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Posts Tagged ‘Concrete’

Brutal London: Paper Miniatures of Concrete Architecture

14 Feb

[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

brutal london 1

Rendered in minute detail right down to curtain colors, satellite dishes and graffiti, these paper miniatures mimic London’s iconic Brutalist buildings, including the Balfron Tower and Space House. Two housing blocks that have been at least partially demolished are among the 3D cut-out models celebrating and preserving these oft-maligned concrete structures.brutal london 2

brutal london 3

Zupagrafika design studio carefully studied each building, taking photographs from all angles to capture the smallest details. The collection of five models is available for €5 each at their webshop, arriving in a flat pack so you assemble the components yourself. The kits include short notes on the architects, the year of construction and the location of each building.

brutal london 4

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The studio previously created paper cut-out models of modernist buildings in Warsaw as well as notable elements of the urban fabric throughout Poland that were first designed in the ’60s or ’70s, including advertising columns, cars, traffic lights and ticket validators.

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Brutalist architecture is one of the 20th century’s most controversial styles, criticized for being too cold and confrontational and nearly always made of raw concrete. Maybe it’s not for everyone, but anyone with a soft spot for its harsh angles and unapologetically utilitarian nature can now create their own little cityscapes on a table or shelf.

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Paper Architecture: Intricate 3D Sculptures by Ingrid Siliakus

Amsterdam-based artist Ingrid Siliakus cuts and folds sheets of paper into dazzlingly detailed three-dimensional buildings and cities.
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Paper Art Landscapes: Lace-Like 2D Wall Architecture

Paper artist Laura Cooperman creates delicate, intricate landscapes inspired by the architecture she has seen in her travels to places like Beijing.
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Beyond Brutalism: Creative Modernist Concrete Architecture

Concrete construction has been used at least as far back as the Roman Empire. In the modern age, the overuse of concrete has created a mixed reputation (no pun …
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Concrete Retreat: 100 Sq Ft Home in WWII Dutch Defense Bunker

06 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

bunker house underground design

Sleek and multi-functional custom wood, glass and steel elements are set against a little-modified industrial concrete and metal backdrop in this stunning subterranean conversion project, turning a dilapidated war bunker into a cozy contemporary vacation dwelling.

bunker house entry door

bunker house glass metal

bunker bunk beds view

With strategic insertions, additions and slight modifications by B-ILD (photography by Tim Van de Velde), efficiency was paramount in the transformation of this tight space into a retreat that easily sleeps four (or more if need be).

bunker house living sleeping

bunker house bunk beds

bunker dining room

bunker house floor plan

Bunked beds allow sitting during the day and help stack sleepers vertically at night, all with sliding drawer space below, while stools double as coffee tables, night stands or steps as needed – no piece of furniture has only one use.

bunker house concrete wood

bunker house exterior deck

Board-formed concrete and rusted metal add texture and character to the interior, a defunct coastal defense outpost, contrasting on the outside with a floating wooden exterior deck space for relaxing and entertaining.

bunker house door detail

bunker house minimal kitchen

bunker kitchen

A bare-bones kitchen along the entry hall features basic plumbing and cooking accessories, all tucked up against the wall with the bare minimum necessities included for simple meals and cleaning.

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Fossilized Retreat: Log Cabin Remnants Recast in Concrete

Using the existing logs from a previous cabin structure as formwork, this retreat manages to retain the scale and textures of its predecessor in a …
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Suburb-Terranean: 70s Bunker Home Simulates Day & Night

It is a dream home like any other of its era, with brick walls, sliding doors, stock windows and shingle roofs as well as a lawn, garden, trees and pool. The …
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Hunker in the Bunker: 15 Cool Converted Concrete Shelters

A symbol of war and fear, disused bunkers are transformed into modern buildings with positive uses. These 15 recycled bomb shelters are now homes, hotels & …
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Photocatalytic Concrete: Air-Cleaning Building Absorbs Smog

