Sliced Bunker

Bunker 599 + 603

This project lays bare two secrets of the New Dutch Waterline (NDW), a military line of defence in use from 1815 until 1940 protecting the cities of Muiden, Utrecht, Vreeswijk and Gorinchem by means of intentional flooding. 

A seemingly indestructible bunker with monumental status is sliced open. The design thereby opens up the minuscule interior of one of NDW’s 700 bunkers, the insides of which are normally cut off from view completely. In addition, a long wooden boardwalk cuts through the extremely heavy construction. It leads visitors to a flooded area and to the footpaths of the adjacent natural reserve. The pier and the piles supporting it remind them that the water surrounding them is not caused by e.g. the removal of sand but rather is a shallow water plain characteristic of the inundations in times of war.

The sliced up bunker forms a publicly accessible attraction for visitors of the NDW. It is moreover visible from the A2 highway and can thus also be seen by tens of thousand of passers-by each day. The project is part of the overall strategy of Rietveld Landscape | Atelier de Lyon to make this unique part of Dutch history accessible and tangible for a wide variety of visitors. 

Rachel Whiteread's Drawings

A lot of the works that I've been making over the years have been part of a cyclical process. Things have happened, things branch off, things crop up that I haven't thought about. I often feel a cycle is incomplete and need to tread the same path again. I've been teaching myself a language for the past fifteen years, and the utilization of that language can take on many forms.

--Rachel Whiteread 

Using various materials to articulate the negative space surrounding or contained by objects, Whiteread has elaborated various approaches to casting and impression as subject, process, and vehicle for content. Her daily practice is based on a persistent duality: a pragmatic approach to the materials and making of art coupled with a fascination for the psychologically charged associations and traces of human contact borne by and embedded in objects and environments. 

Whiteread’s frequent use of graph paper for her drawings recalls the notations of her Minimalist predecessors. Her forms, too, play off the geometry of the grid, but there are fundamental differences from the function-driven and emotional detachment of Minimalist drawings. For example, Dan Flavin’s graph paper drawings were empirical records of the components and colors of his installations whereas Whiteread’s are as much about evocation as representation and her choice of colored paper is as important as the drawing itself. 

Rachel Whiteread was born in London in 1963. She studied painting at Brighton Polytechnic from 1982-1985 and sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1985-1987. 

More from :http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/2010-09-07_rachel-whiteread/

Augmented City - Keiichi Matsuda

Augmented City 3D from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

Keiichi Matsuda, a recent graduate—with distinction—from the Bartlett School of Architecture

The film "focuses on the deprogramming of architecture and the spontaneous creation of customised, aggregated spaces," Matsuda writes. We see its central protagonist surrounded by pop-up menus and projected touchscreens, able to switch urban backgrounds—graffiti to gardens—in an instant. From the project description:The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply about the physical space of buildings and landscape, more and more it is about the synthetic spaces created by the digital information that we collect, consume and organise; an immersive interface may become as much part of the world we inhabit as the buildings around us.Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology defined by its ability to overlay physical space with information. It is part of a paradigm shift that succeeds Virtual Reality; instead of disembodied occupation of virtual worlds, the physical and virtual are seen together as a contiguous, layered and dynamic whole. It may lead to a world where media is indistinguishable from 'reality'. The spatial organisation of data has important implications for architecture, as we re-evaluate the city as an immersive human-computer interface.

Philip Beesley's Hylozoic Ground

As Beesley explains, "Hylozoic Ground is an immersive, interactive environment that moves and breathes around its viewers... Next-generation artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and interactive technology create an environment that is nearly alive." Indeed, he adds, "hylozoism is the ancient belief that all matter has life."
The resulting structure is "similar to a coral reef, following cycles of opening, clamping, filtering and digesting. Arrays of touch sensors create waves of diffuse breathing motion, luring visitors into the shimmering depths of a forest of light."

http://www.hylozoicground.com/project/index.html

The Transcendent City / Richard Hardy

THE TRANSCENDENT CITY from Richard Hardy on Vimeo.


A recent graduate from London’s Bartlett School of Architecture, Richard Hardy has produced a fascinating animation for Nic Clear’s Unit 15 that pushes futuristic architecture to a new level.  Using David Foster Wallace’s ‘Infinite Jest’, a novel that questions certain aspects of Americans’ obsessive behavior – in terms of the intense fascination with entertainment, materialism, technology etc –  the studio challenged students to analyze the implications of society’s “obsessive/addictive behavior…to develop tactics to cope with the difficulties of creating an architecture in uncertain times.”

Molly Wally

Opening of 350th Royal Society's Summer Exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Stand design of 'Molly Wally' for the ICE group London Centre for Nanotechnology & Department of Chemistry, UCL.

