Alishan Tourist Routes,Taiwan

One degree of latitude = One kilometer of altitude. This is a crucial equation in the understanding of the potential of the Alishan Mountain as a tourist site. It allows both an ecological and cultural connection between Taiwan and a family of nations via a material argument about culture in the new global society: that new regionalisms can be constructed at all levels of material practice. The opposition of nature and culture can no longer be conceived of as a simple dialectic... Agriculture maintains a varied and dynamic landscape of extreme variance. A Journey up the Alishan Mountain is a journey through four distinct ecosystems. We propose to harness this difference and accentuate it, so that the different climactic regions are reflected in a gradient of culture, cuisine, and landscape along the line. (to find out more...)

This is a competition that was won by Reiser + Umemoto in year 2003. It is interesting to me how steel was folded and manipulated to achieve this form. This ought to enhance the aesthetic of this cultural tourist site.

text and images from: http://www.reiser-umemoto.com/

posted by s-uper-chii

Foster + Partners’ New Green Complex for Singapore

A new green complex from world renowned architecture firm Foster + Partners will be adding more than a dash of green to the Singapore skyline. As the winning design from an international competition, Singapore’s new eco-complex from Foster + Partners is pushing the green envelope from top to bottom in this sophisticated downtown design. The complex will fill an entire city block between Singapore’s Marina Center and the Civic District with commercial, residential, retail, hotels, and a ‘green’ link to an Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station. All facades will be fitted with solar cells and, to help control solar gain, direct sunlight will be filtered through ribbon-like canopies rising from the base of the entire complex to the exposed east and west elevations of the towers.


(to find out more..)

images & passage from:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/05/05/foster-partners-new-green-complex-for-singapore/

posted by midori mizu

ECOTECT by Square One Research

ECOTECT is a complete building design and environmental analysis tool that covers the full range of simulation and analysis functions required to truly understand how a building design will operate and perform. It finally allows designers to work easily in 3D and apply all the tools necessary for an energy efficient and sustainable future. Check out it's features to learn more. (to find out more..)



A number of FREE tools are available as well along with commercial tools by Square One Research.

text from: http://www.squ1.com/products/ecotect
images from: http://www.squ1.com/products/ecotect/gallery & http://www.squ1.com/products/ecotect/screenshots

posted by afterrabbit

Wrapped in a Dazzling Garment of Metal Ribbons, Ben Van Berkel's First Major American Building Begins Construction

In conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the completion of the Möbius House, construction has begun in New York City on Ben van Berkel's latest, most ambitious and beautiful re-interpretation of standard domestic architecture: Five Franklin Place, UNStudio's first major American project, will be a 20-story residential tower on Franklin Place, an original 19th century cobbled passageway that runs parallel to Broadway and connects Franklin and White Streets in the Tribeca historic district of Downtown Manhattan. The building will be wrapped in an optically dazzling, constantly shifting pattern of horizontal black metal bands sewn onto its form the way decorative seams and pleats are sewn onto a luxurious couture garment. A direct homage to the applied metal facade decoration of Tribeca's celebrated 19th century cast iron architecture, these gleaming reflective ribbons will grow thinner and thicker, wrapping the entire tower and moving softly around corners to give the whole structure an etched effect and curvilinear softness, while reflecting the evolving light of day, the clouds and the colors of the city in one of the most dramatic compositions attempted in modern Manhattan's recent building boom. (to find out more..)




passage & images from: http://www.dexigner.com/design_news/ben-van-berkels-first-major-american-building-begins-construct.html

posted by afterrabbit

GreenPix Concept

posted by midori mizu

GreenPix-Zero Energy Media Wall

GreenPix is a groundbreaking project applying sustainable and digital media technology to the curtain wall of Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympic Games. Featuring the largest color LED display worldwide and the first photovoltaic system integrated into a glass curtain wall in China, the building performs as a self-sufficient organic system, harvesting solar energy by day and using it to illuminate the screen after dark, mirroring a day’s climatic cycle.The Media Wall will provide the city of Beijing with its first venue dedicated to digital media art, while offering the most radical example of sustainable technology applied to an entire building’s envelope to date. The building will open to the public in May 2008, with a specially commissioned program of video installations and live performances by artists from China, Europe and the US.
(to find out more...)

image & passage from:
http://www.greenpix.org/

posted by midori mizu

Foster to Move to Switzerland

Lord Norman Foster will be moving his family from London to an 18th-century classical-style chateau in the hills of Switzerland... Having made his name and an estimated £250m fortune with bold designs of glass and steel, he is moving to Switzerland “for lifestyle reasons” and for the “incredible countryside”.

