Completed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning studio SANAA eight years after the Japanese firm’s proposal won an international competition for the new building, Sydney Modern adds 7,000 square meters (about 75,350 square feet) of gallery space to the existing Art Gallery of New South Wales. It officially opened to the public on December 3rd.

The new addition connects to the original art gallery, a neoclassical-style building designed by British architect Walter Vernon and completed in 1909, via a public garden “land bridge.” It consists of a series of stepped platforms that give it a stacked, low-profile appearance from a distance — certainly a contrast to the bold, graphic Opera House and its unforgettable silhouette.

For SANAA, the point wasn’t to rival that monument. It was to create an appropriate building for the site, with its stunning views of Woolloomooloo Bay and a backdrop of the city skyline. SANAA principal architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa wanted the building to be harmonious with its surroundings, “one that breathes with the city, the park, and the harbor.”

“There are two ways to create a landmark, which depends on the landscape,” says Nishizawa. “If you are in an open site, a landmark can appear with a positive form and clear outline, like a rock. But if you are in a forest with all its trees, this doesn’t work. You have to create a clearing and allow the sunlight in. But the light in the forest doesn’t have a clear outline. This is a very different way to create an icon.”

The effect may be subtle architecturally, but its impact on the museum certainly isn’t. The addition’s rectilinear pavilions are arranged around a central glass-walled atrium with views of the water. Courtyards and rooftop terraces grant the upper levels a series of outdoor areas for open-air events, and the lower levels are made with rammed earth, anchoring them to the site.

Interior spaces include large exhibition rooms, including one solely dedicated to aboriginal art and another two with soaring 18-foot ceilings. Smaller exhibition rooms are devoted to children’s learning spaces and a studio for creating multimedia artworks. A large, columned underground art space repurposed from a decommissioned World War II naval oil tank will offer another 2,200 square meters (23,680 square feet) for special commissions and performances.

The new land bridge reconnects the art gallery to the city’s Royal Botanic Garden, allowing pedestrian movement from the Woolloomooloo to the city center and creating an entirely public space in the process. The garden atop the land bridge is named “bial gwiyuno” (the fire is not yet lighted) and includes both indigenous plant species and an installation by Australian artist Jonathan Jones.

“The Sydney Modern Project allows us to engage our audiences and work with our artists in thrilling new ways,” says Maud Page, Deputy Director and Director of Collections for the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The post Sydney Modern is Australia’s Most Iconic Architecture Since the Sydney Opera House first appeared on Dornob.

Since launching in 2011, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has made more than 44 orbits of our solar system’s largest planet. The attached visible-light JunoCam has been capturing the gas giant in all its glory over the past six years and sending the images back to Earth.

Not only has NASA open-sourced all the files, but it has also requested the help of volunteer “citizen scientists” around the world to help process the data. In June of this year, it began the Jovian Vortex Hunter project, “aimed at studying the different types of clouds that form on Jupiter, in order to better understand how the atmosphere of the largest planet in the solar system works,” according to Ramanakumar Sankar, the project lead and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota.

“With your help,” Sankar added, “we could learn so much about the Jovian atmosphere and processes that form the amazing clouds that we see.”

Astronomers from all parts of the globe have since created incredible representations of Jupiter’s clouds and surfaces, ranging from the ultra-realistic to the overly artistic. Here are a few stand-outs from the almost 500 images submitted so far:

Frosting Clouds

At the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2022 in Granada, Dr. Gerald Eichstädt used the JunoCam’s data on reflected light to create a 3D model with individual “needles” corresponding to the height of Jupiter’s clouds. The resulting picture looks like it could be the whipped frosting top of a cupcake.

“The Juno mission provides us with an opportunity to observe Jupiter in a way which is essentially inaccessible by Earth-based telescopic observations. We can look at the same cloud features from very different angles within only a few minutes,” says Dr. Eichstätdt. “This has opened up a new opportunity to derive 3D elevation models of Jupiter’s cloud-tops. The images of the wonderful chaotic storms on Jupiter seem to come to life, showing clouds rising at different altitudes.”

Saturated Hues

Using images taken from only 3,300 miles above Jupiter’s cloud tops, citizen scientist Björn Jónsson made a side-by-side picture of the planet’s colors as they would be interpreted by the human eye and the colors with deeper saturation to sharpen the smaller cloud features.

Blue South Pole

While most of Jupiter’s surface appears to be a reddish-brown color, footage from the JunoCam taken 11,747 miles above the planet’s clouds revealed that its North Pole is actually covered in icy swirls of blue. Dr. Eichstädt and fellow citizen scientist Seán Doran processed that data into an image of gorgeous denim-colored whirlpools, showing how the higher altitude clouds cast shadows on their surroundings.

Candy-Colored Moon

Calling it the “Fall Colors of Europa,” citizen scientist Fernando Garcia created a kaleidoscopic image of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Using data captured during the JunoCam’s close fly-by on September 29th, 2022, Garcia gave the moon (which is thought to have twice as much water as Earth does) a psychedelic makeover.

