Cube 9

Source: Reading Tom archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Citigroup Center, New York City, New York, USA, 1977 designed by Hugh Stubbins + William Le Messurier

Resting on four stilts perfectly centered on each side, it cantilevers seventy-two feet over the sidewalk and features a trademark 45-degree sloping crown at its summit. -- ArchDaily

Source: Rafael Vargas archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Puig Tower, Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain designed by Rafael Moneo + Antonio Puig, Josep Riu GCA Architects + Lucho Marcial

The tower strictly follows the floor plan and height established in the original plans, and the proposition that it was to be perceived as a united figure and not only as a simple superimposition of horizontal floors, led to the suggestion of the spiral glasswork which encases everything. 

The floor plans of the tower- a 27.5m by 27.5m square- shows the importance of the core, which not only resolves the vertical connections, and the service and mechanical elements, but also contributes to defining and structuring the usable space.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Young-chae Park archdaily.com

Site plan, Source: archdaily.com

G-Tower, Art center-daero, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, South Korea, 2013 designed by HAEAHN Architecture + Designcamp Moonpark dmp + Gyung Sung Architects + TCMC Architects & Engineers

Four atriums reaching up to 6 floors and sky garden of 25m depth reverse-slope influence characteristic of a building as drastic and creative element. Formativeness of a diagonal line shown on the elevation of a tower building is simple and dynamic figure. -- ArchDaily

Cube 5

Source: Michele Alassio archdaily.com

Cordoba House, Cordoba, Spain, 1975 designed by Emilio Ambasz

Two tall, rough stuccoed white walls meet at a right angle, creating an envelope for the house, and defining its entrance. From this entrance, auditorium like steps of increasingly greater width lead down to an open-air square patio onto which the house opens.

The house is centered around the formal square patio, onto which all rooms open, in the Arabic-Andalusian tradition. This formal square patio is an outdoor extension of the living spaces since full walls of glass stack away to allow free movement from the outdoors to the indoors. -- ArchDaily

Urban Spaces: Square 4

Source: wikipedia.org

Bedford Square, London, UK

The square takes its name from the main title of the Russell family, the Dukes of Bedford, who were the main landlords in Bloomsbury.

Bedford Square is one of the best preserved set pieces of Georgian architecture in London, but most of the houses have now been converted into offices. -- Wikipedia

Source: Naru Kenji Panoramio.com

Belgrave Square, London, UK

Belgrave Square is one of the grandest and largest 19th century squares in London, England. -- Wikipedia

Source: e-architect.co.uk

Fitzroy Square, London, UK

Fitzroy Square is one of the Georgian squares in London and is the only one found in the central London area known as in Fitzrovia. Today, the square is largely pedestrianised (scheme designed by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe). In 2008 the square was upgraded by relaying most of the surface at a single level, removing street clutter such as bollards, and further restricting vehicular access. -- Wikipedia

Urban Spaces: Square 3

Source: wikipedia.org

Plaça Reial, Barcelona, Spain

Plaça Reial (In Spanish Plaza Real, meaning "Royal Plaza") is a square in the Barri Gòtic of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It lies next to La Rambla and constitutes a well-known touristic attraction, especially at night.The Plaça Reial was designed by Francesc Daniel Molina i Casamajó in the 19th century. The lanterns there were designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. -- Wikipedia

Source: wikipedia.org

Plaza Mayor, Madrid, Spain

The Plaza Mayor was built during the Habsburg period and is a central plaza in the city of Madrid, Spain. The Plaza Mayor is rectangular in shape, measuring 129 by 94 metres, and is surrounded by three-story residential buildings having 237 breathtaking balconies facing the Plaza. It has a total of nine entranceways. The Casa de la Panadería, serving municipal and cultural functions, dominates the Plaza Mayor. -- Wikipedia

Source: wikipedia.org

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, Spain

It was built in the traditional Spanish baroque style and is a popular gathering area. It is lined by restaurants, ice cream parlors, tourist shops, jewelry stores and a pharmacy along its perimeter except in front of the city hall. It is considered the heart of Salamanca and is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful plazas in Spain. -- Wikipedia

Urban Spaces: Square 2

These are urban spaces with rectangular shapes and bounded by streets or a landmark building:

Source: wikipedia.org

Bryant Park, New York City, New York, USA

The Rockefeller Brothers created the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation (BPRC), under the founding leadership of Andrew Heiskell, then Chairman of Time Inc. and the New York Public Library, and Daniel A. Biederman, a Harvard Business School graduate and systems consultant with a reputation as an innovator in downtown management. Heiskell and Biederman, in 1980, created a master plan for turning around the park. 

Bryant Park reopened in April, 1992, to lavish praise from citizens and visitors, the media, and urbanists. -- official web site 

Source: geograph.org.uk

Manchester Square, London, UK

Manchester Square, west of Bentinck street, has a central private garden with handsome plane trees, laid out in 1776. The mansion on the north side of the Square, now the home of the Wallace Collection that features world-class French eighteenth-century painting, porcelains and furniture, once housed the Spanish ambassador, whose chapel was in Spanish Place. -- Wikipedia

Source: Scott Pease archdaily.com

Perk Park, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, 2012 designed by Thomas Balsley Asociates with Jim McKnight

.... as part of Pei’s urban renewal scheme. The first park on the site was completed in 1972: a New Brutalist ensemble of heavy concrete planters surrounding a sunken plaza, the old park quickly became a favorite haunt of vagrants and pigeons, an unloved and underused blight in the middle of the bustling central business district. 