27 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

smog canopy forest inspired

Featuring 100,000 square feet of smog-filtering surface area, this structural facade will break down harmful oxides in sunlight to improve air quality all around it.

smog absorbing building design

The building, designed by Italian firm Nemesi & Partners, is being created for an exposition in Milan themed around planet-friendly sustainable designs.

smog sucking facade exterior

The amorphous and organic form is both a reference to trees and other types of air-purifying plants but also a way to provide a maximum amount of exposed surface.

smog building interior shadows

Like a forest, this facade will cast complex shadows and provide shade in and around the building. Its form references both nature and man-made land art.

smog converting architectural facade

Rooftop solar panels tucked out of view will add a further but less-visible green dimension, generating electricity for the building below.

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Algae-Fueled Building: World’s First Bio-Adaptive Facade

Bio-reactors and micro-algae sound like the stuff of science fiction, but this is the real deal: biomass built into panel glass on an actual working structure.
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Building Eraser: Smart Robot Scans & Deconstructs Concrete

Whether the building is a bare-bones warehouse or five-star hotel, demolition is an equally messy business – but perhaps it does not have to be. What if …
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Fossilized Retreat: Log Cabin Remnants Recast in Concrete

Using the existing logs from a previous cabin structure as formwork, this retreat manages to retain the scale and textures of its predecessor in a …
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Fossilized Retreat: Log Cabin Remnants Recast in Concrete

19 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

concrete cabin cast shell

Using the existing logs from a previous cabin structure as formwork, this retreat manages to retain the scale and textures of its predecessor in a dramatically modern new building.

concrete cast remnant detail

Nickish Sano Walder Architects sought to preserve elements of this Graubünden, Switzerland holiday home, leaving visible the voids left by rounded horizontal wood walls, circular depressions of crossbeams and infilled chimney sticking out the top. Those familiar with the work of Rachael Whiteread may recognize this radical approach previously applied in an artistic context.

concrete cabin snow context

A description from the designers: “From a distance Refugi Lieptgas looks like a traditional wooden hut. Taking a closer look you will actually find that this cabin is made of concrete. The old barn that stood here previously characterises the appearance of the new building. By using the logs of the block construction as a formwork for the concrete a fossilized version of the old barn has been created. An unusual holiday home for two people – both romantic and modern.”

concrete cabin wood door

On the exterior, the only piece of wood visible is a newly-installed front door which serves as a stark contrast to its cement-colored surroundings. Inside, light wood trim is set against gray interior concrete and exterior stone.

concrete stone interior bath

concrete cabin modern interior

concrete stone shape design

Love it or hate the new incarnation, the previous structure literally left its impression on this replacement, all without leaving a physical trace in the form of its actual materials. Alas, the former life of the building is less visible on the inside – a missed architectural opportunity, perhaps.

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Indestructable Cabin: Steel-Clad Apocalypse Home on Stilts

Steel shutters and sliding doors turn this award-winning lofted cabin into an ultra-secure shelter on demand, while stilts raise it up and help protect it from …
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Norway Mountain Cabin Roof Doubles as a Ski Slope

The architecture firm Fantastic Norway designs a very remote mountain getaway cabin that’s sloped to allow winter sports on top, like skiing and sledding.
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House of Glass: Cabin Facade from Antique Window Frames

On an unusual kind of cross-country road trip, this couple visited garage sales, antique dealers and added these to other roadside finds, all toward the quest …
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Magic Cement: Hidden Concrete Patterns Appear with Water

27 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

water activated concrete decor

The writing is on the walls, but only when they get wet – that is when the secret messages or hidden designs appear in these seemingly innocuous concrete surfaces, like a durable and built-in version of Neverwet graffiti.

water time lapse reveal

The project is called Silent Poetry and its creators, Frederik Molenschot & Susanne Happle, have started with a high-contrast approach: organic forms hidden in strict geometric slabs, but any other patterns are equally compatible with the approach.

water applications cement design

water hidden cement pattern

The underlying magic-caliber, moisture-sparked trick works whether the material is drizzled on by the rain, doused in running water, touched by steam or impacted by condensation on a hot and humid day, making for innumerable creative possibilities both inside and outdoors.

