Ideas about us, architecture, and the built environment.
Sagrada Familia Perspectives by Clément Celma.
THE HUMAN HABITAT
Spot in Vöcklabruck by Westpol architects.
Westpol architects created this wonderfully picturesque spot in Vöcklabruck, Austria where visitors are able to sit in the middle of a pond without getting wet. The scenic landscape includes a path leading down to a hollowed out circular area where people can take a seat and relax amongst nature. It’s a surreal journey along the gradual ramp to the observational platform as the water level gains height either side. Once in the resting area, depending on perspective, visitors seem like they’re wading in the lake without a drop of water on them.
Gran Museo Maya by William Ramirez Pizarro, located in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Photos by Tamara Uribe.
Maijishan Grottoes.
The Maijishan Grottoes are a series of 194 caves cut in the side of the hill of Majishan in Tianshui, Gansu Province, northwest China. This example of rock cut architecture contains over 7,200 Buddhist sculptures and over 1,000 square meters of murals. Construction began in the Later Qin era (384-417 CE).
The Tóló house, designed by Alvaro Leite Siza, is build on a sharply inclined hill in Penafiel, Portugal.The house fragmentation, necessary due to the steep topography, transforms the whole into a composition of small linked and interconnected volumes, creating an unevenness that allows for a more secure and rational use of the lot.The form resulting from a rigorous, modular geometric abstraction establishes the necessary rotation of certain modules to adapt to the natural morphology of the terrain, trying to preserve all the pre-existing trees.The project include three bedrooms, a social bathroom, a living room, a dinning room, a small kitchen with a support washbasin, pantry, and even a small outdoor swimming pool.
The outdoor patios, corresponding to the roofs of various levels, are connected through a pedestrian path that border the lot.The interior floors, doors, and baseboards are in wood, except in the water areas. The exterior doors and windows are in metal, which are double-pained for improved thermal and acoustic insulation.
Inversion by Steven Holl.
Steven Holl’s ‘Inversion’, presented on occasion of Milan Designweek 2013, features digitally cut 21 million year old limestone from a quarry in Lecce, Italy. A five axis CNC mill carved a composition of voids out of the rectangular blocks based on an interpreted watercolor by Holl. Six stone volumes, weighing 1133 kg each frame a shallow pool of water that mirrors the renaissance loggias of the cortile 700 in universita degli studi di milano, a contrastingly rhythmic repetition of columns and modular arches. Each form is conceived as a sectional slice that reveals reversed solid-to-void relationship, further inverted in the mirror-like pool. At night, Iguzzini-designed LED strip tubes provide a warm yellow glow to the cuts in the 1.2 meter-tall monuments while a misting system by Teuco Guzzini further imbues the space with a ethereal scattering of light and reflections. From the INTERNI hybrid architecture and design exhibition in milan, the sculpted stones will be flown to the united states to be installed in the architecture of the new, steven holl-designed performing arts center at princeton university.
Brasilia National Museum, Brazil - Oscar NIemeyer.
(Source: architectureland)
