Category Archives: Architecture

New Salvador Dalí mueseum is being constructed; he would have loved it

Architecture, Design, Images, , ,

Architect companies HOK and Beck Group are currently designing a museum in St. Petersburg, Florida that will house the wonderfully surreal artwork of the great Salvador Dalí.  The mueseum’s director shares that it will “combines elements of the classical and the fantastical”, just as Dalí would have wanted it.  The spiral staircase you see above is described as a “structural tour-de-force, with the reinforced concrete spiral functioning as a tensioned spring held at ground level and at the third floor, with the stair treads cantilevered from the central spiral.”  Its design is influenced by Dalí’s fascination with DNA, the golden rectangle, and the Fibonacci series.  The organic, triangulated glass that houses a part of the museum represents a “contrast between the rational world of the conscious and the more intuitive, surprising natural world”, another one of Dalí’s infatuations.  The entire structure is enclosed in reinforced 18” thick concrete walls designed to protect everything valuable inside from destructive hurricanes.  The walls are so strong that they can resist a 165mph Category 5 hurricane, if one were to fly by.  Here’s quick rundown of archetectual specs: the museum covers 66,000 square feet, contains three floors, and its build budget is $30 million.  It’s expected to open to the public January 2011.

[Via ArchDaily; Gizmodo]

Swimming at 600 feet in the air? Be wary of falling off the edge.

Architecture, Design, Images, , ,

The Marina Bay Sands Skypark, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, features a 150 meter long infinity swimming pool that stretches across three skyscraper structures 200 meters in the sky.  With the edge of the swimming pool so close, how come the man pictured above is practicing his breast stroke without any sign of fear?  It’s because falling off the edge won’t result in death by falling 55 stories to the ground; swimmers fall into a catchment area where excess water is re-released back into the main pool area.  The hotel is the current record holder for having the largest pool at this height.  Construction cost was around $80 million dollars.  Other amenities include a “bar, restaurant and spa, botanical garden with 250 species of trees and 650 plants, and an observation deck that provides a panoramic view of the waterfront.”  The observation deck can hold 900 people, while the Skypark itself can fit 3,900 people total.  Look in the gallery below for images of the visually splendid Singapore-based hotel.

[Via DesignBoom; Gizmodo]

Twisty bridge aims to connect separate lands, physically & culturally

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Pearl River Necklace, designed by NL Architects.

This proposed bridge has two objectives: to act as a “crossing facility” by connecting Hong Kong with mainland China and to solve the driving-on-the-right-side-of-the-road problem:

Hong Kong has traffic on the left where china has traffic on the right  In principle this has to be taken into consideration with the border crossing facilities.  Within the proposed master layout plan this leads to fairly unarticulated intersections.  It solves the switch, but does not communicate it ‘explicitly’.

The “flipper” aims to redirect traffic in an efficient safe way. Here’s the design under consideration:

[Via Designboom; Gizmodo]

Video game console-inspired office spaces

Architecture, Design, Images, photography, ,

In an image series called If I Were President photographer Joseph Ford dreams of a world where city landscapes are defined by the distinctive curves of video game consoles.  And if I were president, my lair would be exactly what you see above–the NES House.  Check out a couple other designs in the gallery below.

[Via Gizmodo; Fubiz]

iPhone constructivist monument

Architecture, Art, Design, Image cache, Technology, , ,

Russian art collective Electroboutique has gone ahead and created this impressive, Tatlin’s Tower-inspired constructivist iPhone monument.  Says the builders:

A giant distorted iPhone 3G, shaped as Tatlin’s Monument to the 3d International. Tatlin’s work is considered one of the avant-garde icons, whereas iPhone is a bright techno-consumerist icon of today. Back in the 20’s of the last centuries avant-garde artists have invented design as a way to bring art into people’s homes. During the 20’s century designers were gradually taking artistic ideas and implementing them into product design. Today we see companies claiming their products are art objects themselves; art has to re-define its role in the society again. The Monument to 3G links together the beginning and the current state of nearly a century of art-to-design dialogue and follows the strategy of re-claiming the designers’ ideas back into art.

[Via Gizmodo; Electroboutique]

This exquisitely designed building is a danger to us all

Architecture, Design, Images,

Tokyo Mode, designed by Prop Studio.

Prop Studio has submitted this proposed building design into an international architecture competition to be constructed at a fashion museum in Toyko’s Omotesando district.

The structure aspires to provide an introspective for visitors to contemplate how fashion has shaped humanity in the 21 century. The building is divided into rotary levels that sit over top of each in an undulating fashion. Each floor houses a thematic fashion collections from past eras ranging from the 1920s to our contemporary period. Complimented with a skybar, the open terrace overlooks a fashion runway on the level below it.

Sure it’s a site to behold, but just one construction error and everything comes toppling down.  Check out more pictures of “Tokyo Mode” in the gallery below.

