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With so many buildings in the world today, how do you know when you experience innovation in architecture? I think innovation in architecture can happen at different scales, in different cultures and at different times. The following slideshow is an exploration into understanding when you experience innovation, so that you can extract meaning and knowledge from those experiences to ultimately bring back what you learn from them to inject that into your work.
Thus, each photograph within the slideshow below represents an answer to the following question:
When Do You Experience Innovation in Architecture?
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- When Creating a Building that “Moves” Differently
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- When Integrating Something Useful in an Unlikely Place
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- When Using Design Tools To Construct New Forms
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- When It Does Something that You Didn’t Think was Possible
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- When It Takes on New Behaviors
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- When It’s Key Concept Revolutionizes the Way People Live
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- When It Transports You to Another World
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Image Credits (in order of appearance): Flickr —
Sven Lindner, inspiration_seeker, jglsongs, Jakob Montrasio, George Lu, CHRISTOPHER MACSURAK, sergis blog.
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Poetic architecture taps into that moment when architecture transcends itself, when it becomes more than simply a physical space — and exudes to a sense of place and beauty that words cannot often describe. Thus, I put together the following slideshow to explore the issue of poetic architecture, to get your mind thinking of how to make more out of your work, and to become more aware of the poetics which surround you — so such poetic thinking will come more readily to you while you design.
Thus, each photograph within the slideshow below represents an answer to the following question:
What Makes a Building Truly Poetic Architecture?
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- When It Inspires You To Preserve It (as a Photograph)
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- When it Humbly Taps Into Your Emotion
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- When it Becomes a Symbol for a Country.
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- When it Makes a Statement about What’s Inside
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- When its Details are Sensitive to Human Scale + Senses
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- When It Presents Itself As a New Form of Beauty
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- When Its Proportions are Balanced Perfectly
Please Tell Me What You Think
I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter and Facebook followers by clicking on the “re-tweet” and “like” button at the beginning of this page.
Image Credits (in order of appearance): Flickr —
UggBoy♥UggGirl [ PHOTO // WORLD // TRAVEL ], Jakob Montrasio, Eustaquio Santimano, seier+seier, seier+seier, o palsson, telmo32
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In the vast multitude of celebrated architectural window designs in the world today, there are many opportunities for you to pick up on the beautiful, and at times subtle, effects that an innovative window design method yields. Windows are more than simply a way to connect the exterior with the interior — while that is a powerful effect of a window, there are many more ways in which they impact how people perceive and operate within buildings.
Thus, in order to trigger a bit of creative thinking and inspiration, I put together the slideshow below which answers the following question —
What can a window design method do to enhance building perception?
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- Liven Materials in Unexpected Places
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- Reveal What Goes On Inside
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- Celebrate an Event, Place or Product
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- Accentuate an Interior Feature
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- Let in Fresh Air
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- Convey a Message
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- Reduce or Filter a Boundary
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- Create Community by Making a Statement
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- Serve as a Luring Destination
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- Defy Gravity
Image Credits (in order of appearance): Flickr —
Ishmael Orendain, julipan, Kecko, BinaryApe, liber, bachmont, GioPhotos, gualtiero, Wolfgang Staudt, seier+seier
Please Tell Me What You Think
I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter and Facebook followers by clicking on the “re-tweet” and “like” button at the beginning of this page.
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The Spiral Translates Light to Create an Awe-Inspiring Pattern
A beautiful and often inspiring aspect of architectural design is its ability to connect with people on a deeper level, to inspire awe at just the right moment so that occupants can transcend the physical spatial elements by taking them on a more spiritual journey. For this reason, I always find it a good practice to ask what it is about architecture that can touch people in this way. How does it work? And why does it work?
Architectural scale, balance, color, and yes, geometry are all important factors that synergize to evoke the sense of awe in its observers. And as you will see in the following slideshow, geometry can be used in a multitude of ways to “move” people — whether that be to give them a moment of surprise, spark of inspiration, or even space for contemplation. Geometry is an element that cannot be overlooked in terms of its power to help architecture connect more deeply with its occupants.
Thus, each photograph within the slideshow below represents an answer to the following question:
How does geometry within architecture invoke a sense of awe?
