above > randolph square / frida escobedo / mexico city
frida escoberdo has designed a monolithic timber, tiered platform in randolf square – a singular formal gesture with moveable modules that allows for informal lounging, gatherings, and forums. the installation mirrors the chicago cultural center’s gridded ceiling. if expanding the concept out the door to randolf street, one might start to think about what architectural theorist sarah whiting calls ‘chicago elastic grid,’ in regard to the 1909 burnham plan for the city that fosters a surprising diversity of subdivisions and city-block sizes. photography > kendall mccaugherty
the second edition of the chicago architecture biennial (cab) is the largest architecture and design exhibition in north america, showcasing the transformative global impact of creativity and innovation in these fields. this year’s biennial features over 141 practitioners from more than 20 countries addressing the 2017 theme “make new history.” artistic directors sharon johnston and mark lee have selected architects and artists whose eye-opening creations will invite the public to explore how the latest architecture can and will make new history in places around the world. the main exhibition is free and open to the public from september 16, 2017 through january 7, 2018. we are particularly proud to premiere our opening in 2017 in alignment with expo chicago.
chicago cultural center, 78 east washington street
above > gar hall where 24 plinths are arranged according to the figure-ground relationship established by mies’s plan for the illinois institute of technology (iit.)
horizontal city asks 24 architects to reconsider the status of the architectural interior. the exercise foregrounds the importance of the interior as a model of sociability. the architects reference a photograph of a canonical interior, from any time period.
the second edition of the chicago architecture biennial (cab) is the largest architecture and design exhibition in north america, showcasing the transformative global impact of creativity and innovation in these fields. this year’s biennial features over 141 practitioners from more than 20 countries addressing the 2017 theme “make new history.” artistic directors sharon johnston and mark lee have selected architects and artists whose eye-opening creations will invite the public to explore how the latest architecture can and will make new history in places around the world. the main exhibition is free and open to the public from september 16, 2017 through january 7, 2018. we are particularly proud to premiere our opening in 2017 in alignment with expo chicago.
above > finite format 04, pezo von ellrichshausen (concepciôn chile)
pezo von ellrichshausen have an ongoing interest in multiples, their project finite format 04 runs through the serial sequencing of an imagined building form: half tower and half plinth. the project demonstrates a mathematical obsession; the imaged building is presented here as an outline described by six factors that resulted in 729 variations, framed and hung in a monumental salon-style grid. the serial nature of these works might suggest a reading against a lineage of art from the 1970s often called process or serial art, which exhausted an idea or concept in a monotonous way.
the second edition of the chicago architecture biennial (cab) is the largest architecture and design exhibition in north america, showcasing the transformative global impact of creativity and innovation in these fields. this year’s biennial features over 141 practitioners from more than 20 countries addressing the 2017 theme “make new history.” artistic directors sharon johnston and mark lee have selected architects and artists whose eye-opening creations will invite the public to explore how the latest architecture can and will make new history in places around the world. the main exhibition is free and open to the public from september 16, 2017 through january 7, 2018. we are particularly proud to premiere our opening in 2017 in alignment with expo chicago.
above > ellie abrams and meredith miller of t + e +a + m
t + e +a + m examine the ways that ruins—commonly aligned with 19th century romanticizing of authentic materiality—were always mediated through technologies of image production. ghostboxextends their material research that has previously addressed the packard plant in detroit by examining new typology: the big box superstore. these giant stores were once a celebrated destination on the urban outskirts and peripheries but they are increasingly abandoned as contemporary habits transform to online shopping. redistribution as a practice has the potential to recover a type of building that – unlike renovation, adaptive reuses, preservation, or restoration = permits the circulation of building components, taken apart, moved around, piled up, and mixed with new construction to create alternative uses. t + e + a + m is looking for a patron to make it happen.
the second edition of the chicago architecture biennial (cab) is the largest architecture and design exhibition in north america, showcasing the transformative global impact of creativity and innovation in these fields. this year’s biennial features over 141 practitioners from more than 20 countries addressing the 2017 theme “make new history.” artistic directors sharon johnston and mark lee have selected architects and artists whose eye-opening creations will invite the public to explore how the latest architecture can and will make new history in places around the world. the main exhibition is free and open to the public from september 16, 2017 through january 7, 2018. we are particularly proud to premiere our opening in 2017 in alignment with expo chicago.
above > lacework of stainless steel and aluminum dome courtesy ateliers jean nouvel
conceived by ateliers jean nouvel in 2007, an assemblage of desert, sunlight, waterfront galleries and a stainless steel dome, on saadiyat island, louvre abu dhabi opens to the public 11 november 2017. the museum is an ambitious vision of france and united arab emirates whereby u.a.e. leases artwork from 17 french museums for a 30-year period. the artworks consist of a small portion of modern contemporary art amidst a vast infusion of histories and religions from a multitude of places.