South Pole Cyclones

Citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko pulled data from the JunoCam to color-enhance an image of the storms and cyclones at Jupiter’s south pole in intricate and striking detail.

Jupiter — Van Gogh Style

Turning Jupiter’s Northern Jets into artistic whirls akin to those in Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night, citizen scientist Brian Swift used digital paint to highlight an aerial view of Jet N5.

The Juno spacecraft is expected to continue orbiting Jupiter for another six years fir a total of 80 passes around the gas giant, collecting images the entire time. That leaves plenty of time for more scientists and artists to get in on the action to make their very own masterpieces.

The post Citizen Scientists Create Stunning Pictures of Jupiter with the Help of NASA’s JunoCam first appeared on Dornob.

“Like air taking shape uniquely within our bodies, our lives, and the world around us, this installation changes shape based on real-time, region-specific data as an abstract representation of how air quality impacts us all differently,” the creators explain.

“This interactive installation encourages its audience to reflect on their personal relationship to air quality both locally and globally. It also evokes a lasting, emotional response for those living with the greatest consequences of air pollution through the shared experience of a simple act — breathing.”

The kinetic structures change shape in response to data from local sensors and global data from an open-source API. Audiences who gather to watch the installations will be instructed to follow the breathing pattern of the structure, breathing in with every expansion and out with every contraction to see what it feels like to breathe the air in a particular location.

They’ll even be able to select a region of interest to control the installation’s movements. A QR code will lead the audience to an educational website offering more information and actions to take in their daily lives to reduce global air pollution.

Atta Society aims to deploy the first edition of the “When Air Takes Shape” installation in summer 2023 at various locations within British Columbia. In the future, they plan to take the installation around the world. Their recent Kickstarter campaign raised 214 percent of their goal with the support of 95 backers. They’ve already created their preliminary designs and prototypes, and the funds raised will be used to construct the final sculptures and deploy them in public.

“Within the current climate emergency, human livelihoods are at stake,” the creators say. “Those in less developed regions are especially vulnerable to environmental crises. As far as our world is from being a collection of isolated utopias, many privileged individuals do not understand the urgency, or possess the knowledge, to act upon climate change.”

“However, our consumption demands can increase the risks of individuals dying from air pollution in other parts of the world. As an alarming example, U.S. consumption is responsible for about 100,000 deaths occurring elsewhere in the world. Of those deaths, about 50 percent occur in China, with another 20 percent occurring elsewhere in Asia. Yet, consumerism persists, paralleled with the exploitation of individuals and the environment.”

The “When Air Takes Shape” project makes air pollution feel more personal, wherever you may live in the world. To follow this project and watch for future exhibitions, follow the Atta Society on Instagram @attasociety and on Facebook.

The post Shapeshifting Sculptures Show the Harsh Reality of Air Pollution first appeared on Dornob.

Created by artists Ella and Nicki, Hugh Broughton Architects, Professor Lucy Berthoud, Dr. Bob Myhill, PEARCE+, and public input, Mars House features an inflatable gold foil structure designed to sit on the surface of the red planet, and a subterranean level beneath it. The prototype is currently on display in the English city of Bristol along with a four-month public program of workshops, events, and research that will ultimately help determine what the interiors of the house look like. For now, it’s just a shell providing space for small research groups to collaborate on projects that help us envision what a future life on Mars could look like.

“The two-story 53-square-meter house is powered by solar panels and designed to be lightweight and withstand the environmental challenges that would be faced on Mars — such as average temperatures of -63 degree Centigrade and exposure to galactic and cosmic radiation,” says PEARCE+ Architects. “The upper level is designed to sit on the Martian landscape and is formed using a pressurized inflatable gold-coated foil, making it lightweight enough to be transported to Mars.”

The architects note that: “in Bristol the foil is filled with air so it can be reused, but on Mars it would be filled with Martian concrete made of regolith (soil) and the water found below the surface, to provide protection from galactic and solar radiation. The house has a glazed elevation, with views towards Bristol’s Princes Wharf standing in for the Martian landscape. Inside, a hydroponic living room is designed to surround occupants with plants to aid relaxation. This will feed into a circular waste water system linking the plants with the ablutions and kitchen water systems.”

The entirety of the structure can currently be seen above-ground in the Martian House’s Bristol location, so we can imagine what the underground portion would look like as well. This area would occupy lava tubes that naturally exist beneath the surface of Mars, protecting inhabitants from high levels of radiation. It contains an environmental control room that houses all life support systems for the house, two tiny bedroom pods, a shower, and a low-water “Martian loo.”

All those who interact with the project in person will be welcomed to contribute to the design of its interior components, which include everything from furniture and appliances all the way down to toothbrushes. This level of public participation turbo-charges creativity, introducing a wide range of ideas that might just help us figure out real-world solutions for our quest to populate the most promising planet in our solar system. Check out the schedule of events lasting throughout the rest of October here.

