Ofis - Apartment Buildings

Some people do certain things well.

Ofis does multi-family projects well. Let's look at some.

Lace Apartments, Nova Gorica, Slovenia 2008 - 6500 sq. m.

Tetris Apartments, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2007 - 5000 sq. m.


Haystack Apartments, Carklje, Slovenia, 2007 - 7000 sq. m.

Inspiration for the cross-hatch facade:

Shopping Roof Apartments, Bohinj. Bistrica, Slovenia, 2007 - 7500 sq. m.


Apartments on the Coast, Izola, Slovenia, 2005 - 2800 sq. m.

Ordos 100

I have become aware of the Ordos 100 project from different sources over the past few weeks, and my mind is blown. Never before has there been such a massive project involving such a diverse and unified creative input as this. The Ordos 100 is a development in Ordos City in Inner Mongolia with around 1.4 million residents.

The project puts 100 different architects from around the world to work, each designing a 1,000 square meter (10,764 sq. ft.) villa. Herzog & De Meuron was in charge of the architect selection, and Ai Wei Wei of FAKE Design is the curator for the project. Once this is complete I'll be booking a trip over there ASAP.

Site Plan:
A few weeks ago I visited the Architecture League Exhibit while in New York City. They had 13 of the projects for the Ordos 100 on display including models, images, and some details and construction documents. (Exhibit closed 12/06/08) Some of them were really impressive, it'll be exciting to see these things built all in one neighborhood.

Some images I took:



Additionally, Arch Daily has recently put up a post on the Ordos house by Alejandro Aravena Architects. Image below:

Fun New Desktop Images with Picasa

Exploring my newly installed Picasa, I found the collage function which turned out to be a fantastic replacement for my desktop image. Take a bunch of your favorite photos, create a collage, and save the image. I cut out some so I could find my icons on the desktop easily.
Definitely beats the high-dpi single images I was using.

Some screen shots:

CNN.com Report -

A recent cnn.com article stated that Architects will experience job growth through 2016 and we have an average mean income of $62,246.

Not to be a debbie-downer, but won't the industry have to turn around, stop laying off people, and experience a billings increase in order to do this?

:-/

Marc Koehler - IJburg House

Amsterdam architect Marc Koehler's IJburg House caught my eye on Inhabitat this week. The ornamental brick facade not only looks great but acts as an underlayment for climbing plants to grow up.
A profile of Marc Koehler here including more projects.



I really like the black brick with blackish/grey mortar. I can't find this anywhere locally.

Kohler - The Bold Look of Wealth

You're an architect (some of you), what do you think of when you hear the word Kohler?

Kitchen and bath products. High end, pricey modern faucets, toilets, sinks, or even more standard economical styles. Right?

Let's take a look at the company Kohler. Beyond plumbing fixtures, they also have a furniture line, and engine & generator company, and a resort development company. They also founded a town, Kohler, Wisconsin, in 1912 and the nearby American Club Hotel & Golf Resort, a AAA Five Daimond Hotel.

The company was founded in 1873 making farming tools, and today the 3rd generation owner, Herbert Kohler, Jr., has a net worth just shy of $4 billion. He's the 105th wealthiest man in America according to Forbes. Not bad for a guy who sells toilets eh?

Pin Art Clock / Pin Screens

Slick. Must have.
Obviously a must have for others, supplier is out of stock.
$70.

The original Pin Art, $24.99 at amazon.com.

These guys have been experimenting with pin screen in limited architectural applications (mostly toy like big versions) check their blog also.



A pretty neat video on you tube, Pin Art Performance.

I think a larger table sized version that could 'lock' the pins into position would have tons of applications. Architectural site models. Permanent art for people to put on walls in their homes.

I'm incredibly amused by simple things.

Curiosity/Milligram Studio - C1 House

I saw this house in a blog post 2 years ago, and Arch Daily recently covered it. The C1 House by Curiosity / Milligram Studio in Tokyo.

Honestly one of the nicest, most cleanly done houses I've seen. I'd pay a premium to live here. I'd even pay to have a model of this house in my home.


Look at the floor thickness in the above photo. Instead of a typical flooring-over ply subfloor over-wood joist, or a floor over conc. slab, its simply flooring over 25mm steel slab. Rounds out to about 6cm thick. Roughly the length of your middle finger tip to the middle knuckle. Hot.

Plans & Axonometric: