Archinect - News

Architect-built concrete bubble house in Australia is for sale

2020-08-26T16:10:00-04:00

Many architects dream of one day building their thesis projects in real life to test out the heady design ideas that coalesce at the tail end of an architectural education.

After graduating from Queensland Institute of Technology's Department of Architecture and Industrial Design in the late 1970s, Australian architect Graham Birchall of Birchall and Partners architects spent a decade doing just that by working to implement concepts from his thesis to create a distinctive, one-of-a-kind Bubble House.

Birchall's senior thesis sought to explore the material properties of Ferrocement, a technique that uses thin shell concrete and wire mesh to create complex spaces and enclosures. Following graduation, Birchall worked to build his Bubble House using his own money, time, and labor ultimately rendering a complex home that to this day evokes a futuristic way of life that draws on these elemental and imaginative material properties. The home, built between 1983 and 1993, was constructed w...

DXA Studio brings faceted concrete housing towers to Chelsea

2020-08-17T12:35:00-04:00

A pair of identical 20-story residential towers designed by DXA Studio are on the rise in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood.

The twin towers feature a contextual facade designs highlighted by serial punched windows and building setbacks that align the towers' height to those of the surrounding structures. The upperlevel setbacks for the tower break from the street wall to make space for planted roof terraces.

Instead of featuring brick facades like those surrounding buildings, however, the new structures are wrapped in faceted precast architectural concrete panels. The repeating concrete panels are either black or white, depending on the tower, and offer subtle changes in surface geometry that catch the sun and create shadows to create stark geometric patterns.

The buildings will offer 112 apartments and 87 condominiums as well as 20,000 square feet of commercial spaces. New York YIMBY reports that exterior construction on the project is nearly complete, with almost all of the co...

Efforts to reduce concrete carbon emissions grow

2020-08-13T15:03:00-04:00

In recent decades, architects, developers and policymakers seeking to lower the carbon footprint of buildings have focused on reducing energy use by improving the efficiency of lighting, heating and other systems. To lower emissions even further, they are looking beyond such operational matters to the carbon emitted in the production and transportation of the materials that make up the structures, or so-called embodied carbon.

Jane Margolies of The New York Times surveys advances in concrete decarbonization strategies, highlighting a set of concrete manufacturers that are using novel additives and different concrete recipes to save on carbon emissions.

Margolies takes a look at LafargeHolcim, Solidia Technologies, BioMason, Blue Planet, and CarbonCure Technologies, the latter of which is working to reduce concrete-related carbon emissions at the new 245,000-square-foot LinkedIn headquarters designed by STUDIOS Architecture in Mountain View, California by up to seven percent.

Texas architects create semi-Brutalist home in Dallas

2020-06-11T18:16:00-04:00

New York and Austin-based firm Specht Architects has recently completed the Preston Hollow home, an 8,000-square-foot residence influenced by the classic Dallas modern homes of the 1950's and 1960's.

Among the defining features of the home are its heavy cast-concrete walls that extend from the interior our into the surrounding landscape, creating outdoor spaces and courtyards that help frame views from inside the home. The concrete walls were cast using a custom-fabricated formwork that creates a corrugated appearance.

"This technique, a staple of Brutalist architecture from the 1960's and 1970's, creates a play on shadows and pattern that changes throughout the day," said Scott Specht, founder of Specht Architects. "Unlike the Brutalist work from that era, however, the heavy walls here are countered by delicate steel columns, thin window frames, and the hovering edges of the roof. The concrete is a grounding element that provides a contrast to the overall lightness of the spaces."

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Charlap Hyman & Herrero envision a concrete house topped by a swimming pool

2020-06-05T16:41:00-04:00

A concrete and wood home situated above the hills of Los Angeles designed by architecture and design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero is currently under construction.

The "small concrete villa," according to the designers, is "submerged into a hillside" and is designed to appear as "a bridge spanning two large cylinders, pierced by a tree that extends through the roofline."

Organized along along a central "narrow plan" hallway that "unfolds as a sequence of distinctly shaped indoor and outdoor rooms," the home offers a stylized and severe interpretation of the California hillside home typology.

Previously on Archinect: "The Dazzling Work of Charlap Hyman & Herrero is What Happens When a Furniture Designer and Architect Team Up"Image courtesy of

The home is organized so that this hallway, lined with concealed storage spaces, links the opposing ends of the home, including the aforementioned central courtyard space.

The courtyard, according to the architects, orients the house toward its m...

Production of precast concrete product that cures in 24 hours using carbon dioxide takes a step forward

2019-08-14T11:00:00-04:00

The product is the result of a six-year collaboration between LaFargeHolcim and Solidia and uses a special binder — produced at lower temperatures — and patented curing process that uses CO2 rather than water. By adding and absorbing CO2, Solidia Concrete reaches strength in less than 24 hours unlike precast concrete made with Portland cement, which takes 28 days to reach strength.

Construction Dive takes a look at a new business venture launched by LafargeHolcim and Solidia Technologies that will bring carbon-sequestering precast concrete production capabilities to the United States.

The new Solidia Concrete product, according to the companies, cures in less than 24 hours through a patented process that pulls carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Typically, conventional Portland cement-based concrete cures with water and takes nearly 30 days to reach its final strength. The product's first commercial venture will supply EP Henry’s paver and block plant in New Jersey with the reduced CO2 cement, according to a press release.

According to Construction Dive, the new concrete can potentially reduce the carbon footprint of precast concrete by 70 percent.

The fate of immovable Nazi bunkers

2019-06-07T11:30:00-04:00

On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, we reflect on the remaining architectural vestiges of World War II, an event that incurred the death of nearly 50,000,000 people and shifted the borders of countries and continents.

In 1975, the theorist Paul Virilio published Bunker Archaeology, a documentation of some of the 1,500 bunkers that were built along the French shores by the German army as a defense against an anticipated invasion from the United Kingdom during World War II. "It all started - it was a discovery in the archeological sense of the term - along the beach south of Saint-Gucnolc during the summer of 1958. I was leaning against a solid mass of concrete, which I had previously used as a cabana." Through dramatic photo documentation, Virilio saw the bunkers as a way to merge the study of their physical attributes with the existential questioning of war and violence.

Facade for heavy artillery. Photo by Paul Virilio.

Observation post on a channel island. Photo by Paul Virilio.

Viri...

KAAN Architecten completes a new base for the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay in France

2018-09-12T15:16:00-04:00

The new Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay (ISMO) was recently completed by Dutch firm KAAN Architecten. The institute moved into their new building as part of the Université Paris-Saclay's future campus in Orsay, France.

Located about 12 miles outside of Paris in Plateau de Saclay, the science institute is a grouping of physics laboratories, an educational building, housing, offices, and a reception center for international researchers.

The firm's design is centered around an urban-meets-rural idea with a concrete rectangle amidst the for...