The post Building a Martian House: Inflatable Installation Explores the Possibility of Life in Space first appeared on Dornob.

Commissioned by artisan café brand Colicci, architecture firm Mizzi Studio took inspiration from the verdant foliage of the Royal Parks, giving the kiosks a vaguely tree-like structure complete with curves and canopies.

This mimicry and appreciation of local environment are a common strategy for the studio. “We call our work ‘bio-architecture,’ said company founder Jonathan Mizzi in an interview with Architizer. This approach “characterize[s] our studio ethos, a philosophy that rests on bringing humans and nature closer together through thoughtful and innovative design solutions.”

“The architecture and design industry has seen a massive shift in practice towards trends that favor a nature-led approach,” he added. “Mizzi Studio has been focused on this philosophy since day one of our foundation. Our architecture holds the natural world as its greatest teacher and inspiration — this ethos is central to The Royal Parks project.”

The team started by spending months exploring the heritage of each park. After channeling “all of that research into a design strategy…driven by nature and the variety of tactile experiences it offers” (the firm’s own words), Mizzi Studio invented a fleet of kiosks, each “unique, tailored to the history, nuances, and demographics of its respective site within the parks.”

While each kiosk has a slightly different 360-degree organic profile and volume, they all share a tree-based sculptural outline, and an instantly recognizable silhouette from far away.

Set conspicuously at the entrances to Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James’s Park, eight of the nine kiosks are covered in “steam-bent” wooden English oak timber, a sustainably sourced material, in addition to the stainless steel and copper used in the frames.

The ninth iteration — the flagship Horse Shoe Bend kiosk in St. James’s Park — got the royal treatment as it sits at the base of Buckingham Palace. While the shape follows the patterns of its siblings, this “kiosk is clad in tubular brass, mirroring the ornate precious metals of the nearby Sir Thomas Brock’s Queen Victoria Memorial,” Mizzi explains.

Each kiosk was constructed with the lowest impact to the environment in mind. Modular in design, all are freestanding and able to be transported in just two truckloads, cutting down on carbon emissions.

The timing of the kiosk project — on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic — made it especially impactful for visitors. “Aside from the spectacular landscape of the Parks, which directly influenced the design of the kiosks — our hope was that the fleet would stand as a new architectural structure and symbol of collective respite,” Mizzi says. “We believe in the power of public space to bring people together and restore them both physically and emotionally. The aftermath of the pandemic became the context for the completion of the Royal Parks fleet, and therefore we saw this as a moment where architecture could help restore mental well-being, bring people together, and offer surveillance and support at a time when the city’s inhabitants felt most vulnerable.”

The post London’s Royal Parks Kiosks Get Sustainable “Bio-Architecture” Update first appeared on Dornob.

“Many aspects had to be taken into account when selecting the winning design,” explains Michal Sedláček, chairman of the competition’s jury. “The site for the philharmonic hall currently complicates the opportunity for people to meet instead of encouraging it, so the emphasis was not only on the architecture and operation of the building, but also on the design of the public spaces in the surrounding area. The Vltava Philharmonic Hall will become a vibrant center of life in Vltavská street — a new city park will stretch eastwards from the building, the south side will open up access to the water, a square will be created on the west side, and there will be a view of the new Bubny-Zátory district to the north. The building itself will be accessible from all directions and levels.”

To fortify Prague’s reputation as a European capital of culture, BIG architects embraced elements of music and rhythm in the 1,800-seat concert hall’s layout and details.

“The new Vltava Philharmonic Hall will be a symbol of openness, accessibility, and exploration,” says BIG partner Brian Yang. “From the Vltava square, streets ascend upward connecting interior balconies with exterior colonnades and terraces. Like eight, quarter, half, and whole notes, the step, the benches, facade, and colonnade are perfectly on beat, offering its resident orchestras effective and extroverted rehearsal areas, while bringing audiences within the halls closer to the source in an environment that is both majestic and intimate.”

Concert goers and other visitors can use the walkable rooflines to climb up the building’s exterior to reach a future rooftop café. Inside the building, three separate performance halls will serve as the home base for both the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic. The concert hall will also house the music archives of Prague’s Municipal Library on one floor.

“The Vltava Philharmonic Hall is composed as a meandering journey from riverbank to rooftop,” explains BIG founder and partner Bjarke Ingels. “Public flows and belvedere plazas unite the city life of Prague to the music within…Expressive yet pragmatic, the new Philharmonic will ascend to form a key landmark for Prague from river to roof.”

Ingels founded BIG in Copenhagen in 2005 and has since expanded its offices to London, New York, Barcelona, and Shenzhen. The firm’s team of architects, designers, and engineers have become famous for their innovative designs and technologies, like the Amager Bakke in Copenhagen, a cutting-edge power waste-to-energy site that doubles as a recreational ski slope. Their current projects include a metaverse space for media company VICE, a new “folding” neuroscience research center in Aarhus, and $600 million film studio for Robert de Niro in New York.

