Organic Forms

Source: eikongraphia.com

Friedrichstrasse, Berlin, Germany, 1919 designed by Mies van der Rohe

Source: eikongraphia.com

Maquette Glass Skyscraper, Berlin, Germany, 1922 designed by Mies van der Rohe

The randomly curved glass-façade of the 1922-project is not the result of an internal, autonomous form. The glass surface has its own logic and is dependent on- and connected with the city-life through the properties of the glass. But the design is also not a direct effect of its situation; it is a critical interpretation of it. The glass curtain wall – alternating transparent, reflecting, and refracting depending on the sun and the point of view – reflects and deforms the image of the city, and places the building in a specified time and place. -- Eikongraphia

Source: wikipedia.org

Lake Point Tower, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1968 designed by John Heinrich and George Schipporeit

Lake Point Tower was inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s 1922 design for a glass-curtained skyscraper in Berlin. Schipporeit and Heinrich took van der Rohe's unbuilt office building concept and converted it to a residential building. Lake Point Tower is much taller than van der Rohe’s original project, more regular in form, and its exterior glass curtain wall is tinted; however, the building owes much of its innovative design to the van der Rohe original - and because of the design's origins, many in Chicago still consider Lake Point Tower to be a Mies van der Rohe building, albeit executed by two of his protégés. -- Wikipedia

Source: Helder Sousa archdaily.com

Plan/Section, Source: archdaily.com

Water Tank, Travessa da Aldeia Nova, 8650 Budens, Portugal, 2000 designed by Pedro Bandeira + João Figueira e Associados

It recalls the chimney of Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, but it now stands on the ground, suggesting that the entire building has been buried. This is a metaphor that demonstrates a significant movement away from the more radical theories of the Modern Movement and towards the process of participation involved in the construction of the new village. -- ArchDaily

Source: Nelson Garrido archdaily.com

O-14, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2010 designed by Reiser + Umemoto

.... the office tower typology has been turned inside out – structure and skin have flipped to offer a new economy of tectonics and of space. -- ArchDaily

Read an article from Architectural Record, August 2011
Read about a book on this project from A Weekly Dose of Architecture

Source: Koichi Torimura archdaily.com

Higashifuchuu Apartments, Fuchuu-shi, Tokyo, Japan, 2010 designed by Mejiro Studio

It is nine apartment complexes in the suburbs. We try to find its independent appearance in such vague scenery peculiar to the suburbs. The building is planned at an angle of 45 degrees to surrounding and the surface of the building is uneven. -- ArchDaily

Source: Kim Zwarts archdaily.com

 

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Instituut Verbeeten, Breda, The Netherlands, 2010 designed by Wiegerinck

The shell around the building creates various patios in the waiting and treatment rooms. It forms a filter between the outside world and the building, creating a feeling of openness and privacy. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jussi Tiainen archdaily.com

Plan, Source: archdaily.com

Villa Musu, Finland, 2010 designed by Sanaksenaho Architects 

Villa Musu is located on a beautiful lake shore lot with a pine tree forest surrounding the house. The design is shaped into a soft, organic plan that naturally flows into the landscape. -- ArchDaily

Source: Iwan Baan archdaily.com

Cerro del Obispo Lookout Point, Cerro del Obispo, San Luis Potosí, Mexico, 2012 designed by Christ & Gantenbein

The column on the peak of the Cerro del Obispo, a mountain with almost 2,000 metres height, protrudes like a huge bone out of the woody landscape above the valley of Ameca. A detached, organically shaped monolithic concrete wall composes the tower of 26.55 metres that can be acceded from one side through a small entrance. Inside a unique view into the sky awaits the visitor – and the sunlight, that comes in through the opening, reflected from the light concrete walls, gathering on the floor. -- ArchDaily

Rounded Ends

Source: Flickr User: harry_nl

Educatorium, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1997 designed by OMA

The Educatorium is composed of two planes which fold to accommodate a range of distinct programs, including an outdoor plaza, two lecture halls, cafeteria and a testing facility. Planes interlock to create a single trajectory in which the entire university experience – socialization, learning, examination – is encapsulated. -- architect's web site

Source: Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra archdaily.com

Bus Station of Rio Maior, Rio Maior, Portugal, 2005 designed by Domitianus Arquitectura

It is a blade, or piece of white concrete with high-intensity plastic that solves the whole proposal, revealing an autonomous body coated by wood panels which are organized, in two different floors the area of service users. -- ArchDaily

 Source: Benthem Crouwel Architekten

Penthouse Las Palmas, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2008 designed by Benthem Crouwel Architekten

