Archinect - News

Go inside The Shed’s short-lived Sonic Sphere installation with The New York Times

2023-07-06T17:26:00-04:00

“It’s about a change in consciousness that leaves a memory,” [Ed] Cooke said of the project. “Can people have an experience where they touch some new territory of consciousness, not in a way that is like an altered state, but one that actually leaves a trace?”

The 50-ton space, which is suspended some 34 feet above the ground, has a capacity of 250 people and was promoted by co-designer Merijn Royaards as a “sensory laboratory that [...] bends time, expands consciousness, and punctures our perception of reality” at the project’s announcement in early May.

Video courtesy of The Shed/YouTube

Its design was supposedly inspired by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Kugelauditorium from 1970 and includes a JBL sound system for special 45-minute ticketed performances. The venue closes on July 30th, with a return to New York planned for next year. Speaking of their intent for the $2 million project, Royaards' colleague Ed Cooke told the Times, “We want to give [people] something magical.”

The Shed debuts Sonic Sphere suspended musical feature

2023-05-09T13:17:00-04:00

The Shed at New York City’s Hudson Yards has unveiled plans for a new, temporary 65-foot spherical concert hall feature to be placed inside the arts venue’s McCourt performance space this summer.

The space is the product of architectural designers Ed Cooke, Merijn Royaards, and Nicholas Christie and has previously been enacted at the 2022 Burning Man festival and ten other venues.

Lounge-type seating is combined with a listening platform that's suspended 34 feet off the ground. Standing sections and a netted center complete the spatial design, with a capacity for 250 persons, a JBL sound system, and lighting design from Polina Zakh. The space was supposedly inspired by Karlheinz Stockhausen’s 1970 Kugelauditorium for the World Expo in Japan that same year.

Royaards explains: “My first experience of clubbing was during a cold winter in early ’90s Rotterdam. The interference patterns of visual, sonic, and kinetic waveform transmissions that flooded the dance floor and enveloped me we...

Squint/Opera announces merger with Journey as the industry-leading experience designers look to scale up digital production

2022-11-02T13:54:00-04:00

3D experience pioneer Squint/Opera has been acquired by the digital agency Journey in a move announced on November 1 by the newly-formed entity.

The merger will enable both to pursue an expansion of their services at a time when the industry is seeing an increase in demand thanks to the advent of metaverse design and other forms of media.

“The opportunity to join Journey was momentous.” Julius Coke, the CEO of Squint/Opera, explained in a statement. “Over the last few years Squint has experienced significant growth, as the demand for immersive 3D experiences grows and new platforms and technologies enable a new level of creativity tapping into our storytelling, virtual production and creative media skills.”

Previously on Archinect: BIG and UNStudio's investment in co-working platform SpaceForm signals a tide-change in architectural practice

Founded in London in 2021, Squint/Opera has since then, it has garnered a reputation through groundbreaking projects like The Observatory at The ...

NC State University Associate Professor Derek Ham Appointed Department Head of Art + Design

2020-06-25T13:42:00-04:00

Associate Professor Derek Ham, Ph.D. has been appointed as the department head of Art + Design at the North Carolina State University College of Design. Ham has taught at the College of Design since June 2015 and was recently promoted from assistant professor.

"I am thrilled to announce that Derek Ham has been chosen as our next Art + Design Department Head," said Mark Hoversten, dean of the college in a statement. "Derek’s background and approach to multi- and inter-disciplinary work makes him a strong candidate in an already competitive candidate pool. I am excited to see the direction he brings to the Art + Design program moving forward."

Ham also serves as the principal investigator for MC Reality Lab, a multidisciplinary practice that works in the virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technology space. Ham holds a Ph.D. in design computation from MIT, an M.Arch from Harvard GSD, and a B.Arch from Hampton University. He will begin his new position on July 1, 2020.

NBBJ has acquired ESI Design, an innovative experience design studio

2020-02-06T14:09:00-05:00

International architecture and design firm NBBJ announced today that it has acquired experience design studio ESI Design. In joining one another, NBBJ and ESI Design will be able to capitalize on their multidisciplinary team to introduce digital experiences earlier in the design process, giving clients a more streamlined service offering.

