The Beach at the National Building Museum,

Washington, D.C.

TGIF to the viewers!

The National Building Museum presents a one-of-a-kind destination for visitors, an interactive architectural installation that brings the quintessential summer experience of going to the beach to downtown Washington, D.C. Spanning across the Museum’s Great Hall, the BEACH, created in partnership with Snarkitecture, will cover 10,000 square feet and include an “ocean” of nearly one million recyclable translucent plastic balls. Tickets include admission to exhibitions. Admission is first come, first served (no timed entry). Visit our Admissions page for more ticketing information. The BEACH is contained within an enclosure and built out of construction materials such as scaffolding, wooden panels, and perforated mesh, all clad in stark white. Monochromatic beach chairs and umbrellas sprinkle the 50-foot wide “shoreline,” and the “ocean” culminates in a mirrored wall that creates a seemingly infinite reflected expanse. Visitors are welcome to “swim” in the ocean, or can spend an afternoon at the “shore’s” edge reading a good book, play beach-related activities such as paddleball, grab a refreshing drink at the snack bar, or dangle their feet in the ocean off the pier.

 

 

 

The beach will be open starting July 4 - September 7, 2015.

 

Source:

http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/the-beach.html

Mosaic Village: Merging Jazz and Architecture

The Northwest Corridor Revitalization Initiative brings together businesses, residents, city authorities, developers, and officials from Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) to boost the quality of life and economic activity of the Northwest Corridor, a major transportation route from uptown Charlotte, N.C. JCSU opened the vibrant Mosaic Village in the historic West End in 2012 as an important aspect of the revitalization project.


The 124,000-sf mixed-use project contains 80 apartments, accommodating 300 students with numerous amenities. Tenants have access to a gym, computer lab, study rooms, lounges, and a 4,000-sf rooftop terrace. A free shuttle brings riders to the main university campus and uptown Charlotte. Mosaic Village contains 7,500 sf of retail space and was designed to attract new businesses that benefit from this high-density housing. The project strives to promote identity, history, and diversity.


Architect Daniel McNamee was inspired by the neighborhood's rich jazz history and the nearby Excelsior Club, which had at one time been the largest private social club for Black professionals in the Southeast.


“The primary challenge was to take a residence hall—a building type that typically has a lot of overbearing repetition—and compose a dynamic design that tells the story of the historic West End through a connection with jazz music,” said McNamee.


The dynamic and inspiring exterior of Mosaic Village contains a brick façade, with metal panels at varying depths. The panels provide both insulation and a crisp look. They are coated with Valspar's 70% PVDF Fluropon coating in Cool Breakwater Blue and Silversmith, bringing the project to life and providing exceptional protection again the elements.


These dynamic elements helped the project win AIA Charlotte’s Urban Design Merit Award and become a neighborhood favorite, revitalizing the historic neighborhood. - See more at:






http://www.bdcnetwork.com/blog/charlotte%E2%80%99s-mosaic-village-merges-jazz-and-architecture#sthash.yLQ5EXWf.dpuf










Inspired by the area’s rich history and unmatched resilience, Mosaic Village has carefully been sculpted by the cultural influence of Jazz Music, seen and heard at the nearby historic Excelsior Club. The rhythmic progression of the building pulls from the jazz aesthetic and its improvisational yet structured nature. A study of how the layers of music can inform and compose the layers of architecture produces an array of breaks, riffs, vamps, bridges, and improvs in physical form. Following these rules from the realm of jazz, the public and physical realm of Mosaic Village becomes an architectural composition that respects its history, while chartering a new path for the Historic West End Community.


Mosaic Village has been designed as a sustainable campus that promotes diversity, mobility, identity, history, and vitality. The new urban housing development consists of 80 units (299 beds), each with a kitchen, washer/dryer, and 2 bathrooms. Lounges and study rooms are spread throughout each level to promote social interaction, while a fitness room, game room, and computer lab are located at the main lobby.


