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Vitreous spheres of knowledge

Architecture | Featured Project

Temporary workshop clad in gold

Temporary workshop clad in gold
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Architecture

Perforated, embossed refined

Perforated, embossed refined
Only on closer inspection you notice just how elaborate the perforated and embossed metal sheets are that RMIG makes available to architects.

Architecture

Retreat and dialog

Retreat and dialog
The architects of the new ThyssenKrupp development integrated a place of peace and quiet ( "Raum der Stille") in it that is intended for use just as much by guests as by the employees.
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Marthashof residential estate
Custom-made perforated sheet metal decorated the facades and sun-protection sections used for the houses in Berlin's Marthashof.
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Architecture

Shimmering facade

Shimmering facade
Pre-patinated sandwich elements in combination with brass panels: the facade of the new Fraunhofer Institute in Darmstadt is a living outer sheath with a trailblazing character.

Architecture

Apartment reloaded

Apartment reloaded
An apartment located in the city centre of Valencia.
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Pictures on Concrete Surfaces
Thanks to the "GraphicConcrete" technology, patterns, images and texts can be durably applied to concrete surfaces.
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Architecture

Layered House

Layered House
The example of a former dairy in Somerset, England, shows just how wooden planking and blocks of glass can be joined such as to be weatherproof.
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Architecture

Metamorphosis of the facade

Metamorphosis of the facade
Tecu Brass is an alloy made of copper and tin. The originally reddish/golden brown color of the material changes in the course of time and if exposed to the weather - into a dark brow and anthracite gray surface.

Architecture

The Waterhouse in Shanghai

The Waterhouse in Shanghai
The Waterhouse is an exclusive 5-star hotel on the outskirts of the megacity of Shanghai. On the basis of an old Japanese army's headquarters, the architects of Neri & Hu developed this luxury boutique hotel.

Architecture

A clean matter

A clean matter
A gynecological clinic specialized in assisted reproduction required new premises. They acquired a 200sqm flat in downtown Athens, in an area where most of the apartments have already been converted into offices, health centers and similar programs.
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Handmade, the traditional way
At the Danish company Petersen Tegl, the seventh generation is now producing high-grade bricks as well as a special range of molded bricks, glazed tiles and special terracotta.
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Architecture

Slab-format thin concrete

Slab-format thin concrete
With "fibreC" the Austrian family-run company Rieder has launched a new concrete panel in an easy-to-handle slat format.
Pool house micro cosmos
What an unusual task: to design a pool house! A pool house made of glass, steel and fabric is light and transparent and a far cry from a tool shed.
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Artificially grayed larch
A residential house near Munich was given an artificial touch in a bid to better control the wood's natural graying process.
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News & Stories

The return of the curved

by Nora Sobich

The return of the curved
Be it purses, chairs or roofs: Wickerwork, one of the world's oldest construction methods is experiencing a revival.

Architecture

Heart in Detail

Heart in Detail
The Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark, known in short as the "heart", is more than just a showplace for contemporary art. As a center of the cultures it unites exhibition rooms with nothing less than a concert hall, a library, an open-air stage and a café.
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Architecture

A control center for the Games

A control center for the Games
A substation is the first new building for the 2012 Summer Olympics Games in London to be commissioned and opened. Astonishing architecture for what is actually a structure of minor significance, which on closer inspection surprisingly reveals interesting details.

Architecture

Undercover agent

Undercover agent
"TIMax GL" is a translucent glass fiber insulation mesh that considerably enhances the thermal insulation of profiled glass on façades. It serves as a light-dispersing insulating insert and completely fills out the space between the glass.
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The kettle of innovation
The environmentally innovative wood plastic composite UPM ProFi creates a visually unique marble white facade for the ‘Giant´s Kettle' the Finnish Pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
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Architecture

A calabash of fun

A calabash of fun
In Johannesburg, an unmistakable stadium, resplendent in African colors, awaits football fans - "Soccer City".

Architecture

Rural urban interaction – the harmonious interaction between town and country

Rural urban interaction – the harmonious interaction between town and country
The Swiss Pavilion at this year's Expo in Shanghai embodies the symbiosis between town and country. It presents itself as a hybrid structure comprising technology and nature, which combines the city and the country and keeps them in balance. Furthermore, an interactive, intelligent façade system playfully demonstrates just how much unused energy surrounds us everywhere.

