Archinect - News

University of Buffalo architecture students displayed 3D printed "Archi-texture" in special Hong Kong Design Centre exhibition

2023-11-08T15:50:00-05:00

Students from the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Urban Planning had the opportunity to display a folded paper apparel concept as part of a special exhibition called The Full Gamut organized by the Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC).

The project stemmed from a graduate architecture media seminar led by Gregory Serweta, Maia Peck, and Lukas Fetzko where students developed "wearable assemblies of folded paper and 3D-printed resin" to produce shirt and skirt combination "structures" called “sh/kirts.” The work was displayed in the Centre’s satellite Design Spectrum space over the summer.

Students blended architecture and fashion by working with 3D modeling software and a CNC milling machine to complete a process that helps them understand the relationship between two-dimensional planes and three-dimensional modeling, according to the professors.

Image still from “sh/kirts” video courtesy of Architecture and Planning | University of Buffalo.

“Paper is a material with infini...

Recycled paper could cool buildings without electricity, say researchers

2021-07-05T10:42:00-04:00

A team of researchers at Northeastern University has created a sustainable material that can cool buildings without the need for conventional AC systems. Led by associate professor Yi Zheng from the university’s College of Engineering, the team has developed a “cooling paper” made from 100% recyclable paper, intended to cover the roofs of houses, warehouses, and office buildings, as well as being incorporated into the construction of new buildings.

The “cooling paper” reduces heat gain in two ways. The paper’s light color reflects warm solar rays away from a building, similar to Purdue University’s ultra-white paint that we reported on earlier this year. Meanwhile, the porous microstructure of the natural fibers in the cooling paper absorbs warmth generated inside the building, from electronic, cooking, and human body sources, and re-emits the warmth to the exterior.

Previously on Archinect: Researchers create ultra-white paint that could cool buildings

The experiment began wit...

Architects envision post-pandemic domestic architecture through miniature paper houses

2021-03-17T17:28:00-04:00

It was with this in mind that T asked three architects — Vincent Van Duysen in Antwerp, Belgium, Toshiko Mori in New York and Massimiliano Locatelli of Locatelli Partners in Milan — to each design a paper house that could speak to their vision for a post-pandemic domestic architecture. Their models explore basic questions of how we might make homes for a world irrevocably changed.

Plans for the miniature post-pandemic paper houses designed by architects Toshiko Mori, Vincent Van Duysen, and Massimiliano Locatelli can be downloaded here.

Create kirigami paper models of Le Corbusier's iconic works with this step-by-step guide — and win a copy of the book!

2020-01-23T12:26:00-05:00

For all you diehard Le Corbusier fans or architectural model enthusiasts out there, you don't want to miss out on the upcoming Le Corbusier Paper Models: 10 Kirigami Buildings to Cut and Fold, which will be released on February 4. Thanks to Laurence King Publishing, Archinect is giving away five copies of the book to our readers!

Authored by design director and kirigami paper artist Marc Hagan-Guirey, this step-by-step guide teaches you how to create 10 of Corbusier's iconic works using the cutting and folding art of kirigami, a variation of origami. You'll learn how to create paper models of: Villa Savoye, Maison Citröhan, Villa Stein-De Monzie, Maison de Week-end, Maisons Jaoul, Unité d’Habitation, Maison de la Culture, Villa Sarabhai, High Court Chandigarh, and the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.

Villa Savoye. Photo courtesy of Laurence King Publishing.

High Court Chandigarh. Photo courtesy of Laurence King Publishing.

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. Photo courtesy of L...

ArchiPaper: An animated story about architecture

2019-09-18T13:00:00-04:00

Model building has always been at the core of what we do as architects. What happens when that age-old practice is embraced and made into a film? Polish architect and filmmaker, Rafał Barnaś has done just that.

