Future Cities Lab recently completed speculative interactive proposal: HYDRAMAX. The drawings and interactive model are currently on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as part of their 'Utopian Impulse' show. HYDRAMAX proposes a radical rethinking of the relationship of San Francisco to its waterfront post sea-level rise as a machinic, biotic and productive landscape.

HYDRAMAX Port Machines, drawing courtesy Future Cities Lab

HYDRAMAX Port Machines
Exhibited at SFMOMA from 31 March to 29 July, 2012

Future Cities Lab's HYDRAMAX Port Machines project proposes a radical rethinking of San Francisco's urban waterfront post sea-level rise. The proposal renders the existing hard edges of the waterfront as new "soft systems" that would include aquatic parks, community gardens, wildlife refuges and aquaponic farms. A synthetic architecture is introduced that blurs the distinction between building, landscape, infrastructure and machine. Using thousands of sensors and motorized components, the massive urban scale robotic structure harvests rainwater and fog, while modulating air flow, solar exposure and intelligent building systems.

HYDRAMAX Port Machines, drawing courtesy Future Cities Lab

Design: Jason Kelly Johnson & Nataly Gattegno
Project Manager: Ripon DeLeon; Project Interns: Gavin Johns, Cameron Eng
Collaborative Sponsor: MIGA Motor Company (Dr. Mark Gummin)

HYDRAMAX Port Machines, drawing courtesy Future Cities Lab

Interactive Model Description: A network of infrared proximity sensors has been integrated into the four sides of the physical model. These sensors record the distance of gallery visitors to its edges. Information from these sensors is used to actuate the white feather-like "fog harvesting robots" and control the brightness of embedded LEDS. This model is an example of what Future Cities Lab calls "live models". Live models use the interaction of people to explore and simulate the potential effects of environmental forces such as fog, wind and sunlight.

HYDRAMAX Port Machines, drawing courtesy Future Cities Lab

Model Materials: Cast and thermoformed acrylic, custom printed circuit boards, Arduino based microcontrollers, infrared sensors, shape memory alloy motors (Courtesy of Miga Motor Company).

+ About FUTURE CITIES LAB

Future Cities Lab is an experimental design and research office based in San Francisco, California. Design principals Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno have collaborated on a range of award-winning projects exploring the intersections of design with advanced fabrication technologies, robotics, responsive building systems and public space. Their work has been published and exhibited worldwide. Most recently they were awarded the 2011 Architectural League of New York Young Architects Prize and the 2009 New York Prize Fellows at the Van Alen Institute in New York City.

+ All images courtesy Future Cities Lab

Fai-Fah, which means "light energy", is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme initiated in April 2010 by TMB Bank. The programme acts as a catalyst for change in Thai society through working with underprivileged children and teenagers in their community using the arts as a vehicle for self-development and creative thinking.

FAI-FAH, image courtesy Spark | Photo by Lin Ho

In October 2010, Spark was invited to design Fai-Fah Prachautis, the refurbishment of two shop houses located in a residential district of Bangkok.

The art and creative education programmes contained in the client's brief have been distributed over five floors, and include: the multi-function "living room", the art studio, a library, the gallery, the dance studio and a multi-purpose rooftop garden.

FAI-FAH, image courtesy Spark | Photo by Lin Ho

The design was developed at interactive workshops with the Fai-Fah children and teenagers, volunteer arts staff, and members of TMB's CSR team. Ideas generated during the workshop such as the façade screen and the interior colours were incorporated into the design, underlining the positive nature of the collaborative process and ownership of the concept amongst all of the project’s protagonists.

FAI-FAH, image courtesy Spark | Photo by TMB Bank

The five levels of the building are linked by a central feature staircase with each level defined by its own colour theme. Utilities and services are housed in a new inverted Lshaped structure, the “Utility Stick”, which is plugged into the rear of the building; it rises from the courtyard and bends to form a garden store at roof level.

FAI-FAH, image courtesy Spark | Photo by Lin Ho

The existing shop house façade has been transformed by the application of a bespoke lattice screen and Fai-Fah logo, a statement that the building is different from its adjacent neighbours and announcing to the community that Fai-Fah has arrived.

