Aug 21, 2008

The Fragile Lab

One of our favourite cities is Antwerp. Dunno why but the place rocks. The atmosphere there is a great one and there is a real sense of style it feels French but isn’t that far away.

Architecturally there is a great deal going on too, old and new mix with ease and shops pop up in old bank buildings and the such like. The shops exude a great deal of style too with upper class boutiques and (my favourite shop) the grungy, down-to-earth-skater-hang-out, ‘Fish ‘n’ Chips’, which is well worth a look if you are trying desperately to be down with the kids… I still am, I just like the place.

Anyway, this recently caught my eye and you are bound to see why. Nestled in between the standard buildings is a glass fronted piece which has multiple usages – shop, office, apartment and storage space. It’s designed by the Import/Export Architectural practice and we like it lots of plenty. The building is in the trendy part of town and deserves to be. It’s full of angles which are not quite 90º and seems to be very fragile (hence the name) but is just as strong and sturdy as any of the buildings around it.

It’s not hard to see why this building works in Antwerp, it has a great feeling which could only be bettered if it overlooked the river. I’d think about relocating the business to this building if I could live there too. As usual, click the picture above to get more images from the ‘OWI // Office for Word and Image’ website. Nice.

Images © Dujardin Filip

Jun 03, 2008

The future of the office

Suddenly every other office looks a bit stale. Here is a project the architects, James Law Cybertecture International, for a new office complex in Mumbai, India. The whole concept considers the world as an ecosystem and let it evolve. Hence its egg shape. The building takes care of its inhabitants, helping track blood pressure and weight automatically with data being sent to their doctor if needed. The roof garden dissipates heat from the building itself, while its egg shape makes the most of reaping the abundant solar energy of the area.

Great looking building and a good concept but what do you think about having your health monitored on a day to day basis every time you enter the building? I can see it causing a few human rights and intrusion issues in Europe.

image © James Law Cybertecture Intenational