Foster, 72, who also designed Stansted airport and the “wobbly” millennium bridge, amassed much of his wealth from public building projects funded by the British taxpayer. Accordingly, peers have demanded that he reveal whether he will pay taxes in Britain.

He intends to oversee his global practice from the chateau and is not planning to retire.

passage from:
http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=74554_0_24_0_C

posted by midori mizu

Architecture and Discipline

It happens quite often, we’re at a cocktail party, a gathering, someone asks us what we do, we say we’re architects… and the response usually applauds the creative process. “It must be nice to do something so creative for a living” or “you must be a very creative person” or “I always wanted to do something creative like architecture”. Which is great, we’re honored to be thought of as creative and enamored that people are paying attention to the architecture around them. The irony, however, is that good architecture is less about creativity and more about discipline. Granted, schematic design requires a great amount of creativity and the design and construction process necessitates creative problem solving. But in our opinion it is discipline in architecture that generates masterful, functional, inspiring architecture. Knowing what not to do. Just because there is a good view doesn’t mean that you fill the room with windows everywhere. It is this restraint in design that is so important to a finished work. The projects that exercise discipline seem to forego fashion and grasp at a clarity of form and a timeless architecture. Such work creates a set of guiding principles and maintains an architectural thesis just as adamantly as it keeps the heat in and the rain out.
(to find out more..)

passage from:
http://buildllc.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/architecture-and-discipline/

posted by midori mizu

Nestle Museum, Mexico City, Mexico

The concept was a playful folding shape, an origami shaped bird, a spaceship, or an alebrije. An architectural experience, from the surprises, the twists and folds, and the forms and spaces they contain. (to find out more...)

This museum is built by Rojkind Arquitectos. What amazes me of this building is the manipulation on the form and how the slanting structure came about. This is only phase 1 of the project, the extension is currently under construction.

Text and Images from: http://www.arcspace.com/architects/rojkind/nestle/nestle.html

posted by s-uper-chii

Concrete Rings

Rock- USD 50$


Corner- USD 44$

Hand-made rings made from concrete and stainless steel. These two fashionable designs are only available exclusively from designboom (to find out more...)

These rings sure look simple yet elegant, a true minimalism accessory. These rings are made in Taiwan. There are 6 sizes and some of them are already sold out. I like this and i wonder if Mr. Tadao Ando has alreafy own one of this.

Text and images from: http://www.designboom.com/shop/concretering.html

posted by s-uper-chii

Swell House, Studio ST Architects & Z-A

A renovation and 1,000-square-foot expansion conceived for a 900-square-foot home in Highland Park, New Jersey, achieves maximum visual effect for a budget of only $400,000. Unhindered by neither a complex program nor a compelling setting, collaborating designers Studio ST Architects and Z-A took an alternative approach to suburban additions—such as contrasting old and new, borrowing the old to cover the new, or placing new inside the old.
Swell Houses's new volume appears like a mutated outgrowth of the existing house, a move inspired by salvaging the original footprint and roof to decrease demolition waste. The roof profile is extruded, twisting 90 degrees to create the terminus of a new volume that largely hovers on pilotis; that foundation, in turn, maximizes water permeability on the lowland site.
The old house has been converted into a giant room devoted to public uses, while the addition is largely private. A semi-public family room links the two. Despite the double curvature of the new volume, it is made of simplified, orthogonal surfaces. (to find out more..)



passage & images from: http://archrecord.construction.com/residential/unbuilt/archives/2008/08_swellhouse/default.asp

posted by afterrabbit

Salt and Pepper in One

Salt and Pepper in One is a container that unites salt and pepper in one piece. Tilt one end for salt, the other for pepper.
Its soothing form distinguishes itself from conventional salt and pepper shakers — it blends with everyday surroundings without the hassle of hiding for special occasions. It makes itself available to us anytime.
Made of stainless steel and rubber plugs. (to find out more..)

