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Inspirational Projects
Thematic Design in Action
Why it matters
Many historic structures will need maintenance as time continues. How can we combine striking novel modern forms with traditional spaces to create buildings that respect the past and look forward to the future?
What it's about
This masterful museum design uses repetition in simple architecture elements to impose the form of a ship. This museum, heavy and oblique from the exterior, feels light and vibrant in the interior. Sunlight streams through the staggered apertures placed between each concrete band, then flood over a lush wooden interior that compliments the Scottish art on display.
Why it matters
Implying the form of an object in a buildings design can often diminish its value because of this cheap ploy. This design, however, uses intuitive building component relationships and the rhythmical staggering of spacing between them, to masterfully succeed in paying direct homage to the United Kingdoms relationship to the sea.
Why it matters
This design shows how a non-glamorous building type, like industrial warehouses, can be executed gracefully by understanding the proper forms and materials to implement. The rustic facade undulates in form, and its permeable nature makes the large building far less imposing.
Extremely successful examples of brownfield renovations like this show the capabilities behind a site's regeneration. LMN has an incredibly extensive analysis of all the aspects behind this complex. This includes detailed depictions of sustainability systems and diagrams explaining every influence that contributed to its form and function.
Why it matters
This brownfield renovation connects Vancouver to its waterfront through a massive building complex that houses a green roof containing 400,000 indigenous paths. Interior programming includes hundreds of meters of paths connecting various business that allow this complex to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity annually.
What it's about
Our modern society is separated from the processes needed to feed it. The adoption of inefficient schemes for moving food products over vast spaces has dramatically contributed to unsustainable resource depletion and Climate Change. How can designers facilitate a more intimate relationship with the industries that feed us?
Why it matters
This brownfield renovation imagines an old tobacco factory as a food hub of the future. This site would contain the entirety of the food procurement process from production to sale for the general public.
What it's about
Victoria & Albert Museum by Kengo Kuma & Associates
Smithsonian Institution's Arts & Industries Building by Morphosis
What it's about
The Arts and Industries Building is the second oldest Smithsonian museum in the National mall. This design adds to this historic structure modern forms that create spaces capable of teaching visitors important lessons about culture and science.
TAK Sale Office & Warehouses by AOMO
Vancouver Convention Centre West by LMN Architects
West Louisville food Port by OMA
UUFCO New Home by Hacker Architects
What it's about
This place of worship uses materiality and natural lighting to elevate moods and relationships between patrons of the site. Open volumes let daylight spill out and accentuate the wood grain forms very fitting to the contextual Oregon landscape.
Why it matters
The architects uses sketch studies of the mountainous landscape around the site to find inspiration for forms that felt respective of Oregon's beauty. The sustainable features, including net-zero energy capabilities and regenerative wood construction, allow this project to reflect the Christian values of stewardship to people and the environment.
Portland Japanese Cultural Garden Center by Kengo
Kuma & Associates
What it's about
This homage to traditional Japanese design in the dense forest of Portland uses materiality and form to create a complex in true harmony with its context. The green roof system smoothly diverts rain water into collection systems.
Why it matters
Lake Flato's design comes to mind when contemplating the success Kengo Kuma has in creating buildings that feel like extensions of the natural environment. How can dense urban centers, devoid of the easily accessible greenery found in Portland, somehow create buildings that feel alive?
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