When she got the commission to build the central pavilion for northern Europe’s largest design event, Dutch architect Marjan van Aubel immediately looked for collaborators to help her highlight the power of the sun.

“Marjan van Aubel called us in May, asking: can you help? …Of course, it was short notice, so we had to move quickly,” explains Michiel Raaphorst, co-founder of V8 Architects. “Three days later, we met with Marjan and Miriam van der Lubbe, the Creative Head of DDW. While sketching, we came up with a surface that allows you to harvest solar energy but also forms a meaningful part of the environment.”

“We use technology to represent a natural phenomenon, and to do so, we harvest the energy from that natural phenomenon itself. So the solar pavilion represents the energy of the sun and cooperation,” Raaphorst adds. “All these parties worked together to realize this project because we all believe in Marjan van Aubel’s message: the time for a solar revolution is now.”

The two groups came up with a gazebo whose shape followed the slope of a cloth beach chair. Supported by four steel masts, the roof was fashioned from 380 wafer-thin glass solar panels in happy shades of red, orange, yellow, and blue. From above, it looked like a sun rising in a blue sky.

The collection of colorful photovoltaic tiles produced roughly 7.5 kilowatts of energy during peak performance hours, sending enough juice to an onsite battery to provide light and heat for all evening visitors. The intended effect was to allow guests to experience the sensation of sitting in the sun even in its absence.

The underside of the roof was left exposed for maximum technological transparency. “The structure contains about five thousand kilos of solar panels,” Raaphorst explains. “We deliberately left all the connections, wires, and discs visible so visitors can see how everything works. A practical view of the structure.”

The design teams also included two connecting staircases that led to a viewing porthole where visitors could have their picture taken via an app. “Up there, you suddenly find yourself in this other world: the solar field,” Raaphorst muses. Underneath the pavilion, a reflective circular bench and steel and wood seats provided places for observers to rest throughout the day.

V8 Architects and Marjan van Aubel Studio also pulled in a dozen other companies to help with parts and assembly. In keeping with the eco-friendly ethos, they borrowed most of the standard building and energy components, returning each part to its owners after the event for a circular resource design.

The architects were excited for the chance to show how earth-conscious technology like solar can and should be incorporated into everyday life. Says Raaphorst, “Currently, energy is only harvested in a techno-functional way. We explore how to integrate the sun’s energy into our daily lives so that we can love and embrace it.”

“Solar energy needs a new, more personal perspective that is part of our culture,” adds Marjan van Aubel. “This pavilion demonstrates that solar energy can be experienced and used in a new way.”

The post Colorful Solar Pavilion Brings Shade to Dutch Design Week first appeared on Dornob.

Co-designed and built with teachers and 44 students from Haroun Tazieff high school in Saint-Paul-lés-Dax, France, ProtoCAMPO is the third iteration of a building technique developed by Frédérique Barchelard and Flavien Menu, themselves former fellows of Villa Medici (2019-2020). The first was the Proto-Habitat, built during their stay in Rome, and the second was the SOLARproto, a 300-square-meter exhibition space built in Amsterdam. ProtoCAMPO takes those concepts and builds upon them, tailored to its unique environment and purpose in one of the city’s most beautifully preserved Renaissance palaces — not to mention home to The French Academy in Rome.

“ProtoCAMPO is both low-tech and high-tech,” explain the designers. “Low tech, as it is assembled by hand using traditional and basic carpentry and joinery assemblage techniques to build up the prefabricated timber pieces. High-tech, in the conception of the inflatable cupola that can be implemented in less than an hour to unfold a six-meter diameter dome weighing only 300 kilograms. protoCAMPO subtly plays with the rhythm of the Villa Medici’s garden framing views of the 200-year-old pine trees and the historic villa. The repetitive timber structure echoes the Renaissance grid structure of the garden being both classical and wild. The dialogue between the pavilion and the surrounding nature evolves over the day, playing with the sun’s path and the rhythm of the garden.”

The cupola of the pavilion shelters up to 350 occupants while remaining open to the sun and wind, and the wooden base is sturdy enough to withstand heavy traffic. In the first week of the festival, protoCAMPO welcomed 300 high school students as part of the Residence Pro educational program developed by Villa Medici with the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region. Now, it’s hosting events, concerts, dinners, shows, and some of the villa’s cultural events for the remainder of the year. Like WALD’s other “proto-architecture” projects, it’s prefabricated, locally sourced, and modular, so it can be quickly assembled and disassembled. No word yet on how it will be used next.

Located near Rome’s famous Spanish Steps, the Villa Medici was designed by Bartolomeo Ammanati and built by Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando de Medici in the 16th century as an estate and open-air museum celebrating the Medici family’s influence in Rome. Its grounds include Roman bas-reliefs and statues, botanical gardens, formal gardens, and palatial architecture. In 1803, it became home to The French Academy in Rome, which aims to welcome artists, creators, and art historians in residence, curate cultural and artistic programs, and conserve the palace’s architectural and landscape heritage.

