Architectoid

The video depicts a recent continuous 8hr concrete pour for a post tension concrete slab  from a project from Nicholson Architects.  The concrete is poured all in the same day so that the slab will harden as a uniformed solid form. Once the concrete has harden to the proper strength around  3000 psi then the post tension cables can be tensioned. The result will be a dramatic and strong structure that is able to span large distance between concrete columns beneath its surface. Structural Engineer: Andrew Nasser, Omnispan Corporation Other Related Articles: Goldstein Tennis Court Hollywood Reporter Article - "infinity tennis court"

Haesley Nine Bridge Club House Shigeru Ban Bending the Rules on Timber Wood construction in the last 100 years has become more mechanized. Techniques for fabricating wood into glue laminated beams have allowed for long spans and optional bent shapes. Glulam Beams offers twice the strength to weight basis to steel. Bent and Twisted Glulam Beam The laminating, bending, and joining process have come to a epiphany in a project by Shigeru Ban on the Haesley Nine Bridge Club House in South Korea. The project uses complex double bent laminated beams. The finished design is a tree like forms with columns that extend as trunks and geometrically spread into branches in a complex and beautiful display. This construction was accomplished with 3D modeling to generate the 15,000 lap joints. The design process was a collaboration with a company Design to Production that worked with Shigeru Ban's Architecture office to help produce the modeling that lead to the intricate f

Carn White (1967) on exhibit now James Turrell has yet again changed my perception at how I perceive light. A new Turrell exhibit recently opened on Sept. 15th 2011 at the Kayne Griffin Corcoran Gallery in Santa Monica, California and will run through Dec. 17th 2011. Turrell is a light artist and works with light as a sculptor wields clay or bronze. He understands and manipulates the forms as if light were a solid material substance. The new exhibition called "Present Tense" had several rooms of work by Turrell displayed. The Artist delves deeply into illusion as you have to look closely and approach the work before you can consciously perceive the reality of the depth and light source. The work also deals with warped surfaced walls that either concave or convex toward the viewer and affect the light to the viewer.

As an adolescent I was fortunate enough to take a trip to Ireland and among some of the great sites I observed I was astounded at the natural site of the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs of Moher are in an area in the south western part of Ireland along the Atlantic coast line the ground rises up to around 700 feet with a shear drop ledge. As I approached the edge of the cliff I had to drop down and inch my way closer to look over. As I stretched out full length and my head finally crossed the edge I felt a strong gush of cool air that went directly up. This feeling of this invisible draft that went along the edge was a unique sensation that only added to the surreal site. I thought it proper to use the current background of the website for inspiration. Have you ever been to Ireland? Whats your favorite site? photo references: http://m.wikitravel.org/en/Cliffs_of_Moher http://www.igoweb.org/~wms/personal/photos/2001/ire3-moher/

Venice Beach is home to an extraordinary mixture of people and a big part of the character and history comes from its Artist residence. A lot of the action in Venice has always been down on the boardwalk where you can see street performers and street art . The artist works however that I am most interested in is sometimes grand enough to be displayed in museums. Peter Alexander is a local artist that started as an architect and made famous with his translucent wedges and paintings. I particularly like his series of aerial paintings of the Los Angeles basin. Larry Bell has a small studio near the board walk on 77 market street. He does amazing work with glass that reacts in exciting ways with light in perspective as you walk around his pieces. Guy Dill is another sculptor does many works with bronze that vary in sizes from small coffee table sizes to large several story high pieces. He has large studio spaces in Venice that uses to create his pieces that ar

Venice Beach is an eclectic cultural district on the western edge of Los Angeles bound by the Pacific Ocean. The area was founded as a beach resort in 1905 by millionaire Abbot Kinney . The marshy portion of land towards the south end of Venice Beach was turned into canals to replicate Venice, Italy. In addition to the canals Abbot also built an amusement pier with attractions for entertainment. Through the years the pier was rebuilt until it met its end to dilapidation as did the area in general but it served for low rent housing to artists, poets, and writers. In the 90's and through the 2000's Venice Beach has come around in a revival bought on by new residents reclaiming older and under valued properties. This gentrification to the area has also brought an influx of eclectic modern architecture by way of lax restrictions. I will now examine works of Architecture and Artists that I have found interesting and have taken notice from living in the area for the past five ye

Cover of recent pamphlet from John Lautner Foundation Tour Commemorating Lautner's 100th bday. Image is Lautner over looking the Sheats Goldstein House under construction. The Southern California Institute of Architecture has an archived video lecture from 1974. To view the recording follow this link . In addition the author and historian Nicholas Olsberg discusses Lautner in an interview with Peter Payette in this MP3 recording . Related Articles: John Lautner Lectures at SCI-Arc Shigeru Ban & Ray Kappe, Hammer Conversations

Glass technology is exciting more than ever in the direction that it is moving right now! The new and improved qualities architectural glass is having is all in the interlayer. The interlayer is a lamination process that occurs between plates of annealed glass that gives positive qualities. These positive qualities provide safety, security, sound reduction, solar energy control, UV control, protection from natural disaster, durability, and all with low visual distortion. The new and improved characteristics are speciality qualities that are applied to the interlayer in addition to the qualities listed above. These specialities are broken down into the following lighting, opacity, hardware and energy . Lighting: LED technology has moved fast in the past few years and is now capable of being embedded into the interlayer. These LED points of light now may be a seeming old technology to OLED Organic Light-Emitting Diode technology a partially opaque mater