Hotson Poetry

Skyhouse by David Hotson Architect

Photos by Eric Laignel

The unique four level penthouse apartment is situated atop of one of New York City’s earliest steel skyscrapers built in 1896. It was completely re-designed by Hotson Architect, in collaboration with interior design studio Ghislaine Vinas Interior Design. The penthouse features an amazing polished steel slide that spans from the attic to the entrance floor, so great.

"All of the spaces of this residence exploit its situation above the Manhattan cityscape with vistas channeled through all four levels of the penthouse structure at a range of scale to capture framed views of iconic structures in the surrounding three-dimensional cityscape. While the true nature of these spaces can only be revealed to a visitor encountering them in the experienced present, the images re-presented here provide a glimpse of the experience of this house in the sky above the city of New York.”

AMO/OMA Poetry

Real Fantasies Fall/Winter 2012 by AMO/Prada 

This is an interesting crossovers between architecture and fashion, a new collaboration AMO and Prada. "Real Fantasies" is a vision of the future of fashion as a retrofitted past, a collage of jagged geometries and dystopian society!

Zumthor Pavilion

Serpentine pavilion 2011, planting design - walter herfst

Peter Zumthor spoke with Bloomberg's Farah Nayeri about his Serpentine Gallery pavilion in London, a temporary structure. He hopes his rectangular enclosure will send visitors into a state of quiet contemplation. " I do what I think would be beautiful. A building where the center is not given to the people, but to the plants, and you gather around it. Everything in the world at the moment has to do with economy, money, how do we perform, how do we put up a front and so on. This is meant to be the opposite: an island where we can be ourselves. Let’s see whether this works, huh? (...) My buildings should have an emotional core - a space which, in itself, has an emotional nice feeling. I think space, architectural space, is my thing. It’s not about facade, elevation, making image, making money. My passion is creating space. This is, of course, a beautiful space, where you come in and see the space opens again, up to the sky. What more do you want?"

JR Poetry

The photographer JR presents his ephemeral installation ‘Women are heroes’ on the walls and bridges of the Île Saint Louis, in Paris. The women's eyes look everywhere. Listen to the reactions of the improvised visitors of this original exhibition.

Eames Poetry

Portavilion Rosy

Rosy- the ballerina- is a bubble-pavilion that will tour in green spaces of London from May to September. The Portavilion will host various events including architecture events and performances for the London Festival of Architecture. This Translucent bubble is a project of Art & Architecture collective Raumlaborberlin based in Berlin, they have been experimenting with "bubbletecture" since 2006. The membrance inflates created a temporary social space, providing a nomadic, inside/outside space in which people can perform debate.

all images © Portavilion 2010

Cecil Balmond Element

At the Tokyo Opera city art gallery Cecil Balmond is presenting his work on architectural new geometry. The intention of the work is focused on how architecture is displayed to the audiences. He choose an informal organisation to create a freedom of interpretation for the visitor. In this site the user can have the time to think of his own body, rather than seeking out new knowledge. Balmond's designs is dynamic, original and complex creating the surprise of new experiences of spaces. Danzer is a three-dimensional puzzle of fractal forms, from the shape of coastlines to the branching of trees.

all images © tony erapuro.

Dennis Oppenheim Poetry

Safety Cones, 2007. Park avenue, rendering.Device to root out Evil, 1997. Vancouver.

Storefront for Art and Architecture will host a lecture and book launch by Dennis Oppenheim, today at 7pm. People will be able to discover Public Projects, published by Charta, which includes a conversation between Vito Acconci, Liam Gillick, Aaron Betsky - Director of the Slought Foundation- and Dennis Oppenheim. Following the talk the artist will encourage discussion, maybe about the project of a country church balancing on it’s steeple, as if it had been lifted by a terrific force and brought to the site as a device of rooting out evil forces.

Public Projects, book launch.

Termite Pavilion

The Termite Pavilion explores «insect-human interactivity» during the Pestival in London. The structure is based on a scan of a Namibian termite mound and scaled it up to a size which would allow humans to move through it. The piece is six cubic metre structure is built up of 51 layers of CNC-cut laminated spruce, for reasons of sutainability and cost. It’s a collaboration between Softroom Architects, Freeform Engineering, Atelier One, Haberdashery London, Chris Watson and Pestival.

SANAA Pavilion

SANAA designed the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009. This architectural event is one of my favourite because it brings Japanese construction into the European scene and this is always really inspiring. SANAA expressed through this project, made from polished aluminium, their idea of the relation between nature and art : the park becoming inside, transparency, fluidity of movement, human scale and reflections creating instantly a "painting". Nishizawa said, "We started out with non-architectural ideas such as water, the rainbow and leaves to create the space. This is how we came up with the organic shape for the roof."

Sejima and Nishizawa, working collaboratively since 1995 from their Tokyo practice SANAA, presented a selection of projects such as the New Museum of Contemporary Art constructed in downtown Manhattan, the Glass Pavilion Toledo in the Museum of Art, the 21st Century Museumn Kanazawa, Louvre Lens and various housing projects. Until September you can enjoy the Pavilion during Park Nights to merge inside of this reflective atmosphere always offering different perception. This will bring the best way to experiment this unique architecture manifesting simplicity and complexity.

Ryue Nishizawa & Kasuyo Sejima of SANAA talk-
Catherine Vieira