Hybrid Architecture & Design @ Salone Milan 2014

Hybrid Architecture & Design @ Salone Milan 2014

interni feeding the city (4)

The new 17th Salone Exhibition Event for INTERNI sets out to introduce and develop the themes of Expo Milan 2015, which will open in May 2015 using the theme – FEEDING NEW IDEAS FOR THE CITY

As usual, INTERNI has gathered, in the magnificent setting of the Università degli Studi of Milan, the original contributions of internationally acclaimed designers and companies of reference in the field of innovation and research, transforming the exhibition site into a creative and intellectual workshop in the open air, in which to develop proposals for the city of the future, with a particular focus on the subject matter of the Expo Milan 2015.

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interni feeding the city opening

Architects, designers and artists were asked to create and build temporary installations that illustrate their interpretation of the theme of Expo 2015 “Feed the Planet, Energy for Life,” in a metaphorical and multidisciplinary approach.

The relationship between human beings and Mother Earth, the relationship between natural materials and artificial construction, the links between technological innovation and sustainability are just some of the major themes addressed by the designers, together with corporate partners.

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The goal of the Exhibition-Event of INTERNI is to present these projects to the international design populace and, at the same time, to offer them to the city, so that they can be reinstalled and seen again during the six months of the Expo (May-October 2015), at the Expo site and in the wider territory of the city.

In this sense, the Exhibition-Event for 2014 of INTERNI becomes a place of experimentation for the prototyping of installations on different scales, which set out to continue and reiterate their design message on an urban scale, as collective facilities capable of activating processes of encounter and exchange.

interni feeding the city (1)

 

interni feeding the city (2)

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Projects Presented

 

1. WALTER MARIA DE SILVA / PRIMARCHITETTURA

Walter Maria de?Silva, Leiter Konzern Design

Walter Maria de Silva (born 27 February 1951 in Lecco, Italy) is an Italian car designer who is currently Head of Volkswagen Group Design, and is currently responsible for oversight on the design of all Volkswagen Group passenger car brands including Audi, Volkswagen, SEAT, Škoda as well as Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti.

Since beginning his car design career in 1972 as head of design for Fiat, de Silva has also worked as a designer at I.DE.A Institute, and as head of design for Alfa Romeo, SEAT and the now defunct ‘Audi brand group’.

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The installation

primarchitettura-01

The interpretation of design all too often stops at the surface.

The formal, emotional and sensorial aspects can constitute an obstacle to overall understanding of the project.

Primarchitettura observes design as primary architecture, stripping it of its soft aspects, discovering unexpected new formal values, on the borderline with the status of art, a temptation proudly avoided to forcefully reassert the natural force of industrial reproducibility.

 

The container functionally respects the content, freeing its volume from decorative touches and accessories and taking it to a new elevation level.

The static quality of the parallelepiped is filtered by a facade panel, where the parametric generation of openings and their interaction with natural light become the interpretation of dynamism and movement, leading features in the design philosophy of Walter Maria de Silva.

Inside, an experimental space-frame, a research instrument, and visualizations of design and style concepts, are infinitely reproduced since they are positioned in reflecting containers.

 

2. TORAFU ARCHITECTS / SLIDING NATURE

Torafu Architects

Founded in 2004 by Koichi Suzuno and Shinya Kamuro, TORAFU ARCHITECTS employs a working approach based on architectural thinking. Works by the duo include a diverse range of products, from architectural design to interior design for shops, exhibition space design, product design, spatial installations and film making.

Amongst some of their mains works are ‘TEMPLATE IN CLASKA’, ‘NIKE 1LOVE’, ‘BOOLEAN’, ‘HOUSE IN KOHOKU’ and ‘airvase’ .

‘Light Loom (Canon Milano Salone 2011)’ was awarded the Grand Prize of the Elita Design Award.

Published in 2011 were the ‘airvase book’ and ‘TORAFU ARCHITECTS 2004-2011 Idea + Process’ (by BIJUTSU SHUPPAN-SHA CO., LTD.) and in 2012, a picture book titled ‘TORAFU’s Small City Planning’ (by Heibonsha Limited).

 

The installation

10-Torafu-Architects

Sliding Nature (4,95 x 9,45 x h 5,5 m)
produced by PANASONIC

In the Japanese architectural tradition dwellings are harmoniously integrated with the environment in such a way as to offer views, natural light and ventilation, thanks to sliding doors called fusuma or shoji.

