ArchitectureMNP


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08
May

Star Wars + Life Without Buildings

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Our ninja over at A Life Without Buildings [a great site, by the way] has had a number of posts on architecture’s possible influences on Star Wars - and Star Wars’ possible influences on architecture….hilarious [and interesting] stuff. Check ‘em out.

Otto Wagner and the Millenium Falcon

Rem Koolhaas, Tunisia, and Sandcrawlers

What’s Up With All The Death Stars?

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07
May

Ninja Arithmetic XXXIV

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::Ninja Arithmetic is an MNP original feature that you can find here every Wednesday. For past entries, click on any Wednesday in the calendar - or click on the ‘Ninja Arithmetic’ category under ‘archjutsu’::

06
May

Jetson Green: Reclaimed Timber

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Sarah, green ninja over at Jetson Green, writes:

Elmwood Reclaimed Timber is a Missouri based company that reclaims old wood to give it a brand new life. They offer products ranging from stair treads and cabinetry lumber to flooring and beams. They have an incredible range of wood species offered including oak, elm, pine, walnut, redwood and their own special mixes such as “Vermont Moonlight Medley” (shown above).

They also offer end-grain flooring, which looks like an Italian tiled floor (shown below), only with added beauty of wood grain. It is very unique look.

Click here to read read the rest of this article [this is just an excerpt] over at Jetson Green.

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::article written by Sarah, writer over at Jetson Green - original article entitled Great Selection, Quality from Elmwood Reclaimed Timber. These articles from Jetson Green on MNP’s Green Tuesdays are part of a feature you can find here every week - just click any Tuesday in the calender and enjoy! And for more ‘green’ news + info, head on over to Green.MNP::

05
May

SCI-Arc’s Blobwall

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These ninjas over at SCI-Arc are not to be trifled with when it comes to their installations, as we’ve shown before. This time, however, they’ve stepped up their game and gotten Greg Lynn involved - designing a new installation that will open on May 30th entitled Blobwall Pavilion. The project is a collaboration between Greg Lynn FORM, Machinous [who manufactured the ‘bricks’] and Panelite [who supplied the material] - it aims to redefine the brick as a building unit, transforming it into a lightweight object made of colorful plastic and reinterpreted into modular elements’.

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The Blobwall Pavilion is a contemporary wall system that recovers the voluptuous shapes, chiaroscuro and grotto-like textures of Baroque and Renaissance architecture in pixilated gradients of vivid color. On three walls of the installation, custom fabricated acrylic Bubble Cabinets will be installed to display small objects.

Though Blobwall Pavilion is designed in stock shapes totaling over 500 individual bricks in ten different colors, it can also be configured to custom shapes and color combinations. The varied yellow hues composing the body of the installation in the SCI-Arc Gallery celebrate the material qualities and colors of the roto-molded plastic and are arrayed as if bathed in a warm light so the highlights are not white, but instead crimson, plum and pink [via SCI-Arc].

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Interesting stuff. I’m not sure what you do with these new ‘bricks’ other than build installations + pavilions at design schools - but it’s still cool to look at. I have to admit that I’m kind-of a ‘hater’, and that curvilinear computer-generated forms don’t necessarily excite me. This idea that the computer frees us from some lack of imagination or design/construction ability seems somewhat like BS - forms like these weren’t created because they’re expensive + difficult to manufacture, not necessarily only because we ‘couldn’t do it’. That, and just because we can do something now doesn’t mean that we should…

My general negativity towards ‘blob architecture’ aside, the installation itself looks pretty siiick, and fun - definitely something I’d suggest my left-coast ninjas check out.

In September 2008 the Blobwall Pavilion will leave SCI-Arc and travel to the Venice Biennale as part of the 11th International Architecture Exhibition - Out There: Architecture Beyond Building.

For more, check out SCI-Arc’s exhibitions page and the Blobwall Pavilion blog.

::AMNP thanks to our ninja Oliver, grad-student over at SCI-Arc, for hitting us up about this installation::

::Also - if you’re a student, don’t hesitate to drop us an email about interesting architectural ridiculousness that’s going on at your school and should be featured on AMNP::

04
May

Parkour Generations

L’art du deplacement

Parkour [according to Wikipedia] is an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body…it is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment. It’s also an incredibly interesting [and amazing] look at how we interact with our built environment. Parkour Generations is a a group promoting the sport [art?]:

Parkour Generations is dedicated to teaching and displaying the discipline of parkour, the art of movement. Bringing together many of the original expert practitioners of the art, along with the leading instructors in the UK, our aim is to keep the spirit of parkour alive and to provide the highest quality coaching for any and all who want to learn.