I like this, a stylish yet humble piece of object which form appears to have little connection to its use.

passage & images from: http://www.munirek.com/

posted by afterrabbit

SANAA: Works 1998 - 2008

A video of the exhibition featuring the firm's works in the last decade, currently held in the New Museum in Bowery, NY (28 March - 15 July).



(to find out more..)

posted by afterrabbit

Nora House, Atelier Bow-Wow

Though modestly scaled in comparison with its historic antecedents (while contemporary urban houses tend to be small, historic minka farmhouses are usually huge), Nora House reads as a single-story, barnlike building. In keeping with this exterior, the interior is essentially one big space. “In Tokyo, we have done a lot of one-room living, but in a more vertical way,” explains Tsukamoto. “Here, we developed the idea horizontally.” Spanning a height differential of 9 feet—the walk-in storage area marks the house’s lowest point, and the daughter’s play area the highest point—the functional zones within this house are spread out over nine distinct levels. Fulfilling the client’s request for a house with continuous interior space without many partitions, short runs of stairs distinguish areas without separating them completely. Three freestanding partitions function as dividers and additional lateral bracing. (to find out more..)

passage & images from: http://archrecord.construction.com/residential/recordHouses/2008/08Nora.asp

posted by afterrabbit

New Forest "Tree House" Study Centre

The purpose-built study spaces within the Tree House Study Centre will be suitable for use throughout the community, as well as providing a stimulating environment for children, particularly from inner-city areas, who come for the wide range of activities we offer. The idea of the Tree House Study Centre is to build a facility which is at one with its surroundings, illustrates green building practice, and is an aid to education in itself. Now we have planning permission we hope to get the building constructed and open for business as soon as possible.
Samantha Sherwood, a third-year architecture student from Oxford Brookes University, created the innovative sustainable design concept of the study centre, which incorporates rainwater collection and biomass boilers. Samantha was the winner of a competition across five Schools of Architecture in the South East, to design the concept.
Specialist tree house contractor Blue Forest has been working with Samantha to turn her vision into a ‘buildable’ architectural solution, with additional sustainability advice from environmental engineering consultancy XCO2. (to find out more..)




passage from: http://www.cet.org.uk/news/article/20
images from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cetbeaulieu/tags/treehouse & http://www.solentcentre.org.uk/imgdb/366001

posted by afterrabbit

A Tribute to Jørn Utzon

In celebration of Jørn Utzon’s 90th birthday the Danish Architectural Press have published a tribute to the man whose building became a symbol for a city.

When the publishers asked a number of Utzon’s colleagues if they would send a sketch and a birthday greeting, they poured in from all over the world. The effect of Jørn Utzon’s work, the ideas and the buildings' universal impact and importance today, are interpreted by architects including, Tadao Ando, Glenn Murcutt, Rafael Moneo, Steven Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa, and Lene Tranberg.(check out on the greetings and never before published sketches)

“It is a great honor and wonderful feeling to be appreciated by one’s colleagues.
To have been allowed to create something that enriches the lives of my fellow human beings is a wonderful gift.”
Jørn Utzon(winner of the Pritzker Prize 2003)