Based on this model, the installation proposes a structure that evokes the form of a traditional house, to which a series of sliding doors have been applied to define its contours.

When the doors are opened the interior space is free of walls, and interacts with the environment. The house breathes and establishes a new and dynamic relationship with nature, utilizing artificial energy only when necessary.

The sliding doors painted in pure white make the structure seem almost abstract, in contrast with the massive forms of occidental architecture.

When the doors are opened the ceiling of the house lights up and establishes a dialogue with the LED lamps scattered on the lawn, and with the intermittent glow of the lamps under the portico

 

3. KENGO KUMA & ASSOCIATES / STONE FOREST

Kuma was born in Yokohama, Japan, and attended Eiko Gakuen junior and senior high schools.

After graduating in Architecture from the University of Tokyo in 1979, he worked for a time at Nihon Sekkei and TODA Corporation.

He then moved to New York for further studies at Columbia University as a visiting researcher from 1985 to 1986. In 1987, he founded the “Spatial Design Studio”, and in 1990, he established his own office “Kengo Kuma & Associates”.

He has taught at Columbia University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Keio University, where in 2008, Kuma was awarded his Ph.D. in Architecture.

Kuma is currently Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Tokyo, running diverse research projects concerning architecture, urbanity and design within his own Laboratory, Kuma Lab.

His office Kengo Kuma & Associates employs over 150 architects in Tokyo and Paris, designing projects of diverse type and scale throughout the world.

Kuma’s stated goal is to recover the tradition of Japanese buildings and to reinterpret these traditions for the 21st century. In 1997, he won the Architectural Institute of Japan Award and in 2009 was made an Officier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.

Kuma lectures extensively and is the author of numerous books and articles discussing and criticizing approaches in contemporary architecture.

His seminal text Anti-Object: The Dissolution and Disintegration of Architecture from 2008, calls for an architecture of relations, respecting its surroundings instead of dominating them.

Kuma’s projects maintain a keen interest in the manipulation of light with nature through materiality.

Key projects include the Suntory Museum of Art in Tokyo, Bamboo Wall House in China, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) Group’s Japan headquarters, Besançon Art Center in France, and one of the largest spas in the Caribbean for Mandarin Oriental Dellis Cay.

 

The installation

Stone-Forest-by-Kengo-Kuma-Associates_main_image_object

In the past years we have developed several projects of micro structures in wood using traditional Japanese techniques combined with new technologies.

Now we wanted to explore the same techniques applied to the local stone, to create the same kind of structures to achieve a scale of lightness and craftsman feeling.

With this type of system not all the elements are used in full structural efficiency, but the interlaced elements create a micro-mesh relaxing the overall structure.

The project, engineered by Ejiri Structural Engineers, was done through the assemblage of stone elements with 9×9 cm section, with different directions, stacked in a three-dimensional space.

One of the key challenges was to define the ideal stone module to express lightness with enough strength to support the structure.  The Carrara Marble was chosen not only for its aesthetic qualities but for its structural performance.

Walking alongside, it gives a perspective of density that changes in a way we cannot foresee.

 

4. NUTRIRE LA TERRA / ARCHEA   

Laura Andreini                           Marco Casamonti                          Giovanni Polazzi                                 Silvia Fabi

ARCHEA, founded in Florence in 1988 by the Florentine architects Laura Andreini (1964), Marco Casamonti (1965) and Giovanni Polazzi (1959).

Archea is now a network of over 80 architects, operating in six different cities – Milan, Rome, Beijing, Dubai, Sao Paulo and the original headquarters in Florence.

 

The installation

immagine-cortile-donore

Nutrire la Terra (12 x 4,8 x h. 4,17 m)
produced by ATELIER-A
sound design ARCHITETTURA SONORA
lighting design Martini Light

To give to nature exactly what she gives to man, just as a tree absorbs heat, carbon dioxide and water and then returns a corresponding quantity of things: the installation is a tribute to an Earth that is often thoughtlessly consumed by man, who transforms it in a conscious or involuntary way.

The cyclical exchange established between the Earth and every living being always repeats in the same way. In the installation ten large stylized trees come together to create a spatial quality halfway between nature and artifice: they represent a forest that at the same time is an archetype of sacred space and an element of nourishment of the earth.

 

The materials with which the trees are made are natural: lamellar bamboo and wood, in tune with the concept of resources that come from and are returned to nature.

