This morning I received an email from Pratt announcing that the Chair of the Undergraduate School of Architecture, Evan Douglis, will be leaving Pratt and becoming the Dean of the School of Architecture at Rennselear Polytechnic Institute. Congratulations Evan, and good luck!
Archive for the ‘architecture’ Category
Evan Douglis is RPI’s New Dean
Friday, May 15th, 2009EFGH Featured in Frames Magazine
Friday, May 8th, 2009
GAUD ++
Friday, April 10th, 2009
Last night was the (second) official opening for the GAUD++ show at Pratt. The show, which features a cross section of the work produced at the Graduate School in the past year, was curated by Mike Szivos and Maria Tsaftari together with a group of students.
View a few more images after the jump below.
Autogenic Structures
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
I made it this evening to The Storefront for Art and Architecture for the launch of Evan Douglis’s book: Autogenic Structures. As usual, it was great seeing so many friends and colleagues.
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Blue Marlin Lighting – Phase II
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
The second phase of the Blue Marlin lighting project was the design and installation of lamps for the existing/future conference rooms and reception area. To continue with the same language as the overall lighting of the space, we developed a chandelier out of the same laser-cut/flat packed elements we used in Phase I and off the shelf components. As you can imagine, I have by now a masters in pipe bending…
More images after the jump below.
Blue Marlin Lighting – Phase I
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
SOFTlab recently completed a lighting installation at the Blue Marlin offices in NYC. 6 pairs of branches populate the ceiling and not only distribute light, but articulate and organize the space. The branches end in the light fixtures which we designed and fabricated at the studio, while the rest of the structure was made out of standard electrical conduit.
Take a peek at more images of the installation after the jump below.
MIT
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
Smart Cities vehicle prototype.
We just got back from Boston after being invited by MIT to give a lunchtime lecture. My good friend Daniel Cardoso, a PhD candidate there was kind enough to show us around the media lab, where a few -very generous- people showed us some of their work. We had a chance to see the fabrication labs and some of the robotic work being currently done there, and it was absolutely mesmerizing. Dimitris Papanikolaou gave us a full presentation on his Mobility on Demand (MOD) project for the Smart Cities group, not only was that incredibly generous, but an amazingly interesting solution to urban mobility. What I think was among the most interesting thing -not only of his project but of the lab in general- is the reality of it all. A lot of the research being conducted there is for real applications / products / solutions, which is very refreshing to see after having been involved in architecture school for some time now, where a very small percentage of what is produced has real-world implications. We had as well the opportunity to meet up with our friends Carlos Rocha (ex-Media Lab and current Honda scientist) and Skylar Tibbits.
View a few more images after the jump below.
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Koolhaas’s Prada Transformer
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
Alice Tully Hall
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
I made it tonight for the opening night at Alice Tully Hall for an incredible performance: Diaspora Sefardi, From Medieval Spain to Eastern Mediterranean. an exceptional concert of revived medieval songs and ballads in what I imagine can be considered old Castilian.
The show itself was just the excuse to make it to the building of course, and right from the approach, the building is truly fantastic: the huge lobby, with a gigantic glass paned curtain wall on one side and the warm wood behind the bar give it the right contrast between scale and warmth. The super long bar of course works wonderfully in crowded evenings like tonight. Heading towards the auditorium itself, the ceiling height is much lower and the scale becomes much more intimate. You walk below the ‘watch-me-im-uber-rich’ balcony then turn right and down towards the auditorium. Upon walking into the orchestra level there is a shift which is pretty surprising: the height from the floor to the balconies is quite low but it soon opens up. The scale of the space is just perfect and the wood/resin paneling looks incredible. It is quite remarkable how close everything looks to the original images. Truly a fantastic building, and can’t wait to go there in the summer.
A couple more images after the jump.
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