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“Indeed, the arch connects the dots of the various periods of the building’s architecture,” the firm explains. “It is also linked directly to the museum’s collections as the arch is showcased in the Mesopotamian section, but also in the Assyrian, Egyptian, Etrurian, and Roman collection, amongst many others. Regarding its shape and position, the Louvre Pavilions will fit naturally in Paris’ Royal axis, a tribute to the perspective of L’Arc de Triomphe and La Grade Arche de la Defense.”

“It creates a new connection to Paris’s architectural major landmarks such as the arcades located on the rue de Rivoli, la Seine’s iconic rivers bridges, or la Tour Eiffel just to name a few. Resolutely timeless and yet contemporary, these 21st-century arches are in direct continuity to those built in Le Louvre since the 12th century, enlightening the Louvre’s fundamental DNA.”

The arch modules are designed to connect to each other in various ways, including face-to-face, back-to-back, and at right angles. Some are vertical, creating alcoves within which visitors can shelter. Others are horizontal, encircling guests within intimate banquette seating areas. These configurations echo the geometries of the museum, including its vaults and domes. The arches’ acoustics also provide another practical function: noise reduction. Sit within one of the vertical arches and you’ll find that it offers a micro-environment with reduced distractions (a nice accommodation for visitors with autism and sensory processing disorders, whether the architects actively considered those needs or not).

Studio Malka also envisions the pavilions as adaptable modules that can respond to future needs, such as new pandemic-related distancing regulations that might arise. “We must be able to prepare for various possibilities and create suitable scenarios in order to be able to welcome users in the best possible conditions,” the architects explain. “This is also why our reception pavilions are not only modular but also mobile; Thus, their positioning and combinations may evolve depending on the different requests, but also at the rate of peak periods, like celebrations or school holidays.”

The new pavilions look like they’ll be a great example of temporary, modular, and mobile interventions that have a low impact on the historic buildings they occupy. Instead of permanently altering the Louvre itself, they respectfully augment its functionality and the way it serves the roughly 10 million visitors who pass through its doors each year. When they’re no longer needed, they can simply be removed, leaving the museum as it was before without a trace of their former presence.

The post Arched Modular Mini Pavilions by Studio Malka Will Soon Fill the Louvre first appeared on Dornob.

“We decided to create a structure that can blend itself into its surrounding environment, the special features [are] all about the mixing, the lightness, the hiding, the penetration. The result is an organic structure just like straw sitting [in] the garden.”

Working from the belief that “straw is an image of memory, one that belongs to the Vietnamese countryside,” the MIA team, led by principal architect Nguyen Hoang Manh, constructed a framework reminiscent of a pile of straw collected after a summer’s harvest.

Nestled in a parkland in the Ho Chi Minh City suburb of Thủ Đức, the pavilion was commissioned by construction media company Ashui for their 2021 exhibition and awards ceremonies. To facilitate those needs, MIA Design Studio began with a wooden platform for presentations and then surrounded it with a metal grid structure, allowing them to strategically place wooden planks at perpendicular angles through the mesh.

That backdrop is situated across a stream from a large area for spectators, connected by a narrow wooden footbridge. At night, the Straw Pavilion is immersed in a glow of light, lit up at ground level by radiant bulbs. The lattice design gives the structure a kind of shapeshifting quality as observers change positions, with different angles providing adjusted perspectives. The see-through nature of the batten and mesh was intended to let the “straw” simultaneously stand out from and merge with the surrounding landscape of fruit and vegetable gardens.

“The straw is an entity that is able to completely blend itself into the natural context,” the architects explain. “Not parading around shapes as well as materials, we hope it is able to appear and disappear with time, with no direct interaction to the garden itself. In the most perspicuous way, this is a structure which does not damage the one existing, it blends in smoothly.”

For its thoughtful outdoor design, MIA was nominated for the 2021 Architecture Masterprize, and was a finalist for the 2021 Architizer A+ award.
MIA Design Studio got its start in Ho Chi Minh City in 2003. Now a firm employing over 50 architects, interior designers, and technicians, its guiding principles include a commitment to sustainability to “ensure that our actions and decisions today do not inhibit the opportunities of future generations.” They attempt to be efficient and moderate in their use of materials, energy, and development space.

As great admirers of the modernist movement, the company is known for their “formal simplicity, [and the] integration of interior and exterior into fluid spaces with special attention to the landscape and climate conditions of each project.”

The post MIA’s Straw Pavilion Keeps Nature at the Heart of Modernity first appeared on Dornob.

“I was very impressed by the village. It was quite beautiful,” explains founder and architect Sou Fujimoto. “The weather was mostly cloudy when I visited there, with a bit of misty and foggy air surrounding the entire village.”

