Bollens | Looking Out Week 14

This furniture with 3D printed joinery by Studio Minale-Maeda combines the disciplines of hand and digital craft. It is interesting that the joinery allows for the wood to be simply slotted to create rigid furniture structure. Another thing to note about this ingenious and attractive design is the ease with which it can be assembled and taken apart for both storage and transportation.

Carolina Tamayo | Looking Out Week 15

This is a renovated home was designed by Carlos Delpin and his wife Eneida Nunez. It is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The architects maintained the original Spanish tiles but added new lighting features like the three skylights in the ceiling. They describe the experience of the house as "living with a light show."

Link: http://www.trendir.com/house-design/puerto-rico-architecture-authentic-remake-of-a-modern-puerto-rican-residence.html

Carolina Tamayo | Looking Out Week 14

Now that we are so close to the end I am starting to miss my home.  This is the Natatorio located in my town's local College, UPR  in Mayagüez. It was designed by Fuster + Partners Architects. It was started in 2007 and completed in 2010. They constructed this new natatorium for Centroamericano Olympics in 2010.

Link: http://www.archdaily.com/198498/natatorio-fuster-partners-architects/

Alyssa Hamilton: Looking Out Week 14

The Chapel of Silence, Kamppi
This building is about looking inward and pondering. Its use of light and lack of windows emphasizes this. The use of wood is supposed to give a warm, comfortable, and peaceful setting for ceremonies.

Liz Dolinar: Looking Out Week 14

This is the interior of the Albert Reichmuth Wine Store in Zurich. It was designed by OOS Architects and is constructed from wooden transport crates that hold the wine bottles. The interior consists of 1500 of these crates which create a system for displaying and storing the wine and even seating for guests. The push and pull of the crates on the wall creates a very visually dynamic space, which engages visitors with the open display of products, as well as creating interesting conditions where the boxes continue on the ceiling and floor (to create seats/benches). The architects claim that the crates create a "cave-like environment," but I disagree. I think that the result of the blended architecture, furniture, and display case is playful, light, open, and engaging.

Danielle Lehmann: Looking Out Week 14

 This week I found a company called RPG. They specialize in acoustic paneling primarily with wood. Their "Expo Panel System" caught my eye because of one image with what seemed like random holes in the wood (first picture below). On RPG's website, they explain that they used a computer program with a binary system in order to balance absorption, reflection and diffusion of sound. The panels at 5/8" thick and are actually fire rated. You can also add additional materials to the back of the panels in order to affect the absorption, reflection and diffusion differently depending on the function you need it for (you need this extra material because perforated walls tend to produce a "lobing" effect which is when there are two sources of sound and their frequencies "crossover" and produce distorted sounds - the binary system that they use also helps decrease possible lobing).

[ I also chose this product this week because last semester for the "civic center" project I focused on produce a space where people with "disabilities" can go and understand the environment just as well as someone else who was "fully capable". The holes in the walls reminded me a braille and how that wall could become multi-functional - it could be used to communicate something to blind people while also controlling the acoustic reverberations. Second Image. ]