the principle is that it remains a museum that belongs to the geography, and culture and identity of the country. ~jean nouvel
above > the rookery building’s central light court and lobby, remodeled in 1905 by frank lloyd wright. photo by raymond boyd/michael ochs archives collection/getty images
u.s. tax code overhaul would bulldoze incentive for restoring time-honored architectural gems. the overhaul of the tax code unveiled thursday by house republican leaders would hit hard at one of chicago’s great cultural assets. [rk] chicago tribune
above > drone view of nearly completed site taken august 2017 / courtesy lego / lego house opens september 2017
beautiful.
below > narrative from big website
type > competition
client > lego
size > 39, 370 sqft / 12,000 m2
location > billund denmark
status > completed 2017
“lego house is a literal manifestation of the infinite possibilities of the lego brick. through systematic creativity children of all ages are empowered witht the toools to create their own worlds and to inhabit them through play.
at its finest – that is what architecture – and lego play – is all about: enabling people to imagine new worlds that are more exciting and expressive than the status quo – and to provide them with the skills to make them reality. this is what children do every day with lego bricks = and this is what we have done today at lego house with actual bricks, taking billund a step closer towards becoming the capital of children.” bjarke ingels
the 23 m tall lego house is conceived as an urban space as much as an experience center. 21 overlapping blocks are placed like individual buildings, framing a 2,000 m2 lego square that is illuminated through cracks and gaps between volumes. above the square, a cluster of galleries overlap to create a continuous sequence of exhibitions. each gallery is color-coded in lego’s primary colors.
the first and second floors include four play zones that represent: red is creative, blue is cognitive, green is social, and yellow is emotional. some of the rooftops can be accessed via pixelated public staircases that double as informal auditoria for people watching or seating for performances.
the vault – located underneath lego square – is where children and afols (adult fans of lego) can witness the first edition of almost every lego set ever made, including the new 774-piece, 197-step kit replicating the stacked-block formation of the lego house.
today barack and michelle obama came (home) to chicago to unveil concepts of the barack obama presidential center, the designated library for the 44th president of the united states. to an invitation-only event for 300 of the city’s and site neighborhood civic leaders. the former president said there is a tendency to see presidential libraries as “a monument to the past, a little bit of ego-tripping.” instead, he wants a building that “looked forward, not backward, and would provide a place to train future leaders to make a change in their communities, countries and the world.”
the site is 10 miles south of chicago’s loop and a stones throw west of where the world’s columbian exposition was held, a world’s fair in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of christopher columbus’s arrival in the new world in 1492.
the project eliminates cornell drive a major commuter route that cut through the park and was a contentious option to pull off. however, the result will be to tie together a natural environment of lakes and parks and lake michigan to the east and a built environment to the west. the library promises to strengthen the local economy, create new jobs and revitalize the historic park in the process. above > courtesy e. jason wambsgans chicago tribune / below> aerial view courtesy chicago tribune and site plan renderings courtesy obama foundation
the presidential center is not a single building but a series of buildings that form a campus, similar to richard meier‘s ‘separate building’ concept of the getty center in los angeles. the structural architectural footprint is reduced by the roofs of the adjacent single-story library and forum with its covered plantings to create new park land. ‘together these buildings will form a campus, a place for doing and making, as well as looking and learning, and will build upon jackson park’s history as a public gathering place on the south side,’ explains the obama foundation.
the museum tower is 180 feet tall and contains an exhibition space along with education and meeting rooms. to it’s south is the forum building with an auditorium, restaurant with a public garden and the library building.
of keen interest, the library will be the first presidential library to fully digitize obama’s unclassified paper records. the paper documents themselves are at separate facilities maintained by the national archives and records administration (nara), which has control over obama’s records, the foundation said. nara can provide access to the obama presidential records virtually. if the library, or another museum, needs a physical copy of a document, it will be made available on loan from the national archives.
the obama foundation selected tod williams billie tsien architects | partners (twbta) to lead the design team and interactive design architects (idea) to be their partner. twbta stood out in their commitment to explore the best ways of creating an innovative center for citizenship. headquartered in new york, the studio focuses on work for institutions including museums, schools, and not-for-profits. their buildings are carefully made from the inside out to be functional in ways that speak to both efficiency and the spirit. idea brings local knowledge and a track record for delivering excellence to large, complex civic projects.
