short on space but still need the functionality of a kitchen? Check out this cool design we spotted over on Core77 designed by Netherlands-based design firm Studio Gorm. This super efficient and highly compact design creates a “living kitchen” which marries nature with technology. The kitchen provides a place for not only the preparation of food, but also the means to grow, store, and even compost food. Our favorite aspect is the vertical dish rack, which is positioned in such a way so excess water benefits the herds that sit in planter boxes beneath it.
Joseph N. Biondo has paired with internationally recognized abstract painter Ed Kerns to design a conceptual, unbuilt project that will house Kerns’ Bones Like Iron-Blood Like Mercury. This unique collaboration has resulted in an exploratory exercise of modest materials to create a renewed reality within the material condition of a building. “The materials we use are commonplace however, the care for their methods of assembly and absolute passion for scrupulous detailing are not… To make an extraordinary material special is trite, but to heighten one’s awareness of a humble material can be poetic,” explained Biondo.
More images and more about the project after the break.
Amidst finishing the second installation of the High Line with James Corner Field Operations, and beginning to design the Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, DS + R has carved out a little pocket of time to add the finishing touches to their redesign of Lincoln Center. According to the Times, the team has turned their attention to the smaller details of project, specifically the Center’s electronic infoscape. It takes a lot to stop a New Yorker, yet Reynold Levy, Lincoln Center’s president, told the Times, “We think this will cause them to stop in their tracks and really take a look. We are endeavoring to create a feeling, engender a mood, provide a sense of the drama and the beauty of what goes on in our halls. We want to attract passers-by, but we also want to surprise Upper West Siders.”
“Alexandria”, a new digitally fabricated installation by Jonathan Henry + Arseni Zaitev from Anonymous Studio, will be placed in the Architecture Gallery of the Southern Polytechnic State University to open its biannual exhibition of young professional work. As part of the “Summer Salon 2010,” the architecture/art/sculptural installation seeks to raise conversation across the various design communities through its contemporary approach to creating space.
More images and more about the installation after the break.
Recently, we shared Visiondivision’sCancer City project – if you haven’t seen it, be sure to check it out as the firm’s fresh outlook results in a new kind of landscape for the animals. Moving from designing a new metropolis for crayfish, the architects have switched gears for their latest project to create a sukkah for an annual Jewish harvest festival. The proposal is part of the New York competition for Sukkah City (be sure to view the finalists here), which asked participants to re-imagine the temporary pavilion by developing new methods of material practice and parametric design. For Visiondivison’s proposal, the organic pavilion changes the conditions for social interaction and behavior within a simplistic structure of compression.
More images and more about the proposal after the break.
LEDarchitecturestudio + HIDDENOFFICE’s Efficient Living Machine project transforms a building into an infrastructure able to improve and expand the lifestyle of the metropolis. The firms propose that the skyscraper become a system of overlapping grids upon the existing environment as a way to read the city differently. These grids contain different layers of programmed activities, ranging from recreational areas to farms, and from public parks to areas of commerce.
More details about the project, by architects Alessandro Liberati, Roberto Straccali in partnership with Roberto Salvatelli, Simone Pirro, Luca Tappatà, and Roberto Turtù, after the break:
Our friends from WORD shared their proposal for the Atlantic City Boardwalk Holocaust Memorial. The competition, which attracted over 700 submissions, asked participants to use the existing seaside pavilion at Atlantic City, New Jersey to create a kind of public space that commemorates the Holocaust and continues to bring awareness to the horrific happenings. “Its purpose is to fix our collective memory, to bear witness, to embrace the ineffable sense of loss,” explained the competition brief. For the Harrow, WORD creates two drastically different environments offering a strong visual to understand the happenings of the Holocaust and a place to calmly reflect.
More images and more about the proposal after the break.
We’re so happy to share this video BIG passed along to us highlighting their contribution to the 2010 Venice Biennale. Entitled the LOOP City, the exhibition focuses on a new Metro loop that become the catalyst for development for the cross border region as different programs grow around the new stations. The loop will connect areas around the Øresund Strait in a sustainable spine of public transport, energy exchange and electric car infrastructure. The design introduces a new “vein of true urbanity” that will weave it was through the suburbs. This new loop will create a new realm by uniting specific points, yet activating each interstitial segment.
We’ve just received some news from our friends atSteven Holl Architects regarding the progress of their latest private gallery and residence. Situated in the hillside of the Kangbuk section of Seoul, Korea, the project’s geometry is an experimental reaction to a 1967 sketch for a music score by the composer Istvan Anhalt, “Symphony of Modules,” discovered in a book by John Cage titled “Notations”. This strategy, which runs parallel to a research studio on “the architectonics of music,” results in three separate pavilions connected by a sheet of water that establishes the plane of reference from above and below.
More construction photos, renderings and of course, Holl’s infamous watercolors after the break.
Vladimir Zotov, a young Ukrainian architect, shared his family house with us which is located in the village of Konopnitsa. The lot was especially difficult to build on as the village lacks developed infrastructure, causing all necessary systems to be placed on site. Working within the confines of a relatively small lot size, the home’s outer skeleton is twisted and contorted, bringing a strong angular language to residence.