The new park greets the street courtesy of what Balsley describes as a “forest and meadow” concept. Shade trees, as well as modified versions of the original planted mounds, are preserved from the old design; but now they’re complimented by a wide-open lawn sitting atop the former central sink, punctuated by a sculptural knoll perfect for daylight lounging. -- ArchDaily

Urban Spaces: Squares

These are urban spaces with rectangular shapes and bounded by four streets on all sides:

Source: wikipedia.org

Place des Vosges, Paris, France

Originally known as the Place Royale, the Place des Vosges was built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612. A true square (140 m x 140 m), it embodied the first European program of royal city planning. -- Wikipedia

Source: westminster.gov.uk

St. James's Square, London, UK

This is a typical London Square with four entrances, one on each side.

A tarmac path with rolled gravel skirts the square with a shrub bed and railings adjacent to the road. The four paths join a central circular path around a central circular grass area with a statue man on horseback on a plinth in the centre of the square entitled "Gulielmus III".

The square is predominantly surrounded by Georgian and neo-Georgian architecture and remains a privately owned and managed garden. -- official web site

Read a description from Wikipedia 

Source: wikipedia.org

Soho Square, London, UK

Soho Square is a square in Soho, London, England, with a park and garden area at its centre that dates back to 1681. It was originally called King Square after Charles II, whose statue stands in the square. At the centre of the garden, there is a distinctive half-timbered gardener's hut. During the summer, it hosts open-air free concerts. -- Wikipedia

Source: lookfunguide.com

Russell Square, Bloomsbury District, London, UK

Bloomsbury is one of the greenest parts of London, and famous for its formal squares. Russell Square is the most renowned square in London.

Queen Square, Bath, UK

Queen Square. Its the biggest square in Bath and hosts many events through the year, French markets, Italian Markets, with an annual event called Boules, weekend where all the restaurants compete with each other,lots of fun, you can buy drink and food. -- official web site

Read a description from Wikipedia 

Source: wikipedia.org

Alamo Square, San Francisco, California, USA

Alamo Square is a residential neighborhood and park in San Francisco, California. A row of Victorian houses facing the park on Steiner Street, known as the "Painted Ladies", are often shown in the foreground of panoramic pictures of the city's downtown area. --Wikipedia

Source: wikipedia.org

Union Square, San Francisco, California, USA

Union Square is a plaza of 2.6 acres (11,000 m²) bordered by Geary, Powell, Post and Stockton Streets in San Francisco,California. -- Wikipedia

Placemaking: Union Square, San Francisco, ASLA 2001 Merit Award - Communication

Hall of Shame on Project for Public Spaces

The result is like the proverbial camel, neither hard nor soft, with no clear focus or purpose, and cluttered beyond belief with tchotchkes, no doubt meant to "enliven" the users experience but which merely supplant any genuine engagement with others or with the city. Worse still, they tore out an old and beloved space to build this travesty. -- PPS

Source: williamfrenzullimd.blogspot.com

Union Square, watercolor, 22x43 framed by William Renzulli

Cube 4

Sammlung Goetz Munich, Munich, Germany, 1992 designed by Herzog & de Meuron

The gallery is a freestanding volume situated within a park-like garden of birches and conifers between the street and a house from the 1960s. A timber configuration rests on a reinforced-concrete base of the same dimension that is half buried so that only its upper glazed perimeter is visible from the outside. A similar matt glass strip surrounds the timber volume at the uppermost section, admitting diffuse glare-free daylight from a height of 4 meters into the exhibition spaces. -- architect's web site

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Source: Architektur-Fotografie Ulrich Schwarz

Youth Centre Amsterdam-Osdorp, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2011 designed by Atelier Kempe Thill

The realized building consists of the simple stacking of two – diametrically opposed – concepts of space. The ground floor level is designed as a flat sandwich-space, which opens up completely to the surroundings thanks to the glazing on all sides. On the upper floor is the Community Hall. In order to realise the desired multi-functionality and neutrality, it has a fully closed façade and forms a hermetic and introspective space. -- ArchDaily

Cube 3

Source: Jürg Zimmermann archdaily.com

Trublerhütte, Schlieren, Zurich, Switzerland, 2008 designed by Rossetti + Wyss Architekten

The country house is located on a slope surrounded entirely by trees. The proximity to downtown, the ease of transportation and the possibility of parking make this idyllic setting to continue to be the ideal place for social gatherings. -- ArchDaily

Source: Takuro Yamamoto Architects archdaily.com

F-White, Kashiwa city, Japan, 2009 designed by Takuro Yamamoto Architects

What the architect invented, was to put the rectangular courtyard at an unusual oblique anglerather than a right angle.  Locating courtyard in this way makes spaces around the courtyard can have enough room to stay, and be chained each other directly at their corners, without aisle -- ArchDaily

 Source: Van den Pauwert Architecten

Witlox Van den Boomen new Headquarters, Waalre, The Netherlands, 2011 designed by Van den Pauwert Architecten

a compact, square building that complements the villa. A point symmetry at the heart of the building brings together all the sight lines and contacts. The top two floors do not favour any particular direction.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Pia Johnson archdaily.com

