Images by subBlue/Tom Beddard

Parametric modeling is becoming ever more popular in the architecture world, both for the ways in which it can lead academic discourse and for its ability to generate façade and surface articulation. Of course, at an architectural scale, there are some limits in detail through parametric modeling, with the built component often lacking the fineness of a 3D model, whether because the tools used have certain tolerances or because time requirements are outlandish. For this reason, many parametric designers prefer to remain in the digital world.

And there are many wonderful projects to be found in that world, including Tom Beddard’s experiments with fractals. In this set, called Fabergé Fractals, Beddard creates 3D models and derives renderings from them. The artist has this to say:

The 3D fractals are generated by iterative formulas whereby the output of one iteration forms the input for the next. The formulas effectively fold, scale, rotate or flip space. They are truly fractal in the fact that more and more detail can be revealed the closer to the surface you travel.

The fascinating aspect is where combinations of parameters can combine to create structural “resonances” of extraordinary detail and beauty—sometimes naturally organic and other times perfectly geometric. But then like a chaotic system it can completely disappear with the smallest perturbation.

See more images and a video below!

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Ah, the model home. An anchor of suburban communities across the country, the “display home” gives prospective homeowners a life-size mock-up of their dream house. More effective than a scale model or abstract floor plans, the model home is the reusable, neutral canvas that can accomodate the personal vision of every customer.

The subject family (the Bluths) of our favorite sitcom (Arrested Development) live in a model home isolated amid the failed real estate speculation of their family business. Literally an “arrested development,” the model home provides the cast with a recurring set while putting a new spin on the quintessential sitcom suburban house. To celebrate the much-anticipated fourth season of the show, we’re offering some in-depth, architectural analysis on a selection of quintessential model homes that we hope were intended to be ironic, but really doubt it.

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If Zeger Reyers’s Rotating Kitchen—a cube-shaped kitchenette spun around 360 degrees so that all its contents could merge together in irresistibly disastrous slow motion—could draw a crowd at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, then this wheel-shaped house used for a traveling acrobatic performance will definitely attract some attention. In fact, “The Wheel House,” as the act is called, has already entertained nearly 60,000 people according to the originators of the traveling show, Acrojou Circus Theatre. Though it requires two agile acrobats to perform, The Wheel House relies on a third actor, a circular “mobile home” equipped with doors, windows, furniture, and wall hangings, to woo its audience. More photos and a video below!

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No, this isn’t an AP Calculus graph brought to life. It’s the Parabola Chair by Los Angeles-based designer Carlo Aiello, one of the dozens of quirky seating options we saw at ICFF this week. In fact, this sculptural chair, constructed from a lattice of chrome-plated steel, won the prestigious 2013 ICFF Studio Award. For good reason: “The challenge was to achieve a single surface that serves as seating, arm rest, and backrest supported by a minimal structure,” says Aiello. We’re impressed.

Although the Parabola exhibits curvatures in two directions,  all its components are straight (imagine assembling a model out of Pick-Up Sticks), and thus easy to manufacture. And—for those of you who doubt the comfort of a metal chair—you haven’t tried this one! “In order to achieve perfect comfort both curvatures were carefully calibrated to hold the body in the best position,” the designer said in a statement.

A true objet d’art, the Parabola is currently on display at Bergdorf Goodman windows in New York City. More photos below!

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Mine is bigger than yours: the proposed Sky City One for comparison against the Chicago skyline. Photo via webodysseum.com

Is it just us or are towers getting taller and taller these days? Broad Group, a Chinese developer, recently announced plans to scale up its prefabricated building technology to unparalleled proportions. The proposed Sky City outside Changsha will be the tallest on earth at 838 m or 2,749 ft, just barely inching past the Burj Khalifa in the UAE. And, as if this weren’t astounding enough, the tower will purportedly be assembled on site 90 days.

Here you see a super tower living in its natural forest environment, happily coexisting with the trees and the sky. Photo: Broad Group via dvice.com

Between worries about China’s real estate market and safety concerns, not to mention the environmental cost of producing the 270,000 tons of steel needed to erect the structure (that’s about 4.5 Nimitz class aircraft carriers), we’re a bit skeptical of the project’s prospects at being the tallest and greenest tower around.

