The Cube by Make Architects

http://archplus355.blogspot.com/2011/01/cube-make-architects.html

The Cube is the final phase of Birmingham's successful Mailbox development, providing 42,000m² of accommodation for shops, bars, cafes, offices, apartments and a boutique hotel.The building is square in plan with public space at its heart and a diagonal axis dividing it into two L-shaped structures at lower levels. As the building rises the floorplates expand to bridge the ground level route and terrace at the uppermost levels, allowing a dramatic asymmetric lightwell to occupy a third of the plan. The lightwell twists as it rises upwards, slicing through the floor plates to create dynamic spatial relationships while drawing natural light deep into the heart of the building.

A geometric metal and glass cladding system is used for the lower levels and upper floors of accommodation, dissolving into a fretwork screen at upper levels. The modular cladding system also plays a key role in the building's environmental strategy, offering infinite flexibility to tailor the glazing of each facade in response to potential solar gain. Other energy efficient measures incorporated into the building design include natural ventilation and the installation of centralised plant.

 

 

Thesen Island visit

About Thesen Islands

Thesen Islands is a multi-award winning marina development located in the scenic Knysna estuary on the renowned "Garden Route" of South Africa. The marina is spread over 90ha and consists of 19 man-made islands linked by 21 arched bridges and surrounded by 25ha of tidal waterways. The marina consists of 489 individual homes and 56 apartment units, known as the Dry Mill apartments, situated on its own island within the marina. All the homes are built in a colonial maritime architectural style, conforming to Knysna’s vernacular architecture and its historical maritime and timber connections.
http://www.thesenisland.co.za

The talk and visit of the development and slide show on other developments was inspirational and had a real out-the-box approach. It was really awesome hearing from Chris, the man behind the development ideas, who also spoke to us about the cross ways framers village (near PE, close to Woodridge).

green turfed roofscape

I love this!

School of Art, Design & Media, Nanyang, Singapore
Designers : CPG Consultants Pte Ltd
This is a 5-storey School of Art, Design & Media at Nanyang Technological University campus, Singapore. This stunning piece of award-winning architecture is situated in a wooded valley. Before you read on, answer this : is this a landscape or a building?
The embracing arms of this unique building have a most spectacular verdant turfed roof which blends with ground contour as if emerges from it. It has glass curtain wall and raw concrete minus the painting.
Apart from its visual impact, the turfed roofscape helps to lower the roof temperature and surrounding areas. It works as a functional space, as a scenic outdoor community space via easily accessible sidesteps along the roof edge.


Lighting plays an important aspect to the building. The full glass curtain wall allows generous doses of daylight into the studios and galleries while cutting off the tropical heat. At night, the building glows like a lantern.

The exterior glass facade of the building allows full views to the outside, again providing visual connectivity with the surrounding lush landscape.
Three blocks of the school building are organically interwoven to enclose a sunken courtyard and a unique interconnectivity and flow.




The site is a wooded valley which was supposed to be left as a green lung in the master plan of the 200-hectare Nanyang Technological University campus. The designer-planners, however, carved a habitat from the constraints of the valley. And instead of imposing a building onto the landscape, they let the landscape play a critical role in moulding the building. It allows the original greenery of the site to creep and colonise the building.


The building design challenges the traditional linear system of education with a clear teacher-student arrangement. Here, given the sloping nature of the architectural form, many of the teaching spaces come in different shapes and volumes which could be easily adapted to different needs. For example corridors and cozy corners double up as informal exhibition areas. The architectural form beautifully complements and creates an ambience and environment conducive for exploration and exchange of ideas for the arts and design students.

Apart from glass wall the building is also cladded in natural forms, like the off-form concrete walls and columns, cement-sand screeded floors and timber railings. To reinforce the natural theme, loud colours and elaborate decoration are avoided. This also means students have been provided with the perfect platform to express themselves by adorning the surfaces of the building with their works thus allowing the building to evolve its own identity.

This is the kind of architecture where you learn new meanings of the term eco-sensitivity!

Hey guys found this really handy website for researching construction materials and methods (ie, curtain walling; cladding; etc; etc)
http://www.4specs.com/

http://architecture.about.com/od/ideasapproaches/g/architecture.htm

The Gates in Central Park, New York City was a temporary installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Interesting... but is it architecture?

Photo © Jackie Craven

1. any man-made building or structure
2. a man-made building or structure that is important, large, or highly creative
3. a carefully designed object, such as a chair, a spoon, or a tea kettle
4. a design for a city, town, park, or landscape
5. the art or science of designing and building buildings, structures, objects, and outdoor spaces
6. a building style or method
7. a plan for organizing space
8. the flow of information on a Web page
9. the planned design of any kind of system
10. a systematic arrangement of information or ideas

"What is architecture anyway? Is it the vast collection of the various buildings which have been built to please the varying taste of the various lords of mankind? I think not.
"No, I know that architecture is life; or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived. So architecture I know to be a Great Spirit....
"Architecture is that great living creative spirit which from generation to generation, from age to age, proceeds, persists, creates, according to the nature of man, and his circumstances as they change. That is really architecture."
_{—Frank Lloyd Wright, from In the Realm of Ideas (compare prices)}

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” - Thomas Merton