‘A banquet hall and one set of marriage ceremony hall.

The requirements from a client: A ceremony room is a capacity of 40. Space like a cave. Space which descends to the deep place toward the center. In contrast with it, it is bright and a lounge is open space. While making a matter for these direction concrete form, It was necessary to plan existing banquet hall and gardens relations with the environment of the circumference adjacent at the same time.

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Rainbow Solar Inc. (RSi) announces the world’s first, transparent, photovoltaic-glass window which generates 80 to 250 watts of electricity.

This is the next-generation of BIPV (building integrated photovoltaic), an enclosed super-tempered glass window system, with a patent pending, fully integrated, multi-tier PV and heat insulation technology. Up to 9’ x 9’ size with comprehensive options to meet design, weather, climate, and building code requirements.

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West 8 + DTAH’s recently completed Spadina Wave Deck for Waterfront Toronto has been nominated for this year’s Brit Insurance Design Awards. Brit Insurance Design Awards is the Design Museum London’s annual exploration of the most innovative, interesting and forward looking new work in design of all kinds.

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‘We were asked to design a summer/winter house in a remote landscape in the most southern part of Chile. More than a design, the client wanted, first of all, an equation that included every possible aspect that one could consider to be included; the design then had to be just the resolution of that equation.

A volcanic site, 4.000 mm of rain every year, strong winds from the north and east, views towards the lake (east) and the forest (west), considerations of the difficulty of bringing materials to this remote place, erasure of any a priori architectural language (be it old or contemporary) were the ingredients of this unknown dish, that should have the capacity to sound familiar once developed.

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‘This is a project for speculative building – the land is bought, value is added through design, tenants are found, and the project is sold off. The site is located in the wedge between a fork in the road on sloping land, so something with character as a landmark was sought by the client.

Since the tenant details were not determined, in developing the design we could not help but concentrate on contextual elements. In seeking out common criteria from responses to various separate external factors, such as the difference between levels on the site, the shading envelope, assumed circulation paths and so on, we came to feel the necessity of some internal rhythm. Here we started looked at the windows and balconies of the apartment buildings that surround the site, and in a mirroring relation, arranged openings in a chequered pattern on the three frontages facing roads. For the windows, we took the largest standard dimension for double glass windows as a baseline, varying the proportions in response to external conditions. As a result, the exterior façade came to have in parts an elastic expression, suggesting movement.’

For more pictures visit: www.bow-wow.jp.

‘The site faces the sea and has deep depth. And it inclines toward the sea by the vertical interval like 2M. We arranged the house in the center of the site. The plane shape of the house is wedge to spread towards the sea.

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‘Ílhavo City Library by ARX is located in the remains of the Manor Visconde de Almeida, a noble house from the 17th-18th century, later transformed and demolished. From the original building only the main façade, oriented southeast, and the chapel, both in ruins, were left.

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‘zeroHouse by Specht Harpman is designed for comfort as well as efficiency. Each house features a fully-appointed living room, kitchen, full bath and two bedrooms. All furnishings and storage compartments are built-in to maximize use of space. A elevated covered deck provides the perfect roottop perch for outdoor living.

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