Urban Renewal — Diane von Furstenberg HQ

The headquarters building for fashion designer, Diane von Furstenberg (DVF) Studio, in a new, six-story structure built behind two landmarked facades in New York City’s Meatpacking District.

Diane von Furstenberg Studio, by Amale Andraos & Dan Wood, for WORK AC
Via: Yatzer

Leaf Chapel by Yamanashi Kobuchizawa

The Leaf chapel sits within the grounds of the Risonare hotel resort in Kobuchizawa, a refreshingly green setting with beautiful views to the southern Japanese Alps, Yatsugatuke peaks and Mt.Fuji.

Leaf chapel, Kobuchizawa, Yamanashi, Japan by Klein Dytham architecture

Zaha Hadid’s Oxford Extension Branded ‘Awkward’

Zaha Hadid’s proposed extension to the Middle East Centre at St Antony’s College in Oxford has been branded ‘awkward’ and ‘in constant competition with its neighbours’ by CABE, the commission’s design review panel.

We are not always fans of Hadid’s work but this solution seems entirely suitable, if a bit radical for this setting — better awkward than mediocre.

Oxford College Extension, Oxford, United Kingdom by Zaha Hadid, full story at Architects Journal

A Minimal House Set in Scrubland in Spain

‘Es Pujol de s’Era’ is a very characteristic tract of countryside in the interior of Formentera, the topography that is nearly flat. The building, a strictly geometrical structure of 12 x 12 metres, nestles between the existing vegetation and a remnant of a traditionally crafted drystone wall.

Home/office, Formentera Island, Spain, by Marià Castelló arquitecte

Icon: Jonas Salk Institute

One of the most influential architects of the mid-20th century, Louis Kahn (1901-1974) realized relatively few buildings, yet the formal restraint and emotional expressiveness of his Jonas Salk Institute is regarded as an inspired progression from the International Style.

Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine, saw the world much as Kahn did, he felt that great thoughts would flow more freely from a monastic setting, perched high on a cliff above the Pacific Ocean, that allowed the thinkers to ponder the great questions of life in solitude.

Jonas Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, USA by Louis Kahn

Perforated Planar House by Steven Holl

This house is to be a part of, and vessel for, a large contemporary art collection. Great 20th century works by Bruce Nauman, Robert Ryman, Jeff Koons and Jannis Kounellis are part of the collection which includes important video artworks. Constructed of tilt-up concrete walls, the flat and rotated nature of the walls merges with the simple orthogonal requirements of the interiors for art. Shape extensions and light and air chimneys connected to cooling pools articulate the planar geometry.

Planar House, Arizona, United States, by Steven Holl

Model: Peter Eisenman

Peter Eisenman. (American, born 1932). Max Reinhardt Haus Project, Berlin, Germany, Scale model 1:100. 1992-93. Medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and Plexiglas.

Permanent Collection MoMA

White Forest Building by Junya Ishigami

A white forest in a grey field, Junya Ishigami’s university project space in the foothills west of Tokyo is a building designed to almost disappear.

“I wanted to make a space with very ambiguous borderlines, which has a fluctuation between local spaces and the overall space, rather than a universal space like that of Mies” says Ishigami. “This allows a new flexibility to emerge, revealing reality rather than shaping it.”

White Forest, by Junya Ishigami

Wakatipu Basin House, Open Space in New Zealand

Wakatipu Basin House, Central Otago, New Zealand for Fearon Hay

Dynamic Architectural Facade by Flare

Flare turns the building facade into a penetrable kinetic membrane, breaking the convention of a buildings surface as a static skin. Computer controlled pneumatic cylinders allow for light and shadow plays across the surface.

Flare, by WHITEvoid, for Flare