"By integrating the design of architecture and dynamic digital experiences, we will create boundless opportunities to energize the places we live, work, and play to stimulate our senses and inspire discovery, learning, and impact," said Steve McConnell, FAIA, Managing Partner of NBBJ in a statement. "The acquisition of ESI Design brings this vision to life and increases NBBJ’s ability to serve our clients as they activate their brands, create community, inspire wellbeing, and thrive."

Founder and Principal Designer at ESI Design Edwin Schlossberg also said: "We are at an exciting moment in time where the diverse skillsets of digital designers, med...

This office lobby in Boston immerses visitors in a motion-activated virtual aquarium

2020-02-03T11:13:00-05:00

The lobby of an Art Deco office building in Boston has been transformed into an immersice digital experience that reacts to users' movements. Unreal Engine, the gaming engine behind Fortnite, Playstation, and many other gaming products, powers the ESI Design-created interactive mural and uses sensors to converse with building goers.

Lobby. © LasSalle Investment Management

The array of experiences shift throughout the day, from an aquarium with groups of active fish to exterior landscapes. The digital installation also features silhouettes of people walking and waving to building users, further activating the space.

Exterior. © LasSalle Investment Management

The digital mural is 84 feet long and 7 feet high, contains a total of 590 square feet of LED displays, and both the interior and exterior portions of the display can engage with users in the lobby and pedestrians outside of it.

Retail stores are changing. Brands call for architects to aid them during the retail revolution

2019-03-05T10:18:00-05:00

With the rise of e-commerce titans and online shopping services like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay brands have entered a precarious position in terms of satisfying consumer demand while maintaining interest within retail stores. With the rise of online availability, the need for items can be accomplished at the push of a button. However, some brands are trying to find ways to make retail stores relevant and interesting in today's consumer market. Have retail stores lost their touch? Alternatively, have they merely lost their vision of what the brand can look like offline. Online shopping is great, but when it comes to user experience, certain brands are taking matters into their own hands.

Image courtesy of March Blinch/Reuters

Apple and Nike have already made drastic attempts at focusing their attention and shifting their flagship stores into immersive spaces that offer a grander sense of connectivity with the product. User experience and interactive design go beyond flashing lights an...

The Garden of Eden is reimagined with Pamela Tan's ethereal installation

2019-01-22T10:38:00-05:00

Generally depicted as a place filled with lush greenery surrounded by life and abundance, The Garden of Eden is referenced in literature, film, and design. In religious texts, those familiar with the book of Genesis read about Eden and its detailed reference to "Paradise." A place filled with trees bearing the fruits of the earth, Eden also happens to be the place where the serpent tempts Adam and Eve. However, despite its common visual representation architectural designer Pamela Tan used her multidisciplinary background to approach Eden's vision with a different perspective. Tan's project, Eden, is a vision in white. The public installation set to be a permanent exhibition in a Malaysian retail center reflects an ethereal heavenly approach.

Eden designed by Pamela Tan. Photography by David Yeow

The Crystal Palace, 1851. © wikiarquitectura.com

At first glance, the immersive installation embodies shapes forms reminiscent of modern architectural designs. However, upon closer examinati...

If you like their watches, you'll probably love their hotel: Shinola opens its first hotel in Detroit

2019-01-03T17:37:00-05:00

...the new property is not to sell products. Instead, Shinola aims for the hotel to be a place where Detroiters and out-of-town visitors can bond with each other, the city, and the brand in an organic way.

The Detroit-based watch company is a fundamental entity within the city. Founded in 2011, the humble watch company built its first factory by transforming 30,000 square feet of unused space inside Detroit's historic Argonaut Building. A brand built on quality, hard work, and the spirit of Detroit, the ambitious company sought out to create a space that would promote their community. Pushing beyond the retail space, the long-awaited Shinola Hotel opened its doors on January 2, 2019. In collaboration with Bedrock Detroit for their urban development and revitalization specialities, and Gachot Studios for their design expertise, the hotel pays homage to Detroit's rich downtown architecture.

Street Image of Woodward Ave in Detroit. Photo by Michelle & Chris Gerard

With Kraemer Design Group acting as the Architect of Record and Historical Consultant for the project, the hotel occupies five buildings along historic Woodward Ave. Two of the five buildings include the iconic Singer Buildi...

Nike is tackling more than just athletics with their new flagship stores

2018-12-04T09:56:00-05:00

Nike, the multi-billion dollar retail company has transformed the sports industry since its original debut in 1970's when they were formerly known as Blue Ribbon Sports. Today, the multinational corporation has flagship stores all over the world. As innovative as they are with their shoe and clothing brand, Nike does not hesitate to test the waters when it comes to brick and motor stores. Opening NikeTown, their first flagship store 25 years ago, their goal was to reinvent the retail space.