The Penthouse floats a good three metres above the Las Palmas building, held aloft on thin steel columns. This two-story office volume is rounded off vertically at the head ends, in deliberate contrast with all other buildings on Wilhelmina Pier.  -- ArchDaily

Source: Benthem Crouwel Architekten

Elicium RAI(ICA), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2009 designed by Benthem Crouwel Architekten

The Ballroom is a single large column-free space that may be divided up using sliding partitions. A seven-storey stack rises above the congress halls. Elicium puts the RAI in a better position to attract large multi-day international events and gives it a bold new front.  -- ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

Sheraton Milan Malpensa Airport Hotel & Conference Centre, Milan, Italy, 2010 designed by King Roselli Architetti

The building is a study in contrast and fluidity. The firm devised a comblike shape with alternating room modules and external courtyards that link to an elongated spine housing lounge and circulation areas. Roselli and his colleagues chose white “pultruded” fiberglass, a pliable, pulled, and extruded membrane used in such applications as prefabricated emergency housing. Inside, King Roselli carried its bold gestures into the public areas, using arcing ribbons of plasterboard across ceilings and around walls that recall the facade's fiberglass strips, and penetrating the hotel's core with a soaring atrium.  -- Architectural Record

Source: David Adika archdaily.com

Beam House, Arbel, Israel, 2010 designed by Uri Cohen Architects

The beams of the roof rest on that ‘central concrete wall’ and serve as cantilevers to the linear roof of the living area. This keeps the northern glass façade free of columns. The circular external lines affect the interior design creating a resting bench in the living room and unique lines in the windows and walls of the private spaces. -- ArchDaily

Source: +31 Architects archdaily.com

Water Villa Omval, Amsterdam,  the Netherlands , 2010 designed by +31 Architects

Resting on the water, +31 Architects' latest residence offers a gently curving form complete with a roof terrace. According to the architects, “The split-level principle of the watervilla is accentuated by the round design of the facade.” -- ArchDaily

Source: Espaço Cidade Arquitectos archdaily.com

Center for High Performance Athletics in Jamor Lisbon, Portugal, 2010 designed by Espaço Cidade Arquitectos

The formal and volumetric aspect of the building translates its interior and the specific conditions imposed by the different modalities, resulting three volumes, one is a longitudinal volume, with 10 meters high opened to the landscape, another with variable height that projects the interior of the racing track and the last one a “box” that articulates the other two and defines the entrance. -- ArchDaily

Source: Vulkers Fotografie archdaily.com

Sports Facility Strijp, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 2012 designed by LIAG architects

The structure of the complex consists of long horizontal bands that culminate in rounded edges. To help the different groups of users maintain their own distinct identity, the bands around the parts of the building used by the different groups are in their own colours. The main shape of the building is created by a flowing continuous line with curved edges. -- ArchDaily

Source: Mierta & Kurt Lazzarini Architekten archdaily.com

Sport and leisure centre Promulins, Samedan, Switzerland, 2012 designed by Mierta & Kurt Lazzarini Architekten

The dynamic and floating form of the building represents the flow and the motions of the athletes. The growing concrete slab in the north, which houses the cloakrooms, forms, through a folding at the end, the comfort for the Stübli and restaurant. -- ArchDaily

Source: Markus Bollen archdaily.com

The Tree House, Hechtel-Eksel, Belgium, 2012 designed by Baumraum

The major image of the design is a sheet of paper that is pleated and encloses both interior and exterior spaces. THE TREEHOUSE is based on five elements: two cabins on different levels, connecting terraces, a staircase and a connecting roof. -- ArchDaily

Skin of Architecture: Double Skin 10

Source: Pedro Pegenaute archdaily.com

Ceip Martinet, Cornellà de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain, 2007 designed by Mestura Arquitectes

A ceramic lattice acts as protection for passive solar south facing corridors giving access to primary classrooms. The faces of these parts most exposed to the sun-glazed surface have 2 ranges of 3 different colors each. The exposed faces west orientation combine a range of 3 color green “spring”, while those exposed in the east combine a range of 3 earthy colors “fall.”

