WhiteOut by SpaceOperaForm
from the designers:
WhiteOut is deployed as a series of sequential dividers along the aged wood beams of the Hallein Salt Factory, Austria. Suspended, lightweight and nebulous, the installation is a floating mass, exploring the phenomenological and visual affects of extreme weather conditions. Movement though the passages is a reactive experience as the dividers ‘inflate/deflate’ to the body’s static repletion – the width of the passages varies from 30cm to 90cm.
-
via SpaceOperaForm
Flaming Lips House by Fitzsimmons Architects
from the designers:
This appropriately quirky residence and music studio is as free thinking and boundary pushing as the art and music of its occupants, the wife, a photographer and artist, and her husband, a rock music icon. The addition/renovation to their home is the central piece of a larger master plan developed for 6 adjoining properties in a blighted neighborhood of Oklahoma City. These properties, referred to as “the compound” for those familiar with it, are being transformed in stages.
Phase one of the masterplan consisted of completion of two center pieces, allowing the remaining phases to happen organically over time between tours.
Centerpiece one is the Partial refinish of the main house, a 1930′s Oklahoma Deco home, touted as the first fireproof home in the City, built from left over building materials of the original mason owner, and the complete renovation of the Multi-add-on garage, storage and above ground bunker, to become the current owners large family room, new master suite with the necessary mirror ball clad “dragon egg” sunken bathing pod addition, and provide general escape from the groupies and roadies who frequently overrun the compound.
The existing low roof structure of the renovated space was removed making room for a new higher “fractured plain” roof complete with decks and terraces. This “fractured plain” floats above a ribbon of clerestory windows allowing sunlight to flood into the main living space. A massive steel beam is suspended over the “fractured roof” to become the armature of the 50 foot long dragon sculpture to be perched protectively over the compound.
Centerpiece two is the creation of the Great Lawn to connect all the houses together, and replace the flood ridden asphalt roadway previously in place. The Lawn will serve as general work zone for stage props and set ups and home to future dragon egg follies and gathering places.
The owners have been actively engaged in the renovation of their house from design phase through construction, resulting in a one of a kind collaboration, that will continue in future phases.
For example, the Artist Wife, and General Contractor, who is also the Architect, together installed the celestial patterned family room and outside terrace floor of the recycled granite waste materials (ode to the original mason home builder). Other unique assets resulting from the collaboration, include hidden doors and passage ways leading from the Private areas of the House into the Bunker, a concrete masonry clad Box that is now used as the bands rehearsal and recording space. And the customized seats in the bathing pods tub portion, sculpted around the Husband and wife while they sat.
Perhaps the most important attribute of the Project and the Compound in general is its expression of commitment by the musician to stay and live in this long troubled neighborhood where he grew up. Through their commitment and the architects work on other projects adjoining the neighborhood, signs of renewed revitalization efforts are beginning.
-
Reiser + Umemoto / First Prize at Taipei Pop Music Center Competition
Last Friday, RADDblog published the results of the Taipei Pop Music Center International Competition and showcased Studio Gang’s second prize-winning proposal.
Now we also have some images of the competition’s First Prize winner: New York-based Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture PC with their Taiwanese partners FEI & CHENG ASSOCIATES.
from the architects:
Pop music, while a global phenomenon, is regional in its definition. The Taiwanese Pop music scene typifies the phenomenon; while it crosses borders and cultures and dialects, it nevertheless has produced styles and genres with distinct transnational form and appeal. Though many aspects of pop culture exist in a hyper-technological or virtual realm, there is a need for a defined physical hub dedicated to the production and reception of pop.
The Taipei Pop Music Center features a gradient of mixed-use spaces, from the fully public realm to the interior of the auditorium, allows the visitor to partake of the event dynamic however they choose to visit this complex. Whether they plan a night of music or are browsing the myriad shops, markets, cafes, and restaurants, the complex will be a 24-hour attraction independent of the schedule of performances in the theaters. The TPMC features a new elevated public ground, which bridges the two building sites presently divided by Xinsheng Rd. Corridor. The elevated public space is a pedestrian zone creating a coherent public space distinct yet connected to the life of the city, and effectively joining the three major zones of the complex, the Main Concert Hall, Outdoor Amphitheater, and the Hall of Fame. The public space is in itself a focus for outdoor events, surrounded by cafes, restaurants and shops. Here, the spectacle of pop music can be celebrated and broadcast to the world.
The Main Hall features a 3000-seat indoor auditorium and a tower dedicated to the pop music industry. This hybrid of theater and tower will allow direct communication on an everyday basis between producers, artists, and the music industry community. In effect, this hybrid is a cultural incubator bringing the entire music community, production and performance, together under one roof.
The Hall of Fame becomes an ongoing daily destination – an outlet to track the T-Pop industry, linked with performances, hall of fame induction ceremonies, outdoor spaces, and media projections. Within the Hall of Fame is the main exhibition space, digital media center, two lecture halls, and the Sky View Lounge with commanding views from box seats of the entire event space. Lining the street adjacent to the Hall of Fame, live houses provide smaller performance venues and a vibrant street front that is integrally connected to the street life of Taipei.
