Archinect - News

British artist Andy Goldsworthy is fascinated by US army's long history of tree planting

2013-08-16T20:23:00-04:00

“What I find so fascinating about the Presidio is that, in the heart of this military machine, there was a huge planting programme,” Goldsworthy says, referring to the fact that the park’s 300-acre forest was planted by the US military between 1886 and 1900. “They had quite a sophisticated sense of landscape,” he says. “They read the landscape in the way that sculptors do—or at least the way I do.”

Visiondivision's Chop Stick celebrates the raw materials that make our built world

2012-12-04T14:24:00-05:00

The design is based on the universal notion that you need to sacrifice something in order to make something new. Every product is a compound of different pieces of nature, whether it is a cell phone, a car, a stone floor or a wood board; they have all been harvested in one way or another. Our project is about trying to harvest something as gently as possible so that the source of what we harvest is displayed in a pure, pedagogic and respectful way...

Chop Stick has hit the internets today! Chop Stick is a concession stand, playground, and sculpture-building for the Indianapolis Museum of Art's 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park. I was very fortunate to be local architect-of-record for this innovative project by Swedish architecture duo Visiondivision.

↑ On opening day, Ulf and Anders of Visiondivision handed out ice cream. Courtesy IMA.

↑ The large swing is fun for children and grown-ups alike. Courtesy VIMA.

↑ The swings were made from chunks of wood cut out and "dropped" from the main trunk, visible here.

Visiondivision conceived of this project as a way to consider how we use natural resources in our architectural works. The project combined the vast knowledge of workers at both ends of the art and construction spectrum - engineers and architects, loggers and carpenters - to create a building that remains close to nature while being a functional structure for the 100 Acres Park. The ...

'Shining Tree in a Sacred Place' by MoNo

2012-01-05T17:45:22-05:00

Architects Fumiaki Nagashima and Mami Nagashima Maruoka, of small Japanese practice MoNo, have shared with us their art installation Shining Tree in a Sacred Place.

The piece was dedicated to the people who had perished in Japan's major earthquake and tsunami last March. Erected inside the historic Oshioi Shrine in the Shiga prefecture, the installation was part of a large annual illumination event and invited visitors to commemorate and mourn the victims.

Here is a project description we received from MoNo:

This art work was dedicated to the people who had passed away in several disasters in this year 2011.　Especially in Japan, the massive earthquake hit this country land with the huge tsunami so much that　considerable damage and profound sorrow came to us.　MoNo had the opportunity to join the illumination event “Kusatsu Machiakari Yumeakari Hanaakari – on autumnal Kusatsu road with sensory gratification”, which got over 30 thousands visitors. So MoNo could open our work...