Liz Dolinar: Looking Out Week 12

This is a furniture project by dbd Studio in Washington, DC. The storage unit is a wall installation and its organic form continues onto the ceiling. The form was created in Rhino and the physical pieces were CNCed birch plywood sheets. The bookshelf unit was made from a waffle system of notching. The bookshelf is not only functional storage, but an art piece that engages the hallway in a unique way.

Mark Terra-Salomão | Looking Out Week 6

For Looking Out Week 6, I thought it'd be appropriate to take a look at a project that, much like many of our bath house projects, combines concrete masonry units (CMUs) and wood.

This is a small shed for drying firewood constructed in Paesana, Italy, by StudioErrante Architteture.

The CMU walls were part of a previous shed. They were essentially used as a foundation for the new wooden structure. The outer wood planks are offset so as to let in the air required for drying firewood.

The shed also serves as a workshop and "refuge," and includes a small niche on its street-facing south facade that serves as a seat for people AND animals.

Moral of the story: No matter how hard you try, your first commission will always be a dog house.

I think ArchDaily provides a better description for this little gem than I ever could: "Details are basic. Definitions are literal. Reinforced concrete is used for base and wall. Wood for almost everything else: laminated wood for structure, burned chestnut for skin and roof, untreated chestnut for frames, plywood for inserts and niche, an old trunk became a step. A poor quality iron frame defines the door. In the end it's only a wall, a box with a niche, a door and its window, two pivots, a step and a handle. Almost nothing else."

For more information: http://www.archdaily.com/390343/wood-and-the-dog-studioerrante-architetture/.

Mark Terra-Salomão | Looking Out Week 5

For Looking Out Week 5, here is a good example of how computational design doesn't have to produce something super-high-tech but can instead start to infiltrate (and much improve!) small, everyday spaces at Earl's Gourmet Grub, an artisanal deli in Los Angeles, California, by Freeland Buck.

The materiality and color palette are meant to "evoke both technological refinement and the more rustic feel of alpine landscapes and Viennese cafes." The clients wanted their place to have a contemporary architectural identity that goes along with having computationally-designed elements, but also wanted to represent the "alpine freshness" (?) of their quality food.

Freeland Buck delivered.

Alpine Freshness

For more information: http://www.archdaily.com/67444/earl%E2%80%99s-gourmet-grub-freelandbuck/?ad_medium=widget&ad_name=selected-buildings&ad_content=67444.

Mark Terra-Salomão | Looking Out Week 2

For Looking Out Week 2, I decided to take a look at Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira. This cultural cousin of mine collects scraps and strips of junky plywood from construction sites in São Paulo, Brazil, and using some process I imagine is one part talent, one part wood glue, and one part black magic, melds them into sinuous sculptures. That's what many people - including me - find most fascinating about his work: he takes what we usually think of as a fairly two-dimensional planar material and through additive construction transforms it into a complex three-dimensional solid.

Here are just a few examples:

The guy's been doing this type of sculpture since at least 2003 and it is stunning. You should take a look at his website. The pictures I posted above are from Treehugger.com and, while crazy wonderful, do not capture the full extent of his work as shown on his website: Henrique Oliveira's Official Website.