However if the builders do pull it off, successfully housing close to 30,000 people with thermally efficient walls, recycled materials, and LED lighting will be quite the accomplishment. Regardless, we did notice a startling similarity to a project underway in New York City …

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We spotted OMA‘s new furniture line for Knoll, Tools for Life, a few weeks ago in Milan, but couldn’t quite figure out where the architecture firm’s radically customizable coffee tables and chairs would fit in. The ever-shifting and totally adjustable designs suggest a new kind of lifestyle and work environment—a challenge to the status quo of sitting still. These pieces aren’t furniture as much as GIFs that you can sit on. But it has finally dawned on us: If anyone would ever want to sit on a GIF it would be David Karp—and what cutting-edge office would need OMA-designed Knoll furniture but the newly cash-tumescent Tumblr? More GIFs after the jump!

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Rendering Redux is a weekly examination of architectural rendering practices. While many architects evaluate these images based on sheer effect, we take a more humorous approach, documenting the inconsistencies and incongruous scale figures that populate the architectural imagination. Each week, we take a look at a different project, decoding its renderings so you don’t have to.

This week, we are taking a look at Baku White City, a proposed master plan for the capital of Azerbaijan. Baku White City gets its name from an aspired-to reversal of destiny; the development is slated to replace a district formerly known as the “Black City” due to its industrial buildings.

Baku White City includes multiple neighborhood districts, some with high-rise office complexes and others with single-family homes. The master plan as a whole demonstrates an extremely urban intention, though at times this is thwarted by the sheer glitziness of its glass towers and tree-lined boulevards.

While at first glance the proposed buildings look adventurous, a lot of its forms come directly out of the new-hyper-capitalist-development playbook. Baku White City has some pretty hefty firms as partners, including Atkins, Foster + Partners, and F+A Architects, which certainly helps add some seriousness to the proposal. Nonetheless, renderings found on BWC’s website betray a bit more shakiness. Does Baku, a truly great world city, deserve more? Let’s find out …

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After a long day, there’s nothing quite like the sensation of collapsing onto a couch (that is unless you own one of these). A soft horizontal surface seems welcome in seemingly any circumstance, whether you’ve been on your feet all day or you’ve just spent the past several hours slouched in a chair with the light of a computer screen burning your retinas. It’s no surprise then that Hong Kong-based designers David Koo and Zheng Yawei have likened the couch to a cloud, the ostensibly soft, fluffy, cotton-ball-like mass of floating water vapor that seems so delightfully light and airy that it has also become the term for the immaterial data space in which we store digital information. In keeping with this metaphor, Koo and Zheng have conceived a way to levitate their Cloud couch off the floor with the help of magnets. More after the jump.

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In case you haven’t heard, Architizer—on top of throwing awesome parties, bringing architecture to the public, and revolutionizing the way the profession recognizes and awards projects—is tackling architecture school now too. We’ve partnered with Skillshare to bring a series of (actually useful!) courses targeted at the contemporary architect—from how to render to how to talk to a contractor. In order to celebrate this exciting partnership, we’ve decided to delve into learning mode with a roundup of awesome, legendary architecture-school buildings. Enjoy the roundup below, and hurry up and sign up for our first course, on how to do a 3D rendering. The first 1000 to sign up will get 20% off the price of the course with the discount code ARCH.

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James Corner Field Operations is revamping Chicago’s touristy Navy Pier. Phase one of the redevelopment is scheduled for completion by summer 2015, in time for the pier’s centennial the following year.

From an economic standpoint, Chicago’s Navy Pier is already a success. With amenities like a 150-foot ferris wheel, a children’s museum, a Shakespeare theater, and a half-mile of shops and food vendors on Lake Michigan, the pier is the most popular attraction in the Midwest (well, after the Mall of America!).

From a design standpoint, however, it’s a total mess. A big overhaul in the 1990s transformed the pier into a very of-the-era waterfront tourist mall of the sort that Michael Sorkin decried in Variations on a Theme Park. “When they did the project, they gave it a carnival aesthetic, and over the years it’s become very tired, very jumbled,” says Elva Rubio, principal and regional design director of Gensler’s Chicago office. “It’s very touristic, literally cliché—if you open up the dictionary, this is what you would see.”

Yes, Navy Pier is a South Street Seaport in a High Line era. So when James Corner Field Operations emerged as the winner of an international design competition last year, it was clear that Navy Pier’s board had grasped the importance of top-notch landscape architecture for our own time’s big buzzphrase, urban placemaking. Read more.

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