Architecture & Web Art

Archive for the ‘Architecture’ Category

Structure: Cartier Foundation, Paris
Architect: Jean Nouvel
Year Finished: 1994

This museum created by the french architect JeanNouvel, displays some of the best art on planet Earth, and has exhibits of both contemporary and international artists. It contains over one thousand works by three hundred different artists.

Structure: BMW Welt, Munich
Architect: COOP Himmelblau
Year Finished: 2007

This building was designed to present some of the best cars in the world – the BMW. And was built for the customer experience in mind. The thinking was that one of the best car brands in the world deserves one of the best buildings – and it worked.

Structure: Addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri
Architect: Steven Holl
Year Finished: 2007

This museum was built on classical principals and is known for its extensive collection of Asian art. Time magazine listed it as #1 on the list “The 10 Best (New and Upcoming) Architectural Marvels” in 2007.

Austrian architectural practice LOVE architecture & urbanism has completed the refurbishment project – the new Gerngross! located in Austria/Vienna Styria.

1. Restructuring the Existing Centre

The layout of the store was not intuitive. Walkways were complex and confusing, and it was difficult to navigate. To improve this, the layout of the indoor levels (G, 1st, 2nd, and 5th) has been entirely re-designed and smaller retail spaces have been added. The key to designing the individual levels was to think “empty” in order to enable the future implementation of an improved orientation system. The preconditions for this complex undertaking were:

- For each rental space, a newer space of equal size but higher quality had to be provided.
- Each tenant had to be relocated twice during the construction time.
- The ongoing daily shopping activity should be only minimally disturbed.

Designed for two families, the house is modeled on traditional Quebec houses that lodged large families and their relatives.

From the architects:

“An out-scaled structure, like the agricultural buildings that surround it, the house is both traditional in its morphology and innovative in its use of materials. Shingled with raw fibre-cement panels on the walls and roof, it is a house beyond the domestic scale, simple and rot-proof, capable of standing the test of time.

The house is striated with bands of horizontal windows, giant louvers that cut the sun at its most powerful, with new points of view at each level. It is protected by its wimple from the hot summer sun and inundated with light in the winter, needing neither air-conditioning nor heating on sunny days.

The interior is in wood, painted or natural, in planks or panels, composed almost exclusively of made-to-measure furniture pieces:

Atlantic Beach is an established beach community on Long Island, immediately outside of New York City.  It is filled with modest houses from the 1920’s and 30’s in Tudor, Spanish and Art Deco styles.  As real estate prices rose in the last decade, the village saw a lot of “tear-down” activity, as older houses were replaced by much larger homes.

The Kowalewski residence is an attempt to insert a distinctly modern house into the village context in a manner that is respectful of the scale and architectural traditions of the community.  The house does not maximize either the bulk or lot coverage allowed by zoning.

It is oriented with the narrow face – only slightly wider than the former house on the lot – toward the street, with the traditional side driveway and rear garage.  Siting the compact footprint at the north edge of the 85-foot-square lot preserves a wide side garden with mature trees.  In form and materials the house recalls the village’s Art Deco heritage.

The 2200 sq ft house was created by Rick Berry, from Scott Edwards Architecture, is in the heart of the coastal community of Manzanita, Oregon. The composition illustrates the northwest vernacular, including large overhangs and expanses of glass walls, natural indigenous materials for example concrete, and cedar, and multiple opportunities to enjoy the open floor plan both inside and out.

Visit the Scott Edwards Architecture official website HERE.