GREEN VOID by LAVA

Friday, February 27, 2009

Architect: LAVA
Design engineer, Fabrication & construction: MakMax Australia
Client: Sydney Customs House

This is aninteresting installation project in a heritage building, the Sydney Customs House . Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) , the architects for this project was founded by Chris Bosse and Tobias Wallisser in Sydney. The ideas behind this project is to explore the relationship between human , nature and technology. This gigantic sculpture is 20 meter high, sit at the center of the heritage building.
The shape of the pavilion is not explicitly designed; it is rather the result of the most efficient subdivision of three-dimensional space, which can be found in nature in things like organic cells, crystals and the natural formation of soap bubbles,” says Bosse.



Images and infro from indesignlive
Some other projects by LAVA:
images from LAVA

TULOU IN THE URBAN BY URBANUS ARCHITECTS

Monday, February 23, 2009

Vankae Tulou, Guangdong is designed by Urbanus Architect has won the Chinese Architecture awards from the Chinese Magazine WORLD ARCHITECTURE (Chinese-architect.com) . It is a prototype study of low-income housing model in modern cities. Tulou is a traditional and unique type of dwelling for Hakka people in Fujian province. It encourage community spirit as this type of housing combines shopping, entertainment, living, storing into one single entity.

Taken the idea of Tulou , the architect tried to implement the kind of communal residence into low-income housing area. The Tulou prototype includes 245 apartments, an inn, exercise facilities, a library, storefronts, and varied public space.
According to the designer, imitating the form and the style of tulou is not a good solution in design. The new tulou is designed to suit to the urban fabric by introduce green areas, expressways, overpasses and other features.
Various of studies of the traditional tulou buildings have being done especially on the space, functions , size and social network between each residents.
As the function of traditional tulou's outer walls is to protect the inner buildings from attacks, the outer walls of the new tulou seems to protect the residents from the urban chaos, which can be analysized as having both pro and con.
Low income residence gained more attention from designer especially on their living environment now.
Interior of the living areas.
ARCHITECTURE
Fujian Tulou, 福建土楼 is an unique rammed earth dwelling of Hakka found in Fujian. (Wikipedia), listed in UNESCO world heritage list.
Tulou is usually a large enclosed building, rectangular or circular in configuration, with a very thick weight supporting earth wall (up to 6 feet thick) and wooden skeletons, from three to five storeys high, housing up to 80 families. (Wikipedia)
The layout of Fujian tulou followed the Chinese dwelling tradition of "closed outside, open inside" concept: an enclosure wall with living quarters around the peripheral and a common courtyard at the center. (Wikipedia)
Photos from KIT (picasaweb)

Info and other photos from Urbanus Architect

Forum AID awards Interior Winner- Cristal Bar by Katrin Olina

Monday, February 16, 2009

Cristal Bar, Hong Kong: 9/F, 33 Wellington Street,The Loop.
An interior based around graphic art and the application of a visual language in an entire space. In this project, of an interior of a Bar, Katrin Olina exploits the film and printing technology of 3M to create a huge seamless painting that expands throughout the bar’s four interconnected areas that cover a floor area of 1200 square feet
The bar countertop is encrusted with more than 300,000 Swarovski crystals, which are illuminated from above by a ripple projector, and below by multicolored LEDs, in that way the counter’s surface changes hues while shimmering in undulating waves over the course of the night.
Of all the interiors shortlisted in this category, Katrin Olina’s Cristal Bar was the one the jury felt they would most like to experience. With every available surface covered with Olina’s graphic art, the patterns become more than just decoration and create a dream-like, immersive environment. It is a simple idea to make a two-dimensional pattern the dominant design feature of a three-dimensional space, but the result is striking.
(quoted from Forum AID website)

Images and Info from Katrin-Olina.com

The Weeks House, Louisville, Tennessee

Wednesday, February 11, 2009


Site Plan
The A-frame house, or known as the Weeks House originally was at 1,656 square feet with three tiny bedrooms and one bath downstairs and a loft bedroom upstairs, was built by Felder Weeks, AIA, as a vacation place, and not somewhere to retire and live year-round.Paul and Jeannine Weeks bought over the house from his father, Felder Weeks and rennovate it to be a retirement home. Rennovation was made by Brian Pittman, Assoc. AIA and the results are a 3,200-square-foot renovation and expansion, including a covered porch and a 544-square-foot guesthouse.
The house was essentially gutted down to the original structure and concrete slab foundation. The recently re-shingled cedar-shake roof was also preserved. The Douglas fir original structural elements were built on and expanded with polished concrete inside and out, local crab orchard stone, cork flooring over the original concrete, cedar siding, fir millwork, a spiral staircase to the loft, and ipe decks outside. (from architectural record website) The owner of ths house demand an uncrowded spaces and natural materials. They preserved most of the original furnitures used by his father. read more about this project : ARCHITECTURE RECORD

Crowne Plaza Changi Airport Hotel, Singapore by WOHA architects

Monday, February 9, 2009

Crowne Plaza Changi Airport Hotel is designed by WOHA, award winning architects.
The hotel combined both modern and resort hotel style.
Interesting facade designed at different elevations.
Lobby design
Bedroom and bathroom design
Lift lobby
Photos from Flickr.com

SPACECRAFT 2----New book on Shelf

Saturday, February 7, 2009


SPACECRAFT 2
MORE FLEETING ARCHITECTURE AND HIDEOUTS
FEIREISS,LUKAS KLANTEN,ROBERT MEYER, B

The design community’s preoccupation with space and building beyond the limits of classical architecture is more fascinating than ever before. Like its successful predecessor, Spacecraft 2 presents projects that meet the changing spatial needs of our modern lifestyles and that are simultaneously expanding our current understanding of architecture.

