Architecture for some means designing innovative spaces, for others it is creating utility spaces and yet for others it is resourceful use of space, time and material to create concrete structures. The metamorphosis in the domain of architecture has taken great leaps forward. With the creation of moving structures that can be assembled and dissembled just like your chairs and tables, there is much more to look forward how adaptive reuse is inspiring new age architecture. Let us take a look at some architect marvels around the world.
1. Nomadic Museum by Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban has worked on nomadic structures made of recyclable material like paper tubes and has created landmark museums around the world for exhibiting various art forms. He designed and stationed a museum for just four mo0nths at Pier 54 Chelsea, West Side, New York city for the photographic exhibition of the works of Gregory Colbert, ‘Ashes and Snow’. The museum is designed to look like shipping containers arranged like a checkerboard. The steel containers used are 34 feet high and the roof and columns are made from paper tubes. These containers are adorned with curtains hanging down the ceilings and are made of one million pressed paper tea bags from which tea leaves have been removed. The exhibition area consists of a central boardwalk with the photographs suspended with the help of wires with a beautifully lit gallery.
2. Dutch chapel-turned-apartments
Even before one enters into a Chapel, he/she can tell that the inside will be a dimly lit space with wooden panels that cover the length and breadth of the structure and furnished with wooden benches, all varnished in brown. Now, imagine if you were to enter into an apartment which was converted from a chapel and still preserves its aesthetics corroborated with new apartment feel. Its interiors all whitewashed, and even replacing the wooden floor with white tiles. This was dreamed by Dutch firm Zecc and is now a reality.
3. Amazing house made out of an airplane
Using economy and yet getting what you desire, is real achievement. A new age non-conformist, JoAnn Ussery from Benoit, Mississippi lost her 1400 square feet house due to fire. She wanted to have for herself an economical apartment, so with the help of a relative in the aviation department, she bought a Continental Airlines 727 for $2000. Paid $4000 for its delivery and she spent $25,000 to convert it into a livable home.
4. Tropical Islands Resort
A Malaysian Entrepreneur bought a deserted Airship Hanger in Germany and transformed it into a Tropical island resort. It is compounded within a humongous dome in a campus area of 710,000 square feet. For providing a more than complete experience of a resort, it is bestowed with a Balinese lagoon, a rainforest, sand beaches, spas and even Germany’s largest water slide and you can also take a balloon ride. Some people like calling this man made marvel as the man-made paradise.
5. The Villa de Murph
An old, dilapidated electric part warehouse, whose front consisted of a repair shop lined up with a warehouse at the back, was left abandoned after the death of the owner. Yocom and Brian, two young architects came across this ancient looking building in an old neighborhood and decided to convert it into their office. They redesigned the entire space , converting the repair shop into a courtyard and the remaining 1850 square feet warehouse space for used for a live-working studio. The courtyard was decorated with a fireplace and was landscaped with stepping stones. The studio had four walls and the front façade was a glass panel. The space between the courtyard and the studio was used for constructing a kitchen, washroom and also a mechanical room.
