Architecture Archive - The Fox Is Black

Fun With Transparency

Rarely do we get to talk about the buildings in music videos, and while these chatty facades may not be celebrated works of architecture, it is exciting to see these sturdy buildings up to the role of playing an urban-scaled lite brite. The buildings animated in this music video are all in Oslo, their synchronized patterns of light and dark achieved through computer trickery. Directed by Andre Chocron for the band Cold Mailman, the video pushes the transparency of modern structures into a kind of a performance. If you speak norsk, you will understand this interview with Andre, or you can just listen to it like I did, trying to glean what’s going on from facial expressions, gestures and the random english words.

Alex

Text by

Alex Dent

September 12, 2011 - See more posts by Alex

The Etnies PAS House

From Skateboarder Magazine

Pierre-André Senizergues has came a long way from his professional skateboarding days. After moving to LA from Paris and engulfed in its rampant DIY and skate culture, he created Etnies in 1986 to become a major player in the skateboarding apparel and footwear. Under his Sole Technology parent company, he eventually established other brands such as Emerica and Altamont. His idea to merge action sports and environmentalism – a commendable venture indeed – as a venture for future success. This includes Collection PAS, which incorporates high end fashion with recycled and / or sustainable products, and

In a similar fashion, Pierre-André has came up with a wonderful invention: A house that is completely, 100% skateable. In Paris at the 5 floor Gaite Lyrique Gallery for the past few months, people have been invited to test out this wonderful exercise in design and fun. It’s ambitious nonsense for the enjoyment of the sport. I love it. You gotta hand it to the skater kids: they’ll find away to make everything worth skating on.

Alec

Text by

Alec Rojas

September 6, 2011 - See more posts by Alec

Go Hasegawa’s Pilotis in a Forest, A Home Amongst The Trees

When I came across the Pilotis in a Forest home by Go Hasegawa it reminded me a lot of the fire station Alex posted earlier today, only this place houses people, not fire trucks. The space is elevated 6.5 meters above the ground, which allows fo people to gather in the space below it. The home itself is beautifully covered in wood, which as you can see in the kitchen it’s a stunning site. To me, this looks like an idyllic place to take a little vacation, so long as there was WiFi. You can get more information and see more photos over on designboom.

Bobby

Text by

Bobby Solomon

September 5, 2011 - See more posts by Bobby

Parc De Bombers by Arriola & Fiol Arquitectes

What I first noticed about this fire station built in Montblanc, France were the radiating volumes of corrugated aluminum. The form of the project is a reference to nearby geographic formations, the Montsant hills, while the name of the town references a mountain a bit farther away. The fire station’s program is organized simply: with a rectangular brick volume and a folded metal roof. Inside the brick bits, you’ll find bedrooms, bathrooms and other exciting fire station parts. Outside of these enclosed spaces and under the spans of folded metal, you’ll find four fire trucks waiting to respond to un incendie. Outside of the station, I’d imagine you’d find archinerds circling the building with cameras and maybe a confused mountain climber wondering why Mont Blanc looks much smaller in person.

Alex

Text by

Alex Dent

September 5, 2011 - See more posts by Alex

Milstein Hall by OMA

As school kicks back into swing, lucky architecture student’s at Cornell’s AAP are unpacking their ~~T-squares, Paraline rules and~~ shiny new computers in the shiny new Milstein Hall. So recent is the building’s completion that the OMA-designed, 40 million dollar studio expansion still has that new building smell courtesy of the volatile organic compounds slowly leaking out of the fresh finishes. An official celebration of the newness happening at the AAP isn’t scheduled until March 2012, but for now there are a plethora of construction photos on the AAP’s flickr site. While looking around for photos and videos of the project, I came across a series of videos about the projects construction by Jonathan Ochshorn, an architecture professor at Cornell. Below is a video of the professor talking about the construction of one of the projects most prominent features: the dome. There are five other videos by Ochshorn about the building’s construction here.

Alex

P.S. The text spelling out “Milstein Hall” in the top photo is actually spelled out in strips of marble that run above and below the floor-to-ceiling glazing.

Text by

Alex Dent

August 31, 2011 - See more posts by Alex