News & Stories

Functional ornamentation

by Nancy Jehmlich

Functional ornamentation
Centuries ago, in a small town in Tunisia on the edge of the Sahara, craftsmen experimented with the decorative potential of brick. At the same time they created functional but contemporary architecture.-
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News & Stories

Architecture en miniature

by Franziska Horn

Architecture en miniature
In Munich, at an exhibition entitled "Architekturchen" Ingo Maurer is presenting surprising works by Italian design star Michele de Lucchi. They show how working with wood can trigger new thought processes and inspire new ideas.
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Water as the dominant theme
The new Convention Center in Zaragoza takes up the theme of "water" by creating the impression of a water surface in motion.
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News & Stories

Stone that goes with the flow

by Nancy Jehmlich

Stone that goes with the flow
Ströhmann Steinkult, a company based in Central Germany, devotes itself to experimenting with stone, especially with stone surfaces. What they achieve by combining the effects of materials, shapes and light is quite astonishing.
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News & Stories

Concrete – so much more than the gray friend in the background

Concrete – so much more than the gray friend in the background
The new Material Edition will showcase many other types of concrete including, for example, glass-foam concrete, translucent concrete, colored and recycled concrete. Be inspired by the sheer wealth of possible uses!

News & Stories

The hidden beauty of the sewer rat

by Nora Sobich

The hidden beauty of the sewer rat
Concrete is the epitome of the Neues Bauen movement and linked inseparably to Modernism. Yet despite the multifarious opportunities for use it still has a hard time being perceived in terms of its aesthetic qualities as well.

News & Stories

Bambú brasileiro or the future of a material

by Georg-Christof Bertsch

Bambú brasileiro or the future of a material
Brazil is the land of tropical forests. Very few actually know that bamboo also grows here in abundance. The more radical the changes in current policies of exploiting the rainforest, the better the chances that bamboo, a versatile material boasting a multitude of different applications, will soon be attributed a far more prominent role - in architecture as well as in design and automotive engineering.

News & Stories

The liberation of shape

by Markus Frenzl

The liberation of shape
Charles and Ray Eames once experimented with glass fiber reinforced plastics, today Konstantin Grcic experiments with Hirek plastic while Patricia Urquiola favors transparent polymers in a bid to achieve totally new shapes, surface qualities or uses that make design not only the formal but also technological manifestation of our age capable of altering people's lives. A little story to the significance of plastics for design.

News & Stories

With our feet firmly on the ground

With our feet firmly on the ground
Neil Armstrong was the first to touch the Moon's, and the Pope kisses it every time he visits a foreign country. By contrast, we seek to simply keep our own two feet on the ground: In the exclusive "Flooring" edition, Stylepark has compiled the most important types of flooring for designing floor space in buildings.

News & Stories

Curtains of steel

by Birgit S. Bauer

Curtains of steel
The fabrics in the Silver and Steel Collection from Creation Baumann are a technical innovation: Using a thin aluminium or steel coating, these textiles actually reflect the sun's rays, thus controlling light and heat.

News & Stories

All about of carbon

by Nora Sobich

All about of carbon
Strong and light: Carbon is the high-flyer. In product design too and even in times when sustainability should play an ever greater role, the industrial material shows its sensational potential.

News & Stories

Matter, Material, Materialism

by Thomas Wagner

Matter, Material, Materialism
Eco-management systems, eco-labels, sustainability certificates – the need for information on ecological aspects of production is growing by the day. Some companies, such as Italian manufacturer Arper, have already pinned proof of the eco-friendliness of their products to their masts.

News & Stories

The miracle grass

by Nora Sobich

The miracle grass
Bamboo has long since not just been an ingredient in Asian cooking; there are now laptops, bicycle frames and furniture made of the "wonder grass". It is one of the fasting growing renewable raw materials in the world and is currently the most popular, most loved ecological material.

News & Stories

Kapipane by Okalux

Kapipane by Okalux
Materialworks Zoom: Aesthetics and function in museum architecture - Kapipane by Okalux

News & Stories

Milled worlds by scopulus

Milled worlds by scopulus
Materialworks Zoom: Milled geo relief - workshop report by the company scopulus

News & Stories

Origami in Plexiglas®

Origami in Plexiglas®
Materialworks Zoom: the CUT'N FOLD® process by the Northeim company, Hannecke

News & Stories

Sustainability as a Principle

by Daniel von Bernstorff

Sustainability as a Principle
With the Shigeru Ban pavilion in Milan, Finnish furniture manufacturer Artek and the forest product company UPM-Kymmene are pointing the way to a future dominated by ecological architecture and sustainability.
Teeth on a string and a Matterhörnli in a box

News & Stories

Buildings suited to bamboo

by Egon Chemaitis

Buildings suited to bamboo
Although people in Europe do know that bamboo can be used in many different ways, hardly anybody really knows very much about its characteristics. The situation is very different in Anji, China, where there is hardly any aspect of living where life is not hard to imagine without Bamboo.
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News & Stories

What comes after the age of plastic?

by Nora Sobich

What comes after the age of plastic?
Things are happening in the materials field. No less than a green revolution is on the agenda. Hardly surprising that there is currently a large number of books about material. One that can be particularly recommended is Sascha Peter's reference book "Material Revolution" about multi-functional and sustainable materials.