The lattice functions at various scales, from the Ronda de Dalt the main facade of the school is very visible, and becomes a big announcement that is integrated into the landscape of large containers nearby industrial area, while underscoring the middle distance is three-dimensional geometry of the parts. From the inside is a double façade that controls the light and creates a play of light and shadow that changes over time. -- ArchDaily

Source: Brad Feinknopf archdaily.com

McGee Art Pavilion, Alfred, New York, USA, 2011 designed by ikon.5 architects

Its ceramic façade, made of un-glazed terra cotta tubes, is a solar and rain screen. The tubes that make up the screen are suggestive of the ceramic vessels and art objects created inside the School of Art and Design. Their un-glazed flushed white pigment is similar to the nature of student art work before final finishing. Furthermore, the staggered pattern of the façade is enthused by the racks of unfinished ceramic articles that envelop the art studios. -- ArchDaily

Urban Sketchers

Urban Sketchers started online as a flickr group in 2007 and later became a nonprofit organization. Our mission as a nonprofit is to raise the artistic, storytelling and educational value of location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel. We aim to show the world, one drawing at a time. 

This is the manifesto we follow: 

We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation. 

Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel. 

Our drawings are a record of time and place. We are truthful to the scenes we witness. 

We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles. 

We support each other and draw together. 

We share our drawings online. 

We show the world, one drawing at a time.  -- Urban Sketchers

Open Up

Source: greatbuildings.com

Lang Music Building, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA, 1973 designed by Mitchell/Giurgola Associates

The most remarkable characteristic of the auditorium space, however, is the large glass wall behind the stage, offering a view of the surrounding wooded landscape. This unusual design element for a recital hall, which are usually windowless spaces, was an attempt by Giurgola to further integrate the building with the landscape and maximize the potential that such a beautiful landscape offered. This glass wall, which was reduced in size during discussions with the College about the design, was one of the most controversial elements of the building, provoking concerns that it would not be acoustically sound or that it was a prioritization of aesthetic desires over Quaker-like functionalism. -- "Preserving the Work of Mitchell/Giurgola Associates" by Brendan R. Beier, University of Pennsylvania, P. 60

Source: epsteinjoslin.com

Seiji Ozawa Hall for The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood, Massachusetts, USA, 1994 designed by Epstein Joslin Architects

A 1200 seat interior concert hall with doors at the rear, opens to allow a 2000 seat lawn audience to see the performance. The hall is the main stage of the Tanglewood Music Center, a summer fellowship program for pre-professional musicians. It is also the setting for performances by world-renowned recitalists and chamber groups. The hall can also be acoustically isolated for use as a professional recording studio. -- architect's web site

Source: rcmf.org

Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, Massachusetts, USA, 2010 designed by Epstein Joslin Architects

A 335-seat Concert Hall with Lobby and upper floor Reception Room, inserted within the rebuilt and expanded historic Haskins Building on the main street of Rockport, MA, is the new home of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. The worn exterior of the mercantile edifice has been returned to its 1845 Second Empire splendor to enhance the charm of its historic village setting. The interior has been completely reconfigured as a world-class performance venue that integrates the beauty of the ocean setting on which it adjoins. The oceanfront façade has been reshaped to open all public rooms to the harbor and add a new joyful and scaled face to the Town’s harbor edge. -- architect's web site

The official web site of Rockport Music

Source: Tamas Bujnovszky archdaily.com

Franciscan Chapel, Kisfakos, Nagykanizsa, Hungary designed by SAGRA

The proportional mass of the building and its roofs’ contour has drawn themselves in the landscape, closing the space of the courtyard bordered by the buildings of the farm. Each opening of the building is framing one of the misterious creatures of nature, shaping space and time each steps. Being inside and outside can be experienced at the same time. -- ArchDaily

Skin of Architecture: Pattern 10

Source: 3XN archdaily.com

Saxo Bank, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2004 designed by 3XN

The building is shaped like two blocks with the end walls pointing towards the canal, joined together by facades that are withdrawn from the end walls. The facades are shaped like double curved glass that wave like a piece of textile. -- ArchDaily

Source: Christian Richters archdaily.com

Cite du Design, Saint-Etienne, Loire, France, 2009 designed by LIN Architects

.... the project also incorporates the integration of a new building, the “platine” which is an interclimatic laboratory, a 31 m high observation tower, gardens and a public esplanade.The Platine’s geometric skin pattern is an adaptive envelope that wraps exhibition spaces, an auditorium, a green house and a library.  The seemingly random dispersion of transparent and opaque triangles is linked to the varying programmatic element’s needs of light.  In this way, the façade responds to the program housed within while also becoming an expression of the different activities in the Cité du Design. -- ArchDaily

Source: 3XN archdaily.com

Bella Sky, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2011 designed by 3XN

A 15 degree incline is incorporated into the two towers, allowing the designers to create a variation of 200 rooms, providing a unique and diverse hotel experience for the users. The two towers lean away from one another to provide each room with an unobstructed view of the city. -- ArchDaily

