Skin of Architecture: Web

Source: construction.com

The Tod’s building designed by Toyo Ito & Associates, located on Omotesando, the famous tree-lined avenue in Tokyo’s Aoyama district, is wrapped in a skin of criss-crossed concrete braces and glass that mimics the trees lining the street. Read an article from Architectural Record, June 2005.

 Source: Georges Fessy

Ministère de la Culture, Paris, France, 2004 designed by Francis Soler

In the manner of Christo, Soler has wrapped the old buildings, walls and roof included, in a continuous organic-weave mesh of steel lace. Without entirely effacing underlying differences, this stainless steel veil imparts continuity to the disparate volumes. It hangs like a loose net detached from the elevations, its appearance changing in phase with the sun, shadows, day and night.   -- MIMOA

Source: archdaily.net

Zilverparkkade D, Lelystad, the Netherlands / René van Zuuk Architekten

All four façade surfaces in the design are either entirely or partly covered with prefabricated concrete elements, symbolizing a branch-like structure. This blown-up filigree is the result of a study of infinite patterns. -- ArchDaily

Source: faulders-studio.com

AirSpace Toyko, Toyko, Japan, 2007 designed by Thom Faulders, with Proces2

The project creates a 3,000 sq ft exterior building skin for a new four story multi-family dwelling unit with professional photography studios in Tokyo, Japan.

Conceived as a thin interstitial environment, the articulated densities of the porous and open-celled meshwork are layered in response to the inner workings of the building's program. AirSpace is a zone where the artificial blends with nature: sunlight is refracted along its metallic surfaces; rainwater is channeled away from exterior walkways via capillary action; and interior views are shielded behind its variegated and foliage-like cover. -- architect's web site

Source: wikipedia.org

Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, Toyko, Japan, 2008 designed by Tange Associates

Each floor of the tower contains three rectangular classrooms that surround an inner core. The inner core consists of an elevator, a staircase and a support shaft. Every three floors, a three-story student lounge is located between the classrooms and faces three directions: east, southwest and northwest.  -- Wikipedia

Read a post from ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

National Stadium, Beijing, China designed by Herzog & de Meuron

while the need to include a heavy retractable roof (a requirement in the competition brief) informed the giant crisscrossing steel members on the outside of the building. Because the architects disliked the massive parallel beams necessary to support the retractable roof, they developed a lacy pattern for the other steel elements to disguise them. In the process, they created a structure that seems random and nonrepetitive. “We’re interested in complexity and ornamentation,” said Herzog, “but of the kind you would find on a Gothic cathedral, where structure and ornamentation are the same.” -- Architectural Record July 2008.

More from architect's web site

Source: José F. García Martín

Suites Avenue Apartments, Barcelona, Spain, 2009 designed by Toyo Ito

Toyo Ito designs an organic façade directly inspired by Gaudi. The façade consist of an 8 mm. waving aluminium sheet, on which cuts are made to generate openings. The façade performs a double role: in the first one acts like a sculptural mask hiding the real black elevation of the building, in the second allows the interior spaces be completely open to the outside looking to La Pedrera and, at the same time, preserves their privacy.  -- MIMOA

Source: trespa.com

Offices of City Council Gijón, Gijón- Asturias, Spain, 2009 designed by Jeremías Sanpedro Rodríguez

Source: archdaily.com

Kindergarten Sighartstein, Sighartstein, Land Salzburg, Austria, 2009 designed by Kadawittfeldarchitektur

The oversized “grass blades” communicate the building’s unique identity and provides an orientation marker for the kindergarten. The stylized grass blades are not only ornamental, but also act as a continuation of the landscape theme – namely, the staccato row of spruces visible at the meadow’s edge or the branches of the neighboring leafy trees.-- ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Berkeley, California, USA, 2009 designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

The screen—an important component of Asian architecture—represents the building’s Asian mission. Its overall design further alludes to traditional Asian elements: A cracked-ice motif on the 15-foot-tall lower grille is topped by a vertical bamboo pattern on the 17-foot-tall upper grille along the library’s southern elevation, which faces those early-20th-century campus icons. Cast in Hangzhou, China, at an installed cost of $1 million, the fate of the screens—another 32-foot-tall screen graces the narrower west facade, while a smaller, 21-foot-tall version featuring only the bamboo motif marks the building’s entrance at the east facade—was not always a sure thing. -- Architectural Record

Source: Cristobal Palma archdaily.com

Flor del Campo Educational Center, Bolívar, Antioquia, Colombia, 2010 designed by Giancarlo Mazzanti + Felipe Mesa

This project is characterized by four “Rings”, each of which is defined by two levels with different thicknesses, rounding different playgrounds. The perimeter is as important as the interior space formed by the rings, projecting physical areas that can express the function that will be developed. It was inspired by the shapes of tropical plants and trees in the area, taking us to a recreational atmosphere of games, educational exchanges, etc. -- ArchDaily

Source: David Cervera archdaily.com

Gran Museo del Mundo Maya de Mérida, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, 2010 designed by 4A Arquitectos

