ARCHITECTURE.

Fans of Vitra’s Home Collection will appreciate their new showroom in Weil Am Rhein, Germany. Designed by Jacques Herzon and Pierre de Meuron, the stacked structure beams eccentricity and quirky modernism.

Design Boom got a first look and discusses the concept: “The concept of the ‘Vitrahaus’ connects two themes which are occurring in the architectural practice of Herzog & De Meuron: the theme of the archetypal house and that of stacked volumes. the five-story structure is comprised of 12 ‘houses’ – five houses are set at the base in which seven other houses are stacked upon one another. Each of the structural volumes appear as if they have been shaped by an extrusion press and are cantilevered up to 15 metres in some places. The floor slabs intersect the underlying gables, resulting in a three-dimensional assemblage or ‘pile of houses’.” Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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PLACES TO SEE.

How do you take something old, decrepit and forgotten and make people pay attention? Lasers, apparently, are one solution. Mid-February, French lighting studio Creatmosphere set up high-powered lasers along Brighton, England’s skeletal West Pier, and brought new recognition to a struggling local landmark.

According to Fast Company: “Brighton, England’s 1,115-foot-long West Pier has had a tough run lately. Built in 1866, it closed in 1975 and was burned to a crisp by a series of fires in 2003 (arson, say the experts). Plans to rebuild it have been batted around for years, but they’ve always been too expensive.” Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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ARCHITECTURE.

Architects MVRDV wanted to bring an undersea experience to visitors at the 2012 World Expo in Yeosu, Korea. Their design, The Water Cube, is being proposed for the event. The focus of the upcoming expo is on the power and beauty of the ocean, and MVRDV wanted to approach the idea simply. They created the concept of a, “pure visible block” extracted from the ocean that aims to express the unmediated beauty and power of the sea. The prospect of staring straight into watery depths from the safety of dry land sounds intriguing, but we will have to wait until the 2012 Expo to find out. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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PLACES TO SEE.

Shoppers in Besiktas, one of Istanbul’s busiest districts, now have a new place to buy fish. Architects GAD recently completed a fish market to replace a popular, long-established venue that was in disrepair. The project team worked with local government and merchants to organize the strategy and goal, demonstrating a collaborative effort towards neighborhood revitalization.

The design began with the triangular shape of the market lot, which was translated into a concrete triangular slab that now drapes over six stainless steel vendor stands. Future plans for the market include using the underside and top of the shell as display space for artistic interventions. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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LEWIS’S FIFTH FLOOR

On the fifth floor of the landmark Lewis’s Department Store in Liverpool, an unlikely time capsule has been unearthed. Closed and untouched for almost 30 years, the floor has been revealed to house retro treasures. For example, there’s a 1950’s diner, a 70’s hair salon and creepy curiosities like a room full of dismembered mannequins. Artist Stephen King prompted the reopening of this forgotten space, and made it the basis of a commissioned photo series, interview project and book.

From the project website: “The fifth floor…was once a bustling hive of activity filled with staff and customers who recognised it as the epitome of leisure, style and shopping. It closed to the public in the 1980s. What remains is an evocative space complete with original period fixtures and fittings from the 50s, 60s and 1970s.” King’s photos are haunting, with a touch of humor. Loud, campy interior design clashes with the space’s aged weariness. A one-time provocateur of enthusiastic spending, the fifth floor is now an accidental monument to its own glory days.” Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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EASY READING.

Surfers, swimmers and sunbathers at Sydney’s Bondi Beach were recently surprised with the unexpected offer of a good book. In celebration of 30 years of their Billy bookcase, our favorite Scandinavian furniture superstore, IKEA, set up thirty Billy’s stocked with reading in the sand on a recent afternoon. Beachgoers were invited to take a book, and encouraged to swap one of their own, or make a donation to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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ARCHITECTURE.

Architects ECDM, compare the surface of their recently completed RATP Bus Center, in Thias, France, to a LEGO. And, although its bold colors do recall a children’s game, the project is one of thoughtful design for serious purpose. The center is located in the suburbs south of Paris, and controls all bus lines south and east of the city, meaning 300 buses and 800 drivers pass through it every day.

Combining notions of flux and movement with the minimalist starting point of a bus park, the architects constructed a “monolithic concrete slab” that appears to rise from the ground and coat the building, which is sheathed in Ductal®, a material that resembles asphalt. This use of material, “ensures a continuity of the ground from the road, to the skin of the façades, the suspended ceilings and the terrace rooftop without any rupture, proposing a merging between the building and its support to a point of confusion. The building has neither a beginning nor an end.” Just like the circuitous bus routes for which the center is origin, organizational locus and destination, all at once. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

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