Though this sculptural addition to Museum Gardens in Bethnal Green is called a “Peace Pavilion,” it sure doesn’t look like one. Though of course, there is no clear precedent for the term.

Designed by Paris-based Atelier Zundel Cristea, the pavilion evokes a canopy surface, occupyable both above and below. The structure creates a restful stopping point in the gardens, an oasis at which visitors can relax and hang out. That (theoretically) explains the pavilion’s name: It brings disparate people together—though you could argue that any pavilion would do the same.

Nonetheless, the pavilion does create a visceral experience—in more ways than one—at the center of the park, and images of families enjoying its use prove that it has already become an anchor for recreation and bonding in East London. Another success of the installation is that though the design is perfectly symmetrical in plan, it appears that way only from a few vantage points, granting it both balance and dynamism.

See more images below.

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In the largest battle of the Spanish Civil War, Nationalists and Republicans fought for more than five months near the town of Corbera d’Ebre. Besides the death of thousands of soldiers on either side, the Battle of the Ebro resulted in the destruction of the town. In the aftermath, it was decided to keep the church atop the hill in its ruined state to serve as a memorial.

In order to better preserve this monument, architect Ferran Vizoso (along with Núria Bordas, Jordi Garriga, and David Garcia) was enlisted to design a canopy for the site. The new canopy protects inhabitants, as well as the church’s masonry, from wind and rain while also moderating temperature. The resulting space is thus between interior and exterior, old and new. See more images below.

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OMA has unveiled its design for a new bridge over the river Garonne in Bordeaux, France—one of two contenders for a project that will connect a new housing development with the rest of the city. The OMA design, led by Clement Blanchet, has been vetted by a jury of 40, the leader of which said he wanted a “bold” proposal.

In some ways, OMA’s design fits that description, but in others, it is staid and quiet. “We wanted to provide the simplest expression—the least technical, least lyrical—an almost primitive structural solution,” said Blanchet. “This simplicity allowed us to create a generous platform for pedestrians and public programs, as well as flexibility in accommodating the future needs of various types of traffic.”

Thus whatever boldness exists in the proposal is not formal but rather programmatic; this makes sense given OMA’s tradition of prioritizing of the latter.

The bridge orchestrates a flexible pedestrian zone that can be used for various types of public events. Rather than planning for one type of event space, OMA imbedded a great deal of flexibility into the scheme in order to provide for future demands. It is one of the first clear instances of infrastructure being planned for use as public space.

Bridges are already sites for spectacle, as crossing over water allows the observation of the city from vantage points rarely available. Pedestrians, though, are usually given the barest strip of space to occupy in crossing, and if high balustrades don’t disrupt the experience, loud traffic usually does. OMA, in contrast, aims to provide a large pedestrian strip that would occupy roughly one-third of the width of the structure.

Though it may not be so exciting to look at, the proposal is an adventurous one. It goes up against a design by Dietmar Feichtinger this December in the final stage of vetting. See more images of the project below.

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Launched at Clerkenwell Design Week, Quiet & Call by TILT was developed as a result of a collaboration between the design studio and staff and patients at Whittington Hospital. A key insight from this process was the need for privacy in busy public spaces. Quiet & Call responds to this by creating a two-part, easily deployable set of enclosures: “Quiet” occupies the zone between booth and chair allowing occupants to rest in privacy, while “Call” creates a more temporary standing-up experience as a wall-mounted semi-enclosure.

Both parts of Quiet & Call are remarkable for the simplicity with which they tackle the issues at hand. Not only does this entry provide comfort for dull and overcrowded waiting rooms, but could be easily deployed in the office. The wood exterior and colorful interior would provide a welcome distraction from dreary public spaces. Call is pictured below.

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All images © Alastair Philip Wiper

A solo exhibition by photographer Alastair Philip Wiper, Solar/Anechoic, takes as its subject two of the most visually compelling realms of scientific architecture: solar arrays and anechoic chambers. Through a series of gorgeous portraits, Wiper explores the textural and compositional virtues of these spaces and allows viewers to virtually inhabit them themselves.

