nickkahler reblogged
Jarmund Vigsnæs, Red House, Oslo, Norway, 2002 (via nilsdale)
nickkahler reblogged
Reiulf Ramstad, Kindergarten, Oslo, Norway, 2010 (via subtilitas)
Snøhetta, Opera House, Oslo, Norway, 2007 (via archdaily)
"The Norwegian Opera and Ballet are Norway’s largest music and theatrical institution. Their core purpose is to be the national producer of opera, ballet, music and dance theatre, and concerts. They intend to have approx. 300 shows and 250,000 visitors per year. Three diagrams, which were part of the entry, explain the building’s basic concept. THE WAVE WALL: Opera and ballet are young artforms in Norway. These artforms evolve in an international setting . The Bjørvika peninsula is part of a harbour city, which is historically the meeting point with the rest of the world.. The dividing line between the ground ‘here’ and the water ‘there’is both a real and a symbolic threshold. This threshold is realized as a large wall on the line of the meeting between land and sea, Norway and the world, art and everyday life. This is the threshold where the public meet the art. THE FACTORY: A detailed brief was developed as a basis for the competition. Snøhetta proposed that the production facilities of the operahouse should be realized as a self contained, rationally planned ‘factory’. This factory should be both functional and flexible during the planning phase as well as in later use. This flexibility has proved to be very important during the planning phase: a number of rooms and room groups have been adjusted in collaboration with the end user. These changes have improved the buildings functionality without affecting the architecture. THE CARPET: The competition brief stated that the opera house should be of high architectural quality and should be monumental in it’s expression. One idea stood out as a legitimation of this monumentality: The concept of togetherness, joint ownership, easy and open access for all. To achieve a monumentality based on these notions we wished to make the opera accessible in the widest possible sense, by laying out a ‘carpet’ of horizontal and sloping surfaces on top of the building. This carpet has been given an articulated form, related to the cityscape. Monumentality is achieved through horizontal extension and not verticality. The conceptual basis of the competition, and the final building, is a combination of these three elements – The wave wall, the factory and the carpet."
Wing Yi Hui and Lap Ming Wong, Wood Pavilion at Oslo School of Architecture and Design, 2010 (via archdaily)
Seemingly very similar to Gernot's Lichtraum at Modern Atlanta, except achieved with probably a more difficult material to a much cleaner effect. It is a self-supporting structure and investigates the use of organic material, relating itself to the Sukkah City competition Anthony and I are entering this July. Archdaily describes the wood pavilion:
"The performance-oriented design studio, under the guidance of Professors Michael U. Hensel, Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel and Dr. Birger R. Sevaldson, gave the students the opportunity to explore the performance of the wood and create a “customization possibility” within the constraints of a “platform of standardization.” The designers explained, “By understanding the performance of material, and allowing it to perform its intrinsic properties, innovative and sustainable methodology of architectural production could be emerged as a natural response. Deformation of wood due to moisture is no longer a nuisance but a benefit to fabrication.” By researching the properties of the wood, the designers could make the wood conform to their artificial aesthetics in a natural way. “During the process of swelling, pressure difference among cells results in energy storage within the micro structural system. By applying lamination constraints to the curved veneer before the rebound upon drying, energy can be stored. Through testing the process of lamination and deformation, specific system with highly variable geometry can be explored,” explained the designers. To reach the desired affect, the process was a constant experimental exercise using both digital and physical methods. Relying on digital computations alone does not yield completely accurate results, for the complex structural arrangement and performance of wood may add some varying affects. “The computational tool predicted the approximate dimensions, global geometry and compositional curvature while physical tests are carried out to combine the material performance with computer-generated data for further evaluations…The relationship between the tools create unique interface for generation of the emergent typologies and global geometry of performance-oriented exploration as such,” explained the students. As the project developed, the students applied their understanding of strategic moisturization, the translucent qualities of thin veneer and elasticity of wood to create “a potential architectural element.” The construction consisted of 46 groups of components while each of them consisted of 5 components: 36 identical groups of them are fabricated for the major structure, while 3 components in 6 groups of the total are fabricated differently for extreme curvature shift. ”Adding components and varying lamination position and area creates significant internal self-organization of the system and generate highly differentiated geometry.”