Massimiliano FUKSAS - EUROPARK

Massimiliano FUKSAS - (2005) - EuroPark 2 (Salzburg, Österreich) The Europark in Salzburg is a large building situated on an area of 120,000 square meters, used as retail space and for 3000 cars parking, close to highway and airport. Its horizontal arrangement is bounded by the gently curved roof, formed by a corrugated metal fence. The radiant facades consist of a "double skin" transparent and translucent coating that is reflected in the small gap of water that surrounds the entire perimeter. They behave like modern billboards and are characterized by the name of the mall "Europark" printed in white on blue glass. The double screen printing is done on the outside than on the inner plates of glass, gives depth and dimensionality to the logo, highlighted in the evening by artificial lighting system placed in the cavity of the two skins. The exterior of the building changes every hour of the day depending on changes in natural light which makes it more or less transparent surfaces. The center is organized on four levels: the ground floor and first floor are for sale, while the basement and the roof are both used for parking. The space distribution and internal linking are optimized so as to give order and clarity to the interior and to create spaces for relaxation and aggregation. The "Squares" and "Gallerie" inside are lit by natural light from large skylights, comprised of panels and glass panels angled vertical side walls that can be opened automatically to allow for the possible evacuation of the smoke. La a great wave of light and transparent network, 140 m long 320 m wide, running along the whole facade; made of metal grating, the wave is the major architectural motif of the project. Suggestive allusion to an ocean that has no counterpart in Austria, coverage, strongly characterized, gives shelter to the parking spaces and is a strong sign of large-scale recall. The continuity of the element is in contrast to the available dynamic and tense of the underlying volume, determined by the strength of "empty" interior, which has been reserved for commercial activities. In the southern area, enriched by vegetation, a refined game of reflexes, including the big screen-printed glass wall of the mall and the tub of water crossed by paths, demonstrates once again the architect's attention to the treatment of "light" and the use of "transparency".

Le CORBUSIER - Villa SAVOYE

Le CORBUSIER - (1931) - Villa SAVOYE (Poissy, France) Suspended on top of a hill and surrounded by tall trees, Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier [http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/] is realized between 1928 and 1931 as a summer residence for Savoye Family. Although this is a suburban patrician villa here the architect tackles the issue, developed in previous projects of low-cost housing, housing as a "machine à habiter" , perfect working order. The Villa looks like a huge white box supported by slender concrete stilts that allow you to have the ground floor occupied by the volume of service and partly open to car traffic, while the two upper levels are broken down according to internal movement people. The result is an architectural promenade through simple and austere forms, in line with the principles of Purism, that Le Corbusier had deepened over the last ten years. Centrally located within the building has a ramp that leads from the entrance vestibule on the first floor, where you can go into different rooms, all defined by primary volumes, and finally leads to the upper terrace, where some elements are present as free space forms, placing them among the factors of Cartesian meditation order of the building and the natural order of the context. Le Corbusier, always ready to reconcile opposites, establishing a close dialogue between these two entities through the opening of large windows that frame the surrounding landscape as well, allowing the light, abundant in this glade, to break inside the home in an almost violent, to reaffirm and enhance the pure white of all surfaces. The villa, which has many similarities with Villa Stein in Garches realized a few years earlier, is taken as an example demonstration of the "5 points de l'architecture nouvelle": the stilts, the roof-garden, the plant and the free facade, the window tape, or the five terms at the base of contemporary architectural language. The building recently underwent renovations, was declared by the French national interest.