The village has a goal of sharing resources innovatively, appreciating the individual differences that come with diversity, and celebrating the opportunities for collaboration and engagement involved with being part of the overall mosaic that is Historic West End.




http://neighboringconcepts.com/project/mosaic-village-2/

Cells of Life at Jupiter Artland

 

TGIF to the viewers!

For this week’s YEOW, we’d like to share with you, Cells of Life at Jupiter Artland by Charles Jencks.

Eight landforms and a connecting causeway surround four lakes and a flat parterre for sculpture exhibits.
The theme is the life of the cell, cells as the basic units of life, and the way one cell divides into two in stages called mitosis (presented in a red sandstone rill). Curving concrete seats have cell models surrounded by Liesegang rocks. Their red iron concentric circles bear an uncanny relationship to the many organelles inside the units of life. From above, the layout presents their early division into membranes and nuclei, a landform celebration of the cell as the basis of life.

Biography
Charles Jencks is an architectural theorist, writer and landscape architect. Born in Baltimore, 1939, he studied English Literature at Harvard and later Architectural History in London. He has lectured widely on architecture and the arts around the world and among his books The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1977 and six later editions) was the first to define this movement in the arts, especially architecture. He has also written numerous other books on contemporary arts and building, including The Iconic Building, the Power of Enigma (Frances Lincoln, 2005), What is Post-Modernism? (fourth edition,1995) and Critical Modernism (Wiley, 2007), a look at where Modernism is going.
His celebrated garden in Scotland is the subject of his book The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (Frances Lincoln, 2003) and in 2004 the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, won the Gulbenkian Prize for Museums for his design, Landform Ueda. His landscape work is inspired by prehistoric landforms as well as more recent themes that are known to underlie nature such as strange attractors, genetic organisation and the fractal geometry of nature. Seeking to base a language of design on the basic units of the universe he has constructed a Black Hole landscape in Beijing Olympic Forest Park, DNA sculpture in Cambridge and Time Garden in Milan. Such ideas are discussed in his Garden of Cosmic Speculation, 2003, a book that explains in detail his Dumfriesshire garden and how it abstracts various underlying laws. These stylisations become a hybrid practise of sculpture, words and gardens he calls landforming. Charles Jencks divides his time between lecturing, writing, and designing in the USA, the UK, and Europe.

Sources:

https://vimeo.com/50361123

https://www.jupiterartland.org/artwork/cells-of-life

https://www.jupiterartland.org/artwork/metaphysical-landscapes

Art Through Architecture (American Visionary Art Museum)

The founder and director of the AVAM is Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, who while working in the development department of Sinai Hospital’s (Baltimore) People Encouraging People (a program geared toward aiding psychiatric patients in their return to the community) began to develop the idea for a visionary museum, an idea that eventually blossomed into the American Visionary Art Museum, or AVAM. Initially, Hoffberger was simply interested in the artwork created by the patients in the People Encouraging People program, and found herself “impressed with their imagination” and looking to “their strengths, not their illnesses.”
Hoffberger found inspiration on a visit to the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne, Switzerland, which was established by French artist Jean Dubuffet as a collection of “l'art brut” or “raw art because of the untamed emotions resonating in it.” Hoffberger described the museum as “the best, the most imaginative, the most original museum” and soon adopted the idea of “l'art brut” for her own visionary museum

 In her inaugural address, Hoffberger stated that “the American Visionary Art Museum opens its doors of perception not in an effort to make war on academic or institutionalized learning, but to create a place where the best of self-taught, intuitive contributions of all kinds will be duly recognized, explored, and then championed in a clear strong voice.” Since its designation—by a unanimous vote of the U.S. Congress—as America's "official national education center, repository and museum for self-taught, intuitive artistry,"

The AVAM is the official national museum and education center for self-taught and intuitive artistry. Visionary art beats to the rhythm of its own drum, or rather, it's own fantastical self-made instrument. The American Visionary Art Museum provides an inclusive space for 'outsider' art. However, there is a fine line to walk when 'fringe' or 'outsider' art is concerned.