The resulting ringed structure “was inspired by the site itself, especially the fog and clouds that diffused over the village,” adds Fujimoto. “They were like buildings floating in the air, or rather, like roofs connecting nature, buildings, and various sceneries around. The continuing terraced fields created an architectural image and made the whole area very dynamic and vivid. Therefore, we proposed a floating canopy just like a cloud, hugging the landscape and being part of it.”

The plan for the officially titled “Fangyukong Cultural & Creative Resort Complex” began with the main building, an open space to be used for exhibitions, conferences, and art galleries. Enclosed with floor-to-ceiling window walls, this structure allows for maximum connection with the surrounding nature but still provides protection from snow and wind. The ceiling is lined with dry, woven grasses, continuing the feeling of symbiosis with the outdoor world.

From the main building, a steel-framed canopy covered in more natural fibers weaves its way in a circle down the multi-terraced complex, with its lowest point shading a glass-enclosed swimming pool and nearly connecting to the adjacent river, adding to the flow of the landscape instead of interrupting it.

“While distinguishing buildings and natural fields, the canopy creates a view just like a huge courtyard facing the sky,” the firm explains. “…We named the project ‘Flowing Cloud’ from the impression of the environment when we first visited the site, but also for the soft shape of the entire canopy.”

In the middle of the pavilion’s loop is an outdoor amphitheater of flower-filled steppes, accessible by stone staircases on either side.

The firm adds: “We look forward to having people come to visit, lingering around the poetic village, walking under the floating canopy, and enjoying the picturesque views of the beautiful nature.”

Hokkaido-native Sou Fujimoto grew up exploring the many mountains and forest of his island, spawning his life-long love of the natural world. He is particularly inspired by cave dwellings, which he says represent “a raw space where function was determined based on human behavior.” A few years after graduating in Architecture from the University of Tokyo, he founded his eponymous architecture firm in 2000, becoming known for his houses with light structures and permeable enclosures that allowed residents to stay in touch with their surroundings.

The firm’s work became well known around Japan, landing them major contracts in Europe including the design of London’s temporary Serpentine Gallery and the redesign of a plot in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. In 2021, Fujimoto earned his master’s degree from l’École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. In addition to his design work, he lectures regularly at the Universities of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Minato.

The post Sou Fujimoto’s Flowing Cloud Pavilion Winds Through a Mountain Village first appeared on Dornob.

The design doesn’t represent any ordinary tree shape, though. If it seems extraordinarily minimal and fluid, that’s because it’s based on the shape of the Schuylkill River, which flows 135 miles from Pottsville to Philadelphia, where it joins the Delaware River. To that end, the design is meant to represent life within the hospital and the city, and the connection between nature and medical science.

“My approach to this piece is to create something that is uplifting, that has a sense of wonder and beauty,” Lin says. “I want to make you aware of your surroundings in the pavilion, in this beacon of scientific advancement, connecting you to the physical and natural world around you while symbolizing the very essence of life — DNA.”

Supported by a hidden steel tree-shaped structure, the sculpture will be covered in hundreds of glass beads that will reflect the sunlight streaming in through adjacent windows. It will be installed before the pavilion opens in October 2021. In progress for several years now, construction on the complex was accelerated last year in order to open 150 patient rooms that could serve as potential surge space through the pandemic. When the full hospital opens, it will offer 47 operating rooms and 500 private patient rooms.

“Art and design can be a transformational element of a patient’s experience. It was important to select pieces for HUP East that will convey a sense of peace and healing in this new landmark for exemplary care, as well as a welcoming, vibrant atmosphere for our patients, families, and staff,” says Regina Cunningham, PhD, RN, Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

“Maya Lin thoughtfully designed a sculpture that connects the fundamental elements of life and science to our health system and the Philadelphia community, and we look forward to its installation as we prepare to open the doors of our new patient pavilion.”

Maya Lin surged into the public eye at 21 years old during her senior year at Yale University, when she won a nationwide competition to create a design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Completed in 1982, her minimalist monument design was controversial at the time, but is now widely considered one of the most powerful memorials in the world. The polished V-shaped granite wall is inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 soldiers killed or missing in action.

Lin’s later designs have included a monument to the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama, a water-themed 1993 monument commemorating women at Yale, and a series of seven art installations along the Columbia River in Oregon for the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition (2000).

The post Maya Lin to Install New “DNA Tree of Life” Sculpture at Pennsylvania Hospital first appeared on Dornob.

In the Henan province of northeast China, local authorities initially wanted architecture firm Atelier XI to build a single large cultural facility in the area’s largest town, Xiuwu, but the architects had a better idea. In place of one 3,229-square-foot arts and culture center, they’d split the project into a series of miniature facilities in different rural locations. The province agreed, and “Peach Hut” is the first of those pavilions to be completed.