water reveals secret patterns

Picture a public sidewalk, parking lot or city center on the one hand or a private walkway or concrete-tiled bathroom on the other. But also consider the range of applications from wayfinding in urban settings to domestic decorations on front decks or walkways that appear with the morning dew, using either modular precast tiles or larger poured-in-place slabs.

water pavement art design

water revealing floral repetitive

From the designers: “The possible applications of solid poetry are various: either at home in the bathroom, in the garden, in saunas and dance clubs, where the humidity is high or public spaces like bus stops or pavements. All forms of solid poetry have in common that they change the whole setting; they are surprising and have a life of their own.”

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Walk on Water: Hydro-Floors Hide Secret Swimming Pools

Pools displace space. But what if you could have the best of both worlds: a usable space or surface replaced by a body of water when you want it?
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5 Stunning Modern Secret Rooms, Hidden Doors & Passages

In some cases the discovery of a secret room is a wonderful find but it can also be a twisted nightmare.
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Building Eraser: Smart Robot Scans & Deconstructs Concrete

Whether the building is a bare-bones warehouse or five-star hotel, demolition is an equally messy business – but perhaps it does not have to be. What if …
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Indoor Skydiving Inside Concrete Silos & Cargo Containers

03 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

converted concrete skydiving center

Take your pick between a pair of once-abandoned silos: one lets you explore nearly 100 vertical feet of underwater space with hidden caverns, while the other suspends you in virtual free fall, riding air currents in a cylindrical wind tunnel.

converted cargo shipping containers

While those two primary volumes form the core experience of this conversion project, a series of shipping containers (stacked ten stories high) surrounding these structures will provide support and circulation spaces. Warsaw studio Moko Architects aims to start construction in just over one year on this ambitious project, set in the city’s industrial district.

converted concerete silo section

The modified cargo containers additions are designed to contain offices, shops, a cafe and hostel as well training rooms or sports outfitters for visitors. These stacked  attachments will be form a dynamic array and be connected via staircases spanning between the central cylinders. As they slip past one another in space, outdoors decks are formed organically as well on various roof levels within the vertical design configuration.

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Indoor Skydiving Inside Concrete Silos Cargo Containers

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Building Eraser: Smart Robot Scans & Deconstructs Concrete

17 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

building deconstructing robotic system

Whether the building is a bare-bones warehouse or five-star hotel, demolition is an equally messy business – but perhaps it does not have to be. What if demolition teams could precisely separate the component parts of the concrete forming the walls, floors and ceilings of a structure?

building erasing robot design

ERO is an award-winning robotic solution that strips concrete on-site and step-by-step, saving time, energy and copious amounts of water (used to reduce airborne particulates) in the deconstruction process. It parses the pieces back into cement, aggregate and water as it goes, literally erasing a building rather than demolishing it.

building demolition robot

The robot scans sections and identifies the best ways to break them down into constituent parts for reuse or recycling. This approach switches the literal sledgehammer with a proverbial scalpel – the latter taking the form of a concentrated high-pressure water jet that cracks the concrete and allows it to be more carefully removed.

building deconstruction smart system

In the end, the graywater is reused, the particulates turned into aggregate for fresh construction applications and the rebar cleaned and sorted as well. This systematic recycling saves materials not just for future uses but also reduces waste along the way by mitigating the need to actively blanket the building demo site with water and saves time in terms of sorting through the rubble.

building compact eraser robots

From the  2013 International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) awards page: “The challenge with this project was to separate materials concurrent with deconstruction. Concrete is usually reinforced with a metal mesh inside. Common techniques involve using brute force to pulverize the concrete, which creates a mixed mound of waste material that needs to be separated before it can be reused or sold as second-grade metal or as a filling material. In order to overcome later separation and ease the transport of materials, the process had to start with separation on the spot. It was a challenge to switch from brutal pulverizing to smart deconstruction.”

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