Both projects are high-end residential. Dune house, at the top, is for a family of five in Amagansett, NY. Downtown Loft is a high-end residential loft for a couple in NYC.
Dune House was developed to be built with state-of-the-artgreen technologies, to allow the house to be constructed within a fragile dune reserve area. The base of the house is an existing building, and all water use, electrical, and materials are state of the art green, to give the house a less than zero-carbon-footprint. The builder for the house has agreed to use best practices to protect all native species on the site. The Owners have also hired a Landscape Architect to remove all non-native invasive species, and replace them with native plant species.
Dune House is a courtyard design, with the house and out-building arranged around a new, free-form pool, with glass sides. It is possible to look into the pool from the East and South elevations.
Both projects feature extensive woodwork, including cabinetry inserts by hMa collaborator, Miya Shoji, located in NYC.
Shown above: the magazine cover, featuring the entry area, into hMa's Won Buddhist Retreat in Claverack, NY.
Victoria Meyers architect, of hanrahan Meyers architects, is featured in Konsept Projeler (translates to Concepts Projects), Turkey's premier design magazine, in their December issue. Meyers was in Turkey, as the International Juror for the 2013 Turkish Archiprix. After judging the Archiprix, Meyers gave a public lecture, describing her firm, hMa, and how she and her partner, Hanrahan, have developed new typologies, studying ideas for Hacker-Maker spaces. Meyers is currently studying Hacker Maker in her design studio at the University of Cincinnati's School of Architecture, where she is teaching a design studio, with the concept of a Hacker-Maker. Meyers is the David Niland Chair at the University of Cincinnati School of Architecture
Meyers also discussed her upcoming book, Shape of Sound, during her interview with Concepts interviewer, Baran Danis, and the effect that the study of sound as a formal issue, has also affected the development of hMa's designs.
The article is reproduced below. I hope they had nice things to say! They gave hMa a beautiful spread, including extensive views of Won Buddhist Retreat, Holley House, DWi-P, and Infinity Chapel. You can find out more about the magazine, here: www.konseptprojeler.com.
Shown above, hMa's DWi-P, a new public building by hMa, featuring a first, Digitally Interactive Facade. The building had a soft opening in November 2013. The building is planned to have a formal opening, in 2014, after the DWi-P App is published, and the facade comes 'online' as an interactive public space.
Above: More images of hMa's DWi-P (Digital Water i-Pavilion). During her talk at the conclusion of the Turkish Archiprix, Meyers discussed the work of hMa, and how the firm's investigations into contemporary space include Bio-Morphism, and self-replicating systems. DWi-P is a building that shows this research, as it is a self-replicating system, repeating details that hMa developed in earlier projects, mostly at Infinity Chapel.
Above: hMa's Infinity Chapel. Infinity Chapel investigates Sound, through the firm's concept of Snd.BX-2 sound boxes. Infinity Chapel includes five Snd.BX-2 sound boxes, which act as sound and light transmitters, connecting a lower level Sunday school to the upper level Chapel and Reading Room.
Above: hMa" Snd.Bx-2 Diagram, showing how sound and light form the sequence from MacDougal Street to a rear, outdoor Garden Chapel.
Another detail shot of the entry sequence into the meditation hall at Won Buddhist Retreat. Again, hMa applied ideas that the firm has developed around sound as a formal design element. The Meditation Hall is designed as a space of 'silence'. The Hall features state of the art sound dampening details. If the Buddhists close the doors to the hall, the main hall is completely sound isolated from the surroundings.
Above: hMa's Holley House. Holley House is two Pavilions that float in a landscape, separated by a walled structure. The walled structure acts as a primary support wall for both pavilions, but also creates a separate zone of entry to the two pavilions.
Holley House: two pavilions floated in a landscape; a Stone Wall (inspired by artist Andy Goldsworthy) creates a zone of Entry and Circulation between the two pavilions.
Above: more images of Won Buddhist Retreat. hMa won an AIA Honor Award for this project. The project included a 550-acre site, where hMa designed the Master Plan, as well as the design of five buildings. hMa designed the site (which was a Brownfield site), and the five new buildings, to have zero-carbon-footprint.
