Archinect - News

Chat Architects completes a bamboo pavilion for oyster fishermen off Thailand’s coast

2023-12-28T11:48:00-05:00

Bangkok-based Chat Architects has completed a bamboo fishing pavilion off the coast of Thailand. Named the Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion, and located off the historic Angsila fishing village, the pavilion aims to revitalize the area’s struggling fishing and seafood industry through the creation of a “new oyster eco-tourism infrastructure prototype.”

Image credit: W Workspace

The pavilion is designed to host an oyster-tasting experience allowing fisherman to relay their fishing history and oyster cultivation heritage to visitors, while also serving shellfish cultivated on the scaffolding itself. In addition to its touristic and productive uses, the pavilion also serves as a campaigning symbol for the protection of the area’s sensitive coastal ecology.

Image credit: W Workspace

“The pavilion design draws on and ‘bastardizes’ the widely deployed bamboo scaffolding traditionally used for oyster cultivation,” the designers explain. “When in use, local fisherm...

Neri&Hu completes Hainan Island wellness retreat inspired by ancient Chinese cities

2023-10-25T11:51:00-04:00

Neri&Hu has completed a wellness hotel on China’s Hainan Island. Named the Sanya Wellness Retreat, the scheme draws inspiration from the ancient Chinese walled city, which was typically elevated on a heavy plinth and surrounded by water. The resulting hotel is defined by two parts: a wooden dwelling comprising guest rooms and a masonry base beneath containing all public spaces.

Image credit: Chen Hao

The L-shaped building forms a water courtyard at the intersection of the two wings, serving a central feature from which all the hotel’s public amenities spread outwards. Meanwhile, the lobby forms a “garden landscape with a floating lantern hovering above that allows a gentle light to filter in,” while ceilings are lowered to frame views towards the sea.

Image credit: Chen Hao

“At every given opportunity, the design tries to embody the genius loci of Hainan, to blend elements from the island’s collective memory, culture, and natural features,” ...

SOM reveals design for Singapore’s tallest building

2022-11-08T13:16:00-05:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has unveiled the design for 8 Shenton Way, set to be the tallest building in Singapore. Designed in collaboration with local firm DCA Architects, the 1,000-foot-tall, 63-story mixed-use tower is described as an “indoor-outdoor vertical community with public spaces, offices, retail, a hotel, and luxury residences.”

Image © SOM and Bezier

The building’s predominately glazed façade is clad with a blend of terracotta and bamboo, while the building form is fragmented by setbacks holding roof terraces and curving bay windows on most floors. Seven terraces are included in the scheme, with one serving a hotel and three serving residential floors.

Image © SOM and Bezier

Inside, the tower’s “live, work, and play” offering includes offices, retail, a hotel, and luxury residential units. At ground level, the project addresses the street through retail units and a public performance and events space, while on the second floor, an open-air green space accommodates r...

MVRDV’s jagged Grotius Towers scheme debuts in The Hague

2022-07-21T15:58:00-04:00

Five years after being first announced, Dutch mainstay MVRDV’s Grotius Towers apartment scheme has been completed in The Hague, the country’s third largest city.

In a project announcement, the studio described their new creation rather accurately as “an eye-catching new addition to the skyline of The Hague.” It is defined by two 100- and 120-meter-tall (328 and 393 feet, respectively) towers that “crumble” asymmetrically from the top down, combining with a series of setbacks and stacked terraces to create a distinctive jagged massing carefully placed on a lot adjacent to the city’s Central Station.

Image © Emmely van Mierlo

Per the design team: “With façades of natural stone and sustainable composite bamboo, gas-free homes, and approximately 1,500 bicycle parking spaces (in addition to 244 for cars), the Grotius Towers are also sustainable. In the design, attention was paid to energy efficiency in the form of good insulation and heat recovery systems. The towers are also multifunctio...

Archinect's Virtual Event Guide for the week of June 22-25th

2020-06-22T14:53:00-04:00

Today's featured virtual event happenings, from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide, address issues from resiliency, mass timber, community engagement, residential design, art, public art, urban design, Palm Springs modernism and bamboo.

Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour? Interview? Happy Hour? Submit it for consideration by clicking here.

Are you an expert in an arena that's especially important right now? Let us know if you would like to work with Archinect to host an online event.

The Future City: Urban Resilience and the Power of Data
Monday, June 22, 2020 7:30 PM BST
Our societies are surrounded by an abundance of data in both the online and physical world. Has data the power to help us understand better our communities and complex reality? Can data help us create new tools to manage urban risk and design resilient cities?
Click here to attend and/or register

Time to reconnect with nature: Timber offices of the future
Tuesday, June 23, 2020 | 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM BST...

London-based architect Steven Chilton chats with Archinect to discuss the Wuxi Taihu Theatre in China

2019-12-26T19:46:00-05:00

When Archinect first covered the Wuxi Taihu Theatre project back in 2018, many were mesmerized by the theatre's alluring design and its resemblance to China's iconic bamboo rainforest. A year later, Archinect catches up with London-based architect Steven Chilton of SCA | Steven Chilton Architects, as he reflects on the theatre's recent grand opening and the project's completion.

