2 months ago, we’ve introduced a book of “COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Complete Works 1968-2010 by TASCHEN“. Well, if you have bought this book, let’s take this opportunity to attend the occasion of booksigning and lecture by Wolf D. Prix at bookshop Walther König, VIE.

Date: December 1, 2010 Time: 6:00 p.m.
Venue: Bookshop Walther König, Museumsquartier, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna, Austria

+ Leaf through the pages here or buy here.

In Milan, Chris Bosse of Laboratory for Visionary Architecture [LAVA] has created a window installation for the famous Italian department store la Rinascente for its Contemporary Christmas Art windows.

LAVA's window installation is an origami coral reef using 1500 recycled and recyclable cardboard molecules that explores the intelligence of natural and architectural systems.

In urban terms, the smallest homes, the spaces they create, the energy they use, the heat and moisture they absorb, multiply into a bigger organisational system, whose sustainabilty depends on their intelligence.

Bosse, director of multinational LAVA

Digital Origami la Rinascente, image courtesy LAVA

The sculpture plays with space by climbing up walls and arching over to create coral caves. Based on the geometrical structures of sea foam and corals, the colourful reef comes to life through dynamic lighting and sound.

Bosse, director of multinational LAVA, is one of seven designers from around the world to be commissioned to create a window – others are Kirsten Hassenfeld, Gyngy Laky, Andrea Mastrovito, Satsuki Oishi, Richard Sweeney, Margherita Marchioni and Tjep.

Digital Origami la Rinascente, image courtesy LAVA

The store windows are at la Rinascente’s Piazza Duomo store, in the centre of Milan, design capital of the world. This is the first time la Rinascente have commissioned artists to do Christmas windows.

The installation shows how a particular module, copied from nature, can generate architectural space, and how the intelligence of the smallest unit dictates the intelligence of the overall system.

Ecosystems such as coral reefs act as a metaphor for an architecture where the individual components interact in symbiosis to create an environment.

Digital Origami la Rinascente, image courtesy LAVA

Current trends in parametric modeling, digital fabrication and material-science were applied to the space-filling installation.

LAVA was founded in 2007 by Chris Bosse, Tobias Wallisser and Alexander Rieck, with offices in Sydney and Stuttgart.

Digital Origami la Rinascente, image courtesy LAVA

+ Project credits / data

Project: Digital Origami, la Rinascente
Location: Milan, Italy
Design: LAVA | http://www.l-a-v-a.net
LAVA Team: Chris Bosse, Roberto Salvà, Omar Basilico, Victor Trentini, Anna Romani, Angelo Ungarelli
Art direction: Independent Ideas.
Lighting: ERCO, Sydney/Milan
Photography: Filippo Patrese

Designed by Spainish architectural studio A-Cero, a dwelling of generous proportions developed over a single storey to facilitate the indoor-outdoor connection and to make the most of the environment in which it stands. Surrounded by meadows, tree groves, chestnut, pine and oak trees and wildlife represented by stags, wild boar and roe deer, the edifice establishes a recognised link with the traditional architecture and vernacular customs. Stone, tile, wood have been used in its construction.

Dwelling in Avila, image courtesy A-cero

Dwelling in Avila, image courtesy A-cero

The sense of the architecture is to formalise the space and layout of the rooms besides representing a clear tribute to rural villages. The consequence is an open, U-shaped dwelling with a large central courtyard that shares out the uses. The principal wing houses the living rooms, dining room, TV room and children's and playrooms. In the east wing is the kitchen, laundry room and cellar and in the west wing the master bedroom. Semi-independent pavilions house the installations, riding facilities, stables and the guardians' dwelling. Two immense awnings frame the landscape.

Dwelling in Avila, image courtesy A-cero

Dwelling in Avila, image courtesy A-cero

Through an apt play of symmetries visual perspectives are created. A painstaking study of the light allows it to come in through courtyards, grooves, windows, skylights and façade openings. The courtyards help us to minimise the conditions of the extreme climate, provide colour, freshness and hold the ponds that reflect the serenity and musicality of the water.

Dwelling in Avila, image courtesy A-cero

Indoors there is a consistency in its development that offers us serene, private ambiences full of nuances and subtleties. The house generates its own environment and assimilates the best of what there is. The project arises as a response to the demands of the place.

Dwelling in Avila, image courtesy A-cero

+ Project credits / data

Project: Dwelling in Avila
Architect: A-cero | http://www.a-cero.com
Location: Avila, Spain
Program: House
Photo: © Xurxo Lobato

+ All images and description courtesy A-cero | Photo by Xurxo Lobato