Architecture

In the black robe

In the black robe
This house was renovated by architect Johannes Norlander. It is located on a small Swedish island and covered with a layer of black plywood.
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Architecture

Place for religious encounters

Place for religious encounters
Bonn-based Martini Architekten has transformed the new Domforum in Cologne into a white contemporary space.
Curved surfaces and oblique lines
Designing the new Vodafone building in Oporto, Portugal, the architects José António Barbosa and Pedro Guimarães of Barbosa Guimarães Arquitectos wished to reflect Vodafone's credo "Vodafone Life, Life in Motion".
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Architecture

Glass room dividers

Glass room dividers
Rimadesio's "Velaria" dividing wall system stands out for its successful combination of high-grade glass sliding panels with thin frames and fittings.

Architecture

Close to the Wind

Close to the Wind
The Unilever Head Office in Hamburg's Havencity, designed by Behnisch Architekten, was that first office building of its kind to rely completely on LEDs for light. Moreover, a curtain of transparent high-tech plastic foil runs like a second skin across the entire facade.
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Architecture

Metropol Parasol

Metropol Parasol
Recently a celebration was held to mark the partial completion of the Metropol Parasol project. Festivities began with the opening of the market hall. Full completion of the project is planned for March/April 2011.
Playing field for architects
The circular skylights and large glass facades bring natural light into the rooms of the house Spreng.
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News & Stories

Thinking about life’s elasticity

by Nora Sobich

Thinking about life’s elasticity
Whether a silk stocking, a small pig on a trampoline or the human brain, artists and scientists have made any number of contributions on elasticity to the anthology "Findings on Elasticity" . The outcome is a conglomeration that lets the reader share in a creative thought-finding process.
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Architecture

Program-free Architecture

Program-free Architecture
For the renovation of his apartment in the historical center of Barcelona the Swiss architect Gus Wüstemann made use of a white cross.

Architecture

The High House and the Long House

The High House and the Long House
Together with the adjoining plaza the Parliament building in Vaduz, comprising the High House and the Long House, creates an urban planning unit underscored by the consistent choice of ochre yellow tiles.

Architecture

Aging beautifully

Aging beautifully
The Empire Riverside Hotel is located on the former industrial site of the Bavaria Brewery in the center of Hamburg. When selecting the materials, David Chipperfield Architects paid special attention to their aging process.
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Architecture

Elegant Interaction

 Elegant Interaction
A penthouse apartment in Stuttgart is a well thought-through composition comprising three monolithic cabinet systems and a free-standing kitchen block.
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Architecture

A Question of Coating

A Question of Coating
AGC makes available a range of highly specialized solar protection coatings for glass - brand named Stopsol.
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Architecture

A house with one room

A house with one room
If you look up the term single-room house in the specialist literature, you will find a simple sentence explaining this type of dwelling: the single room is the simplest way to divide up a groundplan, as it entails a house with no inside walls or separate rooms.
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Architecture

Translucent, folded and perforated

Translucent, folded and perforated
Architects Diane Heirend & Philippe Schmit's expansion of the Luxembourg art gallery in the Villa Vauban adds a metal-clad annex.
An iceberg of marble, glass and metal
Alongside Holmenkollen, Oslo Opera House on Oslo fjord is one of the landmarks of Norway's capital and is even considered a national symbol.
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Architecture

Gold comes, gold stays

Gold comes, gold stays
Today, one increasingly comes across gold-plated architecture - be it on the facade of a department store that deals in precious metals, an information pavilion or a museum building. But now you can even find it lending a gleam to educational facilities and kindergartens, not to mention bakeries and police stations.
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Indestructible, ecologically beautiful
The floorboards by Mydeck is made of a combination of waste wood and plastic and, yet, look like planks from solid wood.
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Architecture

None of your shabby old blinds

None of your shabby old blinds
For a new company building in the small Tyrolian town of Hall the sun-protection blinds were made specially of Plexiglas.

