We are able to view all entities, from the microworld to the universe, from a single perspective. By setting them up against a scale, we are able to compare and understand things which cannot be physically compared.
Today, using the electron microscope and astronomical telescope, we can see the objects which we have not been aware of its existence before. Are you able to fathom, or even roughly grasp, these sizes?
Click here to see our Universcale and experience the sizes of various objects.
Invited as one of five pre-selected architect led teams, BIG was awarded first prize in an open international design competition which included 19 entrants among others Lord Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid.
The new National Library, named after the first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, encompasses an estimated 33.000m2. The winning proposal was chosen by the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan K. Masimov together with Astana’s akim I.Tasmagambetov and a council of architects. The design was hailed as being both modern and rational and anchored in a classical vocabulary of traditional libraries. The circular organisation of the archive at its inner core combines the clarity of a linear organisation with the convenience of an infinite loop.
The design of the National Library combines four universal archetypes across space and time into a new national symbol: the circle, the rotunda, the arch and the yurt are merged into the form of a Moebius strip. The clarity of the circle, the courtyard of the rotunda, the gateway of the arch and the soft silhouette of the yurt are combined to create a new national monument appearing local and universal, contemporary and timeless, unique and archetypal at the same time, Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner on the Astana National Library 2009
Nation Building Being one of the future cornerstones of Kazakh nation building, and a leading institution representing the Kazakh national identity, designing the library went beyond a mere architectural challenge. The new National Library in Astana, Kazakhstan’s new capital since 1997, shall not only accumulate history but also provide a foundation for new futures for the nation and its new capital. It will serve as an intellectual, multifunctional and cultural center, with a primary goal of reflecting the establishment and development of a sovereign Kazakhstan, its political history, and the Head of the State’s activities and role in the development of the country.
The National Library will be the place where the citizens of Astana, the people of Kazakhstan as well as international visitors can come to explore the country’s history, its diverse cultures, its new capital and its first president. The Library will accommodate and communicate with all segments of the population: civil servants, politicians, researchers, students, museum historians and staff. The Library is conceived as a symbiosis of urbanity and nature. Like Astana, which is located in the heart of the Kazakh mainland, it will be integrated into the heart of a re-created Kazakh landscape. The park around the library is designed like a living library of trees, plants, minerals and rocks allowing visitors to experience a cross section of Kazakhstan’s natural landscape, and personally experience the capital’s transition across the country from Almaty to Astana.
What is a library but an efficient archive of books… and a path for the public to reach them, Thomas Christoffersen, the Project Leader on the National Library
In the library they will be able to study the history of the Kazakh culture and language present in the massive collection of books, magazines, film and other media. The archive is organized as a circular loop of knowledge, surrounded by light and air on both sides. On the periphery a 360 degree panorama of Astana – at the heart of the building a contemplative courtyard domed by the heavenly light blue of the celestial vault. The simplicity and perfection of the infinite circle allows for a crystal clear and intuitive orientation in the vast and growing collection that will populate the shelves of the National Library. The ideal addition to the perfect circle will be a series of public programs that simultaneously wraps the library on the outside as well as the inside, above as well as below. Twisting the public program into a continuous spiraling path tracing the library on all sides, creates an architectural organization that combines the virtues of all 4 complimenting models. Like a Möbius strip, the public programs move seamlessly from the inside to the outside and from ground to the sky providing spectacular views of the surrounding landscape and growing city skyline.
Möbius Strip The 2 interlocking structures: the perfect circle and the public spiral, create a building that transforms from a horizontal organization where library museum and support functions are placed next to each other, to a vertical organization where they are stacked on top of each other through a diagonal organization combining vertical hierarchy, horizontal connectivity and diagonal view lines. By wrapping the transforming composition of spaces with a continuous skin we create a Möbius strip volume where the facades move from inside to outside and back again.
