Chandler Archbell: Looking Out Week 3

This is ARC, a project by Bernaskoni Architects in Russia.  This large structure made entirely out of 6-meter long boards of wood, allowing the architects to accomplish a waste-free building.  It serves not only as a shelter, bar, and artists space, but also as a portal from forest to field.

This project shows that interesting forms and effects should not be compromised by material limitations.  Although the architects were limited to only one material, they used it to their advantage and created a cost-effective, green structure with a powerful effect.

Carolina Tamayo | Looking Out Week 3

Sometimes the old can merge with the new.  Lamellux develops a creative way of designing walls. They use wood, a traditional panelling system, and merge it with contemporary materials to create a unique and interesting modern wall.

Link:
http://www.ispacedesign.com/tasteful-inspirations-of-creative-designer-wall-panelling-from-lamellux/

Alyssa Hamilton: Looking Out Week 3

So this guy is crazy. He takes old encyclopedias and with some surgical tools spend hours making awesome art. Not architecture but pretty damn impressive.

Matt Porter Looking Out Week 3

Hello Wood is an international art program focusing on the use of wood across various disciplines. Each year a one week long intensive design studio camp is held to create a series of installations of various themes. Their portfolio is pretty impressive and brings to mind the process we used in designing and building our hoop houses.

HelloWood's Website and Portfolio

A video from last year's camp


Their work examines the intersection between functional and aesthetic value in a way relevant to most architectural practices. As students, the participants are able to become advocate/explorers for their practice and the power of architectural interventions to change the way people perceive both their environments and the general material possibilities of wood itself.

Candace Ju | Looking Out...Weeks 3, 4, and 5 :)

Week 3
This project was completed by Simpson and Brown Architects and is called the Chapel of St. Albert the Great. It is located in Edinburgh Scotland and celebrates the use and uniqueness of different materials. The masonry walls add to the existing palette, and uses thin oak slats to generate an acoustic form on the interior of the space. http://www.designboom.com/architecture/simpson-and-brown-architects-complete-the-chapel-of-st-albert-the-great-12-28-2013/

Week 4
This project, The METLA Forest Research Centre by SARC Architects, is located in Joensuu, Finland. almost everything in this building is constructed out of wood, in various forms. It exploits the generosity of the material and the various forms it allows. It's quite impressive to see wood used in so many ways in the same building.  http://www.archdaily.com/15951/metla-forest-research-centre-sarc-architects/

Week 5
Industrial designer Lorenzo Buffa designed a collection of minimalist Analog Wooden Watches. It was intended to be worn by both genders and is truly an innovative use of wood.  http://design-milk.com/analog-wood-watches-by-lorenzo-buffa/

Looking out: RAA-Corinth Hut

The Corinth Hut is one of several small wooden structures designed by RAA for Aqua Metropolis Osaka Event. The design is based on the ideas of geometry and folding. Its form provides a frame to view the city through. 

Kayla Quinn: looking out week 3

Elisa is a design student from Manoteco (an design school in Bologna Italy). She is studying furniture design and loves to build using old doors, furniture and cabinets. She created this piece called "outdoor". It can be used for an eight person table or for work/desk station. The pieces can be opened or lifted up to reveal fabric sleeves to hold any range of work from art supplies to papers for the office to children's toys and a please to hold a high school  textbook. The additional "sleeves" were added to the door completely not just cut out so that the door can still work as a functional table.

Danielle Lehmann: Looking Out Week 3

After severe storms and winds, there are occasionally some fallen trees. These poor souls are usually just sent to the wood chipper if they snap in the wrong place. Jurgen Bey has looked at these fallen warriors in a different way though. He took a tree trunk that would have otherwise been "recycled" and made it into an intriguing peace of furniture. Beys took broken chairs and removed the backs of these otherwise pieces of junk and painted them a sleek bronze color before attaching them to the tree trunk.

This is a beautiful example of the transformation of chairs of the period of thousands of years. A fallen tree (or rock therefore) may have been a perfect bench or chair. With the backs of our common chairs made of plastic or metal there is an interesting mix of materials that is unique and yet very simple.

Beys refuses to sell and ship his piece of art - for obvious reasons.

Liz Dolinar: Looking Out Week 3

Livraria Lello is a bookstore in Porto, Portugal, designed by architect Xavier Esteves. Built in 1906, it's exterior is neo-gothic, but it's inside the shop that the woodworking magic happens. A grand staircase occupies the middle of the shop, with beautiful wooden bookcases all around. The bookstore is covered with ornate carvings and fantastic examples of woodworking.

Looking Out Week 3: Madhura Kharche

Sou Fujimoto Architects designed this wooden house in Japan in 2006. The idea was to stack 350mm square logs of wood in a random manner and make spaces that work ergonomically and experientially, on different scales.

The versitality of lumber is what made it possible to use this one 350mm unit to make an entire house. It was possible to use the same unit in various ways to make ceilings, foors, steps, walls and even furniture.

Gary Li: Looking Out Week 3

We have lost touch with our primitive roots in how we immediately jump to technology wherever it is available. Wood is no longer hand-carved and instead carved by a programmed machine. Sure machines are more accurate, more time efficient, and simpler to make. However the imperfections made by human hands, in my opinion, should be more valuable than the perfection by a machine. Seeing imperfections within a piece makes one wonder how something was made. Respect to those who still hand-carve.

Here are a few hand-carved pieces by Aleph Geddis. 

Mark Terra-Salomão | Looking Out Week 3

For Looking Out Week 3, I decided to look at scale and craftsmanship.

This is Mr. Chuck Hoggarth, a former employee of Ford Motor Company and now just a guy from Taylor, Michigan, who builds massive models of construction vehicles. 

Notice the badass tattoo. 

I'll let his work speak for itself.

Everything in this model works, including the tracks.

This whole trailer model is twelve feet long.

Read more here: http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Hoggarth.htm