The Parkrand Building in Amsterdam, Netherlands by MVRDV (2006).
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Sunday, August 3, 2008
Today's archidose #229
Details: Illuminated Paving
I've seen some examples of in-pavement lighting - and interesting idea for plazas and more subtle... from working on a competition, and doing a few streetscape projects at work, these alternative pavings (and recent post about new(er) forms of adaptated lighting) are some great tools in the designers arsenal. First, last year when in Seattle, I spotted the plaza at Qwest Field, with pinlights arrayed in a pattern in the pavement. My pic was kind of off, so I found this one online - a good example of some fine night photography as well.
:: image via Forrest Croce
A couple of great posts from Atelier A+D from a couple of projects featured in June. First from, "...Howeler + Yoon... a landscape design - Switch - in which new and old techonologies, and soft and hard textures are braided together to created an integrated and interactive landscape."
:: images via Atelier A+D
Another: "This modern intervention in an old Geneva square (or actually... a trapezoid) by Swiss firm 2b Architectes is quite beautiful. The design manages to be completely modern, yet still evoke images of the past. Using traditional sandstone, as well as glass blocks or cobblestones in a random pattern, the architects are letting you in on a secret - a lake used to occupy this land. The closer you get to the location of the medieval lake, the closer the glass blocks are spaced."
:: images via Atelier A+D
While new lighting products are coming out every day, and they are definitely outside of the traditional boxes, these solutions offer some opportunities provide unique site specific and interesting ways of integrating with the specific design solution. Any other examples out there...?
:: image via Forrest Croce
A couple of great posts from Atelier A+D from a couple of projects featured in June. First from, "...Howeler + Yoon... a landscape design - Switch - in which new and old techonologies, and soft and hard textures are braided together to created an integrated and interactive landscape."
:: images via Atelier A+D
Another: "This modern intervention in an old Geneva square (or actually... a trapezoid) by Swiss firm 2b Architectes is quite beautiful. The design manages to be completely modern, yet still evoke images of the past. Using traditional sandstone, as well as glass blocks or cobblestones in a random pattern, the architects are letting you in on a secret - a lake used to occupy this land. The closer you get to the location of the medieval lake, the closer the glass blocks are spaced."
:: images via Atelier A+D
While new lighting products are coming out every day, and they are definitely outside of the traditional boxes, these solutions offer some opportunities provide unique site specific and interesting ways of integrating with the specific design solution. Any other examples out there...?
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Details: Light up the Streets
I am working on a couple of streetscape/Main Street redevelopment projects and it's definitely focused my attention on the ways in which trends of street furnishings get adopted and perpetuated through environments. I think we all know about the unfortunate 'cobra head' and the ubiquitous 'acorn' light fixture - meant to span the utilitarian and neo-historic continuum of streets.
:: Cobra - image via Choptank Electric
:: Acorn - image via Ross and Associates
Some research along these lines has led to a few interesting fixtures... building on some old posts (here and here) that scratched the surface of this idea. Street lighting for the 21st Century, is perhaps the theme. It is refreshing to see some alternatives popping up through artists, designers, and manufacturers breaking the mold and looking at some different forms, as well as more energy efficient and long-lasting fixtures.
Is this a case of needing a paradigm shift in what is acceptable and accepted by clients - as well as what is offered up by designers. While both of the communities I'm working in right now are smaller towns - both have a anti-provincial and innovative spirit that has expanded our thinking as designers. Is this an opportunity to adopt a new style - not something non-contextual or overly urban, but something that is reflective of the unique spirit of community? Sure, although all of these aren't appropriate, something new, sustainable, and different, just may be.
First, one that's been in the hopper for a while. Ross Lovegrove's Solar Trees made an appearance before, but a few more images here:
:: images via Treehugger
Second is brand new, from The Design Blog, Invisible Streetlight is an interesting concept by designer Jongoh Lee.
:: images via The Design Blog
Another recent bit of news that Anchorage, Alaska is going to install LED Streetlights... which is definitely new, as LED technology has slowly crept into all facets of lighting, but not streets - until now. So this examples are remarkably unremarkable... the energy savings and sustainability are laudable. But as I've said, wrap the green in a well design package, and it's just even better.