The Gran Museo del Mundo Maya is a building with a contemporary expression about what the Mayans worshiped rather than the Mayans built, in this search we found a recurrent symbol, a key element in the cosmic vision of Mayan Culture: Ceiba, the sacred tree, whose roots penetrates and conforms the underworld, the trunk’s level lays down where life and daily activities take place underneath the shade of its frond which spreads its branches up to the sky and human transcendence. -- ArchDaily

Source: EMBA archdaily.com

Torre Diagonal Zero Zero, Barcelona, Spain, 2011 designed by EMBA

The facade is a modular curtain wall made of white aluminum profiles and extratransparent glass with white ceramic paint serigraphy, according to a vertical pattern that reinforces the slenderness of the building. In combination with the inner structure, placed every 1.35 meters, and the exterior structure, this pattern contributes to the diffusion of solar light and to glare control, generating interiors of great quality of perception.  -- Arch Daily

Watch a timelapse video on the construction of Diagonal ZeroZero Building.

Source: Yang Hsiu Chuan

House in Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan, 2011 designed by FCHY Architect Lab

a special Hybrid Surface Framework. Using a Double-Layer Structure to solve the issue of the base and create an interesting urban landscape. The irregular hollow bricks form the first surface of the house, it create a magnificent facade, and reduced the problem of western exposure. The second layer is a glass layer between balcony and interior. This Double-Layer Structure creates a special interior lighting at night and reduces the direct impact of wind.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Paúl Rivera archdaily.com

Tori Tori Restaurant, Polanco, Mexico City, Mexico, 2011 designed by Rojkind Arquitectos + ESRAWE Studio

The façade, which seems to emerge from the ground climbing up through the building, as if mimicking the natural ivy surrounding the retaining walls, is made up of two self-supporting layers of steel plates cut with a CNC machine and handcrafted to exact specifications.  -- ArchDaily

Source: 11h45 archdaily.com

Jessie-Owens Gymnasium, Champigny, France, 2011 designed by Épicuria Architectes

Treated very delicately, this sports equipment, on the periphery of a small town offers an alternative to neighboring semi-detached houses. Its oriental inspired façade is characterized by a concrete net imitating the Moroccan moucharabieh. -- ArchDaily

Source: Eric Heranval archdaily.com

L’Atoll Angers, Angers, France, 2012 designed by Antonio Virga Architecte + AAVP Architecture

The structure is covered with a white aluminium net, which is perforated and backlit. The building´s envelope, 8-12m from the main structure, provides a protected area behind the shops for deliveries, away from the customers´ view at the center of the Atoll, and provides a clear passage for security services. The outer cover runs from the inside out, following the access porches up to the roof to form an awning covering part of the promenade. On the inside, the awning rises up over a glass wall offering views of the various shop fronts. The shop front can be seen clearly avove and below the awning. -- ArchDaily

Source: Fluor Architecture archdaily.com

Family Creche in Drulingen, Strasbourg, France, 2012 designed by Fluor Architecture

Introverted in appearence, the building is sheltered by a wooden shell – an envelope in the physical and symbolic meanings of the term. Considered as a skin protecting from the fast-paced world around, this envelope embodies the idea of a border between the everyday life and the warm and cosy environment of the « family crèche ». -- ArchDaily

Source: Diego Opazo archdaily.com

Dance School in Lliria, Llíria, Spain, 2012 designed by hidalgomora arquitectura

Latticeworks formed by tubular sloping profiles of oxidized steel protect the rooms from the exterior looks and from the excess of solar light, at the same time that they incorporate into the interior space an interesting movement by subtle combination of lights and shades. -- ArchDaily

Source: Serge Demailly archdaily.com

The Simona, Monaco, 2012 designed by Jean-Pierre Lott Architecte

The project is ambitious: it seeks to deliver astudy in housing typology and, beyond the building itself, an analysis of urban structure and a response to the question of the city’s densification. The structure’s unusual vocabulary will broadenthe city’s palette. The building raises questions;its very visibility will involve it in considerations about the city’s development. -- 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: Steven Massart archdaily.com

MuCEM, Marseille, France, 2013 designed by Rudy Ricciotti

The tectonic choice of an exceptional concrete coming from the latest research by French industry, reducing the dimensions to little more than skin and bones, will affirm a mineral script under the high ramparts of Fort Saint-Jean. This sole material in the colour of dust, matt, crushed by the light, distant from the brilliance and technological consumerism, will commend the dense and the delicate. The MuCEM sees itself evanescent in a landscape of stone and Orientalist through its fanning shadows. -- ArchDaily

Source: Oscar Hernandez archdaily.com

Restaurant Koi Sushi, Galerías, Aguascalientes, Mexico, 2013 designed by Grupo Spazio

The skin of the main facade is an abstraction of a bamboo forest, the project was divided into three main areas: the terrace, common area and the mezzanine, each with a different appearance and scale. -- ArchDaily

Source: Ilya Ivanov archdaily.com

VTB Ice Palace, Avtozavodskaya ulitsa, 23, Moskva, Russia, 2015 designed by SPEECH Architectural Office

The Ice Palace is designed in such a way that the activities in all its arenas could take place simultaneously without interfering with each other. It consists of two rectangular volumes, visually combined into one as a result of the main facade’s design, which was rendered as a kind of icy mantle polished to a gloss like the surface of a rink. -- ArchDaily