3rd Wave of Inspiration
Since 2003
It’s been a while since our last review of Roman’s conceptual CG renders of futuristic buildings. No wonder if only in a matter of few decades we see them in all glory, flesh and bones or any other space material. I bet you giggled but why not? Take a look:
Designed by Open Architecture the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art opened in Qinhuangdao, China. “The curvilinear form of UCCA Dune winds over 930 metres underground, and includes multiple galleries, terraces, and viewing areas.. The decision to bury the museum partially underground was an environmentally conscious one. With the museum designed to sit beneath the dunes, the views of the sea are preserved. Unlike many areas along the sea, the area surrounding UCCA Dune will be safe from development, providing a visual sanctuary for sea views for years to come.” via @Minimalissimomag
Bali-based Patisabdhika Studio and architect Daniel Mitchell recently completed this gorgeous brutalist house. Named A Brutalist Tropical Home in Bali, the multi-level 5,500 square feet (512 sqm) house is located in a small valley nestled within rice fields on the south coast of the island. (P.s. for those who still have misconceptions of Brutalism as “brutal”, it is nothing to do with it - just “raw” and “cement” means a lot for Brutalism, but it’s still debatable)
Photography by Tommaso Riva (@tommasorivaphotography)
Minimalistic photography of architectural visual stories is a main interest of Japan-based and Germany-raised artist Matthias Freissler. If you like clean forms, light and magic - follow Matthias globally
Last autumn, Helsinki got a new art point for visual hunters - Amos Rex space. Built in place of shopping centre parking, Amos Rex is a perfect example of smart architecture designed by JKMM. We already covered the debut exhibition of Japanese teamLab on Instagram and happy to mention their next affair with Studio Drift this Spring brining their anti-gravity show worth of visit.
Amos Rex identity was developed by local studio Werklig underlining the idea of a space where past, present and future meet together to create unforgettable experience
P–SLab® is an experimental series curated by Australian creative studio @prettysoon_ . Bridge House is this first in this series.
Matthew Lawless imagines a series of ‘Anomalies’ — abstract sculptural forms that respond to and foreshadow the architectural themes of Dan Brunn Architecture's Bridge House. The short film features original music by Detroit-based electronic artist Shigeto
Talented guys from Timelab Pro broke our heart again (previously) with a new drone scenery of the city we love and live in - Saint Petersburg. For sure, White Nights season 2018 (late June - mid July, yes, sun does not roll down literally) was the best with the enormous weather, millions of tourists and FIFA fans, festivals, open-airs, restaurant streets, Crimson Sails Proms and magnificent city that took a heart of each person being here, even living for ages like us.
Iconic Mexican architect Luis Barragan’s Casa Gilardi — an iconic modernist house in Mexico City — hosts a body-bending dance troupe who twist and move through the geometric building’s colorful spaces and rooms. Director Andres Arochi explains his interest in experimenting with the physicality of Barragan’s architecture: “I wanted to play around with and explore the architect’s design. He knew exactly when and where people stand, and how the combination of light and space makes them feel.” Continuing, he notes that: “When we began shooting, magic started to happen. Light burst in through the window, and the dancer’s bodies started to flow in a way I had not anticipated.”
Photography © do mal o menos.
"Picturesquely built upon a hillside on the east bank of the Rio Mondego, the Portuguese city of Coimbra is known for its university, the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world, but its charm lies in its kaleidoscopic architecture that features a mixture of buildings spanning nearly a millennium. Part of this historical spectrum is the “Redondo”, a four-storey terraced house built at the beginning of the 20th century which has been thoroughly renovated by Portuguese architects João Branco and Paula del Río of Branco-Delrio Arquitectos and artfully photographed by Lisbon-based architectural photographers do mal o menos."
We have been following Matthieu Venot since our first publication and where pleased to find him featured on our friends and partners platform Ello few days ago. In his recent photography series he disconnect any form of living from architecture showing its pure state of geometry and colour.
When a residential project in collaboration with Zaha Hadid did not receive approval by the local Moscow legislature, Vladislav Doronin was determined to work with Dame Hadid and subsequently commissioned her to design a residence for him. Over a lunch meeting they discussed the brief, ‘floating above the treetops, overlooking the forest’ and Zaha Hadid sketched her ideas onto a napkin. The result was the Capital Hill Residence, a fluid monument emerging from its surrounding landscape.
"Alexis Christodoulou wasn’t always an artist, though his dreamy 3D renders of imagined modernist interiors belies his brief tenure as one. A former copywriter at an advertising agency, Christodoulou began experimenting with the 3D modelling program SketchUp during a particularly frustrating spell of screenwriting. Five years on, the Cape Town-based artist offers simply this on his Instagram profile: ‘No photographs. Just renders.’"
New York-based studio Steven Holl Architects and Solange Fabião designed a museum in Biarritz, France dedicated to oceanic issues.
"Entitled ‘Cité de l’Océan et du Surf’, the museum’s design is based on the dual concept of “under the sky” / “under the sea”. Hosting a public plaza and gardens surrounding the museum’s main exhibition space, the complex merges landscape design and architecture, bridging the building to the ocean nearby. Cité de l’Océan et du Surf was named Public Building of the Year by the 2011 Emirates Glass LEAF Awards." via iGNANT
"Lyrically called A white house, a growing home, this three-storey family residence, part of a 1940’s row house development in Shanghai, China, has been elegantly renovated by Chinese studio RIGI Design with meticulous attention to detail and thoughtful consideration for the evolving needs of a growing family."