I wonder what a traceur would list as important/disireable qualities in urban + architectural design. Probably plenty of walls, railings, and plane/elevation changes?

Additionally, Throwing Yourself Against the Wall, is an interesting article on parkour over at the New York Times [subscription required, I think] - check it out.

02
May

ARX : Cascais Music Conservatory

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Opening just a few weeks ago, the new home of the Cascais Music Conservatory is within a remodeled single-family residence from the early 20th century. Designed by the Portuguese architecture firm ARX, the conservatory’s classes will take place in new spaces built within the existing house - smaller rooms for teaching + practice, which also allowed the design to ‘respond to the decisive acoustic constraints’.

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For performances, ARX have created an addition on the back-side of the building. The new space is an extension of the stone foundation of the original building, pushing outwards towards an open palm-tree field out back. The geometry of this new space - the roof of which serves as a balcony overlooking the garden - responds to the site, creating visual connections and ‘framing’ the surrounding environment - creating what ARX describes as an ‘intense relation’ with the garden.

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Officially inaugurated in April 14th, 2008, the new building of the Cascais Music Conservatory, also headquarters of the Cascais and Oeiras Orchestra, has opened its doors to the public.The architecture project, designed by ARX Portugal (Nuno Mateus/José Mateus), won first place in the competition held in 2003 by the City Council of Cascais.

It dealt with a complex recovery of the building dated from last century, where the different “times” of its existence, as well as its ownership, are put in evidence, in a context strongly shaped by foreign, cultural and aesthetic, references.

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First called ‘Chalet Madalena’, and later ‘Pensão Boaventura’, this building welcomed, especially between 1938 and 1946, guests from almost 30 nationalities, great part of it refugees from World War II. Today, that crossing of different countries continues, this time in an array of musicians, teachers and students from several nationalities, giving thus a new impulse to this magnificent School of music.

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More information available at www.arx.pt
In: “projects”-”Institutional” - “Chamber Orchestra of Cascais”.

Quoted text courtesy of ARX.

Photos by Fernando Guerra of FG + SG - Fotografia de Arquitectura.

::Special AMNP thanks to the ninjas at ARX for sending in the press release for this project::

01
May

Assadi + Pulido - Casa Gatica

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Once again AMNP brings you the work of Felipe Assadi + Francisca Pulido [and once again, without much info]. The Gatica House is located in Rancagua, Chile, and was completed in 2006. And that’s all I know for sure - other than the house is siiick, and I want one.

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Previous AMNP posts on Felipe Assadi + Francisca Pulido:

Russo Club
Guthrie House

::images and [very] limited info from Felipe Assadi + Francisca Pulido::

30
Apr

Ninja Arithmetic XXXIII

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This week’s ninja calculation submitted by AMNP reader Philip, from Eye of the Fish. If you have an idea for a Ninja Arithmetic post, hit us up! You can email an image you’ve put together - or just the images/links to images themselves, for AMNP to assemble - to architecture [AT] myninjaplease [DOT] com

::Ninja Arithmetic is an MNP original feature that you can find here every Wednesday. For past entries, click on any Wednesday in the calendar - or click on the ‘Ninja Arithmetic’ category under ‘archjutsu’::

29
Apr

Green Roof - A Case Study

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Who wouldn’t want a green roof? Nice to look at, fun to hang out on [in the case of roof gardens], they probably smell great [must be better than rubber+tar] - and oh yeah, they’re super for the environment. They reduce urban heat island effect, reduce water runoff/contamination, protect the existing roof from harmful UV rays, encourage [supposedly] the return of some indigenous species [birds, insects, etc.], and they clean the air. Super - if only there were a book released in late 2007 from PA Press that both gave a history of green roofing, an explanation of how they work, and provided an in-depth example of an existing roof that was converted to a green roof…

Enter Green Roof - A Case Study by Christian Werthmann - a book chronicling [in depth] the design and construction of a green roof for the American Society of Landscape Architects‘ headquarters in D.C. The ASLA hired Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, in collaboration with the Conservation Design Forum, to design the green roof ‘hybrid’ - meaning that it would be both a ‘green roof’ and a ‘roof garden’ [a distinction made clear in the case study]. The 3,300 square foot completed roof meets all the sustainable + aesthetic criteria mentioned above, and provides a rooftop hangout for the ASLA.