images & passage from:
http://arcspace.com/architects/utzon/90/90.html

posted by midori mizu

Scanline rendering vs Vray rendering

How to light up a scene for a rendering is important. The basic knowledge of pencil sketching, the relationship of lights and the material's reflection behaviour matters a lot to render a good image.
For basic rendering knowledge to be shared here:-
1. Global illumination acts as a skylight to lighten the entire scene.
2. Sun light as a key light casting shadow towards a building to emphasize the form while determining the sun direction.
3. Ambient lights as general lights to cast shadow caused by skylight. It's role to be fill light as well.
4. Internal lights to lit up the internal spaces. Where it can be added through touched up in Photoshop brush effect too.In scanline rendering, lights are articulated through the knowledge of lighting relationships.In Vray rendering engine, it is much simpler to generate Global illumination through HDRI, where the lightest and the darkest point of light to be simulated through HDRI for external scene. It is much more expansive to render an internal scene as it depends more on light bouncing that requires more calculations and considerations on light settings.3 point lighting is basic to be implemented throughout lighting an exterior scene. The proportion of Key light, Fill light and back light to stimulate the gesture of the rendered scene is important. Normal key to fill proportion would be 1:4.To render a scene, you need to observe the actual environment, how the light reacts with different material, creating different highlight parameters and the planning of your scene, the shading, the light sources, the material used, the things to be emphasized is important before starting the rendering.

Some important techniques in Vray rendering engine to share here:-
1. Get Gamma correction right at 2.2/2.5 depending on the monitor you are working on and enable overriding of Gamma on material imported to avoid twice Gamma correction on materials to save time and better effect on light feature.
2 Lowering down the secondary bounces while rendering an internal scene and raise the contrast level in Irradiance Map in the GI column would create the same effect of adjusting the curvature of color level in Photoshop.
3. Test render with Light cache as primary and secondary bounces of light to save time when determining key light position would help saving time.However, lighting a building or internal spaces is a profession and it would be very helpful to share your knowledge for users and readers. PLASA is one of international association for lighting and sound. to find out more...


A sharing of rendering knowledge & experience from young.
I am currently learning 3dsmax & is very fond of the lighting & rendering aspects, but needs to work on it a lot harder.
Do leave comments for any techniques you intend to share! Thank you.

passage from: http://architectureyp.blogspot.com/

posted by afterrabbit

BWTC turbines spin for first time

The three 29m-diameter turbine blades on Bahrain’s iconic landmark are the first in the world to be integrated on such a scale into a commercial development and are forecast to provide the equivalent of 11-15% of the power for the two towers when fully operational. The successful rotation of the blades involved collaboration between Atkins architects and engineers and turbine specialists Norwin, who were in Bahrain for the milestone event. “Having all three turbines spinning simultaneously represents an historic achievement for this landmark project and Atkins is excited to have been a major player in turning the original idea into reality” says Simha LytheRao Senior Project Manager for Atkins in Bahrain.” The use of established technologies, including type-tested turbines with minimal modifications, ensured that the additional cost incurred by incorporating turbines into the project was reduced to around 3.5% of the overall project value, making it not only an environmentally responsible but also a financially viable venture.” The BWTC design blends maritime aesthetics with the functionality of traditional wind-towers. The visually striking sail-shaped towers form a commanding silhouette on the skyline of Manama, and serve to channel the strong on-shore winds directly onto the three spinning blades. (to find out more..)

passage from: http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=2133
image from: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/04/10/bahrain-world-trade-center-turbines-activate/#more-9648

posted by afterrabbit

DATUM:KL 2008 - Distinction

Well well.. that's the flyer for the new DATUM Forum in KL~ (click image for larger view) in conjunction with ArchiDex 08, which is Malaysia's biggest annual architectural event.

I missed the DATUM 2007.. I missed Nishizawa.. that's my very very big regret!

This year we get Kengo Kuma, he's another 'mysterious' architect who has 'something' I am keen to look deeper into. So, I'll go this time.

Of course! Not to forget the other interesting architects who will also be present at this forum to share with us their works, experience, thoughts and passions!

See you there~!

posted by afterrabbit

Dafen Art Museum - Urbanus

Urbanus’ proposal went beyond the design of a building to include a program of uses for the institution itself. “A typical art museum would be out place,” says Yan Meng, one of three partners at Urbanus. Less a ‘museum’ in the traditional sense, and more a mixed-use arts center, the project responds to both the topography and unique cultural setting of its urban environment. Urbanus designed a three-story building, in which each floor has a different function. (to find out more..)



passage & images from: http://archrecord.construction.com/ar_china/BWAR/0804/0804_dafen_art/0804_dafen_art.asp

posted by afterrabbit