Morris A. Mechanic Theatre.

Morris A. Mechanic Theatre.

The Morris A. Mechanic Theatre is a playhouse at 1 North Charles Street that is part of the Charles Center of Baltimore, Maryland. The theatre was built by and named for owner Morris A. Mechanic who operated a number of theatres in the city.

The Mechanic Theater consists of a square podium that houses retail space and an underground parking garage as part of the Charles Center. The fan-shaped auditorium that seats 1,614 sits on top of the podium and has a street-level entrance on Hopkins Plaza as well as a pedestrian bridge that connects to an elevated walkway leading to other buildings in Charles Center. Balconies are behind the orchestra seats and protrude beyond the exterior walls to give the building the appearance of a ratchet gear when viewed from above.

The exterior of the building is rough concrete that bears the markings from the wooden forms used to create the walls. The street entrance on Hopkins Plaza leads to a stairway that takes patrons to the lobby on the second floor. The exterior lobby wall is glass while interior walls have a faux wood finish or are covered with burnt-orange vinyl. The plaza-level entrance is framed by towers holding stairs and elevators to access the balcony. The stage house is clearly defined as a separate element attached to the auditorium.

In November 2009, the British newspaper Daily Mail reported that Virtual Tourist.com named the Mechanic Theatre as number one in its list of the Top Ten ugliest buildings.

Onyx Building

Onyx Building by Diez + Muller Architectos

Architects: Diez + Muller Arquitectos
Location: Quito-Ecuador
Project Architect: Diez + Muller Arquitectos
Design: Gonzalo Diez P, Felipe Muller B
Collaboration: Alvaro Borrero, Ana Chiluisa, Paola Picciallo, Daniel Sáenz, Andrés Salazar
Construction: Consorcio Gerenpro – Ecuacanelos
Year: 2012
Photographs: Sebastian Crespo

On a 1400 m2 lot in the heart of the north area of the city of Quito, the commission required a building for medium-density housing. The L-shaped lot has a steep slope, as the ground is depressed an entire floor between the top and the bottom. The slope is evident along the entire front of the lot. There are two important trees on the sidewalk worth keeping.

The design arises from two main ideas: First, to divide the building into two blocks laid out in an L-shape, following the morphology of the ground in planimetric and topographic terms. This indicates that the block on the upper area of the lot will be laid out an entire floor over the annexed block, thus establishing a hierarchy between interior and exterior spaces, and giving more exclusivity to the densification of the buildings. Second, to create a stepped square that serves to connect the two housing blocks, but at the same time give the project a semi-public space which visually connects the square and the street, complemented by outdoor furniture, landscaping and the existent vegetation of the street.

Source: archdaily.com

Tower House

Tower House by Gluck+
(Source: dezeen.com)

As a vacation home, the Tower House is used during a few weekends in the winter and most weekends in the summer. The design imperative was to develop a sustainable, energy efficient solution with minimal operating costs and maintenance for a house occupied part-time. The stacked north-facing bedrooms take advantage of light and views with floor to ceiling glass. In order to optimise energy savings for heating and cooling in this part-time residence, a two part sustainable strategy was employed to reduce the heating footprint of the house in the winter and to avoid the need for air conditioning in the summer.

While the house is heated conventionally, by compressing and stacking all of the wet zones of the house into an insulated central core, much of the house can be "turned off" in the winter when not in use. When not in use, only 700 square feet of the 2,545 square foot house is heated. By closing the building down to only the insulated core, there is a 49% reduction in energy use. In the summertime, the house feels comfortable without air conditioning. Cool air is drawn in and through the house using the stack effect. South-facing glass throughout the stairwell creates a solar chimney and as the heated air rises, it is exhausted out the top, drawing in fresh air through the house from the cooler north side.

Architecture and Construction: GLUCK+ (Peter L. Gluck, Thomas Gluck, David Hecht, Marisa Kolodny, A.B. Moburg-Davis)
Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates P.C.
Mechanical Engineer: Rosini Engineering P.C.
Façade: Bill Young
Environmental Engineer: IBC Engineering
Lighting: Lux Populi

(Source: dezeen.com)

Kunsthaus Graz

Kunsthaus Graz by Sir Peter Cook and Colin Fournier

The Kunsthaus was built in order to celebrate Graz’s designation as the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2003, on a budget that is comparatively small for similarly focal cultural venues in large(ish) cities. Graz is the second largest city in Austria, a sprawl that can be appreciated from atop the castle in the center of town. From this location the Kunsthaus stands out like a rather blue, sore thumb. It is difficult to pass judgment on the aesthetic qualities of such a building; it definitely is there, and it definitely is blue and blob-shaped, but it also seems very much a part of the city.

