Archinect - News

andblack design studio creates a modular, prefabricated black box theater with multifunctional use

2023-06-22T17:37:00-04:00

Kanika and Jwalant Mahadevwala, architects and founding partners of andblack design studio, have created a multifunctional black box theater design that uses parametric models to "allow customization of several variables to achieve the specified volume." Their design prototype, Darwin Bucky, is a prefabricated kit of parts made of wood, aluminum, steel, and glass.

Designed for Abhay Mangaldas, founder of India-based startup Darwin, the lightweight modular panel design is a flat-pack system that emphasizes versatile on-site assembly.

Darwin Bucky assembly. Image © Vinay Panjwani.

According to the architects, Darwin Bucky is a "black box that can be used as an exhibition gallery, a town hall, an expo center, a performance arena, or even serve as a bar or a nightclub. It is designed to be placed in public gardens, exhibition grounds, or even in a city center."

Aerial view of Darwin Bucky site. Image © Vinay Panjwani.

Without the need for a ...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Generative Design"

2023-05-26T12:09:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented (or adopted) vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term central to current conversations on how architects can use artificial intelligence in the design process.

"Generative design" is a technology-driven design process that employs algorithms and/or artificial intelligence (AI) to develop optimized design solutions. It represents an iterative design approach inspired by natural evolutionary processes, leveraging computing power to explore a large number of possible permutations of a solution, quickly and in real-time.

In the context of computer-aided design (CAD), a designer will input into the generative design software specific parameters such as material types, manufacturing methods, budget constraints, and performance criteria. The software then explores all possible permutations of a solution, testing and learning from each iteration what works and what doesn't.

Generative design can...

Construction begins on Zaha Hadid Architects’ meandering Jinghe art center

2022-10-18T12:37:00-04:00

Construction has commenced on the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Jinghe New City Culture & Art Center in China, following a ground-breaking ceremony on September 16th, 2022. Zaha Hadid Architects won the international competition to design and deliver the scheme in June, which will serve as a new cultural and arts destination for the burgeoning Jinghe New City tech hub.

Rendering by ATCHAIN courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects

As we reported in June following news of ZHA’s commissioning, the new center is organized as a series of “flowing volumes, layers, and surfaces interconnecting with courtyards and landscapes.”

Rendering by ATCHAIN courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects

“The Jinghe New City Culture and Art Center will promote the highest standards of construction throughout the city,” said one government official about the scheme. “Creating a variety of new public spaces to serve the community, the project demonstrates Jingue New City’s determination to provide architecture and urbanism ...

What is a computational designer? And how can an architect become one?

2022-07-06T12:20:00-04:00

In a 2019 edition of our Studio Snapshot series, we spoke to BairBalliet founders Kelly Bair and Kristy Bailliet on the subject of computational design. “Our role as contemporary architects is to challenge the conventions of how software is used,” the architects told us.

Throughout 2022, we've highlighted several architects and educators with backgrounds in computational design finding success by rising to this challenge. In the academic community, both the UT Knoxville and Florida Atlantic University (FAU) schools of architecture have both appointed new directors with strong backgrounds in the subject. While UT director Carl Lostritto specializes in theories around drawing and computational design, FAU’s director Joseph Choma grounds his work on material innovation, experimental construction, and complex geometries.

In Dubai, meanwhile, February saw the opening of the long-awaited Museum of the Future...

Dubai’s eye-shaped Museum of the Future opens to the public

2022-02-23T12:04:00-05:00

Dubai’s Museum of the Future has opened its doors to the public after nine years of design and construction. Designed by local studio Killa Design, the museum describes itself as a “living laboratory” showcasing exhibitions around the themes of science and technology.

Museum of the Future, a video tour of the exterior and interior

Image courtesy of Museum of the Future

Resting on a green plateau, the building’s distinctive parametrically-designed form is inspired by the human eye, which the team describes as representing knowledge and future vision. “The museum is the eye that sees tomorrow,” the team says. “The void in the heart of the structure represents the unknown that we seek to discover, as it is the future that we will reach.”