The Hoffberger Family Welcome Plaza connects the Jim Rouse Visionary Center, which opened in 2004, to the rest of the museum complex. The Plaza host several works including Phoenix by Dr. Tom Evermore and Cosmic Galaxy Egg by Andrew Logan.

http://www.avam.org/

http://arts.gov/photos/breaking-tradition-american-visionary-art-museum

Pavilions in Bailianjing Park by Taranta Creations

Pavilions in Bailianjing Park by Taranta Creations

Taranta Creations designed a series of art pavilions that were installed in Bailianjing Park along the Hangpu river in Shanghai, China.

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Bailianjing Park Pavilions by Taranta Creations

Bailianjing park is located in the north of Pudong section of the former expo site, along the Huangpu river. Already opened during the China Expo 2010, the park claims its crucial role after the expo. While most of the expo structures are currently demolished, the park remains as a permanent public waterfront. Besides the maintenance of the china pavilion, the expo exhibition center, the Mercedes Benz stadium and the expo boulevard, it is unclear what will happen with the large amount of unoccupied land after the torn down of all the country and corporation pavilions. Continuing the theme of the expo “better city, better life” the green waterfront should function as an attractor of high quality urban developments. A series of art installations along the green belt are part of the landscape design. Among the designers for the different art installations was Taranta Creations.

Park life
If you visit the parks in shanghai, you will notice that the Chinese people use these public spaces extensively. From early in the morning till dusk, people come to the park to meet, exercise, eat or relax. You find people practicing tai chi, dancing, singing karaoke, drinking tea or playing the typical Chinese mahjong game.

The objective of our design was to create sculptures that added more than only visually quality to the park. We wanted to create an installation that enables and facilitates this typical park life. Inspired by the diversity of Chinese recreational cultures, each sculpture is designated for a specific function to suit for multiple purposes. One sculpture will be equipped with microphones and a screen, so it can be used for singing karaoke. Another will contain trays to store chess and card games. In one of the pavilions you can place bottles, for keeping your drinks cold during the hot summers. Or you can dance on the tunes produced by the “jukebox” sculpture.

Tea pavilions
The sculptures are designed as small pavilions. This way we create a reference to the ancient Chinese Fengkafei tea pavilions, which have always been small centers for recreational and social purposes. Given the location next to the river, we decided to place the pavilions on poles. Not only does this protect the pavilions against a flood from the river, but also makes people aware of this existing threat.  As a contrast to the normally gray sky that you usually will experience in shanghai, we choose to execute the pavilions in fresh and bright colors. The colors in combination with the shapes give the cluster of pavilions the appearance of candy. As we believe our pavilions can be the “candy” for people to visit the park. small wind turbines placed on top of the pavilions provide the pavilions with the necessary electricity. During the night the pavilions light the environment.

Bubble gate
At the start of the path that leads towards the pavilions we place a pavilion that represents the modern version of the old Chinese gate. The bubble shape gate is a reminder of the flamboyant architecture that we have experienced at the expo pavilions.

Design team: Enrico Taranta, Giorgio Radojkovic, Juriaan Calis

Visit the Taranta Creations website – here.

Photography by Zhang Jun Photography

Art - Changing the Environment

Stickwork

 

Born in Oklahoma in 1945, Dougherty was raised in North Carolina. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina in 1967 and an M.A. in Hospital and Health Administration from the University of Iowa in 1969. Later, he returned to the University of North Carolina to study art history and sculpture.

 

 

 His work quickly evolved from single pieces on conventional pedestals to monumental scale environmental works, which required saplings by the truckloads. Over the last thirty years, he has built over 250 of these works, and become internationally acclaimed. His sculpture has been seen worldwide---from Scotland to Japan to Brussels, and all over the United States.

 
 

He has received numerous awards, including the 2011 Factor Prize for Southern Art, North Carolina Artist Fellowship Award, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Henry Moore Foundation Fellowship, Japan-US Creative Arts Fellowship, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Princeton Architectural Press published a major book about Patrick and his work in 2009. This monograph, Stickwork, has received excellent reviews and is available at www.stickwork.net.
Born in Oklahoma in 1945, Dougherty was raised in North Carolina. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina in 1967 and an M.A. in Hospital and Health Administration from the University of Iowa in 1969. Later, he returned to the University of North Carolina to study art history and sculpture.

