# Battersea Power Station waiting

If you'd like to read some informations about the new project --> official website

# La Cité Frugès by Le Corbusier

"Je vous autorise à réaliser dans la pratique de vos théories [...] Pessac doit être un laboratoire" ("I allow you to achieve your theories [...] Pessac must be a laboratory") Henri Frugès said to Le Corbusier in 1924 when he orders the achievement of a garden city for his workers in Pessac (Suburbs of Bordeaux).
After theoric works like Citrohan House, Domino House, Plan Voisin, Le Corbusier is thus able to achieve his architecture at big scale.

Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret organised the site with five different kinds of buildings:

Isolated (70m²)

Skyscraper (110m²)

Zigzag (80m²)

Archway (85m²)

Staggered Rows (80m²)


Pessac was famous for a long time as the Modernism's failure. In fact, housing were originally planned to be three times cheaper to build than what they actually were (only 50 housing were actually built instead of 135 expected).

Then, as years went by, buildings were transformed little by little by its inhabitants who obviously prefered traditionnal ways of housing than modernism ones. Nowadays, a lot of buildings were renovated but there are still some of them which still show inhabitants readjustments.
Infact, Pessac still tackles the problem of the breakage between innovation and tradition and also the architect's knowledge and competence to think and act in favor of people who undergo architecture every day.

# Disused Rubber Factory

This is were you end when you are invited by Marksor in Limoges...

# Crooked Spires (Clochers Tors)

Look what Marksor and Delpolo found in Rochechouart (Haute-Vienne / France) ! This church owns one of the hundred crooked spires (Clocher tors in French) in Europe. You can find a complete article on French wikipedia here. There are 66 crooked spires in France and some others in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, England and Denmark.

Saint Gall Chruch's crooked spire in Niedermoschwihr (Haut-Rhin / France)

Saint Mary Church's crooked spire in Chesterfield (Derbyshire / England)

# Expo Zaragoza 2008

Back from holidays, I have at least some quite interesting stuff to show ! Here are some pictures of the Water Expo Zaragoza 2008 with Zaha Hadid's bridge (quite impressing from the outside, quite "subway like" inside...) and some other interesting buildings (brown's one is made of wood, stones and earth and is very cool !).
Buildings are organised between official Zaragoza buildings about water and International pavilions where you can wait quite a long time...
You can enjoy going on site until september 14th.

# Cesta Punta = Cyborgs' sport

I take advantage of spending my holidays in Saint Jean de Luz to assume something in commun between last post about Oscar Pistorius and Cesta Punta players and their Xistera which seem to be their new low-tech arm !

# Oscar Pistorius

Short post as long as I have an internet access. Yesterday, I watched a documentary on Arte about South African Oscar Pistorius that you might know. If you don't I must give you the advice of watching this video of Roman Golden League in 2007.
This meeting was before the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation) forbid Pistorius to participate to any competition for able runners because of his legs beeing a supposedly advantage for him. However, after some more tests, he was allow to participate to Beijing Olympics qualifications that he unfortunetly failed...
London 2012 maybe...

# No update

Sorry for the unconvenience of not seeing any new post, but I am currently in a place where I don't have any regular internet access...
New posts soon (I hope)

# Morphing Architecture / Armando Reyes Vazquez

Morphing Architecture is a project published into Jeong Der-Ho's book Responsive Volatility. It was a designed by a former Bartlett student, Armando Reyes Vazquez.

Morphing Architecture began as a one of the last design explorations while doing the master in architectural design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London. At this stage the project was called "Morphing Camden" cause it was site specific ( Camden,London) The main agenda of the project was to explore the performance of architecture during adaptation and the "hibridization phenomena", this due to the increasing need of architecture to adapt to various situations in the most effective way, increasing the potential of the architectural intervention as a catalyst enabling new ways of adaptation and manipulation of the space.

In this image are shown two diagrams of interaction vs. program for a specific situation, defining multiple formal configuration for hybrid activities.

Along the performance diagrams ,alternative diagrams were developed, in the image above there is a mapping of the circulation patterns followed by users through the first layout of the project.

Elements called "morphing ramps" were developed in order to create a responsive environment based on the requieremts of the programs, type of users, weather conditions and time of day, these ramps work as a pnemutaic conveyor belt, there were seven of this ramps attached to a shell concieved as a conventional element that would conect the responsive environment to an existing underground station. In this image the ramps are responding to the following conditions:Summer, Sunday, 12:00, 25C, Hybrid program of public space + Retail.

This is an X-Ray view through the Camden project, in here only three of the seven morphing ramps, each one in a different responsive stage, the one in the left providing a contained private space in a higher level and a public open space at the lower level, the one in the middle in one of the morphing stages deflating and inflating certain elemts to aqcuire the form in the third ramo which is a single facade open in two half levels.

A ghosted image of 2 hours of morphing sequences where one can see the non stop change of the ramps.

For extra responsivness, elements of another scale were develop so the adaptation of the whole thing could go from the main programmatic activities to the needs that were a consequence of these ones, these elements follow the same principals that the ramp and work as pneumatic devices as well. They respond to activities such as retail, shelter, food bending or consumption + weather + user + others.

Zoom of the XS responsive elements, main pneumatic core, secondary light metal structure plus anchorage elements and inflating pipes.

Shown in here one of the many possible configuration inside the morphing ramps with the XS ramps atached to it .

But Morphing Camden was just an excuse, the same principals could be applied for a number of different scenarios, if these ramps were to be self supported by only changing the specifications on the secondary structure the possibilities are endless, in a planet full of disasters, the red cross could have one or many of these cost efficent morphing architectures where these could be used as endless shelters (left) for people in need, medical stations or storage (right).

There are many other scenarios in which minor adaptations would allow this morphing device to perform at full capacity and enhance the program or the solutions to a problem. Acting as the catalyst mention before. ...anywhere or everywhere, this is architecture as a chameleon blending into our times.