The envelope of The National Library transcends the traditional architectural categories such as wall and roof. Like a yurt the wall becomes the roof, which becomes floor, which becomes the wall again, Thomas Christoffersen, the Project Leader on the National Library
Images and Text Via: europaconcorsi
A team at Kansas State just served up a feast: maps of sin created by plotting per-capita stats on things like theft (envy) and STDs (lust). Christian clergy, likely noting the Bible Belt's status as Wrath Central, question the "science." Valid point—or maybe it's just the pride talking.
Stone and Water
A visit to the Vals Spa.
Built from local quartz by star Swiss architect, Peter Zumthor, the Vals spa brings together Swiss mineral water with the precious stone from which it gushes. (swissinfo 2004)
Via: Swissinfo
Peter Zumthor
The way of an uncompromising architect.
Swiss architect Peter Zumthor is the 2009 winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize – an award often referred to as the Nobel prize of architecture. His path to international recognition has been marked by disagreements.
Via: Swissinfo
In the spectacular large-scale projects he's famous for (such as "Waterfalls" in New York harbor), Olafur Eliasson creates art from a palette of space, distance, color and light. This idea-packed talk begins with an experiment in the nature of perception.
I recently became aware of this very cool landscape firm out of Berlin named TopoTek 1 by a fellow co-worker. If you like the landscape firms of Balmori Associates and Field Operations; you will definitely like TopoTek, check them out.
The Oslo/New York firm of Snøhetta is currently exhibiting there work at the National Museum for Art and Architecture in Oslo. Click the above image or the link below to view dozens of photos from the exhibit.
Tarald Lundevall & Kjetil Thorsen present New Opera House, Oslo from The Architecture Foundation on Vimeo.
Kahn's Exeter Short Film from Alex Roman on Vimeo.
Digital Fabrications: Architectural and Material TechniquesArchitectural pioneers such as Frank Gehry and Greg Lynn introduced the world to the extreme forms made possible by digital fabrication. It is now possible to transfer designs made on a computer to computer-controlled machinery that creates actual building components. This “file to factory” process not only enables architects to realize projects featuring complex or double-curved geometries, but also liberates architects from a dependence on off-the-shelf building components, enabling projects of previously unimaginable complexity.
Digital Fabrications, the second volume in our new Architecture Briefs series, celebrates the design ingenuity made possible by digital fabrication techniques. Author Lisa Iwamoto explores the methods architects use to calibrate digital designs with physical forms. The book is organized according to five types of digital fabrication techniques: tessellating, sectioning, folding, contouring, and forming.
Projects are shown both in their finished forms and in working drawings, templates, and prototypes, allowing the reader to watch the process of each fantastic construction unfold. Digital Fabrications presents projects designed and built by emerging practices that pioneer techniques and experiment with fabrication processes on a small scale with a do-it-yourself attitude.
Featured architects include Ammar Eloueini/DIGIT-AL Studio, Elena Manferdini, Brennan Buck, Michael Meredith/MOS, Office dA, Mafoomby, URBAN A+O, SYSTEM Architects, Andrew Kudless, IwamotoScott, Howeler Yoon, Hitoshi Abe, Chris Bosse, Tom Wiscombe/ Emergent, Jeremy Ficca, SPAN, Urban A&O, Gnuform, Heather Roberge, Patterns, and Servo.
Future of Cities from squintopera on Vimeo.
The film was commissioned by The Danish Royal Academy of Architecture and is part of a publication outlining the outcome of the IFHP congress that took place in Copenhagen in 2007.
Takeshi Iue is strongly influenced by both traditional and contemporary Japanese design. based in Adlelaide Australia, he runs his own studio producing furniture and lighting with subtle and minimal forms. during the state of design festival he showcased a variety of pieces including his autumn stacking stool, bamboo side tables and black gallery bench. two of the stand out designs included the tripod table lamp made from solid wood with an LED lighting unit and the geometrical habit chair that was designed with an aesthetic focus on the backside (since this is what is seen when the chair is tucked into a table).
Via: Designboom