Set in the village of Jiaozuo, near the northern bank of the Yellow River, “Peach Hut” rises from an orchard of peach trees, with one glass-clad facade cantilevering over the greenery. The combination of the building’s unusual modern geometry and cheerful color contrast with the farmland surroundings, and make it look sort of like a sentient creature from an animated film that could suddenly stand up and start walking around at any moment. Needless to say, modern architecture is rarely seen in settings like this, much less structures this bold and playful.

The building’s curved silhouette was achieved with cast-in-place concrete, with the texture of the formwork still visible on the exterior walls. The shape of “Peach Hut” also takes inspiration from the twisting shapes of local trees, which all tend to lean to one side.

“[We] envisioned that the building is cut from a series of invisible arcs derived from the earth and the clouds, forming a unique shape that rises to the sky,” explains the firm. “In the Peach Hut, all windows are of diverse shapes, responding to different views and light angles: the large floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor allows viewers to jump over the peach trees and overlook the panoramic view of the farm; the round window frame on the south side rotates along the central axis, and captures dynamic imageries of the orchard under the subtle variation of daylight; the vertical windows at the corners lengthen the depth of field from the orchard to the village at far; the shadow [created by] the skylight changes at every moment; and the entrance corner window is made as a quarter circle resembling the stooped peach trees, thus resonating with the picturesque land.”

Acting as a community center and beverage bar, the observatory hut gives local residents a place to gather and take in the views. The other six pavilions planned for the province will be built over two construction phases, including the “Periscope” (a vernacular theater) and “Bent House” (a communal library).

The architects add that “these cast-in-place concrete miniatures are interpreted into a series of tree-shaped spaces with tentacles reaching out for the sky, bathing in light and shadow. Their locations vary from fields to woods to mountaintops, and their forms differ as well: while one grows out from the ruined walls in an abandoned village, another embodies a floating theater on the water.”

The project aims to address inequalities between urban and rural areas that resonate far outside China’s borders. People living in remote areas tend to lack sufficient access to information and educational resources, let alone the type of cultural attractions that you’d find in more populated areas.

“Through these minimal architecture investments, the project aims to inspire sensibilities of local residents, to help them enjoy and rethink life quality, as well as to alleviate isolation and poverty.”

The post “Peach Hut” Brings Contemporary Architectural Geometries to Rural China first appeared on Dornob.

Taking the primrose flower as his inspiration, and under the direction of Domenica Arcuri (Italy’s special commissioner on the COVID-19 crisis), Boeri and a team of designers came up with a prefabricated structure with partitioned fabric walls, aerially mimicking the flower’s center and petals. The primrose, a bloom with deep ties to Italian art history, is one of the first flowers to blossom when temperatures begin to rise, prefiguring the end of winter.

“With the image of a springtime flower, we wanted to create an architecture that would convey a symbol of serenity and regeneration,” says Boeri. “Getting vaccinated will be an act of civic responsibility, love for others, and the rediscovery of life. If this virus has locked us up in hospitals and homes, the vaccine will bring us back into contact with life and the nature that surrounds us.”

Once the symbol was chosen, Boeri had to integrate the idea with a workable vaccination center.

“The real challenge was designing the pavilions in outdoor spaces that could be built in a short time and include the flower as a constituent element,” he explained in a streamed press conference on December 13th, 2020. “This pavilion is in the shape of a flower that can be easily dismantled with recyclable materials and comes with self-sufficient energy use, security, and protection.”

The circular edifice is made of timbers situated on a circular wooden base and will be covered by a water-resistant textile made of recyclable and naturally biodegradable materials. Printed on the outside of the tent will be the campaign logo and slogan: “With a flower, Italy comes back to life.” Sound dampening fabric will be used to form the interior partitions, allowing for the right combination of transparency and privacy, while the outer spaces will house rooms for the actual vaccinations, as well as intake areas and observation rooms for those who have just received the vaccine. At the center of the prefab pergola will be the operator and administrative hub, with space for storage, changing rooms, an office, and dedicated toilets. In addition to featuring a giant painted electric pink primrose, the roof will also incorporate a ring of photovoltaic panels large enough to generate a self-sustaining amount of energy for each building.

Italy was one of the first European countries to feel the effects of the coronavirus. In mid-December it retook the lead from the UK for total continental COVID deaths, reaching a staggering toll of 64,520. The country plans to install 1,500 of Beori’s rotundas to expeditiously administer its 3.4 million Pfizer vaccine doses by mid-January.

As an architect, Boeri gained worldwide acclaim for his design of Il Bosco Verticale (the Vertical Forest) in Milan, a pair of skyscrapers encased by walls of living plants and trees.

For the current project, Boeri and his colleagues worked pro bono, according to his website.

Boeri is hopeful that the central nature of his stations will help rally his fellow countrymen and women with a renewed sense of community. “Italy’s public life is in our piazzas. We need to make sure that these pavilions will be reachable, comfortable, and places that the community consider, for a period of time, part of their lives in order to defeat COVID-19.”

