Archinect - News

A closer look at Tokyo's Escenario SHIROKANE, an Architecture MasterPrize winner

2021-12-30T15:20:00-05:00

Ryuichi Sasaki/Sasaki Architecture has returned to the international spotlight with its winning entry for the mixed-use portion of this year’s Architecture MasterPrize that adds an iconic new touch to one of Tokyo’s oldest neighborhoods.

Located in the city’s Minato ward, the five-story structure hosts a ground floor restaurant underneath three floors of residential units topped off by a fifth floor defined by a double-height maisonette that plays host to an office.

Photo: TAKUMI OTA PHOTOGRAPHY

The spaces themselves are designed to have large openings that create a high degree of “spatial freedom” and movement within a flexible floorplan. Outside, a distinctive shimmering effect is achieved through the mixture of Shinko stainless steel panels and reinforced concrete load-bearing walls. The entire site area encompasses nearly 91 square meters (980 square feet) of remade high-density urban landscape.

Photo: TAKUMI OTA PHOTOGRAPHY

Photo: TAKUMI OTA PHOTOGR...

Can "phytomining" help meet humanity's need for metals with less environmental destruction?

2020-03-02T15:30:00-05:00

On a plot of land rented from a rural village on the Malaysian side of the island of Borneo, the group has proved it at small scale. Every six to 12 months, a farmer shaves off one foot of growth from these nickel-hyper-accumulating plants and either burns or squeezes the metal out. After a short purification, farmers could hold in their hands roughly 500 pounds of nickel citrate, potentially worth thousands of dollars on international markets.

A thought-provoking report from Ian Morse of The New York Times highlights a burgeoning approach for harvesting necessary (and toxic) metals like nickel from soil through "hyper-accumulating" plants.

Morse checks in researchers from the University of Melbourne who are farming nickel-rich soils in Borneo using metal-absorbing plants that eat up the substance. Nickel is a key ingredient in a variety of electronic products and in building materials like stainless steel. The approach can extract metals from the soil directly with minimal processing and can potentially be used to clean up abandoned mining sites, as well.

Stainless Steel Bollard Covers Provide Security in Style

2018-06-18T08:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Reliance Foundry

Long before they began making the news as protection against vehicle attack, security bollards were an important part of the urban landscape. These useful little posts stand guard in front of storefronts, utility meters, playgrounds, and sidewalks.

Bollards are useful because they don’t impede traffic; they create a permeable perimeter for foot traffic. Bicycles, strollers, and wheelchairs can also easily pass through a line of bollards. As an alternative to a
fence, wall, or berm, bollards create security for pedestrians without slowing them down.

As a security feature, bollards can provide a sense of safety—but they should not be an eyesore, nor create the feeling of living in a bunker. Decorative bollard sleeves, like Reliance Foundry’s newly introduced stainless steel bollard cover line, can provide aesthetic enhancements to a security perimeter. Not just guards, bollards are also guides. They direct traffic while protecting people ...

Norman Foster & Stelton present new range of minimalist tableware

2018-02-19T13:49:00-05:00

A range of minimalist tableware is the result of Norman Foster's latest collaboration as a designer outside of the world of architecture, with Danish design house Stelton.

Image: Foster + Partners.

Combining simple sculptural form and soft geometry, the Norman Foster Collection spans a spectrum of materials, including glass, porcelain, and stainless steel, and features wine goblets, carafes, bowls, porcelain and glass coffee cups, a sugar bowl, and a thermos.

Image: Foster + Partners.

"There’s a wonderful ambiguity in the power of a curve, the power of a line, whether it is defining an individual, a building, a bridge, a skyline, or a vessel," Norman Foster says about the new line. "They are all part of the same family, in a way. The issues of quality, workmanship and textures is common to all these different scales. In the end, it comes down to the elements that we touch, the interface of our daily lives.

Image: Foster + Partners.

"The translation of a design idea through prototypin...

GKD LEEDing The Way In Sustainable Building Products

2015-10-13T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by GKD Metal Fabrics.

In the ever-growing multitude of green building products available in today’s market, one material that doesn’t always come straight to mind is stainless steel. But this often overlooked material holds a wealth of sustainability benefits that grow tenfold when applied and bolstered by technology such as woven metal mesh. GKD-USA has harnessed the inherent sustainability characteristics of stainless steel, using the material as a medium for creating striking, LEED-worthy building exteriors.

Stainless steel by its very nature, offers sustainable characteristics. Depending on the manufacturer, stainless steel used in metal fabrics can contain as much as 35% post-industrial and 25% post-consumer recycled content. This recyclability directly correlates with minimizing waste. The process of recycling stainless steel involves no health hazardous materials. Additionally, stainless steel:

does not require a surface coating that can deteriorate ...

A bamboo skyscraper fosters public life

2015-09-01T14:20:00-04:00

A shortlisted finalist in the 2015 World Architecture Festival awards, CRG Architects' Bamboo Skyscraper is not only noteworthy for its unusual choice of material, but its vision of what constitutes a skyscraper. Instead of focusing on a single prominent tower, the design is a cluster of gradually rising volumes that interconnect and share a central vertical core. Stainless steel is used for joint material between the high-tensile-strength bamboo tubes, while EFTE is used for the facade.

Sustainability drove the initial design concept, as did a desire for fostering greater public space and communal interactions within the cluster. According to a statement by CRG, "It is up to artists, designers and architects to find an answer to the question how current technology can breathe new life into the urban environment and into public domain."

The 247,000 square meter complex, which boasts office, entertainment, and hotel/residential spaces, also has a helix slope for bicycle access.