However, with the recent opening of their newest flagship store in New York how is Nike attempting to change the way retail stores look, feel, and most importantly affect their consumers? Heidi O'Neil, President of Nike Direct, explains what the future of retail looks like for the sport enterprise. Nike Direct, a division within Nike focuses on three elements of Nike's consumer division: e-commerce, consumer relations, and digital Nike+ products. By approaching these retail spaces by deepening t...

An art critic's soul-sucking experience visiting several “Instagram Museums”

2018-09-27T19:06:00-04:00

The central disappointment of these spaces is not that they are so narcissistic, but rather that they seem to have such a low view of the people who visit them. Observing a work of art or climbing a mountain actually invites us to create meaning in our lives. But in these spaces, the idea of “interacting” with the world is made so slickly transactional that our role is hugely diminished. Stalking through the colorful hallways of New York’s “experiences,” I felt like a shell of a person.

In this snarky piece, New York Times critic-at-large Amanda Hess recounts what it was like visiting as many of these hyped-up Instagrammable "museums" that have popped up around the U.S. in recent years.

“What began as a kicky story idea became a masochistic march through voids of meaning. I found myself sleepwalking through them, fantasizing about going to a real museum. Or watching television. Or being on Twitter,” Hess writes.

A criticism of London's museum effect and the survival of everyday spaces

2018-08-31T14:39:00-04:00

London is pure object in these images and likewise in those taken from the other aforementioned viewing points. Like visitors to a museum, we wander the corridors atop the Switch House and observe the artefacts curated for our all-consuming gaze: a shard, a walkie-talkie, a gherkin, etc. Like Tower Bridge, the new Museum of London, Battersea Power Station and the Tate Modern, the skyline of the city is presented as a display – complete with its own exhibition gift shop.

George Kafka argues that London's trend in preservation and commemoration in the built environment is directly related to the decline of small-scale spaces and small businesses centered around everyday life.

Kafka cites recent developments in London's built environment over the past few years: the V&A preserving a of a section of Robin Hood Gardens, the Museum of London moving into Smithfield Market, and the Tate Modern's viewing platform extension.

He does not necessarily argue against cultural preservation and commemoration, but rather aims to draw attention to a trend in "objective gaze prioritized over subjective experience" and the effect this has on the survival of small, everyday spaces.

An engineer's comic addresses social equity in transportation planning and design

2018-07-23T15:40:00-04:00

Engineer Ryan Martinson uses his cartooning skills to explore why and how to better incorporate social equity goals into transportation planning Equity & Mobility, a 12-page comic article published in the Summer issue of Transportation Talk," the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineer's quarterly newsletter.

The Canadian Institute for Transportation Engineers newsletter showcases a comic strip addressing social equity in transportation design. The article looks at how planning decisions can be affected by a biased user experience design process affecting who is included in our transportation systems.

Summer issue of Transportation Talk comic by Ryan Martinson. Image: Equity & Mobility.

Martinson's comic describes how faster transportation modes like automotive travel are often favored over more inclusive ones such as walking, biking, and public transportation.

Summer issue of Transportation Talk comic by Ryan Martinson. Image: Equity & Mobility.

While pointing out these design issues, he also offers specific solutions on how to design more inclusively and better impact people's economic and social opportunities. You can flip through the full article here.

KieranTimberlake develops an app to analyze occupant experience in passive architecture

2018-05-08T15:51:00-04:00

Architecture studio KieranTimberlake used passive strategies to cool their new Philadelphia office building and installed 300 sensors to record data on how it was performing. Along with their network of sensors, the firm also developed an app called Roast for their employees to rate how they felt in the building.

The Roast app asks the user, “How are you feeling today?” allowing quick surveys pre-populated questions based on building industry standards.

The app offers an interactive online interface to analyze occupant comfort. Filter results to compare comfort acrosss space over time.

This kind of post-occupancy evaluation focuses not just on the building's stats, but also on how people are experiencing the space. Together with metric data and employe experience feedback, the firm was able to produce an overall better design. The building was awarded the AIA’s new Top Ten Plus Award this month, an annual honor given to a building with outstanding performance data.

Want to work at K...