Spark's workshops with the Fai-Fah children were inspiring; they gave the children a great sense of accomplishment from being involved in the design process for such a large-scale, tangible project. Spark's unique interpretation of Fai-Fah propels the imagination of the young and old alike, and inspires the residents and children in the communities to look at ordinary things in extraordinary ways.

Paradai Theerathada, Head of Corporate Communications at TMB Bank

FAI-FAH - Section, drawing courtesy Spark

+ Project Data

FAI-FAH
Bangkok, Thailand

GFA (area above ground): 569 sqm
Project Completion: Quarter 1, 2012
Facilities: Event Space (Living Room), Gallery, Library, Art Studio, Dance Studio, Roof garden

Architect: Spark | http://www.sparkarchitects.com/
Design Director: Stephen Pimbley
Team: Wenhui Lim, Mark Mancenido, Suchon Pongsopitsin
Client: TMB Bank Public Company Limited
Client Team: Paradai Theerathada, Sakchai Sriwatthanapitikul, Nopawan Saengteerakij, Thatchakorn Prutnoppadol, Mallika Uswachoke, Radomdej Taksana, Aree Vesvijak, Jumpol Kwangosen, Saranyoo Nantanawanit, Siriporn Lerdapirangsi
Fai-Fah Kids: Master Thanakan Namunmong, Chisanu Kiatsuranayon, Sirinart Naksombhob, Kamolthat Sutat Na Ayudhya
Local Architect: 365COOP Company Limited

+ All images and drawings courtesy Spark

Starhill Gallery is perhaps Kuala Lumpur's most iconic shopping mall, featuring an extraordinary array of luxury shops and fine dining restaurants. Spark’s design proposal dealt with the reinvention of the existing façade of Starhill Gallery facing Bukit Bintang. This reinvention of Starhill Gallery is designed by Stephen Pimbley, founding director of Spark and the architect behind Singapore's hugely popular Clarke Quay.

Starhill Gallery, image courtesy Spark

Unlike many street-facing malls in Kuala Lumpur, our new façade for Starhill Gallery is firmly engaged with the public realm and generates valuable visual connections along this section of Bukit Bintang via the heavy footfall. We have designed a beacon for Starhill Gallery that celebrates its relationship with the city.

Stephen

Starhill Gallery, image courtesy Spark

Spark’s design has opened up the façade which provides a lot of visual interest via a continuous shop front that wraps the existing building in a crystalline skin of glass and stone panels. The new façade resembles the “wet drapery” of the ancient statues of Greece and Rome, and the beautifully crafted gowns on sale inside Starhill Gallery. The fractured variation of solidity and transparency transforms the street façade of the existing building entirely, giving it a new contemporary classic identity that stands out amongst the quick-fix, ubiquitous shopping mall façades of many of Starhill Gallery's neighbours.

Starhill Gallery, image courtesy Spark

Spark's lightweight steel, stone and glass façade is the first of their kind in Malaysia that embraces cutting-edge façade technology from the French engineer RFR, the team that delivered the Pyramid at the Paris Louvre.

Starhill Gallery, image courtesy Spark

Spark replaced the café at the entrance of Starhill Gallery with an iconic triple height shopping pavilion for the French luxury retailer LVMH and their cosmetics brand Sephora.

Starhill Gallery, image courtesy Spark

Sephora is, in turn, connected to Starhill via a first floor bridge that pierces the new crystalline façade. Spark, together with YTL, has deliberately crafted a complex building envelope using only the best materials that resonate with the importance of the building's position and contribution to the streetscape of Kuala Lumpur. The synergy with high quality of the brands/products, as well as special visitor experience inside Starhill Gallery is undeniable.

Starhill Gallery's new crystalline façade and the Sephora pavilion have effectively established an iconic new identity for Starhill Gallery, affirming its position as the foremost destination for luxury shopping in Southeast Asia.