“we’re building a living, working center for good citizenship. right here on the south side of chicago. wherever you call home, whatever your walk of life, we hope you’ll join us.” ~ barack obama [ obama foundation ] [ the finalists ]
fashion lures architecture and design to the metropolitan museum of art’s costume institute spring 2016 exhibition, manus x machina: fashion in an age of technology. the exhibition explores how designers are reconciling the handmade and the machine-made in the creation of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear. manus x machina features over 170 garments, diverse in their designers, techniques and details.
the credits manus x machina is organized by andrew bolton, curator in charge of the metropolitan museum of art’s costume institute. shohei shigematsu, director of oma new york, led the design of the exhibition in collaboration with the design department (amo) of oma new york.
the architecture from the architect> the exhibition is presented in the robert lehman wing, a double-height, octagonal addition on the museum’s central axis constructed in 1975. in order to preserve access to the permanent galleries, the exhibition space is located in the lehman wing’s central atrium and corridors. the space posed a number of unique environmental challenges for the costume institute’s show: excessive daylighting unconducive to textile exhibition, split levels, a corridor condition lacking dedicated display walls and an eclectic material palette.
a white, translucent volume was inserted into the existing brick and stone corridors of the lehman wing, softening its hard geometries. echoing the sectional relationship of a central clerestory and perimeter naves, the resulting ghost cathedral resonates with the classical language of the adjacent medieval art gallery. a raised platform built across the double height atrium provides continuous circulation and a 2,300 square foot central gallery– an unprecedented intervention in the lehman wing. upon arrival, this domed clerestory orients visitor’s with a 2014 chanel wedding dress by karl lagerfeld that embodies the exhibition’s theme. details of the 20-foot train’s baroque pattern are projected on the dome’s black out scrim, recalling the sistine chapel. four chapel-style pochés provide an area to focus on case studies.
exhibition designer shohei shigematsu commented, “the diverse range of garments required a neutral, integrated environment to focus on the pairings of manual and mechanical processes. an armature of scaffolding wrapped with a translucent fabric introduces a unique temporality within a historic institution.”
as a high-performance theatrical scrim, the perforated membrane material of the ghost cathedral offers the tensile flexibility required for the dome geometries as well as varying degrees of transparency. when lit from the front, the scrim appears opaque enough to function as a projection backdrop for garment details. lit from behind, the scrim appears transparent, exposing a sense of the lehman wing’s existing material palette and language. the unexpected spatial depth of the scrim allows for visual connections to the wedding dress from all quadrants of the lehman wing, while also revealing silhouettes of the temporary scaffolding framework housed within. in the lower level, scrim enfilades provide a permeable divider for each technique. as an integrated system for lighting, signage and projection, the scrim seamlessly serves multiple curation needs that would otherwise rely on overpowering media screens.
photography courtesy of oma
technical information manus x machina: fashion in an age of technology location: new york city usa year: 2016 status: completed (commissioned 2015 / completion may 2016) program: 18,300 sf exhibition scrim surface area: 23,000 sf architect:oma lead architect: shohei shigematsu / oma nyc team: scott abrahams, wesley ho, nicholas solakian, sergio zapata, daniel rauchwerger, lawrence siu, darby foreman, matthew haseltine, christine noblejas engineering: arup lighting: dot dash media: 3 legged dog membrane: newmat scaffolding: ubs masonry: cw keller photography: albert večerka
the fashion
andrew bolton’s brilliant new exhibition at the metropolitan museum of art’s costume institute – the costume institute began as the museum of costume art in 1937, merged with the met in 1946, and reopened its space as the anna wintour costume centre in may 2014 – explores the relationship between the handmade and the mechanized in fashion. bolton’s vision pays homage to craftsmanship, innovation and the role designers play in the creative process.
the show’s galleries are divided into tenets of design outlined in diderot’s 1751 encyclopedia: embroidery, featherwork, artificial flowers, lacework, leatherwork, pleating, tailoring, and dressmaking. another interesting counterpoint emerges: haute couture versus prêt-à-porter.
alber elbaz succinctly explained why “manus x machina” is so important at a lecture prior to the opening: “it was almost an exhibition that was done for designers and with designers’ work. it was about workmanship, about know-how, about time, and the one thing that impressed me the most was that it was almost silent. . . . please go and see it.”
this is an exhibition for true fashion lovers.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”10″ gal_title=”manus x machina 2016″]
miami and chicago based luminaire offered DesignApplause a glimpse of milan design week 2016 through their eyes. four of those eyes belong to founders nasir and nargis kassamali.
[ day 2 ]
desalto space at salone del mobile 2016 catifa 53 chairs designed by lievore altherr molina for arper flexform space at salone del mobile 2016 kartell space at salone del mobile 2016 piero lissoni and nasir maruni space at salone del mobile 2016 rock table designed by jean marie massaud for mdf metallico table designed by piero lissoni for porro ronan bouroullec glas italia space at salone del mobile 2016 32 philippe starck explaining his designs for stanley nargis in classicon space at salone del mobile 2016
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