This book showcases international projects by architects, artists and designers all distinguished by the unconventional use and creation of space. The dynamic range of work presented in this sumptuous volume stretches the existing concepts of temporary architecture, thus unhinging conventional definitions of spatial design.

Spacecraft 2 features modular ephemeral structures that exist only for a limited time, such as pavilions, art projects and exhibition spaces. They exemplify innovative interventions often found in public spaces and urban environments. It also presents projects that deal with the transient use of space such as studios, mobile habitats and pop-up stores that either adapt to their surrounding environments or are strikingly conspicuous.

This unprecedented compendium brings together an extraordinary collection of projects by young and little-yet-known talents and mirrors the exchange, communication and development that are engaging contemporary building practices today.
ISBN13 9783899552331
Publisher DIE GESTALTEN VERLAG
Pages 280
Published 04 February 2009
Retail Price £45.00
WAN Price £43.88
Info and images from WAN books

Quote of the YEAR

Batik postcard from Jojga
" Work hard while you can, always do your very best !! You will notice the difference"

Indonesia Trip (29 Jan- 03 Feb)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

I just back from a 5 days trip to Indonesia during CNY. Reached Jakarta on the 29 Jan , 1140pm, meet my other travel mates at the Ibis Arcadia hotel.


Day 2
The next morning, taking another flight to Jogja at 3.05pm. Therefore, I didn't really have time to wander around Jakarta town. I heard that Jakarta population is approximately the same as in Malaysia. A lot of high rise buildings and most people there can afford expensive vehicles.

Waiting at the Jakarta airport Terminal 1 to Jogja .
When we reached Jogja, it started to rain. Lucky we managed to get a car to look for hotel.

The hotel we stay in is Grage Ramayana, a very nice and cosy family room. We take a good sleep in the hotel for rest of the time.
Day 3
Our first destination in Jogja is Taman Sari ( a resting place for the Royal family) at Kraton, where we discover the Water Castle, underground passage and underground mosque.
This is the entrance to the underground passage. This whole area was previously built under water, the passage is the only way to link to other places.
The feeling in the passage is amazing. A repeating interval natural lighting penetrate into the passage creates a wonderful experience for us.

The repeating structures protuding above the underground passage provides ventilation and natural lighting to it.
The passage leads us to this palace, which are almost destroyed by the earthquake. There are reception room and hall to welcome the guests. The roof of the image above according to the tour guide, is a vault roof mainly built by clay , lime stone.
The view from the top of the palace.
We turned and turned in the mazed area above before we reached the underground mosque.
The mosque is a 2 storeys circular form with an interesting staircase positioned at the center point spreading to different level. The Imam will read the prayer in a small room, the circular form will help to deliver the wave of sound to the whole mosque. A very simple , yet very intelligient solution used during the old times.
Another feature in Taman Sari is the bathing pool. There are 2 pools separated by a 2 storey building. The Sultan watched the women bath at the outer pool from the top, and might ask selected women to accompany him at the inner pool.
Our next destination was the Sultan Palace, however didnt capture much interesting features.

Borobudur, the largest Buddha Temple in Ninth century, older than Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It is a ten terrace monument, the first sixth terraces are square in dimension, followed by 2 circular terrace and finally a Buddha Stupa siting westward. This is the first time I got a chance to see a heritage monument temple under UNESCO. Unfortunely, the building is not under great care. I saw visitors climbing up the stupas and sratches of name on the stones. It seems to me that tourism is not controlled well in a heritage protected area and it is very unsure how long this great piece of architecture will live.
Walking at the terraces, admiring the relief on the wall. Some of the Buddha stupas are incomplete.
Interesting stone craving, which may carry different stories behind each of them.
The Buddha stupa at the circular terraces.

A view of Jogja city with a lot of flags and flyers of different political parties for the preparation of coming election.
Taking 11pm night train to Bandung. It take 8 hours to arrive at Bandung.
Day 3
Checked in at d-Batoe Boutique hotel, a nice design hotel with efficient and friendly services.

At the same day, we went to visit the Tangkungan Perahu, an active volcano at Lembang. There is a strong sulfur smell and extremely cold at the area. This is also my first time to see volcano at this close distance.
Besides that, we also wander around Kampung Daun and the Peak. Kampung Daun is some place similar to Cameron Highlands. Every houses planted flowers and plants at their garden, making a colourful green neighbourhood.
I forgot the name of this place. There are mutiple traditional huts scatter around this whole area with good planning of landscape leading visitors to different spot. You can choose any huts you want for a drink and enjoy the environment.

The Peak is where you can see the city of Bandung from top view. Villas and masons of various design can be found here. There is a 3 storeys restaurant situated at the top .
The views of the city from the Peak.
Day 4
The last two days our time was scheduled for shopping at Bandung. You can find branded clothes and other items at a cheap price.
The most famous shopping malls are Ruman Mode, Ci Walk, Sercet Factory outlet, Paris and Cascade. Their restaurant interior works are much interesting than the one in Malaysia
Unfortunely, I don't really like shopping time, unless I found something extraordinary.
Day 5
We rent a car to get back to Jakarta and from Jakarta fly back to Kuching. Here ends the trips.
The total spend for this trip is around RM1000.