London Festival of Architecture - Save the date

In 2013 LFA will become an annual, month-long and citywide exploration of London’s built environment; investigating the importance of architecture and design in London’s success and celebrating the city’s role as a global hub of architectural experimentation, thinking, learning and practice.
Many festivals celebrate history, cultural activities and human achievements. The London Festival of Architecture, established in 2004, does all this but also actively promotes positive change and improvement in the city’s public realm.
Taking place 1-30 June 2013, LFA will be a ‘time for architecture’ in the city and will incorporate a programme by invited Festival Partners from leading architectural and cultural institutions in order to harness and to link the enormous energy inherent in the London scene.
A rich and varied programme organised by independent actors, such as individual practices and artists will be promoted as the London Festival of Architecture Fringe.

Via lfa website

Twins: Houses in Five Parts

Boston based practice William O’Brien jr. has designed 'Twins: houses in five parts', two single family residences located in upstate New York, USA. intended for two brothers, a pair of structures sharing similar geometric qualities are linked by a functional agricultural field. The internal volumes are the result of a study of the mathematical principle of 'dissection' in which polygons of equal areas may be divided into identical shapes. Two sets composed of four varied trapezoids and one triangle containing parallel programmatic functions are arranged into a square and hexagonal plan configuration.



two homes separated by a linear agricultural plot


The floor and roof planes respond to immediate topographical shifts creating a varied sectional alignment connected with  ramps and stairs. all water runoff is directed towards a linear plot which can be easily accessed by dwellers from both endpoints. The ribbon of land is planted with interwoven strips of berries, vegetables and wheat. Continuous horizontal windows provide vistas of the surrounding forest and familial neighbor. Visible exterior surfaces are coated with thick black stucco contrasting the monochromatic white interior.



hexagonal home



square home



volume lifted off the ground



window provides dwellers with views of the neighboring structure



vista of neighboring home and surrounding landscape



the triangular space is used as a screened in porch within the hexagonal home



the triangular space is used as an interior open air courtyard within the square home



site plan



floor plan / level 0
hexagonal home



floor plan / level 0
square home



site section



sectional diagram



volumetric diagram



geometry study diagram



vegetation diagram

Upside Down House Whimsically Fallen from the Sky

French artist Jean-François Fourtou loves to play with the ideas of perspective and childhood worlds of imagination and magic. In his past work, Mes Maisons (My Houses), he experimented with viewers' perceptions of scale by placing his subjects in disproportionately large or small living spaces. This time around, Fourtou plopped an upside down house right in the center of his property in Morocco, disorienting his viewers and creating a bewildering experience of "home."
Tombée du Ciel (Fallen from the Sky) is an architectural structure inspired by Fourtou's grandparents' home in France. Imagine living in this topsy-turvy world, where the bathtub is on the ceiling and you can effortlessly climb into the house through the second story window. Fourtou's work reflects remnants of his own childhood memories, and just like the nature of most memories, this installation is twisted and turned and spun around until it's just a fraction of reality.
If you are fascinated with upside down architecture, you'll also enjoy this interesting design by Polish architects Irek Glowacki and Marek Rozanski.

Jean-François Fourtou on Aeroplastics Gallery
via [CollabCubed]

The view from The Shard viewing platform opens

The tallest building in Western Europe at 1016ft (309.6m) in height, the Shard skyscraper in London Bridge was inaugurated on 5th July.
Starting from 6th July the first batch of tickets is released for its viewing platform, the View from The Shard.

The View from The Shard observation area will be housed in the 68th-72nd floors of the skyscraper some 800ft (244m) above the capital. From that vantage point, guests will be able to see up to 40 miles (64km) away.

The viewing platforms are accessed by two high-speed ‘kaleidoscopic’ lifts that ascend to the building’s 68th level in 30 seconds. From that point, visitors are invited to the triple-height, glass-fronted Level 69 where the surrounding cityscape is fully exposed. The highest point accessible to The View from The Shard visitors is on Level 72 where it will be possible to look upwards and see the few remaining floors taper out of sight as the separate panels of the building converge at its tip.