The form of the Outdoor Amphitheater is a hybrid of circus and city, and with the addition of a mobile stage, The Robot Theater, the design can adapt to a spectrum of event scales, public uses and mass events. The four docking positions of the Robot Theater along the elevated public ground allow for multiple event scales, accommodating a range of audiences from 16,000 people to smaller shows operating simultaneously or with other functions such as day or night markets. In its most compact crystalline form, the Robot Theater docks with the Hall of Fame, creating an intimate performance space for Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and other VIP events. A technological net provides solar screening and LED lighting to the Outdoor Amphitheater, and connects the Hall of Fame, Robot Theater, and Main Hall together.
As opposed to a singular or inflexible performance venue, the TPMC allows both high-end, in-demand performances to coexist with small, up-and-coming artists. This has consequences not only for the diversity of concert-goers that the center will attract, but can also have important collaborative effects on pop music production in Taipei. We envision the Taipei Pop Music Center as a coherent environment, not merely a collection of performance spaces but a vibrant new part of the city itself. As Hollywood is to world cinema so the Taipei Pop Music center will be to Asian Pop.
-
via bustler
You Fade to Light by rAndom International
In this new era where technology infiltrates our daily routine – waking us, communicating and transporting – we have grown accustomed to constant product changes. We expect our devices to be improved within months, the size shrinking smaller and also thinner. It seems we want paper-like attributes but not really paper. The obsession with this substrate not only leads our communication and entertainment devices but also our lighting devices. Due to the high demand and the velocity of technological improvements, we seem to be getting closer to the goal of OLED. OLEDs’ disruptive technology comes at a great time; this technology offers several properties that have yet to be fully implemented but give us a taste of what’s to come.
OLEDs (organic light emitting diode) are solid-state devices composed of a thin film of organic molecules that create light with the application of electricity. Simple, right? What is evolutionary is the they can provide brighter, crisper displays and use less power than conventional LEDs. What is revolutionary is that this will allow for products to alter their physical properties by being extremely thin and flexible.
The wild bunch at Phillps creative division brings their OLED [Lumiblades] to the market in a new way, sparking innovation and experimentation within the creative community. They have developed do-it-yourself kits and glowing sheets of OLEDs in order to let the creative mind do what it does best: collaborate, experiment and innovate. Phillips hopes this approach to building a product will generate major interest on the ground as they see OLEDs possibilities from its users. Although OLEDs have yet to produce enough lumens per watt to make it a retail product; interior designers, industrial designers and developers in the creative community see OLEDs as an accent material rather than a light source. By adding sensors, programming and utilizing them in the thousands, something new is created.
You Fade to Light is a project collaboration between Philips Lumiblade and rAndom international out of London.rAndom has taken this OLED material and created a kinetic interactive sculpture that behaves and responds to human movement. Composed of 1,024 OLEDs, 1,024 custom structural PCB‘s (printed circuit board), a camera, computer, some programming and sensors results in a dynamic blend of art, science, technology and design.
This first OLED media wall has a mirror finish as you see them in the thousands. Its appearance looks nothing beyond any other material that could be used to texture an architectural space; it is through human proximity that enables the viewer to engage light in a physical way. This is one of many ways that OLEDs will revolutionize not only lighting, but our interaction with light and environmental experiences. Enjoy the video and let us know your ideas for other applications for this technology.
-
via yatzer
ANNA by ZMIK designers
ZMIK designers recently finished ANNA, a design for a wireframe landscape on the walls of the office corridors of iart interactive, a digital design agency in Basel. Depending on the position of the viewer, these black and white line-drawn perspectives magically line up with reality and seem to extend the space beyond the physical walls of the actual corridor.
In ZMIK‘s words: iart interactive moves their offices to a new place inside a building from the seventies. This spacial intervention in the main circulation area visually enlarges the narrow corridor by using the medium of anamorphosis: looking from 5 fixed positions the wireframe-drawings show real and imaginary rooms behind the walls. Besides this point of view the graphic merges into abstract lines. For iart interactive the intervention is also an allegory for the quest of new perspectives.
Basel based ZMIK designers was founded in 2006 by Rolf Indermühle, Mattias Mohr and Magnus Zwyssig. Grown out of the ‘Les Garçons’ collective they have realised several projects since 2002 in the field of interior design, exhibition design, architecture and product design. ZMIK explores opportunities at the fringes of these various disciplines and aims to generate precise and individual solutions for complex issues. Their work is focused on the design of identity and individuality as well as the translation of abstract contents into three-dimensional messages.
-
via yatzer
Studio Gang Wins Second Prize at Taipei Pop Music Center Competition
The Taipei Pop Music Center International Competition recently announced the final winners of Stage Two with the first prize going to Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture PC, New York (with FEI & CHENG ASSOCIATES, Taiwan), second prize to Studio Gang Architects, Chicago (with J.J. Pan and Partners, Taiwan), and a third prize for Office dA, New York (with D. Y. Lin Architecture, Taiwan).