Quartette Haus, Melbourne, Australia, 2011 designed by Bluebottle

There are 52 places available in the Haus for each performance. Seated in two circles about a slowly revolving central performance space, no member of the audience is more than two meters from the performers. The proximity of the listener to the performer accentuates the visceral theatre of live – string or other acoustic – quartet performance. -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

Luminous House, Kagawa, Japan, 2011 designed by Shinichi Ogawa & Associates

The white house of one-story is located in a rural landscape. Its spatial composition is really simple, being closed toward the outside by 3 vertical surfaces and a horizontal plane, has a semitransparent wall and a tunnel as the entrance in the principal façade. Thanks to this glass wall, sunshine reaches into the rooms during the daytime, and the house changes to a luminous box in the darkness. -- ArchDaily

Source: Kuo-Min Lee archdaily.com

Lightbox, Taipei City, Taiwan, 2011 designed by Hsuyuan Kuo Architect & Associates

The site is located by a lakeside park surrounded by the forest in Chu-pei, Hsinchu County. Facing the lake in front, the building extends its space into the nature and captures the greenery into the room through its glass panels. To facilitate a better view, the designers raise the house one meter higher. At night, the glass box transforms itself into a luminous cube floating on the water.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Felix Krumbhlotz archdaily.com

Pavilion Siegen, Siegen, Germany, 2012 designed by Ian Shaw Architekten

The 12 x 12 m structure conforms to a strict proportional grid that determines both the position and heights of the walls, as well as the shuttering joints and fenestration divisions. The 3 x 3m door panels – built by the client’s engineering company, and weighing 340 kilos per door – pivot on bespoke spindles, allowing each to be opened with the push of a single finger. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jeroen Musch archdaily.com

Mirror House, De Eenvoud, Almere, The Netherlands, 2013 designed by Johan Selbing + Anouk Vogel

The Mirror House is a private villa with a facade consisting entirely of reflective glass, which acts as a camouflage and an obstruction of the view of its  interior. The floorplan has been designed to be as compact as possible, with the possibility to adapt to different lifestyles. -- ArchDaily

Source: Santos-Díez archdaily.com

Maritime Station Vilanova de Arousa, Rúa Porto do Cabo, Vilanova de Arousa, Pontevedra, Spain, 2013 designed by 2C Arquitectos

The proposal is the configuration of a serene space overlooking the sea and westward facing. It is a fully glass-enclosed space, under a surround of dark concrete and protected from noise and bustle by a wooden box which contains all the services. -- ArchDaily

Source: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG archdaily.com

The Pavilion, Faro District, Portugal, 2015 designed by Marlene Uldschmidt Architects

The Pavilion has been designed as a modern day folly, is constructed of timber and glass and is located in the grounds of an existing detached villa in the Algarve. -- ArchDaily

Cube 2

Source: Norbert Miguletz archdaily.com

New Synagogue, Dresden, Germany, 1997 designed by Wandel Hoefer Lorch + Hirsch

Exploring the implications of stabiliy and fragility the architecture of the synagogue is characterized by a material dualism: a monolithic structure of precast concrete stones and an interior structure of metallic textile . The twisting stone structure of the synagogue follows the geometry of the site and the requirement of an orientation towards the east. The complex, curvilinear volume is based on a simple, gradual shift of 41 orthogonal layers, formed by elements of 120x60x60 cm. -- ArchDaily

Source: archidose.org

Kursaal Concert Hall and Convention Center, San Sebastian, Spain, 1999 designed by Rafeal Moneo

Moneo approached the project as one in which "singular geographic conditions demand an intuitive architectural response." This is one of the architect's best known projects, completed in 1999: two skewed and sloping cubes sit atop a plinth by the mouth of the Urumea River overlooking San Sebastian Bay. Moneo "deliberately strove to avoid a conventional architectural solution ... [and] avoid any reference to the existing urban fabric. Thus two cubes emerged, two abstract volumes capable of fulfilling the program [and] fitting into the landscape."  -- A Weekly Dose of Architecture

Lotus International(70), pp. 52-69.

Source: Herzog & de Meuron

Central Signal Box, Basel, Switzerland, 1999 designed by Herzog & de Meuron

The ground plan evolves from bottom to top into a rectangle. The copper strips cover the steps in the façade so that it becomes difficult to read the building‘s geometrical shape. It evokes something more organic and vulnerable, like a head or a brain, rather than a piece of technical equipment.  -- architect's web site

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Source: designtoproduction

Camera Obscura, Trondheim, Norway, 2006 designed by Prof. Knut Einar Larsen, NTNU Trondheim

The Camera Obscura in Trondheim harbor is the materialized result of a graduate teaching project at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). A group of 15 students developed this twisted cube in order to explore the potentials of digital design and fabrication in timber construction. It projects its surroundings onto the inside floor by means of a revolving mirror.  -- designtoproduction

Source: construction.com

Kanagawa Institute of Technology Workshop, Kanagawa, Japan, 2008 designed by Junya Ishigami + Associates

Articulated with minimal means—exterior walls of thin glass and interior clusters of slender white columns—Ishigami’s ethereal structure is barely a building at all. While the transparent enclosure exposes everything inside, the delicate steel columns define scattered oases of open space, each one a different functional component.