 The View from The Shard will be almost twice as high as any other viewing point in London and its developers expect it to become a major tourist attraction. To mitigate overcrowding it will be necessary for visitors to pre-book a defined arrival time and date in order to access the viewing area. Although information on exact capacity hasn’t yet been confirmed, organisers have stated that the system will ensure a “crowd- and queue-free premium experience”. Over 17,500 people had already registered to secure tickets in advance of their release today.
Costing £24.95 for adults and £18.95 for children, tickets are now available through The View from The Shard website or via the box office hotline 0844 499 7111 which, unlike web bookings, applies a handling fee to all purchases. The View from The Shard will be open to the public from February 1, 2013.

Carbuncle Cup 2012

The UK’s leading architecture newspaper BD invites the public to put forward their worst new building for this year’s Carbuncle Cup.

Nominations are already pouring in from disgruntled architects and local residents. The list includes several high profile schemes including the renovation of the Cutty Sark and one of Prince Charles’ pet projects.

But the hot favourite is one of the most controversial projects of the 2012 Olympics - the ArcellorMittal Orbit tower by artist Anish Kapoor and engineer Cecil Balmond.

The ArcelorMittal Orbit, London:

Each week, one nominated building will be published on Bdonline - visit www.bdonline.co.uk/carbunclecup to see them all.

The nominations that receive the most support in the comments section will automatically make the shortlist which will be revealed on July 20th. A final winner will be chosen by public vote and a jury of built environment specialists led by BD’s executive editor Ellis Woodman.

“BD’s annual Carbuncle Cup offers the British public the chance to voice their distress at shoddy architecture, venal development and feckless planning,” said Woodman.

“The ever-growing support that the prize receives suggests the UK still has a long way to go before the quality of its built environment meets its citizens’ aspirations. Until that happy day, the Carbuncle Cup will be there to name and shame the worst offenders.”

Any building completed within the past 12 months or due for completion by the 2012 Olympics is eligible and anyone can nominate by sending in a short paragraph about the building to bdonline@ubm.com . The deadline for nominations is Friday July 13th.


Carbuncle Cup 2012 nominations

City portrait by Victor Enrich

Spanish photographer Victor Enrich has manipulated his own architectural photography to create impossible and fantastical structures, like this tower block that splits into two as though being unzipped.

Shalom 1 and 2 Tel Aviv 2009 - 2 views dedicated to the most emblematic, and tallest for many years, skyscraper of Israel. His shape always invited me to zip it up and down and what’s inside… This view is taken from the window of a 2 floor house located in the historical Neve Tsdek (Oasis of Justice) neighbourhood…the house is an astonishing private museum of Madkot, the Israeli beach tennis, with more that 1 hundred rackets.

Other images show a house turned upside down,  a vertical motorway and a seaside apartment block with balconies are abnormally stretched to face the water.

One shot provocatively shows a skyscraper in Israel taking the form of a gun, pointing towards the country’s enemies in the east.

Manuela is getting late München 2012 - My German private teacher is a very serious and organizes person… One day she got late…something as unexpected as finidng a building upside down! The picture is taken from the München born Sculpture Artsit Christian Engelmann’s living room’s window, while I stayed after my arrival to this wonderful city were I’m living now.

Enrich explains that the images “don’t pretend to talk directly about anything related to archtitecture or urbanism” but are “simply chosen to become a channel to express myself”.

Looping 2007 Riga - Mascavas Iela neighbourhood, from the Latvian movie director Liga Gaisa´s window facing the River Daugava. The bridge bends upwards when reaching the energy of the water. In the other side of the river, the TV building. In those years, a big pharaonic highway bridge was being built 2 miles south. The budget of this bridge was 3 or even 4 times the original while the society of Riga was starting to suffer from the the beginning of a deep crisis.

Captions were provided by the photographer.

Defense Tel Aviv 2010 - The First Opera Tower is by the sea, next to my home. The building is a gun pointing eastbound (where “evil” comes from…)

Medusa Tel Aviv 2011 - Second pic of the Orchid Hotel. Each balcony tries to get a better view towards the sea as the building is placed 90 degrees to it… bad bad bad.

