AD Futures #4: SPARC (archdaily.com)

By Amber P

HiDrone - 1st Prize Awarded London Architecture Gallery International Competition 2008

SPARC is a team of international architects at the MIT based in Boston, MA, with a multidisciplinary background at the MIT´s Media Lab. This has resulted on a continuous research on smart/responsive environments applied to the world of architecture, design, urbanism and landscape architecture.

This new relation between technologies and built spaces has opened a wide array of possibilities, that we are just starting to see. And that´s why I choose this practice for this week´s AD Futures.

Profile

SPARC, a team of architects at MIT, is a Boston based research practice dedicated to exploring the world of architecture, design, urbanism and landscape architecture through investigations of design techniques and material technologies with regard to their affect on global culture. We explore the relationships between the body and space through performative designs. SPARC’s commitment to design innovation has its foundation in the accumulative experience of its founders:

Sergio Araya, Architect, MIT
Orkan Telhan, Media Artist, MIT
Duks Koschitz, Architect, MIT
Alexandros Tsamis Architect, MIT

We work on projects at different scales ranging from object design to landscapes. We often collaborate with artists, designers and innovative consultants in the development of inventive solutions for multifaceted projects.

Research

SPARC’s research investigates methods to design and fabricate architecture with different levels of “embedded behavior” or responsiveness by combining different physical material properties of new designed “smarter” composites. This investigation is part of the fundamental interest of SPARC in exploring the relations between body and space through performative design, where designed material becomes an active interface between people and the built environment.

The process for distributing material properties is applied to explore the possibilities of embedding smart behaviors for built components. Aesthetics and function are implicated by this reorganization. SPARC contributes to the professional discourse and the industry, by providing a repertoire of design and building techniques.

HiDrone

1st Prize Awarded London Architecture Gallery International Competition 2008

HiDrone is an adaptable architecture gallery made of hydraulically operating pistons that are virtually and literally reconfigurable, filling and releasing water recycled from the Thames River. HiDrone has two states. When closed, it acts as a 3D screen. When open, it creates occupiable space. The piston operates distinctly at various scales ranging from display unit and furniture, all the way to enclosed, occupiable space. These pistons are pre-stressed with springs, which, when filled with water, assume a closed position. By controlling the amount of water released from the units, the volume of the object acquires different configurations.

In a closed state, the fiber optic light emitters act as voxels programmed to produce visual effects and 3D images for the city of London. In an open state, the pistons form floors, ceilings, and furniture depending on their configuration, creating variable spaces: a cafe, gallery, amphitheater, etc. Depending on the programmatic and climatic needs, the HiDrone is reconfigurable and reprogrammable throughout the course of the year, generating ephemeral public activity as it docks along the river’s edge.

Cutting Edge

1st Prize Awarded Gillette Landmark International Design Competition, 2009

Cutting edge is a sculpture made of 51 stainless steel “blades” stacked on top of each other. Cutting edge suggests an interplay between the materiality of the hard edges and the perception of soft volumes arrested in the metal structure.

Soft shapes emerge as a result of the moire effect created by repetition, and change their appearance when viewed from different vantage points. The repetitive use of “blades” is similar to the way Gillette has used the idea of repetition as a main part of its brand identity.

The proposed structure is made of laser-cut, polished stainless steel plates. Each plate is bent to its shape, polished and stacked in place using spacers made of cylindrical bolt assemblies. The cutting patterns will be generated by flattening the 3d geometry and will be provided by us to the executive party.

10 Best Architecture Songs

This is taken from Cesar Dubó's Flavor Wire (Flavorpill’s Blog). It shows the very best songs related to architecture. See if you agree, or add more of you favs:

1. “Government Center” by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
The only anthem to bureaucracy - and the architectural altar at which all lesser bureaucratic buildings worship, Boston’s Government Center- we’re aware of. Richman and Co. confirm that, even with “a lot of great desks and chairs,” the best way to animate a space is with a dance party.

2. “Don’t Worry About the Government” by the Talking Heads
Architecture as savior: “My building has every convenience, it’s gonna make life easy for me.” If the Bauhaus had a theme song, it’d be this one.

