Archinect - News

A University of Arkansas researcher's quest to create stronger and lighter structures using kirigami-based design

2024-05-08T12:28:00-04:00

By making a series of cuts and folds in a sheet of paper, Baker found she could produce two planes connected by a complex set of thin strips. Without the need for any adhesive like glue or tape, this pattern created a surface that was thick but lightweight. Baker named her creation Spin-Valence. Structural tests later showed that an individual tile made this way, and rendered in steel, can bear more than a thousand times its own weight.

MIT Technology Review highlights the digital fabrication work of Emily Baker, an architect and assistant professor at the University of Arkansas' Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Baker began her research into lightweight and sturdy Spin-Valence structures as an architecture graduate student at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

A concept for a shade structure in rural Arkansas following this design principle by Baker and collaborators Vincent Edwards, Edmund Harriss, Isabel Moreira de Oliveira, Eduardo Sosa, and Reilly Dickens-Hoffman also recently won the 2024 Forge Prize for innovation in steel architecture.

Florida Atlantic University's Joseph Choma leads students to explore folded fiberglass structures

2023-08-04T15:17:00-04:00

A research studio led by Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Director of the School of Architecture, Joseph Choma, uses foldable structures to construct a pop-up structure for Google.

Much of Choma's work has explored innovative design methods through complex geometric structures, materials, and experimental construction methods. For his latest studio, Choma implemented his pedagogical approach of "teaching through research and research through teaching" by having students collaborate on an applied research project with Google. In working with Google's Head of UX Workplace Design, Amy Badersnider, she promoted the studio to discover a new way to "design space as a product" and explore ways to "design and fabricate deployable structures which can be used for community engagement initiatives" globally. She challenged the students by asking, "How do we take product research outside of corporate headquarters and engage the public directly within outdoor public spaces?" The end result dev...

New York-based Hou de Sousa creates Prismatic, a kaleidoscope spectacle

2018-12-10T14:13:00-05:00

If you find yourself in Washington, DC in the upcoming month, a spectacle of light, color, and form finds a temporary home in Georgetown Waterfront Park. Designed specifically for the park, New York-based architecture and design office Hou de Sosa creates a mesmerizing installation that provides a kaleidoscope effect. With the design process occurring in three phases, the duo uses a single box celluated by prisms starting from a center point to mimic the contextual features of the area. This technique allows for an array of perspectives that passersby can experience.

Prismatic © Hou de Sousa

Appropriately named, Prismatic is an experience that allows for the public to immerse and explore within the multi-angular form. Using a moiré effect, the sculpture consists of iridescent cords woven through steel lattice. The gaps between the polychromatic cords are the key to creating this dynamic visual effect. Using the foreground as a contributing factor to the piece, visitors are able to wa...

Gianni Botsford Architects raises the roof in London's Notting Hill

2018-11-02T19:23:00-04:00

Located in London's Notting Hill lies a contemporary residential home hidden within the back row of Victorian style villas. Gianni Botsford Architects used the limited space and urban landscape to their advantage when constructing House in a Garden. The 2659 square foot home, originally a dilapidated bungalow built in the 1960's features eye-catching structural details.

Aerial view Image © Gianni Botsford Architects

Due to limited space, the team at Gianni Botsford investigated the possible geometric forms that could be used to create this residential home. Cautious with its construction, the architectural team made it a point not to obstruct the surrounding areas whilst ensuring the home featured enough natural light and space. The decision became clear that to ensure the functional renovation of the home making space started below ground.

Ground floor side patio view Image © Edmund Sumner

On the ground floor the home's defining feature is its copper clad roof. Constructed out of g...

We Are All Scutoids: A Brand-New Shape, Explained

2018-08-01T00:48:00-04:00

Where you have curvature, you have scutoids

Naming a fundamental shape that nature uses at 2018 AD is a credit long overdue. Now the shape architects use has a legitimate public name and official credibility and no longer be called weird. First living architect came to my mind was Frank Gehry. Yours?