Though Ishigami’s parallelogram-shaped building gently challenges the rectilinear grid of pathways uniting the campus, it fits comfortably within the existing walkways encircling its site. -- Architectural Record

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Source: Philippe Piron archdaily.com

Parking Attendant’s Pavilion, Aix-en-Provence, France, 2010 designed by Jean-Luc Fugier

The apparently simple geometric form hides the kinetic game at play, influencing the way in which one perceives the building and making it difficult to understand. The contortion attempts to go along with the flux in circulation that surrounds it. It is in this simple distortion that a complex shape is generated, achieving the project’s objective: a discrete yet intriguing contemporary form found in the diversity of its perceptive approaches.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Alchemy Architects

Blair Barn House, Blair, Wisconsin, USA designed by Alchemy Architects

Alchemy designed a house that takes all its clues from the 19th century but updates them for the 21st Century Featuring Barn siding with light filtering through a Few, but large openings, a sleeping loft and bedrooms in the cellar. And, of course, Barn Space an open 2-story room with two volumes inserted within. One in steel, the other in ash strips, they provide under-and over spaces like a hayloft.  -- ArchDaily

Source: E. Marchesi archdaily.com

Flotane, Aurlandsfjellet, Norway, 2011 designed by L J B

The main structure has the shape of a tilted cube and this creates a covered entrance for the services and at the same time offers a perfect south exposition for the solar cells integrated in the main window. The toilet is 100 % energy self-sufficient.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Bent René Synnevåg archdaily.com

Bridge Studio, Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada, 2011 designed by Saunders Architecture

From the side elevation, it ap- pears as a windowless wood-clad parallelogram, hovering above the landscape, propped up by four piers and connected by a sixteen-foot bridge to the adjacent hillside. As one approaches the three hundred and twenty square foot studio, it becomes more transparent – with a generous glass entry and a large square window at the other end of the room. -- ArchDaily

Source: Marco Caselli Nirmal archdaily.com

Auditorium, L’Aquila, Italy, 2012 designed by Renzo Piano

Creating an illusion of instability, the auditorium is formed by three interconnected cubes made entirely of wood (1.165 cubic meters in total) that ironically appears as they had “haphazardly tumbled down” and came to rest upon each other. -- ArchDaily

Source: Broissin Architects archdaily.com

Green Hills Kinder, Rancho San Juan, Ciudad López Mateos, Mexico, 2012 designed by Broissin Architects

....the idea of breaking up the buildings on the ground like toys in a garden intrigued us, and gave rise to the location of all the prisms, which playfully hide behind each other, producing framed views of the adjacent forest. The concrete parallelepipeds lean from one side to another encouraging the child to develop their creativity in the nursery and classrooms for activities.... -- ArchDaily

Cube

Source: wikipedia.org

The Ford Foundation Building, New York City, New York, USA, 1968 designed by Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo

The building occupies the width of a block, and has facades of about 200 feet on either side, creating a near-perfect square, out of which a large volume has been removed to create a garden courtyard.  -- Wikipedia.

Source: username-guiba6 @ Flickr

San Cataldo Cemetery, Modena, Italy, 1971 designed by Aldo Rossi

Rossi’s ossuary cube is a commentary on the cemetery as a house of the dead, as well as being tied to the Jewish cemetery in positioning and proportion of enclosing structure to void.  -- ArchDaily

Watch a video from Vimeo: Aldo Rossi - Cimetière de San Cataldo Adrien Revel
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Source: archdaily.com

Exeter Library(Class of 1945 Library), Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, 1972 designed by Louis Kahn

People enter the 111′x111′ square library from the ground floor and climb up a grand set of stone stairs to the first floor. Coming up the last step onto the first floor one can immediately perceive the relationship of reference area, circulation desk, and book stacks. Kahn found this aspect to be important so that visitors can easily understand the plan of the building upon their entrance.  -- ArchDaily

Watch a video from Vimeo: Louis Kahn - Exeter Library Xavier-Pierre Denonne

Source: botta.ch

Single family house at Riva San Vitale, Ticino, Switzerland, 1973 designed by Mario Botta Architetto

The "tower", virtually defined by four corner piers and carved with geometric cuts through which the light penetrates, is organized along the vertical axis in a succession of different architectural situations and rhythms. -- architect's web site

Source: Pete Sieger

Grande Arche, La Défense, Paris, France, 1989 designed by architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen and Erik Reitzel 

The Arche was designed to be an infrastructural canopy and is esteemed for its purity in form. The 110 meter long, wide, and tall hypercube is made of concrete and marble and features reflective glazing on the outside walls. It is supposed that the Notre Dame could fit in this carved out void. -- ArchDaily

Source: Herzog & de Meuron

Signal Box Auf dem Wolf, Basel, Switzerland, 1994 designed by Herzog & de Meuron

The building's concrete shell is insulated on the exterior and wrapped with approximately 20 cm-wide copper strips that are twisted at certain places in order to admit daylight.