The post BIG Blows Judges Away in Competition to Design Prague Philharmonic Hall first appeared on Dornob.

Located on the border of Cypress Park and Glassell Park just north of downtown Los Angeles, the historic former rail yard was identified as an ideal opportunity for both river restoration and new public green space. It’s the largest undeveloped parcel on the river and also happens to be a strategic location where the riverbank could be naturalized, even with the rest of the concrete channel remaining as it is today. The parcel is part of the larger 250-acre Taylor Yard, currently owned by Union Pacific Railroad.

Mayor Eric Garcetti oversaw the purchase of the property for $60 million after the project was unanimously approved by the Los Angeles City Council. Plans for the parcel include one mile of direct riverfront access with views of the Griffith Observatory, downtown, and the iconic Hollywood sign. It will also unite the surrounding Rio de Los Angeles State Park and the state-owned G1 parcel, forming 100 acres of open space along the LA River.

“We’ve always considered G2 to be the crown jewel in our vision to revitalize the L.A. River, and that’s why I have been committed to fighting for the resources to finally return this land to the people of Los Angeles and the wildlife that call it home,” Mayor Garcetti said in a press release. “We got it done, and now this vast site can transform how Angelenos connect with the natural world — because it will allow for habitat restoration, and open more than a mile of direct access to the river for local communities that have been cut off from it for too long.”

The massive cost increase of the Taylor Yard G2 River Project mostly comes down to a single word: contamination. An updated study by the Bureau of Engineering found that cleaning and removing contaminated soil will cost about $231 million alone, in addition to the cost of the parcel itself, the infrastructure, and the expected operating costs of at least $6 million per year. The city will have to work with California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control to remediate the site. The good news for locals looking forward to the park’s completion is that it’s almost certainly still moving forward, despite the price tag.

Last month, a major milestone in the plan was achieved as the Taylor Yard Pedestrian Bridge was completed. Designed by SPF:architects, the bright orange bridge connects an area north of Dodger Stadium known as Elysian Valley to the neighboring Cypress Park district. It features a 400-foot box-trussed span referencing the area’s industrial heritage. Two cantilevered central viewing platforms form a “handshake” meant to symbolize peace between two neighborhoods once known for public fights and gang violence.

The post The Cost of LA’s “Crown Jewel” River Park Skyrockets to $1 Billion first appeared on Dornob.

The original Subterranean Tropicália Projects would have been a massive multi-level structure with an almost maze-like interior where visitors “discover” works of art by Oiticica and other artists and have interactions with each other. Unfortunately, garnering financial support and permits from the city for such a large installation proved out of reach. PN15 reworks the project as a 40-foot-diameter circular structure of curving corridors offering visitors a multi-sensory experience full of plants and projected images. Throughout its run, the installation will also be a stage for interactive performances and workshops by Brazilian and queer artists.

The installation marks the first time an outdoor work by Oiticica will be displayed in the United States. The project is able to move forward thanks to the Americas Society, which acts as a connector for Latin American artists in New York through grants and exhibitions. A cardboard maquette for the original design and sketches for the two modified versions (PN14 and PN15) went on display in Part I of the Americas Society’s “This Must Be the Place: Latin American Artists in New York, 1965-1975.” Part I closed in December, and Part II ran through May 21st.

“This is an artwork that is as radical now as it was in the 70s,” Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Director and Chief Curator of Visual Arts at the Americas Society, told ARTnews. “This is an artwork that is free, has public access, and is inviting them to participate and is engaging with them. We don’t have enough of that.”

According to Iglesias Lukin, the exhibition offers a “re-reading of 1960s and 70s American art through the lens of immigrants, in this case Latin American immigrants. We need to start questioning to which degree New York became the cosmopolitan center that it is without immigrants. How do you explain the neo avant-garde without all the artists who came from all over Europe, Latin America, and Asia?”

Oiticica first envisioned the work for display at Central Park, but as Iglesias Lukin notes, the Central Park of today is very different than it was in the 1970s. Installed within Socrates Sculpture Park, it will have more of the impact Oiticica imagined, seen and experienced mostly by everyday working class New Yorkers rather than tourists and wealthy Manhattanites. The park is a place where local residents hang out, play basketball, go on runs, and walk their dogs. Oiticica wanted Subterranean Tropicália Projects to foster “creleisure,” a term he coined for creative-leisure, offering a space for both planned and spontaneous performances.

The post After 51 Years, Hélio Oiticica’s Sculptural Vision Finally Comes to Life in NYC first appeared on Dornob.

Shanghai based-firm 100 Architects were charged by the local government with “activat[ing] this pedestrian junction” in a brand new commercial and residential area of the port city. For maximum head-turning value, they decided to turn the entire park into a metaphorical volcanic eruption filled with bright, attention-grabbing reds, oranges, and yellows.