The ten trees, five meters high, with a flared conical form, are lined up in two perfectly symmetrical rows; the specular doubling of the foliage creates a concave ogival space that covers and protects.

The trunks are like the pillars of a nave in a Gothic cathedral, while the upward flares extend to gather nourishment from the environment.

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5. ATELIER BOW-WOW / WINDOWSCAPE

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima

 

Atelier Bow -Wow is a studio based in Tokyo, founded by the Japanese architects Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (Kanagawa, 1965) and Momoyo Kaijima (Tokyo, 1969), who have designed and constructed residences and commercial public buildings above all in Tokyo, but also in Europe and the USA.

Urban planning research has led the studio to a sort of experimental social project known as “micropublic- space,” which has been exhibited all over the world.

The interests of Atelier Bow-Wow cover a wide range of spheres, from architectural design to urbanism, to the creation of public works based on the theory of “behaviorology.”

The term behavior applies to human comportment inside and outside buildings, the combination of different environmental elements like light, air, warmth, wind and water in architecture, and the behavior of the construction with respect to the environment.

In architecture “behaviorology” has the aim of deciphering the behaviors of all these elements and summing them up to optimize performance in a specific context. The goal is to position human life inside the relational network of objects and things.

Important projects by Atelier Bow-Wow include the Gae House (2003) and the House & Atelier Bow-Wow (2005) in Tokyo, the BMW Guggenheim Lab (2010) in New York, the Logements Sociaux Rue Rebiere (2012) in Paris, the Kitamoto Station Plaza (2012) in Saitama (Japan).

Important publications about the studio include Made in Tokyo (Kajima Institute Publishing Co Ltd., 2001), Pet Architecture Guide Book (World Photo Press, 2001), Graphic Anatomy – Atelier Bow-Wow (TOTO Publishing, 2007), Behaviorology (Rizzoli New York, 2010), A Primer (Buchhandlung Walther König, 2013), Graphic Anatomy 2 – Atelier Bow-Wow (TOTO Publishing, 2014).

Atelier Bow-Wow has won many prizes, including the Gold Prize of Residential Architecture (1999, Tokyo Architecture Society), the 16th Yoshioka Prize (2000), the RIBA International Fellowship (2012), and the Good Design Gold Award (2013).

 

The installation

windowscape bow wow atelier (9)

Atelier Bow-Wow, conducted design surveys of various behaviors in architecture that have evolved within different cultural and climatic contexts around the world.

Through participating in YKK AP’s Windowology, Tsukamoto Laboratory in Tokyo Tech documented these studies in two books: WindowScape: Window Behaviorology (2010) and WindowScape 2: Genealogy of windows and street scapes (2014).

Atelier Bow-Wow believes that windows are useful to integrate the life of people in the eclectic inter-relational network of the city. The WindowScape installation demonstrates the intrinsic properties of windows to act as a threshold between the interior and the exterior of a space, in this case made only of windows, the Kaleido-window.

A place resembling a tunnel, composed of a series of windows, based on the concept of the kaleidoscope.

Kaleido-window becomes an enchanted space where light and the landscape framed by the windows are randomly fragmented inside, changing in response to the physical movements of visitors.

Some of the main concepts from the WindowScape works are illustrated along the way.

 

6.  dRMM / SCALE INFINITE

Alex de Rijke , Philip Marsh, Sadie Morgan

dRMM is a London-based international practice of architects and designers founded by british architects Alex de Rijke (1960), Philip Marsh (1966) and Sadie Morgan (1969) in 1995.

Studio Director Jonas Lencer (1978) joined dRMM in 2004. dRMM is renowned for creating architecture that is innovative, high quality and socially useful.

They have recently been awarded the Building Design (BD) Architect Of The Year 2013 for their significant contribution to British architecture.

dRMM’s strong reputation is owed to a talented and resourceful team who work in the belief that outstanding architecture comes through collaboration, lateral design, environmental awareness and building innovation.

Almost twenty years after the studio’s inception, dRMM have won numerous awards for their projects in various architectural sectors including residential, education, interior, leisure, culture, workplace, and place-making.

Their first project, No. One Centaur Street (2003), won eight awards including the Riba London Building of the Year, whilst in 2010 the community-driven project Clapham Manor Primary School was a runner up for the Riba Stirling Prize.

In addition to their larger schemes, dRMM have successfully delivered a variety of smaller projects in the cultural sector including exhibitions in the UK, Norway, Italy and Brazil.

