Social Design Spot

25/01/2014

Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Student Residence Hall / ADD Inc.
From the architect. There is a new architectural landmark in Boston’s skyline, a $52 million residence hall that personifies the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Designed by architecture firm ADD Inc, the tower doubles the college’s housing capacity and provides an innovative environment where 493 students can live, study and play at affordable, state college rental rates.
The design of the new residence hall exemplifies ADD Inc’s innovative process. Designers drew on the best ideas from junior and senior staff members to harmonize the goals and aspirations of college professors, administrators, students, trustees, alumni and the building’s owner, the Massachusetts State College Building Authority (MSCBA).ADD Inc conducted in-depth benchmarking, hosted focus groups and design charrettes, and developed full-scale mockup units for students to explore and critique.
MassArt wanted the building to stand out in the Boston skyline and meaningfully identify them as an art college,” said B.K. Boley, lead architect and principal, ADD Inc. “It was the students’ idea that the building look like a painting and that it be just as colorful and vibrant as they are. ADD Inc suggested Gustav Klimt’s “Tree of Life” which helps convey the school’s rebirth and continuation.” In September, the incoming student residents voted to nickname the building, “The Tree House”.
The 21-story, 145,600 square foot building features a ground floor café and living room, a second floor health center, and a third-floor communal “Pajama Floor” with kitchen, game room, laundry facilities, and fitness center. The rest of the 17 floors are made up of 136 suites configured in single, double and three-bedroom layouts.

21/01/2014

Zahner Launches Software for Design and Fabrication
Zahner, one of the world’s foremost fabricators of façades, have launched new software to assist in design, fabrication, costing and delivery. CloudWall, part of Zahner’s ShopFloor platform, is a web based programme which provides an interface for users to design and fabricate curving facades in metal. It is a tool that uses Zahner’s ”factory floor like a massive rapid prototype machine”.
The programme has been developed from Zahner’s undulating façade at their factory in Kansas City. According to Zahner, “the cost of building the Zahner Headquarters in Kansas City was upwards of several hundred thousand dollars” yet “similar designs created with the CloudWall software can be fabricated and shipped for a fraction of that price.” As the user makes changes (such as size, colour and material finish) the costs update in real time. Once the design is complete Zahner can produce the parts, crate the assemblies and ship them to site.
According to the company “the CloudWall tool is one of several being released over the next few months. Purchases made with ShopFloor include the price of engineering, fabricating, and shipping the assemblies” but “does not currently include an option for installation of the parts.”

You can find out more about CloudWall and sign up for free here.

18/12/2013

three star hotel

15/12/2013

DMAA Wins Competition for Mixed-Use, Cultural Complex in Munich
Vienna-based Delugan Meissl Associated Architects (DMAA) has been announced as winner of a competition to design a mixed-use, cultural complex in Munich. Dubbed Hanns Seidel Platz, the 40,500-square-meter scheme will provide a 160-unit “living tower,” office space, a civic center, concert hall and large public plaza for the district of Neuperlach.

This winning concept was developed in collaboration with the architecture firm Wimmer un Partner. It is expected for completion in 2019.

08/12/2013

The Challenges of Post-Disaster Design
In the wake of the destruction of Typhoon Haiyan, architects were asking: “couldn’t we have avoided this?” Technically, yes. But while the opportunity to build better exists, such measures are often expensive – and in poverty-stricken areas like the Philippines – cost-prohibitive. A recently published article by Carey Dunne on Co.Design breaks down why disaster-proof construction is such a complex challenge.

17/11/2013

Winners of 2013 Architecture at Zero Competition Announced
Industry leaders recently came together to announce the winners of the 2013 Architecture at Zero competition, which included five professional and one student awardee. The competition, which is co-sponsored by AIA San Francisco and Pacific Gas & Electric, focuses specifically on the design of zero-net energy structures.

While zero net energy is easily achieved in smaller buildings, it’s a challenge in larger structures – and the competition challenged entrants to think big. With the aim of being as close to zero net energy as possible, competition entries had to be a mix of affordable and market rate housing units and include a full neighborhood-serving grocery store on the ground level.

Read more for the winners…


The competition was set in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighbourhood,a historic district in the centre of the city that is in need of revitalisation. In order to better judge the proposals on their contextual merits, AIA San Francisco and PGE also paired with the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC). The competition was open to entrants worldwide, and included a $25,000 prize (to be divided amongst the winners.)

15/11/2013

Google Hires Fancy Green-Friendly Architects to Build Fancy Green-Friendly Office

Read more: Google Hires Fancy Green-Friendly Architects to Build Fancy Green-Friendly Office | TIME.com http://techland.time.com/2011/05/09/google-hires-fancy-green-friendly-architects-to-build-fancy-green-friendly-office/

Even though Google was recently surpassed by Apple as the world's most valuable brand, the Mountain View-based search giant's recent string of eco-conscious decisions continues, this time in a fancy new office space.

09/11/2013

CCTV Headquarters Named “Best Tall Building Worldwide”
OMA’s CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, ArchDaily’s 2012 “Building of the Year,” was deemed “Best Tall Building Worldwide” by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Selected from a shortlist of four deserving skyscrapers, CCTV was awarded “best” due to its “unusual take on skyscraper typology.”