When the Stage One shortlist was announced in last fall, four honorable mentions were also given to Morphosis Architects, Toyo Ito, JDS Architects, and J. M. Lin Architect, P.C.
Hosted by the Taipei City Government Department of Cultural Affairs, the competition asked firms to design a pop music venue and urban performance center that promotes and celebrates Taiwan’s role as a global center of pop music performance and production. With an area of approximately 7.65 hectares, the center base is located in Nangang District, Taipei City, nearby the MRT Kunyang Station. The principal space design comprises of an indoor performing hall with 4,500-6,000 seats, an outdoor performing space with 15,000 standing seats, exhibition space for reputed musicians, a digital library, a medium and small indoor exhibition and performing live house, industrial communities and incubation space, etc.
Following is the second prize-winning proposal by Studio Gang Architects in detail. Images and description by the architects:
The 21st century is an age of electronic connectivity that radically expands pop music’s audience, but simultaneously threatens its economic viability. The Taipei Pop Music Center confronts this challenge by making real space and live experience more exciting and more enduring than their virtual counterparts.
The building consists of two primary venues: the Oculus and the Indoor Main Hall. The Oculus accommodates 13,000 fans under a giant void that opens to the sky. This opening absorbs sound and draws out heat through stack-effect ventilation, optimizing both acoustic and thermal conditions in a semi-outdoor environment, and creating a one-of-a-kind venue that is ideal for large-scale pop music concerts.
The Indoor Main Hall accommodates 5600 fans in a range of configurations suitable for pop music, musicals, and award events. Leading to the Main Hall, the “Famous Steps” act as the TPMC’s 21st-century front porch: its amphitheatre-like topography creates opportunities for spontaneous performances and social gatherings. A “Public Loop” connects all of the venues in a continuous thread of public space that includes restaurants, retail kiosks, and recording booths—culminating at the Hall of Fame on the building’s third and highest floor.
The building’s compact design preserves the majority of the site for use as a vibrant urban park, serving the many outdoor music festivals of Taipei while adding important green infrastructure to this rapidly developing neighborhood of Nangang.
-
via bustler
SKIN Touch Screen Film by Displax
from Displax:
OVERVIEW
Transparent polymer film that can be applied to non conductive materials and turn them interactive. Very thin, it uses projected capacitive technology, making it possible to apply on the back of a glass and detect finger touch on the front of the glass.
BENEFITS
- Turn any non metallic surface interactive
- Display interactive contents in unusual places
- Let your audience engage with you
FEATURES
- Flexible transparent interactive film
- Interactivity goes through non metallic materials up to XXX of thickness
- Sizes from 30” to116*
*Standard specifications, custom-made units can be produced
SPECIFICATIONS
- MATERIAL: Flexible and transparent electronics polymer
- DETECTION METHOD: Nanowires grid technology polymer-based
- CONNECTION: USB and Serial (different sizes)
-
via Displax
DIY 3-Axis CNC by Nick Santillan
from the designer:
Always wanting to experiment with CNC technology and knowing that having parts made from them can get expensive fast, I thought owning a CNC would allow me to really experiment that would be otherwise impossible to do with outsource CNC jobs. I soon discovered some plans on how to build your own CNC. After extensive research I bought a DIY plan and started building my CNC only to discover 90% of the way that the plan and design was not up to my expectations. The experience did give me enough knowledge on how CNC works which I found invaluable. From there I scrapped the first build, researched some more, bought better suited parts (bearings, slides, etc) and built this CNC using my own design and improvements.
This CNC is designed to be quickly assembled and disassembled into three main parts for ease of transportation and reduced storage. I used a moving gantry with an open table design to have the option for the CNC to directly mill or engrave the surface below. For example, if I wanted to carve a tabletop or a wall I can bolt the CNC directly to the surface and engrave it directly. This would have been otherwise impossible to do with other CNC machines. It also has a removable tool holder to allow customized mounts for almost any tool needed. Currently only a plunge router is used, but the design allows a laser cutter or anything else to be quickly attached to it for future upgrades. Some of my projects fabrication has been assisted using this CNC.
-
via Nick Santillan
Roots by Kai Linke
from the designer:
Roots of plants have been directed to fill out a form on different nutrient mediums over a period of time. After filling out the form completely, similar to a flower in a too small pot, it is then removed and a root shaped like a table or a chair is left.
The material wood, in this case root wood, is already being shaped during its rowth phase, unlike the usual procedure of working wood physically. In a long-term experiment – that will be going on for years – trials will be observed in a measure of 1 by 1. Result out of this will be the “root chair”
-
via dezeen
The Gentrification of Brooklyn by Specter
Interesting hand painted billboards made by Specter for “The Gentrification of Brooklyn” exhibition. Some are great, and some are a bit over the top.
-
leave a comment