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“As the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, we are happy to participate, under the aegis of the Italian Commissariat for Expo, in this innovative project, the first high-tech reproduction of Michelangelo’s David. The David will be the protagonist of the Italian Pavilion of the next Universal Exposition…[this] icon of beauty and perfection will represent not only Italian art, his figure will above all be the bearer of an important positive message of rebirth, hope, and courage,” says the Accademia’s director Cecilie Hollberg.

Over the course of the next 12 months, until the October opening of the postponed Expo 2020 Dubai, the construction of the David’s high-tech brother will begin with comprehensive data collection and digitization. The natural plastics, resins, and other “innovative materials” will then be milled before being filtered through the “largest 3D printer in the world.” After being both machine and hand-polished, the final step will be detail work, like painting the replica to imitate the original’s marble coloring.

Digital David will be a collaboration between Italy’s preeminent engineers, computer scientists, artisans, curators, teachers, and restorers, all under the supervision of the University of Florence.

The 16th-century masterpiece is no stranger to being copied. Since its unveiling in 1504, Michelangelo’s treasure has been reproduced in countless forms and places. There are two full-scale facsimiles in Florence alone. A marble version is also located outside City Hall, the David’s original site (the real one currently resides safely out of the elements in the Galleria dell’Accademia). A bronze, now-patinaed model looks over the city at the Piazzale Michelangelo. The statue also has life-size likenesses in other places all over the world, including New York, California, Brazil, Uruguay, Korea, and Australia. According to the Wikipedia page about the David’s imitations, a plaster cast was even installed in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in 1957 and included a “detachable fig leaf, used for added modesty during visits by [the Queen] and other important ladies.”

The newest edition is not even the first 3D-printed David. “At Stanford University they made a first digital [reduced-scale] copy about 20 years ago, but in the meantime the tools have changed and we wanted to try to transfer the knowledge applied so far only in the industrial sector, in the aeronautical and naval sectors,” explains Hollberg.

The result will hopefully showcase the progress Italy has made since Michelangelo first got his hands on that colossal block of Carrara marble. With native companies involved in all aspects of the venture, “the promotion of Italian scientific and technological expertise is part of the operation,” says Paolo Glisenti, commissioner general for the country’s Expo pavilion. “It’s technology tied to historical memory, for future memory. History and innovation — those are the themes that interest us.”

David 2.0 will be displayed centrally as the focal point of the multi-story Italian exhibition, enabling visitors to examine it from every angle. A video recounting the entire creation process will play nearby, providing a handy guidebook on how to replicate ancient artwork in the event of damage.

After the Expo closes in March 2022, the 3D twin will be returned to Florence, although its exact location has yet to be determined.

The post Michelangelo’s David Gets “Digital Twin” for World’s Fair first appeared on Dornob.

For novices, however, crafting this kind of joinery can be hard to pull off, whether you’re putting together a table or a much, much larger structure. So when companies produce kits that make assembly with wedge joints a snap, it’s always notable — especially when the resulting structures look this cool.

The HexBox Canopy is a modular system of prefabricated hexagon-shaped boxes made of laminated veneer lumber (LVL) plates that join together into beautiful undulating pavilions. The components all have slightly different shapes and sizes, coming together sort of like a puzzle to form rounded shapes. That makes it possible to build arched spatial structures like vaults and domes without the use of concrete or vertical supports. Plus, it eliminates some of the trickier parts of building vaults and domes the conventional way, like the use of formwork.

HexBox aims to rethink that building process altogether, taking advantage of the innate strength of newer forms of engineered timber. Since drawing, calculating, and cutting the components by hand would be far too complicated, each structure starts with computational design and digital fabrication techniques, both of which serve to automatically plot out the shapes and sizes of the elements, which are in turn robotically cut in a workshop.

The thin plates of the plywood boxes themselves are still glued together, but to connect each modular element to the next, the wedge joints come into play.

The designers explain that “due to their angular wedges, such joints allow you to compensate for certain tolerances that are intrinsic to the naturally grown material wood. These novel joints can be produced from waste material such as the smaller offcuts from the box component fabrication. Rather than attempting ultra-precisely fabricated elements, the wedges allow you to assemble boxes even when there are small imprecisions. Additionally, these joints allow for pulling and forcing the boxes together [and] closing gaps between the elements which may occur during assembly, similar to metal screw connectors. The closing of such gaps is critical for the overall precision and performance of the structure.”

A prototype called the HexBox Pavilion DTC was created in Darlington, Australia as a collaboration between researchers and students from the University of Kaiserslautern and the University of Sydney to show what this modular system can do. As you can see in close-ups of the individual modules, the wedge joints result in a beautifully clean and simple appearance, with the overall structure resembling honeycomb. Featuring 1531 timber segments making up 201 boxes, the all-plywood pavilion is used to shelter students from the sun and rain.

