Image at top: Vaulted House by vPPR Architects, the RIBA London Emerging Architect of the Year.
L: Ecocapsule by Nice Architects, via Gizmag; R: “The Invisible Store of Happiness” sculpture, via Dezeen.
Eco-Eggcellence: You could soon own your own fully energy-independent micro-home capable of running off-grid in the most remote regions on the planet! Nice Architects have unveiled renders for their innovative “Ecocapsule” boasting a plethora of sustainable technologies from solar and wind power to rainwater collection and filtration.
You Wooden Believe It: Speaking of eco-friendliness, designer Sebastian Cox and sculptor Laura Ellen Bacon have produced a timber sculpture that has “a lower carbon footprint than an iPhone 6.” Entitled “The Invisible Store of Happiness,” the spiraling installation was built from cherry- and maplewood and stood beneath St. John’s Gate for London’s Clerkenwell Design Week.
Cool Furniture for Hot Property: French designers Jean-Sébastien Lagrange and Raphaël Ménard have conceived The Zero Energy Table, which ‘sucks up’ excess heat from a room during the day in order to dissipate it when the temperature drops at night. Could this idea ultimately spell the end of HVAC systems? Probably not, but it would certainly take the heat out of those bills …
High(er) Times: The Atlantic’s Shirley Li offers a glimpse into the future of high-rise design, which focuses on building performance over pure height … and includes the tantalizing prospect of rope-free elevators that can travel horizontally as well as vertically. Should these lifts become reality, there is potential for free-form skyscrapers the likes of which we’ve never seen before!
“I just planted grass and mango trees everywhere”: ArchDaily has just published a discursive interview with MVRDV‘s Winy Maas, who speaks at length about his unorthodox background and experiences abroad as well as the “hipness [of] research these days.” Well worth reading this holiday weekend.
In Brief
London Calling: Browse the 38 winners of the 2015 RIBA London Awards selected from 159 entries total; the winners will also be considered for the National Awards, for which the winners will be announced in June.
By Any Other Name … : In case you missed it — we did because we were busy — last week saw the announcement of a major initiative by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). The organization is looking to formalize the terminology regarding the licensure process and “sunset the usage of the term ‘intern’ … ”
Material Good
Blowing Bubbles: Remember how bubble wrap used to be what you’d use to protect fragile glass objects? Well, Maya and Denis of Studio Meddle have singlehandedly subverted that convention — they developed a fascinating process to create a delicate glass version of the packaging material, and the video below shows the beautifully brittle sculpture coming to fruition.