"Honestly, in the beginning, we couldn’t believe that nobody before us had named this shape. I mean, geometry has been around forever—the square, the circle. It’s really wonderful that we could name something this fundamental."

Foster + Partners transforms 70's government office tower into luxury hotel in Hong Kong

2018-05-16T15:22:00-04:00

Foster + Partners' new Hong Kong luxury hotel, The Murray, is now fully open to the public. Formerly a 1970's government office building, the firm has transformed these 25 stories into a unique urban experience for visitors.

Reception area of the Murray Building, renovated by Foster + Partners, located in Hong Kong. Image: Michael Weber.

Exterior Details of The Murray. Image: Michael Weber.

The Murray Building was originally constructed when urban planning revolved around cars, leaving the structure inaccessible to pedestrians.

Exterior view of the garden terrace at night. Image: Nigel Young / Foster+Partners.

Hotel lobby area of The Murray. Image: Nigel Young / Foster+Partners.

One of the main goals in the building's transformation was to reconnect the structure at ground level with a new street front, transparent and open ground floor space, and enhanced landscaping of the surrounding grounds.

Exterior Details of The Murray. Image: Michael Weber.

Visitors are now greeted by entering...

Foundation by Volkan Alkanoglu & Matthew Au

2018-01-15T13:09:00-05:00

Volkan Alkanoglu has a prolific history of producing provocative interventions that playfully embrace the audience while researching and experimenting with the limits of color, geometry, depth and the representational techniques which use them. From his Cloudscape playground in Florida to his eruption of Plumes throughout the country, Volkan has found a delicate balance between tectonics, art, architecture and the image.

image: VA | DESIGN

His most recent addition to his body of work completed with a partnership with Designer Matthew Au is no exception. Foundation, an installation in Lee Hall III, on the Clemson University Campus consists of two formations: the visual and physical extension of the roof form on the wall as a 3Dimensional reading of the building, and the unique and custom folded golden structures which are inspired by the geometry of the building as well as the techniques used by students during their academic studies.

image: VA | DESIGN

The implement...

Photographer documents where human-imposed grid must bend to Earth

2018-01-04T13:28:00-05:00

Photographer Gerco de Ruijter is widely known for his work focusing on grids and other signs of human-imposed geometry on the landscape. His latest work explores instances in the North American landscape where the Jeffersonian road grid is forced to go awry due to the curvature of the Earth. His film Grid Corrections was made digging through Google Earth imagery of the Thomas Jefferson Grid, a grid built of exact square mile increments that must bend every 24 miles.

Photo: still from “Grid Corrections” by Gerco de Ruijter, courtesy of the Ulrich Museum of Art.

Check out a one minute clip of his film documenting these strange instances of T-intersections and zigzagging turns, where the human grid is forced to account for its natural environment. Read more about the project on Geoff Manaugh's BLDGBLOG.

The experimental nature of Murray Music House, a single family home designed by Carazo Arquitectura

2017-05-11T14:03:00-04:00

Blending elements of brutalism and pronounced geometric framing, the Murray Music House designed by Carazo Arquitectura is technically a single family home, designed for two parents and three children. The fundamental concept underlying its design is "Living Through the Experimentation," which helps to explain the use of changeable elements like ceiling-suspended fabric chairs and mesh netting in the hallways. By placing malleable objects into the solid frame of the home, the architects hope to constantly engage the occupants in creating new uses for spaces such as the bedroom, kitchen, and the hallway. "Experiencing a home like Murray Music includes exploration, giving another meaning and other use to spaces that normally have specific functions," as the architects explain. But these elements are not the only method of inspiring experimentation.

The rather severe geometry, which includes a black rectilinear frame hovering over the kitchen and a vertical slanted skylight with unabas...

Preserving Central Asia's ancient architecture through code

2016-04-07T13:58:00-04:00

It is not enough to just catalogue these [structures] in photos and videos, it is our aim to break down the logic of these patterns, and recreate them in code in order to make them more accessible and possibly allowing them to find new life in contemporary applications. By building an open source library, accessible to architects, artists, mathematicians, and software engineers, we can carry these patterns and traditions forward for future generations.