The 14,000-square-foot park uses small stairways to signal the beginnings of a figurative outpouring from the Earth’s crust. Tiered, overlapping shade structures throughout symbolize the infectious lava of fun venting upwards and spilling back down through a slide and over the wide steps.

The magma continues its inviting flow around a picnic table and stools. A ramp from an adjacent building is painted brilliant orange, pouring the excitement down towards a large playground. Visitors can follow fire-colored paths around the park and tackle climbing shapes, small hills, and a giant tic-tac-toe table along the way. A swing pergola, seesaws, more slides, punching bags, and tunnel tubes all beckon to passersby. LED rope lights trim the shade and play structures, and spotlights on the trees provide an enticing ambiance at night.

For less agile pedestrians, 100 Architects also included several seating and resting areas with sun-blocking canopies. A mahjong table and adult sized-swings complete the experience.

“The flow of magma creates an intense and vivid circuit of events and spaces arising by its side,” the designers explain. “Altogether the proposal creates an incandescent public space that acts as an urban attractor and entertainment hotspot.”

According to the company website, “100 Architects was born with the mission of improving our cities and the experience of citizens in the public realm.” They are known for their colorful and playful temporary street installations throughout China, and for their quirky landscape architecture in places like Hong Kong, Mexico City, and Santiago. Energetic colors and an abundance of geometric shapes are hallmarks of their designs. The Magma Flow project fits nicely into the firm’s overall niche, so-called “neighborhood interventions.”

The company adds “the main objective of this typology is to trigger a massive public interest to the place through a strong visual impact, usually of a permanent nature, encouraging the rise of high public affluence and establishing an urban landmark that can cultivate important human dynamics and boost commercial activity.”

Ningbo is the second most populous city in Zhejiang Province, China, and 100 Architects hopes that the Magma Flow project will be “of such magnitude and notoriety” that it’ll “impact not only the immediate surrounding urban environment, but rather the urban dynamics of a whole neighborhood, becoming an urban landmark and a local attractor of social interactions in a given neighborhood.”

While a real-life volcano might be more likely to inspire fear than fun, it’s hard not to get swept up in Magma Flow’s colorful currents.

The post China’s Magma Flow Park Takes Its Design Cues from Volcanoes first appeared on Dornob.

“We designed an umbrella-shaped eastern house and toilet that resonate with the shape of Mt. Fuji in the observation park on the hillside of the Kintaro Fujimi Line, which is famous as a sanctuary for hikers,” the company website explains.

Located in Oath Hill Park, a rest area on the oustskirts of Oyama, Japan, the “eastern house” is a pair of cone-shaped structures with interlocking roofs that provide shade and a bench to weary hikers at the observation deck. The wooden columns that hold up the house are held together with a ring-shaped iron plate, and the whole configuration is left exposed for visitors to touch and admire. The tented roofs were informed by the ridgeline of Mt. Fuji, with one topped by a translucent material and the other covered in an opaque white covering treated with fluorine to make it weatherproof.

“By combining the flexibility of wood, the strength of iron, and the lightness of the film, a warm and open eastern house was realized,” the studio says, adding that “At night the silhouette of the wooden structure emerges in the woods.”

The toilet building sits adjacent to the eastern house, itself wrapped in thick, white cylindrical walls. The roofs of the two connected spaces are also interlinked and covered in the same opaque material as the shade structure.

With their white-capped roofs and conical forms, the buildings become mini versions of Mt. Fuji. The imposing mountain can even be perfectly centered between them at a certain angle for a stunning picture-perfect vista. The new toilets were officially opened to the public in October 2021.

These aren’t the only nature-blending toilets Kengo Kuma has created. A few months earlier, in June 2021, the firm unveiled a “toilet village” in Shoto Park. Camouflaged by cedar board louvers, the structures’ randomly-skewed lines of wood create a fun forest feel.

“The plans, equipment, and interiors of each toilet that makes up the village are different to meet various needs (child-rearing, grooming, wheelchairs, etc.),” the Kengo Kuma website explains. “By splitting the various private rooms into separate buildings, a well-ventilated, walk-through ‘public toilet village’ was created in the park, which was suitable for the post-corona era. The era of diversity and the era of forests have arrived for toilets.”

The Shoto Park toilets were Kengo Kuma’s contribution to the Nippon Foundation’s Tokyo Toilet Project, an initiative to bring 17 updated and design-minded public restrooms to the city ahead of the 2020 Olympics. The architecture company also designed the cedar-planked Japan National Stadium for the Games.

Kengo Kuma & Associates was established by Kuma in 1990, himself known for his eye for “architecture that opens up a new relationship between nature, technology, and humans.” The studio currently has projects underway in 30 countries, including one in France to add a contemporary, sculptural stone entrance to an ancient gothic cathedral.

