Friday, April 26, 2013

architecture and music

Below, watch Byrne’s TEDTalk and his latest music video.

Here, Byrne speaks at TED2010 about the relationship between architecture and music. Read what he had to say to the TED Blog at the time >>

Friday, April 19, 2013

Neut by Apollo Architects & Assoc.

I don't know about the outside, but I'm digging the inside!
Enjoy~

NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
Named Neut, the house was designed for a pair of music-lovers, so Apollo Architects & Associates was asked to add a studio with soundproofed concrete walls in the basement of the three-storey structure.

The studio opens out to a glazed triple-height courtyard, which benefits from the light filtering in from above.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
A second courtyard is located on the opposite side of the house on the ground floor. This space also sits below a skylight, although it is interrupted by a latticed deck on the uppermost floor.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
All bedrooms are positioned on the ground floor, while a living room and bathroom occupy the top floor. All of these rooms face down onto the courtyards through floor-to-ceiling windows.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
Interior surfaces are finished in a mixture of raw concrete, white plaster and timber panels. Meanwhile, the facade is dominated by timber louvres, which enclose a cantilevered balcony at the edge of the living room.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
Tokyo-based Apollo Architects & Associates is led by Satoshi Kurosaki. The studio also recently completed Still, a concrete house for a surgeon, and Flag, a narrow house with a glazed ground-floor gallery.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates

NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
Photography is by Masao Nishikawa.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
Here's a project description from Apollo Architects & Associates:


Neut, Suginami ward, Tokyo
The ophthalmologist couple purchased this narrow, but deep, parcel of land in a quiet neighborhood to build a house where they could enjoy their hobby of listening to the music.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
On the basement level, the courtyard and double-pane glazing provide sound-buffer for this RC-structure studio which is insulated on the exterior.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
Natural light enters the studio through the courtyard and makes the space exceptionally inhabitable as a basement.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
The balcony extends from the building and acts as the canopy over the garage with pilotis and entrance.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
The horizontal wooden slats are used as balcony balustrade to block the view from the street while allowing the air to breeze through.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
The randomly sized wooden pieces give the facade distinctive appearance. The ground floor contains private rooms such as master bedroom and children's bedrooms.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
The second floor, on the other hand, is intended as family room. The generously-sized gabled-roof space has two courtyards which accentuate the floor plan with their curves.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
Through the clerestory windows, the outside scenery and natural light enter the space.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
The wet area is separated from the living room by the tiled wall with its upper part glazed. The same wooden panel of the living room ceiling is used in the wet area to create the appearance of a continuous space.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
When viewed from inside, the horizontal wooden louver also accentuates the interior space while securing the privacy.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
By using only the simple finishing material on the interior, the space has the austere and coordinated feel.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
Furthermore, the combination of concrete and wood, as well as the gabled roof motif add warmth to the room's ambience.
NEUT by Apollo Architects & Associates
This design technique allows the occupants to forget that they are in a dense residential district. It is one of the most popular solutions in the urban setting.

http://www.dezeen.com/2013/04/17/neut-by-apollo-architects-associates/
Posted by

Friday, April 12, 2013

Farms of the Future

 From:


As the world's human population grows, we're reducing the amount of agricultural areas and forests. That's why some architects are working on concepts for sustainable skyscrapers and vertical agricultural buildings. Here are some of the most interesting plans for the merging of the city and the farm.

The Dragonfly for New York City (Vincent Callebaut, 2011)

The 600 m high vertical farm building was planned to New York City's Roosevelt Island. It could contain 28 different farms for vegetables, meat, fruit and others. The building would be self-sufficient because of the solar panels and wind power.
(via designboom)

Oasis Tower for Dubai (Rahul Surin and Synthesis Design Studio, 2009)

It would be able to provide housing for some Dubai residents and has vertical farms, which would produce enough food to feed 40000 people in a year. The tower will be powered by renewable energy.
(via inhabitat)

Pig City (MVRDV, 2001)

The Dutch MVRDV's design is all about huge skyscrapers with automated pig farms. There is probably a Thunderdome joke in here somewhere.
(via stroom)

Boatanic, Amsterdam (Damian O'Sullivan and Boatanic, 2010)

The concept is very simple: the Dutch Boatanic team want to convert discarded tourist boats into floating greenhouses. These unused watercrafts are really ideal for this use because of the large glass windows. The only example which was built two years ago has solar panels, a small urban windmill and water filtration system to the automatic irrigation.
(via boatanic)

Urban Farming and Media Interactive Network or Urban F.@.m.i.n for Manchester, UK (Jack O'Reilly, 2010)

The part vertical farm, part TV station was a pod-like plan of an architecture student that would include vegetables and fruits. The water could come from a canal, and the energy from renewable sources like wind power.

Clepsydra Urban Farming (Bruno Viganó and Florencia Costa, 2011)

The Clepsydra can be placed on an average rooftop of an existing building. It's a 10 story tall structure from stainless steel and glass panels and can produce food that is equivalent to six acres of farmland.
(via ecofriend)

London Farm Tower for London, UK (Brandon Martella, 2011)

The hydroponic floors can recycle the greenhouse air, so it can help to the city to breathe. It has an agricultural capacity of 1 million cubic feet, (28000 cubic meters) and it's enough to produce the 20 percent of London's total food demands. The London Farm Tower isn't just for agriculture, but for education, markets and labs with an extra 1 million sq feet of (100.000 sqm) usable area.

London Tower Farm for London, UK (Xome Arquitectos, 2011)

The beehive-structured tower has a vertical farm in the center of the tower, but there are some small residential areas, too, so the people can access the fresh vegetables and fruits instantly.

Vertical Life Tower for Barcelona, Spain (Jared Moore, 2011)

The living, green facade hides a huge amount of green areas, homes and a vertical farm on the top floors.
(via ecochunk)

Toronto Sky Farm for Toronto, Canada (Gordon Griff, 2009)

It provides enough food for 35000 people per year from the 59 stories.
(via treehugger and greenme)

Friday, April 5, 2013

Going Green!

 

TURBINE HOUSE


Michael Pelken and Thong Dang



Architect Michael Pelken and aeronautical engineer Thong Dang, both faculty members at Syracuse University, have patented a design principle for optimized integration of VAWTs at a building’s core.
 
 
 
TURBINE HOUSE
 
Purdue University Students developing a Selfsustaining Street Light
with similar technology as Architects Pelken and Dang
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
See links below for more information:
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rberdani/research.html
http://archrecord.construction.com/tech/techFeatures/2013/1304-A-Force-of-Nature-slideshow.asp?slide=10