As a result of the copper coiling, the building acts as a Faraday cage protecting the electronic equipment inside from unexpected external effects. At the same time, it is also able to express vividly these physical qualities.  -- architect's web site

Source: buildingbutler.com

Herz-Jesu-Kirche, Munich, Germany, 2000 designed by Allmann Sattler Wappner

employed "a sense of open-mindedness" as a theme. This sense of open-mindedness is achieved by using layers of three different materials, nesting one inside another. First, the glass layer in the large doors in the front opens toward the plaza, ushering people in. Next, the second element, the wooden layer, while opening toward the altar away from the outer wall, closes softly toward the plaza, achieving a space with a sense of open-mindedness. For the third layer, a grand choir bench made of massive concrete further heightens the centripetal effect.  -- Space Modulator No. 89

Source: wikipedia.org

Hayden Planetarium, New York City, New York, USA, 2000 designed by James Polshek

The Hayden Planetarium (often called "The Hayden Sphere" or "The Great Sphere") is a public planetarium, part of the Rose Center for Earth and Space of the American Museum of Natural History New York City, currently directed by astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson -- wikipedia

More details from architect's web site

2003, Source: wikipedia.org

2011, Source: MacRumors

Apple Store, Fifth Avenue, New York City, New York, USA, 2003 designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

The 32-foot structural glass cube marking the store's entrance makes a bold architectural statement. Housing a transparent glass elevator wrapped by a circular glass stair, the transparent cube beckons potential customers down to the retail level below. By day it is a skylight bringing natural light underground, while at night the lighted cube is a sign.  -- architect's web site

Apple Reveals Plans for Fifth Avenue Cube -- ArchDaily

Apple Reveals Newly Renovated 5th Avenue Store

The simplified version utilizes 15 panes of glass rather than the original 90, creating a “seamless” appearance. Each side of the cube consists of three, 10’ wide x 32’ high panels. -- ArchDaily

Snowblower Shatters Panel of Apple Cube -- ArchDaily

Source: Ramiro Schere archdaily.com

Roblas Cube, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2007 designed by Moscato Schere Todo Terreno

Given the scarcity of resources for construction, compactly resolved in a cubic array of 6.20 x 6.20 x 6.20 m. About the volume, fully resolved “plane” and edge, different operations are succeeding and joints between wall and vain, they develop according to their position relative to the programs, the garden and the “language game” itself. -- ArchDaily

Source: Kouji Okamoto archdaily.com

House with Square Opening, Fukutsu, Fukuoka, Japan, 2008 designed by NKS Architects

Through the various square openings perforated on exterior walls, they got the view to the sea, the forest, and the garden. -- ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

Copenhagen Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2009 designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel 

From the outside in bright light, it looks like nothing more than a large rectangular box that for some reason is swathed in electric-blue scaffolding net and plopped down in an industrial landscape. When the sun goes down, it is transformed into an ethereal, dematerialized object with images of musicians eerily flitting across the screens of glass fiber with a PVC coating.

Seating 1,809 and raised above the lobby, it looks in section like some giant clam caught among pilings within a huge (190 by 315 feet) blue cage, 148 feet high.  -- Architectural Record

Source: A2Rc Architects archdaily.com

Square – Brussels Meeting Centre, Brussels, Belgium, 2009 designed by A2RC Architects

An audacious architectural proposition to the city offers a newfound visibility to the former “Palais des Congrès” by means of a poetic emblem embodied in the glass cube that forms the principal entry to SQUARE, Brussels Meeting Centre.

Its treelike structure and an aesthetic based on transparency and light, irresistibly evokes landscape architecture, takes root in history and projects the « Mont des Arts » into modernity. -- ArchDaily

Source: Nikolaos Zachariadis, SPLITTERWERK

Frog Queen, Graz, Steiermark, Austria, 2009 designed by SPLITTERWERK

The building form approximates a cube, measuring 18.125 x 18.125 x 17m, wrapped on all four elevations with a pixilated pattern of square panels. From a distance, these panels appear to be painted in a range of ten values of grey tone, together dematerializing the volume of the building against both the trees of the surrounding site and the clouds and sky. Thus the cubic building is at once monumental in its objecthood in the open landscape – scale-less and immaterial – and yet utterly non-iconographic in its overall form.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Tim Griffith archdaily.com

Tea Houses, Silicon Valley, California, USA, 2009 designed by Swatt | Miers Architects

Each tea house is designed as a transparent steel and glass pavilion, hovering like a lantern over the natural landscape. Cast-in-place concrete core elements anchor the pavilions, supporting steel channel rim joists, which cantilever beyond the cores to support the floor and roof planes. With its minimal footprint, the design treads lightly on the land, minimizing grading and preserving the delicate root systems of the native oaks.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Åke E:son Lindman archdaily.com

Moderna Museet Malmö, Gasverksgatan 22, Malmö, Sweden, 2009 designed by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

Seen from the exterior a new extension marks the arrival of the new museum. The extension provides a new entrance and reception space, as well as a cafeteria and a new upper gallery. Its perforated orange façade both connects to the existing brick architecture and introduces a contemporary element to the neighbourhood. The perforated surface gives the façade a visual depth, and is animated through the dynamic shadow patterns which it creates. The ground floor is fully glazed so that sunlight is screened through the perforated façade. -- ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, Dallas, Texas, USA, 2010 designed by REX/OMA

With its rippling aluminum facade and crisp cubic form, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre is an edgy presence in Dallas’s refined brick-and-stone Arts District. Corners peel back to expose massive X braces; floors cantilever at gravity-defying angles. Instead of flowing out like a traditional theater, with the stage in the center and support spaces to the sides, the Wyly pushes up, nine stories, with the lobby in the basement, the stage on the street, and rehearsal studio, costume shop, offices, and classrooms snapped together above like a transformer. The “vertical city” meets the Texas prairie.  -- Architectural Record

Source: Hufton+Crow archdaily.com

Corby Cube: Civic Hub and Arts Centre, Northants, UK, 2010 designed by Hawkins\Brown

Now completed and open to the public, the Hawkins\Brown’s striking glazed Corby Cube is the focal point of a major regeneration programme to revitalize the former steel making town in Northants, UK.

