Celebrating the 65th anniversary of Philip Johnson's iconic Glass House, artist Fujiko Nakaya has created the building's first ever site-specific art installation. The installation, titled "Veil", will shroud the glass house in fog for 10 minutes every hour, creating a dialogue with Johnson's design intentions by breaking the visual connection between inside and out, and covering the building's sharp, clean lines with misty indeterminacy. At the same time it will make literal Johnson's ideal of an architecture that vanishes.
Read after the break for more information and images
American Artist Janet Echelman is to premiere her latest, and largest, sculpture in Vancouver. Widely known for her artistic ability to reshape urban airspace, Echelman's sophisticated mixture of ancient craft and modern technology has led to collaborations with aeronautical and mechanical engineers, architects, lighting designers, landscape architects, and fabricators to "transform urban environments world wide with her net sculptures." Using a light weight fibre to elevate her monumental "breathing" forms above the streets of urban centres, Echelman's new sculpture will be of a size and scale never before attempted.
Beyond the Wall / Daniel Libeskind for Cosentino Group
Daniel Libeskind has unveiled a permanent sculpture at the Cosentino Group world headquarters in Almeria: “Beyond the Wall.” Inspired by the “infinite possibilities of the spiral,” the installation is intended to exhibit how the company’s ultra-compact, innovative surfacing material, Dekton® can be used to clad contemporary facades.
The Olympics are in full swing and, although the "Coastal Cluster" of stadiums has attracted a considerable amount of attention, there is one installation demanding interaction from every spectator. Built at the entrance of Sochi's Olympic Park isAsif Khan Studio's "MegaFaces," a pavilion that "contorts itself to recreate 3D images of the faces of visitors relayed via digital face scans made in photo booths installed within the building."
Comprised of 11,000 actuators sitting underneath the cube's stretchy fabric membrane, the installation allows for three, eight meter tall faces to emerge from the wall at a time (the faces that emerge from the side of the pavilion are enlarged by 3500%). According to the designers, this feature of the building "has been likened to a giant pin screen and a digital, architectural Mount Rushmore."
As part of the Shenzhen Architecture Biennale, Finnish practice Lassila Hirvilammi Architects entered into a collaboration with Chinese architect Gigi Leung to explore the themes of copying, authenticity and knowledge transfer between cultures. Working with master craftsmen, they created two versions of the same space (each influenced by their respective cultures), intentionally blurring the line between copying and taking inspiration.
Read on for more on this lesson in sharing differing architectural understandings
Orproject, a London-based architecture practice, completed a room-sized, nature-inspired canopy titled, 'Vana,' for the India Design Forum exhibited in The Brick House in New Delhi.
Read what the architects' had to say after the break...
Akaran Architects, in collaboration with IRANBON, have been selected as one of four finalist for their proposal 'My Iran,' a pavilion representing the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Milan Expo 2015. The team will now join the other finalists to refine their ideas into a single proposal. The rectangular site (20 by 100 meters) is a 'resonant landscape,' aiming to showcase the central theme: feeding the planet, energy for life.
https://www.archdaily.com/463316/competition-entry-my-iran-expo-milan-2015-akaran-architects-and-iranbonJose Luis Gabriel Cruz
Hehas made his debut in the MAXXI piazza. As the winner of the Young Architects Program (YAP) in Rome, Turin-based studio Bam! Bottega di Architettura metropolitan has transformed the concrete facade of the Zaha Hadid-designed museum into a visual spectacular with the installation of a yellow, translucent and aerostatic prism.
Khao Mo, which translates as Mythical Escapism, is a reflective sculptural work by Sanitas Studio currently being exhibited at the Bangkok Art & Cultural Centre. The concept behind the work is based on city dwellers' desire for a moment of escape from everyday life, along with the concept of the Chinese garden: a scaled replicated universe expressed through nature in order to create a sense of tranquility. According to the artist, "the smell of earth, the moisture and vapour that evaporate from the earth, the ordinariness and the emptiness allow the audience time to imagine."