The Three-Dimensional City: How Drones Will Impact the Future Urban Landscape

 

Hawkins\Brown’s ‘Romance of the Sky’ proposal for the site of Heathrow Airport features drones – but does the urban design of the proposal accommodate the role of drones in the urban sphere?. Image © Factory Fifteen

Many have come to associate drones with the looming unmanned aircraft deployed in the defense industry, but as technology continues to improve drones have gotten smaller and progressively less expensive. Consumers can now purchase their very own drone for as little as $600 or less and the technology is already proving to be useful for a wide variety of purposes, including possible uses for architects in everything from site analysis to construction.

However, this technology could have much broader consequences on not only the airspace above our streets, but also in how we design for increasing civilian and commercial drone traffic. Just as other technologies such as cars and security surveillance have shaped our urban infrastructure, so too will an emerging network of infrastructure for pilotless technology. Particularly as drones become ever more precise and nimble, opportunities arise for their increased use in urban areas. If these devices can be programmed to learn from repeated maneuvers with the use of cameras and sensors, it is not unrealistic to say that they could soon learn how to navigate through increasingly complex vertical cities. But if drones become fixtures of our urban environment, what impact will they have on exterior spaces? And could they become as ubiquitous in our city’s skies as cars on our streets?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2itwFJCgFQ&feature=player_embedded

Drone technology in cities may take a number of decades to fully develop, as designers of smaller drones currently struggle to incorporate the battery life and power required to navigate the unpredictable wind patterns created by tall buildings. However, assuming technology continues to improve, we could begin to see drones used in cities for everything from delivery services to window cleaning. Curiosity for such services was first sparked last year after Amazon’s unveiling of a new delivery system using drones, and since then the uses for drone technology has become increasingly promising. Uses in the architectural realm include site analysis by realtors and architects in order to stitch together photos for 3D maps, monitoring construction site progress, producing dramatic photography of completed projects, and much more. As other industries begin to make use of this emerging technology, an increasing number of drones will carry out services hundreds of feet above our streets, and we currently lack the necessary infrastructure to benefit from and sustain this increased aerial traffic. Independent urbanist, designer and futurist Liam Young tells City Lab, “When you have services coming at people from different cross-sectional heights, you can’t have a city planned solely around the ground. Buildings would have to adapt to the kinds of visual cues and parameters those drones are programmed to respond to.” [1] The task of creating visual cues for drones in cities is particularly complex and is an area still under development.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MvRTALJp8DM

The acrobatic moves that some smaller drones can be programmed to perform often rely on powerful sensors placed around the area in which they are flown. In order for a drone to be called “smart” and fly on its own it must have advanced processing capabilities to analyze its environment in real time. Some of these visual cues such as QR codes are simple, whereas the ability to identify shapes and track movements is far more difficult. Urban three-dimensional space designed with drones in mind could address some of these obstacles by providing locations for sensors and consistent access to wireless networks for drones to maintain communications. Wireless signal attenuation caused by tall structures and even materials such as glass has already proven to be an issue in urban areas, and improving these communication services will be a crucial step in encouraging better drone infrastructure. Architects will play an important role in designing cities that appropriately respond to this unprecedented multidimensional urban space, making buildings that work to facilitate drone navigation and communication rather than inhibit it.

 

Some have already begun to creatively envision how cities could adapt for this increasing array of technological uses for airspace, including Liam Young in his drone-based art installations. As many such visions of the future suggest, the infrastructure designed around drones could give architects a chance to reimagine how exterior vertical surfaces are used to suit the needs of drones. The devices would most likely require charging docks at regular dimensions, and if they are used for shipping, one could imagine drone delivery docks on each floor of tall buildings.

