Shan_WIP

Synthesizing Idiosyncrasies to Mend a Site_Phare Tower

Optimized skin
Both the form and the orientation of the building respond to the path of the sun; the south façade’s curvilinear double skin minimizes heat gain and glare, while the flat, clear-glazed north façade maximizes interior exposures to year-round natural daylight. A brise soleil wraps the tower’s continuous South, East, and West glazed façades. This double-membrane façade system improves both energy efficiency and worker comfort, by reducing the solar heat gain and minimizing glare, while maintaining panoramic views and affording natural light to the office spaces.

Truely NB Project

Pattern/Wave Research Laboratory in Groningen

UNStudio has designed a deceptively simple envelope constructed from flat, vertical aluminum slats, which, in places, are twisted outwards in bowed forms.

Pattern/Wave Missoni store in Los Angeles

The metalwork by Marzorati Ronchetti mirrors the seductive use of textiles by the historic Italian fashion house.

The building deploys intertwined aluminium sheets to cover a structure made of glass, steel and cement. The exterior creates the effect of a fabric which protects and adorns the interior, as a Missoni garment does to the body. The windows are reduced to steel insets which slice through the glass cover and enable you to look inside and out. The light filters through the weave from outside and through the numerous skylights to create a play of light and shade. At night the structure becomes a dazzling rectangular block, brought alive by interior lighting, and it projects a thick layer of shade interwoven into the surrounding area.

Julia Peyton - Jones_FEB 19 2008

Rem Koolhaas said that the serpentine gallery had to be "the most influential public art institution in the world per square metre." it's this shism - between the physical size of the serpentine gallery and its abstract size as a venue that thinks about expansion in very different and innovative ways.

it was the begenning of zaha's project (the tented structure that she designed for us), and like all good projects it didnt begin fully formed. it began as a pragmatic response to a situation the serpentine found itself in because the princess of wales, who was the patron of our renovation appeal, was due to come to the gallery for dinner and was killed three weeks before the event. vanity fair were the sponsors and, as you may know, they are extraordinarily good at giving parties. so when they stopped supporting the serpentine gallery we wanted to do something that was different, something resolutely about being a contemporary gallery showing contemporary art that challenged people and indeed our guests. so we invited zaha to design this extraodinary structure for our lawn, where people had dinner. but we treated it exactly like a commission, and the idea was that it would be up for three days. the serpentine has always done projects that can actually have an incredibly short duration, but that was never seemed to be a problem if they are specific. what happened then was that chris smith, the secretary of culture, media and sport, who attended the dinner, liked the structure so much that he insisted it stayed till the end of the summer.
the year after we explored the idea of what would happen if we did it again, and the team quite understandably felt that perhaps it was not a good idea to repeat these endeavours. consequently we left it very late to invite daniel libeskind..
i think i is incredibly difficult to read architecture models and drawings, and often if you see photographs they are astoundingly beautiful as images that tat in itself is a kind of fiction, and books are great but they are another sort of veneer, so that doesn't seem to really do. what does do, is to feel what it is like to be in the space, and what you can tell about an architect's work by being in the space. after all, artists do all kinds of exhibitions, just as architects don't design the same building all the time. (the pavilion)is such a simple premise, a sort of show-and-tell-really, and it is also the idea of a new wing for the institution. the exhausting thing about making a new building for art is that you do it all and then you have to have the programmes and exhibitions. and all that effort to make the structure fades so quickly and its over, whereas this retains freshness, and feels like a contribution of a very interesting about the way the public feels so comfortable with these structures. i mean the number of times i've seen people hovering outside the serpentine, peeping in, even thougn we don't charge admission, but with these things people seem to feel completely at home; the experience is so much more open and engaging and so much simpler. that seems to be an entirely good thing.