It’s been two year’s since the construction of the 42-story Museum Tower in Dallas. As many of you may recall, the luxury condo has been in dispute with the neighboring Nasher Sculpture Center over an intense “hot spot” caused by the tower’s highly reflective skin. Although Nasher has demanded that the Museum Tower cover its southwestern facade with an external louver system, thus blocking the glare from penetrating Nasher’s Renzo Piano-designed cast aluminum sunscreen, the developers have refused to oblige due to a fear of jeopardizing the project's profitability.
Negotiations have turned to squabbles and proposals have fallen on deaf ears. However, a team lead by REX and Front has been commissioned by the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund (DPFPF) - the Museum Tower’s developer - to explore a "third option," one that would not require changing the construction of either Museum Tower or the Nasher.
The Guardian's Oliver Wainwright documents the current trend of micro-scale installations spurring new life into the historic hutongs of Beijing and gaining support from the local communities, eager to reject the economic pressures of destroying/rebuilding. The local government’s endorsement, however, comes as a surprise - especially considering its fervent impetus to raze these areas just a few years ago. Read the full article here: Designers Use 'Urban Acupuncture' to Revive Beijing's Historic Hutongs.
https://www.archdaily.com/435775/reviving-beijing-s-hutongs-with-micro-installationsJose Luis Gabriel Cruz
Courtesy of Stewart Dodd and the Architectural Association
Marking the Forest, now in its second year, is a ten-day summer course by the Architectural Association. Set in a managed forest in central Oregon, it aims to engage students with the forest through thoughtful architectural intervention.
https://www.archdaily.com/435108/aa-students-amplify-the-forestKatherine Allen
Amsterdam's famous canal district celebrated its 400th birthday this year. And though the district has grown and evolved throughout the centuries, now, more than ever before, this UNESCO World Heritage site is struggling with how to ensure the past doesn't hold a vice-like grip on its future.
For Jarrik Ouburg, an Amsterdam architect, the problem was more specific: in such a historic district, how do you keep urban transformations from slowing to a stop? This question eventually led him to his ongoing project, “Tussen-ruimte.” Tussen-ruimte (Dutch for ‘between space’) installs pieces of contemporary art and architecture in the hidden alleys and courtyards that have formed over years of building in the canal district.
https://www.archdaily.com/431720/between-the-buildings-of-historic-amsterdam-an-urban-interventionKatherine Allen
"Open House" is artist Matthew Mazzotta's latest invention: a compact, faded pink house that unfolds into a ten-piece outdoor theater that seats nearly 100 people. Facing a raised earthen stage, it's a public space made from the remnants of a privately owned blighted property. Reversing the loss of public space that the city of York, Alabama has experienced, Open House has transformed a wasted ruin of a house into an outdoor theatre open to various community events.
London-based United Visual Artists (UVA) has brought Sou Fujimoto’s “cloud-like” Serpentine Pavilion to life with an “electrical storm” of LEDs. With the intention of making the architecture “breathe” from within, UVA seamlessly integrated a network of LED lights into the latticed, 20mm steel pole structure that mimics the natural forms of an electric storm. In addition, carefully conducted auditory effects further enhance the experience, transforming Fujimoto’s “radical pavilion” into an electrified geometric cloud.
Text description provided by the architects. MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab has exhibited the Fluid Crystallization project as part of the 2013 Architectural League Prize Exhibition at the Parson’s Gallery in New York. The Fluid Crystallization installation - a collaboration between MIT Self-Assembly Lab director Skylar Tibbits and The Molecular Graphics Lab director Arthur Olson - investigates hierarchical and non-deterministic self-assembly with large numbers of parts in a fluid medium.
_Tuomo_Tammenpa%C3%8C%CB%86a%C3%8C%CB%86.jpg?1391784293&format=webp&width=640&height=429)
_Tuomo_Tammenpa%C3%8C%CB%86a%C3%8C%CB%86.jpg?1391784314 "© Tuomo Tammenpää")
_Pekka_Turunen.jpg?1391784061 "© Pekka Turunen")
_Tuomo_Tammenpa%C3%8C%CB%86a%C3%8C%CB%86.jpg?1391784144 "© Tuomo Tammenpää")
_Tuomo_Tammenpa%C3%8C%CB%86a%C3%8C%CB%86.jpg?1391784245 "© Tuomo Tammenpää")
_Tuomo_Tammenpa%C3%8C%CB%86a%C3%8C%CB%86.jpg?1391784293)