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Source: Moreno Maggi archdaily.com

Georges-Freche School of Hotel Management, Montpellier, France, 2012 designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas 

The project can be called “experimental” as much for its triangular shaped aluminium façade as for the use of reinforced concrete.  Both materials have been adapted in order to be able to adopt specific shapes  – curved and fluid – as required by the structure. The facades of the building have been constructed using 17,000 cases of anodized aluminum in triangular shapes. Each aluminum case is unique and bears its own specific bar code in order that it can be identified for its specific situation on the façade. The interaction between the facades reinforces the dynamic tension between the solid materials and the cavities, the light and the shadows, that are an inherent part of the projet.  The geometric design of the aluminum “skin” is developed further to apply to the 5,000 triangular glass frames that are mounted on metal nets. -- ArchDaily

Source: Claudio Manzoni archdaily.com

Bicentennial Civic Center, Córdoba, Argentina, 2012 designed by Lucio Morini + GGMPU Arquitectos

A medium-rise building housing the ministries dominates the complex: a faceted prism made out of concrete.  It is based on a square cuboid 45 meters high and with a side measuring 26 meters, which at a height of 16 meters suffers a 20-degree rotation.  This movement generates a more complex morphology based on triangles, which in turn produces a very particular play of shadows and light.  To avoid the flat character present in the early studies for the triangular facades produced by the rotation, a series of geometric rhomboid-based combinations were explored in order to instill tri-dimensionality to the very planes of the facades. -- ArchDaily

Source: Michael Schmucker archdaily.com

Podium at Menlyn, Pretoria, South Africa, 2012 designed by Boogertman + Partners Architects

The monochromatic triangular facade consists of a 3 shaded curtain wall of grey glass which spans the soft curve of the building on the corner of Atterbury Road and Lois Avenue, as well as the south façade. This striking feature takes full advantage of its prime location directly across from Menlyn Park Shopping Centre. The curtain wall acts as a mirror to the sky, evolving in colour and intensity as the sun moves across the African sky. In some instances the mottled facade appears as a single uniform colour from the outside. -- ArchDaily

Source: Zhubo Design Zstudio archdaily.com

Administrative Office Building of South University Of Science And Technology Of China, Guandong Province, China, 2012 designed by Zhubo Design Zstudio

To adapt to the southern climate, we create three courtyards within the office area. -- ArchDaily

Source: Tord-Rikard Söderström archdaily.com

Aula Medica, Solnavägen 7, Karolinska Institutet, 171 65 Solna, Sweden, 2013 designed by Wingårdhs

The twisted elevation is made entirely of flat glass panes; a geometry made possible by the triangular pattern that encloses the entire building. A variation of different panes handles the demands for insulation, transparency as well as shade without compromising the uniform character. -- ArchDaily

Eyes on the Roof

Source: Emily Geoff Flickr

MIT Baker House Dormitory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 1946 designed by Alvar Aalto

Built with dark red rustic bricks, the modular pieces come together to create sweeping curves that juxtapose the solid limestone of the attached rectilinear common room. The common room is a calm static space in comparison to the movement of the dormitories. The lower floor is lit with circular lights and the upper floor has views of the river. -- ArchDaily

Source: ltarkitekter.dk

Trapholt Art Museum, Kolding, Denmark, 1988 designed by Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter

The museum is organized around a spatial and circulatory sequence that begins at the entry court, innermost and highest on the site, and culminates in the panorama over the fjord. A continuous, massive wall acts as the circulatory backbone of the complex, integrating museum and landscape as its sculptural form traverses the contours of the site.

The exhibition spaces are a sequence of interlocking rooms, arranged along one side of the massive wall, so that all spaces are accessible. The exhibition spaces have skylights and windows placed according to exhibition requirements and exterior views. -- architect's web site

Source: openbuildings.com

Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria, 2003 designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier

....known locally as the Friendly Alien—has since become an attraction for art lovers and the culturally minded from all over the world. But it has also become an essential landmark in the urban identity of the city of Graz. As an exhibition centre for contemporary art, the Kunsthaus exhibits Austrian and international art from 1960 onwards. Its BIX media façade—designed by Berlin designers realities:united—constitutes a unique fusion of architecture and media technology. Effectively a large screen in the middle of the city, it acts as an instrument of art communication. -- OpenBuildings

Source: Christoph Bonke archdaily.com

Stödel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany, 2007 designed by Schneider + Schumacher

