Issey Miyake x WOW
"Bloom Skin" wind installation in Tokyo
Fashion, Art and Architecture come together when Issey Miyake invites the Japanese visual design studio WOW to create an installation for the window display of his ELTTOP TEP store in Ginza, Tokyo.
WOW´s creative director Takuma Nakaji and his team used the very thin and light fabric "organdie" and smoothly moved it in the air controlled by six fans. The gentle movement reminds us of the famous scene in the movie American Beauty when a plastic bag glides in the air only directed randomly by the wind.
Take a look at the short video below, a perfect example of an excellent in-store architecture and wind installation and compare it to Daniel Wurtzel´s Air projects "Pas de Deux" and "Magic Carpet", probably the source of inspiration for WOW.
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Charles and Ray Eames
The Architect and the Painter
Charles and Ray Eames are one of the inventors of modern design, they gave shape to Americas second half of the 20th century and influenced the development of modernism or the rise of the computer age.
A new documentary "The Architect and the Painter" produced by Quest Productions and Bread and Butter Films for PBS shows their fabulous work for IBM, their outstanding multi media exhibitions, their unique office furniture design or their famous short films like Powers of Ten a legendary film released in 1977 which showed the linear view of our universe from the human scale to the sear of galaxies, then directly down to the nuclear of a carbon atom.
Like Gropius or Levy, Charles Eames emphasized the relationship between form, function and need when he said,"Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design. The details are not the details. They make the design." or as Ray stated, "What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts.
To see the Trailer of the movie just click on play below and for all our readers from US just click on The Architect and the Painter to see the complete film at PBS.
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EDU centre Shawes by Taha Alkadhi
Impressive Architecture gives North Iraq a new face
Multi-functional socio-cultural Centre for Adult Education in Shawes near Erbil (Northern Iraq/Kurdistan)
When Iraq is in the news it’s all about war, explosions and terrorism. But the country is more than that. In Northern Iraq (Kurdistan) one can witness tremendous developments in many ways and very short time, like in urban design and building-constructions. An excellent example is the innovative architectural project by Taha Alkadhi who created a multi-functional socio-cultural Centre for Adult Education in Shawes near Erbil. The aim of the project was to solve the urban integration of Shawes into the city of Erbil and in the same way to provide the region with a center for leisure and education because lack of education dared to reduce the country´s social and economic stability during the aftermath of the Saddam Hussein era.
Taha Alkadhi mastered the challenge by implementing latest western architectural concepts like the use of the roof for passive energy production (electric power by photovoltaic arrays; cooling by solar energy) or the use of modern building materials like reinforced concrete and portable lightweight concrete as well as double-pane insulating glass with aluminum-coated fine plastic slats in the space between the panes. In addition artificial lakes and water surfaces on the building site create a pleasant microclimate for sport and leisure activities.
Taha Alkadhi (Kurd from Northern Iraq) lives and works in Vienna, Austria. He studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and Planning. He graduated in 2007, the EDU_centre shawes was his diploma project and was chosen one of the best works 2007 (“Archdiploma”). For additional information click here:
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Guangzhou Opera House by Zaha Hadid
Like River Valleys eroded by time
Zaha Hadid is for sure the most influential female architect today. After seven years of design and construction work her last project the Guangzhou Opera House was opened to the public. The 1800 seat auditorium of the Opera House houses the very latest acoustic technology, and the smaller 400 seat multifunction hall is designed for performance art, opera and concerts in the round. The main inspiration for the design was the natural look of river valleys eroded by time over millions of years. Engaging with the principles of erosion, geology and topography Zaha Hadid and her team created a fascinating interplay between architecture and nature which can be discovered from the outside and everywhere inside this great monument of art. Let´s assume that Chinese authorities not only enable great architectural projects as monuments for themselves but as an inspiration to make China a better place in terms of humanity too.
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Pavilion 21 by Coop Himmelb(l)au
Bavaria State Opera unveils temporary pavilion
COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, Austrian based architects developed a temporary auditorium with a multifunctional stage named Pavilion 21 for the Bavarian State Opera. The architects led by design principal Wolf D. Prix found a perfect solution for the contradiction between the requirements for mobility on the one hand and excellent acoustics on the other
The 1,790 square metre pavilion can hold 300 seated audience members or 700 standing spectators and can be dismounted, transported to anonther place and re-mounted again. The perfect acoustic was achieved by a technique called Soundscaping a combination of noise suppression from outside the building and of absorbing & reflecting sound inside the auditorium. A unique movable architectural jewel to enjoy acoustic highlights!
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The Church to live in
In the Netherlands the former church of St. Jacobs in Utrecht, was taken in the hands of the Zecc Architects and they metamorphosed it in a wonderful living space. By using as little architectural interventions as possible they transformed this medieval object in an amazing residence. Instead of braking the place into small rooms, they raised a floor in between - preserving the spaciousness of the original object.
This is their second project in the same line, previously they converted a small chapel in a residential living place. The most astonishing point is that this project is currently for sale. So if you want to live in the 475m2 of amazing architectural project space, and you can afford it, hurry up and visit the St. Jacobs Project.
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W57 - Denmark Architecture talents
Triangular wonder
"Futuristic hybrid of European perimeter block and Manhattan high-rise" is the definition of the W57 building in the West 57th street, currently under construction in New York. The team behind this project is the danish architecture group "Bjarke Ingels Group", a architecture agency that follows a steady path to international success. They are most recognizable by their use of broken geometric forms, unusual cuts and sharp "splatters" (as seen in the super cool "People's building Shanghai" or the "Jessheim hotel").
With the W57 the architects are breaking the conventional cubic form, bringing it down to the basic triangular shape - which allows each of the apartments to have a view on the bay and consume enough natural sunlight. It is interesting that depending on the side of viewing this building, it looks completely different, because of its unusual form and structure.
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One Roof Apartment
A residential building in the coastal city of Niagata in Japan. This is a construction that has an unusual entrance point which reminds us of a paper cut from the original form. This cut is presented in the side perspective of the building where it resembles to the form of the letter "A". With the random positioning of the windows and the sliced white cubic form, the Akisha Hirata architects created a visually pleasant contemporary living space.
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House in Pyrenees
Cadaval & Sola-Morales is an Architecture office based in New York with origins in Mexico and Spain. Within its relatively short existence of 7 years the architects succeeded to receive a lot of international prizes for their projects. One of their exciting last building is the chalet house in the Pyrenees. This remarkable modernistic entity is based on traditional and rural elements, and has huge windows which give a broad view on the beautiful mountain landscape.
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Henning Larsen Architects
Scandinavian golf club
Its remarkable how Henning Larsen Architects succeeded to create symbiosis between classical American golf resort and the traditional scandinavian architecture. The "Scandinavian golf club" is a golf club that was projected and built by this very good architectural group. There is a small river passing under the building. This urban entity is very precisely synchronised with the natural surrounding. The club is built of traditional materials, giving a stylish, cosy and nostalgic filing to it. Please check the detailed images from Hening Larsen's website. In parallel they implemented a remarkable interior design within this project.
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