Wuxi Taihu Show Theatre. Image © Kris Provoost

It's exciting to see the progress of the theatre. How has the year been for you since the theatre's completion?

Our work on the theatre finished earlier this year. Since then we have been working on a number of interesting and exciting projects in China and Saudi Arabia.

With the theatre's debut on the 22nd, how did you hope people would respond? The theatre really influences the surrounding area structurally but also culturally. It's a great representation of China's iconic bamboo forests.

We hope the audience found a connection with the architecture that reso...

Kengo Kuma steps into shoe design with ASICS

2019-12-02T16:01:00-05:00

Architects dabbling in fashion design is nothing new. From Zaha Hadid to Santiago Calatrava and Virgil Abloh, shoe brands often turn to architects for inspiration. In the latest example, Japanese footwear brand ASICS has teamed with Kengo Kuma to design a new running shoe that's said to marry "ASICS’ most cutting edge technology with ancient techniques and Kengo’s beautifully engineered aesthetic to create what he calls his 'smallest building yet,'" according to Isabelle Hore-Thorburn of HIGHESTNOBIETY.

METARIDE AMU running shoe. Image © ASICS

METARIDE™ AMU by KENGO KUMA. Video © ASICS Japan

Kuma's spin on the shoe showcases the "yatara ami" (bamboo knitting) technique that creates two interlocking layers that aid in the foot's natural movement. The design keeps up with the sleek, slip-on attributes shoe brands such as Nike and Adidas have incorporated into their recent lineups while offering a subtle and clean profile in contrast to some of t...

AIA announces four recipients of the Upjohn Research Initiative

2019-05-15T13:27:00-04:00

Supporting applied research projects that 'enhance the value of design and professional practice knowledge', The AIA Upjohn Research Initiative funds up to six research grants of $15,000 to $30,000 annually for projects completed within an 18-month period.

This year's grants recipients are:

Nexus between Sustainable Buildings and Human Health: Quantifying EEG Responses to Virtual Environments to Inform Design

Principal Investigators: Ming Hu (University of Maryland), Madlen Simon, AIA (University of Maryland)
Collaborators: Justin Benjamin, Assoc. AIA (Perkins + Will), Tim Bakos, AIA (Perkins + Will), Edward Bernat, PhD (University of Maryland)

The goal of this research project is to develop, test, and validate a data-driven approach using virtual reality and electroencephalogram technology for understanding the potential physiological influences of sustainable design features. In collaboration with an architecture firm and a neuroscience laboratory, the researchers propose technolog...

Amateur Architecture Studio brings traditional Chinese materials and craftsmanship into modern architecture

2018-08-30T16:15:00-04:00

Wang Shu and his wife, Lu Wenyu, of China’s Amateur Architecture Studio want to protect Chinese culture and history by returning to artisanal building techniques and the use of materials such as natural stone, wood and bamboo. Wang Shu’s rejection of what he calls “professional, soulless architecture” has almost become a war cry. That kind of architecture, he believes, is ruining China.

Amateur Architecture Studio focuses on creating work that transcends the black and white divide of traditional and modern architecture. The duo have made it their mission to bring back handmade work and natural materials into modernization.

China Academy of Art Xiangshan Campus by Amateur Architecture Studio. Image: Tõnis Kimmel/Flickr.

Wang Shu was the first Chinese Pritzker winner, awarded back in 2012, for his commitment to reviving traditional craftsmanship in the profession.

China Academy of Art, Wa Shan Guesthouse, Xiangshan Campus by Amateur Architecture Studio. Image: Iwan Baan.

The studio works with material such as bamboo, stone, and wood rather than only focusing on concrete and steel. The Chinese tradition of handmade construction is essential to Shu, who prefers the title of "artisan" rather than "architect".

Inspired by Bamboo scaffolding, ODA designs "Dragon Gate" at the Canal Street Triangle

2018-04-05T15:01:00-04:00

ODA New York—known for their distinctive residential projects like 420 Kent, 2222 Jackson, and 251 1st Street—has put forth a proposal that would reclaim an underutilized pedestrian island in Manhattan's Chinatown. The 'Dragon Gate' pavilion, a massive steel structure reminiscent of bamboo scaffolding, would offer a new gateway to the growing Chinatown neighborhood at the Canal Street Triangle.

Rendering: Labtop

The design, recognizing Chinatown as home to the largest Chinese population outside of Asia, deploys modern building materials while invoking Chinese Symbolism. Blending the two, the project manages to capture the neighborhood's unique characteristics and honors "the spirit of a place that feels at once timeless and original."

Diagram: ODA New York

Designed for the triangular traffic island at the intersection of Canal, Baxter, and Walker Streets, the pavilion mimics the triangular shape in order to take full advantage of its site. Rising 33 feet, the Drag...

