Archinect - News

Child Studio designs an imaginary summer hideaway fantasy for our stay-at-home reality

2020-05-08T18:47:00-04:00

London-based Child Studio, led by Che Huang and Alexy Kos, has designed a contemplative oases in an imaginary project spurred by our current "lockdown world." The conceptual project explores ideas of wellness, escapism, and connection with nature through a series of curated images showing key moments within the imagined architecture.

Named "Casa Plenaire," the cottage-style environment's name Plenaire means "in the open air," a term meant to address the quarantined nature of much of the world during the coronavirus pandemic. The space has plenty of windows, providing seamless connectivity to the outdoor landscape.

Inside, one notices the sculptural structure and the organically defined zones of the lounge, terrace, bedroom, and circular pool. "The project was an opportunity for us to explore new ideas and test new concepts for the post-lockdown world. The seaside location is a collage of memories, dreams, and visual references, for the period when travel has become unattainable," s...

The power of play, how childhood toys inspired architects and their designs

2019-04-08T20:14:00-04:00

Everyone can recall their favorite toy as a child. For some, these childhood toys inspired interests and passions that led to specific career pursuits as an adult. Thinking back on one's own experience with toys like LEGO and Lincoln Logs, these simple pieces of wood and plastic led to endless amounts of fun and creative possibility. As a child, I recall spending hours playing with Little Tykes Waffle Blocks and Playskool's colored wooden blocks.

1982 Vintage Playskool Colored Wood Blocks

Play-based learning, especially with blocks or other building-focused models, enhances a child's ability to problem solve and stimulate creative decision making. These simple, tactical objects allow for children to experience and understand the world around them, especially the built environment. Through stacking and connecting, these types of educational toys enable children to experience trial and error through forms of continuous self-assessment. The anticipation of stacking one more block on t...

A Trump Tower in L.A.? Thankfully, that was only part of "Never Built Los Angeles"

2017-02-15T00:51:00-05:00

In LA, Trump bragged he was going to spend a billion dollars on what he claimed would become the world’s tallest building. His architect Bill Fain delivered a gilded 125-storey office tower etched in a diamond-patterned exoskeleton...David Martin also devised a skyscraper: ‘When I told Ivana [Trump] the basis of the idea was to put two diamonds together, she lit up,’ Martin said. ‘I think they were divorced a week later.’

Whether you've been following the tumultuous life of proposed architecture projects in Los Angeles or not (a stretch of Grand Avenue, for example, has been undergoing elaborate proposals designed in part by Frank Gehry for almost forty years) "Never Built Los Angeles," a book by architectural critics at large Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin, shows us via The Guardian the almost-reality of a Los Angeles-based Trump Tower designed by Johnson Fain back in 1989.

One brick per Bible verse in Napp Studio's enormous, lightbulb-infused "Archive of Light"

2017-01-05T14:44:00-05:00

The imaginary realm of architecture frequently ventures off into scales that are improbable, if not outright impossible, on the politically and gravitationally constrained Earth (think Étienne-Louis Boullée, or Lebbeus Woods). In a similar if less secular vein, Napp Studio has conceived of an enormous, walkable brick wall that would feature every verse of the bible and/or other spiritual texts inscribed on titled, lightbulb-illuminated bricks. The idea here is to create the sensation of leafing through a book page by page, with each page being loosely represented by a brick.

As the architects note, "The bricks are books written with text of living stories of the everyday reality, yet, a reality with hope. Hope is the most significant spiritual grain we rely on when facing the sometime harsh life, it provides us with strength and will – the light to live on." The massive scale of the project does not place it beyond the realm of the possible, although there's no word yet of an officia...

The eVolo 2016 Skyscraper Competition is accepting entries now until January. Register early!

2015-08-31T18:55:00-04:00

Floating in mid-air, inspired by traditional designs, or built out of carbon dioxide, the sky is indeed the limit in the annual eVolo Skyscraper Competition. Since eVolo first launched the contest in 2006, there's no question that the 2016 edition will be just as competitive.

Every year, participants worldwide are invited to reinvent the skyscraper: examining its definition, historical context, purpose, and exploring the potential for vertical living in the 21st century. The fun part is that entrants are given complete freedom in designing their skyscrapers.

Get a headstart on those submissions! You can sign up for early registration now until November 17, 2015 for $95. Then from November 18 until January 19, the registration fee will hike up to $135.

The final registration deadline is January 19, 2016. Submissions are due on January 26, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. US Eastern Time.

This year's jury features: Matias del Campo, Thom Faulders, Greg Lynn, Marcelo Spina, and Skylar Tibbits.

Here's a t...

2014 eVolo Skyscraper Competition Winners

2014-03-20T20:19:00-04:00

The winners for the 9th annual eVolo Skyscraper Competition have finally been revealed! The sky is indeed the limit for the popular worldwide competition, which gave participants complete freedom with their skyscraper designs. Imaginative ideas aside, entrants also had to examine the skyscraper's definition, purpose, and potential in the 21st century.

Out of 525 entries from 43 countries in all continents, the Jury awarded three winners and 20 Honorable Mentions.

1st place: "Vernacular Versatility" by Yong Ju Lee - U.S.

2nd place: "Car and Shell: or Marinetti’s Monster" by Mark Talbot and Daniel Markiewicz - U.S.

3rd place: "Propagate Skyscraper" by YuHao Liu and Rui Wu - Canada

Find out more on Bustler.

Click the thumbnails below to see the Honorable Mentions.

LEGO® Architecture Studio now in stores

2013-08-02T12:47:00-04:00

You can never be too old to play with LEGOs. Yesterday, the beloved brand released its latest series, LEGO Architecture Studio.

Endorsed by REX architecture, Sou Fujimoto Architects, SOM, MAD Architects, Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, and Safdie Architects, the set includes a guidebook written in collaboration with leading architects and edited by Christopher Turner. Click here for a preview (PDF).

Every toolkit includes over 1,200 monochromatic LEGO bricks, slopes, planes, and more that let you learn the fundamentals of design in a LEGO context. And instead of the usual step-by-step manual, the kit has a 272-page guidebook full of tips, techniques, inspiration, and even intuitive exercises to really get your creativity flowing.

At $150 a set, the price is pretty steep. But in comparison to actual building costs and having complete freedom with your project? It's probably worth it.