Category Archives: Architecture

Future Of Homebuilding: First 3D Printed Homes Of “Locally Sourced Clay” In Italy By Mario Cucinella Architects And WASP

From a Mario Cucinella Architects online release:

Mario Cucinella Architects 3D Printed homes in Italy with WASPDesigned by MC A and engineered and built by WASP, TECLA will be the first house to be entirely 3D printed using locally sourced clay – a biodegradable and recyclable ‘km 0 natural’ material which will effectively make the building zero-waste. It will be built to adapt to multiple environments, and it will be suitable for self-production through the use of WASP’s innovative Maker Economy Starter Kit. This approach will limit industrial waste and offer a unique sustainable model that will boost the national and local economy, improving the wellbeing of communities. Furthermore, the scheme will significantly accelerate the construction process as the 3D printer will produce the entire structure at once. 

Borne from a vision to provide a home for everyone at a time of exponential population increase and an associated lack of affordable housing, TECLA is a new circular housing model, created using entirely reusable, recyclable materials taken from the local terrain. Built using Crane WASP – the latest innovation in on-site 3D construction, TECLA represents a step-change in the move towards eco-housing.

To read more: https://www.mcarchitects.it/mario-cucinella-architects-and-wasp-start-on-site-with-tecla-a-prototype-3d-printed-global-habitat-for-sustainable-living

Destination Travel: “Belle Époque Luxury” At Domaine Les Crayères Hotel, Champagne, France

From an Architectural Digest online article:

Domaine Les Crayères Hotel in Champagne, FranceChampagne is a lot bigger than it seems. Vineyards can be up to an hour away from each other depending on traffic, so it’s best to pick a home base in the heart of the region. The luxurious Domaine  Les Crayères was the former home of Madame Pommery’s daughter (Pommery was a 19th century French businesswoman who took over her husband’s successful wine business after he passed away). The space was transformed into a hotel in the early 1980s, where it still retains some of the Belle Époque sensibility from its previous owner.

Champagne FranceChampagne is one of those places in the world that there’s truly no bad season to visit. Yet, before you let the bubbles get to your head, remember to plan everything in-advance as many vineyards are small, independently owned, and can’t always accommodate walk-ins. The place is also very spread out, so you should consider renting a car or hiring a driver if you’re booking several tastings. Luckily, getting to Champagne is easy, as it’s only a two-hour train ride from Paris. In fact, some travelers even opt to simply make a day trip out of it. Time spent aside, the grandiose French architecture all the way to the glow of the vineyards will warm your heart (no, it’s not just the alcohol) and have you immediately wanting to come back.

To read more: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/design-lovers-guide-to-champagne-france

Architecture: The Frank Lloyd Wright Designed Guggenheim Museum Celebrates 60th Year

Frank Lloyd Wright Guggenheim MuseumThis year marks the 60th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s building for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Since opening its doors on October 21, 1959, the architectural icon has inspired countless visitors and is widely seen as Wright’s masterpiece.

From its opening to the present day, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has been an unparalleled physical and cultural presence in the New York landscape.

Over the course of the sixteen-year period between the commissioning of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1943 and its 1959 opening, the project underwent a series of revisions. The iconic spiral form remained primarily unchanged, but a close reading of documents in the Guggenheim Museum Archives sheds additional light on an array of obscure details that were designed out over time to accommodate budgetary, programmatic, and structural needs and constraints.

To read more: https://www.guggenheim.org/the-frank-lloyd-wright-building

Video Profiles: Architect Roger Zogolovitch Tours His “HouseBoat” Home In Southern England (2019)

From a The Modern House online article:

Away from the city, Roger escapes to his home near Poole, Dorset for what he calls an ‘analogue retreat’. To hear Roger talk about the inspirations behind the building, which resembles an up-turned boat and which is both eccentric and serene, fun and functional…

For the final instalment in this batch of our Masters of Design series, we’re paying a visit to architect Roger Zogolovitch’s boat-inspired house near Poole, Dorset – the recipient of two RIBA awards and a paragon in split-level living. Watch the film here.

Roger Zogolovitch The Houseboat Southern England Interior

 

Roger is the founder and creative director of Solidspace, an independent developer focused on unearthing the potential of backland gap sites rarely noticed by mainstream housebuilders. By skillfully utilising overlooked sites in the urban environment – adjacent to railroads or between and above office buildings, for instance – Roger proposes intelligent design solutions to the challenges of providing enough homes for a growing population.

Roger Zogolovitch The Houseboat Southern England 2019

To read more: https://www.themodernhouse.com/journal/boat-inspired-house-roger-zogolovitch/?prm_name=homepage_featured_link&prm_id=journal_article&prm_position=1&prm_creative=cta_button

Future Of Home Design: “Freedomsky” From Czech Architect Atelier Štěpán

From a Freedomsky webpage:

atelier-stepan design small house images 2Freedomky offers a unique way of living that combines thoughtful design, style purity and uncompromising material quality. Freedomky are charming houses you just choose and then move right in. You don’t have to follow it; it comes wherever you decide. A pleasant space with minimal energy requirements, it’ll hook you immediately. Once you enter, you’ll understand. Maybe you’ll start to live a little differently, freely. Freedomky is not just a house, it’s a lifestyle.

Websites: http://www.freedomky.cz/en/vse-o-freedomku

http://www.atelier-stepan.cz/en/projects/#project-8-sec

Top Designers: Jacob Brillhart’s “Travel Drawings” Seek To Find “Persistencies” In Physical And Living Architecture

Brillhart Architecture Travel Drawings 3TRAVEL DRAWINGS

The office engages in a hybrid design process that is directed by analog forms of representation and digital production techniques. Each project is explored using a matrix of different media lenses, including painting, hand drawing, physical models and mock-ups as well as cad, hyper-photorealistic renderings and 3D computer models, wherein application and implication are prioritized. We believe this fusing of media provides a larger, more creative palette from which to work. Travel drawing also serves as a platform of inspiration and a fundamental aspect of research and development.