SHoP Architects' "Flotsam & Jetsam" installation is world's largest 3D-printed object

2016-12-08T13:22:00-05:00

Biodegradable bamboo filament makes up the globe's largest 3D printed object, an installation for this year's Design Miami Fair designed by SHoP Architects called "Flotsam & Jetsam" that will make a subsequent appearance as a site for performances and educational programs in the Jungle Plaza in the Design District by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami in 2017.

In this Art Newspaper interview with SHoP principal Gregg Pasquarelli, he described the process behind the making of the installation. "We worked with two companies: Branch Technology based in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which produced three-dimensionally printed bamboo," he said.

"We thought that could be an nice intersection between furniture and art. ORNL actually broke the Guinness World Record for the largest solid 3D-printed structure earlier this year [when it created a tool to be used for building Boeing jets], so they are breaking their own record with this pavilion."

For more...

Holistic design tool HOMEKIT takes on issues of resilient community and sustainability in rural Colombia

2016-06-28T13:14:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Boston Architectural College.

Population growth and lack of shelter are the main indicators of increased poverty in developing countries. Every year, millions of people in rural communities in tropical climates migrate to cities in search of a better life. Informal settlements proliferate on the cities’ peripheries. However, what often awaits them is misfortune: few employment opportunities, lack of clean water, crowded housing spaces, crime, and other threats to their family traditions and lifestyle.

The HOMEKIT training program educates people in rural areas to sustainably cultivate bamboo and empower their villages to be self-reliant and to meet their own shelter needs. The system reduces forest depletion and contributes to the socioeconomic infrastructure of the villages. It provides safe, dignified, highly functional homes that respond to the local environment and natural disasters, connects people with the natural systems that support them, and he...

A bamboo skyscraper fosters public life

2015-09-01T14:20:00-04:00

A shortlisted finalist in the 2015 World Architecture Festival awards, CRG Architects' Bamboo Skyscraper is not only noteworthy for its unusual choice of material, but its vision of what constitutes a skyscraper. Instead of focusing on a single prominent tower, the design is a cluster of gradually rising volumes that interconnect and share a central vertical core. Stainless steel is used for joint material between the high-tensile-strength bamboo tubes, while EFTE is used for the facade.

Sustainability drove the initial design concept, as did a desire for fostering greater public space and communal interactions within the cluster. According to a statement by CRG, "It is up to artists, designers and architects to find an answer to the question how current technology can breathe new life into the urban environment and into public domain."

The 247,000 square meter complex, which boasts office, entertainment, and hotel/residential spaces, also has a helix slope for bicycle access.

Bali’s fascinating bamboo architecture

2015-03-23T12:47:00-04:00

“There was a time when you could not be poor enough, or rural enough, to want to live in a bamboo house,” says Ibuku founder Elora Hardy. A former print designer for Donna Karan, Hardy now leads an Indonesian firm that creates innovative, luxurious structures out of cheap, sustainable, plentiful bamboo. In a talk at the TED conference last week, Hardy wowed the audience with spectacular images that defy traditional notions of house shapes and construction.

Learn more about Ibuku on the firm's Archinect profile.

Bamboo architecture for dystopian times

2014-08-25T13:10:00-04:00

Extraordinary as it is, Big Bambú is not unique. The Starns’ project is part of an increasingly popular trend of installations emerging at the intersection of art, architecture, and activism. Hand-built and naturally sourced, these works employ aspects of sculpture, design, and performance to address a wide range of social, spiritual, and environmental deficiencies. They have been loosely gathered under the somewhat paradoxical term “natural architecture,” [...]

‘Bamboo Lakou’ Wins the Architectural Association’s 2013 Foster + Partners Prize

2013-06-27T17:29:00-04:00

London's Architectural Association School of Architecture and Foster + Partners have announced the winner of the 2013 Foster + Partners Prize, presented annually to the AA diploma student whose portfolio best addresses the themes of sustainability and infrastructure. The recipient is selected jointly by the AA and Foster + Partners at the end of each academic year. This year’s prize has been awarded to John Naylor, of Diploma Unit 16, for his project ‘Bamboo Lakou’.

Pulse Pavilion in Macau

2013-06-10T15:42:00-04:00

We have received images of Pulse Pavilion, a fascinating temporary structure designed and built by third- and fourth-year undergraduate architecture students at the University of Saint Joseph in Macau. The design team was led by guest professors Kristof Crolla (Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd. / LEAD) and Dannes Kok. Pulse Pavilion was open to the public at Plaza Sai Van, adjacent to Macau Tower, from June 1st until today.

Colombia architect leads bamboo building crusade

2011-11-29T00:02:42-05:00

Swiss architectural historian Pierre Frey describes [Simon] Velez as a leader in the "vernacular" movement in architecture, a school of design using local materials and anchored firmly in a designer's surrounding "context." His tile-roofed, bamboo-supported structures, often with monumental overhangs, are a trademark, reflecting the sheltering function in a country with an equatorial sun and monsoon rains.