entropy

nothing but eye-candy

[marqsar]

Modern vs. Historic! MAD has converted an 18th-century courtyard building in Beijing into the YueCheng Courtyard Kindergarten.

[nemfrog]

“The strata of Switzerland and Cumberland.” Deucalion. Collected studies of the lapse of waves, and life of stones. 1866.

Internet Archive

[everythingstarstuff]

The incredible staircase of the Varosa dam. Lamego (Portugal)

[utwo]

Cowes Bay House, Waiheke Island

New Zealand

© Cheshire Architects

[keepingitneutral]

“Spontaneous City” by London Fieldworks,

Duncan Terrace Gardens, London N1, United Kingdom

[subtilitas]

Sanden & Hodnekvam - Red house, Lillehammer 2020. Photos © the architects. 

Keep reading

[phineasharper]

Four colour risograph print of the Barbican Conservatory designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon.

Printed on 270gsm Munkin paper. 210 x 148 mm Limited edition run of 50

[subtilitas]

Pasel Künzel - V13K05, house for a photographer, Leiden 2015. Photos © Marcel van der Burg.

[beylenciaga]

and countless others.

[ryanpanos]

Seashore Chapel | Vector Architects | Via

‘we imagine the seashore chapel as an old boat drifting on the ocean long time ago. the ocean receded through time and left an empty structure behind, which is still lying on the beach.’

[ryanpanos]

Home at Intersection | Yushang Zhang | Via

How do we lose the balance between seeking ourselves and maintaining a relationship, and finally drift apart? A house in the following story materializes the whole process to present it to you.

The two protagonists of this story, Fred and Sofia, used to live together in a simple little house. They were eating, sleeping, enjoying the views and talking about their past together every day. Happy time seemed never-ending. The interior wasn’t spacious but it carried a cozy home. In such a narrow space without any partition, they almost became each other’s air.

However, as time progressed, things that they were interested to do by themselves began to germinate in their minds. They became increasingly clear about what kind of rooms did they need. This little house could not satisfy them anymore. So, one day, they talked about the extension.

Surprisingly, they proposed a lot of completely different rooms from each other, except a common bedroom, a dining room and a memory room as the continuation of current life. Also, they had utterly different preference on architectural characteristics. Sofia wanted a streamline-shape space and floor-to-ceiling windows, while Fred liked regular rooms and thick exterior walls. Therefore, Fred said: “If we want the house look unified and has a proper scale, we probably need to compromise on architectural characteristics and reduce the number of the new rooms.” Sofia said: “I prefer not. I really anticipated all those activities, and, to be honest, I’ve been longing for my own style for a long time. I guess you should be the same, right?” Fred thought of it for a while and said: “Yes, indeed.”

Sofia continued: “My dear, we love each other but we are different, so I think we should design two different buildings intersecting with each other. Inside each of them, we arrange the rooms we want in a straight line. In this way, we can have our own style, optimized views and slightest interference. At the intersection point we place our common rooms for us to conveniently switch back to our sweet common life.” Fred said: “That sounds like a good plan. And also, doing things separately can bring us more topics to share when we meet at the intersection point. Let’s do it. You’re so smart.”

[subtilitas]

Junya Ishigami - Table, 2006. Similarly to the project for a restaurant, this rigorous and fascinating exploration of a single table unveils the varying scales at which we perceive space, structure, and arrangement. Located in a large gallery space, the table at first appears to be an ordinary object, covered in an ordinary mix of plants, food, and tableware. Upon further inspection, the table actual reveals itself to be impossibly thin. Appropriately named the “magic table”, it is over 31ft (9.5M) long, 8ft (2,6m) wide, but is less than 1/8″ thick (3mm). To achieve this, the table is fabricated as a single, large prestressed steel sheet. Out of the press, it is completely bent and curled like a pig’s tail (last two images). Once set, the table’s own weight combined with the loads of the various objects on it slowly bend it to a flat surface. The exact weight of every object was precisely calculated (3 loaves of bread in a wire basket, one pot of tea in a porcelain vessel), the exact location dimensioned (the fork 3 inches to the left of the plate, the vase 6″ to the rear of the kettle), to ensure structural stability. Touching the table top by hand creates gentle ripples in the surface, further exaggerating the immateriality of the object. By treating this seemingly mundane piece of furniture with the same rigor and detail of a large building, the complexities of structural forces and creation of spatial relationships is achieved at the scale of household objects. Scans via. 

[subtilitas]

Junya Ishigami - Tables for a restaurant, Yamaguchi 2008. An early project out of Ishigami’s office that signaled his interest in the perceivable scales of architectural space. The client for this restaurant project wished to seat 5 pairs of people (10 total) privately within a small existing space. Rather than cordon off the room with walls to create these separations, the furniture itself is designed as a series of small structures to generate a spatial configuration. Each table is over-sized for just two people, and features a carefully selected and placed array of potted plants located in the areas adjacent to the areas for table settings. While large in plan, these tables are built at only 4.5mm thick at the top, ensuring they do not overburden the space. By not just becoming objects in space, but rather generating the space themselves, the furniture becomes a micro-architecture; a planning exercise at the scale of a room, a garden at the scale of a table top, a study in the threshold of tectonic borders.  

All images personal scans from here.

[ssstanleyvogel]

[burning-stmandard-deactivated20]

Zaha Hadid dies at 65

Architect Dame Zaha Hadid, whose designs include the London Olympic Aquatic Centre, has died aged 65. Iraqi-born, this year she was the first woman to receive the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal in recognition of her work. She died of a heart attack on Thursday in a Miami hospital, where she was being treated for bronchitis. Her designs have been commissioned around the world, including Hong Kong, Germany and Azerbaijan.

Source: BBC News

[iidesu]

RIP Zaha

[ryanpanos]

H A Я P | Øystein Sture Aspelund

A photoseries about an enormous abandoned listening device, shot inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine. The construction was a former top secret military object used by the Soviet Union for early detection of nuclear missiles from the west. The gigantic antenna, measuring approximately 800m x 100m, sometimes reminds of a gigantic H A Я P.

[designlovs]

St. Moritz Church 

by John Pawson