
Posts tagged with "Asif Khan":


Brian Eno composing soundtrack for U.K. pavilion at 2017 Astana Expo
From June 10 to September 10, "We Are Energy" will be on show at the 2017 International Exposition in Astana, Kazakhstan. Though its name may sound like a Brian Eno number, We Are Energy is indeed the work of British architect, Asif Khan, whose pavilion houses an immersive, 360-degree CGI display screen. Eno is composing a soundtrack.
Echoing tones and shades of Spielberg's Minority Report, Khan's ephemeral work will feel like a dystopian Lazer Tag setting, except without the shrieking and zap-sounds as neon blue lights form a rotunda of sorts in the 23,600-square-foot space. This shell will be manufactured off-site. When put in place, it will be encircled by a screen that leaves space for visitors to walk between the two circular objects.
The shell itself is semi-permeable for most of its perimeter. People can see through the volume and place their hands between the light rods that fan down, though only actually enter the space at one point. The screen, meanwhile, acts as a visual barrier, tracing the shell's enlarged perimeter at eye-level and displaying a "timeline of energy."
To complement the design, musician Brian Eno has composed a piece to accompany the experience. Titled "Future Energy," the score will play on a continuous loop. In a statement on his website, Khan said:
The universe was formed 13.8 billion years ago. At that moment all energy and matter was in the same place at the same time. The idea that everything, including life on earth, is comprised of this archaic energy is fascinating to me. I wanted to find a way to express this relationship to our visitors and explore how energy is being continually harnessed and balanced around us.Professor of Astrophysics Catherine Heymans, from the University of Edinburgh, has also contributed to the project. As reported by the Architects' Journal, Khan's studio is working alongside KBW Designs and Woo.

Bjarke Ingels and four others unveil designs for the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion and adjacent summer houses

This alternative Guggenheim Helsinki competition is challenging global luxury museum brands

One of these six firms will design the new Guggenheim Helsinki
GH-76091181 comprises a ring of slender, sculptural towers faced with timber shingles, reminiscent of vernacular architecture, gathered around a cathedral-like central space. The towers, with their play of light and shadow, create an architectural beacon, visible by land or sea, while the central space, sheltered from extremes of weather yet part of the quayside, provides an exceptional new site for public events on the waterfront. Exhibition galleries are housed in timber cabinets stacked within the towers. Bridges connecting the towers offer respite space for visitors between experiencing art and offer new viewing points over the city and harbor.From the design team:
GH-5631681770 reconfigures circulation and use of the East and West Harbors to establish an area of industrial activity and an area of cultural activity, with the museum as the link between the city and the waterfront. In a critical shift from the idea of a building as static object to a building that accommodates the flux of daily life, a city street runs through the interior of the museum, opening it to appropriation by the citizens and creating a combination of programs: a museum program and an unpredictable street program, in which visitors may become productive and creative users of the space.From the design team:
GH-04380895 links the museum to the rest of the city through a pedestrian footbridge to Tähtitorninvuori Park and a promenade along the port, including a food hall and a market during the warm months. The museum programs are housed in pavilion-scale buildings treated as independent, fragmentary volumes within this landscape, allowing for a strong integration of outdoor display and event spaces with interior exhibition galleries. The ensemble is made to stand out from afar by being composed around a landmark tower. The use of charred timber in the facade evokes the process of regeneration that occurs when forests burn and then grow back stronger than before.From the design team:
GH-121371443 drapes a skin of textured glass panels over a bar-like, two-story interior structure, creating an environmentally sustainable public space between the facade and the gallery volumes, with natural light diffused throughout. In an unusual innovation, the element that makes the building sustainable—the intelligent glass wrapper, which uses technology such as Nanogel glazing and rollable thermal shutters—is also the element that distinguishes the project visually, giving the building an ethereal presence. Within the building, an annex for the work of younger Nordic artists is paired with a market hall, and a service pavilion encloses a sculpture garden.From the design team:
GH-1128435973 creates two facilities in dialogue with each other. The ground floor is an adaptive reuse of the existing Makasiini Terminal, conceived as a public space that extends the pedestrian boardwalk into the building. This is a place for education, civic activity, and incubating ideas. The second floor is an exhibition hall on stilts, which hovers above the terminal building, partly removed from everyday life. The long rectangular volume offers a flexible space for all types of exhibitions and adheres to the notion of a museum as a space apart. Through this dual scheme, the proposed museum could engage its public to co- create value and meaning.From the design team:
GH-5059206475 reuses the laminated wood structure of the Makasiini Terminal to rebuild a wooden volume that exactly follows the geometry of the original, and preserves the current views from the park and the adjacent buildings. Within this structure—essentially an undisturbed network of existing conditions—the project creates 31 rooms: eight of them measuring 20 x 20 m, 18 of them 6.5 x 6.5 m, four of them 10 x 10 m, and one 40 x 100 m. This rigid set of spatial conditions is combined with a deliberate distribution of climates based on the program and principles of sustainability, with each room acclimatized independently so that the galleries together form a 'thermal onion.'

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