VOID MATTERS

Monday, 24 March 2014

ARCHITECTURE COST MANAGEMENT - new contents on DIMSCALE website

Following the presentation of DIMSCALE's new consultancy service concept (a couple of months ago) we just added some new information to our website regarding ARCHITECTURE COST MANAGEMENT.

Throughout four brand new pages we tried to simplify the concept and present a set of easy-to-read texts which will certainly give a clearer idea of the scope and the benefits of this concept. Focused on optimising and controlling the costs of Architecture and Real Estate projects, ARCHITECTURE COST MANAGEMENT also seeks to safeguard the project's concept and final quality.

Besides the first page's introduction, the website presents also a more focused approach to each type of client/partner, giving detailed information of tailored services for Real Estate developers, Architecture offices and foreign investors that are looking for consultancy partners to develop projects in Portugal.

Led by Mies van der Rohe's famous quote "Less is More" we explain why it is important to identify the most crucial aspects of each project and to optimise/reduce the spent resources, in order to accomplish what will really bring out the project as a successful one, regarding its cost execution, architectural concept, quality and functionality.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe marked the XX century with an architecture that carried a vision of simplicity and clarity into his projects. A conceptual optimisation that became an icon of modern architecture and, properly adjusted to each specific context, can easily be applied to other fields. One of the major difficulties verifiable when managing projects related to Architecture and Real Estate is precisely to distinguish the essential from the accessory and to know precisely how to identify the components that will better bring out the concept of each project and the valences that will better contribute to its functionality. The absence of this perception and a specialised approach to the cost often affects the sustainability of projects, which can make their implementation unfeasible or bring unplanned costs during the implementation phases.

ARCHITECTURE COST MANAGEMENT seeks to optimise the available resources of each project, managing the balance between cost and value. To do this optimisation it is to accomplish with the project's goals with the minimum of resources, allowing the project to be sustainable. That's why it is true, also in this context, that "less is more".

More at DIMSCALE's website.

Friday, 21 March 2014

Mister Mourão - "an architect turned into a freelance illustrator with a tendency for obsessive drawing"

Vasco Mourão is a Portuguese architect who's been dedicating to the art of Illustration, working for clients like The New Yorker, Wired US, Domus, Ogilvy, Acura, Established & Sons. The quality and originality of his work has been motivating several appearances in international magazines. Our blog invited Vasco Mourão (aka Mister Mourão) to send us his work, which was kindly accepted, being this post the final result of this cooperation.

Vasco Mourão (aka Mister Mourão)

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Projects Wanted - The Barn, by mostlikely

mostlikely in an Architecture collective based in Wien, Austria. The office combines architecture, computer graphics, design and sound, presenting works in all these areas. Our blog invited mostlikely to participate in Projects Wanted Initiative and today we're publishing the project "The Barn", a family house built in the region of Kitzbühel, Austria.

We are open to receive projects from all around the world, regardless of their dimension or typology. Please send us high quality photos (indicating their authors), drawings and descriptive texts in English to our Marketing e-mail - david.cardoso@dimscale.com. It will be our pleasure to help spreading new Architecture concepts and ideas.

Staged Authenticity
To build a one family house in the region of Kitzbühel architect Mark Neuner and the team of mostlikely took a better part of the design process as a research quest on how to build in a contemporary way without neglecting the historic traditions. Questions with great significance in an area where tradition not only weighs heavily on old houses but hardly any new houses that are more daring are to be found at all. This coherent architectural landscape allows for a romantic identity as well as regional authenticity and serves as the layer stone of the tourism industry in this area. To respect and preserve the substance of the idyllic mountain village Going am Wilden Kaiser (the name of the mountain which literally translates to “Wild Emperor”) mostlikely chose to stage the well-known and proven in a new way.

The ideal model
Numerous walks through the environment and a deep dive into the history as well as the clichees associated with the area helped to analyse, measure and document the surroundings. These physical and mental excursions would then lead to a visualized outline of the plan that was full of variety and complexity. This way of “working in pictures” at the beginning of the design process enabled us to get a stronger connection with the space. This approach eventually led mostlikely to the barn instead of the traditional house to play the model for the further development. The typology of the barn with its brick-built, massive socket that contrasts its open hayloft seemed to suit today’s needs better than the traditionally poor-lit farmers house of the old days.

Concrete Flowers. (or: Fable and Flora.)
The point of culmination for the idea of the barn was the socket. Instead of brick, concrete was the material of choice and the magic could take place: flowers and creatures that would slightly remind the myths of the mountains would grow – thanks to a corrosion technique - on the especially designed and each separately cast concrete panels. Moreover in an almost manic cooperation with the sculptor Stefan Buxbaum mostlikely was able to create panels of concrete almost as light as a feather so that even the automatic garage door would open and thus be integrated invisibly in the façade of the building.

Proven but progressive
In the living areas of the house especially designed furniture, walls made from exposed concrete and most prominently the wooden roof timbering that would dominate the shape and feel of the upper floors would connect the shapes of the past with modern living styles just naturally without insinuating.

Unpretentious and natural as a barn should be a new typology of housing in the mountains was born: “Scheune Edition Kitzbühel 2012” its name.

- Mostlikely

MOSTLIKELY
Co-operational foundation.

The Viennese agency “mostlikely” is run by five partners and was established in 2012. We combine architecture, computer graphics, design and sound. Our projects vary from buildings to installations as well as from videos to music productions.

Each person has his own interests – Mark Neuner`s oscillates between different areas and dimensions – according to the scale of the project. When it comes to the dimension of the city, a theoretic meta-level so to say, his main interest lies in the socio-economic realities and restraints that create the production of the city. The one family home, on the other side of the spectrum, is the smallest typology but nevertheless challenging as it is here where the results of the exchange between the inner and outer space take shape in material.

Monday, 17 March 2014

Memories from UK January trip

Part of our team (Artur and David) took a 3-weeks trip to the UK in order to establish some contacts in London and to attend an English course in Broadstairs, Kent. During these three weeks this part of the team worked from the UK, following the office's policy to "work to anywhere, from anywhere". DIMSCALE chose once again the English school LanguageUK in Broadstairs, since we had colaborated with this school before.

Today we share a part of this experience through a selection of photos from Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Canterbury and London.