Lauren Connell (architect at BIG), Alexis Burson (associate at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners), and Baris Yuksel (Google senior engineer) share their architectural and computer engineering perspectives on Project Agama. The collaboration aims to document and digitally preserve the intricate geometric patterns and tilework of ancient Central Asian architecture by converting the patterns to code, which will eventually become a accessible resource for architects to potentially apply in new applications.

Photographer Serge Najjar captures the "duel" between Man and Architecture

2015-04-24T12:42:00-04:00

The work of Lebanese photographer Serge Najjar shows a striking mix of vibrant colors and stark architectural geometry. His pictures generally feature a small, lone figure in the midst of an overpowering backdrop, giving an impression of man’s smallness as he moves through the world he’s created — an inverted power relationship in which the man-made dominates the maker.

HY-Bol Pavilion at City College of New York

2015-02-27T12:46:00-05:00

The HY-Bol Pavilion, designed and built in the summer of 2014 by students of the Spitzer school of Architecture at City College New York, was the culmination of a series of courses devoted to the expression of complex geometric curvature. Contemporary architecture theory has witnessed an new debate on how topology and smooth surface curvature should either embrace or dismiss the historic concepts of tectonics in architecture, a term which has re-appeared sporadically and influentially throughout Architectural History. As a generic umbrella for the term, all of the readings of the word in question seem to share the idea that the tectonic represents an ineffable quality of visual synergy between the needs of construction and structure with the harmonious visualization and pronunciation of those needs.

"Architecture is Building-plus-value." This equation is not simply the addition of unrelated elements... The identity named by this equation - the "is," or "equals" - is enabled by the di...

A New Concept for Shape-Shifting Architecture That Responds to Heat

2014-09-09T13:42:00-04:00

A project from three students at Barcelona’s Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya continues that exploration by looking at how physical spaces could someday morph based on various environmental inputs. The project, Translated Geometries, tackles the idea by developing a new use for Shape Memory Polymers, a composite material that can deform and return to its original state when activated by cues like heat, humidity and light.

Advanced geometry with Oyler Wu Collaborative's "The Cube"

2014-03-05T20:24:00-05:00

L.A. architectural practice Oyler Wu Collaborative designed "The Cube" from a fundamental notion: to challenge the spatial and geometric properties of the cube, a geometric form long regarded as a basic element for design, art, and science. Built for the 2013 Beijing Biennale, the sculpture transforms a solid idea into an abstract piece -- and just a really cool-looking installation that surely makes a nifty backdrop for picture-taking.

We'll let Oyler Wu explain the intricate details behind the project:

"The Cube was designed with the intention of challenging the perceptual reading of the volumetric object. Beginning with this iconic and basic geometry, the overall scheme is designed to maintain the clear presence of the six-sided object in space.

Closer inspection of the scheme, however, is intended to reveal a more nuanced and experiential spatial effect - one that moves beyond the object and offers a radically different reading. Approximately sixteen meters tall and constructed of ...

Pure Hardcore Icons Manifesto Book by WAI Think Tank

2013-05-28T18:58:00-04:00

WAI Architecture Think Tank upcoming publication Pure Hardcore Icons: A Manifesto on Pure Form in Architecture (August 2013) is featured on Artifice Books on Architecture Autumn 2013 Catalog.

The Catalog can be downloaded here.

Pure Hardcore Icons summary:

In the kingdom of architecture the shape reigns supreme. Ever since the beginning of history, pure geometric form has been one of architecture’s recurrent obsessions. A genealogy of buildings shaped as pyramids, spheres, and cubes can be traced back to ancient times, while contemporary projects, either as poured concrete or virtual bytes, often resemble stacked boxes and looping skyscrapers.

Despite torrents of pure shapes flooding with evidence magazine pages and computer screens around the world, architecture lacks a written work to declare its intentions. Pure Hardcore Icons is the first manifesto on pure form in architecture.

WAI Architecture Think Tank, directed by authors Nathalie Frankowski and Cruz Garcia,...