Design: marcosandmarjan
Collaboration: Tze-Chun Wei, Camille Tenart, Sebastien Tabourin, Hubert Ducroux

Manufacturing: Mesa Studio at Grymsdyke Farm
Graphic Design: Alexandra Tenreiro

SketchChair | Flatpack Chair Software

SketchChair from Greg Saul on Vimeo.
http://www.zeitgeistudios.com/2010/07/27/sketchchair-flatpack-chair-software/

Exb_RCA Show 2010

Exb_Bartlett Summer Show 2010

Each year the Bartlett summer show is always overwhelming and packed of people, overwhelming by the amount of students work and amazed by the quality of the presentation in the same time.  I could say maybe its the biggest architecture school exhibition in London or UK.

Over 400 students from 1st year to diploma 5th year, and assumed more than 3000 drawings are shown in every single inches of space, the massive production and the energized creativity are always enjoyable in the event. The school is crossing over different disciplines which make it more attractive for all the people to evolve.  Hand craft making, film and animation, digital fabrication, hand sketch drawings, CG graphics, 1:1 scale production, photos, interactive media...etc. I would rather say this is more like an architecture carnival than just a year show, you feel the passion, the ambition, the creativity all coming from the students work. 

Tape Installation

This installation work that posted on http://www.zeitgeistudios.com  is the most stunning innovative work that I have seen recently after the UK Pavilion. Its an architectural installation that is involved with material, inhabitable space, body engage, structural and aesthetics.  A spider web like material and cocoon like textures give it a bizarre expression all simply made from everyday essential, plastic tapes. This approach reminds me to criticize some of the digital manufacture form that is all end up with CNC milling or cross knotted structure which is always stand still, heavy and bulky of new crazy geometries. I appreciate Numen had step forward of the flurry neo architecture language that is indeed NEW!!

http://www.foruse.info/index_in.htm

Speed Of Light

Speed of Light celebrates the tenth anniversary of broadband in the UK. Stripped back to its essentials, optical fibre is a thin strand of glass, with nothing more than a flickering beam of light traveling along it. United Visual Artists have used this beam as the starting point for the work.

Speed of Light consists of 6 site specific installations connected through light and sound. The story begins with an input from the audience, which is transferred into a pathway of light, leading through the atmospheric environment of the Bargehouse. The continuous line of light evolves through each installation in turn shifting in intensity and form. Speed of Light uses over 148 lasers across four floors and six rooms of the Bargehouse, a raw and industrial warehouse on the South Bank

Exb_Westminster Uni. summer show

This is the architecture design annual show of Westminster University, a school that has unit scheme which gives a variety. The best studio this year will still go for DS14, an unit lead by Susanne Isa, which usual focus on man made leftover, forgotten landscapes, their approach  of creating a sort of bizarre and phenomenal space that is expressing directly by their drawings, the darkness, underground, bunker like graphics does tell the story. 

Exb_Ban-Doh

This is an exhibition of Taiwanese artist in UK, the variety of the work crossing fashion, product, media, graphic, a small exhibition but its indeed encouraging for the young designer to have a stage for them to show off, its a beginning and will be a good start for the future Taiwan design industry to be more well known. I submitted my project but unfortunate didn't got selected, I'll keep trying and hopefully one day can be part of this event. 

Event: Ban-Doh: Taiwanese Arts & Design Exhibition, 9-13 June 2010

The exhibition is brought to you by the FORMOSA team, founded by the University of the Arts London Taiwanese Society (UALTWS) and its alumni. The “Ban-Doh @ FORMOSA” exhibition has invited prominent professionals in the field of arts and design to examine and appraise more than 200 art works. They are Ellie Greig and Jane Trustram, curator and the head of graphic design of jotta and Rayne Perry, the president of the UAL Curation Society. And, together with fashion designers from the FORMOSA team and a Taiwanese curator based in London, they have selected 40 final products, created by 21 artists, whose creation have produced comparable culture flavour but each unique in its own right.

From: 9-13 June 2010

Opening Party :Wednesday 9th June 9pm - 12pm

Venue : Candid Arts Trust Gallery, 5 Torrens Street ,London EC1V 1NQ, UK

Ban-Doh ['ban'doh]

A traditional Taiwanese open feast of enriching culture, sumptuous food and heart-warming hospitality -

enjoy this visual banquet of the most cutting edge arts and design that Taiwan has to offer.

Featuring artists:

Chin Chang, Min-Tzu Chao, Pao-Han Chen, An-Li Chen,

Yao-Jen Chuang, Chiao Ling Fan, Yu-En Hsieh, Yen-Ting Hsu,

Ying-I Hsu, Chien-Ni Hung, Craig Kao, Ling-Ting Kao, Johan Ku,

Mei-Hui Liu, Chi-Heng Peng & Chin-Ying Lin, Jill HC Tsai,

Rosy Tsai, Pei-Chen Wu,  Michael Wu, Kenyon Yeh, Yosifu

Showcasing:

Fine Art, Illustration, Sound Installation, Video Installation,

Fashion Design, Architecture, Industrial Design

Royal re-formation from Paul Nicholls

ROYAL RE-FORMATION from Paul Nicholls on Vimeo.