Tremendously informative, Werthmann’s book covers just about everything you could imagine and more. He starts with an essay on green roofs [Part I] - describing the types of green roofs [green roofs, roof gardens, hybrids], the conditions at the ASLA headquarters, the history of green roofs, precedents, construction/planting techniques, bioengineering, regionalism… and more. He also gives an in-depth description of the ASLA roof as it was proposed, including renderings, an explanation of the design, the intent, and the benefits of the roof. Part II is then additional information on the ASLA roof, followed by a number of photographs of the finished product.

The third part of the book - Part III: Roof Index A-Z - is really where the best information lies. Werthmann breaks down the project to it’s individual pieces, from air handlers to visibility, biodiversity to the 2 ‘waves’ designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. This section gives a description of each of the design issues that were faced on the project, along with an explanation of how they were solved - providing sketches, before and after photos, diagrams, plans + sections…everything. All questions are answered.

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Basically, if you’re looking to learn more about green roofs [or roof gardens, or hybrids] this book is a great place to start. It gives an incredibly detailed look into the inception, design, and construction of a green hybrid roof system [in a temperate climate] - earning it a place on any seriously green ninja’s bookshelf.

Christian Werthman’s Green Roof - A Case Study can be purchased here from the MNP store or here from the publisher, Princeton Architectural Press.

Also, be sure to check out ASLA’s blog, The Dirt and their own info on their new green roof - including webcam videos and a virtual tour.

::Special AMNP thanks to Russell and the people at PA Press for generously supplying a review copy of this book::

29
Apr

Jetson Green: The Commons

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Preston, green ninja master over at Jetson Green, writes:

In Portland two brothers, Dustin and Garrett Moon, have been getting some serious attention for their project, The Commons — it could just be the first residence in the nation to meet the standards of the Living Building Challenge. The Living Building Challenge is about getting to something that’s truly sustainable, which is what I think the Moons are going after here. If you look at their plans, The Commons will use green tech that you might not see in other so-called green homes.

For instance, the home will have a green roof, composting toilet, earthenware floors, an indoor greenhouse for home-grown foods, two successive doors in the entry to act as an airlock, fly ash concrete walls made of ICFs, a rainwater catchment system with a storage cistern, design based loosely on the Passive House standard, a heat recovery ventilator, and photovoltaics and solar hot water tubes.

Click here to read read the rest of this article [this is just an excerpt] over at Jetson Green.

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::article written by Preston, founder + editor of Jetson Green - original article entitled The Commons Strives to be Nation’s First Living Building Challenge Residence. These articles from Jetson Green on MNP’s Green Tuesdays are part of a feature you can find here every week - just click any Tuesday in the calender and enjoy! And for more ‘green’ news + info, head on over to Green.MNP::

28
Apr

Bustler Competitions @ AMNP!

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We know how ninjas do - always on their grind, working on that next hustle. For many of you that means design competitions like those found over at Bustler.net, a site with which we’ve recently teamed up to bring you an AMNP competitions page - linked from our header [just click ‘competitions+events’], we now have a page modeled after the AMNP theme that will bring you all the most up-to-date competitions and events from Bustler.net.

Now find a competition and get to work.

[Speaking of competitions - don’t sleep on GreenMNP’s 350.org postcard design competition. Learn more here.]

27
Apr

VS 27.04.2008: Rivers and Tides

After this week’s Eye Candy post, I’ve decided to go ahead and embed Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers and Tides in it’s entirety. Really, the quality is pretty poor - you should rent/buy/borrow/download a copy of the documentary and watch it, preferably on a big screen. But this will give you an idea - and probably encourage many of you to find a better quality version. Enjoy.

::Video Sundays, or VS, is a weekly feature here on architecture.MNP. For more architecture-related videos, click on any Sunday in the sidebar calendar - or on the ‘videos’ category in the ‘archjutsu’ section. Additional videos that have been featured on any of the MNP sites can be found here on our YouTube page::

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green building vs climate change

06/05/08 0 comments
green_building_in_north_america.jpg According to this study, produced by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, sustainable construction could be a fast, cheap path to cutting global carbon emissions. Read it here [click the title of this post].

organic jewelery

06/05/08 0 comments
organically_grown.jpg Jewelry designers Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg don’t carve their designs from precious rocks or chisel away at gold and silver. Instead, the co-founders of Nervous System ­prefer to grow their stunning creations. Read how over at Metropolis [click the title of this post to follow the link].