The jury stated: “Instead of competing in the race for ultimate height and style through a traditional two-dimensional tower soaring skyward, CCTV’s loop poses a truly three-dimensional experience, culminating in a 75-meter cantilever.”


Upon accepting the award, Rem Koolhaas delivered the winning presentation “A New Typology for the Skyscraper: CCTV Headquarters, Beijing” and stated:

“When I published my last book, Content, in 2003, one chapter was called ‘Kill the Skyscraper,’” said Koolhaas. “Basically it was an expression of disappointment at the way the skyscraper typology was used and applied. I didn’t think there was a lot of creative life left in skyscrapers. Therefore, I tried to launch a campaign against the skyscraper in its more uninspired form.

“The fact that I am standing on this stage now, in this position, meant that my declaration of war went completely unnoted, and that my campaign was completely unsuccessful,” Koolhaas joked, concluding, “Being here, it is quite moving – to be part of a community that is trying to make skyscrapers more interesting. I am deeply grateful, and thank all my partners.”

08/11/2013

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT THE MOST EXPENSIVE HOUSE IN THE WORLD - ANTILIA MUMBAI - HOUSE OF MUKESH AMBANI
http://www.bornrich.com/amazing-facts-about-the-most-expensive-house-in-the-world.html

Bornrich - Home of luxury and most expensive things

07/11/2013

TOP TEN ARCHITECTURE FACTS
http://en.globalquiz.org/top-architecture-facts/

Where is this metro station? Stockholm.

06/11/2013

Puzzle-Piece Homes, A Solution for Rapidly Growing Populations
By now, we have all heard the mantra. In twenty years time, the world’s cities will have grown from three to five billion people, forty percent of these urban dwellers will be living at or below the poverty line facing the constant threat of homelessness – scary statistics and even scarier implications.

ECOnnect, a Holland-based design firm, envisions a solution for these future housing shortages, one that could build a one-million-inhabitant city per week for the next twenty years for $10,000 per family. Peter Stoutjesdijk, architect at ECOnnect, created the concept after widespread devastation in Haiti caused by a massive earthquake left of hundreds of thousands of people homeless depending on tents for temporary relief.


Courtesy of ECOnnect
The concept for the new home is analogous to a puzzle set. Stoutjesdik estimates that the digitally fabricated set of pieces interlock to assemble a full structure within five hours. Builders simply have to place the appropriate pieces next to each other as they would puzzle pieces. Each CNC-milled panel, made of reused-wood and waterproofed with nano-coating chemicals, would be jointed in three directions and thereby create a strong bond without the use of metal fittings, screws or glue.

Courtesy of ECOnnect
ECOnnect, along with other peer initiatives such as Alastair Parvin’s WikiHouse project, are calling for a disruptive paradigm shift in the field, challenging the notion of glamorous, big architecture, financed by even bigger corporations. “The fastest growing cities are not even skyscraper cities, but self-made cities,” says Parvin. The favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the slums of Mumbai are clear examples of this. Thus, the role of the architect will gradually evolve from merely providing services to “the few with a lot” to “the many with a few.”

In order to minimize the seemingly evident spread of urban poverty in the future, we need to embrace open-source design; an internet connection is all we need. Stoutjesdijk believes that “where the first industrial revolution democratized consumption, the next one is expected to design and democratize production through digital networks of shared knowledge and digital fabrication devices.”

06/11/2013

Shortlist Announced for Canadian Holocaust Monument
Daniel Libeskind and David Adjaye, as well as four other shortlisted teams, are competing to design the National Holocaust Monument in Canada. Planned to be built in a prominent site in the heart of Ottawa, near the Canadian War Museum, the $4.5 million monument is expected for completion in 2015.

The jury, made up of internationally renowned art and design professionals, a representative from the National Holocaust Monument Development Council and a Holocaust survivor, chose the following six teams as finalists:


Architect and urban designer Hossein Amanat with artist Esther Shalev-Gerz, landscape architect Daniel Roehr, architect and project manager Robert Kleyn, and architect David Lieberman (Vancouver, BC).
Leslie M. Klein of Quadrangle Architects, Jeffrey Craft of SWA Group, Alan Schwartz of Terraplan, artist Yael Bartana, artist Susan Philipsz, artist Chen Tamir, and Holocaust scholars Dr. Debórah Dwork and Jeffrey Koerber (Toronto, Ontario).
Museum planner Gail Lord, architect Daniel Libeskind, artist Edward Burtynsky, landscape architect Claude Cormier, and Holocaust scholar Dr. Doris Berger (Toronto, Ontario).
Gilles Saucier of Saucier+Perrotte and artist Marie-France Brière (Montreal, Quebec).
Art historian and curator Irene Szylinger, architect David Adjaye, artist/architect Ron Arad (Toronto, Ontario/London, UK).
Artist Krzysztof Wodiczko and architect Julian Bonder (Cambridge, Massachusetts).
The final teams are expected to present detailed plans by the end of the year. A winner will be announced next spring.