:: image via Treehugger
A couple of sexier and sustainable versions. Starting off is the Autonoma, via Treehugger, by French designer Mauricio Clavero: "This solar public lighting pole is totally autonomous and can be placed in any isolated area where electricity is not available. Built with power LEDs which offer lighting performance and energy saving it also can be programmed. It also includes a motion detector, so when a pedestrian comes close the light intensity of the pole raises to full power, and decreases to a third to save energy when there is nobody around. It comes in two versions : urban and country side."
:: image via Treehugger
Another, via Interactive Architecture, a "...wind powered streetlight from the Panasonic Center in Tokyo..."
:: image via Interactive Architecture
An oldie as well as a more artistic and poet gesture, which I still think has some positive ramifications for using residual EMF to power flourescent tubes... Tropolism led to Pruned, which led to a Richard Box installation called Field: "The project involved over a thousand fluorescent bulbs “planted” underneath high voltage AC transmission lines. Unwired, the bulbs drew energy from the surrounding electromagnetic radiation and lit up..."
:: images via Pruned
Just think of the potential opportunities for artistic expression, such as this gateway bysculptor Dan Corson created the Empyrean Passage... (via Dezeen)
:: images via Dezeen
Finally, via The Design Blog, some more organic and flexible lighting: "Created by industrial designer Doron Hadar, EcoTreeCity is an ambitious public lighting project that uses integrated freestanding solar element that can produce energy even in extreme conditions like the northern countries that get less hours of light. Thanks to a flowing independent form, the light can be randomly put together anywhere making each light unique like a real tree."
:: image via The Design Blog
Also, check soon for a related post on some hot in-pavement lighting options.
:: Cobra - image via Choptank Electric
:: Acorn - image via Ross and Associates
Some research along these lines has led to a few interesting fixtures... building on some old posts (here and here) that scratched the surface of this idea. Street lighting for the 21st Century, is perhaps the theme. It is refreshing to see some alternatives popping up through artists, designers, and manufacturers breaking the mold and looking at some different forms, as well as more energy efficient and long-lasting fixtures.
Is this a case of needing a paradigm shift in what is acceptable and accepted by clients - as well as what is offered up by designers. While both of the communities I'm working in right now are smaller towns - both have a anti-provincial and innovative spirit that has expanded our thinking as designers. Is this an opportunity to adopt a new style - not something non-contextual or overly urban, but something that is reflective of the unique spirit of community? Sure, although all of these aren't appropriate, something new, sustainable, and different, just may be.
First, one that's been in the hopper for a while. Ross Lovegrove's Solar Trees made an appearance before, but a few more images here:
:: images via Treehugger
Second is brand new, from The Design Blog, Invisible Streetlight is an interesting concept by designer Jongoh Lee.
:: images via The Design Blog
Another recent bit of news that Anchorage, Alaska is going to install LED Streetlights... which is definitely new, as LED technology has slowly crept into all facets of lighting, but not streets - until now. So this examples are remarkably unremarkable... the energy savings and sustainability are laudable. But as I've said, wrap the green in a well design package, and it's just even better.
:: image via Treehugger
A couple of sexier and sustainable versions. Starting off is the Autonoma, via Treehugger, by French designer Mauricio Clavero: "This solar public lighting pole is totally autonomous and can be placed in any isolated area where electricity is not available. Built with power LEDs which offer lighting performance and energy saving it also can be programmed. It also includes a motion detector, so when a pedestrian comes close the light intensity of the pole raises to full power, and decreases to a third to save energy when there is nobody around. It comes in two versions : urban and country side."
:: image via Treehugger
Another, via Interactive Architecture, a "...wind powered streetlight from the Panasonic Center in Tokyo..."
:: image via Interactive Architecture
An oldie as well as a more artistic and poet gesture, which I still think has some positive ramifications for using residual EMF to power flourescent tubes... Tropolism led to Pruned, which led to a Richard Box installation called Field: "The project involved over a thousand fluorescent bulbs “planted” underneath high voltage AC transmission lines. Unwired, the bulbs drew energy from the surrounding electromagnetic radiation and lit up..."
