| Mission Bay Block 27 Parking Structure by WRNS Studio Posted: 31 Aug 2011 04:55 PM PDT WRNS Studio designed this award winning parking structure in San Francisco, California. 
. Description from the architects: Located within San Francisco’s Mission Bay redevelopment zone, this new award winning parking structure serves adjacent laboratories and offices. Overaa hired WRNS Studio and Walker Parking as the lead design team. The garage was constructed as part of a biotech development, which included coordinating with other project teams on the surrounding parcels. The project was also constructed concurrently with new street and site facility infrastructure in Mission Bay. The project scope included architectural features of customized perforated metal panels, smooth plaster, glass tile, and cast glazing. The cast-in-place structure included 592 driven piles, 3 MRL elevators, a parking access control system, and security system. The north and east facades, which face public open space, are clad in perforated aluminum panels with pixilated imagery of California’s redwood forests. This imagery is intended to evoke the filigree of adjacent tree canopies and create a sense of pedestrian scale. The south elevation, which faces a heavily trafficked street, incorporates a deeply canted plaster wall designed to engage sunlight and shadow, creating interest across the facade. The ground level is recessed along the south and east elevations, offering a covered pedestrian walkway. This feature also lightens the overall building mass as the aluminum panels and the plaster wall appear to hover above the ground. The primary pedestrian access point is located at the building’s northeast corner, with the upper levels clad with a canted plaster box similar to the south facing facade. The intent of this element is to provide an “urban pause”, allowing people to take in views of the surrounding parks. It also offers a figurative presence as seen from the public open spaces.                   Visit the WRNS Studio website – here. Photography by Tim Griffith . .  |
| New Furniture by Meg O’Halloran Posted: 31 Aug 2011 01:29 PM PDT |
| RealFlex by Ora-Ito Posted: 31 Aug 2011 01:52 AM PDT French designer Ora-Ito created a sculptural wall relief for a recent exhibition in London. 
. The natural acrylic stone material HI-MACS® was chosen by eminent French artist Ora-ïto for his entry into the recent Wallpaper/Reebok exhibition in London. Fabricated by Candido Hermida in Spain, HI-MACS® was selected for its outstanding properties, visual and tactile effects and the ability to offer the artist thermoforming capabilities that placed zero restriction on his vision and ability to create a stunning three-dimensional creation. Five of the world's leading creative artists were invited to participate and Ora-Ito's contribution was an interpretation of the Reebok RealFlex shoe in the form of a wall-mounted installation made entirely from HI-MACS®. The detail of Ora-Ito's work was what he described as the "iconic sneaker soles". In creating this by using HI-MACS® the designer was able to exercise various sculptural experiments taking inspiration from the RealFlex sole's "hidden art" aspects, resulting in a topographic landscape made to touch and explore its own poetic qualities. This amazing sculpture was fabricated by Candido Hermida, who commented, "To work for a top designer like Ora-Ito, is always a challenge and a pleasure, his creations are wonderful in terms of design, but inevitably extremely complex in terms of fabrication. In this case the fabrication complexity was mainly because we had to understand the design and determine how to program the software that controls the CNC machine automatically, in order to achieve the 3d shape required."       Visit Ora-Ito’s website – here. .  |
