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/

Carolina Tamayo | Looking Out Week 13

IBUKU Architecture focuses on bamboo as their primary material. Bamboo is very sustainable and strong and was used to create an amazing village in Ayung River Valley in Bali, Indonesia. It maintains the culture of its residence and a connection with its natural surroundings.

Link: http://www.blessthisstuff.com/stuff/living/living-space/ibuku-architecture/

Carolina Tamayo | Looking Out Week 12

This is the Chokkura Plaza by Kengo Kuma and Associates. It was design for an exhibition in Tochigi, Japan. It celebrates and plays with material and its assembly. In this case, the material is the Ooya stone characterized by its softness and porosity. The building functions as a community hall that has assembly spaces and galleries.

Link: http://www.architecture-page.com/go/projects/chokkura-plaza__all

Carolina Tamayo | Looking Out Week 9

314 Architecture Studio design this beautiful residential home in Athens, Greece.  It hovers over a pool to give the sense of sailing, which was inspired by the owners passion for yachts.

Link: http://aasarchitecture.com/2013/01/h3-house-by-314-architecture-studio.html

Alyssa Hamilton: Looking Out Week 15

Temppeliaukio Church ("The Rock Church") in Helsinki by brother Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen

The church looks like a spaceship landed from the outside but the inside is forgettable thank you're halfway underground and around ruins. Its about taking the old and capping it with the new (literally). Its use of wood, metal and stone give the very open space a lot of contrast and variety.

Carolina Tamayo | Looking Out Week 7

It is interesting how wood is automatically associated with nature and the outdoors. Famous stores like REI use wood feature as a way to advertise their stores.  An example is one store here in Pittsbutgh.

Link : http://gearjunkie.com/black-friday-at-rei

Carolina Tamayo | Looking Out Week 6

Wood Home in Sao Paulo, Brazil designed by Marcio Koban. The wooden facade opens up into an exterior courtyard. 

Link: http://www.trendir.com/house-design/innovative-brazilian-architecture-concrete-house-with-folded-wood-walls.html

Chandler Archbell: Acoustics through the art of poetry

Sound.

A manifestation of itself,

it forms through waves

within the air.

Pressure changes

and deviates from the average

like hipsters in the streets.

They cause a motion,

they make a noise.

Chandler Archbell, 2014

As this prolific poem accurately explains, sound is the product of waves caused by rapid variations of pressure in the air.  These waves push and pull on air molecules, forming what are called compressions and rarefactions (similar to the peaks and troughs of normal waves).  Sound waves coming from a source either go directly into the listener's ear or reflect off surfaces and create reverberation.  Reverberation is a stream of continuing sound created when sound waves constantly reflect off surfaces after the original sound is produced.  The reverb time is the amount of time it takes for the frequency of reverberations to drop below perception level.  Because of their size, concert halls and theaters usually have a long reverb time.

Acoustic panels work best when they don't have any cover or finish that interferes with the acoustical infill or substrate.  They should be positioned to allow the sound to reflect evenly throughout the theater.  Here's a helpful image:

This sexy wood is brought to you by the National Theater of Bahrain.  The architects used wood due to its acoustically reflective surface, which allows sound to spread easily throughout the large space.  The shape of the interior shell also directs sound where it needs to go.  The theater space is also completely soundproof, and it exists as a separate entity from the rest of the building.

Dat separation.