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If you’re bad with languages, let me help you out with this one: “Elektrobotenhuis” is Dutch for “electric boat house.” But this is not your average botenhuis. Designed by Rotterdam-based Sebastiaan Jansen Architectuur, this botenhuis is also an electric boat charging station – the first of its kind in the country. I guess I’m behind the times because I didn’t even know we were making electric boats yet and now designers are creating incredible-looking charging stations for them.
The structure’s large, angled bow gives a nod to the thousands of ships that will dock and charge here each year. It houses machinery to rebuild and restore beat up boats as well a gallery that does away with the typical white wall and instead displays objects floating on the surface of the water. If that wasn’t cool enough, it’s also remarkably energy efficient. The roof holds 72 solar panels that generate and store enough energy to power 1,385 boats per year.
designer: groosman partners architecten
location: friesland, the netherlands
completed: 2011
space: 700 sqm
photos: sebastiaan jansen
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Some people kneel at their bedside, others go to church. I even have a friend who prefers to send “positive ju-ju.” Whatever you call it, everyone – even nonbelievers – enacts some form of prayer. The location of that prayer is left to the discretion of the person praying, which, if you’re Michael Jantzen, is a Personal Prayer Transmission Vessel (PPTV) – at least in theory anyway. Jantzen’s PPTV is one of the strangest conceptual designs I’ve seen in a while. Each PPTV is shaped like a teepee made of white stucco and what looks like polished copper or brass. The interior includes a small, metal kneeler where you can crouch down and write your prayer using a digital notepad and a special pen. The only light source comes from the glowing notepad as well as a digital skylight, a screen overhead that plays images of blue skies and white, fluffy clouds. Oh, and I almost forgot – you’ll also hear the sound of blowing wind to help create an atmosphere conducive to prayer.
Once you write down the thoughts you want to send to your personal god, simply press the big red SEND button and your prayer is instantly transmitted out into the universe via the antenna on top. I’m not sure how that works, but maybe that’s where the ju-ju comes in? Yes, it’s a silly, impractical, energy-sucking gimmick of an idea, but if you thinks the PPTV is out there check out Jantzen’s website. It seems as though all of his work is conceptual, meaning all he does is make 3D renderings of buildings that are totally unbuildable or that no one wants to actually make. But that’s probably because he “does not consider [himself] an architect, but rather an artist and inventor who often uses architecture as an art form.” I really tried to get through his entire bio, which begins with this broad statement, “My work is very well known around the world,” but frankly I couldn’t get past his eery green Wizard of Oz bio pic.
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The Cooper-Hewitt has had to make a lot of adjustments in its programming during the renovations of their Upper East Side location, which will be closed for the next two years. For starters, the Design Talks series hosted by the museum’s director, Bill Moggridge, are being held at WNYC’s Greene Space, and their upcoming exhibition “Graphic Design: Now in Production,” will take place on Governor’s Island.
The other consideration they’ve had to make is for their massive National Design Library. The library itself was established in the 1890s by the Hewitt sisters, and the collection has occupied the third floor of the museum since the it was obtained by the Smithsonian in the 70s. More than two years of planning has gone into moving the 80,000 volumes, 4,500 trade catalogues and several collections of pictures to two new spaces, the Miller and Fox House, a townhouse adjacent to the museum, and a conservation and storage facility in New Jersey.
Not to worry, two chandelier-lit public reading rooms at the Miller and Fox House will allow access to bound serials an reference volumes. There’s another space, too, a quiet reading room where serious researchers can pull volumes of magazines and exhibition catalogues from bookcases nestled into the wood-paneled walls. Most of the collection, however, is housed in a temperature-controlled facility in New Jersey.
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You can’t tell from the image above, but these people are actually suspended in mid air inside a church in Pula, Croatia. It’s part of Tuft, an installation by the Croatian-Austrian design collection Numen/For Use, which will hang from the ceiling until the end of the month. From the outside the piece looks like an outdoor speaker system, the kind used in an air raid or, on the other hand, the kind used in Muslim countries for daily calls to prayer. Inside, however, the cozy, dimly lit carpeted play space looks more like a 70s-era lounge. But none of these ideas seem to connect, so I hunted down the artist’s statement.
“Tuft is an evolution of the tape concept into a more permanent, self-standing, transferable structure. Adhesive tape is used to generate the primary form of the object. The organic surface of the carpet is later achieved through precise division of the shape in two-dimensional segments, enabling traditional tufting technology. The development and production were executed in a Croatian factory Regeneracija, a former regional industrial giant.
“Rough, industrial surface of the back side of the carpet is deliberately exposed to serve as a counterpoint to the invitingly soft, carnal interior. The result is a surreal simultaneous feeling of anxiety and thrill whilst entering into the installation.”