"The Boros Bunker in Berlin-Mitte houses a private art collection the likes of which you’ve never seen. Topped with a glass atrium, the monumental Nazi-era bunker contains five floors of contemporary art spread across 3000 square meters."
"Built in 1941 as an air raid shelter by the Nazis, following the Second World War, it was used briefly by the Soviets to hold prisoners of war. Following the war, the bunker assumed a more benign role: a storage space first for textiles, and later for tropical fruit"
"In the early 2000s, art collectors Christian and Karen Boros were searching for a home for their 700-piece collection of contemporary art. Only in Berlin would a WWII Bunker with a sordid history seem like the perfect fit. Inside the hulking exterior, visitors travel through a series of interconnecting rooms where works from big-name artists like Ai Wei Wei and Olafur Eliasson stand alongside lesser known, but equally as intriguing emerging artists."
OMA / Rem Koolhaas’ plans to renovate the largest museum building in Russia, the new Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, have been revealed.
"Originally completed in 1983, the N.P. Sukoyan and Y.N. Sheverdyaev-designed institute currently consists of multiple exhibition halls, adding up to a total floor area of 61,091 sqm. As grand as it is large, the museum houses an extensive and important collection of Russian art, including seminal work from Malevich, Kandinsky, Chagall, and Soviet artists such as Aleksandr Deyneka and Vera Mukhina."
"London-based architecture practice Asif Khan have unveiled their latest project, a super-black pavilion entirely coated in Vantablack VBx2 at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics 2018 in South Korea. The building’s exterior is illuminated by a field of stars that appear to float in mid-air. Hyundai Motor has commissioned the pavilion as part of a global mobility initiative."
"The structure’s 10-metre-high parabolic facades are coated with a super black material: Vantablack VBx2, a derivative of the original Vantablack, making it the world’s largest continuous nanostructure. The matt black material is able to absorb 99% of the light that hits its surface, diminishing its three dimensionality and creating the illusion of a startling black void in broad daylight. The facades of the pavilion are punctuated by thousands of tiny white lights which, during the day, simulate the view into space from that point on earth."
"Inside the 35m x 35m structure, Khan has designed a vast ‘water room’ – a multi-sensory hydrophobic water installation which emits 25,000 singular water droplets every minute. Visitor interaction with a series of haptic sensors creates new rhythms as droplets continually collide, join, and split across the water landscape, which appears like a city viewed from space. These flows of individual droplets col-lect, grow and build into a ‘lake’ which drains and reappears in the space of minutes."
"Asif Khan has been working with the manufacturers of Vantablack since 2013 and proposed its use in his shortlisted proposal for the UK Pavilion at Milan Expo 2015. Asif Khan’s super-black building at the 2018 Winter Olympics follows his designs for Coca-Cola’s landmark pavilion at the 2012 London Olympic Games and the MegaFaces pavilion at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics."
Last time I visited OFFF festival I took an hour to find the earlier gem in Gaudi's architectural masterpieces - a summer home for real-estate broker Manel Vicens i Montaner. Heavily influenced by "Mudejar" style. Hence it was still under renovation, and I am happy to find out now that it is opened to public in 2018.
Casa Vicens marks the first time Gaudí utilized an orientalist style, mixing together Hispano-Arabic inspiration. This was a style of architecture that completely breaks with the norm of the period. Not only does this house mark Gaudí's coming of age, being his first major work of architecture, but it also represents the flowering of Catalan modern architecture.
all images © casa vicens photos by pol viladoms
First floor - Kitchen and Dinning area
London-based LLI Design lead by Linda Levene recently completed a total redesign and refurbishment of a 7 storey townhouse in Highgate, a leafy and desirable part of the city.
First floor - Kitchen Island
Kitchen, Fireplace + Chaise + Joinery Unit
The owners wanted to create a new environment; they liked the idea of having a contemporary house and agreed that the house lent itself to this, however they were concerned that contemporary design could be cold and impersonal.
3rd Floor - Formal Living Room
The brief was to create a contemporary family home, not in a stark clinical sense, but rather, colourful and practical. The key to the overall success of the design was to re-think the dynamics of all the spaces and change the existing layouts to provide a design and flow which responded to their brief. The family had a large collection of vintage travel posters that they wished to display prominently around the house.
4th floor Bedroom
4th Floor - Bespoke Red Lacquer Bed Detail
5th Floor - Master - Dressing - Ensuite
By changing the dynamics of the spaces involved we maximized the available space creating a contemporary, but colourful, warm and inviting home; with a harmonious feel as you move up the house, but with each floor having its own character. As with the majority of LLI Design’s projects, the construction, joinery, home automation and landscaping were carried out by our in-house vertically integrated teams - Pegasus Property & Pegasus Automation.
Located in the woods near Stockholm, ‘The Six Walls’ house is a light-filled weekend home designed by architecture practice Arrhov Frick Arkitektkontor. The concrete building features a sleek rectangular design with walls that are more than five meters high. The same simplicity-guided approach goes for the interior, with a narrow entrance opening up to expansive living areas including a roof terrace overlooking the area’s pine trees.
All images © Mikael Olsson