Image courtesy of Museum of the Future

The 77-meter-tall (252-foot-tall) building is clad with 1,024 stainless steel composite panels adorned with Arabic calligraphy. The inclusion of 1,024 panels was a conscious d...

Twisting forms and ramped galleries define DS+R's US Olympics and Paralympics Museum in Colorado

2020-07-28T16:31:00-04:00

A design and construction team led by New York City-based architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro has completed work on the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum (USOPM) in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The 60,000-square-foot museum complex is designed with accessibility at its forefront due to its relationship to the United States Paralympic organization, and is organized as a four-lobed gallery complex that descends from the top floor down via a continuous ramp configuration.

Top: View of the building's entry terrace. Bottom: Overall view of the museum.

Regarding the accessibility elements of the design, the architects write that "from the earliest stages of design, the team consulted a committee of Paralympic athletes and persons with disabilities to ensure that, from entrance to exit, all visitors with or without disabilities could tour the USOPM facility together and share a common path."

The museum is located next to a major park that will be accessible to the site via a fort...

A role tailor-made for a lover of parametric design

2020-07-17T13:09:00-04:00

New York City based design practice MARC FORNES/THEVERYMANY is currently seeking an Architectural Designer and Grasshopper Wizard responsible for generating, developing and delivering innovative design proposals and following them from concept through construction. Could this be you?

The position, which requires at least three years' post-qualification experience as well as advanced modeling skills in Grasshopper, spans across many roles, including: digital design, advanced 3D modeling and the development of computational strategies for the production of unique large scale physical assemblies, according to the designers.

If you land the role, you will likely work on the firm's increasingly sophisticated experiential works, which include the recently completed Zephyr Pavilion, which is located on the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.

The mesmerizing project is designed both to serve as a marker and reflection of the social energies that flow through a courtyard sitt...

Zaha Hadid Architects to refurbish Southbank Tower lobby in London

2019-12-04T03:00:00-05:00

In true parametric fashion, Patrik Schumacher and the team at ZHA have designed a striking new look for the lobby of the Southbank Tower in London. Considered to be "one of the UK's most ambitious renovation projects," the office building was completed in 1972 by Richard Seifert and then converted by Kohn Penderson Fox Associates (KPF) from a 30-story office tower to a 41-story mixed-use complex in 2015.

Render by Arch018 srl. Image © Zaha Hadid Architects

According to a press statement by ZHA, the overall lobby design pulls inspiration of flower petals. Using these organic forms the design team took this concept to create a series of overlapping petals to conceal the lighting infrastructure within the lobby. Fluid in nature, the lobby's new look is shaped using class fibre reinforced gypsum and features furniture created using 3D digital fabrication techniques. According to ZHA, "...

Parametric design, Escheresque geometries, and architectural narrative all wrapped into a video game

2019-10-22T13:05:00-04:00

Architecture's influence in video game design has reached new heights over the years, providing architects and video game designers the ability to blend digital computation, mesmerizing graphics, and unforgettable worlds gamers can explore and get lost within.

Manifold Garden is one such example. The video game is the result of a seven-year effort by its designer William Chyr. This visually tasteful and mesmerizing puzzle game was released on October 18th and explores complex geometries, "unusual physics," and mind-bending architecture.

Manifold Garden game place screenshot. Image courtesy of Manifold Garden

Although Chyr doesn't have a background in architecture, his passion and interest in the field helped him create the geometric worlds in the game. In a press interview with Thomas McMullan of Alphr, Chyr shared, "Ando was the original inspiration. I can't have curved surfaces in the game – they all have to be 90-degree corners – because you can only fit along six gravity planes. ...

Is data the key to AI shining in architecture, or will it eventually replace us?

2018-12-28T16:55:00-05:00

The core issue centers around the idea that creatives will be replaced by super-intelligent robots to design buildings, create art, or design vehicles. Yet even as AI evolves across other design-related industries, AI could prove to do more good than bad, tackling the mundane so that you can augment your creative process.