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- The Spiral Translates Light to Create an Awe-Inspiring Pattern
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- This Building Section Geometry Compresses Space & Uplifts Eyeline
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- Geometry Cantilevers to Suspend Occupants as they Look Down
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- Juxtaposing Geometric Structures Travel High Making One Look Up
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- The Sheer Scale of Geometry Can Create Its Own Beauty
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- These Spiral Stairs Create a Geometric Journey
Image Credits (in order of appearance): Flickr —
Alicia-Lee-07, dysturb, seier+seier, Ishmael Orendain, IK’s World Trip, quapan.
Please Tell Me What You Think
I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter and Facebook followers by clicking on the “re-tweet” and “like” button at the beginning of this page.
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How do you use color to “move” your occupant? Do you go beyond merely using it as a wayfinding technique? Or do you “paint” your three-dimensional space to lead your occupant on a journey that enhances the spirit of place?
As you will find within the following slideshow, color can be used within architecture in soul-stirring and innovative ways. Color not only engages a building occupant by making real the beauty of function, but also invites them “in” to truly “touch” a space — perhaps at first with their eyes, but then with all of their senses as color becomes much more when it meets the eye.
So, how do you use color to “move” your building occupants?
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- By color coding ducts to reveal a building’s climate, electrical, plumbing and circulation arteries.
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- By filtering and layering light to bring spirit to a place.
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- By bringing unity and community to individual living spaces.
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- By bringing “life” to meaningful memories.
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- By allowing their eyes to “touch” a surface in ways their other senses cannot.
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- By revealing the beauty of fluidity and rhythm.
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- By mathematically coding the meeting of music, sculpture and a culture’s differing demographics.
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Light has many faces, and many forms. As an architect, you can “paint” with light, “sculpt” with light and guide your occupant to “touch” it.
The following slideshow takes a look at how light can “set off” built form, and how built form can “set off” light. When the two fuse poetically, they can showcase your materials, an experiential path or even “warm” an otherwise “cold” space.
So, the real question becomes…
WHY Do You Inject Light into Your Building Designs?
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- To bring “lift” to your building form.
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- To capture a breathtaking vista.
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- To mark the time of day.
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- To cast texture and rhythm.
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- To shelter through purity of form.
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- To touch the heavens.
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- To build an “invisible” connection.
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- To filter a kaleidoscope of colors.
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- To bring celebration to the world.
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Architects are constantly defying gravity. We built into and with the sky, and the way in which we engage it says a lot about our work. Building upward involves more than just getting your occupants to look up.
The following is a 10 image slideshow presented with hopes to inspire you to think about the sky creatively. These captured moments, ranging in complexity, illustrate just how delicate the balance is between our built forms and the sky which surrounds us.
Here are ten ways to built into and with the sky, to defy gravity and to help you design architecture that is more balanced, harmonious and awe-inspiring.
How To Build Into the Sky…
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- Frame it, to capture your own horizons.
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- Travel into it, provide activity from high above.
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- Listen to it, through a funnel of flutes.
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- Capture the sky and bring it to ground-level.
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- Move downward, changing your “ground”. Peek up at it.
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- Transition into the sky while writing in it.
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- Lead the eye upward along a path.
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- Move through it, like the wings of a bird.
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- Build into it. Filter in all of its light.
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- Remove boundaries. Blur the sky with your built form.
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It is fascinating to think about the “between-state” of nature and built form. Each can support, erode, filter or even sculpt the other. Both architecture and nature seem to continuously creep into each other’s territories, as if to propel the notion that they are really inseparable — as you will see in the following slideshow.
It is my hope that these simple “captured moments” will spark an idea for you regarding architecture’s interplay with nature. As architects, we always should be aware of our green environment…for so many reasons. It is important that we build with our environment and not against it. Here are nine simple reasons why:
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- Architectural Weathering — displaying nature and built form’s delicate balance.
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- Improving Building Systems — a vertical display of nature texturizing our environments.
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- We Reflect Nature — The sky looks as if it is coming from the building’s interior.
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- Nature’s Growth— Nature most always finds a way to make an appearance.
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- Nature’s Perspective — This water droplet reflects buildings on its surface.
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- Feeding Our Experiences — Light “striking” an interior space.
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- Local Natural Systems — A nest “built” within a building’s fixture.
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- Capturing Nature’s Beauty — An old brick wall reveals nature, as if to filter it through.
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- Socio-political Factors — an abandoned city taken over by lush nature.
Please Tell Me What You Think
I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.
