Archinect - News

FreelandBuck's new Washington Metro art installation invites viewers to an engrossing play on perspective

2024-04-23T13:24:00-04:00

FreelandBuck has released images of a recent art installation for the Washington Metro Area Transit Agency (WMATA) in Washington, D.C. Staged as an optical illusion, their new piece titled ‘Tunnel Vision’ works by projecting an image of a metro station over three intersecting aluminum cones that are suspended from the ceiling in the lobby of the organization’s new Alexandria, Virginia, offices.

Image courtesy FreelandBuck and WMATA

The sculpture's grid pattern and convex geometry center a 3D image of an iconic coffered station designed by Harry Weese in the viewer’s vision field, creating the effect of watching a metro train approach while standing on the platform. The firm says, "The piece suggests both realism and familiarity, inciting curiosity for passersby to come take a closer look."

Image courtesy FreelandBuck and WMATA

Brennan Buck, the firm's principal and co-founder, told the Washingtonian magazine recently, "We thought it was just a real...

This simple trick makes drawing with two-point perspective a breeze

2016-10-05T15:00:00-04:00

Ditch your rulers—this simple trick by Instagram user @architectdrw demonstrates how to sketch a two-point perspective drawing with just a piece of elastic string and a paperclip. First you tape the edges of the string to where the horizon line goes, then simply move the paper clip around to get accurate perspective lines. It’s a great solution for quick sketches (assuming you still draw by hand), and it's getting a ton of attention online.

Check it out below:

Richard Serra engages with the Qatari desert landscape in his new sculptural piece

2015-04-30T18:51:00-04:00

Richard Serra’s new sculpture, 'East-West/West-East,' is a set of four standing steel plates rolled in Germany, shipped via Antwerp, and offloaded, trucked, and craned into place in the middle of the western Qatari desert...the steel is the same that he’s used in his other pieces, and it will oxidize in the same way, albeit more quickly in the hot, salty conditions of the Brouq Nature Reserve. The plates will [ultimately] turn a dark amber—approximately the same color...as the Seagram Building.

A glimpse at Havana's rooftop dwellers as urban landscape transforms

2015-03-19T20:19:00-04:00

In overcrowded Central Havana and in the historic quarter, the shortage of places to live and play and find much-needed privacy pushed the city upward, spilling onto the rooftops.The technical term for it is 'parasitic architecture.' The Cuban government doesn’t encourage the practice, but in the city’s oldest and most dilapidated neighborhoods, longtime roof-dwelling families...were usually allowed to stay. The parasites became permanent.

Havana's rooftop-dwelling communities brace for more change -- at least in tourism -- in the bustling city below, as Cuba and the U.S. re-establish relations.

What People Cured of Blindness See?

2014-08-29T00:35:00-04:00

The absence of these rules can frustrate the newly sighted, whose visual world can be both blurry and two-dimensional—paintings and people are often described as “flat, with dark patches”; a far-away house is “nearby, but requiring the taking of a lot of steps”; streetlights seen through glass are “luminous stains stuck to the window”; sunbeams through tree branches collapse into a single “tree with all the lights in it.

Now, go ahead and incorporate some of these images into your architectural visualization...

Analyzing modernism with a multi-faceted view in the 2014 Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

2014-06-20T14:09:00-04:00

The Spanish pavilion "Interior" at the 2014 Venice Biennale conveys its multi-layered concept with an enticing labyrinth-like design. Visitors can formulate their own experience as they walk through the open maze, which is "guided" by large images of contemporary and traditional Spanish architecture.

The pavilion is set up as an interactive exploration of Spanish modernism throughout the last century, mixed in with other main points like the influence of digital technology, or comparing traditional Spanish architecture with the contemporary. Sio2 Arch (formerly F451arquitectura) designed the exhibition, which was curated by Iñaki Abalos, Lluis Ortega, Enrique Encabo, and Inmaculada El Maluenda.

More photos and other details on Bustler.