The post Kengo Kuma’s Umbrella-Shaped Japanese Toilets Mimic Mt. Fuji first appeared on Dornob.

Petr Janda of Brainwork Studio is the principal architect of the three-phase project, which starts with the renovation of 20 vaults set into the Rašín and Hořejší embankments in the area known as Náplavka. These hollowed-out spaces are referred to by the Czech government as “dungeons,” and in the past likely served as storage spaces for ice and goods arriving and departing in ships along the river. Now, they’ve been converted into shops, galleries, cafés, workshops, and public restroom facilities with curving walls and ceilings made of sandblasted concrete.

Six of the vaults have the stunning 5.5-meter (18-foot) pivoting windows in place of doors, which open at an offset angle and allow customers to step within their plastered minimalist interiors. Stepped stone details at the base of each arched doorway disguise elements like air conditioning ducts and flood prevention features. The rest of the vaults on the Hořejší embankment boast sculptural blackened steel doors. Each one has a multipurpose freestanding furniture unit that can function as a reception desk or bar counter, and the individual businesses occupying them are free to customize them as they like. At night, when the glass-fronted vaults are aglow, they draw in curious passersby who come to the area for farmers’ markets, exhibitions, concerts, and theater performances.

The next two phases of the restoration project, also spearheaded by Brainwork Studio, will include a floating pool (echoing the historical placement of swimming pools along the Vltava embankment) and a terminal for cruise ships. The floating pool facility is supported by a structural system of steel ribs, and the deck “appears boundless, thanks to its infinite water surface,” with a variety of depths suitable for different users and types of swimming. Floating restroom facilities that visually complement the pool will also be included in the design, accessible directly from the riverbank promenade.

The terminal will function as an amphibious intersection between the bank and the river, its appearance drawing from the visual character and traditional shapes of shipbuilding.

“Its predominant feature is the balance between the (in)visibility of the terminal and its strong architectural design derived from the nautical morphology, as well as the visual mimicry connecting the terminal with its native environment,” says Janda. “Thanks to the optical effect created by the deck edges tapering into cutting edges, it dematerializes more on both sides, which is emphasized by the reflection of the water and sky on both surfaces of the terminal wings. The basic shape is based on the spatial rotation of three propeller blades, which was further shaped with regard to the functional arrangement of the building.”

The post Prague’s Vltava River Vaults Feature Giant Pivoting Hobbit Doors first appeared on Dornob.

The development stands out even when viewed from afar. Its jagged white rooflines rise from the city streets in an organic-looking jumble, contrasting the neatly organized rows and rectilinear shapes of the buildings around it. In the center is a massive courtyard, all the facades facing it painted with textured red stucco. The building fills its building site all the way to the boundaries, and the roofs are designed with “carefully calibrated” slopes to maximize ventilation and sunlight to both the building itself and its neighbors.

The courtyard inside, developed in collaboration with local architecture firm Flint, is irregularly shaped and measures nearly 56,000 square feet. This park-like green space is actually one level above the street, positioned over the complex’s parking garage, making it feel like a secret garden that’s protected from but still connected to the larger urban context. Planted with 83 alder and birch trees and a variety of grasses, the courtyard opens to the streets through a few different portals.

Within the building, all the irregular slopes of the rooflines and exteriors create interesting, dynamic interior spaces, including apartment layouts that are entirely unique. That results in a wide array of home sizes and shapes, so occupants don’t feel like they’re living in cookie-cutter spaces. Some areas of the buildings are as low as one story, while on the side facing the river, some rise as high as nine. At its peak, the complex features a glass crown housing the restaurant with views of Bordeaux’s historic center.

MVRDV’s Bastide-Niel masterplan will ultimately include three additional developments, aiming to combine all the history Bordeaux has to offer with the density, ecology and comfort, of a modern metropolis. Once completed, this masterplan, developed in collaboration with Joubert Architecture, will see more than 86 acres of former barracks and rail yards converted to public spaces and cultural facilities.

“The COVID-19 pandemic showed everyone how valuable outdoor spaces close to their homes can be, and I hope Ilot Queyries can show that such amenities don’t require compromise,” says MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. “The building creates close and intimate streets without ugly parked cars thanks to its ample car parking. At the same time every apartment is provided a balcony or loggia, while the green park space becomes a wonderful community amenity.”

“This project served as preparation for the grander plan of the Bastide_Niel development,” adds Maas. “With this project we were able to test some of our ideas, which resulted in a masterplan with more greenery in the streets, better cost optimization for façades, and more open courtyards.”

The post MVRDV’s Ilot Queyries Apartment Building Offers a New Vision of Urban Living first appeared on Dornob.