Tongues Tel Aviv 2010 - The first house I see everytime I left home in Tel Aviv. An example of the Bauhaus style…wellknow for it’s pulcritude, and “German” order… except for this poor building…

Orchid Tel Aviv 2010 - First picture of the Orchid hotel taken from a construction site next to it. All hotels in TLV have their main entrance from behind, few meters up from the sea level… the entrance is also the back of the building… with the emergency staircase which in this case doesn’t clarify which is the direction to take in order to escape. TLV faces tourism the same way Miami does.

12 Ugly ducks München 2012 - A rational-poor-styled building from the 60s surrounded by 2 prominent neobaroque aristocraitc buildings. However, the aristocratic ones have lots of things to hide… Thanks good that the ugly duck shew us. 12 goes for the number of appartments located in this building.

VEF Remonts 2008 Riga - A massive 250 meter long brick made industrial factory located in front of my Squad. This is a view taken in the street that goes the Domina Shopping Mall, even bigger. Passing by, day after day, I always thought of a 200 m swimming pool in the the rooftop under a Chryptonitic Supermanish Glass Roof in the warmth.

Mailpark Tel Aviv 2009 - Number one of the 3 dedicated to the only one thing in Tel Aviv that is not white… the red postboxes. The pic is taken in the car park I was crossing every day direction my 10 month Hebrew Language course.

Opera Tel Aviv 2010 - One day I come to my office and I see that it has been eaten by a monstruous orange spherical creature. I take the day off. The orange goes as it is the opposite color of the light blue fo the glass. Opera goes for the name of the tower. The picture is taken from a construction site of the hospital in front of it.

Labanya Netanya 2011 - A hybrid for a wedding of a friend of mine. He is from Netania ( 50 north of TLV ), she is from Barcelona and they are currently living in L.A. The building is a mix of 3 places: 1, the famous beach of Netania, 2.- “La casa de les Punxes” a modernist building in Barcelona that she could see through her window every day and 3.- their current house in L.A. All together…as they’re getting married. Labanya goes for L.Angeles Barcelona netaNYA

52 Towers 2007 Helsinki - A merge between the Cathedral and the Panoramic Tower located next to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. My love for this building comes from Jim Jarmusch “Night on Earth” movie. 2 architectonical periods connected by its white (pure) condition.

Mersand Tel Aviv 2010 –  Inspired in the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. This is the building that contains the Cafe Mersand, my favorite coffee shop in TLV. An old cafe from the 50s kept as it was after 3 decades of closing time. TLV is a bubble of isolation and leisure. It’s hard to believe that really cruel things are happening daily just a few miles away.

Tuna Tel Aviv 2011 - Another of my favorite cafe located on the main floor of the Mekorot building, the water company of TLV. The building opens up as the Meghilot rolls (the Jewish Torah) and a Tuna can that I ate in the desert in one of my several trekks.

Million 2009 Jerusalem - Former Hilton Hotel, in the independece Park, ending point of the Jerusalem’s Gay Pride. The ocre stone block is reduced to a slim facade holded by a metallic structure inspired in the rooftops of the Million Dollar Hotel in Los Angeles.

Reval City 3 2007 Riga - Piece number 3 of a series dedicated to the Reval hotel Latvija, the biggest hotel in the city, being observed from my appartments window in Lacplesa Iela. The series talks about cloning an element (the hotel) that is iconic for the city to the limits of banality. A 90 meter high blue prisma made of glass in contrast with the brick and wooden older buildings of the city.

Roofs Tel Aviv 2011 - King George-Alenby streets crossing, the heart of the city. TLV is in the middle east…but Central Europe is there, as you can see. Most of my frineds in Tel Aviv are Jewish coming from Europe.

Deportation Tel Aviv 2011 - Unfinished picture that what I was making when I got deported by the Ministry of Interior due to have become a public figure in TLV. Their argument is that i was not alloed to do art in TLV porting a Tourist Visa. The buildings are the Aizrieli Center Mall and Office Complex taken (that is funny) at the entrance of the Ministry of Interior Headquarters. The pic tries to empty the interior as, probably, nothing what happens in there is really important to me.

