For our annual outing, the Design Reality team have just (safely) returned from a day’s exploits in the treetops of Snowdonia. Looking at this flickr album you may wonder how… For more info. check out: http://www.ttadventure.co.uk/ - well worth a visit!!
Posted on August 13th, 2008 by Chris
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Architecture, our sister to product design, has the great ability to influence mood and is very good at drawing out reactions to surfaces, shapes and light. Something we perceive as beautiful or perhaps ugly can be greatly amplified due the shear scale of it.
There is much product design within architecture that is intriguing. The buildings nominated this month exhibit a wide range of use of materials, light, space all related to the design intent of the architect and users of that space.
The buildings nominated by the designers were the Fuller Building, the first multistory building to have a steel interior structure; The Kunsthaus Graz – a great expanding blob over the houses of Graz in Austria; Marina City in Chicago - with a 1km spiraling car park and fan shaped apartments; The Woodland Home here in Wales - built with materials from the surrounding woodland; The Art and Design School in Singapore with a floor to ceiling sloping grass roof.
Also nominated, we have The Louvre, for its capacity to encompass mass design styles under one name – it will take you a year to see the entire thing; 30 St Mary Ave (aka the Gherkin), for braving the London skyline and providing 360 degree views; the VW Factory in Dresden with it’s automated car storage tower; The Colosseum, Rome, for being one of the first pieces of architecture to be built for pleasure and fame. Finally the McLaren Technology Centre, which, being the HQ of McLaren should rumble excitement in your belly!
Spotlight positions were fought over riotously this month as all the nominations had a lot to offer in many different ways. There were point nominations flying all over driving down the vote to these top five . . .
1. In Joint first place are The McLaren Technology Centre in Woking and the VW factory in Dresden, Germany. The McLaren Technology Centre, from an aerial view, is a large jellybean shaped perimeter, glass and steel clad building. It was designed by Norman Foster Architects and is home to the Formula One team and McLAren Automotive where the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren is made. The VW factory in Dresden is home to one of the cleanest efficient car making lines of the 21st century. The cars are made and kept in storage for a very short time only to roll off at the end with minor tweaks for customers requirements straight into the showroom. More pictures of both of theses buildings are well worth checking out online for their full stories.
The McLaren Technology Centre, Woking
VW factory in Dresden - http://www.alvie.net/?p=117
2. The Woodland Home. A wonderful ecologically clean sample of what can be made with determination and local materials. It has an oak frame roof, straw bales in the walls and floor for insulation and lime plaster on the walls. The most amazing thing is it was built for £3000, and is therefore a prime example of what can be built with determination.
http://www.simondale.net/house/
3. The KunstHaus Graz. Constructed with an acrylic glass outer if the building doesn’t come to life in the day with its amorphous structure it certainly does at night. 930 fluorescent lamps are used within the eastern Plexiglass façade to animate scenes in the night sky. The big nobbles on top project north to collect and draw in day light. This is one structure to keep an eye out for.
4. The Colosseum. Built in Rome, as far back as 75, is one of the first buildings to be constructed for pleasure. Considering the colossal size of it and the lack of tools for physically building and mentally planning the structure, the Colosseum gets top marks in our book.
http://www.the-colosseum.net/idx-en.htm
Posted on July 11th, 2008 by Chris
Filed under: Architecture, Under the Spotlight - Our Top 5 product opinions | No Comments »
