Not so ugly

Photography by Eric Laignel for Interior design
website link below.

Ugly Betty may not be the coolest or most credible show for designers to be watching but you might be surprised. To match the colourful, playful and outlandish humour of a series set in the office of a fashion magazine, the set needed to be able to play second fiddle to the characters whilst also being able to hold it's own when need be. Apparently the ipod was the original set inspiration (not exactly original huh?) but the Ugly Betty set could be said to more resemble the iphone, with it's classic smooth hull accessorised with colourful apps.
There were so many amazing chairs, lamps, desks (outfits!) that could be written about from the series but there was one that just kept popping up in every episode of the fourth and final series that just stole the show - The Living Tower by Danish designer Verner Panton.

Photo from Vitra website - link below

Designed in 1969, the 2m by 2m and 67cm deep cube costs a cool $15,000. The living tower provides 4 levels of seating and can also be split apart, something the directors regularly took advantage of to frame shots. Unfortunately we never got to see the piece actually interacted with which is a shame as there are oh so many ways it could have been used in a show like Ugly Betty.
The chair can be visited (and bought!) at the Vitra Museum in Basel (see June article on this blog).

Photo by Caroline Hather

Also featured in the show and by the same designer was the Amoebe Highback chair.

Photo from Vitra website - link below

Further Information:
http://www.interiordesign.net/article/483441-The_Beauty_of_Ugly_Betty.php
http://www.chaplins.co.uk/trends-and-ideas/the-beautiful-world-of-ugly-betty-featuring-products-from-knoll-vitra-cassina-flos-plus-many-more/
http://www.vitra.com/en-gb/home/products/living-tower/overview/
http://www.vitra.com/en-gb/home/products/amoebe-highback/overview/
http://designmuseum.org/design/verner-panton

Kaulbachplatz Underground Station, Nuremberg, Germany

Over the last 4 years, a molehill has gradually been taking shape in the north of the Bavarian city of Nuremberg. The molehill, so named by disgruntled neighbouring residents, is the new Kaulbachplatz underground station. One of several new stations to serve the new U3 underground transport extension, this is undoubtedly the most interesting building form taking shape in this normally architecturally conservative city for years.

Juxtaposition of the Bionik form against Jugendstil

The molehill (Maulwurf), designed by local architects Haid + Partner, is a smooth concrete and glass form with oval glass 'fish eye' windows. Located in a residential area rich in Jugendstil, the architects looked to 'Bionik' (Natural Biological) architecture for inspiration. No doubt the architects also wished to play with the brief after their more common or garden but tastefully modern Maxfeld station was completed in 2008.

Ironically the Molehill's critics cite the surrounding architecture as grounds for their dislike of the 'ugly' station entrances, wishing instead to have a cheaper simpler flat roofed station entrance. This is particularly strange as one of the leaders of the 500 strong call to arms is themselves an architect and should therefore maybe recognise that Bionik architecture is arguably the rightful heir of the Jugendstil, being as it is, inspired by flowing plant and other natural forms.

Rear view of main entrance

View of entrance and lift building

The 2 main station entrances which run down the centre of Schweppermannstraße are formed by 2 parallel smooth shuttered titan-oxide pigmented concrete fins, spanned by laminated and cross tensioned glass struts which support the 70cm wide by 4.45m glazed roof panels. Elliptical openings were formed in the water tight concrete and filled with frameless laminated glass.

Glass struts and angled window reveals

Internally the green natural stone stair and escalators are to be framed by opaque glass walls and ceiling leading down to the platforms, where, sandwiched between the structural lattice of the white concrete tunnel walls, there is to be artwork from the station's namesake, and former director of the Munich school of Art (which also carries his name) Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1805 - 1874).

Lift building front

Lift building rear

Although the station has not yet opened, details such as the externally expressed roller shutter and the angled cuts of the oval windows, mean that the design is in my opinion already a successful addition to the cityscape. The only visible disappointment thus far is the separate lift building, which uses the same organic language as the main entrances, but unsuccessfully attempts to shoe-horn an inherently rectilinear shape into a curve. The resultant form looks stumpy and odd with none of the elegance of the Jugendstil. Obviously a round lift would be prohibitively expensive, but even just using the same design language in a more understated manner (curved edges rather than completely curved) would have been less jarring in the overall composition.