Artificial Intelligence has already changed the nature of industries like manufacturing and cybersecurity. However, where does architecture fit into this mix? A harrowing concern is super intelligent robots may replace the creative practice and take over the design process that architects and designers spend years studying. However, with this new found accessibility in automation and AI, perhaps there is way for architects to view more pros than cons.

MX3D Bridge Image © MX3D

At the heart of AI is an understanding, processing, and translation of data. By processing massive amounts of data at a rapid rate, AI allows for fabrication and prototyping to happen in an instant. For an architect, the quick processing of data allows for more room to reinvest time in design. Countless hours of research goes into starting any new project and with the help of data, architects can acquire building codes and zoning data at the touch of a button.

As one of the largest byproducts of the 21st centur...

Zaha Hadid Architects design 3D-printed chairs for Nagami's Milan debut

2018-04-18T16:20:00-04:00

Milan Design Week just kicked off, and one impressive highlight is the debut exhibition Brave New World: Re-thinking Design in the New Age of Technology by brand-new Spanish company, Nagami.

Marking the brand's official launch event, the show at the Nagami pop-up showroom in Milan's Brera Design District features four exquisite chairs—designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, Ross Lovegrove, and Daniel Widrig—that combined computational design and large-scale robotic 3D printing.

The Robotica TM and Bow chairs © Delfino Sisto Legnani + Marco Cappelletti

Bow & Rise by Zaha Hadid Architects for Nagami

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
Design: Patrik Schumacher
Design Team: Sebastian Andia

The Bow and Rise chairs © Delfino Sisto Legnani + Marco Cappelletti

Design description: "Bow and Rise are the latest results of the extensive, ongoing research that Zaha Hadid Architects is conducting within the domains of 3D printing and material experimentation. These chairs combine pristine design informed b...

Zaha Hadid's Nordpark Cable Railway stations turn ten

2017-12-27T09:15:00-05:00

Time flies mercilessly, and another iconic example of contemporary architecture is already celebrating its 10th anniversary: designed by the late Dame Hadid and shortlisted for the 2008 RIBA Stirling Prize, the four stations of Innsbruck’s Nordpark Cable Railway opened to the public in December 2007. Since then, over 4.5 million passengers have used the Hungerburg funicular railway between the city center up the Nordkette mountain.

Lowenhaus Station. Photographer: Hélène Binet.

From Zaha Hadid Architects: "The Hungerburg funicular (Hungerburgbahn) is part of Innsbruck’s Nordpark Cable Railway (Nordkettenbahnen) and begins at the Congress underground station in the centre of the city. Trains stop at Lowenhaus Station before crossing the bridge over the River Inn, then climbing to Alpenzoo Station and on to Hungerburg where passengers can continue their journey on the Seegrube and Hafelekar cable cars up to its summit at 2,300m. The Nordkette mountain is within the Karwendel, the large...

How algorithms designed the sound of the new Hamburg concert hall

2017-08-30T18:30:00-04:00

Detached from the rest of the building for soundproofing reasons, the 10,000 panels that line the central auditorium are the result of parametric design, a process of creating multiple individual designs using algorithms. A million individual cells ranging from four to 16cm long are cut out from the panels [...] The ivory coloured gypsum fiber acoustic panels contain a seashell motif and were designed by Swiss architect Herzog & De Meuron with help from German studio One to One.

Interior view of the central concert hall. Photo: Iwan Baan.

"It would be insane to do this by hand," GCR quotes Benjamin Koren, founder of One to One, the studio that created the design algorithm for the concert hall's acoustic panels. "That’s the power of parametric design. I hit play, and it creates a million cells, all different and all based on these parameters. I have 100% control over setting up the algorithm, and then I have no more control.”

Photo: Johannes Arlt

Factory and Office Headquarter Annex by SUBdV Architecture

2017-06-30T14:53:00-04:00

Designed by a Brazilian architecture firm SUBdV Architecture, this Factory and Office Annex in São Paulo, fuses high-tech architectural design strategies with local low-tech construction methodologies.

