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Archive for April 13th, 2013

108 VPO Dwellings in Borinbizkara, Spain by Patxi Cortazar Arquitecto

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

Article source: Patxi Cortazar Arquitecto

The project is the winning entry of a Victoria-Gasteiz town hall competition. The volume proposed by the competition is modified in order to obtain a better orientation of the project in a more prismatic, rectangular form. A north-south orientation allows for the buildings to be more separated, increasing the amount of sunlight that reaches the interior facades. The buildings are designed as differentiated, black and white volumes joined by small boxes that contain the vertical cores. These are also shaped as black prisms.

Image Courtesy © César San Millán

Architects: Patxi Cortazar Arquitecto
Project: 108 VPO Borinbizkara
Location: Borinbizkara, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Photography: César San Millán
Technical Architects: Juan Manuel Galera Carrillo, Vicente Luis Mozo, Mikel Valderrama Ibáñez
Client And Construction: NASIPA S.L.
Area: 21,345 sqm

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Tags: Spain, Vitoria-Gasteiz
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The Architecture of the Dragonfly Wing in London, UK by Maria Mingallon

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

Article source: Maria Mingallon

An optimal natural construction, built by a complex patterning process, developed through evolution as a response to force flows and material organization.

Being the dragonfly wing a highly dynamic structure, vibration studies were necessary to obtain realistic deformation patterns and thus, understand its structural behaviour. Ten vibration modes were extracted from the modal analysis performed in GSA. Our eyes have difficulties distinguishing the third, fourth and fifth vibration modes (which occur almost simultaneously), due to the high frequencies exhibited. In our case, slow motion pictures featuring the real flight of the dragonfly, allowed us to identify up to the third mode of vibration by comparison with that calculated in the analysis.