Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Runneymede Memorial

Happy TurkeyDay!

TGIW!

One acre of America in England- designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe and finished in 1965.
work.J
 
Thanks John Parker for todays 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


Blog: YEOW!
Post: Runneymede Memorials




Runnymede memorials

1953: Air Forces Memorial
This sobering yet beautiful memorial to the men and women of the Allied Air Forces who died during World War II was designed by Sir Edward Maufe R.A. and unveiled by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 17 October 1953. An inscription over the entrance to the cloister reads: 'In this cloister are recorded the names of 20,456 airmen who have no known grave. They died for freedom in raid and sortie over the British Isles and the land and seas of northern and western Europe'.
This was the first new building to be designated Grade I listed status after the war. It is administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. From the top of the tower visitors can see Windsor Castle, Runnymede and breathtaking views of seven counties.
1957: Magna Carta MemorialStanding at the foot of the Cooper's Hill Slopes is a memorial to the Magna Carta in the form of a domed classical temple containing a pillar of English granite on which is inscribed: 'To commemorate Magna Carta, symbol of Freedom Under Law.' This was built by the American Bar Association on land leased by the Magna Carta Trust. It was paid for by voluntary contributions of some 9,000 American lawyers. The memorial was designed by Sir Edward Maufe R.A. and unveiled on 18 July 1957 at a ceremony attended by American and English lawyers.
1965: John F. Kennedy Memorial
This memorial stands halfway up the Cooper's Hill Slopes and overlooks Runnymede, on ground previously belonging to the Crown and now the property of the United States of America. It is made of Portland stone to the design of G.A. Jellicoe and was unveiled by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 14 May 1965 in the presence of President Kennedy's widow and children. Visitors reach the memorial by treading a steep path of irregular granite steps, one for each year of Kennedy's life.
The inscription reads: 'This acre of English ground was given to the United States of America by the people of Britain in memory of John F. Kennedy, born 29 May, 1917: President of the United States 1961-63: died by an assassin’s hand 22nd November,1963. "Let every National know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty": from the inaugural address of President Kennedy, January 1961.'




The tree behind the memorial is Quercus coccinea- (Scarlet Oak)- whose leaves turn blood red in November to symbolize the assassination of JFK. 

Basically a path with 46 steps (one for each year of Kennedy’s life), a memorial slab of Limestone, and a tree.







Very moving memorial, simple but contemplative- resolved with good materials on a historic piece of land overlooking the Thames.


 

Check out Link for more information:

Friday, November 18, 2011

Sunken Bridge by RO&AD

Happy Friday!


Sunken Bridge by RO&AD


Here’s some more text from timber supplier Accoya:

The West Brabant Water Line is a 17th century Dutch defensive line of earthen forts and walls that linked and protected a number of cities and villages during attacks from France and Spain; inundation zones were flooded with water too deep for enemy advance on foot but shallow enough to rule out use of boats.
As part of a recent restoration project, RO&AD architects sought to build access to the line’s Fort de Roovere, the largest fortress surrounded by a moat, while still preserving the site’s aesthetic integrity and dramatic view.
The team’s solution was a “sunken” bridge that sits within the water and slope. Following the line of the fort slope and sitting almost flush with the soil and the water level, the Moses Bridge is practically invisible as visitors approach and boasts a trench-like aesthetic.
 Built with Accsys Technologies’ Accoya wood sheet piling on either side with a hardwood deck and stairs in between, the Moses Bridge is not only visually striking and highly functional, but also durable and eco friendly.
Accoya wood undergoes a nontoxic proprietary modification process called acetylation that renders it an unrecognizable wood source, preventing fungal decay while increasing its dimensional stability.


Sunken Bridge by RO&AD

Sunken Bridge by RO&AD

-via Dezeen
by Amy Frearson
Click on link below for more info and photos:
http://www.dezeen.com/2011/11/17/sunken-bridge-by-road/

Friday, November 11, 2011

Happy Friday!

Michael Hadley has sent you a link to a blog:

"More Fires in office to put out kept me tied up all morning. But look what I have for you today. Coming to a City Near You. Check this out.”

