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Moving media façade illuminated “One Oceanâ€
September 17th, 2012
More than 8.2 million visitors traveled to Yeosu, South Korea, this summer to see Expo 2012 “The Living Ocean and Coast,” focused on a global vision for restoring sustainable life to the world’s marine environments. Participants from 100 nations discussed rising sea levels, the loss of biodiversity, acidification and pollution threatening seas and coasts in […]
Bries beach memoirs
September 1st, 2012
A seasonal Dutch club shows how to pack it up. By Mark Zeh Recently a new type of trendy nightclub/restaurant has appeared on the coast of Holland: the beach club. The words beach club normally evoke thoughts of summer heat, light dress and casual eating fare, so it seems anomalous to imagine such clubs situated […]
Fabric roof lets the light into school courtyard
September 1st, 2012
It “takes a village to raise a child,” and the school design selected by Coopers Edge Primary in Gloucester, England, included a Village Square for children to play and the greater community to assemble. The plan called for a covered courtyard that would “inspire and enable people, while energizing the community and enhancing [their] quality […]
Riding on the cloud of innovation
September 1st, 2012
Interview with Enric Ruiz-Geli of Cloud9 Architects By Marie O’Mahony Architect Enric Ruiz-Geli is a busy man. His highly acclaimed Media-TIC building in Barcelona’s 22@Barcelona district was given the World Architecture Festival’s World’s Best Building of the Year award in 2011. Most importantly it has finally put architecture membranes on the map as an energy […]
The dry campus: fabric shades help battle the heat
September 1st, 2012
In the arid climate of Arizona, a university battles the heat with fabric shades and a phalanx of sustainable design solutions. By Mason Riddle Given the record-breaking temperatures blanketing the United States over the past year, dismissing global warming as simply a cyclical climatological event is difficult. Even in Arizona. Thus, when Arizona State University […]
Let it rain: saving the rain with fabric
September 1st, 2012
Rainwater harvesting and fabric structures. By Samuel J. Armijos Fabric structures are often designed to protect one from harmful UV rays; however, they are more often designed to protect one from inclement weather (rain, wind and snow). Fully enclosed fabric roofs are used in Northern climates to increase their use where snow can cancel many […]
Optimizing wind and water: cooling tricks in Beirut
September 1st, 2012
The Charles Hostler Student Center at the American University of Beirut. By Frank Edgerton Martin In arid climate cities, the way people use architecture and urban space changes with the time of day. Fabrics for shading, screening and evaporative cooling can be part of sustainable strategies to make these microclimates more comfortable. Throughout the Middle […]
Fabric cones mark the entrance
September 1st, 2012
A trio of tensioned fabric cones marks the entrance of a New Delhi shopping mall. Women and children to the right, please; men to the left. Although the threat of terrorist attacks in public spaces is rare in the aggregate, over time enough have occurred that no country today can afford to ignore their possibility. […]
Florida dreamin’ with custom cabanas
September 1st, 2012
Keeping cool at the side of the pool is easy with these custom, yet simple, cabanas. Even the wealthy are watching their budgets these days; shorter “staycations” substitute for longer vacations and the international jaunt to exotic locales is replaced by back-road journeys to forgotten corners of the U.S. For instance, a visitor to Fort […]
Collecting their dews with an innovative fabric tower
September 1st, 2012
Architecture and Vision’s WarkaWater tower harvests H2O from thin air. By Judy Grover In the northern mountainous regions of Ethiopia, where there is very little rainfall, access to water requires several hours of walking to remote sources and hauling containers back to villages, with women and children doing most of the heavy lifting. To help […]