A Depiction of Ones True Self...

Came across this quite fun Marvel comics web-site that allows you to create your own super hero. Even though I'm usually more attracted by the European graphical novels, or their way of illustration and story-telling, this was nevertheless a fun little ditty of an excercise in creating counter-egos for me and Maysaa...

.

Plus I think the likenesses are quite remarkable..?!

.

Click here to access the site...

Favourite Buildings Visited - The Laban Centre, London...

.

One more project from the archives... This one is the Herzog & de Meuron designed, Laban Dance Centre in South-East London.

.
.

Above and below - Interior shots from the dance centre - a dance studio and the black painted concrete stairwell...

The, man-made & undulating, grass landscape outside the centre, here shown with some of our fellow NESTA Creative Pioneer programme participants...

Paul in 'Souf-East' London...

Moving to Qatar...

This coming August, me and my family will be moving to Doha, Qatar, where I've accepted a position teaching at the new MFA programme at Virginia Commonwealth University - Qatar (VCU-Q). It's all very exciting, both to be a part of this top-notch institution as well as, on a world stage, an up and coming cultural entity such as Qatar...

Favourite Buildings Visited - The Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar...

.

The Museum of Islamic Art (MAI) opened in late 2008 in Doha, Qatar, could be considered as perhaps the first of the row of upcoming, high-profile, cultural projects to completed in the region. Designed by the Pritzker Prize winning Chinese/ American architect I.M. Pei, whose designs also include the glass pyramid outside the Louvre and the Museum of Modern Art (MUDAM) in Luxembourg, was apparently given free reins to come up with his design, which eventually involved the creation of an artificial land extension into the the bay (the Corniche) linking various key districts of the Qatari capital. The location of the museum has resulted in it becoming a prominent landmark, visible from a number of key nodes around the city.
.
.
It is quite clear that no expense was spared in the realization of the museum, which has a lavish, if understated, palette of materials and in execution enjoys a superb level of finishing and detailing (something quite unique for the region). The museum's galleries and exhibits are both in quality and layout superb, with a number of varied but controlled display formats, ranking from fibre-optics lit glass vitrines to fenced-off, but visually accessible, exhibits of some of the larger artefacts such as carpets or stone columns. The freely dispersed museum guards didn't seem to mind the visitors photographing the exhibits, which was a nice change to other comparable venues where even pulling out a camera results usually in a 'tut-tut' and (mostly symbolic) slap on the fingers by the institution's staff... The low lit spaces also lent a surprising intimacy to the displays, 'scattered' across the sequential galleries.

.

View from the approach to the museum...

.

The central museum hall...

.

If slight criticism is to be disclosed, the circulation between the galleries distributed between the three first floors is somewhat convoluted and involve some 'doubling-back' if one is to access any of the adjacent, surprisingly discreet, stairwells connecting the different levels. Also, some of the, call them, 'architectural objects' that occupy the main space (the decorated - torus shaped - central chandelier; the grand staircase; the atrium; the ocular; the connecting glass-bridges) all seem to fight for attention, with none coming out as a clear protagonist - there seems to be a bit too many ideas rammed into the same space - it would have been nice to see these elements either toned-down, synchronized, or even just eliminated all together (saved for another project) for the sake of clarity. It would also have been nice to have a decent coffee-shop (instead of just a number of vending-machines) somewhere along the main concourse. Overall, however, this museum establishes a sterling precedent for the other cultural establishments currently under construction in the Gulf. Let's hope they're up to the challenge...

.

Now where are Kuwait's comparable cultural venues..?!

.
.

Views of the main atrium...

.

Above and below - Some of the museum's galleries...

.

.
.

Above and below - Examples of some of the print-based displays...

.

.

.

View from a gallery of the atrium...

.

View of the MAI from the adjacent harbour...

SAM Street in Men's Passion Magazine...

.

Men's Passion, the Kuwaiti based magazine targeting the contemporary 'regionally-worldy' male (with articles from wrist-watches to jet-planes) has featured in its May issue an article on SAM Street, discussing its past, present and (hopefully) future condition... Available at most better supplied newstands in Kuwait and the Gulf...

.

Please click on the images for a closer look and read...

.

Me with my previously 'long' haircut...

Favourite Buildings Visited - Birmingham Selfridges...

.

A few more dusted off pictures from the archives... Even though not perhaps my favourite cup of tea, the Birmingham Selfridges department store (completed in 2003) by Future Systems has to, nevertheless, be applauded for its sheet audacity. I remember visiting it on a cloudy day which, in combination with the buffered gray metal discs of its facade, provided the settings with a nice monochromatic ambiance...

.

A quick shot of the interior (I was chased off as soon as the guards noticed my camera)...

Ocular Radiators...

.

A few, very elegant, radiator designs (non realized) by our London based partner Paul Brady from a few years back... The radiators, usually placed below windows, form here a frame around a window or opening, combining thus two usually separate functions (heating & framing) into one...

.

.

Both renderings by Paul Brady...

Residence in Skerries, Ireland...

.

A few images sent by our partner Paul Brady from our practice's London branch of a recently completed project in Skerries, Ireland. The residence is an unbashedly contemporary, yet contextual, addition to a row of more traditional sandstone and slate buildings.

.

Click here to access an earlier post of this project...

.

The addition is slotted between a row of more traditional residences...

Interior detail...

The main entrance...

The original steps...

The back elevation makes the most of the sea view...

The view from the residence at low-tide...

.

All images by Paul Brady

smArchitecture on Fabbaloo...

Some of our work has been featured on one of my favourite (I check it daily) blogs Fabbaloo, which covers various themes and technologies related to Additive Manufacturing/ Fabrication...

.

Very chuffed indeed...

.

Click here to access the post...

Project Recap No. 12 - Filter Light (SLA)

An additional design that takes advantage of the default support scaffolding of the Stereolithography process only here, instead of just including such scaffolding (which are usually removed when a build is completed) in the final design as tectonic supports (as was the case in the Fragrant Tower & Cocoon as well as, in a more bespoke fashion, in the Materix/ Avaterial designs), in this design the scaffolding is also used to filter light. Looking a bit like a carburetor filter the design, nevertheless, contains a bit of variety in that the density of the scaffolding matrix has been made slightly varied on different sides of the design's cylindrical torso, allowing one to subtly adjust the lighting levels by rotating the design.

Favourite Buildings Visited - 2006 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion...

In honor of Jean Nouvel's upcoming Serpentine Pavilion, which will be erected outside London's Serpentine Gallery this summer, I thought I'd include a few images of Rem Koolhaas' effort from a few years earlier. Even though not my favourite Serpentine Pavilion - having preferred some of the work by of the Japanese contributors, such as Toyo Ito (with Cecil Balmond) in 2002, or the more recent reflective contraption by SANAA in 2009 (click here and here for posts of the pavilion featured earlier on this blog) - all the pavilion designs, nevertheless, have to be applauded as it is very seldom an architect has the opportunity to create such, quasi-practical, follies and let their imagination run wild... The aim with this design, if I remember correctly, was to adjust the height of its inflated 'balloon' roof depending on the weather and temperature, something that, due to a quite breezy London summer that year, seldom took place...

.

.

The pavilion's interior...

High-density foam squares used as stools...

The ledge between the inflated roof and cylindrical wall...

A setting for covert whispers and dog walking...