New work and a new web site from architect turned into illustrator Mister Mourao aka Vasco Mourao. Previous post here.
Mister Mourao aka Vasco Mourao
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Architecture
Harpa – Henning Larsen Architects / Olafur Eliasson
Harpa is the new opera house of Reykjavik, visible from the coast and throughout the city. It’s a large prism, reflecting the changing skies and harbor. The project was nearly halted during the Icelandic economic crisis but thankfully due to the government’s appreciation of the arts as an integral part of life in Iceland the project was fully funded to completion.
Designed by Henning Larsen Architects in collaboration with Danish Artist Olafur Eliasson on facade duty with Sebastian Behmann, Harpa was completed last year. The building’s south facade of over 1,000 ‘quasi bricks’ influenced by the local basalt geometric columns create a kaleidoscopic layer constantly changing the internal light of the building. This crystalline veil is beautifully contrasted by the monolithic anthracite poured concreted of the music halls.
“The building’s name Harpa refers to the musical instrument, the harp. It is also the name of the first month of spring in the Nordic calendar – and for the people of Iceland this means the promise of better times.” Steinunn Birna Ragnarsdóttir (Musical Director of Harpa)
I got a chance to see John Grant play here on Saturday where he started his tour of his fantastic second album ‘Pale Green Ghosts’. First four photos are from me and the rest are from Henning Larsen / Olafur Eliasson.
Lang Baumann – Beautiful Steps
Beautiful Steps is an ongoing Sculpture / Architecture project from Swiss creative duo Lang Baumann aka Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann.
Architecture for Dogs
hara-design-institute
‘Architecture for Dogs’ is a collaboration between some of the worlds game changing Architects and lovely looking dogs with some pretty out there results. If you see one you’d really like for your dog you can download the blueprints and make it at home, although some look ridiculously difficult to build. Have a look at the site for videos of each design and 3d animations of the construction.
torafu
mvrdv
sou-fujimoto
toyo-ito
shigeru-ban
konstantin-grcic
kenya-hara
kengo-kuma
hiroshi-naito
kazuyo-sejima
atelier-bowwow
BIG – Phoenix Observation Tower
Copenhagen and New York based Architects BIG’s (Bjarke Ingels Group) design for a mixed use Observation Tower in Phoenix, Arizona. Influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum rotunda, the tower marks a pin in the city to provide a new identity to the sky line. The oversize lollipop like structure towers 130 meters above the city consisting of a reinforced concrete and an open-air spiral sphere.
Nendo – Bird Apartment / Tree House
A Tree house that’s for the Birds by Japanese design studio Nendo. The tree house is located in a forest in Komoro City in Japan’s mountainous Nagano Prefecture and contains 78 separate spaces for birds to nest while providing accommodation for the ornithological enthusiast to have an auld snoop. There’s a mammoth amount of great furniture and product design from Nendo on their site but do check out the exhibition they did with Philips de Pury in the Saatchi Gallery, London in 2011 entitled ‘Think Black Lines’.
Cooper Joseph Studio – Webb Pavilion Texas
Loving this public park pavilion in Texas by Architects Cooper Joseph Studio. In-situ concrete and pristine bright yellow paneling look deadly together. It’s in Texas so it’s probably sunny pretty much all the time so when the light hits the panels from above it gives off a yellow glow making it a focal point for the park. Along with its physical size; the clever stepped seating encourages the community to use it as a meeting place.
Tomás Alonso
Simple playful furniture that reminds me of the chairs I used to sit on in primary school (in a good way of course) from Spanish born London based designer Tomás Alonso. This quote from Tomás’s web site really sums up his work for me:
“The very simple aesthetic qualities of his objects reveal the expressive potential of each specific material, which is also his main source of inspiration, conveying an expressive immediacy which makes his products universal and transgenerational. He uses both wood and metal in a sober, soft and practical manner, skilfully inverting the usual way in which these two materials are perceived: wood is reduced to very slender, squared, vectorial sticks, iron is curved, warm and coloured.”
You can see loads more of Tomás’s great design work on his site below, including a couple Camper fit-outs he has done recently. Tomás Alonso is also a co-founder of the design collective OKAYstudio in London which he started with fellow graduates of the RCA.
Mister Mourao
Exploding imaginary buildings from the Architect turned illustrator Mister Mourao aka Vasco Mourao. Mister Mourao updates his blog daily with new illustrations and images of his larger installation and drawing projects. The video and 4 images below are of the mammoth 100m long drawing project Mister Mourao made for a hotel in Barcelona over 23 days. The illustration above is available to purchase through The Working Proof as a limited edition giclée print with 15% of proceeds going to Médecins Sans Frontières.
Grüningen Botanical Garden – Buehrer Wuest Architekten
I’ve been told my a mate of mine to do more architecture post so this ones for you mike and you never know I might be do a few more. This is a pretty amazing project, a Green house by Swiss Architects Buehrer Wuest Architekten. The Greenhouse’s main structure consists of 4 steel columns / trees designed to maximize the glazed surfaces and minimize the foot print on the site, influenced by structural patterns found in nature. Loads more interesting projects on their pretty out there site below.
