Open Form Architecture Blog

OFA’s co­lla­bo­ra­tor, Ch­ris­tophe Platt­ner, wrote us, while vi­si­ting his home town in Ba­sel, Swi­tzer­land, about this new pro­ject of Zaha Ha­did Archi­tects, the Stadt­ca­sino, to in­form us that the new city ca­sino was re­jec­ted at the urn by a clear ma­jo­rity, not only be­cause the ci­ti­zens found it too large and ex­pen­sive, but also be­cause they felt not enough in­for­med by the autho­ri­ties. Here is an ani­ma­tion, by Neu­tral, which in­ves­ti­ga­tes the buil­dings in­te­gra­tion into the archi­tec­tu­ral and cul­tu­ral fa­bric of Ba­sel — a new short­cut con­nec­ting two ma­jor squa­res de­ter­mi­nes an archi­tec­tu­ral lands­cape to ac­cess the old and new parts of a mu­sic ve­nue — and de­mons­tra­tes the inc­rea­sing con­ver­gence bet­ween mo­tion graphics and the built environment.

Stock­man Re­si­dence, © Ro­ger Ku­rath, Designer

Lo­ca­ted in Santa Mo­nica, the Stock­man Re­si­dence sits on a tight cor­ner lot, at a very busy street in­ter­sec­tion. The house is su­rroun­ded by tall apart­ment buil­dings on the south side and a mo­dest park with dense treed areas on the east side. “Within this con­text, the tra­di­tio­nal house ty­po­logy with front yard, front porch and back yard is ill-suited and de­mands to be re-imagined so to bet­ter res­pond to its su­rroun­ding,” says the de­sig­ner, Ro­ger Ku­rath.
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘Stock­man Re­si­dence, Los Angeles’

Thom Mayne, archi­tect, and 2005 Pritz­ker Prize lau­reate, in in­ter­view with Char­lie Rose

POPULATION GROWTH VS HOUSE TYPOLOGY
Los An­ge­les con­ti­nues to inc­rease in den­sity and there is now an ur­gent need for more peo­ple to find a place to live in­side the city. Ho­we­ver, the de­sire of the inha­bi­tants who al­ready live within the ur­ban areas is to con­ti­nue kee­ping the cu­rrent low den­sity which re­sem­bles that of a su­burb. Con­se­quently the re­sults of this ten­sion dis­turb not only the form of the ur­ban lands­cape of LA, but also be­gin to se­ve­rely trans­form both the shape and iden­tity of its do­mes­tic ty­po­lo­gies. Ro­ger Sher­man of Ro­ger Sher­man Archi­tec­ture + Ur­ban De­sign sta­tes that to­day “Los An­ge­les needs to build more within its exis­ting size, within its exis­ting foot­print.”
Con­ti­nue rea­ding ‘3-in-1 House (Schab-Sherman Residence)’

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