You want to hate it, because of what it is: a symbol of the new modernism which has been pioneered by these architects since the 1960s and recently by the likes of architects Future Systems in Birmingham. But it is impossible to ignore how well the building works as a space to display art; and besides which, when up close, or even inside, the building becomes cute and actually quite lovable. Indeed, it has been nick-named ‘the Friendly Alien’. Built primarily of reinforced concrete and covered in translucent warm-blue plastic panelling with white plaster and metal mesh on the interior, the Kunsthaus feels very well constructed despite the low budget.

(Source: galinsky.com

The Kunsthaus provides 2,500 square meters of generously arranged space for changing contemporary art exhibitions, functions, and events. The amorphous form of the blue bubble blends in the heritage-protected part of the building 1,288 semitransparent acrylic glass panels have been used to create the bubble. While the glazed outer skin takes an important mediating role, it also generates power through integrated photovoltaic units. The Berlin designers realities:united used 930 computer­con­ trolled light sources located under the acrylic skin to create a display forty­five meters wide and twenty meters high that enables the museum to communicate with its environment. 

(Source: ignant.de)

The Cube

   The simplest and in the same time the hardest thing to draw and represent. It may represent the perfection: 12 edges perfectly equal, 6 sides perfectly equal and 8 corners situated, of course, at equal distances from one another.

   Some great ideas start from a cube. I personally do that almost always, in my drawings. There is an infinite number of possibilities to create with a cube.
 
   "In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. The cube can also be called a regular hexahedron and is one of the five Platonic solids. It is a special kind of square prism, of rectangular parallelepiped and of trigonal trapezohedron. The cube is dual to the octahedron. It has cubical symmetry (also called octahedral symmetry). It is special by being a cuboid and a rhombohedron." - Wikipedia.

See you soon!

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RIBA - Royal Institute of British Architects

    The link to their site is www.architecture.com.

   My opinion is that the link, only the word "architecture", says all about the quality and the professionalism from that institute.
   One thing that totally caught my eye was the British Architectural Library presented on this site.
"Entry to the British Architectural Library is free and everyone is welcome. Discover more about architecture by visiting the British Architectural Library and the four million items in its collections or by taking part in education and learning activities. For answers to all your questions about architecture and professional practice, contact the Information Centre."  Who wouldn't love to go there?

   More interesting stuff is found there. I'll post different articles from RIBA here too.

See you soon!

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My Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/vlad.gabriel.10

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My YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TadashiAidou

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My Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tadashi_Aidou

The drawing of the day, number 3

 A new one, for this day.
This could be used lke a funeral monument, or something related to this.

Here it is:
http://youtu.be/-L5Se9zTDWc

My Other Blog: http://www.architecture-and-creativity.blogspot.ro

My Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/vlad.gabriel.10

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The first origami of the day

 Hi again!
I've made a bonus (or something like that) video.
It's a tutorial on how to make a paper shuriken.

http://youtu.be/Z9H3J2VjsW0

Hope you like it!
See you later!


My Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/vlad.gabriel.10

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Drawings of the Day

 Those are the first two drawings of the day from my YouTube channel. I want to keep track of my work in this way. If you like them you can subscribe. I'll try to upload a video each day.

http://youtu.be/GJTtqWQtID8
http://youtu.be/X-Vc5YZk_lg

See you soon!


My Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/vlad.gabriel.10

My DeviantArt: http://tadashi-aidou.deviantart.com/

My YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TadashiAidou

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First things first

   Today I decided to open again this blog. I had it for a long time but I forgot about it. It was my bad.

 Now I know what I can post. I'll put here all my activity from YouTube or other things related to architecture and art. I hope that I'll be active here. We'll see.



My Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/vlad.gabriel.10

My DeviantArt: http://tadashi-aidou.deviantart.com/

My YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TadashiAidou

My Tumblr: http://tadashi-aidou.tumblr.com/

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tadashi_Aidou