An external envelope of black and reflective glass gives the building its characteristic glistening object-like form.  -- ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

The Orange Cube, Lyon, France, 2010 designed  by Jakob + MacFarlane

the architects to create a box pierced by three large voids oriented toward the water. “The most obvious solution, from our point of view, was to take the negative space and treat it as a cutout from the whole,” says MacFarlane. “It seemed like a good of way of making something interesting out of the project.” -- Architectural Record

Source: archdaily.com

John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA, 2010 designed by ZGF Architects

the design is an extroverted box within a box, with a transparency via a glass skin that allows permeation from the outside-in, creating a sense of community. -- architect's web site

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Source: Sergio Gómez - Phase 2

Disconnected Pavilion, Medellín, Colombia , 2010 designed by Plan B Arquitectos

This was a small commission to design a pavilion for a construction fair in Medellín and to make the project more interest for us, we proposed to the client and promoters, a series of conditions:

The project must be built with donated materials from the different participant companies of the fair and put together as a mix of a same size panels distributed all over the façades, which must be able to move according to the sun orientation or the bioclimatic strategies. -- ArchDaily

Source: Sheng Zhonghai archdaily.com

Can Cube, Shanghai, China, 2010 designed by Archi Union Architects Inc

Can Cube’s facade is a system of aluminium carbonated drink cans which are enclosed in an aluminium frame. The façade saves the energy wasted during recycling processes by reusing the cans in their current form, without the need for recycling or further processes.  -- ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

OMS Stage, Winnipeg, Canada, 2010 designed by 5468796 Architecture

Located in Winnipeg’s Old Market Square, the OMS Stage is an open-air performance space in a public plaza designed by landscape firm Scatliff+Miller+Murray. In the city’s frequently freezing climate, the outdoor theater season lasts for only a few months. To give the pavilion a year-round presence, the firm wrapped a concrete stage in a perforated metal skin, which opens during performances and closes to create an illuminated sculptural cube. The form anchors the surrounding plaza and provides a glowing landmark that has come to characterize the neighborhood where 5468796 has its office.  -- Architectural Record

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Source: Make Architects

The Cube, Birmingham, UK, 2010 designed by Make Architects

The Cube was conceived as a building which would never close; crafted to open up routes and views to emerging neighbouring districts and permeable to both the users of the building and the community as a whole.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Emilio Photoimagination archdaily.com

Al-Irsyad Mosque, Kota Baru Parahyangan, Padalarang, Jawa Barat, Indonesia, 2010 designed by Urbane

The primary shape of the mosque takes the form of a square, which seems the most efficient since Muslims pray in straight rows facing a specific direction or the Qiblah.The structural columns are arranged in such way that the façade seems like it is not supported by any frame. This shape also alludes to Ka’bah, the most important structure in the Islamic world, to which all Muslims’ prayers are directed. -- ArchDaily

Source: Ken Sasajima archdaily.com

Small House, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan, 2010 designed by Unemori Architects

....the 4m×4m building that as small as I can at the center of site area 34m2 and made some space for flowing of light and wind around it. And by making the space, it’s possible to avoid setback regulation and it has the 9m high volume like a tower. The inside is simple structure what is separated by the 4 floor boards and is jointed by spiral stairway. -- ArchDaily

 Source: David Frutos archdaily.com

Music Hall, Algueña, Valencia, Spain, 2011 designed by Cor & Partners

The multipurpose hall houses 230 seats, these seats are moveable and the installations are able to accommodate different kind of functions, from a concert to a new year’s eve party, that’s why it also houses a warehouse where organize all these elements that allow use change.

the new hall is a blind box, a strange element because of its shape and dimensions. To emphasize this sensation we propose a cladding that vibrates and shines with a pearly-iridescent material. -- ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

House in Normandy, Normandy, France, 2011 designed by Beckmann-N’Thépé

A minimalist cube of 861 square feet, the house is clad in black tinted wooden panels that respond to the woodland environment. There is just one opening on each side judiciously oriented for views and light, and highlighted in white. Framed in wood, the walls of the house are lined with high performance thermal insulation. -- Architectural Record

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Source: Marc Lins archdaily.com

Mountain Cabin, Laterns, Vorarlberg, Austria, 2011 designed by Marte.Marte Architekten

Fitting into the landscape as if it were a barn, the building, which is a fine example of the homogeneous use of materials, in this case, carefully hewn rough concrete, stands out against the meadow green and winter white. Its ashy-gray colour only contrasts slightly with the heavy oak front doors and the anthracite-coloured handrails blend in with the branches of the surrounding forest. -- ArchDaily

Source: Thanlab Office archdaily.com

798 ART SPACE, Beijing, China, 2011 designed by Thanlab Office

The project base is located at the core of the 798 Art Zone and is currently a dilapidated storehouse, which may be dismantled for reconstruction. 798 today is in a transition from an art zone to a cultural and commercial tourism destination.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Roland Halbe archdaily.com