 

As for how drone technology could further change our urban experience, driverless vehicles have long been a staple of depictions of the future, and some researchers speculate that if driverless cars become a reality, driverless aircraft could soon follow. [2] Smaller drone technology could be the key to unlocking the potential of larger pilotless vehicles, and even developing science fiction’s long-awaited flying cars. This reality could be even closer than we imagine, as some Boeing and Airbus jets already take off, land and brake to a stop without human hands on the controls. Just as architects have already contributed to the notion of a technology-filled city with driverless vehicles, exemplified by BIG’s proposal for the Audi Urban Future Award, architects may also play a role in developing such an infrastructure for urban airspace. Responding to how pilotless vehicles navigate cities is essential if we are to create safe and flexible spaces that change based on traffic patterns and time of day.

All of these speculations about drones in our urban environment raise important legal questions regarding the ownership of three-dimensional space in cities. [3] The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) already regulates consumer remote-controlled aircraft to a maximum height of 400 feet. Amazon and many other commercial interests are still waiting for the FAA to grant permission and establish regulations regarding the use of drones, and without these laws in place it is difficult to predict how the technology will continue to progress. However, many daring filmmakers and hobbyists have proven that it is difficult to enforce these regulations, prompting lawmakers to consider how enforced provisions would be put into practice. In the coming years, we may witness an increasing number of legal battles over the rights to airspace just as conflicts ensued with the emergence of automobiles at the time of the Model-T.

Some urban designers have already proposed rough ideas for possible zoning laws for drones. A post on his blog Humanitarian Space by Mitchell Sipus, an urban designer who has worked in Kabul and Mogadishu, reveals an early attempt at creating possible zoning for the airspace in which drones fly. [4] Sipus developed representations of color coded areas of Chicago, with green being flat and open public areas in which drones could fly freely, and orange, yellow and red areas delineating various restricted or prohibited spaces. The airspace over commercial stadiums, for example, may be restricted to advertising and television drones, and barred from civilian aircraft. Since his initial speculations, Sipus tells ArchDaily he has been involved in expanding the idea, including some recent work with NASA, suggesting that these ideas are ripe for real-world implementation.

If municipal governments established these zones, drones could then be programmed to respond to sensors that would either grant them full access to select areas, or alternatively automatically redirect their paths when approaching restricted areas. This digital infrastructure mapped over three-dimensional airspace would be completely invisible but play a crucial role in the deployment of infrastructure such as “highways” for delivery drones and more open recreational spaces for civilian drones.

 

 

Concerns over the use of pilotless aircraft and privacy have been another driving factor in developing legislation to regulate the use of drones through zoning and other means, following reports of paparazzi using drones to capture photos of celebrities in their private homes. Zoning may be one tool to approach these issues, but the design of homes themselves could also potentially transform to respond to increased needs for privacy from aerial viewers. This may include the design of outdoor spaces that simultaneously offer the open qualities of being outdoors, but take advantage of innovative canopy systems to provide increased privacy. Alternatively, private residences may return to Roman-styled central courtyards to improve protection from drones and perhaps create an entirely new “McMansion” typology designed around ensuring optimal privacy.

In everything from the design of skyscraper façades with integrated drone landing pods, to invisible urban infrastructure for government zoning, to the nuanced design of private residences, it is clear that the technological revolution sparked by drones will have widespread architectural ramifications. Drones could have a great many positive and negative effects on how we experience our cities, and we have yet to see the true extent of these effects in practice. In this complex multidimensional future, architects will face the challenge of working with both tech industries and government agencies more closely than ever before to develop truly pioneering urban design.

Source:

http://www.archdaily.com/583398/the-three-dimensional-city-how-drones-will-impact-the-future-urban-landscape/

1.     Ubiquitous As Pigeons’: Imagining Life in the City of Drones (Laura Bliss, CityLab)

2.     Drones are Ready for Takeoff: Will unmanned aerial vehicles—drones—soon take civilian passengers on pilotless flights (Richard Conniff, Smithsonian Magazine)

3.     Drone City: How Unmanned Drones Will Change Urbanism For the Better (Phil Pawlett Jackson, The Architectural Review)

4.     Zoning and Urban Land Use Planning for Drones (Mitchell Sipus, Humanitarian Space)