Roller shutter expressed externally

Work on the €3 million station began in 2007 and the station is scheduled to open later this year.

Key facts:

Project name: U-Bahnhof Kaulbachplatz, Nürnberg

Architects: Haid + Partner

Client: Stadt Nürnberg (City of Nuremberg) 

Start on site: 2007

Completion date: 2011

Gross floor area: 1,723m²

Gross Volume: 12,792m³

Length: 424m

Depth: 8m

Total building cost: €3 million

Sources:

http://www.nuernberg.de/internet/referat6/u3detail.html
http://www.nordbayern.de/nuernberger-nachrichten/nuernberger-stadtanzeiger/cs27-9-streit-um-maulwurfshugel-am-kaulbachplatz-1.722742
http://haid-architekten.de/447.0.html

Google search by image

Google recently launched a new 'search by image' function which looks for similar images and related information based on shapes, lines, proportions, colors and other elements.

I decided to test it on a beloved pair of shoes that I have been trying to find out more information on in order to write about them here on Tollpatchy (without success).

This is what turned up...

Nike 'sperm' shoes

Not very helpful it has to be said, but amusing none the less.

Ode to Revit

Why oh why won't you join this junction?

I've tried every setting and every function.

I've pulled them apart and then pulled them back,

if I don't get this sorted soon, I could get the sack.

The deadline's approaching and I'm getting stressed,

Revit - you're really putting my patience to the test.

Aha! Thank goodness, you finally did it!

oh no! but hold on, wait just a minute…

There was a window there…Where the f**k is it?!?

yeah yeah I know it's geeky, but this IS an architecture blog, and let's face it - frustration at the hands of CAD programs makes up most of our days.

Vitrahaus, Basel

Commissioned by upmarket furniture company Vitra (http://www.vitra.com/en-gb/) in 2006 and completed in 2010, Herzog & De Meuron's Vitrahaus in Weil-am-Rhein near Basel is a great example of the unofficially monikered Jenga architecture. 

Whether it's the contribution of the subconscious that fascinates us or the relinquishing of the normally tight grip of control or even just laziness, Jenga architecture is a common theme for conceptual, albeit rarely built, architecture.

Where Vitrahaus differs is in the clever way the seemingly random form has been cleverly stitched together to create a program that works as intended - as a showcase for the Vitra products. The only shared element is the lift running through the houses.

Each 'house' points in a different direction - to Germany, France and Switzerland, taking advantage of the area's unusual circumstance of being the meeting point of each of these countries. The glazed ends of each house allows the visitor to look out and imagine themselves in a dream house without losing the scale of a showroom slash museum.

View of Frank Gehry's Vitra Museum

Herzog & De Meuron's Bird Nest Stadium in light form

Vitrahaus perfectly matches the humor of many of the products

The form and indeed technique could be related to the neo post modern movement in that it is referencing a vernacular building form but Herzog & De Meuron have successful avoided this label by keeping the detailing and form minimal with the powerful use of a reduced and demur colour palette with natural and manmade textures.

For an example of how it could have looked, one needs only to look at this hotel by WAM Architecture. A perfect example of why most post modernism should stay in the 1980's where it belongs. Amusing for 5 minutes but take pity on the poor neighbours who will have to look out their windows at this monstrosity for the next 10 years when, with any luck, it will be pulled down.

http://www.wam-architecten.nl/projecten/Intell_Hotel_Zaandam.php

For further examples of Jenga architecture see:
http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/sou_fujimoto.html
http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/jenga-inspired-architecture

For more information on the Vitrahaus visit http://www.archdaily.com/50533/vitrahaus-herzog-de-meuron/

Welcome!

To come....

U-Bahn station in Nuremberg, Germany
Art Gallery in Munich