The success of this HexBox Canopy could pave the way for more architecture to be designed and built in a similar way. And it’s definitely cool to imagine it becoming more accessible to the average consumer: let’s say you could go to a website, design your structure with a digital tool, and have your custom prefabricated modules delivered straight to your door for assembly. Then, we could see a lot more organically shaped architecture popping up in unexpected places.

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Appropriately named “Bamboo Bamboo,” the pavilion is made of the same materials by which it’s surrounded. Architecture firm LLLab has succeeded in creating a sensory experience that elicits a sense of anticipation — a sort of pre-performance meditation as guests make their way to the outdoor theater.

The pavilion offers a place to retreat from the sun and frequent rains, stretching out a full 140 meters (459 feet) along the river. Lanterns set at various intervals create a soft, warm glow after dark, and in some areas, cutouts in the roof allow living bamboo to grow unencumbered. Amazingly, this canopy was hand-woven by local craftspeople using a technique that eliminates the need for any glue or nails. The result is remarkably nest-like, with support pillars hidden behind the woven surfaces.

The further visitors travel into the pavilion, the larger the lanterns become, until you’re eventually able to walk right inside them. In the daylight, they appear solid, but at night, they diffuse the light, creating patterns and shadows that add to the drama of the setting.

The firm explains that “currently, the night show entertains guests in two areas, one at either end of the island site. The entry and pagoda where guests arrive, and the main stage, perched at the bank of the Li river at the other end. Between these two points, little interaction takes place. It is here in this middle ground that two new assemblies of architecture are introduced. The first, woven bamboo lantern structures, scattered where guests circulate, whose purpose is to guide and intrigue. Then the other, a stretch of woven canopy amongst clusters of bamboo, providing an area to walk sheltered from regular rainfall. In these, the architecture relies on bamboo not only for its composition but also for its constant referral to parts that constitute the place.”

“In acknowledgment of the theatrical spirit of the Impression Sanjie Liu, moments of performance make its way into many parts of the design: the hand weaving and bamboo playing off the tension of one another. The topography of the canopy ceiling dancing between columns of bamboo as if unsupported. Even the way guests are intended to move from lantern to lantern, in a narrative of interaction. Together these subtle hints encourage a particular frame of mind, readying the guest for the main feature.”

“Impression Sanjie Liu” makes the landscape its backdrop. In fact, this site is considered the world’s largest natural theater, using the waters of the Li River as its stage and the mist-shrouded hills and sky as set dressings. Rain, moonlight, and all the reflections seen in the water play a role in the performance, while the audience stands on viewing terraces. Sound equipment is hidden among the bamboo groves, so it feels like the performance is occurring spontaneously, naturally amplified.

The post Nest-Like Woven Pavilion Built Around Living Bamboo first appeared on Dornob.

Now, South African firm Rooi Design has created what might be the least wasteful pavilion ever made. Designed for the Shanghai International Furniture Fair 2019, “Furniture Pavilion S and its Afterlife” takes ordinary materials and shows off what they’re capable of, from their raw, uncut state to their final forms. Each plywood piece used to build the pavilion can be recycled “endlessly,” too — not just into new furniture-showcasing pavilions, but into pretty much any piece of furniture you could want.

All 821 segments of the pavilion are market standard-size (1.22 x 1.22 meter) plywood, the most efficient size for common furniture making applications. Inserted into a steel framework, they form a tall modular structure with nearly 200 open display cubes built into the walls. These openings allow a glimpse into the inside of the pavilion.

“Pavilion S is not just a furniture showroom either, it is a place where one can relax and rest during the exhibition,” say the architects. “The facade of the building uses two different cubes, and the four facades have become window-like in order to display the furniture, giving audiences different views from various angles. The furniture display can be clearly seen, and the transparent facade captures plenty of sunlight, while the 1.22-meter-deep window prevents the sun from shining directly into the showroom.”

“The main structure adopts the mixed-use of a wood and steel structure, while the roof is designed as a hyperboloid (positive and negative arch-beam steel structure roof). The whole building space does not have a column, presenting the whole exhibition hall in a clean, sleek manner. [We believe] that the complexity should be left in the design and technique of the building process while giving the audience an impression that’s clear and easy to understand, bright, and eco-friendly to the city.”

Even more impressive is what the pavilion becomes after it’s disassembled. The architects recycled the entire thing into 410 sets of tables and chairs with almost zero material waste, creating either one hexagonal table or three rectangular chairs from each piece. The tables and chairs can become their own little constellations of seating, joined together in virtually infinite configurations.

Both the end result of the furniture and the process by which it’s directly transformed have especially significant value in the rural Chinese community of Fuqing, where Rooi Design is now located. There, the furniture is set outside the Comprehensive Cultural Service Center for communal use, and the public is given the freedom to rearrange it however they like. In this way, the community gets a direct say in how their public spaces are used, and the process of putting it together makes friends out of total strangers.

The post This Plywood Pavilion Can Be Endlessly Recycled Into New Furniture first appeared on Dornob.