Le CORBUSIER - Villa La ROCHE

Le CORBUSIER - (1923) - Villa La ROCHE (Paris, France) La Maison La Roche-Jeanneret is a double house built by Le Corbusier in 1924. They are in the Rue Doctor Blanche to the numbers 8-10. They are the seat of the Le Corbusier Foundation http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/. The project dates back to 1923, when Raoul La Roche commissioned to the Helvetic architect a house where he could also be exposed his art gallery. Was used the new technique of reinforced concrete and, in line with the experiences of the modern movement, ran out all the decorations in favor of an absolute set of volumes of pure geometrical features. Villa Jeanneret was instead built in collaboration with the architect Pierre Jeanneret in 1925. The two buildings are joined in today. [...] Open the door, go under a bridge, and the tight space explodes upwards and through punched-out voids that are mysteriously backlit. Go across the triple-height space, look at the Purist paintings, one of which you now seem to be moving through, turn left up a stair, and survey the pure prisms from a balcony....Catch your breath, turn around, and proceed to the culmination, La Roche's curved gallery... [M]ount the brown ramp to the left, to Le Roche's aerie, his top-lit library. The spatial sequence is remarkable and remained a constant preoccupation of Le Corbusier. It also became the stock in trade of subsequent Modern architects.[...] (Charles Jencks)

Zaha HADID - Exhibition Pavillion

Zaha HADID - (2007) - Exhibition Pavillion (Paris, France) This Exhibition Pavillion was born to Traveling, his nature is to be disassembled and reassembled in different places. After travelling in Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York since 2007, this great "white shell" in reflective material, donated by Chanel [http://www.chanel-mobileart.com] at the Institut du Monde Arabe [http://www.imarabe.org/] in the April 28 2011, in his permanent home will be used like a Design Museum to further develop cultural programs of the Centre, through exhibitions and events featuring the work of new contemporary artists from the Arab countries. Until the end of autumn 2011 is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the projects of Zaha Hadid [http://www.zaha-hadid.com/], the first woman architect to win the Pritzker Prize in the 2004. The Mobile Art Pavilion symbolizes a new conception of building. [...] It is an architectural language of fluidity and nature - Zaha Hadid explains - got done with digital tools that have allowed us to build a pavilion with organic forms, instead of merely repeating order that characterizes the industrial architecture of the twentieth century [...].The fluidity of the Mobile Art Pavilion extends from the outer shell to inside detail, where a subdivision creates a spiral that in architecture is called " Torus

Part 3. Architectural Model Making: Gluing and Connecting

Part 2. Architectural Model Making: Scaling & Cutting

Part 1. Architectural Model Making: Tools & Materials

Thom Mayne - Morphosis - Hypo Alpe Adria Bank - by g-flights Multikopter...

Jeanne GANG - AQUA Tower

The Aqua Tower is an 86-story mixed-use residential skyscraper located on the 200 block of North Columbus Drive, and is surrounded by high-rises. Designed by a team led by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, the building is the tallest in the world to have a woman as lead architect, at 859 ft (262 m). To capture views of nearby landmarks for Aqua's residents, Gang stretched its balconies outward by as much as 12 feet (3.7 meters). The result is a building composed of irregularly shaped concrete floor slabs which lend the facade an undulating, sculptural quality. Gang cites the striated limestone outcroppings that are a common topographic feature of the Great Lakes region as inspiration for these slabs. The building will contain 55,000 square feet (5,100 square meters) of retail and office space, in addition to 215 hotel rooms (floors 1-18), 476 rental residential units (floors 19-52), and 263 condominium units & Penthouses (floors 53-81). Aqua will also be the first downtown building to combine condos, apartments and a hotel. Strategic Hotels & Resorts had agreed to acquire the first 15 floors of hotel space upon completion of the building, but terminated its $84 million contract for the space in August 2008, citing significant changes in the economic environment. On May 12, 2010, it was announced that Carlson Hotels Worldwide agreed to spend $125 million to open the first Radisson Blu hotel in the United States on 18 vacant floors of the highrise. The name 'Aqua' was assigned to the building by Magellan Development Group LLC. It fits the nautical theme of the other buildings in the Lakeshore East development, and is derived from the wave-like forms of the balconies; the tower's proximity to nearby Lake Michigan also influenced the name. Sustainability was an important factor in Aqua's design. Gang and her team refined the terrace extensions to maximize solar shading, and other sustainable features will include rainwater collection systems and energy-efficient lighting. The green roof on top of the tower base will be the largest in Chicago. The tower will seek LEED certification. The Aqua was named the Emporis Skyscraper Award 2009 skyscraper of the year and was shortlisted in 2010 for the biannual International Highrise Award.

I am an Architect

  " Choose a job you love, 

and you will never have to work a day in your life. "

 

by Confucius.