‘over-designed’

30/04/08 1 comment
zaha_aquatic_new6.jpg Zaha Hadid’s Olympic Aquatics Centre has been labeled “over-designed” by an influential group of MPs in the second parliamentary report on the 2012 Games within a week [read the article at Building by clicking the title of this post].

urban renewal…

29/04/08 0 comments
mayorfinal_t346.jpg ...only backward? Metropolis has a great article on how American mayors have been seizing opportunities to improve our cities - in particular by going green - while the federal government sits around and harasses baseball players and football teams, providing an interesting look into how local actions start to have a nationwide impact [click the title of this post to read the full article].

pleasing the public

28/04/08 0 comments
cul_tishman_promo.jpg The NY Times looks at the way developers tailor architectural renderings for public consumption - using the West Side Rail Yards project as an example, complete with interactive rendering [read full article by clicking the title of this post].

green archive

23/04/08 0 comments
supertrees-reduced.jpg Don't sleep on our 'green' archive - where you can peruse all the posts we've tagged as 'green' here on AMNP in the last 1.5 years.

Post Suburbs

22/04/08 0 comments
suburb_eater-1-reduced.jpg As it's Earth Day and all, be sure to check out our write-up on the CV08 and architect Andrew Maynard's unique vision of the future of the suburb [click the title of this post to read the article].

food riots

16/04/08 0 comments
foodriotsindia.jpg GreenMNP has been covering the food riots that have been developing all over the world - thanks to the ingenious concept of turning FOOD in FUEL. Better than our cars eat than us, I always say...[click the title of this post to view more images at GreenMNP]

follow the $$$

14/04/08 0 comments
helmut_jahn-hudson_yards.jpg Metropolis Magazine takes a look at what it calls the "flawed selection process" of the Hudson Rail Yards project and the recently declared winner, Helmut Jahn's design for Tishman Speyer Properties and Morgan Stanley [click the title of this post to read the full article].

testing freedom

10/04/08 0 comments
breaks1-freedomtower.jpg Freedom Tower mock-ups have been subjected to all sorts of testing - wind tunnels, rain + earthquake simulations - and has now also been blown-up [click the title of this post to read the full article].

3x over budget?

09/04/08 0 comments
2012olympic_pool.jpg The London 2012 Olympics aquatics centre will cost more than three times as much as originally estimated - £242m, not the £75m quoted in London's winning bid - despite a reduction in its size [click the title of this post to read the article].

is bamboo just ‘greenwashing’?

08/04/08 1 comment
bamboo-forest.jpg A lot of companies offer bamboo flooring and panel so they can sell a green product, but many of them also use toxic adhesives and other chemicals that take away the advantages of using bamboo [click the title of this post to read the  article].

going geothermal

08/04/08 0 comments
heatpump1.jpg Head on over to AIARchitect to learn how to use the constant temperatures below ground to create an active, cost-efficient solar heating and cooling device for a home or business [click the title of this post to read the article].

new mnp mixtape

03/04/08 0 comments
mixtape.jpg About 90 minutes of mostly Bay Area releases from the late eighties through the mid nineties, courtesy of our ninja Trizlam from MusicMNP [click the title of this post to download the mixtape].

zinn’s new book

03/04/08 0 comments
zinn.jpg Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, turns to comics in his latest work - A People's History of American Empire.

shigeru ban @ gsd 4/4

02/04/08 0 comments
shigeru_ban1.jpg Harvard Graduate School of Design is hosting the “Systems for Inclusion” conference at GSD April 4-6, 2008 - "Exploring the social dimensions of the built and natural environments" - for which Shigeru Ban will be the keynote speaker [click the title of this post for more info].

the second plug

01/04/08 0 comments
plug-in_car.jpg Some ideas on the future of EV cars in the US - and across the globe - from The Cost of Energy [click the title of this post for article].

going solar thermal

01/04/08 0 comments
solar_thermal.jpg triplepundit gives a list of 4 Things to Consider Before Going Solar Thermal [click the title of this post to read the article].

eiffel tower hoax

31/03/08 4 comments
eiffel-tower_265103d.jpg That's right, my ninjas, apparently this whole story about an addition to the famous Parisian structure is BS - or so says a 'tower spokesman': "This is a hoax - We have no idea where this came from. The whole thing is preposterous. There is no question of changing the way that the Eiffel Tower looks, even temporarily. We have plans for the 120th anniversary, of course, but nothing like this." Good thing I did that write-up last week then, guess that's what I get for trusting the 'net [click the title of this post for full article].

Eiffel tower process

27/03/08 0 comments
eiffel_tower_process_photo.jpg A great collection of images - both the construction drawings for the tower, and photos of it being erected [click the title of this post].

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