Fuse Guest Lecture

On October 22nd David Mathews a director at Fuse gave a lecture on the work that his practice does and gave us an insight in to the running a of the practice, which seemed a lot more fun than most others ( " we take our work seriously but not ourselves too seriously"). They have a wide ranging portfolio from master planning business parks to hotels and casinos even hard rock cafes. This practice symbolises the type of studio I wish to work at.

http://www.fuse-studios.com/

Continued building work at The University of Lincoln

I have continued to document the building work and redesign of the University of Lincoln especially the Brayford campus as it is my home campus and the one I study at. the university has stated an investment of £100 million to "create the finest city campus in the UK" and although I am bias I believe this will be one of the best in the world. there is planned extensive re design and landscaping throughout the Brayford campus as stated in the Lincolnite.

http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2013/08/landscaping-project-to-transform-the-university-of-lincoln/

Astley Castle wins Stirling Prize

Astley Castle has one one of the most prestigious prizes in Architecture, the RIBA Stirling Prize. I visited the site whilst renovation was taking place as a part of an art a level project as it is very close to my home. I really like how the architects built around the ruined house making outside spaces blend into the internal building. congratulations to Witherford Watson Mann Architects.

Bot and Dolly - Box

So I'm just preparing to start my second year at university and I have came across this visual display by the robotics firm Bot and Dolly as well as serving the purpose of showing the ability of their products it has stunning aesthetics that trick the eye with the use of moving robotics and Projection.

Richard Rogers inside out

I have been busy so its been a long time since I've made an entry, since the last time the famous Richard Rogers celebrated his 80th Birthday. in recognition to this the BBC made a documentary looking at his career and well known works of architecture by Rogers. It also went on to look at his current work and his legacy to the world of Architecture. One project appealing to me is turning a practice into a charitable trust "RHSP". Here is an excerpt from their website that explains what they do;

"

Our Belief

The practice of architecture is inseparable from the social and economic values of the individuals who practise it and the society which sustains it. We as individuals are responsible for contributing to the welfare of mankind, the society in which we practise, and the team with whom we work.

Our Aims

We aim to produce work which is beneficial to society. We exclude work related directly to war or which contributes to the extensive pollution of our environment.

How We Work

In order to do work of the highest quality, we carefully control the size of the office and the selection of our projects. We recognise that work is not an end in itself and that a balanced life must include the enjoyment of leisure and the time to think.

Our Charitable Ownership

Our Practice is owned by a Charitable Trust. No individual owns any share in the value of the Practice. In this way, private trading and inheritance of shares is eliminated and any residual value is returned to society through the Charitable Trust.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             "

Above is a picture of the practice of Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners.

As maybe evident by my Blog i like models and scale models as it is a tangible realisation of what the architects have been designing and can be understood by anyone. so when i found the Model shop of RHSP on their website it was definitely worth a mention. here is a bit from their website; 

"

The custom designed in-house modelshop facility at RSHP has been established since 1990 and forms an integral part of the design process. Models communicate on many levels, encapsulating the design intent as a whole as well as being persuasive, beautiful objects in their own right. The department comprises a core of five permanent full-time modelmakers supplemented by freelancers. The workshop has three areas, a large flexible workroom with CAD workstations, an extracted machine space with a separate paint spray room and a photography studio which enables us to produce high quality digital images of models in a short space of time.

We are able to produce many types of model in close collaboration with architects from initial massing models to fully detailed colour presentation or competition models with integral lighting and fibre optics. Materials range from timber through high density foam to fluorescent colour acrylics. Models can range in scale from a 1:10000 masterplan to a 1:1 mock up for a steelwork casting detail and in size from post-it note to king size bed.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       "

and this is classed as work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/0/23350996

http://www.richardrogers.co.uk/rshp_home

A friend shared this video and thought it was quite funny and truthful XD

Fosters The Bow in Calgary

Foster and Partners new 237 metre high building in Calgary is to be unveiled this week it bares clear resemblance to previous Foster designed buildings such as the the triangular grid like pattern on its facade just like the facade on the 30 st. Mary's Axe.

Cafe Lincoln Model Making

My favorite part of the project is model making as it is the nearest thing to reality and is what sells your ideas to the client (or tutors). In this project I made a site model and a model of my cafe that can be placed in the site model as well as a larger model made of Plastikard.

Rick Mather

Rick Mather Architect responsible for the design of the Architecture Building at he University of Lincoln has died at the age of 75. As well as our very own architure building, he redesigned the Ashmolean art gallery in Oxford and the Times HQ in London.

Micro lofts

Been a while since I last posted but I've been reading online news about micro lofts and small city living. These small dwellings allow for affordable sufficient place to live in a sought after area. They have their origins in the dense metropolitan cities of Tokyo and Hong Kong and are starting to take off in New York. Planning regulations make this modern form of living difficult to begin though pilot schemes in New York are set to go ahead to check the feasibility of micro lofts. From Specht Harpman this is an example of a relatively large micro loft that has recently had some acclaim http://www.spechtharpman.com/residential/west_73rd_street_residence.php

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZSdrtEqcHU this is a quick tour of a NYC micro loft photos to come

Toyo Ito gets Pritzker prize

The 71 year old Japanese architect has been announced the latest winner of the Pritzker prize in architecture.

“Toyo Ito is a creator of timeless buildings, who at the same time boldly charts new paths,” the Pritzker jury said in its citation. “His architecture projects an air of optimism, lightness and joy and is infused with both a sense of uniqueness and universality.”

One of his buildings The Sendai Mediatheque rose to fame after surviving the 2011 earthquake in Japan

Cafe Lincoln site model

As a part of my new project I have made a 1:200 site model of the context around the site on which I am planning on building a cafe. Here are the first pictures of the progress made so far.

Zaha Hadid to design new London airport

Zaha Hadid Architects has been approached to build the much needed transport hub in the capital. The prize winning architects have already released concept designs of the possible airport.

MiniMax

The Minimax project is a group and individual project that includes structures one designed by each member of the group for a celebrity client. The brief states we must have minimum space but maximum seduction hence the title MiniMax.


We also had to produce the Guildhall, the central hub of the community, as well as the other entire infrastructure associated with the design and founding of a settlement.



My celebrity client was Marilyn Monroe, I had a look at her main interests and found out that she was very committed to her work but in her spare time she enjoyed reading. Reading was the main interest of hers that I latched on to by opening up the walls to let as much natural light in as much as possible. It also includes a book case that flows into a reading sofa in a design that is very liquid that is in context with its location.



The Location of the settlement was on the island of Koh Ryang Nok in the Trat Province of Thailand. My MiniMax is situated just off sure to allow for a submarinal level with a glass side to allow for views of the ocean life. It also is in the shape of a wave in response to its surroundings.



I used wood to construct it with as it was in abundance on the island as well as fitting in with the vernacular architecture of the local area. However this did initially throw up some problems such as making it water tight. In response to this I looked at joining wood through tongue and groove, boat building and a bridge in the Netherlands known as the Moses Bridge.



The curved roof is held aloft by the main central column that cuts through the bed and into the ground floor. I am currently looking in to the ability of having this retract and extend to allow for the weather to be kept out when it becomes necessary.



The Bridge that connects mine and Rachels Bridge is designed to be interesting yet easy to build taking ideas of form from the JK Bridge in Brasilia.

 

The guildhall 1:200 model

Also as a part of the project previously stated I have created a model of a guildhall for the new settlement of minimaxs.

Recent model work

As I am designing a minimum space maximum seduction dwelling for a client in thailand which has allowed me to build a model of my design, though the project isnt finished i am posting some photos of model.