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




Thank you Craig Kubicz for Todays yeow suggestion.
[If anyone else has any YEOW’s they’d like to share, please feel free to let me know! Thx] Blog: YEOW!
Post:
Link: 


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Wacky Buildings on Rise in China

By Susan Galleymore, Inman News
November 1, 2011

An Hui Province's eye-catching "Piano House."
Photo: Xinhuanet

China caught the world's gaze with its innovative "bird's nest" design for Beijing National Stadium, which took center stage during the Summer Olympics in 2008. And the view has remained riveting as China continues to push architectural design way beyond traditional boundaries.
Clearly, China is going all out to attract more attention -- and the accompanying revenue.
Among the architectural wonders built, planned or under construction: a building in the form of a piano and glass violin, a ping pong paddle-shaped hotel, an airplane-shaped airport terminal, and a comic book museum in the form of massive 3-D speech bubbles.


 
 
Plans for the Comics and Animation Museum on the drawing board in Hangzhou challenge the principles of architecture and play with design, perspective and proportion.
Hangzhou, 111 miles southwest of Shanghai in Zhejiang Province, is the site of the International Comic and Animation Festival, so it is a fitting home for the planned museum. The museum complex includes eight interlocking buildings shaped like speech balloons. At night they can even "speak": the design calls for images and text to be projected onto their white exterior facades, communicating with pedestrians below.
Netherlands-based architecture firm MVRDV designed the museum so that visitors can take in the entire circular space of each building at once. Each balloon building, from the lobby to the roof terrace restaurant, the comic library, and a choice of three cinemas -- with a total of 1,111 seats, including an IMAX theater -- offers a different interactive experience: blue screen, stop motion, drawing, creating emotions, and a gigantic 3-D zoetrope that produces illusions of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.
The museum will be part of the Comic and Animation Centre, which spans 33 acres and also features a series of hill-shaped buildings, including offices, a hotel and a conference center. The project will consolidate Hangzhou's position as China's animation capital. Construction starts in 2012. The local architect is Zhubo Architectural, and Arup is the engineering designer. Construction is already under way on Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport Terminal 3, which has a design that resembles an aircraft, including fuselage, wings and tail section.
Shenzen airport, in Guangdong Province, along the South China Sea, last year ranked as China's fifth-busiest airport for passenger traffic, handling about 26.7 million passengers, and the airport's expansion is expected to give it the capacity to handle 45 million passengers per year, according to the engineering design firm's website. The project is scheduled for completion in 2012.
China is fusing imagination with its financial and engineering means. China has the landmass, the labor force and the drive to stretch out such wild architectural experiments. Smaller city governments are taking note of Beijing and Shanghai's successes, and following suit.
In An Hui Province's Huainan City, a collaboration between architectural design faculty and students of the local Hefey University of Technology and designers of Huainan Fangkai Decoration Project produced an open grand piano-shaped house, as black and shiny as the coal mined in the region, that contrasts with the giant glassy violin resting against its side. The violin structure houses the escalator.

Here are some unusual and bold buildings either completed or underway in China:


Plans for a Comics and Animation Museum in Hangzhou, southwest of Shangahai in China's Zhejiang Province, call for a series of interconnected buildings designed to resemble speech bubbles. The museum complex is part of a larger development that will span 33 acres and will include offices, a hotel and a conference center.


The ping-pong paddle hotel building will present views of a stadium shaped like a giant unlaced American football, a volleyball-shaped building housing a swimming pool, a soccer ball-shaped gym stadium, and a basketball-shaped stadium. According to Jin Chang, director of Huainan's Municipal Bureau of Sports, this is the "perfect architectural shape for a hotel," which will feature a viewing deck in the racket's handle.


Check out link for more information:

Friday, November 4, 2011

STRANDBEEST

Happy Friday!
Today's YEOW is something different but way cool!
Enjoy~!






"Self-propelling beach animals like Animaris Percipiere have a stomach . This consists of recycled plastic bottles containing air that can be pumped up to a high pressure by the wind. This is done using a variety of bicycle pump, needless to say of plastic tubing. Several of these little pumps are driven by wings up at the front of the animal that flap in the breeze. It takes a few hours, but then the bottles are full. They contain a supply of potential wind. Take off the cap and the wind will emerge from the bottle at high speed. The trick is to get that untamed wind under control and use it to move the animal. For this, muscles are required. Beach animals have pushing muscles which get longer when told to do so. These consist of a tube containing another that is able to move in and out. There is a rubber ring on the end of the inner tube so that this acts as a piston. When the air runs from the bottles through a small pipe in the tube it pushes the piston outwards and the muscle lengthens. The beach animal's muscle can best be likened to a bone that gets longer. Muscles can open taps to activate other muscles that open other taps, and so on. This creates control centres that can be compared to brains".-From Strandbeest website.

Watch the film here:

Thank you Ramon S for today's YEOW!