Is Mongolia the hot spot for fringe architects? #27 of the Ordos Project in Inner Mongolia sets up another precedent for avant garde but functional design. We recently wrote about #35 of the Ordos Project – an underground home that takes advantage of the ground’s natural insulation. #27 deals with the extreme elements by a “skin and lung” concept.
The home is wrapped in a dark textured brick facade. The interior space is augmented by a huge “x” all in white plaster. Both materials change their density to deal with heat, cold, light, and air. The idea of the inner lung expanding and contracting isn’t literal, but more of a variance applied to their volumes.
Architects: Multiplicities via Arch Daily
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The High Line Park by Diller Scofido & Renfro
The master plan for The High Line, an elevated railroad spur stretching 1.45 miles along Manhattan’s Westside, is inspired by the melancholic, unruly beauty of the ruin today where nature has reclaimed a once vital piece of urban infrastructure, The team retools this industrial conveyance into a postindustrial instrument of leisure reflection about the very categories of “nature” and “culture” in our time. By changing the rules of engagement between plant life and pedestrians, the strategy of agri-tecture combines organic and building materials into a blend of changing proportions that accommodate the wild, the cultivated, the intimate, and the hyper-social. The park is marked by slowness, distraction and an other-worldliness that preserves the character of The High Line.
Architect: Diller Scofido & Renfro
Concrete Heaven by the Sea
Have you ever seen a house so awesome that it kinda makes you hate your own?! Well, this is one of those houses. This concrete gem overlooks a rocky coastline, and its cozy interior is the perfect contrast to the stark exterior and severe sea cliffs. Beware before you look at the photos inside… it’s so good it might just make you cry.
Designer: Igor Sirotov