A stunning CG animation by the 4th year student of Unit15 in the Bartlett school. I especially like the space of the parcel library 

ROYAL CABINETS

In an age of progressively automated manufacturing and fabrication processes, the Royal Cabinets are an aggressive expression of labour. Assembled from a contractor led design approach, the cabinets draw on highly skilled local craftsmen and artists to produce the fantastical. Staged within the proposed baron 'facadescape' of a financially fragile Canary Wharf, the Cabinets are programmatically charged with the loss of yet another great British labour force, Royal Mail. With the privatisation of this service and the closing of the old London sorting offices, the company now exists solely to store, manage and eventually sell its backlog of lost and undelivered mail, inside the cabinets themselves. Sorted by day and publically accessed by night, the cabinets are constructed from salvaged/lost/unwanted materials as well as being ornamentally re-branded with the objects of former mail operations, which include mail carts, postal sacks and even delivery vehicles. These unlikely combinations of materials form an intricate bricolage of sculptures at various scales, forming storage areas, display cases, chandeliers, and even the fabric of the cabinets themselves. 

ROYAL RE-FORMATION

The film attempts in part to graphically abstract the construction of the Royal Cabinets, In a dream-like labour of love. This abstracted reformation is a metaphor for this labour as well as representing the 'architecture of pieces' nature to the project. With the obsession for the object the film focuses on an assemblage of immense intricacy as the material slowly clusters to form the sculptural mail markets. Once formed the focus stays with the object, now in the form of the ornamentally re-branded building parts, before the nocturnal mail markets come to life, transforming into red jewels in the urban cityscape, becoming misplaced curious objects in themselves which have a strange visual balance of fragility and aggression.

Exb_Design of the year 2010

Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2010 is held by Design Museum London every year to explore the most innovative, exquisite or new-looking project in design all over the world. It includes 7 categories: architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport. 

In this exhibition the selected works are balanced between applicable and conceptual. Besides the architecture part which are built and less interesting, the furniture, product and transport are more intriguing. It includes the public bicycle sharing system Urbikes that is designed in Spain to offer door to door services has already fully working in one Catalan city. Chirnside’s Polytopia seating system designed in Australia strikes the balance between aesthetics, comfort and concept of contemporary furniture, it examines how people interactive and communicate when sharing the chairs. An repair project by Linda Browthwell is an unique case, which concept is to use traditional craft techniques to repair everyday objects within the public realm, it intervene the public space by patching not replacing. 

Other work like the lightest Carbon fiber chair designed by Shigeru Ban Architects, the low-cost sports wheelchair and I consider as the most revolutionized product for Britain is the Folding Plug that is designed by Min-Kyu Choi, as there must be people struggling buying mini size electronics but end up with the chunky UK plugs that is even bigger than the product itself. This is the best example of the design with simple idea, but balance the conceptual, applicable and also aesthetic. The last must seen and indeed very cutting edge, eye catching conceptual product is the BMW - Light Visionary Model. From the appearance, It’s a convention handsome looking sports car, but instead of build in tradition rigid frame with aluminum or steel plate, its composite with hi-tech fabric skin stretched over a moveable wire frame which enables the car to change shape and form. The headlight is the most exciting part, its like human eyelid, with hidden and blinking apertures that hides in the fabric. It’s a whole new idea beyond the solid robotic transformer type of thinking, a car body that is intangible, elastic like a flesh with a dressing. 

Vertical Garden on Building Walls in Osaka

Vertical Garden on Building Walls in Osaka: "n a world of tight spaces and growing pollution, one has to be creative. Italian architect Gaetano Pesce designed this amazing organic building in Osaka, Japan. The walls of the construction feature interesting extruded pockets with plants, thus creating an impromptu vertical garden. This idea also contributes to the overall original look of the building which made it become one of the city’s landmarks in the past years. The 80 types of plants and trees were selected by asking help from specialized local horticulturists, but the main species is Bamboo. In case you are wondering what this structure houses, know that is is a nine-floor building with 7,052 square meters of interior space. Restaurants and many business offices are headquartered here.-via Inhabitat"

Watch out

UK Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010

The UK Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010 is one of the people’s favorite (if not the most). We featured yesterday the pavilion’s details with some amazing photos and plans. Now, we could not pass the opportunity to show you this amazing video of the pavilion made byChannelbeta.

More on Pole Dance

More on Pole Dance, SO-IL’s winning entry for the P.S.1
This video clearly explains the concept for SO-IL’s winning proposal for the P.S.1 summer installation we presented you yesterday. Now it is easier to understand the concept proposed by Pole Dance, encouraging people to move the structure to create a dynamic space.