The façade system references the traditional Brazilian ‘cobogo’ shading screen, which controls the filtration of indirect sunlight through the operable windows on the south and west facades, while also creating a thermal mass which prevents the penetration of hot air in the interior spaces.

Photos by Rodrigo Chust

Generated through parametric scripts, the various geometric configurations of blocks produce different sized openings and differently-angled light reflection planes, allowing for the optimal combination of both shading and illumination.

The building's double-height ground floor contains a material storage facility, first and second floors are dedicated to administrative office space for the factory and a showroom of the factory's products.

De...

How Do You Imagine The Skyscraper Of The Future?

2016-11-08T14:32:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by 2017 Skyscraper Competition.

Since 2006 eVolo Magazine invites architects and designers around the world to imagine the skyscraper of the future. The annual Skyscraper Competition explores new possibilities of building high through the use of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations. The competition challenges preconceived ideas, and as such, the results are received with a mix sentiment of excitement and misbelief. Many believe that these projects belong to science fiction, that would never be built, and let alone solve any of our current architectural and urban problems. eVolo Magazine seeks to enter the ranks of inspiring publications like Lacerba in Italy and Le Figaro in France which published conceptual projects by Futurists like Arne Hosek, Piero Portaluppi, and Sergei Lopati whose “out of this world” projects of the 1900’s became a reality 100 years later.

It is eVolo Magazine’s mission to keep promoting t...

"But always with Zaha’s DNA"

2016-10-29T13:33:00-04:00

"The importance to Zaha was the layering, setting a new structure over the old one” that would both read at a distance and liberate ground for public space. And Patrik wanted the new structure to overshoot the fire station and land on a single point."

On the occasion of the opening of Zaha Hadid Architects, Port House in Antwerp, Joseph Giovannini reflects on the afterlife of Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBE.

Further images of the “floating” Port House in Antwerp were published previously, here.

Additionally, earlier this year Archinect shared the official announcement from Zaha Hadid Architects about plans to continue under Patrik Schumacher's leadership. More recently, Patrik Schumacher has further explained the parametric future he plans for ZHA.

2017 Skyscraper Competition - Call For Submissions

2016-09-13T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by 2017 Skyscraper Competition.

eVolo Magazine is pleased to invite architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the globe to take part in the 2017 Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition is one of the world’s most prestigious awards for high-rise architecture. It recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the implementation of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. It is a forum that examines the relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and the city.

SCHEDULE

November 15, 2016 - Early registration deadline
January 24, 2017 - Late registration deadline
February 7, 2017 - Project submission deadline
April 4, 2017 - Winner's announcement

JURY

Eric Bunge [principal nArchitects]
E...

Latest University of Westminster Burning Man studio project needs a Kickstart

2016-05-11T14:32:00-04:00

For the past several years, tutors Arthur Mamou-Mani and Toby Burgess' University of Westminster design studio DS10 has helped students develop installation designs for Burning Man, many of which have gone on to be realized on the festival's grounds. This year, the parametrically-inspired, purposefully all-caps-titled design "PURSUIT" by fifth-year student Joshua Potter is hoping to be among those projects that make it to Black Rock City, thanks in part to his Kickstarter.

Potter used an arrowhead as his conceptual starting point, gradually deriving the six principal tower-like timber members of the structure's geometry through a mathematical process known as Pursuit Curvature.

Described by Potter as "an interactive art installation that celebrates humanity's ongoing quest for Peace, Freedom and Joy - in Life, Love and Art" the project has about another $22K to raise by May 16th.

In which the merits and disappointments of Burning Man are discussed with some fervor:

Gentrification of Bu...

Zaha Hadid Architects to continue under Patrik Schumacher's leadership

2016-04-20T17:30:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects issued a formal statement announcing that the firm will continue to move forward, with Patrik Schumacher acting as de facto leader. In addition to finishing the 36 projects they had started or had under contract before Dame Hadid died on March 31st, ZHA will also be taking on new work. According to The New York Times, in addition to opening new offices in Mexico City and Dubai, the firm "also hopes to push further into aviation, having won a contract for a new airport in Beijing." In tomorrow's episode of Archinect Sessions, Schumacher will share his personal and professional reflections on Hadid's legacy, and elaborate on how he'll carry Hadid's "DNA" and his p arametricist ideas into new arenas.

