Monday, March 19, 2012

Production Thinking Architecture

"Prefabrication is said to be the oldest new idea in construction. But it is no wonder that it continues to pervade as an ideal. The construction industry is fraught with litigation, inefficiency and waste. The design and construction of buildings are separate acts that are delineated contractually and legally identified and observed. Arguably, the divide between design and production has resulted in increased schedule delays and cost, and a diminished building quality and sustainability because the conception (architecture), optimization (engineering) and production (construction) are not integrated. In response to this inefficiency, prefabrication and modularization emerge and remerge as ideal methods of efficient production." to find out more...
Image and Passage via by Ryan E. Smith / July 19, 2011, via http://www.architects.org/news/production-thinking-architecture

Saturday, March 10, 2012

The Red Sun Pavillion

"By opening my eyes... where am I?
In England.  In London.  In Hyde Park.  English parks are a characteristic of English towns and cities.  Expanses of lawn for all to enjoy.  Meadows, really, of neatly-mown grass.  Mostly flat, with trees and shrubs randomly dotted as though they had always been there, not something anyone really thought of.  You can feel the city all around, as though it too had always been there.  Most of the trees are deciduous; the seasons clearly proclaimed.  From time to time a construction appears in this vast urban calm, a road or a path, occasionally a pond or a stream...
One wonders why such simple urban parks, these immense vacuities, are so rarely seen in other countries.  Such a semblance of nothing is no small feat... leaving this huge, empty space open for all.  One imagines the energy it must have taken to protect it.  The constant care that must go into its maintenance, to keep the grass at just the right height, the trees in perfect health, so that everyone might stroll through this peaceful space and feel they are at home, in their city, in their park, the most natural thing in the world.  So that whatever my mood, my desire for exteriority, alone, as a couple, with family or friends, whatever my age, the idea of spending a few minutes or a few hours in Hyde Park remains a peaceful temptation." to find out more..
Image via http://adrianharveyphotography.com/2011/09/02/red-sun-pavillion-hyde-park-london-2010/
Passage via http://www.jeannouvel.com/english/preloader.html

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Nanjing SiFang Art Museum

"The new museum is sited at the gateway to the Contemporary International Practical Exhibition of Architecture in the lush green landscape of the Pearl Spring near Nanjing, China. The museum explores the shifting viewpoints, layers of space, expanses of mist and water, which characterize the deep alternating spatial mysteries of the composition of Chinese painting. The museum is formed by a "field" of parallel perspective spaces and garden walls in black bamboo-formed concrete over which a light "figure" hovers. The straight passages on the ground level gradually turn into the winding passage of the figure above. The upper gallery, suspended high in the air, unwraps in a clockwise turning sequence and culminates at "in-position" viewing of the city of Nanjing in the distance. This visual axis creates a linkage back to the great Ming Dynasty capital city." to find out more...
Passage and Image via http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?type=&id=56&page=0