Jewelbox Houses Historic Carousel, New York City, New York, USA, 2011 designed by Jean Nouvel

The transparent jewel box centers Jane’s Carousel within a 72’ x 72’ x 27’ volume, directly beneath a circular skylight of equal diameter. The structure is supported by four, two foot diameter cylindrical steel columns set back 6-1/2 feet from the facades and tied together by four steel beams. A six foot high, concrete cellar raises the carousel floor above the flood line and serves as a passive ventilation device to cool down the building.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Jaime Sicilia archdaily.com

Porreres Medical Center, Porreres, Mallorca, Spain, 2011 designed by MACA Estudio

...a public square is opened to the front of the building with street access, and a private parking area is placed at the back of the plot. The resulting volume is almost a cube, which is modulated by dividing the width into five equal parts and the depth into three parts.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Rona Vatash archdaily.com

Samy Ofer Heart, Tel-Aviv, Israel, 2011 designed by Sharon Architects

The Samy Ofer Building was designed as a simple white monolithic cube built next to the historic Ichilov hospital building, designed in the 1960s by Arieh Sharon. State-of-the-art technologies are applied within the white architectural simplicity which historically has been the hallmark of hospitals, aiming to create a structure that is both transparent, eco-friendly and suited to the local climate.  -- ArchDaily

Stuttgart City Library, Stuttgart,Germany, 2011 designed by Yi Architects

The site for the Stuttgart City Library was chosen in Mailänder Platz, an area that is perceived to be a future city centre growing out of the location of the library. With this in mind, the architects chose to physically express the importance of this cultural centre by giving the building a grand physical presence. The building takes the form of cube with an edge length of 45 meters.  -- ArchDaily

 Source: Hector Santos-Diez archdaily.com

La Coruña Center For The Arts, La Coruña, Spain, 2011 designed by aceboXalonso studio

What today we call National Museum of Science andTechnology – MUNCYT – was born in 2001 as A Coruña Center for the Arts.  

The Center for the Arts was conceived as a single container to house two buildings of diverse nature: the new Dance Conservatory of the provincial Council of A Coruña and a Provincial Museum of ambiguous content. -- ArchDaily

Source: archdaily.com

Atriumtower Hiphouse Zwolle, Rotterdam, The Netherlands designed by Atelier Kempe Thill

Glass Tower Centralized Typology: An Alternative to the Deck-Access Typology The deck-access typology is the most common form of multi-story social housing in the Netherlands, because a large number of apartments can be connected to a limited number of stairwells. Despite the social stigma this typology has come to represent, it remains an almost inevitable solution. Due to its extreme cost-efficiency it is still being employed today in large numbers. The very compact building typology realized through the central circulation in Zwolle offers an economic and competitive alternative. -- ArchDaily

Source: UDG China archdaily.com

Wuxi Memsic Semiconductor Headquarter, Xishan, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China designed by UDG China

“Square” and “Round” elements are used in the design of figure and landscape composition, reflecting the ancient philosophy of yin-yang theory for the space. -- ArchDaily

Source: worldbuildingdirectory.com

Semi-autonomous Sauna, Estonia, 2011 designed by Architectural Bureau Pluss

Glass walls allow the transformation of solar energy into heat, which the stone floor and multi-layered glass in turn help maintain. This is enough to keep the interior (on sunny days at least) at ca 30 degrees above the exterior temperature throughout the year.  -- World Building Directory

Source: Gramazio & Kohler archdaily.com

Public Toilets, Uster, Switzerland, 2011 designed by Gramazio & Kohler

The public toilet in the city park of Uster has a complex facade of 295 folded aluminumstrips. The depth of the folding and the slightly different colors of each strip generate a shimmering facade that changes depending on sun angle and the observers’ perspective. -- ArchDaily

Source: archidose.org

Villa Nieuw Oosteinde, Aalsmeer, Netherlands, 2012 designed by Engel Architecten

....the house looks like it is only a cube, when in actuality it is made up of that volume and a small workshop on the side; both are linked by a glass corridor. Even as the architects describe the house as a cube, its materiality forces a reading of something else, something striated with a wood base, a tall upper story in concrete, and a band of glass in between. -- A weekly Dose of Architecture

Source: Iwan Baan archdaily.com

Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas, Texas, USA, 2012 designed by Morphosis

The overall building mass is conceived as a large cube floating over the site’s landscaped plinth. An acre of undulating roofscape comprised of rock and native drought-resistant grasses reflects Dallas’s indigenous geology and demonstrates a living system that will evolve naturally over time. -- ArchDaily

Source: Pierre Berthelomeau archdaily.com

Reframe, in ‘Le Festival des Architectures Vives ’ in Montpellier, France, 2012 designed by Paul Scales and Atelier Ki

What first appears to be a simple modern cube is gradually discovered to be a more complex structure, through which architectural details, elements and facades are continuously revealed, reframed and reflected. Not only a beautiful and interesting way to contrast modern and historic architecture it also turned out to be very popular with the local kids who discovered that it was also a great object to play in. The project was constructed from 45 sheets of opal-colored 16 mm multi-wall polycarbonate and 16 steel plumbing pipes. -- ArchDaily

Source: Christina Zeibak and Daphne Dow archdaily.com

Sukkahville Design Competition Winning Exhibition: ‘Hegemonikon’,Toronto, Canada designed by Christina Zeibak and Daphne Dow

