Structures & Facades

Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center - Renzo Piano, New Caledonia

• native architecture inspired
• built to honour an assassinated Kanak leader and the culture of the Kanak people
• the cultural center is modeled after a traditional Kanak village
• the pavilions were inspired by Kanak huts
• used traditional materials and respected traditional construction: iroko wood, bamboo, glass, steel
• green building strategies to keep the pavilions cool and integrate them within nature
• operable roof skylights
• the laminated wood screen facilitates natural ventilation - wind pushes hot air out to the top
• the bamboo wall filters light into the interiors

Source: http://inhabitat.com/jean-marie-tjibaou-cultural-center-inspired-by-native-architecture/

Royal Ontario Museum - Daniel Libeskind"One could imagine this building as a place where the public is engaged in an ongoing drama rather than a static 19th century museum which suggests that nature has been conquered and culture has been archived."

Sources: http://biladesign.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/geodesic-crystal-formations-sheets-of-metal-and-glass-collide-with-the-world-as-we-know-it/

http://www.daniel-libeskind.com/projects/show-all/royal-ontario-museum/

geodesic construction in contemporary architecture

• futuristic aesthetic
• geodesic construction: principle that the triangle is an inherently stable form, independent of size, and that a triangular framework held together in tension enables the creation of structures that are lightweight but profoundly strong

The Eden Project - Nicholas Grimshaw Architects , Cornwall England

• top three attractions in the UK
• appeal of geodesic structures
• exemplar of sustainable building techniques
• original geodesic domes that Buckminster Fuller envisaged as controllable environments that could house people on a small or monumental scale
• domed shape offers practical benefits that are essential to the survival of the diverse range of plants that grow inside
• the large, transparent surface allows plenty of natural daylight to enter, whilst the concave interior form creates a natural airflow and reflects and concentrates the warmth, preventing radiant heat loss

Dalí Museum - HOK/Moris Moreno, Florida 

• geodesic skin s pierced by various funnels and voids that allow light to enter the interior and help direct the flow of movement around the building
• a solid concrete bunker interrupted by a glass and steel ʻEnigmaʼ that allows natural daylight to enter the large atrium
• Yann Weymouth: "The flowing, free-form use of geodesic triangulation is a recent innovation enabled by modern computer analysis and digitally controlled fabrication that allows each component to be unique. No glass panel, structural node or strut is precisely the same."

Source: http://www.architonic.com/ntsht/neo-geo-geodesic-construction-in-contemporary-architecture/7000588

White Block Gallery - Heyri, Korea

• exhibition and cultural space
• spaces have a wide variety of proportions and lighting conditions well suited to a variety of artworks
• fritting pattern takes on more figural volumes to create areas of privacy and publicity
• shapes merge with the patterns of early morning fog
• "high" and "low" tech strategies are used for daylighting
• a parametrically developed frit pattern optimizing for daylight distribution while minimizing heat gain
• city-regulated blooming trees become part of the shading strategy in their ability to change seasonally
• as the frit pattern moves from opaque to transparent, exterior trees appear to shift from outside to inside

Shading with Patterns at White Block

• the gradation works in multiple different ways:
• it shades the space during the warmer summer months while allowing in the low winter sun for passive heating
• it also filters views to the outside giving the larger galleries a sense of interior intimacy while allowing controlled views to the natural surrounds
• the exterior it lends the building many complex readings: sometimes reflecting and augmenting the landscape and sometimes allowing views to the interior logic of the structural system.

Sources: http://www.ssdarchitecture.com/works/cultural/white-block-gallery/

http://www.ssdarchitecture.com/2011/02/shading-with-patterns/