Above: Won Buddhist Retreat: All woods in the project are FSC woods. The image, directly above, shows the Buddhists in morning meditation practice, at sunrise.
The mirror analogy above, is from Meyers' lecture, discussing how hMa uses the concept of 'mirror' on hMa projects. By replicating details and ideas from earlier designs, hMa projects form an eco-system, based on principals similar to concepts of design in the work of Skylar Tibbits. hMa's work is a 'self-replicating system'.
Credit for much the contents of this lecture goes to the insightful writing of Martin E. Rosenberg - an Independent Scholar, living in Pittsburgh, Pa.. I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in the contents of this blog post, go to Martin E. Rosenberg's posting on Inflexions: www.inflexions.org/n4_rosenbergthml.html.
For session 5, we look at the works of Xenakis and Le Corbusier, and contemporary influences on their works. This would include the incredibly rapid changes that occurred both socially technologically, fueled by World Wars I and II.
The music of that time reflected many of these changes, especially Jazz, and the work of artists such as Thelonious Monk. Martin Rosenberg relates many of these changes not only to technologies of mass production demanded by the wars, but also to concepts of 'complexity and emergence' in physics and cognitive science.
Le Corbusier and his atelier, including the amazing Iannis Xenakis, could not help but be strongly influenced by these changes. This would include Le Corbusier's direct reference to factory produced cars such as the Citroen (Maison Citrohan).
The fascination with the machine is also reflected around the same time, in the sound works of Pierre Schaeffer, who invented the idea of 'Musique Concrete'.
In addition to changes in architectural design related to industrial practices, Le Corbusier and Xenakis spent a great deal of time trying to solve issues related to climate in their buildings. Thus Le Corbusier's fascination with the development of new ideas about windows and window design (the brise-soleil; the aerator; the vision area of the glass). This compares to today's practitioners who are focusing on the development of several new ways of conditioning space, with hvac technologies asserting strong influence on the language of architectural design.
Le Corbusier and Xenakis study the 'climatic grid', above, at the Villa Shodhan in India, above.
Rensellaer Polytechnic's CASE (Center for Architecture Science and Ecology, above.
Scientific advances, in turn, have affected sound, and composer's interpretations of sound and music. In 1967 composer Istvan Anhalt composed the 'Symphony of Modules'. In 2008, architect Steven Holl used Anhalt's base composition as the determining geometry for a new house in Seoul, South Korea.
Again, we return to the original piece that I referenced by Martin Rosenberg. Rosenberg also references the composer John Cage's decision to foreground the interdepences between music and noise in a careful considered deconstruction of the calculus of music notation in the 20th century.
These formal overlaps and references that connect music, architecture, and culture in the 1950's are the subject of lecture 5, for architect Victoria Meyers' seminar: Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology.
'Hack-Make' is the title of Meyers' latest lecture, presented in Ankara, Turkey. In December 2013, Meyers was the invited International Juror for the 2013 Turkish Archiprix. The judging took place on December 2 and 3rd. The prizes were awarded on December 6th, when Meyers also gave a public lecture, 'Hack-Make:Architecture at the Scale of the Hand'. The lecture includes ideas to support Hacker Maker spaces, and Hacker-Maker Faires.
‘Hack Make// Architecture at the Scale of the Hand’ Why the Hand?The Hand is that part of our body that makes things. The hand holds pencils, and, today, holds and orients the computer mouse.
There are studies that demonstrate that older people develop Alzheimers if they do not walk. Babies develop language skills by crawling. We, as humans, only understand how to design intelligently by using our body – especially our hands in the process of Thinking and Making.
I am going to focus this post around Architectural Biogenesis (meaning architecture that is self-replicating of itself, or of its embedded functions), Landscape and Urban Design,and the impact of :Robotics, Rapid Prototyping,and New Media. How do we use our hands when we think, and when we make things? Especially today, when we have a disembodied hand that swipes computer screens, and expects a Visceral response from that Swipe. The Hand Swipe is starting to move into all areas of popular culture. Thas an effect on Architecture -because architecture is not disembodied.It is Embodied, and it is heavy, and it weighs a lot.