I guess I couldn’t have been more off base, though I a dark red 70s lounge does have a certain carnal look. All interpretation aside, I’m most impressed by the fact that this installation was born from an investigation into adhesive tape.
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Blue Forest touts itself as a builder of “eco-classrooms and “sustainable luxury,” two words that are often mutually exclusive. I have to raise an eyebrow at any company that labels its products with names like ecoPerch without providing any information on what makes them so “eco” in the first place. The ecoPerch is a “four-bed retreat that offers guests an exclusive, sustainable self-catering experience…It’s natural, organized geometry maximizes the relationship between the inside space and the outdoor setting, ensuring the structure sits harmoniously within the landscape.”
That sounds like a lot of empty ad speak to me, and I was ready to write them off completely until I stumbled across an article about their “eco-classrooms” that actually makes their green-washed website seem more legitimate. The classrooms are constructed primarily from FSC- or PEFC-certified softwood timber and incorporate a sedum roof.
“The building operates without any main power or utility supply. It is serviced entirely by solar energy and even incorporates a methanol fuel cell as a backup should there be a prolonged period without sun. A rainwater-harvesting system collects water from the sedum roof for both the kitchen and composting toilets. The structure is believed to be the first building in the UK which processes harvested rainwater from a sedum roof into hot and cold drinking water using only solar power.”
No word on whether the same is true for their line of luxury tree houses, but why on earth don’t they include that on their site instead of a bunch sustainable mumbo-jumbo? Let’s chalk it up to the fact that this is a new company and whoever is handling their brand strategy clearly doesn’t realize that in addition to the luxury crowd, there’s a large market of folks who get seriously turned on by recycled rainwater and low impact construction.
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With all the recent achievements in modular building, prefab is no longer a dirty word. The latest design to prove that prefab can bring affordability and good design together is the C6, a new prefabricated house by LivingHomes. The C6 boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, an open floor plan “and lots of storage, light and warmth,” and it’ll set you back only $179,000.
“This is our first affordable LivingHome. It was designed by LivingHomes staff in collaboration with Make It Right, a nonprofit founded by Brad Pitt and architect William McDonough to build 150 affordable, sustainable homes in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, the neighborhood hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each C6 will help support the efforts of Make It Right.”
You can even configure your own dream home right on LivingHomes’ site. Choose an LEED level from Certified to Platinum, how many square feet of decking you want and customize the interior with flooring, cabinet and appliance options. If you need more rooms or bigger space, there are options for that, too. No one said prefab meant cookie-cutter. All you need to build you very own dream house is a piece of land – though a sense of design and maybe a construction team might help.
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The competition to design the new Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff was held back in 2007, but it was completed just recently, opening its doors to students in late 2011. The $35 million project includes a 450 seat chamber recital hall (with acoustics that will apparently blow your mind), a 180 seat theatre, four rehearsal studios and an exhibition gallery (take a virtual tour of the grounds).
Jason Flanagan, the project director said the “approach was two-fold, to design the internal performance spaces from the ‘inside out’, looking at their acoustic and theatrical functionality as major drivers, whilst in parallel designing from the ‘outside in’, thinking about the civic presence of the building in its urban context.” That sounds like a load of vague ad wash to me, but who cares – the space looks incredible.
There are three new performance spaces housed within the original, though heavily renovated building. The most fascinating part is the roof. Each individual space is “united under a single, floating roof, its height determined by the theatre fly tower.” This not only means that the acoustics can be tweaked to the nth degree depending on the evening’s performance, but it gives each auditorium the look of a music box with the lid lifted off so that we might gaze in at the precious contents.
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Earlier this week it was announced that the Design Museum, currently located in east London, would relocate in 2014 to a site at the Commonwealth Institute. Chances are you’ve caught a whiff of the buzz already. Here’s how the renovation adds up:
Number of years the site stood vacant: 12
Interior design: John Pawson
Why you should know him: Recently he’s done stage design for major ballets and operas as well as a temporary exhibition in the Geometric Staircase of St. Paul’s Cathedral. See all his work.
Number of floors: 5
Square-meters: 10,000 (about 33 square-feet)
Height of peaked roof: 16 meters (about 55 feet)
Estimated annual visitors: 500,000 (double the previous amount)
Estimated cost: £80 million (about $126 million)
“It’s a true icon and example of post war modernism,” Pawson said. “The challenge was working inside the skin of an existing building. For me it’s about retuning the existing architecture so it still feels fresh. The palette we’ll use is quite quiet and simple…and will retain and enhance the extraordinary special qualities of the building.”
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