Rem Koolhaas is on Fire!

Sad news in the architectural world, part off the CCTV building in Beijing by Rem Koolhaas is on fire, sources report as follows

'A fierce fire engulfed a major new building in Beijing that houses a luxury hotel and cultural center Monday, the last day of celebrations for the lunar new year when the city was alight with fireworks.

The building was designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and is part of China Central Television's new headquarters, an angular wonder of modernist architecture that was built to coincide with the Beijing Olympics last year.

The fire was burning from the ground floor to the top floor, the flames reflecting in the glass facade of the main CCTV tower next to the hotel and cultural center.

The 241-room Mandarin Oriental hotel in the building was due to open this year.

Flames were spotted around 9:30 p.m., and within 20 minutes the fire had spread throughout the building'

To read the full story click here

Hairywood

Some of you may have seen this before, but It is a project I really enjoy and has a good sense of fun about it, I have laser cur models myself and this is an interesting interpretation, or application of a similar process of making. This is the text from the architect eley kishimoto's website

A collaboration with 6a architects, the HAIRYWOOD project played with ideas of defining space and creating place through the interaction of structure and pattern repeat. The 6.3m tower with raised public space was launched at the opening of The Yard, the Architecture Foundation’s new gallery.
Here are some images I found below from flickr courtesy of erase and
McTumshie



If you look on the website of the architect you can find the models of the tower, suprisingly these are not laser cut, perhaps this would have been a representation took close to the end product. after all it is better to leave some things to the imagination.

How to improve this Blog

Since I am a frequent user of pushpullbar i have started a thread on the site about how to improve this site, please take a look and see how the conversation goes!

Pushpullbar

Just thought I'd mention the site that I probably use the most, related to architecture, and it is the forum at www.pushpullbar.com, based around the 3D modeling program Sketchup, it is a place where you can post your own work and receive feedback on it, rather like a crit. You can also get advice on software, practice, anything to do with architecture. You dont have to post about sketchup!

I highly reccomend it!

Small House Style

Have just found this brilliant website focusing on small houses, it's amazing how little space we actually need to live in www.smallhousestyle.com

This blurb is from the website

'Small House Style is a web magazine dedicated to everything small house. Think bungalows, cottages, guest houses, cabins, sustainable architecture, green building, straw bale, prefab, modern, apartments, modular, simple, solar, wind and tiny - inside and outside. We love beautiful, modern and sustainable small buildings.'

We hope Small House Style is an inspiration to consumers, builders, designers, entrepreneurs, innovators, developers, lawyers, engineers, lenders, contractors, sticks-in-the-mud and treehuggers alike.'