Museum of the Bible is DC's latest spectacle

2017-12-01T19:44:00-05:00

The Museum of the Bible recently opened in Washington, D.C. packed with screens and interactive exhibits. The 430,000-square-foot building was designed by SmithGroup JJR and cost a total of $500 million. Formerly a refrigerated warehouse, this space has been turned into quite an extravaganza. The museum, hailed by some as a religious indoor amusement park, boasts 12 different movie theaters, one 140-foot-long LED screen, and several immersive exhibits simulating historic, biblical environments.

Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Photo: Alan Karchmer.

Visitors will also experience Morgan Freeman's voice reading scripture, a computer animated film recounting the New Testament, and the parting of the Red Sea via a walkthrough light installation (pictured above). While this space is branded for social media, the museum also houses some quieter galleries focused on the Bible’s influence on the United States.

The World of Jesus of Nazareth in the Museum of the Bible. Photo: Alan Ka...

The mutual strengths of architects and UX designers

2016-03-28T13:03:00-04:00

As an architect, you have been trained to shape the world according to millennia of design discourse. Giving form to culture is a skill that calls on all the senses and requires a deep understanding of how people interact with their environment [...] architects know how to "design for people," Johns also points out. This is true of architects as well as UX designers. "You have the user's best interest at heart – which requires consistently hearing and understanding them."

Related on Archinect:

Did the architecture of your schools leave an impression on you?

2015-10-20T18:01:00-04:00

'None of the buildings seemed built to impose and in all of them one had the sense that what mattered about a room was the spirit and determination with which it was filled, and the uses to which ingenuity could put it. When I want to remember what a first-class education felt like, that is the architecture I remember, and it mattered solely because of what people did with it.'

It seems that no matter how many years have passed, those schoolyard memories — whether cheerful or hellish — will always be buried in the back of our minds. In light of the 2015 Stirling Prize recently awarded to the Burntwood School in Wandsworth, London, some of The Guardian's writers share how the architecture of their educational stomping grounds as youngsters impacted them.

Do you relate to any of their stories? Which school campus from your own experiences left the strongest impression?

MIT's "Placelet" sensors technologize old-fashioned observation methods for placemaking

2015-08-18T19:49:00-04:00

With a $35,000 grant from the Knight Prototype Fund, [MITs Elizabeth Christoforetti] and her team are working on a project called Placelet, which will track how pedestrians move through a particular space. They’re developing a network of sensors that will track the scale and speed of pedestrians [and vehicles] over long periods of time. The sensors, [currently being tested in downtown Boston], will also track the 'sensory experience' by recording the noise level and air quality of that space.

FRCH Design Worldwide upgrades Zaha Hadid's Contemporary Arts Center lobby in Cincinnati

2015-03-23T17:40:00-04:00

After moving a few times in Cincinnati throughout the later half of the 20th century, the Contemporary Arts Center relocated into its current home at the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Arts in 2003. Designed by Zaha Hadid, who won the commission in the late 1990s, the building is the first U.S. contemporary art institution designed by a woman. Shortly after the building opened, Herbert Muschamp of The New York Times hailed the building as "the most important American building to be completed since the end of the Cold War.” The non-collecting museum has housed temporary exhibitions, installations, and performances.

Hadid envisioned the CAC building as an "urban carpet" that draws in pedestrians to experience the interior space by walking on a gently sloping meandering path. Aiming to connect the building's monochromatic exterior with its "playful" interior, FRCH added a cafe, lounge, and seating area in hopes to create a livelier and welcoming lobby for visitors. "We...

Alicia Eler's ode to Jon Jerde and the mall as "part of the American experience"

2015-02-23T13:49:00-05:00

I love the mall as much as I love the urban walking experience, museums and movie theaters. Today the stripmall is not just a part of my everyday life in Los Angeles [...] it is also a memory from my own suburban adolescence growing up in Illinois. Jon Jerde, the LA architect both celebrated and loathed for his role in spreading shopping malls across US suburbia, died this month. Some might scoff at his life’s achievement. I am not one of them.

Previously: Jon Jerde, founder and chairman of The Jerde Partnership, has died

Red Bull's INABA-designed office is the "antithesis" of trendy workspaces

2014-11-18T19:05:00-05:00

When it comes to a high-energy drink giant like Red Bull, most would probably expect their corporate offices to reflect the sporty, frat bro-friendly culture that the brand overwhelmingly attracts. Not a single hint of that can be seen in the company's newly designed office in New York by Brooklyn-based architects INABA.