Barnawood Barcelona 2011 - A fast exercise that tries to explain the process of transformation that my home town, Barcelona, is suffering in the last years in terms of low class tourism.

Via: Dezeen

Archistar and their signatures

Rules to interpret a signature:

Your first name relates to your individual ego - If your first name is larger than your family name, it suggests that you are proud of your own accomplishments. However, the larger the first name, the larger the desire to appear important. This can also indicate a low self-esteem.

The Family name projects social status - If your family name is larger than your first name, you take great pride in family achievements and reputation, rather than in your own accomplishments.

Legible signature – If the signature is legible and simple, the writer is unpretentious, honest and straightforward. This person will follow the rules and do as they are told… just the same as when they were in school.

Illegible Signature  - If the signature is illegible, the writer may be in such a hurry that they can’t take the time to shape the letters properly… doctors, executives, movie stars. An illegible signature is often a sign of a big ego… someone who expects others to know who they are. This person also wants to keep their personal lives private and shielded from the outside world.

We now analyze signatures of great architects!

Looking at the signature of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better know as Le Corbusier, it’s obvious that the beginning stroke of the “L” stands for pilotis and that the sweeping broad stroke of the “C” clearly stands for roof top garden – the 1st and 5th point in his Five Points of Architecture made famous in the book “Vers une Architecture“. The clearly defined first “r” indicates a love for stainless steel, while the casual, almost sloppy final “r” is a nod towards his famous quote: “Chairs are architecture, sofas are bourgeois.”
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To anyone paying attention, the over-sized “R” in the signature of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe indicates obvious pride in family accomplishments. The vertical strokes that are loosely tied together indicate the same skin and bones approach he took towards his architecture. The lengthy lead in stroke to the “M” is an indication of his loathing for the Nazi’s who thought his work was not “German enough”, something that eventually lead to frustration over evaporating commissions and brought him to the states.
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The signature of Tadao Ando tells us that “I am a superstar and only need to go by one name …. like Cher”. The separation of the last letter in the signature, the ’O‘, and it’s exaggerated proportions and separation from the ‘And‘, is a pop cultural reference to the American Classic song “… and Bing-O was his name-O” while the upwardly sloping tilt of the signature tells us that Tadao Ando had humble origins but expects to have his name in polished chrome and lights. The dot over the “n”, since there isn’t a letter there that needs a dot, tells us that “I can knot reelly spell all that wel”… Then again, he doesn’t need to, does he?
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This is the signature of Renzo Piano – not that you would ever be able to tell. Clearly the signature of an international superstar, acknowledged as the recipient of the Knight Grand Cross, Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize. He has more important things to do than sign his name (except on the back of the checks he is depositing into his bank account). What you may not know is that the two dots at the end of his signature are a homage to Egyptian hieroglyphics, specifically “Apophis” the Snake God and the God of Chaos – an ironic nod towards the buildings he creates which are notable for their clarity and serenity.
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The extremely legible signature of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, famous for pioneering the formal possibilities of reinforced concrete, show that he is a man among the common man despite the vertically rising tilt of his signature. The loop at the bottom of the capital “O” in Oscar, the hook present in the “N” in Niemeyer, but the lack of any embellishment in the “y“ show that he is a man of detail, prone to folly at times. Also, looking at the final “r” you know that he believes that “… sofas are not bourgeois, but are – in fact – very comfortable and good for afternoon siestas.” I would have to agree with him on that.
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What can you say about the signature of Richard Meier? Completely illegible (does it say “Texas” at the end??) which is a clear indication of assumed stardom and self-importance … but the squiggly line embellishment at the bottom (closely resembling a sad clown smile) is an attempt after the fact of a strong desire for our love and acceptance. Meier has built a career based on the theories of others – particularly Le Corbusier – and the casual self-importance and self-loathing present in the beginning, middle and end of this signature speak volumes … and a love of the color white.
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Big first name is an indication of ego and everyone knows Frank Lloyd Wright had a big ego. The squished together”Lloyd Wright” show that there were no family accomplishments of note that were of any importance to Frank and that this was his show and everything was about him (just ask any of his clients…)

Source: lifeofanarchitect