Check out the trailer for his new film ArchiPaper below:

Description from the filmmaker:

ArchiPaper. A surrealist story about architecture.
The architect Rafał Barnaś would like to present a trailer of his original project. ArchiPaper is a non-commercial, experimental, short animated film that tells a story about architecture in an unconventional way. The basis and starting point for this work was a physical model of a house designed by BXB Studio. The model was photographed and transformed into an image that teems with life, creating a leisurely-paced, surrealist story immersed in an abstract world, built solely out of paper elements. Operating with atypical means of expression and building a stylistically and compositionally coherent film was quite a challenge. ArchiPaper ...

Shigeru Ban pitches paper tube chapel as temporary Notre Dame replacement

2019-07-10T12:31:00-04:00

La Croix International reports that Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has proposed a temporary chapel to be used for gatherings and religious services in the forecourt of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris while the iconic structure is restored.

The cathedral burned in April 2019, and its future has been the subject of much speculation in the ensuing months as a series of outlandish and conflicting proposals and reconstruction efforts have taken shape.

While not formally approved, Ban's chapel would be made up of wood-wrapped recycled shipping containers and tall paper tubes tied together with wooden trusses and rope. Together, the elements would create a nave capable of holding dozens of people at at time.

The temporary pavilion would be built out of wood-wrapped recycled shipping containers and paper tube columns. Image courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects.

The vision has not been without controversy, of course. Patrick Bouchain, a French designer who has helped other major cultural insti...

Proposals for the puzzle at the heart of Church’s vision

2016-09-05T12:47:00-04:00

Twenty-one architects and landscape architects made concept sketches for a theoretical summer house — an open-air structure sometimes known as a “folly.” It would have occupied a central spot on a grassy knoll on the southern slope that fronts the main house.

Ted Loos reviews a new exhibition, “Follies, Function & Form: Imagining Olana’s Summer House”, running through November 13th at the Coachman’s House Gallery at NY's Olana State Historic Site.

Bjarke builds a model! (and explicates his design process)

2016-07-21T14:59:00-04:00

Proving that he can hold his own against 8 to 14-year old contenders, Bjarke Ingels demonstrates some model-building basics by participating in the "Build Your Own Pavilion" challenge, whose participants are usually still in grade school. Admittedly, Bjarke's nimble paper crinkling is integrated seamlessly into an explanation of the design concept behind his "unzipped" Serpentine Pavilion. Here's the full video:

Brutal paper cut-outs (of real-life buildings)

2016-05-26T19:22:00-04:00

Poland-based studio Zupagrafika has a thing for modernist and Brutalist architecture. And to share that passion, it has created playful illustrated paper cutout models of Brutalist buildings in London; modernist buildings in Warsaw; and a new series, Paris Brut, featuring Brutalist architecture from the 1950s–70s located in the city center and outlying banlieues.

Cheaper than a train set, more visceral than a video game: Zupagrafika's sets of the Les Choux de Creteil, the Cite des 4000, and the Orgues de Flandre (among others) will keep your fingers busy in assembly and your mind deeply engaged in the thorny issues surrounding the relative success and failure of mid-century design.

A round-up of all the latest in fascinating miniatures:

The remarkable early paintings of the late Dame Zaha Hadid

2016-03-31T14:37:00-04:00

Before Zaha Hadid completed her first built work, the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein, Germany, in 1994, she was largely considered to be a paper architect – but one whose paintings, with their magnificent treatment of scale, geometry and landscape, established her as an artistic force to be reckoned with.

Toned with influences from Russian Suprematism, futurism and deconstructivism, the pieces still stand alone today as testament to a giant talent, one whose singular vision of architecture has indelibly changed the profession, and the world we inhabit. Some belong to MoMA's collection, and many arose from her competition proposal for "The Peak" leisure club in Hong Kong, which she won only five years after graduating from architecture school at the AA.

From "The Peak" series (early 1980s):

From "The Peak":

"The Peak" Site Plan Line drawing:

"Malevich's Tektonik" painting (1974-76):

"The World (89 Degrees)" (1983):

Hadid showing "The Peak" to Margaret Thatcher:

Related: Zaha Hadid lectu...