The project BUS:STOP placed the small village Krumbach (Austria) on the world map after presenting its final result: seven new bus stops designed by world famous architects. The curator Dietmar Steiner was responsible for the project that took about one year to be concluded. The architects worked together with local craftsmen and architects, composing a team of about 200 people. The projects were signed by architects/offices like Sou Fujimoto, Wang Shu, Smiljan Radic and Ensamble Studio.
Architecture For Dogs is a project developed by the graphic designer Kenya Hara together with Imprint Lab. It has the objective to extend the scope of Architecture into a new context like the improvement of the interaction between human and dog - Architecture For Dogs has been partening with some of the most well-known architects such as Sou Fujimoto and Kazuyo Sejima. Today on our blog we share the contribution from the architect Sou Fujimoto. The complete list of ideas (and respective information) can be found on the project's website.
We're also sharing the view of Julia Huang (co-founder of the project) about the story and the success of Architecture for Dogs. Follow the project on Facebook!
"No Dog, No Life", by Sou Fujimoto for Boston Terrier
"This is the house where the dog lives, inside the house where the people who own the dog live. This architecture is a living space for the dog, as well as furniture for the people, a garden within the house, as well as a gentle boundary between the people and the dog. Our plan offers a house in which can be combined many different things that arise in the humans’ and dog’s living space, architecture for a space that holds a new abundance. We’ve taken small (7mm) square panels of hinoki [Japanese cypress] to make a grid pattern in which each square is 200mm, to which we’ve attached 2mm-thick transparent acrylic board, in essence creating a structure that looks like a 800mm-cubed shelf. The hollowed out interior section of this lattice functions as the dog’s residence, while on top of the clear shelf are stored various things for either dog or humans: a collar; a dish; books; a plant…. This scenery, in which various things relating to daily life surround the dog, overflows with chances for the dog to proactively get involved in that daily life, and projects a new relationship between humans and dogs. Humans artificially turned dogs into pets. Dogs, as pets, therefore lose their animal understanding. NO DOG, NO LIFE! is a new architectural space meant to act as a framework within which humans and dogs can, as they live together, interact proactively."
The Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto revealed part of a masterplan that is being developed by his office. The project is meant to be implemented in a Middle East city, that was not yet revealed. Situated between education and financial centers, the published fraction of the masterplan intends to communicate the “vibrant atmosphere and lively qualities of the traditional market” as well as the “inherent beauty of vernacular Islamic architecture”, according to the architect.
"The Souk Mirage, or “Particles of Light”, master plan is composed of
modular structural system of arches that range in size according to
program. Originally “inspired by the harmonious silhouette of
traditional Bedouin tents,” the arches’ purpose is to provide a simple
system of organization whose “unique and timeless architectural
expression” provides the framework for an intricate retail, office and
cultural center shaped around public plazas and atriums.
As an example of the conceptual master plan’s potential, Sou Fujimoto
Architects unveiled the Outlook Tower and Water Plaza. Created by arch
modules ranging from 3 to 12 meters, the landmark complex is built on a
shoreline site at the end of a major avenue. Perhaps its most defining
feature, aside from its distinctive silhouette, is its large collection
of variously-sized waterfalls that cool the complex. “By combining the transparency of the arches with the stepping
waterfalls, a dynamic play with light and shadow is created, while
appearing mirage-like,” described Sou Fujimoto."
The architect Sou Fujimoto signed the 13th Summer pavillion of Serpentine Gallery, located in Hyde Park, London. This pavillion is the third one designed by Japanese architects, after the work made by Toyo Ito (2002) and Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa (2009). This concept has a history made over the years with the collaboration of architects like Siza Vieira, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Oscar Niemeyer, Herzog & de Meuron and Zaha Hadid.
This year's structure opens to the public in June 8th, and is described by its author as a mix between the natural and the artificial, Nature and Architecture, and between the existing and built elements. There's a clear parallelism with some of Fujimoto's projects, like N House, project published in our blog in March.
Project's description on ArchDaily.com:
"A home for two plus a dog. The house itself is comprised of three shells
of progressive size nested inside one another. The outermost shell
covers the entire premises, creating a covered, semi-indoor garden.
Second shell encloses a limited space inside the covered outdoor space.
Third shell creates a smaller interior space. Residents build their life
inside this gradation of domain.
I have always had doubts about streets and houses being separated by a
single wall, and wondered that a gradation of rich domain accompanied by
various senses of distance between streets and houses might be a
possibility, such as: a place inside the house that is fairly near the
street; a place that is a bit far from the street, and a place far off
the street, in secure privacy.
That is why life in this house resembles to living among the clouds. A
distinct boundary is nowhere to be found, except for a gradual change in
the domain. One might say that an ideal architecture is an outdoor
space that feels like the indoors and an indoor space that feels like
the outdoors. In a nested structure, the inside is invariably the
outside, and vice versa. My intention was to make an architecture that
is not about space nor about form, but simply about expressing the
riches of what are `between` houses and streets.
Three nested shells eventually mean infinite nesting because the whole
world is made up of infinite nesting. And here are only three of them
that are given barely visible shape. I imagined that the city and the
house are no different from one another in the essence, but are just
different approaches to a continuum of a single subject, or different
expressions of the same thing- an undulation of a primordial space where
humans dwell. This is a presentation of an ultimate house in which
everything from the origins of the world to a specific house is
conceived together under a single method."
