Archinect - News

Pininfarina, an iconic leader in Italian car design, offers this exciting career opportunity for architects

2021-08-13T12:36:00-04:00

For Italian automobile and design company Pininfarina, the boundless application of design manifests across architecture, transport, jewelry, and product design. For designers wishing to immerse themselves in this environment of variable outcomes, the company is now recruiting for an architect to join their team in Miami, Florida.

Pininfarina’s specialty can vary depending on who you ask. Some know the company for their collaborations with famous car brands such as Ferrari and Alpha Romeo. Others know them for their yachts, their accessories, and even for their architecture. While Pininfarina’s brand is grounded in ideas of timelessness and interpreting modern trends, the company also exhibits an interest in pushing future boundaries. This week, for instance, we published the results of Pininfarina’s global design contest “New Dreams for a New World,” which provoked a range of intriguing futuristic ideas from students, including autonomous vehicles, artificial photosynthesis, an...

Gensler's Shanghai Cadillac House is a hi-tech monument to the car brand

2020-09-09T12:48:00-04:00

Gensler's "Cadillac House" in Shanghai captures a sculptural quality in its architecture that is also present in the vehicles it houses. The building is clad in 7,000 rectangular stainless steel plates, giving the facade a reflective twinkle that plays off of the adjacent pool at the exterior courtyard. A walnut-shaped geometry sits within the steel cladding and sits atop a subtle treatment of glazing for a soft floating effect.

Punched in the structures roof are a number of skylights that allow a generous washing of natural light to enter the space, highlighting the activities and products held inside.

At three-stories high the Cadillac House features a prominent spiral stairway set at the center of the main lobby and constructed from timber and concrete.

Visitors travel beneath the monolithic metallic mass to enter the space as they approach softer treatments of wood and glazing at the ground level.

Moreover, the House is equipped with a large series of solar panels to offer self...

Marchi Architectes designs a portable home inspired by a concept car

2020-08-07T13:50:00-04:00

In response to a competition held be Renault back in 2016 for new automotive-inspired architecture and design, French-based design studio Marchi Architectes submitted the first place entry. Called the Renault Symbioz House 33, the architects designed a portable home inspired by Renault's concept car, the Symbioz. The home fully integrates the Symbioz, treating it as a natural extension of the spatial aspects of the interior space.

The 21-meter-long rectangular structure rises a subtle 7 meters in height. Utilizing three primary materials: steel, glass, and wood, the home maintains a minimalist quality that accentuates texture and transparency.

The lower main level holds all of the living spaces including the living and kitchen areas. The upper-level holds the bedroom and bathroom. However, the dwelling's defining feature is its mobile room, which is Renault's Symbioz concept car. The vehicle can park on a movable platform that enables it to move through the architecture's two levels...

AMO and Volkswagen team up to develop electric tractor

2020-03-06T09:14:00-05:00

Led by Samir Bantal, AMO, the think tank founded by Rem Koolhaas has announced a new partnership with Volkswagen to focus on the development of rural mobility. As a first step in the partnership, the team has begun a study for an electric tractor that will be developed for sub-Saharan Africa "to facilitate small-scale agriculture and increase the productivity of subsistence farmers." The project is currently on display at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York as part of the Countryside, The Future" exhibition by AMP and Rem Koolhaas.

The VW e-tractor in the Guggenheim, Image by Philipp Gladsome.

Being in the conceptual phase, the project's next steps will be to set up partnerships with local collaborators, universities, and stakeholders to further develop strategies and knowledge surrounding the new technological ambitions.

AMO and Volkswagen hope to use this research to explore how different concepts of mobility can address challenges with aging population and decreased popul...

Father and son team 3D-print a Lamborghini

2019-10-07T18:30:00-04:00

Sterling Backus's son only had one question after he drove a Lamborghini Aventador in the XBOX video game Forza: Can we build one? Most dads would respond with a chuckle and some quip about winning the lottery. But not Backus, whose day job is laser physicist. Backus responded, "Sure," and he meant it. As of this week, the replica is capable of driving under its own power.