They have worked on gallery and exhibition design for institutions such as the Milton Keynes Gallery, Modern Art Oxford, and the Design Museum London.

dRMM’s Timber Studio has pioneered the use of engineered timber since 2000. Introducing cross-laminated panel construction to the UK education sector with their award-winning Kingsdale School (2005), they were able to demonstrate how CNC-cut structural timber could outsmart its competitors in versatility, building efficiency, and character.

The studio has continued to innovate in engineered timber research.

Their landmark project for the London Design Festival 2013, Endless Stair, pioneered the use of hardwood for cross-laminated timber (CLT), demonstrating the structural use of tulipwood – an abundant, relatively inexpensive and sustainable American hardwood – for the first time in architecture.

The project was a manifestation of dRMM’s continuing advocacy of timber as a relevant material for 21st century architecture.

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The installation

dRMM_ SCALE INFINITE (2)

project dRMM
produced by AMERICAN HARDWOOD EXPORT COUNCIL
and with Arup, Imola Legno, Nüssli

installation Scale Infinite (15,3 x 6 x h 5,8 m)

The project is the latest iteration of Endless Stair, a structure of Escher-like interlocking staircases originally installed in front of Tate Modern for the London Design Festival 2013.

Endelss Stair was conceived as a three-dimensional exercise in modular timber construction, offering the potential for reconfiguration and adaptation to different contexts.

Scale Infinite is a further play on perspective: six interlocking flights of steps made from American tulip wood cross-laminated timber (CLT) will be joined together to create a visually arresting form, which offers a contrast to the classical uniformity of the Renaissance building.

Endless Stair was the first ever use of hardwood for cross-laminated timber, which is usually made from softwood. American tulip wood (Liriodendron Tulipifera) is an abundant and relatively inexpensive hardwood, strong and stiff for its weight. Testing carried out during production showed that tulip wood is three times stronger than a typical construction softwood, enabling dRMM to design slender components.

This project helps demonstrate that hardwoods can add a new dimension to future timber construction.

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7. PAOLA NAVONE / BEAUTY SEED

PAOLA NAVONE

PAOLA NAVONE straightforward, but also an eclectic dreamer: in her spirit flavors and colors of the south of the world coexist, of places known, loved and visited, combined with the taste and forms of the Occident rich in traditions, open to new things, always in movement.

All this leads to her endless curiosity regarding materials, forms and structures, of the present, past and future.

Paola Navone, was born in Turin in 1950, took a degree in architecture at the Polytechnic in that city in 1973.

She has done the interior decorating of restaurants in Milan, Athens and Mykonos; of the showrooms of Piazza Sempione in Milan, Düsseldorf, Rome, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna, New York and Las Vegas; of the Illy Bar Concept in Milan; the Art Trading office in Moscow; the Dodo shops for Pomellato in Florence, Bergamo, Lecce, Milan, Bologna, London, Dusseldorf and the United States; and the hotels Point Yamu in Phuket and Metropolitan at Miami Beach, of Como Hotels and Resort.

Navone has curated many exhibitions and exhibit designs since 1975, all over the world: the Milan Triennale; Centrodomus Milan; the Venice Biennale; Pitti Immagine Casa and Pitti Taste in Florence; Abitare il Tempo in Verona; Ambiente in Frankfurt; Salon Du Meuble and Salon Futur Interieur in Paris; Palazzo Carignano in Turin; events for Barovier&Toso, Alcantara and Poltrona Frau during the FuoriSalone in Milan; ‘La Trieste di Magris’ in Barcelona; Maison&Objet Editeurs and Scènes d’Interieur in Paris.

She has won many prizes and honors: Prix d’éxcellence of Marie Claire Maison for the Andaman bed; Prix createur de l’année at Maison et Object; 2000 Cologne, Designer of the Year assigned by Architektur und Wohnen; 2011 Milan, Elle Deco International Design Awards (Edida) for the Bed Bug by Poliform; Elle Deco International Design Awards (Edida) for the Metroquadro collection by Richard Ginori.

 

The installation

PAOLA NAVONE_ BEAUTY SEED (6)

A surprising, disorienting presence, a form with organic and at the same time fantastic features: a gigantic seed that has landed amidst the Renaissance porticoes of the Cà Granda, from mysterious faraway lands, to remind us of the generative and regenerating power of beauty.

