blog wunderlust: 31st December 2012

Space always intrigued me, with its incredibly rich possibilities, space alteration by (architectural) objects, objects' transformation in space (sculpture, design), movement in space and in time, their correlation, their repercussion on mankind, the relation between man and space, the object and time.

Ernő Rubik

We Make (NEW) Carpets | Can other cities emulate the success of New York’s High Line? | Working out of the Box: Airi Isoda, Architect-turned-Fashion Designer | railroad revival | Building Stories, Panel by Panel | Cathedral of Light: Bent Beams Create Illusory Arches | Frank Lloyd Wright’s Heart Island House | Coolhaus Ice Cream truck | Stunning Photographs of Vintage Parisian Architecture |

last word: Architects Alberto And Angelina celebrate a year after opening restaurant Casa B

Museum of Biodiversity

The 4,000m² Museum of Biodiversity situated on the mouth of the Panama Canal in Panama City is Frank Gehry's first project in Latin America. Exhibition coordinator, Darien Montañes, explains the work involved in bringing a project of this scale to life.

Android for Architects & Designers

With the introduction of Google's chromebook, a laptop device running their mobile Android operating system and manufactured by Samsung & Acer, we are seeing the possible rise of a third computer choice for architects and designers.

Already there are a number of apps created for mobile devices running Android, but now being extended to laptops and the support of Google's ever-increasing market and open source options, this offers a widening of the potential for AEC fields. Autodesk is aware of the market in Android mobile computing and has produced a number of apps for this emerging market including AutoCAD WS, 360 Mobile and Sketchbook Pro.

Here is a list of other useful apps:

Bimshare - described as the easiest way to share your building model online. This app, acquired by  Gehry Technologies in 2012, allows Architects and Engineers to share models, concepts and ideas with teams on BIM projects Your models display beautifully in your browser can view by story, show and hide individual parts of the building or view only parts of a certain type. Supports ifc files.

Redstick - This app allows users to measure buildings using anything from a tape measure to a bluetooth laser measuring device and accurately store that information in an electronic format. The files integrate with any cad software in either a 2D or 3D format and can any opened with any BIM/CAD application including ArchiCAD, REVIT, Microstation or Architect.

Smart Tools Pro is an all-in-one package of 15 apps including a rulers, levels, compasses, flashlights, protractors, etc. This collection of apps allows you to measure lengths, angles, distances, heights, directions and sounds with your phone. The app also allows you to add more tools as they become available.

Design Dimensions Pro - a reference tool for design professionals that features an extensive visual database with dimensions of commonly referenced items. The app allows users to navigate through hundreds of illustrated items to find the exact information you are looking for.

iConfirm - this project management app allows users to create change orders, disclaimers, timelines, memoranda and other documents remotely. Documents can be built, signed and saved to the application and distributed in PDF format.

blog wunderlust: 24th December 2012

I'll plan anything a man wants, from a cathedral to a chicken coop. That's the way I make my living

Henry Hobson Richardson

images (c) Miami Herald

Self-Help Housing: The Story of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board | Why The Starchitect? Foster Unveils Plans For New York Public Library | CityHome Transformer Apartment "Functions As An Apartment Three Times Its Size" | What did Oscar Niemeyer mean to you? | MyArchitects – David Baker + Partners | What does it take to build a livable home for under $100 per square foot? | 2012 in review - Top 10 projects

last word: Puerto Rican team wins design competition hosted by the University of Miami School of Architecture to rebuild Roman Catholic Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Parrish Art Museum

The 34,400-square-foot Parrish Museum in Eastern Long Island designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron

Centre for Urban Pedagogy

The Centre for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), winner of the 2012 Curry Stone Design Prize.

Jesolo Beach Houses

Richard Meier designed Jesolo Beach Houses

blog wunderlust: 17th December 2012

I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country....

Niemeyer

image (c) David Cuthbert

Architects pay tribute to Oscar Niemeyer | History of BIM | What Jane Jacobs Got Wrong About Urban Economies | 10 Techniques for Making Cities More Walkable | The Walkie-Talkie: battle of the bulge on Fenchurch Street | how to treat your architect | EyeTime 2012: Competition Winners Announced | Yale Celebrates Women in Architecture | Hadid Supreme - Zaha in the Glossies | Modern Architecture’s Golden Age, Captured By A Master Photographer

last word: Dominican architectural designer gets global accolade

blog wunderlust: 10th December 2012

It is important that the architect think not only of architecture but of how architecture can solve the problems of the world. The architect’s role is to fight for a better world, where he can produce an architecture that serves everyone and not just a group of privileged people.

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho

Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer - who designed much of Brazil's capital - dies aged 104 | holographic trees and floating bridges | Rolex Arts Initiative Mentor Kazuyo Sejima Selects Yang Zhao as Architecture Protégé | Hashima island, the real-life island of Skyfall | Fashion ARCHetypes | The Affordable Housing Crisis | Why Diversity is Good Business in Architecture |

last word: Strength In Numbers - Design Wunderkind attributes success to teamwork

Shelter

The strategy conceived by Carter Williamson Architects was to devise both an 'ideal' and a 're-use' system that could operate interchangeably in all conditions. The shelter is based on a 2.4 metre unit system are designed to be pre-fabricated off-site and transported 'flat-packed' by road or rail either to remote communities or industrial locations.

On the Boards: Quintessence

The Quintessence centre for education and research in sustainability was designed by
architects Peter Galuzzi, Julian Evans and Marcelo D'Andrea. Designed as a collection of low impact and environmentally passive buildings to be built with local materials and incorporating techniques aimed at minimizing construction waste.

On the Boards : Sustainable Krajicek Playgrounds

The proposed scheme designed by BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design) received the second prize for the Richard Krajicek Foundation Playground competition. The proposal was conceived as a living space for the users with a design that connects to the existing social ideals of the community. It is proposed to be constructed of recycled materials and provides a communal garden, a sports court and interactive spaces for young children.

RIP Oscar Niemeyer

© Frank Camhi

It is with the deepest and sincerest regrets to inform my readers of the passing of noted Latin Modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer 1907 - 2012. The acclaimed and highly influential architect and political activist died of natural causes on the 6th December - 2 weeks short of his 105 birthday.

Oscar Niemeyer began his own practice, after a brief stint within the office of Lúcio Costa and Carlos Leão that stemmed collaborations with Le Corbusier. His architecture whilst in dozen of countries, and has come to define the essence and culture of Brazil and moreover the whimsical forms of Latin Modernism. His accomplished work of fluid and free-formed concrete sculpture spanned decades and in 1988 he was awarded with profession's highest honour, the Pritzker Prize.

Up until his last breath, there was no greater living architect than Oscar Niemeyer.

House of the Week 158: Arbour House

The Arbour House, is designed by Richard Kirk Architects and sits among a grove of fig trees along the Brisbane River, Australia. An old Poincianna tree dominates the site and the canopy of the roof and directional timbers used in the interior frames views towards it and the river beyond.

blog wunderlust: 3rd December 2012

Life deprived of beauty is not worthy of being called human

Luis Barragan

Architects smashing up their models | Rock Overhangs Integrated in Local Architecture: The Town Under Rocks in Spain | Pink Floyd Drummer awarded honourary architecture degree | Museum Tower is an "attack" on the Nasher Sculpture Center's garden, building and art | Is this a Bond villain’s underground lair? | Is the next generation of architects really ready to build? | ‘An architectural representation of God’s open-ended love’ |

new books: Long Island Modernism 1930–1980 by Caroline Rob Zaleski

last word: Grenada House of Parliament