With a budget of about $20,000, the father and son team have tackled the tremendous challenge of building a car from scratch. Backus talks about spending his time on YouTube learning about 3D-printing and how he obtained the panel layouts for the car on GrabCAD and modified them as required. The vehicle is built around a metal frame that Backus made and an LS1 V8 engine from a Corvette.

Aston Martin will design its customers' perfect "automotive lair"

2019-08-27T19:15:00-04:00

Marek Reichman, Aston Martin's chief creative officer has been leading a team of designers who have "already produced exquisite interior design work for the 66-storey Aston Martin Residences in Miami." In addition to this, the team has also designed the interiors of many Aston Martin dealerships and "collaborated on the design of Aston Martin's first global brand centre, the House of Aston Martin Aoyama, in Tokyo," according to the Aston Martin website.

Courtesy Aston Martin

Now, the group will help customers create the garage of their dreams. "Imagine a home or luxury retreat built around your car," Reichmen said in an Aston Martin press release. "Picture creating the ultimate space to showcase your own automotive works of art. This is now achievable with this new offering," he continued.

Courtesy Aston Martin

Aston Martin has emphasized its decades of experience and expertise in staging cars "in order to present them at their absolute best." They add that they also understand the v...

The world is filled with perplexing designs, parking garages are one of them

2019-01-10T19:11:00-05:00

The infamous parking garage. These monumentally sized structures have plagued city infrastructures across the globe. As the automobile still remains the most popular choice of transportation, it's no question we have so many parking garages. Often described as monolithic and bulky many architects and developers, depending on the project, see the parking garage an unfortunate expense. However, despite the many qualms people have about these massive structures, not all parking garage's are alike.

Below are 12 of the most intriguingly designed parking structures found all over the globe. Scroll down to view each car park and their descriptions below. *Structures are listed in no particular order.

#12 Charles Street Car Park
Location: Manchester, UK
Designed by: Allies and Morrison
Description: "The structure consists of precast concrete columns, walls and floors. The external envelope is finished in natural anodized aluminum panels, painted green on...

A vending machine for luxury cars

2017-05-15T12:53:00-04:00

Forget about soft drinks and potato chips - a "vending machine" in Singapore is offering up luxury vehicles, including Bentleys, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Used car seller Autobahn Motors opened a futuristic 15-story showroom in December, with vehicles on display in 60 slots, billing it as the "world's largest luxury car vending machine".

The Netherlands moves closer to leaving gas and diesel cars in the dust

2016-04-19T18:47:00-04:00

The parliament of The Netherlands has passed a motion which would require that all new cars sold by 2025 will have to be electrified in some way [...] The Dutch government hasn't yet banned gas and diesel-powered cars, however, and the motion does allow for hybrid cars to be sold beyond 2025. [...] Although localized governments have sought to ban public cars from urban streets in a number of European cities, the Dutch Labor Party's motion is by far the most aggressive campaign

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Money, gas and death: the insanity of America's car worship

2016-04-13T20:24:00-04:00

Cars conquered the daily culture of American life back when top hats and child labor were in vogue, and well ahead of such other innovations as radio, plastic, refrigerators, the electrical grid, and women’s suffrage. A big part of why they’ve stuck around is that they are the epitome of convenience...Convenience (some might call it freedom) is not a selling point to be easily dismissed [...] In almost every way imaginable, the car, as it is deployed and used today, is insane.

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Eric Garcetti vs the Car: how LA's mayor plans to change the way Angeleños get around

2016-01-14T13:15:00-05:00

Now in his third year as mayor, the 44-year-old [Eric Garcetti] wants Los Angeles to be “the first postmodern city,” as he tells me, speaking in his art-filled office one morning in October. Throughout the past year, he has made a series of proposals that would fundamentally alter the city by deposing the automobile, which has reigned over Los Angeles for a half-century like a cocksure Third World despot... Call him the Che Guevara of Southern California infrastructure.

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