Architecture

Diller Scofidio & Renfro

Blur Building

https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Blur_Building

INTRODUCTION:

- The Blur Building was a temporary pavilion built for the Swiss EXPO 2002 by the architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). Located at the base of Lake Neuchatel in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, the structure was intended to be an ‘architecture of atmosphere’.

It claimed to use water as the primary building material; pumping it from the lake before filtering and shooting it as a fine mist through 31,500 high-pressure mist nozzles. Controlled by a smart weather system that regulated the water pressure, the water vapour created an ‘artificial cloud’ that dominated its form.

The lightweight structure measured 300 ft x 200 ft, and appeared to hover 75 ft above the lake’s surface on four columns. The columns sat on piles sunk deep beneath the water. A system of rectilinear struts and diagonal rods cantilevered the structure out over the lake, with walkways weaving through it and providing a counterweight. The architects based this ‘tensegrity’ structural form on the work of Buckminster Fuller.

A 400 ft long ramp took visitors to the open-air platform where they were able to enter and move around in the fog, the intention being to experience a ‘white-out’ and alter perception of the senses.

Despite critical success and being visited by more than 1 million people, the structure was not intended to be permanent and was dismantled at the end of the exhibition.

------https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Blur_Building

NOTES:

I found it is really exciting to see this kind of architecture which I have never seen before.It is just like a big cloud hover above the lake.It reminds me my curiosity of standing within the cloud as long as I looked up the cloudy sky.I truly appreciate the blur sense and the function of it.Visitors are able to enter it and move around in the fog to experience the " white-out".In this case, I realized that the architectures are always closely connected to people and human activity.

Charles Jencks & Maggie Keswick

Garden of Cosmic Speculation

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Funusualplaces.org%2Fthe-garden-of-cosmic-speculation-in-scotland%2F&psig=AOvVaw0koeSSoyuG-tvUcIjU14rb&ust=1635777842980000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCMj8l77x9PMCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAP

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fuk-scotland-south-scotland-44002948&psig=AOvVaw0koeSSoyuG-tvUcIjU14rb&ust=1635777842980000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCMj8l77x9PMCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/garden-of-cosmic-speculation

INTRODUCTION:

- SNAIL-SHAPED GRASS MOUNDS, TWISTING DNA helix sculptures, and undulating waves of rhododendrons make up the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, a 30-acre garden whose design is guided by the fundamentals of modern physics.

The garden was designed by architecture theorist Charles Jencks and his late wife, Maggie Keswick, an expert on Chinese gardens. Located at their private residence, Portrack House, near Dumfries, Scotland, the design, according to Jencks, brings out the basic elements that underlie the cosmos.

From 1989 until Keswick’s death in 1995, Jencks and his wife met with horticulturists and scientists in order to design a landscape that would bridge the worlds of art, nature and science. Perhaps viewed as an unconventional approach to landscaping, the garden features a dizzying display of geometric fractals that all illuminate—or at least are inspired by—concepts of black holes, string theory, and the “Big Bang".

The garden features five major areas connected by a number of artificial lakes, bridges, and other architectural works, including large white staircases and terraces that zigzag down a green hillside, representing the story of the creation of the universe.

Jencks continued work on the garden through 2007. Today, it is open to the public one day a year through the Scotland’s Gardens Scheme and helps to raise money for Maggie’s Centres, a cancer care foundation named after Jenck’s late wife.

NOTES:

This amazing work bridges the worlds of art, nature and science.With the concept of the Black Hole String, every aces are designed to helix.I really appreciate the dynamic state it creates, which have a sense that everything inhale into a particular direction.I think I would use this concept to make my future projects.

Research

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