core.form-ula

Exhibition discussion with Eric Owen Moss, Lisa Iwamoto, Craig Scott and representatives from Buro Happold: Friday, 08.15.08 at 7pm

The SCI-Arc Gallery is pleased to present Voussoir Cloud, a site-specific installation by San Francisco based architecture and design practice IwamotoScott in collaboration with Buro Happold. Voussoir Cloud’s design explores the coupling of potentially conflicting constructional logics – the pure compression of a vault with an ultra-light sheet material. Opening August 8, this installation will be fabricated by IwamotoScott in association with SCI-Arc students.

Voussoirs, the wedge shaped masonry blocks that make up an arch, are redefined in Voussoir Cloud using a system of three-dimensional modules formed by folding paper thin wood laminate along curved seams. The curvature produces a form that relies on the internal surface tension to hold its shape and allows for a structural porosity within the constraints of sheet material. The resulting dimpled, concave modules pack together; naturally creating vaulted forms with a light porous surface. The form-finding exploration of the whole is thus dependent on the geometric performance of the individual units and their relation to the gallery walls. read more

Popularity: 30% [?]

A Problem of Bubbles Frames an Olympic Design

It is not often that a 19th-century scientist plays a central role in 21st-century architecture, but the new Beijing National Aquatics Center is no ordinary building.  With a steel framework of seemingly random polyhedrons covered in soft plastic pillows, the center, known as the Water Cube and home to the swimming and diving events at the Olympics beginning this week, “really looks like nothing else in the world,” said Tristram Carfrae, the structural engineer who designed it. “It’s a box made of bubbles.”  That’s an appropriate image, for the inspiration for Mr. Carfrae’s design originated with a problem about aggregations of bubbles — in other words, foams — posed by the great British physicist William Thomson, Lord Kelvin. via>nytimes>science

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Popularity: 30% [?]

Here is a sampling from xiaming’s flickr page that has a series of the Olympic Center photos. The ones here specifically are of the Water Cube done by Australian architects, PTW. What makes this collection exceptional is that there are few creative, high quality images that were taken during its construction phase. Please take the time to visit xiaming’s page to see more images from the site and other amazing shots taken in China, Korea, Japan + others . read more

Popularity: 22% [?]

Skylar Tibbits: Tesselion is a project by Skylar Tibbits which proposes a system of flat panel tessellation derived from complex surfaces to enable ease in constructability and a directly evolved spatial environment through lighting, programmatic adaptation and structural simplicity. Each panel’s uniqueness is afforded by the efficiency of digital fabrication while coded parametric relationships allow an emergent structural efficiency, from a single panel to the complete adaptability of the surface as a whole. read more

Popularity: 44% [?]

These new Australian stores are part of a big phase of expansion for Aesop via thecoolhunter read more

Popularity: 15% [?]

Instructors Lonn Combs and Mark Parsons conduct a collaborative studio environment of material research based on the window covering products of Hunter Douglas. Using an inherently energy efficient material, new applications of architectural space are explored that expand the potential product uses from a window covering to architectural partitioning of space that emphasizes light, acoustic, and thermal properties. The research includes the development of a full scale structural weave that integrates into the lightweight fabric to achieve free-standing material configurations. In parallel to the real concerns of construction and environmental effect, the fundamental phenomena of the material and its reaction within the environment address the cultural concepts of beauty, transparency, publicity, privacy, and the ability of manipulated light to induce specific categories of ambience. read more

Popularity: 25% [?]

[C]space is the winning competition entry in the ‘AADRLTen’ Pavilion project, an advanced technology concrete structure that will be erected in Bedford Square,London. The AADRL10 exhibition will open on the 22 February 2008 and the Pavilion will officialy open on 13 March 2008 along with the release of the DRL10 Book. The structure is being designed and developed by Alan Dempsey and Alvin Huang with Adams Kara Taylor and members of the DRL.

via> c space pavilion blogspot

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Popularity: 65% [?]

Michael Chen has put together a tour de force lineup to discuss the future of prefabrication in Architecture (see below for full description). He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Pratt Institute School of Architecture and holds the following positions: Director of the Kullman Center , Technics Coordinator and Design Faculty

Pratt Institute School of Architecture
Spring 2008 Kullman Center Conference,

Prefab Futures: New Agendas for Mass Customization in Architecture is the inaugural event for the Kullman Center, a research center residing within the School of Architecture with an emphasis on developing new and innovative approaches to modular construction and industrialized building techniques. The one-day conference will present research and scholarship related to the history of prefabrication, contemporary and emerging techniques and approaches to prefabrication, as well as the social and sustainable potential of prefab and prefab technologies. These three topics are key research areas for the Center, which will function both as an intellectual resource and ideas clearinghouse as well as an important laboratory for industrial construction. read more

Popularity: 35% [?]

STIFTSBIBLIOTHEK ST. GALLEN

This is a wonderful collection of library images coming out of the work of Candida Höfer. The book titled “Libraries” is in the studio and I would suggest opening it up again.

The titillating title and brief description comes from thenonist.com, what appears to be a series of pores that open up to some fascinating subjects.

Now, coming upon this post as you are, unawares, I feel I ought to clarify the title (which was alternately going to be sex libris) straight away by telling you what this post is not, in fact, about. By “library smut” I am in no way referring to the photo books on native peoples, or the illustrated health manuals, or any of the other volumes which, in your childhood, you lurked about the library aisle to find with the sole purpose of sneaking guilty glances at naked bodies. read more

Popularity: 18% [?]

Here is some beautiful work from Olafur Eliasson. We will be having an upcoming profile but for now you can enjoy these tasty treats.

The longstanding interest of the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson in the connection between natural phenomena and industrial technology is reflected in his discourse with the BMW H2R racing car. In this forward-looking car, one that is powered by hydrogen, the features of extreme speed and environmental friendliness are no longer diametrically opposed to each other. The presentation of the 16th BMW Art Car, for which Eliasson replaced the outer covering of the H2R prototype with a fragile layering of ice, is to be premiered in Munich. via pinakothek

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Popularity: 19% [?]