House in the Asian Tropics 20

Tropical house in Langkawi, Malaysia designed by WHBC Architects. Via dezeen.

[AD201401_02] High Definition: Zero Tolerance in Design and Production

The issue delivers much that is exciting at the cutting edge of technology with Tobias Nolte and Andrew Witt’s description of the self-optimisation system that Gehry Technologies developed for the  realisation of the Fondation Louis Vuitton art museum in Paris (pp 82–9). Skylar Tibbits also provides an insightful account of the 4D printing processes that the Self-Assembly Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is collaborating on with multi-material printing company Stratasys Ltd (pp 116–121). New developments in technology often highlight or accentuate existing possibilities and preoccupations in design. This is an important aspect that Sheil gives space to in the issue by dedicating several articles to defining a high-definition approach and the perceptions surrounding it, whether informed by innovative or conventional techniques — see Ilona Gaynor and Benedict Singleton (pp 48–53), Birgir Örn Jónsson (pp 54–9) and Michael Webb’s (pp 60–73) articles.

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MAS Context 22: Surveillance

“Welcome to our Surveillance issue. This issue examines the presence of surveillance around us—from the way we are being monitored in the physical and virtual world, to the potential of using the data we generate to redefine our relationship to the built environment.”

“Organized as a sequence of our relationship with data, the contributions address monitoring, collecting, archiving, and using the traces that we leave, followed by camouflaging and deleting the traces that we leave. By exploring different meanings of surveillance, this issue seeks to generate a constructive conversation about the history, policies, tools, and applications of the information that we generate and how those aspects are manifested in our daily lives.”

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House in the Asian Tropics 19

© Hiroyuki Oki

© Hiroyuki Oki

© Hiroyuki Oki

Green Renovation in Hoàn Kiếm District, Hanoi, Vietnam by Vo Trong Ngiha Architects. Via archdaily.

House in the Asian Tropics 18

Photo by Hiroyuki Oki

Photo by Hiroyuki Oki

Photo by Hiroyuki Oki

House for Trees in Ho Chi Minh City — by Vo Trong Nghia Architects

MAS Context 21: Repetition

"Welcome to our Repetition issue. Through eighteen contributions we immerse into a world of monotony, variation, experimentation, replicas, strategies, simulations, imperfections, and routines. We do so in long and short essays, photo essays, interviews, videos, manifestos, and projects. A combination of contributions that question, embrace, and ultimately work with the topic at hand. On top of the varied format of our contributions you will find another aspect added to the mix. Each contribution is uniquely interpreted by a designer based in Chicago, all under the creative direction of Rick Valicenti and Bud Rodecker from Thirst. A specific identity for each contribution that makes up an issue on repetition. We had fun adding even more variation to the topic. In the end, repetition does not have to be boring."

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MAS Context 20: Narrative

"Architecture and narrative, as Victor Hugo nostalgically pointed out in The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831, have walked hand in hand through history, crossing paths without really risking the extinction that the archdeacon of Notre-Dame gloomily predicted. Today, in a moment where the conjunction of the crisis and the entrance into a new stage in the communication era impulse the discipline into new, multiple directions, the narrative aspects of architecture come to the front. This issue tackles the intersections between architectural practices and different forms of visual narrative. Within this overall theme, our NARRATIVE issue moves on both sides of the line that separates these two disciplines, presenting three different perspectives, organized in three consecutive parts. The first section of the issue deals with the presence of graphic narrative in disciplinary architecture, both past and present while the second one discusses the crossing of borders portrayed by comics artists who also make forays into the built world. Finally, the third one moves towards both sides of the spectrum, briefly covering the tangents with (implied) written narratives and emerging animation practices in architecture."

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House in the American Tropics 16

Casa Flotanta in Puntarenas, Costa Rica by Benjamin Garcia Saxe. Via domus.