The anechoic (echo-free) chambers are located at Denmark’s Technical University and have played a key role in sound experiments and product testing. The cones on the walls absorb sound by softly reflecting it at chaotic angles such that it cannot be recorded (or heard). Not only does it prevent sounds from getting out, it also blocks exterior sounds from entering. The effect is that of an infinite space, since sounds are often recognized due to their interaction with spatial boundaries. When boundaries are removed (or muffled), the space seems boundless. The exhibition also contains photographs of resonance chambers, which perform in precisely the opposite way from anechoic chambers. More after the jump!

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This week on Rendering Redux, we again collect a diverse array of architectural images, figuring out what they’re all about so you don’t have to!

The above image is from the competition-winning proposal by Erect Architecture and J&L Gibbons for Vauxhall: The Missing Link, and envisions a promenade along South Bank. The weirdnesses here are readily apparent: There are human-animal hybrids having dessert as a seemingly arthritic man jogs by, there are trees from all seasons, and finally, these outlandish components were obviously Photoshopped in by a conscious human intentionally. What does it all mean?!?! Continue.

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Though we have previously covered the amazing fractal creations of Tom Beddard, we thought it would be worth revisiting his work to find some examples of his architectural explorations. As we’ve discussed many times, parametric modeling is becoming more popular in the architecture world, thanks largely to Patrik Schumacher of Zaha Hadid Architects. While many amazing projects have resulted from the meeting between programming and building, parametricism becomes more awe-inspiring and, paradoxically, more rigorous when it is freed from the constraints of human inhabitation.

Beddard’s work definitely moves beyond the realistic to a realm of pure mathematical intricacy. Yet, something ties these images back to architecture, making them recognizable as potential buildings or cities. Of course, much of the magic lies at Beddard’s adept rendering skills, which make the images pop with shadows and subtle tone. This gray zone between realism and abstraction seems to be a theme of the work. As Beddard writes:

I have a fascination with the aesthetics of detail and complexity that is the result of simple mathematical or algorithmic processes. For me the creative process is writing my own software and scripts to explore the resulting output in an interactive manner. The best outcomes are often the least expected!

See more images below. Some of the scripts used to generate these images are available on Beddard’s website.

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All images: Vincent Callebaut Architectures

Mobius strips hover somewhere in between 2D and 3D, creating an infinite surface in the process. While the idea of Mobius strip architecture has been tackled before, perhaps no scheme has been so ambitious as Vincent Callebaut’s “Swallow’s Nest,” a proposed arts and literature center for the Taiwanese city of Taichung.

Composed of a series of isosceles triangles gradually rotated around an ellipse, the building creates a dramatic division between interior and exterior while allowing the integration of public space into the center of the building by means of “the Infinite Patio.” The twisting of the structure also allows for three large vaulted spaces for the display of art objects.

The Swallow’s Nest incorporates three living-wall-clad cores that serve as circulation, and also to mark one’s position within the ellipse. These cores touch down as the building does—aside from the three footings, the structure is lifted above the ground to allow access to the courtyard space.

See more images below.

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All DISKO images courtesy of Andrew Miksys

In the small towns and villages beyond Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, the rituals of youth take place in the decaying remnants of Soviet culture houses that have been repurposed as discos. The term, closely tied with the music genre of the same name, brings to mind glitz and golden decadence but when juxtaposed with decaying architectural fragments fosters a poetic melancholy.

These Lithuanian village discos, as well as their patrons, are the subject of Lithuanian-American photographer Andrew Miksys’s series DISKO, to appear in book form this September (DISKO from Kominek Books). The artist writes:

During the last ten years, I have spent many weekends photographing in village discos in Lithuania. Most of these discos are located in Soviet era culture houses. Sometimes I would rummage around the back rooms and find broken Lenin paintings, Soviet movie posters, gas masks and other remnants of the Soviet Union. I was quite fascinated by all this debris of a dead empire. It seemed like a perfect backdrop to make a series of photographs about young people in Lithuania, a crumbling past and the uncertain future of a new generation together in one room.

See more images from DISKO below, as well as on Miksys’s website.

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This week on our Summer Video Game Series, we bring you two apps for urban exploration. While these are not technically video games, both of the apps gamify the user’s experience of the city, qualifying them for our examination. So we downloaded the two apps and took them for a test drive. Without further ado, we present Strut and Drift below.

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