Architecture & Web Art

Archive for the ‘Utopia’ Category

Cannon Design shared with us their latest mental health center for Pima County.  The project creates a “holistic healing campus” to serve various facets of behavioral medicine.  By integrating the architectural design with the raw beauty of the Sonora Desert, the project “balances the challenges of a complex interdisciplinary program, unique environmental conditions, and a lean construction budget.”

More about the health center and more images after the break.

In Cannon Design’s quest to create a healing campus, two interrelated buildings respond to the broadest range of patient needs.   The buildings are organized around a shared service court that provides a secure circulation zone for medical staff, law enforcement, courtroom personnel, and patient and material transfers.  The interiors provide private rooms that are naturally lit giving patients “privacy, security and dignity.”  The rooms are located close to shaded outdoor gardens to connect patients and staff directly to their surroundings.

Israeli-based architect Zvika Tamari of TeaM Architects recently proposed a conceptual plan for the burgeoning city of Modiin in Israel that takes the form of an incredible grass-roofed eco-dome. Situated at the center of the city and surrounded by a series of green spaces, the Globe Ecological Hub functions as a museum and multi-use urban center that promotes sustainable living. The grass-crowned hub takes advantage of natural ventilation, daylighting, active solar systems, and a host of other green building strategies.

If this make you think about pit dwelling, then yes, you are right, this is inspired by that type of dwelling, and yes, it is transformed to fit a contemporary space in Saijo, Japan.

These are the comments of the architect:

“When I create , I always think that I want to find the charm of the plan. A client is a couple with three children hoped there are bright openhearted space, and keeping the privacy. This site is a field before, and bearing stratum is in the minus one meter from the ground side.Therefore, we thought support according to the composition of not the ground improvement, but a half underground from the beginning of the plan. The leftover soil by excavating the ground was used to making the hill, that thing is enabled the function of the garden on the exterior and guard their privacy from, house’s neighborhood. The upper floors than a half underground are composed by only the pyrami-shaped roof, the lighting was token in the skylight.”

SkyCottage / archimania

SkyCottage is a progressive home whose design is informed by the view of the Mississippi River, embraces the challenges of a tight site, and enhances the community fabric of one of the earliest examples of New Urbanism.

Architect: archimania
Location: Memphis, TN, USA
Client: Barry Alan Yoakum, AIA, LEED AP
General Contractor: Barry Alan Yoakum, AIA, LEED AP
Structure: Poe Engineering
Mechanical consultant: Haltom Engineering
Electrical Consultant: De Pouw Engineering
Lighting Advisor: Benya Lighting Design
LEED for Homes Provider: AEC
Project year: 2007
Budget: US$ 416,387
Project Area: 238 sqm
Photographs: © Jeffrey Jacobs Photography

designboom – Taipei

TPAC – taipei performing art center by NL architects
image courtesy NL architects

The Chestnut Residence by Dan Heinfeld

Let the Louvre Commence! Louvre Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Trojan House – Melbourne

Tunnel House

Floating house inspired by nature

Herzog & de Meuron reach for the sky

World’s first rotating tower is planned for Dubai skyline

Donald Trump announces $1 billion hotel project in Dubai