“We want to tell the world that we’re still a viable, vibrant address for major work of cultural importance," Schumacher told the NYT. “My ambition is to become more visible as a leader of the field to clients."

He also stated that he wants to continue moving forward on ...

Editor's Picks #437

2015-12-16T11:51:00-05:00

Nicholas Korody penned a double review; of 'The Geological Imagination' and 'The Underdome Guide to Energy Reform'. He finds "The two books also help illuminate some of the difficulties in perceiving climate change, while offering some potentials for movement" and goes on to reference "enmeshment", systems thinking and dark ecology.

Plus, Robert Urquhart took stock of how The Bartlett and the Architectural Association are "bringing emerging technologies into the UK's architecture education".

News
Denise Scott Brown, along with her husband Robert Venturi, have won the 2016 AIA Gold Medal. Snubbed of the 1991 Pritzker Prize when Venturi was named as the only laureate, Scott Brown is the second female recipient of the Gold Medal.

In honor of the happy and historic occasion, Denise Scott Brown appeared on Archinect Sessions #45.

To DWLindeman it "is splendid good news, and a long overdue award...Robert Venturi was right to say to the AIA ‘not without Denise.’ This is also a very significan...

Computer Science + Architecture Dual Masters Degree makes new connections to industry at UNC Charlotte

2015-01-20T18:37:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by the School of Architecture at UNC Charlotte

The Dual Degree in Architecture and Computer Science/Information Technology is a two-year curriculum with tightly integrated coursework, research and faculty. Upon completion of the curriculum, students will receive both a Master of Architecture III degree and a Master of Science in Computer Science or Information Technology. The program has collaborated with national design firms, Autodesk and other architectural product manufacturers.

The premise of the dual degree program is that design has become increasingly important to computer scientists and at the same time computation has become important to designers. This program is a unique curriculum that systematically combines the strength and insights of these disciplines.

↑ Advanced Architectural Composites- Installation under way in the Fall of 2013 of a series of composite wall component tiles in Storrs Hall, UNCC.

As computing has matured as a discipline,...

Is The Broad Museum's newly unveiled facade living up to its renderings?

2015-01-02T18:31:00-05:00

The facade of Bunker Hill's The Broad museum was officially unveiled this morning as workers removed the last of the exterior scaffolding, and things are not looking quite as originally envisioned. The design, by starchitects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, was originally advertised as an "innovative veil" that will activate "two-way views that connect the museum and the street"; today it's been updated to be, well, a bit less innovative.

For comparison - the rendered promise:

Archinect's Lexicon: "Parametric Slug"

2014-12-04T19:33:00-05:00

Here at Archinect, we receive countless submissions of people's work, hoping to be published. Within recent memory (exactly when it began is uncertain), a particular type of work started popping up frequently.

"Saltworks" from Washington University in St. Louis.

The pieces were recognizable as parametrically-designed pavilions, and often (but not exclusively) were student-built, part of a studio program. Photos show these pieces installed on campus quads, somewhere in a public park, or elsewhere with a open, semi-public function – a structure that gives people an opportunity to gather and linger, but often without any more specific programming. More often than not, these projects look like giant armored slugs.

Singapore University of Technology and Design Library Pavilion

So it is respectfully and in the tradition of Venturi and Scott Brown's "duck vs. shed", that Archinect submits the "parametric slug" to Archinect's Lexicon. A "slug" is a typology defined by a simple tubular form, str...

A glimpse of eVolo's latest book, "Digital & Parametric Architecture"

2014-07-22T18:09:00-04:00

From the creators of the popular Skyscraper Competition, you can now get your hands on a copy of eVolo's latest book, "Digital & Parametric Architecture".

This 312-page book dives into the "architecture of the future" — from the development of the latest digital tools to how they are utilized in a variety of digitally designed and fabricated projects.