Already, today, in 2013, we all take the ‘hand swipe’ for granted, as part of everyday reality.The hand swipe was only available as a tool for computerized interactions. These Forces have combined to have a big impact on how we design architecture.
Why is this happening?Globalization, Global Warming, Social networks, the Internet, Robotics, Biomorphism, and Google Earth.
Global Architecture at the Scale of the Hand. Hack-Make!
Architecture is Energy Waves: Presented at sxsw.Eco, in Austin Texas, October 8, 2013: Victoria Meyers architect.
In October 2013 hMa principal Victoria Meyers presented hMa's (hanrahan Meyers architects) researches into Biomorphism and design at the sxsw.ECO conference in Austin, Texas. Meyers presented several hMa projects designed to incorporate biomorphic elements, including DWi-P (Digital Water i-Pavilion); WaveLine; and Ojai Festival Shell, also known as 'Sound Vortex'.
Above: FLinT: NBIC: Nano, Bio, Info, Cogno. The influence of Nano-technology on architectural building systems.
The researches by these two independent think tanks are facilitating the fabrication of intelligent skin systems which is the ultimate goal of biomoprhic research.
Ultimately we would like to reach a new architectural paradigm: a system of architecture and building construction that is self-sustaining, like living biological organisms; habitats that can fit into their surrounding eco-system without the disruption created by typical buildings: pollution, and carbon footprint.
Meyers also participated in judging the competition 'Place by Design'; and particpated in a book signing, for her most recent book (to be published Spring 2014): Shape of Sound; and signed copies of her book, published in 2006 with Laurence King/ Abbeville Press, tracking natural phenomena: Designing with Light.
To read more about Victoria's upcoming book, go to the book's website/ blog: www.shapeofsound.us. Shown below: hMa's building WaveLine; Howeler and Yoon's project with sound and light in Washington, DC; David Dunn, sound artist and researcher uses sound to remediated damaged eco-systems; composer Arvo Part, with his composition: Silentium. Silence is the tabula rasa of sound.
hMa, Victoria Meyers architect, are known for their senstivity to landscape and site. This attention to site and landscape is evident in the images of the firm's Upstate New York residence, above. The house is sited on twentry-five acres in Garrison, New York.
hMa used a combinatio of wood and stone to create the reading of the house. In this case, the wood, a light-colored exterior ash siding, took on a similar coloration to the cut limestone used in two 65-foot long landscape walls that were used as major generative elements of the house design
hMa cut holes in the roof at various locations, to create framed views of sky. The house also has a relationship to water: in the pool beyond the stone landscape wall in the photo, above. And in the architectural promenade through the house to the lake, to the west.
The house was designed with openings that frame views of the house, in this case, the view from the porte cochere of the garage, toward the main living room space. The entry porch in the foreground.
Projects that were reviewed with the client during the design process include Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House. Above: custom screens were built, and create scrim views toward the landscape. View west, overlooking the pond.
Above: Landscape frames a living room, looking north. The house sits surrounded by old growth trees. Water to the north, and to to the west. Stone, water, wood, wind and light.
View looking east toward the living room, up the hill, with the pond, behind the person taking this shot. The pond is approximately forty feet below this location in the landscape.
View looking east, living room pavilion in foreground; master bedroom wing visible above the limestone wall, to the east, above. precision cuts in the formal rendering of the house frame views from one wing to the other.
A quick overview of Sound Urbanism / Victoria Meyers architect, to date. The class has covered works by Stephen Vitiello, including his Light Recordings from the World Trade Center, and Pieces from Marfa, Texas. John Corigliano, composer, whose piece 'Campani di Ravello', is an attempt to recreate the spatial memory of Ravello, Italy, through bells, and other sounds. Ravello is a unique place, where five medieval chapels with original Medieval Bells still mark dawn, daily. A re-cap of the readings from Blesser + Salter's book, especially readings that detail the ideas behind the concept of a 'soundmark'. We checked in with the Seminar's Cincinnati Sound Sections.
Above: Sound Urbanism's 'logo' image, showing the concept of a civic space perimeter marked through sounds, such as the bells of Ravello. Next to that, images of Stephen Vitiello's installation space at the HighLine, NYC, and, next to that, an image of Marfa Theater, where Victoria Meyers architect was commissioned to provide lighting design, as well as the layout for the theater interiors.
