Archinect - News

Joshua Tree’s mirrored Invisible House lists for $18 million

2023-01-20T12:11:00-05:00

An eye-catching new landmark of an architecturally changed community is now up for grabs after designer Tomas Osinski’s Invisible House hit the market in Joshua Tree, California, for $18 million.

Image courtesy Aaron Kirman Group

The mirror-clad 5,490-square-foot home was completed with the help of owners and film producers Chris and Roberta Hanley in 2019 and has since alternated between an Airbnb rental and film location since completion.

Image courtesy Aaron Kirman Group

“The building is more about the desert surroundings than about itself,” Osinski said to Artnet recently, adding that its design “started as a single room and outdoor pool, and organically [became] what it is now.”

Image courtesy Aaron Kirman Group

With a total of three bedrooms and four full baths, the house sits on a 60-acre plot 10 minutes from the town’s unique main drag and is cantilevered on one end with an indoor pool and raw concrete floors encased in the same aviary-friendly bird-proof glass used in commerc...

Two New York design studios provoke post-pandemic connections with their new installation in Long Island City

2021-11-29T18:26:00-05:00

As New York City continues to emerge from the dark days of the pandemic that sent it reeling well into the early spring of this year, a new effort has been put forth led by local artists and design studios to help the city’s eight million residents reconnect via a series of public installations spread throughout the five boroughs.

Image © Savannah Lauren

The latest in this series will help turn a usually overlooked park in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City into an eye-catching space for community engagement thanks to a temporary installation from Hive Public Spaces and The Urban Conga.

Image © Savannah Lauren

Activated by the park’s mostly unwitting users, Ribbon attempts to intervene in their day-to-day pedestrian activity, offering play as an intervention through a network of malleable magenta “units” made of mirrored boxes which reveal the surrounding built environment while at the same time serving as guideposts that challenge the way in which space itself is perceived....

Micromirrors in glazing could transform building performance

2021-05-14T11:16:00-04:00

Researchers at the University of Kassel in Germany have published their findings on the potential for smart glazing to transform building energy use. With buildings responsible for 40% of primary energy consumption, and 36% of total CO2 emissions, the team led by Harmut Hillmer sought to explore how changes in the material composition of universal architectural elements could reduce the impact of the built environment on climate change.

The research, published in the Journal of Optical Microsystems, details the major energy savings to be gained by incorporating a system of tiny micromirrors into architectural glazing. “Our smart glazing is based on millions of micromirrors, invisible to the bare eye, and reflects incoming sunlight according to user actions, sun positions, daytime, and seasons, providing a personalized light steering inside the building," Hillmer explains.

SEM micrograph of vertically standing, flat micromirror array with an inset of magnified area. Image: Hillme...

Australian-based studio Madelein Blanchfield Architects designs a disappearing outhouse

2019-12-10T13:20:00-05:00

When thinking of an outhouse, the initial images that come to mind may not be as intriguing or luxe as the outhouse designed by Australian-based studio Madelein Blanchfield Architects. Don't be fooled by their disappearing outhouse structure that blends seamlessly with the lush landscapes of Kangaroo Valley, however, as there is more to it than meets the eye.

Kangaroo Valley Outhouse. Image © Robert Walsh/courtesy of Madeleine Blanchfield Architects

According to the studio, the intention of the bathroom's design was to keep it separate from the main cabin and "mimic the experience of camping" during overnight stays. The mirrored cube structure is slightly lifted above the ground, and the one-way mirrors are transparent from the inside.

Kangaroo Valley Outhouse. Image © Robert Walsh/courtesy of Madeleine Blanchfield Architects

Kangaroo Valley Outhouse. Image © Robert Walsh/courtesy of Madelein...

Can Concentrated Solar Power help concrete and steel manufacturers reign in carbon emissions?

2019-11-20T15:55:00-05:00

Can Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology help industrial manufacturing facilities reduce their carbon footprints?

A recent report by Vox shines a light on what had until recently, been considered a somewhat defunct solar energy generation approach. Concentrated Solar Power is harnessed by fields of mirrors that focus the sun's rays on to towers that then use the heat to turn water into steam. The steam turns a turbine that generates electricity. In recent years, CSP technology has been losing ground in most of the world, according to the report, due to breakthroughs in solar panel design and fabrication that have brought the cost of such technologies to historic lows.

The report highlights a recent breakthrough by the company Heliogen that could reinvigorate the industry, however.

Rather than deploying massive arrays, as is commonly the case with CSP facilities, the company operates a series of smaller mirrored assemblies that make use of incredibly sophisticated calibration ...

B+P Architects, based in Taiwan, design mirrored art-annex

2017-05-25T17:20:00-04:00

Mirrored facades have become a popular architectural styling. From Doug Atiken's recent installation work for Desert X in Palm Springs to Snøhetta's 7th Room treehouse, mirrored architecture effectively blends the building into its surroundings while reflecting the world back upon the viewer. B+P Architects, a firm based in Taiwan, are the latest studio to break out this feature with their art-annex. After all, art is said to be a mirror!

From the architects: Fickle realties are the roots of art, and the only thing never-changing when it comes to art is our constant pursuit of that intangible moment. The way a mirror faithfully reflects is one form of an eternal fantasy land. When we climb along the trunk of reality through the mirror, virtual images extend between reality and fantasy through latching onto our feelings. A multitude of thoughts have interwoven in the pursuit process as branches and leaves, allowing a moment to instantaneously freeze according to the situation.

What ha...

A closer look at AR-MA’s “Trifolium” digital pre-fab pavilion in Sydney

2014-08-07T17:33:00-04:00

"Trifolium" by AR-MA (Architectural Research – Material Applications) from Australia recently won the commission to design a new event pavilion for the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) in Sydney, Australia. Hosted annually by SCAF, the Fugitive Structures invite-only competition promotes emerging architects from Australia, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. The 2014 edition had entrants explore the potential of digital pre-fabrication in their designs.

The pavilion dons a Corian shell and a vaulted reflective steel interior speckled with optic lights that glow at night. Trifolium will be exhibited at SCAF until December 13, 2014.

Find out more on Bustler.

Dalston House

2013-06-28T11:53:00-04:00

Wainwright - "So Leandro we are sitting on a window ledge in Dalston. Can you tell us why we're here? Erlich - "The idea is to create a facade that will resemble the architecture of the . . . neighborhood and um - that has always been part of my interest to bring the ordinary architecture as a stage for the public to participate in a kind of fiction that would be built through the experience."

Though edging on the sphere of art, Erlich's Dalston House provides a publicly accessible perversion of what would otherwise be banal architecture. This project uses that unexpected architectural content to foster rich narratives both as unique experiences and serendipitous performances. As Erlich says "Reality is what we build; it is not something given."

David Adjaye reflects

2012-06-12T17:44:00-04:00

Adjaye first designed a free-standing floor mirror, then added a wall version after Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, the owner of Salon 94, said clients would want them. There are options — fully or semi-reflective, or — Adjaye’s personal preference — a black mirror, which he said is “more about silhouette and profile, not showing every detail of a person.”