Fun architecture
An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about fun architecture
Balancing Barn
The MVRDV project is built on a beautiful site by a small lake in the English countryside near Thorington in Suffolk. From the road, the barn is almost invisible; the front being only 7 metres wide, with a pitched roof, faces the long straight driveway approach, suggesting a small house with a traditional shape. The volume, however, has a length of 30 metres. At the midpoint it starts to cantilever over the descending slope; a balancing act made possible by the rigid structure of the building; resulting in 50% of the barn being in free space, and giving a wide view over the Suffolk landscape, adjacent lake and surrounding gardens. The long sides of the structure are well hidden by trees allowing privacy inside and around the barn. The exter... More
Project • By BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group • Exhibitions
EXPO 2010, DANISH PAVILION
The Danish pavilion does not only exhibit the Danish virtues. Through interaction, the visitors are able to actually experience some of Copenhagen’s best attractions – the city bike, the harbor bath, the playground and the picnic.
The bike is a popular mean of transportation and a national symbol – common to Denmark and China. In recent years, however, it has had a very different fate in the two countries. While Copenhagen is striving to become the world’s leading bike city, heavy motor traffic is on the rise in Shanghai, where the car has become a symbol of wealth.
At the Danish Pavilion we relaunch the bike in Shanghai as a symbol of modern lifestyle and sustainable urban development. The Pavilion and the entire exhibition can be... More
Project • By Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen • Exhibitions
In Orbit
A gigantic installation work by Tomás Saraceno, entitled “in orbit,” has been assembled in the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. At a height of more than 20 meters above the piazza of the K21 Ständehaus, Saraceno has suspended a net construction within which visitors can move, apparently weightlessly. This highly contemporary safety net, which covers altogether 2500 m², spreads itself out across three levels below the massive glass cupola of the K21. The levels are held apart from one another by a series of “spheres,” airfilled PVC balls measuring up to 8.5 meters in diameter.
“To describe the work means to describe the people who use it – and their emotions,” explains Tomás Saraceno concerning his largest installation to date, planned... More
Project • By Maurer United Architects • Commercial Landscape
Indemann
This watchtower with the shape of a gigantic robot has the exact same dimensions as the original Colossus of Rhodes, which was one of the seven classic wonders of the world. It provides views over the spectacle of the brown coal excavations that are transforming the landscape around the towers into one of Germany’s biggest lakes. The tower is constructed entirely from steel and refers to the industrial appearance of the enormous machines in the open cast mine. Transparent grid floors and metal fabric façades create a game of views and vistas. 40,000 LED lights have been incorporated in the metal fabric, which create a media façade on all sides at night. More
Project • By SO – IL • Exhibitions
Pole Dance
In this proposal for MoMAPS1 ’s Young Architects Program we take the opportunity to further contemporary explorations to create sensory-charged environments, rather than finite forms. Especially in the case of envisioning a temporary structure for the PS1 courtyard, which needs to perform two seemingly contradictory tasks (calming and carousing), a worthy proposition will need to consider the choreography of situations rather than object-making.
We designed a participatory environment that reframes the conceptual relation between humankind and structure. It consists of an interconnected system of poles and nets whose equilibrium is constantly affected by human action and environmental factors, such as rain and wind. Upon discovery of its... More
Project • By By Will Alsop • Exhibition Centres
THE PUBLIC
The Public represents a radical gesture for community architecture, born from the conviction that art and architecture can be catalysts for regeneration and renewal. On five principal levels, the building is intended to give great scope to exhibition designers, artists, educators and users of all kinds, while encouraging and challenging all users to work in innovative ways. The Public is intended to inspire new ideas from its creative users rather than simply make way for them. The building itself is a statement of its creators' belief in art, in the broadest sense, as a means to empower communities and individuals, and to permeate lives in surprising and beneficial ways.
Among its many functions, The Public hosts exhibitions of local an... More
Project • By By Will Alsop • Universities
THE SHARP CENTRE
A distinctive cultural force in Ontario, OCADU's impetus to expand comes with a growing recognition at national level of the contribution of the creative industries to Canada's modern economy. The decision to employ Alsop was based upon a significant track record in the design of cultural buildings of enduring effectiveness and appeal which also offered iconic representation of the client body as the school enters a new age.
Following the appointment, Will Alsop instigated a series of client workshops in which early concepts were developed with college staff and students. During this time, conventional ideas of teaching, learning and architecture were explored as the group sought to redefine their new college of art and design. The parti... More
Project • By MVRDV • Pavilions
Expo 2000 Pavilion for the Netherlands
The Netherlands could well be the prime example of a country that has always had to mould the environment to suit its will. It is a country that time and time again has won land from the sea. Perhaps now extra space will be found by expanding vertically.
Can increasing population density coexist with an increase in the quality of life? What should be the conditions and what role will nature play? Is not the issue here ‘new nature’, literally and metaphorically? This kind of effort can be the Netherlands’ specific contribution to the world fair, which seems to be devoted particularly to a nostalgic glimpse of ecology.
The Dutch entry shows a mix of technology and nature, emphasizing nature’s make-ability and artificiality. It provides... More
Sliding House
A NEW HOUSE FOR A RURAL SITE UNDER A BIG SKY...
The brief was a self-build house to retire to in order to grow food, entertain and enjoy the landscape. The site offered a combination of rolling England and agricultural Holland, restrained by stringent local Planning parameters for rural development. A genuine appreciation of vernacular farm buildings shared by architect and client/builder led to a manipulation of the local timber framed and clad 'shed' idiom.
The outcome is three conventional building forms with unconventional detailing, radical performance, and a big surprise. A linear building of apparent simplicity is sliced into three programmes; house, garage and annexe. The garage is pulled off axis to create a courtyard between... More