OCTOBER 14TH, 2011
By BUILD LLC
There’s a new addition to the BUILD family and he might be our most challenging client yet. As any of you with kids know, going from a design conscious household to a design conscious household with a baby, tests out the modernist in the best of us. Because when it comes to industrial design for the wee ones, there’s an avalanche of cheap, poorly designed, aesthetically irritating, easily available, publicly accepted baby crap saturating every corner of the market. Outfitting your home for a little one AND sticking to your aesthetic sensibilities takes time, energy and budget priority. While changing a diaper with one eye open at 3am on a screaming infant, do you really care whether your changing table aligns with your philosophy of design? If you’re design conscious you do. You’re the type who spends more time in the MOMA gift shop than the museum itself, you’ll wait in line in the pouring rain for an hour to see Objectified, and you always keep the most recent issue of DWR on hand. You understand that the things you buy are not only a reflection of your aesthetic beliefs, but each and every purchase registers a vote on how you think the world should look and work. You can’t turn it off, even when it comes to baby stuff.
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NOVEMBER 12TH, 2010
By BUILD LLC
It’s been a bit serious around here lately and all this talk of base details, cabinet shop innovations and home remodels is great, but we need a little yin to our yang. Every now and again we need to take a peek at the spark that gets our engines going. Every once and awhile we need a refresher on why we got into this maddening profession. It’s that primal connection to the design instinct we seek –that urge, deep down inside, that compels us to take the building blocks around us and create new forms. Every kid knows about this, not through text-book lessons or financial benefit or as a resume builder, but as a gut instinct. Taking apart the living room furniture and building a new world is in the DNA, it’s instinctual. As a salute to every kid out there who fearlessly turns the living room couch into a vision from the mind’s eye, we present the 4th installment in our Couch Cushion Architecture series –a critical analysis by the self appointed panel of jurors here at the BUILDblog. Note to the kiddos – don’t lose that spark.
01. Falling within the Peter Eisenman camp of skewing the grid, this project makes a bold move in taking the new structure off of the orthogonal. The simple kit-of-parts and clever re-appropriation doesn’t provide much usable area but it does create a pleasing geometrical narrative. Grade: B
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AUGUST 9TH, 2010
By BUILD LLC
We got started on our design careers early and worked the kinks out of our architectural ideas through manipulating our parent’s living room arrangements. This sacred and primal act of furniture modification not only created habitable structures, but established the fundamentals of structural and architectural logistics. Today’s BUILDblog post reviews some recent additions to the world of couch cushion re-appropriation, provides some constructive criticism, and assigns grades.
01. The long tradition of Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation in Berlin continues with this project that includes colored panels to give inhabitants a feeling of identity and individuality. While the foot-print does an excellent job of maximizing the number of inhabitants, the living conditions appear disorganized and chaotic. Grade: B-
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JUNE 9TH, 2010
By BUILD LLC
Wrapping up the Cardboard Fort series, we present part 3, which delves further into the basic DNA of our design influences. Give most kids an appliance box and a roll of duck-tape and you’ll see creative genius unfold before your eyes. Join us as we provide a critical analysis of some (mostly) admirable cardboard forts.
[Photo by Stronger than Dirt]
17. The design pays homage to the clean, linear work of Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura. This institutional project, apparently a school, upholds a high degree of design integrity with its symmetrical façade; it also preserves the natural look of the materials used in the construction. Grade: B+
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MAY 31ST, 2010
By BUILD LLC
Lately we’ve been covering some of our early design influences as architects and builders. Today’s post tackles part 2 of the Cardboard Fort Architecture theme and as we’ve been finding, even the most mundane of forts has deep architectural roots. Join us as we investigate the overlooked realm of cardboard fort design.
[Photo by Deen Taylor]
09. While the overall composition lacks design vision, proper credit should be given to the project’s roof mounted wind turbines. Unfortunately the structure raises important concerns regarding the structural integrity of the frame and the weatherproofing of the skin. Grade: C
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MAY 20TH, 2010
By BUILD LLC
Before we were designing buildings and houses and remodels, before we went to architecture school, engineering school and the school of hard knocks, we were busy cutting our teeth on the basic building blocks of the design world. Along with couch cushion architecture, it was cardboard fort architecture that helped us figure out the ABCs of design and construction. Cardboard fort architecture remains an underdog of the design world and its high-time we gave kudos to the fundamental DNA that helped us get where we are today. We’ve rounded up a (mostly) admirable collection of projects, taken from a randomly conducted search on the internet. Join us as we take a critical analysis of the architecture, methods and design philosophies of discarded appliance box re-appropriation.
[Photo by Betzi]
01. Drawing influence from the European walled city, this open air community offers private shelter “pods” within the hardscape. We like that the courtyard anticipates the need for leisure by including seating and a storage container for sports equipment. Grade: B
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APRIL 23RD, 2010
By BUILD LLC
Part two of Couch Cushion Architecture expands on the known collection of significant couch cushion projects in the western hemisphere and continues the discourse. As with part 1 of the study, the basic DNA of design logic can be observed in these works. At the root of any great designer lies a strong connection to the fundamentals of couch cushion design and construction.
A simple geometry and clear orthogonal moves allow this project to be a three-dimensional extension of Mondrian’s thesis. We admire the subdued palette of materials and ambitious structural cantilever. The nebulous entry, however, confuses the approach and subtracts from the compositional success. Grade: C+
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APRIL 21ST, 2010
By BUILD LLC
Before we were influenced by Mies van der Rohe or Frank Lloyd Wright, before we had seen the visual delights of Ronchamp, Pompidou Center and the Bauhaus school in Weimar, we were driven by a greater force of design inspiration. More primal and immediate than any of the previously mentioned examples, it was couch cushion architecture that established the basic building blocks of our design logic. Unrepresented and ignored for too long in the architectural industry, today’s post pays respect to the wonders of couch cushion architecture. We’ve rounded up a (mostly) admirable collection of projects, taken from a randomly conducted search on the internet. Join us as we take a critical analysis of the architecture, methods and design philosophies of living room furniture re-appropriation.
[Copyright Jennifer Larson]
A clear derivative of the Miesian box, this handsome project is “informalized” with the use of colorful, freeform roof panels. Taking further direction from the Archigram movement, the project explores architecture as body wrap and propels couch cushion architecture to new and exciting territory. Grade: A
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