Looking Out: Week 6 (NICOLAS GOMEZ)

This Wood Block House by Tadashi Yoshimura Architects showcases an interesting implementation of wood as an interior element. Behind the exterior facade made out of glass and stone, a basket-like wooden texture of timber envelops the interior spaces.

This structural shear, as the architects call it, is easily assembled and stacked. The fact that this does not require skilled workers makes it a very accessible design element for many architects.

nicolas gomez, check out that wood! week 4

This piece is called the "Reading Nest" and it was created by Mark Reigelman in Cleveland, Ohio. Made out of over 10,000 discarded and reused wooden boards, the structure is meant to symbolize growth, community, and knowledge while serving as a "visual intermediary between forest and fowl" (The Reading Nest, Ignant.com description).

What interests me about this work is how it attempts to understand the natural process of a bird nest and mimick it with discarded wood. Creating a certain order and clarity through the disorder of the wooden planks makes the project a different approach to wooden construction that usually tends to be more structured and organized.