"Digital & Parametric Architecture explores the development of the latest digital tools including advance-modeling software and computer aided design in the production of architecture. It is a journey through the most fascinating projects, digitally designed and fabricated, during the second decade of the 21st century. "

"The book highlights the use of these technologies to explore tectonic operations such as sectioning, folding, contouring, and tessellating. A wide variety of projects that range in scale and location offer an insight into the architecture of the future."

You can purchase the book here.

New Dual Master's Degree in Design and Computation at UNC Charlotte

2014-03-26T13:47:00-04:00

↑ Ripple Wall- The Ripple wall installation, is composed of entirely friction components, exemplifying the use of digital tectonics made available through digital fabrication equipment.

As computing has matured as a discipline, it has expanded its focus to include the physical and virtual settings in which users interact with the machine. Specialties like human computer inte...

Parametric smackdown: Patrik Schumacher and Reinhold Martin debate at CalArts conference

2013-11-19T16:05:00-05:00

CalArts two-day symposium on “The Politics of Parametricism” opened last Friday with a conversation between Reinhold Martin, associate professor at Columbia University’s GSAPP, and Patrik Schumacher, partner at Zaha Hadid Architects. Their debate, while at times tending more towards dysfunctional improv theater than academic discussion, revolved around the relationship between architecture and politics -- generally speaking, Martin sees the two as indelibly linked, while Schumacher idealizes their explicit separation. Their debate didn’t concern the visual aesthetics of parametric design, so much as argue about its utility in political systems.

Patrik Schumacher

As an event presented by CalArts’ MA Aesthetics & Politics program, the Martin-Schumacher debate did not explicitly discuss individual architecture projects, but tended more on the side of critical architectural theory. To introduce their debate, both Martin and Schumacher presented papers on their approach to parametr...

Doris Sung's Living Architecture Morphs To Protect From The Elements

2013-10-10T14:30:00-04:00

When Doris Sung was growing up she had several ideas about how architecture was supposed to be. From what she knew it was static, immovable, and didn't allow much room for experimentation and creativity. Fast-forward several years later, and Sung is now wildly experimenting with building mediums and metals, computer software, and nature itself to create interactive designs that respond to environmental stimuli, essentially coming to life.

Editor's Picks #331

2013-09-03T12:39:00-04:00

News
Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune architecture critic tweeted "George Schipporeit, co-architect of Chicago's suavely-curving Lake Point Tower, once the world's tallest all-residential building, has died".

Donna Sink offered up her memories "I spent a summer living in that building. It's very lovely and graceful, though I like ‘suavely-curved’ much better as a descriptor! The views are unmatched, IMO, still. Breathtaking...Back then its only drawback was that it was very removed from the activity of the city. It was a bleak walk for several blocks to get back into the hustle of daily life in a city. These days it's surrounded by smaller scale housing, retail, and the much-improved Navy Pier, yes?"

thisisnotmyname answered "Somewhat. A few more adjacent sites need to fill in. Lake Point Tower is still one of the finest examples of residential high rise design in Chicago".

Over at the New Yorker Elizabeth Greenspan chatted with Daniel Libeskind and discussed the openin...

“The Politics of Parametricism” conference coming to Los Angeles this November

2013-08-28T12:57:00-04:00

"The Politics of Parametricism" conference at LA's Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) from Nov. 15-16 explores the vast complexities of Parametrics, the evolving design paradigm described as becoming the "avant-garde in architecture and design" and "the next 'grand style' of architectural movements."

Cellular Complexity - 2013 Faculty Winner of AIA|LA’s 2x8 Student Exhibition Design Competition

2013-06-27T18:45:00-04:00

Following the call for proposals for the recent 2x8 Exhibition Design Competition, the AIA Los Angeles chapter has announced "Cellular Complexity," a project by UCLA lecturer Julia Körner in collaboration with Marie Boltenstern and Kais Al-Rawi, as the winning entry. The Installation will be completed by February 2014, just in time for the 11-year anniversary of the annual 2x8 exhibit.