Archinect - News

This architect embellished a building with emoji ornament

2017-04-25T12:38:00-04:00

Emoji are going to be some of the most recognizable icons of the 21st century, says architect Changiz Tehrani, which is why he decided to cast 22 of them in concrete and use them as decoration for a building in the Dutch city of Amersfoort.

“In classical architecture they used heads of the king or whatever, and they put that on the façade,” Tehrani told The Verge. “So we were thinking, what can we use as an ornament so when you look at this building in 10 or 20 years you can say ‘hey this is from that year!’” The answer was obvious: emoji.

The emojis cover only one side of the mixed-use building. Tehrani, who works for the Dutch practice Attika Architekten, based the emojis on the WhatsApp standard. "Only faces were chosen as they were the most expressive and recognizable emoji," the Verge reports. In his view, all architecture is timely—not timeless—so better to have fun with what's in vogue at the moment.

Started at the Gigantomachy frieze, now we're here. Thoughts?

Al.Mualla Cemetery Mural / A Matter of Life and Death

2012-05-10T13:41:00-04:00

Germany-based Egyptian architect Ahmed Al.Badawy has shared with us images of the fascinating project "Al.Mualla Cemetery Mural / A Matter of Life and Death" which won the First Prize at the First Islamic Competition for Ornamenting Makkah Al.Mukarramah (Mecca, Saudi Arabia). Next to Al.Badawy, the design team also included Ahmed Enab and Yasser Mehanna.

Neo-baroque or 'sci-fi' gothic: Michael Hansmeyer's computational columns debut

2011-04-11T16:44:51-04:00

This project involves the conception and design of a new column order based on subdivision processes. It explores how subdivision can define and embellish this column order with an elaborate system of ornament.

"A full-scale, 2.7-meter high variant of the columns is fabricated as a layered model using 1mm sheet. Each sheet is individually cut using a mill or laser. Sheets are stacked and held together by poles that run through a common core.

The calculation of the cutting path for each sheet takes place in several steps. First, the six million faces of the 3D model are intersected with a plane representing the sheet. This step generates a series of individual line segments that are tested for self-intersection and subsequently combined to form polygons. Next, a polygon-in-polygon test deletes interior polygons. A series of filters then ensures that convex polygons with peninsulas maintain a mininimum isthmus width. In a final step, an interior offset is calculated with the aim of hollowing out the slice to reduce weight."

Via Michael Hansmeyer & CNN