Elementtitalo, Arabianranta, Finland...

A few photos of an 'Elementtitalo', or 'element building/ house' going up in Arabianranta (Arabian-beach translated from Finnish), a new residential area in the outskirts of Helsinki. This form of building, which involves a set of factory made, semi-bespoke, building elements that are manufactured elsewhere, and transported to site where they are assembled, almost like a 3D puzzle, into the completed building...

These building systems are quite common in Scandinavia, but, as of yet, I haven't seen any implemented in the same fashion here in the Middle-East...

Might be a worthwhile effort to find out how well these are/ could be synchronized with various BIM systems..?!

Design Details No. 1 - Hajenius Cigars' Tip, Amsterdam...

As an occasional, but long-term regular, cigar smoker I've recently had a chance to enjoy a few Dutch Hajenius cigars whilst visiting Amsterdam. Usually when lighting a cigar it's quite difficult to light them evenly as the area one needs to light with a match, (butane) lighter, or even a sliver of wood, is quite large and, particularly today when most public places don't allow one to smoke inside, one often has to also deal with wind and/ or rain. In these cigars the solution is quite ingenious. Here the cigar's tip has been pinched or slimmed down into a smaller, and thus much easier to light, tip which eventually after a few drags expands into its full size...

Brilliant..!

Shubbak Exhibition at the RIBA...

A few images of the laser-cut mashrabiya screens we did for the still ongoing Shubbak exhibition taking place at the RIBA in London.

A big thank you to Melissa Woolford and Heather Picov from the nous Gallery who organized the event, Paul Brady from Independent Architects who helped with the logistics and took the above photos, and, of course, Miguel Fonseca who detail designed, managed and supervised the fabrication of the mashrabiyas...

The exhibition concludes on September 24, 2011...

Click here for an earlier submission regarding the mashrabiya designs...

All photos by Paul Brady and Independent Architects (with whom we have an affiliation with)...

Above & Below - Some early sketches (non realized) for the connection/ housing points of the mashrabiyas...

Miguel Fonseca by the 'Cylinder Flap' Mashrabiya...