[Via DesignBoom; Gizmodo]

Underwater loft

Architecture, Design, Image cache, , , ,

Five meters below the Indian Ocean sits a restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island.  To celebrate its five year exsistence the hotel is converting it into a private bedroom for two.  This underwater loft is encased in plexiglass and is accessable by walking down a spiral staircase.  Tranquility is the first word that pops in my mind.

[Via Luxist; Gizmodo]

Could a Hollywood Sign Hotel be in the works?

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Danish architect Christian Bay-Jorgensen wants to make it happen.  Here’s the scoop: About two years ago the land that the famous Hollywood sign sits on went up for sale about two years ago.  The non-profit Trust for Public Land is trying to save up enough money to buy the land and save it from being sold to real estate developers.  I understand where the sign supporters are coming from; as Bay-Jorgensen puts it, “I know people are scared.  I know they are afraid this idea will turn it into Disneyland.”  However, it’s no secret that the Hollywood sign isn’t at all what it’s cracked up to be.  It’s old, tiny, and has simply lost its shine since it was introduced in the 1920s.  It’s time for a change, and turning the sign into a bigger and more expansive hotel is an intriguing possibility.  If given the opportunity, Bay-Jorgensen would turn it into a boutique hotel, doubling the size of the sign.  He explains: “…when tourists from other countries come to see the sign, they imagine a majestic structure.  Instead, they see plywood and white paint.  This area should be more public.  I think this could be something that could improve the experience of the LA resident, to let them see the sign in a new way.”  I couldn’t agree more.

The sign supporters have been given a 16 day extension to come up with $12.5 million to preserve the land.  If the deadline comes around and they can’t cough up the money, it’s likely we might see Hollywood Sign 2.0, hotel edition sometime in the near future.  Check out some conceptual images of the hotel in the gallery below.

Update: The Hollywood Sign has been “saved” according to the latest reports.  Playboy founder Hugh Hefner donated $900,000 to the non-profit trust that just tried their darndest to keep the sign as it is.  And with that huge chunk o’ money, the $12.5 million total was reached.  And any dreams of a hotel have been crushed.  [Via Stuff.co.nz]

[Via DailyNews; Slashfilm; LATimesBlog; Gizmodo]

Skyscraper built by robots wards off natural disaster

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‘Nested’ Skyscraper, designed by American architects Ryohei Koike and Jarod Poenisch.

Projected to be situated in Tokyo, the architects observed that this location is known for its extreme climate changes, densities, earthquakes and flows.  ‘Nested’ skyscraper looks to counteract these extremes with lightness, flexibility and transparency.  Using primarily composite materials and a dual layer fascade composed of ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene), the entire building can be lightweight and flexible, while the construction process uses far less energy.

Speaking of the construction process…

Building this structure involves a series of robots that stretch over a network of carbon sleeves sprayed with fiber-laced concrete.  A second set of robots wraps the structure with a steel mesh to allow for lateral movements and can increase or decrease its density according to structural and programmatic needs.

And what makes it a “nested” skyscraper?  “The building acts as a series of nests that stretch between and around compressive elements as the vertical circulation wraps around and pierces through the entire project.  Together the materials and volumes create a hybrid relationship between compressive and tension elements, public and private spaces, and static and dynamic forms.”

I would totally live in this concept skyscraper of the future.  Wouldn’t you?

[Via DesignBoom; Gizmodo]

Largest house of cards makes Guinness World Record

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American architect and ‘cardstacker’ Bryan Berg broke eight past records (all held by him!) for constructing the largest house made of stacked playing cards.  Over the course of 44 days, Berg used 218,792 cards (4,051 decks) to create a replica of the Venetian Macau, a hotel located in China based on Vegas’ Venetian.  At 600 pounds and meauring 33 feet by just under 10 feet, the massive house of cards is made without the aid of tape, glue, or any other foreign substance.  Says Berg:

“This has been the most ambitious project I have undertaken to date.  It’s really like a real construction project because you have to engineer every single adjacency and every support that’s supporting everything above.”

A worthy induction into the Guinness World Record books.  Look in the gallery below for some more shots of the structure and after the break for a video news report.

[Via Likecool; DailyMail.co.uk]

Continue reading Largest house of cards makes Guinness World Record →

Vitrahaus is a ‘pile of houses’

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Take a long gander at the Vitrahaus, a house-upon-a-house designed by architects Herzog and de Meuron.  DesignBoom’s got the scoop:

The five-storey structure is comprised of 12 ‘houses’ – five houses are set at the base in which seven other houses are stacked upon one another.  Each of the structural volumes appear as if they have been shaped by an extrusion press and are cantilevered up to 15 metres in some places.  The floor slabs intersect the underlying gables, resulting in a three-dimensional assemblage or ‘pile of houses’.

Located between the border of Switzerland and Germany at Weil am Rhein, the Vitrahaus resides as a presentation space for Vitra, a Swiss furniture manufacturer.  To no surprise, the interior of the home is just as flat-out spectacular as the exterior.  It oozes modern and minimalistic curves and other unconventionalities.  Definitely worth a look in the galleries below.

[Via DesignBoom, here & here; Gizmodo]