Starhill Gallery - Ground floor plan, drawing courtesy Spark

Starhill Gallery - Section, drawing courtesy Spark

+ Project Data

Architects: Spark | http://www.sparkarchitects.com/
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Principal Architect: Stephen Pimbley
Project Architect: Michael Gibert
Team: Darmaganda, Kim-Lee Tan, Sevena Lee, Wenhui Lim
Local Architect: A. Mariadass Architect
Lighting Designer: Snfor Sdn Bhd
Structural Consultant: RFR Shanghai
Main Contractor: Syarikat Pembenaan Yeoh Tiong Lay Sdn Bhd (SPYTL)
M&E: Syarikat Pembenaan Yeoh Tiong Lay Sdn Bhd (SPYTL)

Building Area: 2,000 sqm
Design Period: April 2009 to August 2010
Construction Period: September 2010 to July 2011

+ About Spark

Spark is an international design studio with proven expertise in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and interior design. Having successfully completed award-winning projects across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Spark continues to create buildings and environments that inspire, informing and transforming public spaces. Its work strives to employ the best sustainable practices, is driven by social inclusion and underpinned by financial viability. Spark works closely with clients to create projects that combine innovation and environmental responsibility alongside commercial success for their local economies. Spark's completed work includes Clarke Quay in Singapore, Raffles City in Beijing, Starhill Gallery in Kuala Lumpur and the Shanghai International Cruise Terminal.

Led by five directors; Jan Clostermann, John Curran, Max Titchmarsh, Stephen Pimbley and Sven Steiner; Spark's international expertise is fused with local talent embracing 16 nationalities across offices in London, Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore.

+ All images and drawings courtesy Spark

This year, Area Declic will present these collections for the Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2012 during  17-22 April 2012 in Pavilion 12, Stand C16.

California by design Mino Bressan / Thesia Progetti, image courtesy of Area Declic

California, design Mino Bressan / Thesia Progetti

Relax: with this spirit was born the series CALIFORNIA, a Chaise longue for sitting around a pool, indoor or outdoor, in a garden or at home, especially the Rocking chair. They are made of technical mesh fabric stretched over the metal structure. Black and white the proposed colours, as is FLORA, presented last year and designed by the same studio. Here’s how Mino Bressan and Donatella Santangelo of Thesia Progetti explain their creations: “We tried to design objects with a life cycle that do not carry them, at the end of their existence, to an incinerator, but rather to a simplified system suitable to reuse their components. Flora and California are related to few and disassembled elements: a metal frame painted with biocompatible materials and totally biodegradable upholstery fabric. The mesh itself is a reusable element resulting in the reduction of composite materials and simplification of the manufacturing system”.

Simple by design Giulio Cianfarra, image courtesy of Area Declic

Simple, design Giulio Cianfarra

Lounge literally means living room, but also the background music that you listen while drinking between a chat and other. In many places there is an area furnished with soft chairs on which you can “lounge on”. SIMPLE is “merely” functional: a module that allows you to compose an infinite sofa and, at the same time, it can be a comfortable Rocking chair, occasionally accompanied by a rocking footrest.

Island by Area Declic Design, image courtesy of Area Declic

Island, Area Declic Design

ISLAND is characterized by a new technology: it is a multipurpose piece made of coated polyurethane, resistant to rain, snow, sun. Above all, it’s soft. The appearance is that of the seats carried out for rotational molding, but it offers unprecedented comfort. Also its shape is unusual – a colourful island at three heights, where adults, old people and children can seat. We imagine this colourful piece in the transit areas to fun in those places that are not places but connections between places, lanes, whose purpose is to connect. Airports, railway stations, shopping centers: ISLAND invites you to rest, but is made to withstand the ravages of time and use.

+ About designers

Mino Bressan / Thesia Progetti

After studying engineering at Padua University and architecture in Venice, he designed an electronic interface for students in collaboration with European and Japanese computer companies. Partner at the firm since its starting, he works in the field of architecture and design projects in Italy and abroad.

Giulio Cianfarra

Architect, after graduating from the University of Pescara, focuses on urban planning, architecture, design and art.

Area Declic Design

Vincenzo Genco is the guiding spirit in the Research and Development Department of Area Declic. Working in the company since 1977, he has followed its growth step by step. His profound knowledge of working with plastics and metal, together with his personal sensitivity and taste, are the determining factors in the delicate passage from project work to product.