Voyage Le Corbusier Jacob BrilhartThis approach stems from my own formal education and the unique 10-year period in contemporary history in which I studied architecture. Occupying both “paper” and virtual / digital environments, I learned the fundamentals at Tulane University using purely traditional architectural methods of representation. By the time I earned my Masters from Columbia University, the pedagogy had radically changed, wherein the old, analog systems of production were abandoned for a purely paperless studio that solely engaged digital technologies such as Maya, Max and Photoshop. Working within both territories, I learned that each medium has a profound effect on the way in which we draw, design and understand architectural space and form.

Meanwhile, after leaving Columbia, I set out to rediscover the practice of drawing on the road and have since made over 800 paintings, sketches and notes of architectural details, buildings, cityscapes, art and culture. These personal “drawings on the road” have evoked an intensive physical and living architectural investigation of how I process and perceive information. In the authentic and active experience of drawing — of physically recording what we see — I believe we develop a new way of seeing. We bring back sketchbooks that are full of information and analysis as well as a better understanding of architectural persistencies that make what we see matter. This level of engagement furthers the architect’s artistic intuition and enables him or her to see anew.

Website: https://brillhartarchitecture.com/academic-2/

Boomers In London: Day 3 – Kensington To Mayfair, Soho & Bloomsbury

After a great British breakfast, hopped on the Tube at Tower Hill and headed for the South Kensington station. Arrived at the Victoria & Albert Museum as it opened at 10.

The V&A has an amazing collection from all over the former British Empire, Europe and the United Kingdom.

We then walked into the Kensington Gardens, and visited the Diana, Princess of Wales Fountain. There was swim race taking place in The Serpentine.

We then visited the Serpentine Gallery before walking to the northeast corner of Hyde Park.

We walked along Oxford Street and headed south on South Molton to New Bond St. to visit the Saville Row tailors.

It was Open House London on Saturday so we toured Huntsman, Cad & The Dandy, Richard Anderson and Hidalgo Brothers

We then walked to Hatchard’s Bookstore and Fortnum & Mason.

A very fun small alcove awaited at Neal’s Yard in SoHo.

The last major stop was the British Museum in Bloomsbury.

Iconic Restaurants: Remembering “Windows On The World” At The World Trade Center

From an Eater.com online article:

The view from Windows on the World, in this photo taken in 1977, included Governors Island and the Statue of Liberty Getty ImagesThe light is different, higher contrast. Real-life chiaroscuro. And sound is muted, still, almost absent. Except when the wind is kicking up a tremendous, otherworldly, howl. And the city looks so small, innocent, like a child’s train set, the Statue of Liberty a tchotchke in a tourist shop. Sixty-mile views that reach the Hudson Highlands up north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, and, much closer, planes landing and taking off at three major airports.

There are few New York City restaurants more storied than Windows on the World. The restaurant made its debut on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower in 1976, offering sweeping views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey — the earth itself peppered with the buildings, the bridges, the Statue of Liberty; the sky with tourist helicopters. “Windows was a shining ambassador for New York, an escape from a city that was, in decades past, drug addled, dirty, and crime-ridden below,” Eater NY’s Ryan Sutton reminisced in 2014. “Even if you didn’t know much about fine dining, you knew such a dream-like place existed, and you knew that it came tumbling down on September 11, 2001.”

To read more: https://www.eater.com/2019/9/17/20862698/world-trade-center-restaurant-windows-on-the-world-history-design-book-excerpt

Future Of Hotel Design: “Modular AC Hotel Nomad” From Danny Forster & Architecture

From a RadicalInnovationAward.com release:

Danny Forster & Architects Nomad Design SideThis Volumetric High-Rise Modular Hotel will be the world’s tallest modular hotel and one of the most stylish, combining modular efficiency with architectural flair. AC by Marriott at 842 6th Avenue, New York City, will be the tallest modular hotel in the world when it opens in early 2020. But it won’t just be a step up for modular design, it will be a step forward. The building leverages the advantages of modular construction, uses cutting-edge proprietary technology to address potential drawbacks, and, most importantly, put to rest the idea that a modular building can only be the sum of its factory-made parts.

It’s stylish and architecturally expressive. The perfect marriage of modular construction and inventive architectural design, this Manhattan AC points the way to the future by using accelerated design processes through VR software and off-site quality control to streamline the building process for builders anywhere in the world. DF&A and its tech partner patented a “Time Machine” technology that trains 3D cameras on each module at five different points in the construction process, so that clients, contractors, and architects can keep an eye on what’s being built.

Top Events: Open House Chicago 2019 Features Over 350 Sites Oct. 13-14

From the OpenHouseChicago.org website:

Open House Chicago 2019 sitesThe Chicago Architecture Center’s Open House Chicago (OHC) is the city’s annual architecture festival. For one weekend in October you can explore Chicago’s most iconic and unique architectural treasures. From mansions to sacred spaces, theaters to private clubs, hotels to secret rooms—OHC gives visitors a behind-the-scenes look at many of the city’s great spaces that are rarely, if ever, open to the public.

OHC is a citywide event that includes more than 350 sites located in more than 38 neighborhoods. Sites reflect the cultural diversity and history of Chicago, as well as the unique character of each community. Locations include private clubs, residential spaces, offices, hotels, theaters, design/architecture studios, schools and places of worship as well as manufacturing, cultural and government facilities. This diverse selection of sites allows visitors to plan an itinerary according to their own specific interests. Browse the sites that have participated in OHC since 2015.

To read more: https://openhousechicago.org/