Above: John Corigliano's Ravello image. Next to that, Max Neuhaus's image of a Fire Truck, which is a set up to Sound Urbanism, and a discussion around Max Neuhaus's project to redesign civic urban sounds, including sirens.
Above: Max Neuhaus, working in his sound works for civic spaces.
Above: Max Neuhaus's diagram of his various interests in sound investigations. The diagram serves as a formal Organization that shows how Max Neuhaus conceived aural spaces: Place: Movemnet; Walks: Passage; Invention: Sensation; Performance: Networks.
Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology, Victoria Meyers architect.
Victoria Meyers architect's Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology graduate seminar at University of Cincinnati's Graduate School of Architecture produced informational sound sections, studying sounds in Cincinnati, marking the city's change from an industrial to a service economy. Students: Anjali Patel and Adam Wisler.
Below are a few of the sections, including sound recordings of their respective sites:
Above: the Western Hills Viaduct, over the existing train yards, including elevational images of sites explored by two students in the seminar. Students: Trish Kahler and James Bayless.
To 'hear' the sound sections, click on the links, above:
The work in the seminar was excellent, and the students pushed our explorations about cities, urban space, and sound to new levels. The height of the semester was the Skype lecture by Dr. David Mather, from the Getty, reviewing the works of David Dunn (http://www.davidddunn.com/ASL/Welcome.html), including Dunn's ground breaking work on Sound Ecology. Our goal for the next sound seminar is to schedule a trip to Dunn's studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Images of the Amhrein-Swenson Bridge-Studio, shot by Joe and Susan, during the recent winter storms.
It's a relief to have some cold weather. Let's hope for a few years of normal weather. No more hurricanes, no more tornadoes on the east coast. Just normal, northeastern weather.
Bridge-Studio is entered by walking up a ramp, requested by Joe to make it possible to deliver art supplies, using a wheelbarrow, up the ramp. The ramp also makes it easier to move large art pieces out of the studio, for delivery to shows and to clients.
For more about Bridge-Studio, visit www.hanrahanMeyers.com.
Victoria Meyers: Designing With Light
New York Architects Victoria Meyers and Thomas Hanrahan believe that architecture is an environment, 'pure space', manifested in nature. The principals of hanrahanMeyers architects (hMa) have established themselves as unique visionaries, incorporating light and sound into their arresting designs of pure forms. Founded in 1987, the firm specializes in residences, art centers, and community spaces. They design spaces from a vision that connects visitors with the natural world.
www.designingwithlight.us
Victoria Meyers: Shape of Sound Architect Victoria Meyers analyzes the shape of sound; architecture and sound; form; materiality; windows; the urban sound scape, its politics, aesthetics and social character; reflection; virtuality; sound art; and silence.
Shape of Sound on Amazon
Victoria Meyers: Shape of Sound Victoria Meyers architect (Los Angeles, Ca.), principal of hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) explores sound as it effects architecture, urban spaces, and landscapes. Contributors include hanrahan Meyers architects (featured on the book cover), Stephen Vitiello, Michael J. Schumacher, David Mather, Neil Denari, Bruce Pearson, Howeler and Yoon architecture, and Joseph Ketner.
hMa : Green Initiatives / Sustainable Architecture
United Nations Environment Programme "Environmental Knowledge for Change" this site is an incredible resource on environmental and social issues around the world
Greenopia NY hMa is proud to be featured as a "Greenopia Distinguished Business"
41 Pounds A campaign to stop junk mail (named for the number of pounds of junk mail the average American adult recieves in 1 year!)
The Conservation Fund As part of our nature based vision for architecture, hMa gives a percentage of the firm’s annual revenues to nature initiatives. This year, hMa funded ‘Wildlife Corridors’, through the Conservation Fund. ‘Wildlife Corridors’ provide natural zones through cities and towns that link animals with adjacent nature preserves. This initiative is one of several cutting-edge planning initiatives that forward thinking architects will be adopting as we seek to harmonize human habitats with nature and create sustainable development.
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