In fact, Red Bull's New York office looks generic and insignia-free -- which is not common for large companies. INABA states that the design doesn't integrate the latest theories of workplace productivity nor is it driven by narrative or graphic imagery. It ignores workspace interior trends like grand-scale gestures, playful recreational lounges, or urban-chic office decor. On the other hand, the no-brand minimal aesthetic is a growing trend itself as well.

The office's "timeless" and brandless design questions the standard that corporate offices must be a spatial representation of the company and the brand qualities of which it established itself. "Red Bull’s New Yor...

"Towards Biology" tells the metaphysical tale of Ricardo Bofill's La Fábrica

2014-11-14T15:51:00-05:00

Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura collaborated with Onionlab from Barcelona to create a video-audio installation titled "Towards Biology" as part of the "Time Space Existence" exhibition at the soon-to-conclude Venice Biennale 2014 in Italy.

The exhibition explores going beyond the physical existence of La Fábrica -- the repurposed cement factory in Barcelona that has served as the Taller de Arquitectura's creative headquarters and Ricardo Bofill's private residence since the mid-1970s -- and reimagines it in different contexts, specifically in Venice.

In "Towards Biology", the rotunda-shaped screen draws in viewers to listen and watch a poetic narrative about La Fábrica, which symbolizes the fundamentals of Taller de Arquitectura and the firm's approaches to architecture.

Scroll further down to watch the installation in English or Italian.

Project credits:

Produced by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura and Onionlab
Technical direction: Onionlab
Technical Engineering: Lloc Audiovisu...

Winners of the 2014 Great Places Awards to be exhibited at EDRA Conference, New Orleans

2014-05-19T20:11:00-04:00

The annual Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) Great Places Awards highlight the invaluable relationship between people and their experience with physical space. For its 2014 program, EDRA chose six winning projects that exemplify professional and scholarly excellence in environmental and experiential design.

2014 Place Design Award: Masoro Village Project by GA Collaborative

2014 Place Design Award: Open House by Matthew Mazzotta

2014 Place Design Award: Sugar Beach by Claude Cormier et Associés

2014 Place Planning Award: Pike-Pine Renaissance by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol

2014 Place Research Award: Green Alley Demonstration Project by City of Austin, The University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development, the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation, and Austin Community Design and Development Center

2014 Place Book Award: The Street: A Quintessential Social Public Space by Vikas Mehta

For project details, head over to Bustler.

eMotion and mapping museum experience

2012-10-31T10:54:00-04:00

eMotion researches the museum-going experience experimentally. At the heart of the project is the investigation of the psychogeographical effect of the museum on the museum visitor.

Over the weekend, Dorothy Spears reported on the work of the German Martin Tröndle, whose research into the experience of the museum-goer, has had some surprising results. Using a combination of GPS tracking and sensors which gathered various physiological reactions, the eMotion project came to the conclusion "How much museum goers know about art makes little difference in how they engage with exhibits". Tröndle also learned that "solitary visitors typically spent more time looking at art and that they experienced more emotions". One wonders how this sort of research, pairing sensory data to spatial layout and other factors, could be applied in architecture/design, in terms of refining/testing or iterating building plans, rooms layout etc...

Apologue's Tali Krakowsky To Speak On Experience Design At Eyeo Festival & PromaxBDA

2011-06-14T14:26:11-04:00

Tali Krakowsky, founder of experience design studio Apologue, will be speaking at the Eyeo Festival on June 27th and June 28th in Minneapolis, and at the 2011 PromaxBDA Conference on June 30th in NYC.

At the Eyeo Festival, Krakowsky will be moderating in two panels. On June 27th is a panel that wonders “WHY” and features Golan Levin, Natalie Jeremijenko, and Zach Lieberman. Why do we do what we do? Why should our spaces be infused with the digital? Why data? Why code? Why generative? Why collaborative? Why interactive? Why color? Why sound? Why touch? Why do frameworks have to be open? Why design?

June 28th will feature a panel called “Coding Spaces” with Emily Gobeille, Theo Watson and Jake Barton. Peep behind walls made of bits and bytes to unravel and contemplate the art and science of imagining, coding and building interactive environments. The panel will search for some general process ideas, tips, warnings, recommendations and insights into the making of these fascinatin...