Friday, July 29, 2011

Musée de l'Institut du Monde Arabe

Good Morning Everyone!
TGIF!


The Arab Institute, Paris,  

is a great museum just across the river from Notre Dame.  

Designed by the French Architect,  Jean Nouvel


 


“My wife and kids went to see this building in Paris when we were there a few years ago
and while it was a very interesting combination of architecture and engineering,
the maintenance program seemed to have a distinctly French relaxed attitude”  -Eric Snellings

 

 

 

Address: 1 rue des Fossés St-Bernard, 5e Phone: 01-40-51-38-38
Metro: Jussieu
Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-6pm
Cost: Permanent exhibitions: 4€ adults, 3€ students, free for children under 12.
Temporary exhibits: 7€ adults, 5€ students, free for children under 12.


 
Perhaps best of all his works, Nouvel’s Arab World Institute most clearly and literally demonstrates the common thread through his works: skillful coaxing of light to enter and play in his buildings. The building’s south-facing façade is constructed entirely of mechanical oculi operated by photoelectric cells that automatically open and close in response to light levels. It also beckons images of latticework screens iconic to the Mid-East and as such reveals another common thread of Nouvel’s works: deferential reference to historic and physical surround.
This strong response to context means that Nouvel’s oeuvre does not impose the burden of a signature starchitect style on individual projects. “We, as a jury, recognize that architecture is a field of many challenges and complexities and that the career of an architect does not always follow a linear path,” noted the Pritzker jury in their release statement. “In the case of Jean Nouvel, we particularly admire the spirit of the journey—persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation—qualities that are abundant in the work of the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate.”
In Nouvel’s own words: “My interest has always been in an architecture which reflects the modernity of our epoch as opposed to the rethinking of historical references. My work deals with what is happening now—our techniques and materials, what we are capable of doing today.”

Friday, July 22, 2011

Foster + Partner’s Carbon-Neutral Eco City

Happy Friday!

Today’s Environment of the Week will be Foster + Partner’s Carbon-Neutral Eco City


“Oh Boy, look at what Dubai is up to now"

Thank you Ephraim Fermin for today’s YEOW suggestion!
[If anyone else has any YEOW’s they’d like to share, please feel free to let me know! Thx]

Do Enjoy! Y.our E.nvironment O.f the W.eek


 
Name project: Foster and Partner's Carbon-Neutral Eco City
Architects:Solomon, Cordwell, Buenz and Associates
Consultants: Urban West Associates
General contractor: Bovis Lend Lease
Cost: $300 Million
Total Height: 495 Ft.
Floor count: 106 Total between two towers.
Date of completion: 2009



Foster and Partner's carbon-neutral Masdar City is springing to life in Abu Dhabi. 

Breaking ground Feb,2008, the $22 billion self-contained city will be approximately 20 miles outside of Abu Dhabi city.


Aerial View



 





















Friday, July 15, 2011

Musical Instrument....

Happy Friday Folks!

Your Environment Of the Week will be....(drum roll)....

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Chimecco by Mark Nixon.

Mark Nixon of London studio CZWG has turned a bridge in Aarhus, Denmark, into a musical instrument by hanging metal pipes from the underside.
Varying in length, the 600 gold-anodized aluminium pipes move freely in the breeze, sounding like a traditional wind chime when they collide.
People on the bridge can touch interactive nodes on its surface to activate the chimes in a controlled order, playing the instrument.
Named Chimecco, the sculpture forms part of this year’s Sculpture by the Sea exhibition, which takes place entirely outdoors.
Please click here for more info.





Friday, July 8, 2011

Dunescape, SHoP Architects


Happy Friday!



Continuing to discuss Dune Shaped Architecture. Today’s Environment of the Week will be "Dunescape" at P.S.1 in MoMA, Summer Court Yard Installation by SHoP Architects. For those that have been following the blog. Thanks. Thank you Kathleen Smith for today’s YEOW suggestion!
[If anyone else has any YEOW’s they’d like to share, please feel free to let me know! Thx J]



Young Architects competition Winner
Location: Long Island City, NY
Phase: Completed June 2000
Size: 12,000 sf

The first view upon entering the studio of SHoP Architects is a wall full of model airplanes. These airplanes visualize the firm’s overarching philosophy of “performance-based design”, in which form maximizes the capabilities of a building. While performance-based design is second-nature in the aviation and automotive industries, it is a rare stance amongst architecture firms.


Installation Mockup
MoMA PS1 is one of the oldest and largest nonprofit contemporary art institutions in the United States. An exhibition space rather than a collecting institution, MoMA PS1 devotes its energy and resources to displaying the most experimental art in the world. MoMA PS1 presents over 50 exhibitions each year, including artists' retrospectives, site-specific installations, historical surveys, arts from across the United States and the world, and a full schedule of music and performance programming.

Model to scale

Inside the Dunscape
Gregg Pasquarelli, SHoP/Sharples Holden Pasquarelli:
We had been experimenting with digital simulation and animation design techniques as well as really trying to push this idea of "performance-based design," but SHoP's main interest was translating the digital into the actual. How could an architect extract what was so provocative on the screen and retain this once it's built? How do you do that on a limited budget without making it look like a school project? We had to make that translation in six weeks! Back then the competition didn't seem like a big deal. For us it was more, "Let’s see if we can test these ideas out."

Ribbing on the Dunescape

Activating a non-activated space

Amazing eh.

Check out link below for more information.

Links: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/yap/archive_city.html