With its multicolor surface, in a camouflage pattern rendered less dramatic by lively hues borrowed from the color range of 24Ore Silk eye shadow by Deborah Milano, it attracts the gaze and communicates a sense of optimism. A promise of imminent blossoming, where everyone can add the forms and colors they desire; a metaphor that draws on nature and nourishes creative and constructive thinking.

 

A tactful, curious warning for the builders of the metropolis of the future: to be designed according to the nonephemeral principles of beauty, to dress up with color and lightness, indispensable requirements for human happiness.

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8. NEMESI & PARTNERS / ENTreePIC

Susanna Tradati

Susanna Tradati

Michele Molè

Michele Molè

NEMESI & PARTNERS is an integrated service company headed by Michele Molè (Rome, 1964) and Susanna Tradati (Brescia, 1974).

Founded in 2008, the company coordinates the design activity of Nemesi Studio, founded in 1997 by Michele Molè.

Nemesi is based in Rome, in the Pietralata district, inside the former Lanificio Luciani, converted to transform the spaces of the former factory into a citadel of art and architecture.

Today the Studio employs 25 professionals and participates, often victoriously, in many international competitions.

During the course of 2014 two new Nemesi offices will be opened, in Milan and Shanghai. Recent projects include the Italian Pavilion for Expo Milano 2015 (Milan, ongoing); the new ENI administrative center, the result of winning an international competition, with an architectural design in partnership with Morphosis Architects (Milan, 2011); the Harbin International Airport, a limited international competition (Harbin, China, 2010); the urban renewal and museum project for the Trajan Markets (Rome, 2004); the multifunctional and religious complex of Santa Maria della Presentazione (Rome, 2002).

In 2009 Michele Molè won the Gold Medal for Italian architecture with the project Atasehir Masterplan/Istanbul at the World Triennial of Architecture- Interarch in Sofia (Bulgaria); in 2003 he received the Medaglia al Benemerito della Cultura e dell’Arte from the Presidency of the Italian Republic.

Susanna Tradati is a partner in Nemesi & Partners with the role of Project Manager and Director of External Relations, also regarding strategies of internationalization.

 

The installation

NEMESI & PARTNERS _ENTreePIC (8)

installation ENtreePIC (10 x 6 x h 6 m)
produced by ITALCEMENTI GROUP e STYL-COMP GROUP

The installation is a sculptural composition that evokes a botanical system featuring a branching pattern, whose fragmented and chaotic design generates an entropic-morphic system.

This system is made with innovative materials and technologies developed by Italcementi and Styl-Comp, the partners of Nemesi for the project of the Italian Pavilion for Expo Milano 2015.

The branching pattern of the installation suggests the primitive and at the same time high-tech figuration of the ‘skin’ of the Pavilion.

The material shaped is cement with a pale color, a premixed cement whose composition of aggregates has been designed to convey a warm, vibrant materic impact.

The interweaving of lines and fragments generates alternation of lights and shadows, empty and full zones, giving rise to a natural architecture, like imagining a forest in which to get lost or to find one’s way.

A piece of artificial landscape and architecture, a preview and first segment of the great mosaic that will go into the upcoming Italian Pavilion designed by Nemesi&Partners for Expo Milano 2015.

The model of the Italian Pavilion, scale 1:50, is on display in the Hall of the Aula Magna.

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9. SPEECH TCHOBAN &  KUZNETSOV  / U_CLOUD

SERGEY

Sergey Kuznetsov

SERGEI

Sergei Tchoban

The studio SPEECH TCHOBAN/KUZNETSOV was founded in 2006 as a result of long term collaboration of the Berlin office nps Tchoban Voss and the Moscow office Tchoban and Partners, both directed by Sergei Tchoban, with the bureau S.P.Project, headed by Sergey Kuznetsov.

Speech Tchoban & Kuznetsov represents the basis for expanded activities in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Speech Tchoban & Kuznetsov develop a wide range of office and commercial buildings, hotels, condominium blocks, retail and administration centers.

Among the most renowned buildings there are the Moscow Business Center at Leninsky Prospekt and the residential complex Granatny 6 (both 2010) as well as the new administrative headquarters of Bank St. Petersburg in St. Petersburg (2011).

Current architectural projects of the bureau include the second tower of the Federation Complex in Moscow’s new business district Moscow City, once topping the list of the tallest buildings in Europe, as well as the Water Sports Palace for the World University Games 2013 in Kazan, Russia.