Architecture

A crystal made of glass and concrete

A crystal made of glass and concrete
One Colemean Street, the project by English design office David Walker Architects, is located in the heart of London's banking district. The commercial building offers structurally interesting solutions and is a visual eye-catcher.
At one with Carrara and Palladium
A new congress center has opened in the Uzbek capital Tashkent. The mineral material Corian® was the primary material used for the wall cladding in the auditorium.
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News & Stories

Juuri or the genie of the bottle

by Nancy Jehmlich

Juuri or the genie of the bottle
One basic design, six variations, three colors, countless combinations: the vessel "Juuri" of young designer Sarah Böttger delights with its special design and material language.

Architecture

Of nurbs and border crossers

Of nurbs and border crossers
Spanish architect Enric Ruíz Geli has crossed the borders between industry and art by combining traditional materials with latest-generation materials.
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Architecture

A golden veil for the synagogue

A golden veil for the synagogue
The expressive architecture of the new synagogue in Munich is characterized by two stacked cubes: a massive, temple-like rock base with a filigree glass construction on top clad in a bronze-colored translucent woven metallic veil.
The iceberg of Bordeaux
The sleek, icy white façade of the Seeko'o hotel is already making a statement in the dockland area of Bordeaux. Seeko'o means "iceberg" or "glacier" in Inuit... and from the
start this was an unusual and adventurous concept.
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News & Stories

New concretes for Architecture and Design

by Juergen Glaesle

New concretes for Architecture and Design
Concrete is by no means simply gray and monotonous. Recent years have seen the development of numerous new concretes that reveal the various uses to which it can be put.

News & Stories

Matt gold, please!

by Markus Frenzl

Matt gold, please!
Hand-crafted porcelain: obscenely expensive, decorative items for the glass cabinet, figurines ... we know the kind of thing only too well. And then you find yourself taking part in a guided tour round the Nymphenburg porcelain manufactory and you rediscover a world long thought to be forgotten, full of craftsmen who are proud of their work and pieces which breathe life.

News & Stories

Rigid, impact resistant and highly transparent

Rigid, impact resistant and highly transparent
The Metocene Material Edition, which Stylepark has developed in conjunction with the chemical company LyondellBasell, illustrates, with a variety of examples and products, the diversity of visual possibilities that this plastic offers.

News & Stories

Materials that appeal to the senses

by Nancy Jehmlich

Materials that appeal to the senses
One of the highpoints of this year's Milan Design Week took place at the Triennial: the "Tokyo Fiber 09 - Senseware" exhibition. It presented new materials and was also a festival of the senses.

News & Stories

In new contexts

by Nora Sobich

In new contexts
Concrete curtains, synthetic paper bags, knitted fabric seat covers - new materials inspire new products.

News & Stories

Seen in the Light – Edition Translucence

by Claudia Beckmann

Seen in the Light – Edition Translucence
On closer inspection more things in this world than you would initially imagine prove to be translucent - the human skin, plant leaves, paper and even wax. Many creative disciplines have long since been taking advantage of the qualities of transparent materials and make gainful use of the possibilities of specific light modulation, especially in an architectural context.

News & Stories

Nothing to be sneezed at

by Nora Sobich

Nothing to be sneezed at
All the things you can make from industrial cardboard - the material keeps finding new applications in architecture and design.

News & Stories

It’s the link that matters – Wire Mesh

by Claudia Beckmann

It’s the link that matters – Wire Mesh
The term wire mesh initially sounds technical and slightly reserved. However, the possible appearances hiding behind this material are very promising, both in mechanical and aesthetic terms. A picture gallery with selected pieces conveys an idea of the various properties wire mesh can have and how wide its range of possible uses is.

News & Stories

Research into green matters

by Nora Sobich

Research into green matters
Sustainable materials are becoming ever more numerous and varied and the demands for ecological quality ever greater: a snapshot of the state of play.

News & Stories

Zip-Shape by designtoproduction

Zip-Shape by designtoproduction
Materialworks Zoom: Shaped using the zip principle

News & Stories

The legendary bling bling

by Sophia Muckle

The legendary bling bling
Over 100 years ago, in 1895 to be exact, the inventor Daniel Swarovski moved to Tyrol in Austria, where he installed his new machine to cut and polish crystal glass. From these early beginnings, his sparkling crystals revolutionized the world of fashion and transformed the family business into a global market leader for crystal in fashion, jewelry and, since a few years ago, increasingly in the fields of lighting, architecture and interior design as well.

News & Stories

DuPont celebrates 40 years of Corian®

by Daniel von Bernstorff

DuPont celebrates 40 years of Corian®
During "The Design Annual - inside: private identity" in Frankfurt, DuPont presents the exhibition "40 Years/40 Designers". On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of DuPont™ Corian®, 40 designers and architects developed table or desktop accessories made of the solid surface material.
Stefan Diez for Authentics
Stefan Diez's "Kuvert" range of bags for Authentics
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