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Posts Tagged ‘Pipe’

Solar-Powered Pipe to Desalinate 1.5 Billion Gallons for California

29 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

coastal water purifying pipe

Designed to address the pervasive drought and long-term water problems of the West Coast, The Pipe is an offshore water purification plant that combines sustainable energy, public works and experiential architecture.

solar pipe

A finalist of the 2016 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition, focused on projects around the Santa Monica Pier, the solar-powered Pipe filters brine and channels drinking water to the adjacent city. Saltwater is returned to the Pacific Ocean. Khalini Engineers, a Canadian company, employed an electromagnetic desalination system for their entry, driven by energy from the sun (10,00 MWh/year). With that power and overall system capacity, the Pipe could produce 1.5 billion gallons of fresh potable water annually.

pipe interior

“The sustainable infrastructure that is required to meet California’s development goals and growing population will have a profound influence on the landscape, ” say Rob Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian, co-founders of the Land Art Generator Initiative. “The Paris Climate Accord from COP 21 has united the world around a goal … which will require a massive investment in clean energy infrastructure.”

technical

“Above, solar panels provide power to pump seawater through an electromagnetic filtration process below the pool deck,” writes the design team, “quietly providing the salt bath with its healing water and the city with clean drinking water. The Pipe represents a change in the future of water.”

pipe view

“What results are two products: pure drinkable water that is directed into the city’s primary water piping grid, and clear water with twelve percent salinity. The drinking water is piped to shore, while the salt water supplies the thermal baths before it is redirected back to the ocean through a smart release system, mitigating most of the usual problems associated with returning brine water to the sea.” In addition to its primary functions, The Pipe also represents an aesthetically pleasing offshore object that would change viewer’s conceptions of near-coastal rigs, conventionally associated with oil production.

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Pipe Dreams: 15 Totally Tubular Scaffolding Creations

18 May

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

scaffold stairs `

Though typically seen as eyesores obscuring architecture and blocking sidewalks, scaffolding is more than its most basic function, with its modular network of pipes reclaimed for parasitic architecture, temporary pavilions, retail displays and sculptures. In fact, repurposed scaffolding is practically free, easy to assemble and surprisingly versatile, and it’s been used for everything from transforming an abandoned fountain into a spa to growing fresh edible plants in the middle of the city.

Monumental Scaffolding Stairs by MVRDV
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Large enough for hundreds of people to access at once, this crazy-high staircase is made almost entirely from scaffolding, offering visitors direct access to the roof of the Groot Handelsgebouw in Rotterdam. Designed by MVRDV, the installation references the city’s spirited rebuilding efforts after World War II and aims to encourage “a new, much more interactive, three dimensional and denser urban topography for the next city generation.” The 180 steps lead to a temporary observation deck and rooftop cinema, and will be open through June 12, 2016.

Bow-House Parasitic Home
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In another example of parasitic architecture, the Bow-House is a scaffolding framework covered in reclaimed doors and windows, perched on a windowless brick wall in Heerlen, The Netherlands. French architect Stéphane Malka erected the guerrilla structure as a free open shelter where anyone can temporarily live. Based on a flexible system, it can be adapted for any public space with an empty wall, and it’s made from free, reclaimed and easy-to-assemble components.

Pop-Up Urban Spa at an Abandoned Fountain
scaffold spa 1

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Add a scaffolding structure and a pallet deck around an abandoned public fountain and you’ve got a fun urban spa where kids and their families can escape the heat of Chihuahua, Mexico. PKMN Architectures reclaimed nearly all of the materials used for this revitalization project in Urueta Park, where the central fountain has been broken for years. It took just two weeks to design and build the pop-up creation, and the scaffolding towers that surround it support hammocks, resting platforms and textile shades.

Open-Air Scaffolding Residence for Artists
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Playing on the concept of an artist residency for muralists while also making commentary on the availability of affordable housing in urban districts, this installation by Milan-based artist Fra.Biancoshock is less than private, and that’s the point. ’24/7’ highlights the difference in working conditions between street artists and studio artists, and the often impoverished living conditions of nearly all visual artists, with a four-story open-air scaffolding residence.

