Lofty Ambitions: For his graduation project, Bartlett student Alex Sutton has developed a proposal for integrating airports into the fabric of the city in the form of a series of elevated runways in the heart of Stockholm (pictured above). The brief was to “develop a utopian dream and consider the steps necessary to make it a reality.”
AQI Dynasty: Although his recent study-abroad tour focused on China’s architecture, professor Blaine Brownell and his students couldn’t help but notice the air pollution of the Middle Kingdom. In his most recent column for Architect, he explores how architects can address (or outright deny) the problem.
L: Battersea Power Station, photo via Dezeen; R: Miyawaki Gurindo by Keita Nagata, image via Gizmodo.
Bjarke Plays Coil: BIG has updated its original proposal for Malaysia Square at Battersea Power Station with a shocking twist: “We’re working with experts in Tesla coils, looking into how to incorporate it into the chimneys,” he related in a recent talk. “I have to say that we haven’t fully persuaded the client to do it, but we have a rock-solid feasibility study.”
Below Grade: Architect Keita Nagata has designed a series of geothermally regulated mountainside dwellings for Mineyama Mountain in southern Japan. Some two-and-a-half years in the making, the Miyawaki Gurindo residential complex is five stories tall, each one “setback,” so to speak, such that its planted front yard sits atop the roof of the unit below.
Golden Reel, photo via Gizmag.
Figures: Considering that eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture, it should come as no surprise that a resort in Macau will be home to not only the highest Ferris wheel in Asia, but one that also has a unique shape. The Golden Reel at Studio City entertainment complex is set to become the first figure-eight Ferris wheel in the world.
L: Photo by Klaus Frahm, via It’s Nice That; R: Photo by Guillaume Amat, via Colossal.
Eye Candy
Behind the Curtain: In his series Looking From Behind: The Fourth Wall, German photographer Klaus Frahm offers a one-point-perspective glimpse of empty theaters … from upstage.
Through the Looking Glass: Guillaume Amat’s Open Fields series of photographs subverts traditional landscapes with a simple optical illusion: by placing a mirror — suspended between two posts as in a street sign — in the foreground, the French photographer captures a kind of double image in which a window to the opposite perspective is embedded in the heart of the composition.
SHoP Around: SHoP Architects have released a flythrough of 626 First Avenue (hat-tip to Curbed).
Image at top via Alex Sutton.