Citrovia is a 30,000-square-foot interactive public art installation bursting with juicy oversized lemons made of plaster. Occupying the courtyard space between the completed 70-story One Manhattan West building and its shorter sibling, Two Manhattan West, which will be completed in 2023, Citrovia is a brilliant disguise for the work zone. Over 700 lemons dangle from 18-foot-tall steel trees alongside 3,800 leaves made of foam, all painted by hand, as white fabric billows overhead to mimic clouds. Clusters of faux lemon slices create canopies overhead and form stepping stones on the artificial turf in front of a giant citrus sculpture.

Described by its creators as “larger than life and stranger than fiction,” the surreal display transports visitors to a colorful fantasy space year-round, and this winter, it will become a vivid antidote to the dreariness that New York City often experiences. This isn’t just a selfie backdrop, though visitors love to use it for that purpose. It’s also packed with fun activities and features. “Whack-a-Lemon” invites you to play an augmented reality game on your phone with the field of lemon slices, and a “Name-Your-Own-Garden” feature asks users to submit names for their favorite displays. All the while, AR vines climb and bloom all around you.

There are two things that make Citrovia a truly unique exhibition ripe for reproduction around the country. The first is that it’s completely free to the public, so absolutely anyone can come in and enjoy its wonders. And that’s no small thing, especially considering the size of the installation. The second is the fact that it’s not sponsored. You might think “Citrovia” is actually the name of a beverage company using the exhibit as advertising, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Brookfield Properties commissioned the project from creative group The Cuttlefish and Midnight Theater creative director Warren Adcock.

“In many cultures, lemons (and yellow) are symbols of optimism, so doing this specific installation, which places so much emphasis on size, scale, and proportion, felt right,” says The Cuttlefish, Inc. founder Evan Schechtman in an interview with Architectural Digest. “We went to the far extremes of a creative idea, then pulled it back a bit. We wanted to build something that was whimsical and elegant, but never gaudy.”

Citrovia is a fun addition to the area surrounding Penn Station on the western side of Midtown Manhattan. If you’d like to visit in person, you can do so at any time without an appointment. The exhibition is expected to remain in place for another two years or so, when Two Manhattan West is finally complete.

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The structure is a distinctly New York addition to the surrounding area, adding to the surrounding Hudson River Park and the now-booming stretch of other little “islands” along the Chelsea piers. Rising from the ashes of the defunct Pier 54 (damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012), Little Island is less a phoenix than an ebullient homage to unique public spaces: what they are, and what they have the potential to be.

This enigmatic space cost approximately $260 million to build and is the brainchild of British designer Thomas Heatherwick, known to New Yorkers for the Vessel at Hudson Yards, itself a beehive-esque construction that’s architecturally artful, edgy, and vertigo-inducing. That 150-foot tall structure recently re-opened with new safety measures in place after being criticized for its safety protocols.

Heatherwick, known for design strategies that aim to create immersive experiences for visitors that merge form, shape, and ambition, has here created a more approachable and visitor-friendly structure that, instead of being imposing, is welcoming and quite lovely.

Funding for the Little Island came mainly from billionaire Barry Diller, who, in partnership with the Hudson River Park Trust, set out to reimagine Pier 54 in 2013 and create a public space that embraced nature, art, and design. Enter Heatherwick, and the vision for the present-day parklet was born.

The first sight of Little Island is enough to make anyone gasp in delight. White concrete structures rise out of the murky Hudson, dazzling the eyes and sparking the imagination. Visitors will feel as if they’re approaching a whimsical world, either floating lazily on the water or emerging from it as if birthed from its depths fully formed. Initially it resembles a setting in Super Mario World (Mushroom Kingdom, anyone?) or an elaborately constructed mini-golf course.

Either way, it’s certainly imposing and instantly captivating, and the designs on the island continue the theme with a beautifully landscaped space that somehow manages to be a natural haven while still feeling like a distinctive part of the city and its environs.

Part of the reason for that is that one can’t really escape a view of the city from here. It’s in the background, looming and distant, but still a major player in the proceedings. But it’s the details that make Little Island truly special: the paths are winding and broken up by little asides that truly recreate a fairy tale experience, hidden secrets among the landscape that emerge as a trail of bread crumbs leading into each new twist and turn.

Tactile and truly immersive, Heatherwick’s design pairs beautifully with the landscape architecture of New York design alum Signe Nielsen, who herself has an eye for merging natural elements with the surrounding architecture. This combo complements and enhances Little Island’s curves and rises, bringing to life all its rich views and secrets.

Upon arrival at Little Island, visitors may feel as if they are a part of something larger; namely, the interconnecting network of piers and attractions that now dot the landscape throughout Hudson River Park. But once on board, it’s all too easy to get lost in the dreaminess of the design and the simple fantasy of this magical green space so removed from the city (and yet somehow an integral part of it).

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Australian firm Koichi Takada Architects uses biomimicry as the guiding principle in all its designs, including its new Solar Trees Marketplace in the Minhang district southwest of Shanghai, China. The complex takes one of Chinese culture’s most revered and ancient public spaces and modernizes it without compromising the characteristics that make it special. The firm wanted to retain the feeling of discovery and connection to the country’s historic open-air markets with a design that was friendly to both humans and the environment, taking cues from Mother Nature’s own creations.