Pavilion Humanidade 2012
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While it’s not unusual for events to make use of scaffolding for temporary structures, the Pavilion Humanidade exceeds just about all of them in scale and complexity. Created for Rio+20, the UN conference on sustainability in Rio de Janeiro, the pavilion won its architect Carla Juaçaba the 2012 arcVision prize for women in architecture. Layered and translucent, it’s almost completely constructed from previously used scaffolding and fully recyclable, erected on the site of an old fort overlooking the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.

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Pipe Dreams 15 Totally Tubular Scaffolding Creations

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[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Sewer Pipe Sofa: Rusted NYC Tubes Recycled as Urban Seating

29 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

modular sewer pipe chair

The latest in a long line of city-centric upcycling projects, this modular couch turns the ultimate in untouchable urban infrastructure into a chic industrial work of furniture.

modular nyc sewer pipe

Carlo Sampietro created the Cloche Sofa after seeing a section of sewage pipe abandoned by a construction site, its spot being fit for replacement with a new set of tubes.

modular closed pip sofa

modular pipe sofa full

He then fitted the ends with stabilizing structural circles and plasma-cut sections for seats, welding them back into place, hinging them and creating two locked positions (open and closed). Various configurations can be achieved by opening and closing sections to create a pair of chairs, a love seat or a full sofa.

cloche seat closed opened

cloche chair urban art

safety barrel traffic cones

This is far from the first time that Sampietro has reworked urban elements into new forms – his Cloche Chairs turned safety barrels from “symbols of caution into objects of comfort.”

police barrier table light

police line table

Some of his pieces draw on the visual language of familiar street objects, but interpret them in new ways, like this police barrier table constructed from walnut, steel, resin and using LEDs (which light up through its lettering below).

modular pipe love seat

More about the sofa from the artist: “It represents landscape evolution that dismantles established structural standards and elements of construction materials, and repurposes a found material into sophisticated design, reshaping a common object into a meaningful amalgam. This piece harnesses objects that outlived their original uses, were discarded, reclaimed and renovated. The evolution of this landscape design could be achieved by taking in consideration other material such as concrete, stainless steel, wood or marble, all cylindrical forms present in existing construction materials or natural environment. The tube shape is accented by LED side panels and the conic footing. This renders the object’s hybrid functionality almost invisible, unnoticeable at the first glance.”

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Half Pipe, Double Trouble: 2 Skateboard-able Dream Homes

18 Oct

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Skateboarders often have a tendency to eye virtually every surface as they go about their day, sizing it up for its curves and rails, imagining what it would be like to skate it. What if more structures were skateable, or even designed with skateboarders in mind? These two houses, Skate Villa by Philipp Schuster and PAS House by Francois Perrin and Gil Lebon Delapointe, are ultimate fantasy homes with curved walls, seats and even fireplaces.

PAS House

Designed as a ribbon providing a continuous surface to skate on from one end of the home to the other, PAS House was a collaboration between skateboarder and designer Gil Lebon Delapointe and architect Francois Perrin. The house is planned for a cliffside site in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and a full-scale prototype was shown at Project Darwin in Bordeaux, France.



Created for Pierre Andre Senizergues, a former world champion and pro skater, PAS House includes a living room, dining area and kitchen as well as a bedroom, bathroom and skateboard practice area. The central part of the house forms a loop, with an interior measuring 10 feet in diameter.

Skate Villa

A derelict hunting cabin in Salzburg, Austria is now a bright, beautiful and almost totally skateable house with all the comforts and eccentricities of the original structure. At Skate Villa, concrete mounds added to the base of the walls add curves where there were none, and ramps were even created on interior structures like the fireplace.

Pro skater Philipp Schuster designed, gutted and renovated the house as his own personal indoor skate park after purchasing it from an elderly couple. The original character of the cabin was maintained with dark wood elements, hunting trophies and traditional lodge-style furniture.


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Animusic – Pipe Dreams

07 May

This is rather nifty. It’s an animation done to some music, by a company called Animusic (www.animusic.com). The song for this one isn’t as cheesy as most of the other videos they’ve done (though it’s still a little cheesy).