Archinect - News

The many faces of MVRDV's shape-shifting Baltyk Tower

2017-06-22T15:27:00-04:00

Turning iconicity on its head, MVRDV have designed a striking building that purposefully refuses easy categorization. Depending on the angle from which it is viewed, the Baltyk Tower seems to assume different forms, a look that is achieved by a series of scenic terraces and a rippling glass-fronted concrete facade.

Image: MVRDV

From one angle, the tower appears to be svelte, a compact wedge on Poznan, Poland's streets. However, from another perspective the tower broadens and becomes a kind of gigantic civic staircase. Regardless of where one views the building, the inventive facade gives the structure a dynamic, shifting quality.

Image: MVRDV

As MVRDV co-founder Nathalie de Vries explains, “When we came to Poznań for the first time, the goal was clear: we were to realize an office building with public functions on the first two layers and at the top. But also that offered a range of amenities for the community and general public. We realised if we could control...

Editor's Picks #415

2015-05-14T09:32:00-04:00

Nick Cecchi penned a review of ‘Lina Bo Bardi: Together’ on view at the Graham Foundation through July 25th. He found the

"narrow focus wisely limits Together to investigating the conditions and experiences that helped shape Bo Bardi’s mature approach to architecture...Bo Bardi’s work and life resist reduction and compartmentalization into terms easily digested. To experience and understand Together is to experience the sum of conflicting experiences, opinions, and buildings Bo Bardi brought into this world".

midlander commented "that drawing of chairs is beautiful! I love her work. It's rugged and big without being standoffish. Knew nothing about her background - interesting".

Plus, Nicholas Korody published Getting Lost in the Ozone, the third installment of the recurring feature Architecture of the Anthropocene.

News
This week at the AIA National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, NCARB aims to settle the debate over the title “Intern Architect” with an address by CEO Michael Armstrong ...

Cardborigami: Designed to Help the Homeless

2013-07-31T19:25:00-04:00

Tina Hovsepian of global architecture firm Callison was driven by the need to help homeless individuals in Los Angeles when she designed the first prototype for the "Cardborigami" shelter during her fourth year at USC's School of Architecture. Cardborigami, which has grown into a non-profit organization, provides temporary housing for the homeless as part of a process to help them gradually overcome their state of homelessness.

The Cardborigami shelter balances innovative design and functionality. The application of traditional origami techniques onto cardboard gives the shelter a beautiful form. Before its modified origami form, the shelter was originally a re-design of an Air-stream trailer. "The idea is to deploy a trailer to a disaster site where mass shelter is needed, then the trailer expands to 20 times its length and twice its width to provide instant space," Hovsepian explained over email. "The form was then revised and re-scaled to fulfill its potential as a portable...

Outside The Box Idea To Tackle China’s Population Problem

2013-01-17T14:02:00-05:00

In an innovative response to the current property squeeze in China, a Beijing architectural and a design firm have combined creative forces to develop a portable house and garden on the back of a tricycle. The Tricycle House and Garden is a sustainable mobile home with its design and construction inspired by the shape and movement of an accordion. The playful designed is also being described as the “adult cardboard box fort box.”

The People’s Architecture Office (PAO) and People’s Industrial Design Office (PIDO) in Beijing developed the clever modular home as a single-person dwelling for those who wish to live in the city but simply cannot afford it due to increasing property prices.