Getting instantaneous, accurate structural dimensions in the early stages of the design process, or even when exploring the feasibility of a project, can often be challenging. In response to this, Vancouver-based structural engineering firm Fast + Epp have developed a new mobile application called Concept, a depth calculator which uses typical span-to-depth ratios for common steel, concrete and wood members to give you a quick overview of what dimensions a certain structural idea will require. In addition to this, the app also includes project photos to give users an idea of how certain materials will be expressed in built form.
According to Fast + Epp, “the user simply indicates if the information they’re inputting is a roof or floor, with the internal calculator determining an approximate depth. Additional information is provided to qualify the load assumptions and tributary areas. Users are able to share search and calculation results by emailing them to co-workers and clients for discussion prior to the first design charrette”.
The app is clear and functional, providing architects and engineers with a unique facet to their mobile device. It’s a useful starting point for any designer who wants to test their structural ideas.
You can download the free app from the iOS App Store. According to their website, an Android compatible version is anticipated soon. You can use the app in either metric or imperial dimensions.
Architects: ARX PORTUGAL Arquitectos
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Architect In Charge: José Mateus, Nuno Mateus Design Team: Isabel Gorjão Henriques, Miguel Torres, Joana Pedro, Sofia Raposo, Rodrigo Gorjão Henriques, Paulo Rocha
Area: 436 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: FG + SG
Structures: SAFRE, Projectos e Estudos de Engenharia Lda.
Electrical And Telecomunications Planning Security Planning: Gabinete de Engenharia, Lda
Contractor: Manuel Mateus Frazão
From the architect. The concept for this house emerges from a reflection on the identity of Lisbon architecture, a recurring type of 6-meter-wide and 15-meter-long deep house, ending in a small garden in the back. It is a 5-storey building with two radically different elevations: one “public” in white lioz limestone (the most used in Lisbon) and the one in the back, in glass, connected by an interior world in exposed concrete, punctuated by birch wood elements.
The elevation obviously follows on the Lisbon tradition, stressed further by the windows’ rhythmic structure, opened in a span system created by horizontal strips and vertical bars – characteristic of the city architecture. Just as most of Lisbon’s old buildings, it is a flat elevation whose expressiveness comes from its rhythmic nature and the light-and-shade effects produced with the backing-up of its surfaces. This apparatus brings the elevation a sense of time, expressed by the change in the shadows throughout the day: from a more subtle morning light – with no direct sunlight – to the strong contrasting afternoon shadows.
Besides a straightforward concern in aligning the elevation with the surrounding lines, the design stresses an obvious contrast between the block-type bottom, and the more dematerialized crest. If on the one hand the ground floor responds defensively to the narrowness of the street, combined with the fact that neighbours park their cars in front of doors and windows, on the other hand the top comes out much lighter and dematerialized: it is a space at once interior and exterior – a top patio allowing the transition between the lower building, to the south, and the higher one, to the north. Nevertheless, despite its intimate nature, the space allows a view over the surrounding landscape and to the far-off Christ the King statue to the south, along the street line.
On the back elevation we have explored the extreme transparency which extends the interior onto the exterior and opens up the view to the garden – where a splendid Linden tree takes center stage – leading the eyes from the top floors over Lisbon’s hills, the Tagus river, and the South Bank. Radically opened to the exterior, the generous morning light that floods in directly is balanced by the gray concrete making up all the surfaces.
Inside, the precision of the design, as well as the inclusion of two doors in most rooms, endows the five small floors with a sense of a generous space, and give its dwellers a strong feeling of fluidity and freedom. The constructive research for this project provides an example in which the whole structure shapes the space and becomes architecture in itself: the whole concrete structure, built with only 3 planes – two gables and a transversal plan – is set forth and designed to define the essential house space.
At once a natural and staged space, of both contemplation and living experience, the garden is expressed as an archeological site, where all layers of time, since the house was built, are present. Here, one can still see the ancient techniques that have raised thick stone walls (often recovered from other buildings), later brick overlays, mortar or paint, as well as the stones from the demolished house that have become pavement.
Architects: Dörr + Schmidt
Location: Panquehue, Valparaíso Region, Chile
Architect In Charge: Manuel Dörr, Pablo Schmidt
Area: 662 sqm
Project Year: 2013
Photographs: Marcos Zegers
From the architect. The project is located in the base of the range that surrounds the Aconcagua Valley in a 10 acres park, surrounded by avocado trees plantations and is tied to the ground by three walls of concrete that opens to the plain. The house lies between these walls generating a series of patios that graduate the space from the interior of the house to the valley. This manner of graduating the space between interior and exterior is inspired in the old colonial houses of the Aconcagua valley.
Also rescue the pureness of lines and horizontality of the patrimonial houses of the valley together with the rhythm produced by the repetition of volumes and pillars .
The house was built mainly using recycled woods except for the cover of the interior walls where pine tree planks was used. The pillars of the house originally was part of the structure of tunnels of the old train that crossed Los Andes Mountains from Santiago, Chile to the Argentinian city of Mendoza.
Architects: Taller Diez 05
Location: Boca del Río, Veracruz, Mexico
Architect In Charge: Manuel Herrera Gil
Collaborators: Luis Enrique Alvarez, Eder Ferreira, Francisco Dorado
Area: 55 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Luis Gordoa
From the architect. Located in the south of Veracruz City in Mexico, the Pavilion – S is an annex of an existing dwelling house that has the intention to accommodate different complementary uses as a multifunctional space.