Sergei Tchoban was elected curator for the exhibitions of the Russian Pavillon at the Biennale di Architettura in Venice in 2010 and 2012, and Sergey Kuznetsov was elected co-curator in 2012. Exposition «i-citi/i-land» of the Russian pavilion in the XIII Architecture Biennale in Venice was awarded with a special prize (special mention) by the jury in 2012.

By June 2013 the Museum for Architectural Drawing was inaugurated in Berlin. This project won Iconic Award 2013 and Architectural Review Prize for Emerging Architecture 2013.

In 2012 Speech Tchoban & Kuznetsov was appointed Architect of the Year. In September 2012 Sergey Kuznetsov became a Chief Architect of Moscow.

The U_cloud project has been realized with the participation of architect Agniya Sterligova, former collaborator of Speech Tchoban & Kuznetsov, that currently work on several exhibition, architecture and artistic projects in Russia and abroad.

 

The installation

SPEECH TCHOBAN &  KUZNETSOV - U_CLOUD (4)

Historically cities always were places of cultural, educational and economical potential, centers for acquisition and exchange of information. The onrush of new technologies and virtual services of data filing in geometrical progression increases the number of invisible connections running through the city, and moves it out of its physical borders.

 

A steadily enlarging U_cloud floats over the endless city, reflecting an intricate pattern set of multi-scale objects, isometric empty spaces, private stories and unpredictable circumstances.

The three-dimensional profile of the cloud is composed of a metal structure covered with LED screens that show videos and images; it rests on a base clad in mirrors to create the effect of suspension.

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10. MVRDV / THE VERTICAL VILLAGE

Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries

MVRDV is a global operating architecture and urbanism practice that was set up in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries.

MVRDV engages globally in providing solutions for contemporary architectural and urban issues.

A research based and highly collaborative design method engages experts from all fields, clients and stakeholders in the creative process.

The results are exemplary and outspoken buildings, urban plans, studies and objects, which enable our cities and landscapes to develop towards a better future.

The products of this approach range from buildings to urban designs, to publications and installations.

Realized projects include the Dutch Pavilion for the World Expo 2000 in Hannover, the Tv & Radio broadcasting station Villa Vpro, the iconic social housing project Mirador in Madrid, and more recently the Dnb Bank headquarters in Oslo and a public library in Spijkenisse, Netherlands.

Current projects include large-scale masterplans for the Almere Floriade 2022, for Caen and Bordeaux, an office building in Paris, a market hall in Rotterdam and housing and office projects in Western Europe, Usa and Asia.

The work of MVRDV is exhibited and published worldwide and receives international awards.

The 70 architects, designers and staff members conceive projects in a multi-disciplinary collaborative design process and apply highest technological standards.

Together with Delft University of Technology MVRDV runs The Why Factory, an independent think tank and research institute providing argument for architecture and urbanism by envisioning the city of the future. Winy Maas Prof. Ir. Ing Friba Haia (1959, Schijndel, The Netherlands) graduated in Landscape Architecture from Rhstl Boskoop in 1983.

In 1990, he completed two masters simultaneously, in Architecture (Honours) and in Urban Design and Planning, at the University of Technology of Delft. Jacob van Rijs Ir. Friba (1964, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) studied at Delft University of Technology from 1984 to 1990 and graduated with a Master of Architecture with Honours.

Nathalie de Vries Prof. Ir. Friba (1965, Appingedam, The Netherlands) studied at Delft University of Technology from 1984 to 1990 and graduated with a Master of Architecture with Honours.

 

The installation

The project explores the effect of rapid urban transformation on Asian cities, the qualities of urban villages and the potential of densifying in a vertical, differentiated way.

The pressure on urban agglomerations has led to an increasing urbanization.

A Block Attack of giant buildings and identical monotonous towers have gradually replaced traditional low rise, small scale, lighter types of architecture: the Hutongs in Beijing, the small wooden houses in Tokyo, the villages in Singapore, the individual houses in Taipei.

Socially highly connected communities with individual identities have been replaced by large scale monolithic blocks.

 

The Vertical Village offers a new model: a three-dimensional community that densifies cities in a way that the qualities of the traditional urban village are preserved, increasing personal freedom, diversity, flexibility, neighborhood life and attractivity.

It provides housing types with terraces and roof gardens that can be combined with small-scale offices and other programs.

A truly self-organized manner of city building that combines individuality, diversity and collectivity with the need for densification.

The installation consists of 77 coated foam cushions by which different compositions can be constructed.

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