3. “Brick House” by the Commodores
Yes, architecture can be sexy. Brick houses might not really be the hottest buildings out there, but we admit it’s hard to rhyme anything with Guggenheim.

4. “Who Do You Love?” by Bo Diddley
That’s one creepy house.

5. “Norwegian Wood” by the Beatles
A song about hipster apartments, falling in love, and bad seating arrangements (hasn’t she heard of Ikea?).

6. “White Room” by Cream
A song about loneliness in a crowd and loneliness alone - and, OK, maybe cocaine? - this one moves between the train station and Clapton’s empty apartment.

7. “Little Room” by the White Stripes
The room in question is definitely a modernist affair. White walls, surely, with maybe a red-trimmed window in the corner. The song’s about how any room can be a prison, and how the grass isn’t always greener, real-estate-wise, no matter what Craigslist says.

8. “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
A love song to suburban domesticity. Bo-ring, but that’s the point.

9. “Mansion on the Hill” by Hank Williams
Architectural envy. Also a metaphor for McMansion soullessness, before it really existed.

10. “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash
The problem with architecture altogether: It doesn’t change, and when it’s bad, you’re stuck inside like Jonah. Outside on the train, “Those people keep a-movin’, and that’s what tortures me.”

Spiralling Skyscraper Farms for a Future Manhattan (Inhabitat.com)

by Mike Chino

As the world’s population continues to skyrocket and cities strain under the increased demand for resources, skyscraper farms offer an inspired approach towards creating sustainable vertical density. One of three finalists in this year’s Evolo Skyscraper Competition Eric Vergne’s Dystopian Farm project envisions a future New York City interspersed with elegantly spiraling biomorphic structures that will harness cutting-edge technology to provide the city with its own self-sustaining food source.

When considering the future needs of our cities, few urban designs address the world’s burgeoning population better than vertical farms. By 2050 nearly 80% of the world’s population will reside in urban centers, and 109 hectares of arable land will be needed to feed them.

Designed for the Hudson Yard area of Manhattan, Eric Vergne’s Dystopian Farm aims to provide New York with a sustainable food source while creating a dynamic social space that integrates producers with consumers. Based upon the “material logic of plant mechanics”, the biomorphic skyscraper is modeled after the plant cells of ferns and provides space for farms, residential areas, and markets. These organic structures will harness systems such as airoponic watering, nutrient technology and controlled lighting and CO2 levels to meet the food demands of future populations.

In addition to infusing dense urban areas with CO2-consuming green spaces, Vergne envisions the structures as dynamically altering the fabric of city life: “Through food production and consumption, this skyscraper sets up a fluctuation of varying densities and collections of people, bringing together different social and cultural groups, creating new and unforseen urban experiences that form and dissipate within the flux of city life.”

This year’s Evolo Skyscraper Competition resulted in an incredible crop of 416 projects from designers, architects, and engineers in 64 different countries. Their website currently lists the finalists, boiled down to three winners and 15 special mentions.

+ Dystopian Farm

+ Evolo Skyscraper Competition

Green Container Housing Demo in Thailand

Designers Site-Specific and Buatalah Studio were asked to design an exhibition around the theme of ‘Green Home Effects’ for a Bangkok home show. According to Site-Specific's website, "to build an earth-friendly house is not as simple as placing some solar panels on your roof."

What they came up with was the concept for exhibition that circled around the 4R’s - reduce, reuse, recycle and renewable. The model home featured many examples of earth-friendly living including the use of grey water, growing your own food and being car smart. It was constructed of 4 reused shipping container and prefabricated modules. The home was designed for the family of three and it is roughly around 100 sq.m. (~1000 SF)

The Designer, Site Specific, "is a research company founded by Chutayaves Sinthuphan to investigate who we are as human through the means of architecture and gastronomy," two topics dear to our hearts.

Judging by the posts on his site, he has been studying the container housing scene closely and has added a significant contribution to the genre.

More pictures and an excellent collection of container housing posts at Eco Living 101 - Model Home. Thanks to tipster and Bangkok architect Jay Laohapong.