In terms of design, the architectural concept is originated from the idea of INSERTION to an existing contained space with typological and natural default conditions.
As this was an established consolidated dwelling, there were certain typology aspects to put onto consideration that established the environmental space from the site such as: vertical apertures, flares, lattices and historical reminiscences of San Juan de Ulúa historic fortress, that were the starting point to analyze the main signs to shaped permanently this project.
While being compromised by a magnificent existing green area, the strategy changed on making minimal contact with the adjacencies and fully structured vegetation elements, taking advantage of the natural views to the immediate environment.
At the same time this intervention was located in an area of the property that allowed the visibility of an existing green wall, that is why the overall idea was creating a block that compresses the interior program through a “Spatial Bond or Belt”, releasing its longitudinal fronts, where the view from the dwelling is predominant.
To formally define the building, the Pavilion is connected to the existing building trough a wood box connector as a link between these two elements; there is a concrete wall framing the living room area where gently gets involved with a narrow zone of vegetation.
Yesterday’s working methods are no longer adequate for architectural practice. The neo-avant-garde architects are now arguing for contemporary processes that are as dynamic and fluid as the way we live and think, with the same intensity as such intangible forces as the global market and the Internet. For any process to be truly creative in the generative sense, we must condition an environment where new rules engage and inspire us. Models of design need to be created that are capable of consistently transforming and evolving, keeping pace with today’s rate of change.
This issue of Architectural Design explores how contemporary processes, in the pursuit of creativity and fluidity, have become more abstract and experimental, attempting to overcome the pragmatic determinism attributed to more conventional working methods. It explores the work of architects who design with generative potentials, force fields and conceptual diagrams developed with the aid of high-end computer software packages. Through elucidating texts and the potent imagery of process – many of the projects are illustrated stage by stage – it effectively promises that a revolution is about to happen in the production of architectural design.
Examines the changing role of urban models in relation to urban well-being and planning problems and offers a `new geography of performance indicators’ for the public and private sector based on principles of spatial interaction.
CAAd Futures is a Bi-annual Conference that aims at promoting the advancement of computer aided architectural design in the service of those concerned with the quality of the built environment. The conferences are organised under the auspices of the CAAD Futures Foundation which has its secretariat at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The Series of conferences started in 1985 in Delft, and has since travelled through Eindhoven, Boston, Zurich, Pittsburgh, Singapore, Munich, and Atlanta. The book contains the proceedings of the 9th CAAD Futures conference which took place at Eindhoven University of Technology, 8-11 of July, 2001. The Articles in this book cover a wide range of subjects and provide an excellent overview of the state-of-the-art in research on computer aided architectural design. The following categories of articles are included: Capturing design; Information modelling; CBR techniques; Virtual reality; CAAD education; (Hyper) Media; Design evaluation; Design systems development; Collaboration; Generation; Design representation; Knowledge management; Form programming; Simulation; Architectural analysis; Urban design. Information on the CAAD Futures Foundation and its conferences can be found at: www.caadfutures.arch.tue.nl. Information about the 2001 Conference and this book is available from: www.caadfutures.arch.tue.nl/2001.
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec have designed the Gabriel Chandelier, the first permanent contemporary piece installed in the Palace of Versailles, France.
Description
The Gabriel Chandelier, which is over 12 meters high and weighs half a tonne, is composed of 800 crystal modules. These pieces are threaded around a stainless steel skeleton containing a led lighting system. Realized by Swarovski.
Holst Architecture have designed the Karuna House that overlooks the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
Description
Karuna House is an ambitious sustainable design project that was designed to meet a combination of the world’s most demanding green building certifications. The project is the first MINERGIE-certified home in North America, earning the top rating of MINERGIE-P-ECO. Additionally, it has achieved Passive House PHIUS+, is pending LEED for Homes Platinum, and has reached Net Zero energy use by incorporating onsite solar panels. It is expected to be one of the few homes in the world certified by both MINERGIE and Passive House Institute US.
While achieving the environmental sustainability requirements of the project, the home successfully maintains a rigorous form that responds to the client’s programmatic needs. Located on the southern slope of a mountain overlooking the Willamette Valley’s rich wine region, the Karuna House provides spectacular views of the hills and the town of Newberg, Oregon, below. Two towers anchor the Karuna House to the earth, marking the location of double-height spaces and vertical circulation.
Wood and glass volumes appear to alternately cling to and slide past the towers. These elements contain the living spaces, and are arranged to maximize views to the south and east while graciously separating social spaces from the private and guest spaces. Sited in an area famous for its rust-colored soil, the home’s exterior palette is composed of materials and colors that reflect the tones of its surroundings. The interior finishes cast a warm minimalism saturated in natural light, allowing the owner’s eclectic art collection to take center stage.
The super-insulated envelope is designed to be airtight. Solar heat gain is controlled through the use of exterior operable blinds that shade triple-glazed wood windows. Heating, cooling, and hot water are supplied by an efficient heat pump system, and a heat recovery ventilator provides the spaces with a continuous supply of fresh, preheated air. The home’s tight building enclosure is expected to result in the usage of 90% less heating and cooling energy than a typical home.
Karuna House’s client, a leading proponent of smart climate policy and sound land use, is pursuing the project as a case study to shed light on the ways that the leading green building certifications and standards complement and/or conflict with one another.
