Gensler, Tilt-Up Office Building at UCSD, San Diego, CA, 2012
nickkahler reblogged
Group 8, Coral Housing Complex, Genève, Switzerland, 2011 (via subtilitas)
nickkahler reblogged
Knerer & Lang, Sustainability Lab, TU Dresden, Germany, 2011 (via subtilitas)
Renzo Piano, Art Institute of Chicago Modern Wing, Chicago, IL, 2009 (via artinfo)
"The Modern Wing, opened in 2009, was designed by Renzo Piano and funded in part by Pat Ryan. It increases the museum's gallery space by 30 percent by adding 6,000 m2 of new galleries, and includes the 1,400 m2 Ryan Education Center on the first floor. The new building incorporates cutting-edge green technologies, such as a modern sunshade to filter daylight. The sunshade, dubbed "The Flying Carpet", is made of white extruded aluminum and is linked to the lighting system to adjust and compensate for incandescent fixtures. The Nichols Bridgeway, a 625-foot (190 m) pedestrian bridge also designed by Piano, links the building to Millennium Park."
Foster + Partners with Chuck Hoberman, Audencia Provencial, Madrid, Spain, 2008
Ernst Giselbrecht + Partners, "Kiefer Technic Office," Graz, Austria, 2007 (via nait5)
"In a city where good architecture is practically de rigueur, Graz still manages to surprise and inspire with the strength and sheer variety of its built environment. In fact, the city’s stable of progressive architects seems intent that it should not simply rest on its laurels as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Leading the charge is architectural outfit Ernst Giselbrecht + Partner. Since founding the firm in 1985, principal Ernst Giselbrecht has parlayed his passion for light – filtered and mechanically controlled light to be precise – into a series of bold and generously lit public buildings. Thanks to his training as both architect and mechanical engineer, the Giselbrecht oeuvre is extensive, covering everything from clinics, railway stations and schools to research facilities and university extensions. In particular, the biocatalysis lab building at the Graz University of Technology and the EN&T clinic at the University Hospital of Graz all demonstrate Giselbrecht’s sensitivity to a building’s site orientation and his interest in assembling various elements of steel and concrete frames, metal panels, glass and louvres to create spaces that are well-ventilated, well-lit and energy efficient. His most recent work for Kiefer Technic is a high water mark for these ideals. A manufacturer of doors and equipment for hospital operation theatres and stainless steel furniture, Kiefer asked for an airy showroom – overlooking a park – that showed off the firm’s products to best effect. Giselbrecht’s solution was to clad the entire southern end of the showroom with a wall of white aluminium louvre panels that open and shut using an array of electronically-controlled horizontal hinges. The result is a building whose façade gracefully morphs in a series of concertina folds depending on the light requirements and warmth tolerance of those inside. The system can be programmed to display countless patterns and configurations, giving what could have been a humdrum office a fascinating animated façade. These are especially busy times for the 15-member team. After wrapping up the Kiefer Technic office and a shopping centre in Ljubljana, up next is a business centre in Graz. It’s clearly impossible to pigeon-hole the Giselbrecht style, but we suspect he likes it that way."
nickkahler reblogged
Andre Kikoski Architect, Wyckoff Exchange, Brooklyn, NY, 2010 (via: dezeen; cabbagerose; subtilitas)
'The 10,000 sq ft Wyckoff Exchange accommodates a live music and performance venue as well as an organic market and a boutique wine shop, all in a long-vacant warehouse in the heart of a vital and rapidly changing area of the city. Manhattan based firm Andre Kikoski Architect (AKA) has created a practical concertina façade for the Exchange, solidifying its identity in the local community. The venue will be renamed Radio Bushwick, with interiors also by AKA.
"We wanted to create an iconic building to speak to Bushwick's up-and-coming status as a centre of art and creative energy," says Kikoski, "so we devised a unique aesthetic that's dramatic, inventive, and inspired by the neighbourhood's industrial past. With state-of-the-art technologies and construction techniques, we were able to realise this 100 ft long, 18 ft tall façade in only 2 inches of depth."
The design solution for the building exterior relies upon motorised door technology adapted from airplane hangars and factory buildings. The five pairs of moving façade panels create an ever-changing expression of function and tectonics. By day the panels fold up to create awnings for the stores and to shelter pedestrians; by night, they secure the shops behind them, while an abstract gradient of laser-cut perforations over semi-concealed LED lights makes the panels appear to glow from within.
"We chose materials for this façade that are both industrial and artistic," explains Kikoski. "Our use of two restrained materials references the urban textures, surfaces, and character of the neighbourhood. The surface quality of the raw, unfinished COR-TEN steel is elegantly transformed into a Rothko-like canvas by the setting sun, and the shimmering layer of perforated factory-grade stainless steel just two inches behind it forms a perfect complement."
Click for original sketches and permits.'
'Brise soleil, (from French, "sun breaker"), in architecture refers to a variety of permanent sun-shading techniques. In the typical form, a horizontal projection extends from the sunside facade of a building. This is most commonly used to prevent facades with a large amount of glass from overheating during the summer. Often louvers are incorporated into the shade to prevent the high-angle summer sun falling on the facade, but also to allow the low-angle winter sun to provide some passive solar heating.'
Up Over Design, "Lighting Becomes Shading" (MA, 2010)