The process, filmed as part of designer Neri Oxman’s “Material Ecology” project, is mesmerizing to watch. The worms are seen producing their silk threads in close-up shots, while views of the kinetic jig let us see the pavilion slowly take shape as it moves. The shots gazing up at the material from below are probably not for the squeamish, as the 17,532 worms actively wriggle overhead. A net beneath the jig safely captures the worms as they undergo metamorphosis, allowing them to live out their natural lives.

It took the worms about ten days to complete the finished textile structure with the jig rotating in a clockwise motion. Oxman stresses that rather than exploiting the worms, the process is meant to showcase a different way of harvesting silk, which is traditionally derived from the cocoons of larvae killed off at the pupal stage. In fact, about 3,000 silkworms are usually killed to make a single pound of silk.

“As the Silk Pavilion demonstrates, structures can influence silkworms to spin in sheets instead of cocoons,” says Oxman. “This project illustrates how this small yet unique insect can act not only as construction worker but also as designer, [working] in collaboration with with a manmade structure that guides its movement and deposition of silk to create an enhanced form.”

“Silk Pavilion II” itself is located in Italy, but the seven-minute-long movie of its creation was presented at the Material Ecology exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art as part a showcase of works by Oxman’s Mediated Matter Group research department at MIT. The show opened on February 22nd and was supposed to run through May 25th, but was closed in early March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Israeli-born Oxman is known for her unusual bio-based and bio-inspired creations blending art and science, which have included architecture, wearable designs, and medical devices. Her high-tech experimentation with living creatures and natural materials is unparalleled.

“By pairing the creation of bespoke technologies for digital construction with real-world applications, Oxman and her team have generated new ways of production that result in structures whose physical properties have been designed to seamlessly match the environment which they inhabit,” reads her website. “Rigidity, elasticity, color, transparency, conductivity — even smell and taste — can be individually tuned for each 3D pixel of a physical object.”

“The construction of products and buildings is therefore no longer limited to collections of discrete parts with homogeneous properties. Rather, objects, like organs, can be computationally ‘grown,’ additively manufactured, and biologically augmented to create heterogeneous and multifunctional constructs.”

Oxman calls this process “biological alchemy,” allowing microorganisms and other living creatures to mimic factories creating biomaterials that can be used for all sorts of purposes. Ultimately, this proves the ability to grow rather than manufacture, transforming living matter into built environments. Her projects are presented in narrative form, often with interactive elements. Check out more “Material Ecology” at Oxman.com.

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Architect Andrés Bustamante Arrieta of Mexico City firm REVOLUTION has an idea to address this problem, and he’s making his solution open-source so others can easily reproduce it. The Temporary Pavilion for Healthcare Workers (TPHW) is a profit-free “emergency architecture” project consisting of temporary wooden pavilions made from 12 modular sections.

These micro-dwellings each have a footprint of just seven square meters (about 75 square feet) but contain a bedroom, wardrobe, shower, sink, toilet, electric heater, cistern, natural ventilation, and poly-aluminum thermal insulation. They’re made to be quickly assembled, disassembled, and stored until they’re needed again for another crisis.

Since their bases are so small, these modular emergency shelters can be deployed in parking lots, grassy areas outside hospitals, and any other spaces that might be available. As many hospitals dealing with an influx of COVID-19 cases have canceled elective procedures for the foreseeable future, there’s often plenty of parking spaces available to host multiple pavilions.

The prefabricated modular sections consist of wood and biodegradable plastic and already contain all of the elements needed to be put to immediate use, including a chlorinated water tank and a solar thermal panel on the roof to heat the water.

What’s nice about this design is not only its ease of deployment, but how much it feels like a real residence despite its small size. A lot of emergency shelters are made of flimsy, tent-like materials with only the barest of comforts, but these pavilions seem both hospitable and durable enough to reuse again and again.

The first prototype was inaugurated on May 15th outside the Red Cross of Ospeda Central in Mexico City, and was ultimately moved to the Mexican Red Cross Hospital in Polanco, where it will stay until September 2020.

“The design of the pavilion was intended to be installed in patios or parking lots, as these are spaces that become obsolete during contingencies,” says the architect. “Its modules resist all types of weather thanks to the thermal and waterproof properties of poly-aluminium on the outside, and inside it is coated with antibacterial paint to facilitate disinfection among users.”

“The plans and assembly manual of the modules will be available on the official website of the Mexican Red Cross for free download, so that the general public can access them as a technical resource for guidance and advice to set up their own temporary housing spaces according to the needs in [their] state or locality.”

“REVOLUTION is an office founded in 2015 by Andrés Bustó Arrieta, architect from the Universidad Iberoamericana and specialist in vertical development of housing and mixed uses by the University of New York. Among its most relevant projects are the Pabellón Pedregal shopping center in Mexico City, the MAZUL residential complexes in Santa Elena, Oaxaca, the Cancún Resort in Cancún, Quintana Roo, and the Master Plan for the construction of temporary housing for those affected by the Earthquake of September 2017 in Ocuilán, State of Mexico.”