:: images via Pruned
Just think of the potential opportunities for artistic expression, such as this gateway bysculptor Dan Corson created the Empyrean Passage... (via Dezeen)
:: images via Dezeen
Finally, via The Design Blog, some more organic and flexible lighting: "Created by industrial designer Doron Hadar, EcoTreeCity is an ambitious public lighting project that uses integrated freestanding solar element that can produce energy even in extreme conditions like the northern countries that get less hours of light. Thanks to a flowing independent form, the light can be randomly put together anywhere making each light unique like a real tree."
:: image via The Design Blog
Also, check soon for a related post on some hot in-pavement lighting options.
Bowery Livin'
The current Architect's Newspaper chronicles the latest developments in the five boroughs, presenting a helpful, all-in-one-place snapshot of notable -- and not so notable -- residential projects. One of the projects that stood out is 52E4, designed by Scarano Architects and located at the corner of the Bowery and East 4th Street.
[52E4 rendering | image source]
Living on the Bowery used to be less of choice and more of circumstance. The numerous flophouses and mission shelters have dwindled close to the number that one can only anticipate they will soon be: zero. These, and almost certainly the light and kitchen supply stores below Houston Street, are slowly giving way to places for the middle and upper classes, be it museums or condo developments, the latter in which 52E4 falls.
[Zoning map with notable buildings overlaid]
This project stands out, like the New Museum of Contemporary Art, because it protrudes so high above its neighbors. For this abandonment of context we can thank New York City's zoning, as well as the usual desire by developers and brokers to make some money. This 15-story tower is more slender than the SANAA project down the street -- owing in part to taller-than-normal floor-to-floor heights -- though the ins and outs are much subtler than the latter, bordering on the imperceptible.
[52E4 rendering | image source]
My interest in the project, and my decision to post it here, is not related to the relatively unexceptional design, but to the fact the building physically and symbolically acts as a marker. It stands out in its borderline context (between NoHo and East Village) and heralds more to come. The New Museum does the same further south on the Bowery, but with designs skills more than height. They are both part of a transformation occurring on an avenue long resistant to the change its immediate surroundings embraced.
[52E4 rendering | image source]
Living on the Bowery used to be less of choice and more of circumstance. The numerous flophouses and mission shelters have dwindled close to the number that one can only anticipate they will soon be: zero. These, and almost certainly the light and kitchen supply stores below Houston Street, are slowly giving way to places for the middle and upper classes, be it museums or condo developments, the latter in which 52E4 falls.
[Zoning map with notable buildings overlaid]
This project stands out, like the New Museum of Contemporary Art, because it protrudes so high above its neighbors. For this abandonment of context we can thank New York City's zoning, as well as the usual desire by developers and brokers to make some money. This 15-story tower is more slender than the SANAA project down the street -- owing in part to taller-than-normal floor-to-floor heights -- though the ins and outs are much subtler than the latter, bordering on the imperceptible.
[52E4 rendering | image source]
My interest in the project, and my decision to post it here, is not related to the relatively unexceptional design, but to the fact the building physically and symbolically acts as a marker. It stands out in its borderline context (between NoHo and East Village) and heralds more to come. The New Museum does the same further south on the Bowery, but with designs skills more than height. They are both part of a transformation occurring on an avenue long resistant to the change its immediate surroundings embraced.
An Earth Without Its Surface
The British Geological Survey has teamed up with fledgling science organization OneGeology to show us what the earth would look like without soil – or water, or cities, or anything, really, but geology. View larger.
I have to admit, on the other hand, that, as cool as this image is – revealing the semi-liquid mixtures of underground terrains that we walk over everyday – it's an absurd way to present the information. Badly colored and with a 1970s funk album sunrise coming round the planet?
Surely, with such a signature image, they could have made a better globe?
Friday, August 1, 2008
Wow
I LOVE this living room, the colors, the furniture, the ambiance -I could spend my entire week of vacation HERE! I might do away with the zebra print ottoman and use a brown and orange paisley print. I love the crystal lamp on the right - nothing is cozier or more elegant than a lamp with a dark shade, in my humble opinion. That secretary in the back is just amazing too! I could go on all day long :-)
Today's archidose #228
Gary Comer Youth Center in Chicago, Illinois by John Ronan Architects.
To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:
:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose
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