Month: May 2022

MVRDV has revealed the design for its first project in South America. The Hills is a residential project located on the Guayas riverfront in Guayaquil, Ecuador, comprised of six residential towers displayed atop a mixed-use plinth, creating the image of a valley. The towers range in height from 92 to 143 meters, raising taller the further away they are from the riverfront. The whole composition is inspired by the local landscape that merges the natural and the urban environment.

Smart buildings are more and more on the agenda. For their elaboration, some materials have been developed to meet specific objectives during their use without the need to be operated by any person or equipment. Self-maintenance, cleaning the air, working with the comfort of space, energy efficiency, are just some of the benefits that can be achieved by adopting them.

All architecture movements throughout history spur from shifts in society that demand a new style that better reflects the way that technology has advanced the practice and how people express their political, religious, and moral beliefs and practices. While some shifts occur over a period of several years, others are experienced as a sudden revolt. The Vienna Secession was undoubtedly the latter. At the end of the 19th century, a group of artists and architects aimed to explore what art should be as it pertained to filtering global influences in a way that could introduce new modernism.

Elephant theater –  After the World Elephant Project was completed in 2020, I found that there were a lot of elephant droppings in Ta Klang Village in the village. Elephants are herbivorous animals and feed on Napier grass (Cenchrus purpureus), which makes their droppings fibrous. Villagers generally use elephant dung as fertilizer for crop cultivation, papermaking, and bio-gas. Even now, there is still a lot of elephant dung left on the roads. I have experimented in making elephant dung bricks to study their properties and the possibility of using them as construction materials.

a cluster of six residential towers will suggest a lush, naturally carved ‘valley.’
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The Kangaroo Valley Outhouse is a bathroom in the bush which services a small cabin for overnight stays. The concept was to separate the bathroom from the cabin and mimic the experience of camping. The bathroom/outhouse is situated low on a hillside about 30m from the accommodation and accessed via a pathway through a dense landscape. It is a mirrored cube elevated above the existing ground and nestled in vegetation. The outhouse structure completely disappears during the day. It reflects the lush landscape and only the subtle lines of the cube’s edges are visually legible. When in the bathroom the walls are all glass and there is no impediment to the view of the surrounding landscape.

designed to sleep 10 people, the cozy cabin retreat includes a hot tub and a six-person sauna.
The post the hygge box hop is a remote airbnb retreat made from seven shipping containers appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.