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Hoping to shine a spotlight on Reich’s under-recognized skills as a designer, the Mies van der Rohe Foundation recently launched the second phase of a grant program set up in her name. The foundation previously set up a research grant along the same lines, and the resulting exhibition by Laura Martínez de Guereñu, “Re-enactment: Lilly Reich’s Work” still occupies the Barcelona Pavilion (designed by Reich herself), where it will remain on display until July 15th, 2020. Specifically, the research-based exhibit represents Lilly Reich’s influence by reconstructing two display cases similar to the ones she designed herself for the International Exposition of 1929. It also transforms the spatial experience of the pavilion by reclaiming its connection with Reich’s work on the Noucentista Palaces of Montjuïc.

The Foundation has previously stated that “the results of the first-edition research show the need to continue studying the person and work of Lilly Reich: the Lilly Reich Grant of Academic research will insist on deepening the knowledge and dissemination of this essential figure in the history of modern architecture.”

The Mies van der Rohe Foundation has a special reason to honor this particular designer, since she worked in a partnership with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe on several notable projects in the past, including the aforementioned German section of the 1929 World Exhibition in Barcelona. The two also collaborated on the acclaimed Tugendhat House in Brno, Czech Republic and, perhaps most notably, the masterpiece of modern architecture that is the Barcelona Pavilion.

Marking the 135th anniversary of Lilly Reich’s birth (June 16th, 1885, Berlin), the second edition of the Lilly Reich Grant for equality in architecture is focused on high-school aged students in an effort to encourage further research into the designer’s life and work.

“We are thrilled to present the new call of the Lilly Reich Grant for equality in architecture, and we are especially happy to include the teenage community in this fight for equality through research and knowledge,” says the foundation’s Executive Director Anna Ramos.

A total of five grants will be awarded with a cash value of €300 each, with winners also receiving bibliographical or educational material worth €200 for the educational center of their choosing. Each winning project will also be published on the official FMVDR website.

The brief regarding the project reads: “Lilly Reich Grant for Senior High School Students Research Projects focuses on the study, dissemination, and visibilization of contributions to architecture that have been unduly relegated or forgotten, or carried out by architectural professionals that have received discriminatory treatment, and that promote equal access to the practice of architecture worldwide.”

With any luck, grants like these will continue inspiring youth, encouraging an interest in the history of design as a foundation for the future, and honoring equality within all professions.

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The architects took a bunch of plastic crates commonly found all over Indonesia and reimagined them as building blocks, which seems pretty intuitive since they’re so stackable. Formed into walls, towers, partitions, and roofs after being screwed together and supported with steel columns and frames, these crates became structural elements with several possible functions. That is, they aren’t limited to just being walls — they can also be planters, shelves, or storage space.

The first Kotakrat prototype was built to serve as a small mosque in the busy urban center of Tangerang, Indonesia. You can see how the crates are arranged to create small, semi-private rooms with access to ample fresh air and daylight. Rugs are also tucked into the crates so worshippers can sit or kneel comfortably. Smaller stacks can even be used as stools.

Parisauli Arsitek Studio says their design was partially inspired by the perception that plastic crates aren’t environmentally friendly simply because they’re made of fossil fuels, manufactured in excess, and tossed aside when they aren’t wanted. But look how easy it is to transform them into something truly useful. The architects point out that the plastic is durable enough to stand up to the elements.

Something else to consider is the fact that the modularity of this project makes it easy to disassemble, which is another important factor in sustainable architecture and design. If this prayer space is no longer needed, it would be simple to take it apart, transport it somewhere else, and build it into a new shape for an entirely new purpose.

The firm adds that: “Kotakrat is a ‘ruang kebaikan’ (space of kindness) that starts with the diversity of people’s needs, behavior, and habits. The existence of this space of kindness adapts to the context, location, and needs of its user community. [The] space of kindness may appear as a stall, prayer room, emergency post, shelter, bus stop, and others. This space was created to represent those ideas. Created by crates that are easily found in everyday life but not everyday needs. This crate is easily arranged into space.”

“This idea of Kotakrat representing the space of kindness was started in Indonesia, which has a high diversity. [Starting] by choosing the right user was one fundamental step to make a space of kindness sustain[able] and formed in the middle of society. The first form of the Kotakrat is a small mosque according to the needs on-site. The first goal is to make this system [sustainable] in some society by taking advantage of their needs. Because of its function as a prayer room, we made an additional roof by adding some columns and frames.”

“A small mosque that appears in public space could [meet] a lot of Muslims’ needs, such as praying five times a day on wherever they are…This was one effort to make the space of kindness [sustainable] in society. Hopefully, by the time, this Kotakrat system could be accepted [and become a part of] society itself.”

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