The result is nothing short of stunning. Currently in the late stages of construction, the three-story mixed-use development features 32 architectural “trees” rising from the ground to form an artificial canopy above hundreds of modular market stalls. Visitors will wind through indoor and outdoor spaces, the timber “branches” above providing shade, shelter from the rain, and a surface for solar panels to power the facility.

50 living camphor trees planted outside signal the beginning of a green corridor that will run down the length of the new Shanghai Tian An Caobao Road Area Residential Masterplan. Ultimately, pedestrians will enjoy a boulevard lined with 3,000 trees and shrubs indigenous to Shanghai, with the color coding of different plantings identifying various neighborhoods and guiding residents home.

“The inclusion of modular market stalls will bring a sense of authenticity to the contemporary development, referencing their history as social and cultural gathering spaces and allowing a new generation to gather at its heart,” says the firm. “Reflecting the Chinese tradition of making guests feel at home — bīn zhì rú guī — the marketplace will generate a powerful sense of community and integrate the private and public domains.”

For the shape of the facility, the Koichi Takada team turned to Shanghai’s nearby forests. The marketplace is a symbolic visual bridge between nature and the city, softening the edges and contributing to a healthier, more livable urban environment in what has long been one of the world’s most polluted cities. It’s due to be completed by the end of 2021.

“We want to humanize buildings in the district, to be more engaging to the public and contribute to the regeneration of communities and their neighborhoods,” says principal architect Koichi Takada. “We want architecture to celebrate cultural identity, along with encouraging pedestrian activities and a more walkable and livable city.

Last year, Koichi Takada Architects showed off a similar approach with Sunflower House, a series of single-family dwellings designed specifically for Italy’s sunny Tuscan climate. Those homes utilize a rotating design and solar roof to maximize sun exposure for energy production and minimize heat gain inside.

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Hundreds of decorative drinking fountains – or “pyaus,” as they’re called in Hindi – were erected in the middle of markets and along tram routes by wealthy Indian philanthropists during the British colonial era. Many of these were donated to their surrounding communities as gifts and often constructed as tributes to the patron’s family members.

At the time the fountains were built, water would flow freely and continuously from the city’s underground pipes. However, Mumbai’s 20th-century population explosion taxed the available water supply so much that by the 1960s, fountain use was restricted to just a few hours a day. The inconsistency and lack of upgrades even caused some of them to dry up completely.

As indoor plumbing started to become standard for middle and upper-class residents, public reservoirs were further strained. Bottled water also gained popularity as a drinking option. Subsequently, most of the pyaus have been forgotten and fallen into disrepair.

As access to water remains a constant problem for Indian’s poorer residents, city officials and activists are currently leading an effort to restore the public fountains. Back in 2008, BMC, Mumbai’s municipal corporation, commissioned architecture firm Vaastu Vidhaan, led by architect Rahul Chemburkar, to restore two pyaus, including the Keshavji Nayak fountain, named in honor of its original sponsor from the 1870s. It’s a grand edifice to be sure, towering over the market square with its 30-foot columns and ornately carved canopy. The base is adorned with statues of sacred Hindu bulls, which point visitors up to stone pots containing the life-giving liquid (which today comes from a municipal connection installed in 2015).

“It’s like a cultural oasis,” Chemburkar told NPR in an interview, estimating that about 50 people an hour come to the fountains for a drink. And most importantly, the water is available to anyone, no matter their religion or caste.

“In wide contrast, all over the country you see a lot of discrimination over the ownership of water,” he adds, pointing out examples of minority Muslims and Dalits being physically attacked for trying to drink from public wells. He says these pyaus come with an implicit understanding, though, that they are open to all.

Greater access is needed more now than ever, with the pandemic intensifying water inequalities among Mumbai’s 18.4 million residents. A November 2020 study from the NGO Committee for the Right to Water found that the city’s poorest residents were spending more on the essential liquid than they were before COVID hit, as their normal sources (places like schools and workplaces) were locked down. Today, many of those low-income inhabitants are forced to pool their money just to pay for water from private tanker-trucks.

“Even as public service announcements were issued reminding people to wash their hands regularly with soap, at least 2 million people in Mumbai wondered how to follow such recommendations without regular, adequate, and affordable water access,” the study adds.

Even though Mumbai has installed many water ATMs at railway stations as a means of making it more affordable, they still charge a fee. That’s why one of the study’s biggest recommendations was to build more pyaus, even if they are less ornate, to provide totally free H2O.

The BMC has also identified 30 existing pyaus to be restored over the next few years as part of a sweeping public works project. “[The decorative elements] give a lot of dignity to the simple act of drinking water,” says Chemburkar. “Today we … miss aesthetics in public architecture.”

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