The Sukkah is simply fabricated from a stack of plywood, spaced apart and hollowed, allowing enough transparency to be inclusive yet enough density to create a sense of being. This design captures the juxtaposition between the simplicity of the plywood and the complexity of the void. As per the Hegemonikon philosophy, once you enter the space, you have left your past: it offers a space in the present where one can mediate upon their future and reflect upon their experiences. -- ArchDaily

Source: megabudka archdaily.com

Tube Pavilion, in Sretenka Design Week, Moscow, Russia designed by Megabudka

Created using one hundred lighting, or mirror tubes, at such a density of supports, the roof structure can be reduced to a minimum. If a mirror surface is used in combination with numerous tubes and a thin roof structure, a very interesting effect is created. A wide passage through the pavilion is slightly curved; thus the façade is not broken up. While 10% of the tubes glow, they are made of polyurethane with a LED strip inside. Due to the mirror surface of the ceiling and polished tubes, at night the interior fills with light, the pavilion becomes one big lantern. -- ArchDaily

Source: G.R. Wett archdaily.com

Indoor Rock Climbing, Brixen, South Tyrol, Italy, 2012 designed by W. Meraner – M. Mutschlechner

The multi-layer facade creates a moiré effect, generating always new impressions for the moving observer and both the users inside as also the viewer outside in a dynamic relationship to the climbing gym provides. In the planning of the climbing Hall, ecological aspects and sustainability were essential. -- ArchDaily

Source: Adam Mørk archdaily.com

University of Aberdeen New Library, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, 2012 designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects

The University of Aberdeen New Library functions as a meeting place and a cultural centre for the students of the University as well as the Aberdeen community. The façade of the building shimmers during the day and glows softly at night, creating a luminous landmark – a beacon – for the city of Aberdeen -- ArchDaily

Source: Diana Quintela archdaily.com

KAIROS, Lisbon, Portugal, 2012 designed by João Quintela + Tim Simon

This confront between the temporary and the eternal is something worth researching through a general view to the possibilities that our time can offer us. This prefab solution is capable to deal simultaneously with these two aspects as it allows us working with a durable and resistant material dialoguing with continuous Time, through a modular construction and an easy assembly or disassembly. -- ArchDaily

Source: Diana Quintela archdaily.com

Crux Pavilion, Lisbon, Portugal, 2013 designed by Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects

This somehow modest yet monumental piece appears as a simple form of opposition – that substantial role of Architecture – but in a temporal and non-conclusive manner. It is a duplicated archetypical figure of two columns supporting a beam that are articulated perpendicular to each other so as to define a cross shaped plan. The dimension in section, height and span is meant to unveil the hidden asymmetry of the existing pavilion. -- ArchDaily

Source: Ricardo Oliveira archdaily.com

Modular Box, Portugal, 2013 designed by SPSS Design

Developed as a prototype, SPSS Modular Box (SBOX) intended to be an openspace for work and showroom for the pieces of furniture produced by SPSS. -- ArchDaily

Source: Shu He & Shengliang Su archdaily.com

Vanke Brand Center, Yingkou, China, 2013 designed by Vector Architects

....an observatory platform on the roof of the building, where people could enjoy the maximum view of the landscape. The climbing progress from the grade level to the top platform is the indivisible prelude of the entire spatial experience. Starting with a gentle ramp, visitors will go through a preserved gingko grove, before walking into the inner space caring out the architectural volume. After going up along a defined stair space, eventually they arrives the top level, turning around, facing the bondless ocean in the distance. -- ArchDaily

Source: Lara Swimmer archdaily.com

Tower House, Portland, Oregon, USA, 2013 designed by Benjamin Waechter Architect

It touches the ground lightly and is built up rather than out.  The house is accessed by a thin steel pedestrian bridge that meets the house at its mid level, the dining room and hub of the house. -- ArchDaily

‘The Poetics of Boxes’, an exhibition on the work of Mathias Klotz -- ArchDaily

Museum Round Up: The Box is Back -- ArchDaily
 

Source: Kim Jaekyeong archdaily.com

9X9 Experimental House, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, 2013 designed by Studio Archiholic

The glass wall keeps in contact with outside phenomena while zigzagging along the inner courtyard. As for the outside garden situated between the inner and outside areas, the boundary between inside and outside blurs, while light comes in through the 1.2 x 1.2m porous installed on the ceiling slab and advances further inside to drape shadows for the invisible border wall, or with rain or snow. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jérôme Humbert archdaily.com

5.5m x 5.5m, Fribourg, Switzerland, 2013 designed by LVPH

The Windig project proposes to create small habitable structures scattered throughout the park. The rental of these turrets will fund the maintenance of the park. Each turret is 5,5m x 5,5m x 9m and is equipped minimally: one shower, one toilet, a small kitchen and a wood stove (the only source of heating). -- ArchDaily

Source: Digiwoodlab Project archdaily.com

HILA Pavilion, Kiikeli, Oulu, Finland, 2014 designed by Digiwoodlab Project + University Of Oulu Students

HILA pavilion is a synthesis of a three dimensional wooden lattice structure (hila in Finnish) and architecture, in which the rectangular base form is carved by a freeform inner void. The revealed wooden structure creates a lace-like appearance inside the pavilion, which is amplified by the complex shadows it forms. -- ArchDaily