switzerland

/  by Thomas DeVoss

ryanpanos:

Morphosis Unveils Plans for 381-Meter-Tall Skyscraper in Vals | Via

Morphosis Architects’ highly anticipated plans for a new luxury hotel in Vals has been unveiled. The proposal, selected by 7132 Ltd (and denounced by the jury) following an international competition, was lauded by the client for its “minimalist approach” that will “help the hotel blend with the mountain landscape at the existing resort campus.”

The ultra-thin, 381-meter-tall tower will be one of three Pritzker laureate-designed projects at the 7132 resort, joining Peter Zumthor’s Therme Vals Spa and Tadao Ando’s Valser Path, which is slated for completion in 2017.

/  by Thomas DeVoss

subtilitas:

Gion A Caminada - Multi-purpose hall, Vrin 2003.

A proper appreciation of Caminada’s work comes from an understanding of the lineage of his portfolio. Born and raised in the small alpine village of Vrin, Switzerland, Caminada has spent the majority of his life working within the community. As the 1970’s brought about both economic and population decline to the region, Caminada aided in the regeneration of the town with a series of public projects that aim to enrich the community with new amenities that create a lineage with the local history and coexist with the historic setting. Through his lifelong practice in the region, Caminada has formed a deep understanding of the local traditions, building methods, details, materials, and constructions that define Vrin’s aesthetic. With his own work, this knowledge is used to deconstruct, abstract, and even update these techniques for more contemporary uses. This can be seen in many of his projects, from the smaller, private residences, to public buildings such as the multi-purpose hall above.

In this structure, the standard roof truss system used to structure local barns is pulled apart to its most basic elements. Together with engineer Jurg Conzett, the somewhat abstract structural members are a combination of the pairs investigation of Robert Maillart’s Magazzini Generali in Chiasso, as well as the layered construction of the Westminster Hall roof. Rather then using a standard glue-laminated structure for the truss bracing, individual boards sit freely within tensioned straps, which receive additional rigidity from a series of vertical slats that push against the roof pitch. The efficiency of the structure is visually deceiving and light, especially considering the regions heavy snow loads and lack of a central king post in the truss span. The extrapolated design allows the structural forces inherent in the building to be physically traced as each board slides against that adjacent. Scans via, photos © Lucia Degonda, Christoph Engel.

/  by Thomas DeVoss

ryanpanos:

Deposit | Yann Mingard | Via

Not all data centers are the same. There are cloud storage mega-centers all over Silicon Valley that take care of our smartphone camera rolls and contacts lists. There are the NSA’s data centers, which do similar things but the permissions are (at least in theory) different.

In his series Deposit, Swiss photographer Yann Mingard reveals another type of data storage facility: the privately owned bunker space within which individuals, companies and even nation-states secure their most precious code, papers, and in some cases, genetic material. These data centers aren’t intended to intercept or analyze data; they’re merely meant to protect the contents from virus, loss and—most of all—from snooping.

Mingard’s exquisite darkened images of data centers from Switzerland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom form the fourth and final chapter of Deposit, a sprawling four-year project which meditates on the anxieties of contemporary life. Deposit delves deep into the real and perceived threats to human survival, and the emerging technologies that promise security.