By placing the new building below the museum’s garden, they almost doubled the exhibition area from 4,000 m2 to 7,000 m2. The outer surface of the doubly-curved roof slab is covered by a total of 195 roof lights, varying in diameter from 1.50 m at the outer edge to 2.50 m at the highest point in the centre. These “eyes for art” were specially developed for the Städel extension and are designed to be walked on. Daylight entering the exhibition space Städel below can be controlled; either augmented using the integrated LED lighting system or mitigated by shading elements built into the roof light. -- ArchDaily

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Source: Tim Griffith archdaily.com

California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, USA, 2008 designed by Renzo Piano

The planetarium and the bubble that contains the rain forest habitat are the two big spheres that shape the green roof. The roof becomes a landscape with California native species, that won´t need extra maitenance or water, attracting local species to occupy it. Thus, the green roof won´t be fully accesible to visitors, who can only walk through a small path.

• The undulating roofline will draw cool air into the open piazza at the center of the building, naturally ventilating the surrounding exhibit spaces. Skylights in the roof will automatically open and close to vent hot air out through the tops of the domes.
• The skylights are strategically placed to allow natural sunlight to reach the living rainforest and coral reef. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jeremy San archdaily.com

9 Leedon Park, Singapore, 2011 designed by ipli architects

The house is designed to be passively cooled and naturally lit. The concrete walls insulate the interiors from the harsh sunlight and tropical heat. Hot air is vented through small openings in the roof so that there will not be any build up of temperature.  A water feature trickles water down the concrete wall, cooling it further. Little skylights with low-e film illuminate the interiors without letting in too much heat. The concrete walls are left in their natural finish so that they will age naturally with time. -- ArchDaily

Source: Javier Callejas Sevilla archdaily.com

Zamora Offices, Zamora, Spain, 2012 designed by Alberto Campo Baeza

Within the stone box, a glass box, only glass.  Like a greenhouse. With a double facade similar to a Trombe wall. The external skin of the facade is made of glass, each single sheet measuring 600x300x1,2 and all joined together simply with structural silicone and hardly anything else. As if entirely made of air. -- ArchDaily

Source: Brigida Gonzalezarchdaily.com

Forum at the Eckenberg Academy, Adelsheim, Germany, 2013 designed by Ecker Architekten 

The framing structure of the building is a three-axis lacunar concrete slab supported by three rotationally-cast concrete columns. The slab is articulated through a variety of cycloidal coffers, some of which accommodate transparent skylights. The coffering reduces the actual weight of the supporting structure while demonstrating the physical depth of the construction. The skylights ventilate the space, provide acoustic absorption, and contain integrated lighting to illuminate the space by day and night.   -- ArchDaily

Source: James Ewing archdaily.com

Henry W Bloch Executive Hall at University, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, 2013 designed by BNIM + Moore Ruble Yudell

Daylight penetrates the building, and spaces are easily adaptable to accommodate changing needs and active uses. -- ArchDaily

Source: Emre Arolat Architects + Ertuğrul Morçöl + Selahattin Tüysüz archdaily.com

Ulus Savoy Residences, Istanbul, Turkey, 2013 designed by Emre Arolat Architects + Ertuğrul Morçöl + Selahattin Tüysüz

The garage level was designed to hold a sufficient number of cars and to fit the basement of each building block, and, by problematizing the upper cover, at the same time constituted the substructure of a “new topography” within a negative-positive relationship. Each different level in the garage was connected by ramps, thus rendering it fluid. -- ArchDaily

Source: Adi Wainberg archdaily.com

K-house, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, 2013 designed by Arbejazz Architecture Studio

The entrance level consists of a family zone animated by natural light coming from a set of round skylights, which offers a playful interaction between this level and the balcony above. -- ArchDaily

Source: Jannes Linders archdaily.com

Grotius Building of Radboud University Nijmegen, Montessorilaan 10, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 HR Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 2014 designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects

The main entrance is located on a future new square. Through this entrance one enters the bright central atrium. The vital functions such as the library, the large lecture hall for 500 students and restaurant are grouped around the atrium, over several floors. A waterfall of wide stairs, located at the centre of the atrium, connects all floors. -- ArchDaily

Source: Brigida González archdaily.com

Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Jaeger Street 30, 70174 Stuttgart, Germany, 2014 designed by Wulf Architekten

On the ground floor the visitors can immediately find a large function room which can be enlarged to the foyer. Borrowed lights are illuminating this arrival area and most public space of the building. -- ArchDaily

Source: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG archdaily.com

RENOVA Store & Theatre, Almonda, 2350, Portugal, 2014 designed by PHYD ARQUITECTURA

Perforation over the surface, which is obtained from two different mechanisms, the cut and perforation itself. -- ArchDaily