A group of Brazilian architects have sent us these images of a conceptual, mobile gallery, designed to travel along the river Thames in London.
The project was developed for a competition organised by architectural agency Arquitectum, called London 2008, by a team of architects made up of Victor Paixao, Miguel Felipe Muralha, Paula Sertorio, Thiago Florez, Andre Mack and Bruno Castro.
The brief was to design a mobile architecture gallery which could travel along the river and pick up visitors at several locations.
The project was awarded an honorable mention by a panel of judges chosen by the Architectural Association. See the other winning concepts on the Arquitectum website.
Watch a video about the project here.
The text below is from the designers:
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Two distinct elements result in an area that symbolizes the dynamics of the city and expresses the unpredictability of human occupation.
The constant lightness, transparency and visual permeability enable a relationship with the city throughout the course of the river, offering different visions and perspectives of the London landscape. Looks get lost trying to distinguish internal and external space.
The first element is composed by a form generated by three ellipses that suggests the occupation of the spaces and allows, through the permeability of the structure, the interaction and visibility of the user from any location.
A winding and fluid space allows individual events, creates different environments, or integrates the entire space of the gallery by projections, holograms, multimedia presentations and virtual experiments, proposing not just a single focal point, but a new perceptive universe.
The second element determines the limits of the gallery and allows the maximum use of internal space. The rigid form ensures environmental comfort.
A “switchable glass” system controls the opacity of the glass, which can be changed it to suit the needs of internal activities.
The facade may serve externally as a support for advertising and as a vehicle for digital media, reversing the perspective and bringing the attention to Thames river.
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Posted by Rachael Sykes
January 21st, 2009 at 2:02 am
Wow! A rare bit of conceptual architecture that seems feasible. Build it and I will come!
January 21st, 2009 at 2:05 am
wow, breathtaking and inspiring.
January 21st, 2009 at 2:36 am
REAL WAVY!
January 21st, 2009 at 3:25 am
this might re-invent the term “ferry.”
January 21st, 2009 at 3:26 am
I’m quite a fan of this, apart from pragmatic issues of sensibility, the fluid lines contained in a box somehow seem to grab me, maybe because the design is so easily deconstructed and basically you can figure it out by looking at it, not needing a huge parametric data list etc – ie it doesn’t just look random.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:50 am
Wow, that is beyond SPECTACULAR!
January 21st, 2009 at 6:22 am
Very nice. Dont like the symmetry though.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:36 am
absolutely absorbing!
love how the designer plays with the curves
January 21st, 2009 at 7:58 am
quite nice… the play between the regular outer box and the inner volume is quite spectacular…
January 21st, 2009 at 8:16 am
this is good
January 21st, 2009 at 8:41 am
nice design.
But like áll the other similar concepts it doesn’t fit really in the city.
It could stand at every riverside in many many cities all over the world.
But again, very nice design.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:59 am
Now that’s what I called a floating gallery. Aesthetically pleasing and actually works as a gallery. Loves the poetic rhythm of the timber curves, resembling the movement of the river. Hope this beauty will be realized to adorn the Thames!
January 21st, 2009 at 10:20 am
This one is brilliant, i love the way the outer box plays with the fluid lines.
The only thing that bother me is the symmetry of the interior…in my opinion adding a bit of “randomness” would help the contrast between a rigid exterior versus a fluid interior.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:05 am
Amazing!
January 21st, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Extremely superb….what an architect needs to see!
January 21st, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Is it supposed to travel on water? Any ideas on how to pass bridges?
January 21st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
WOW!!!
Mighty Brazilian Architects!!
Parabens!! Show de bola!
January 21st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
amazing building,
January 21st, 2009 at 5:03 pm
(dimensions are noted wrong on the long section) – sorry, I think its great but that jumped out at me . . . : )
I agree that it would be nicer if it was slightly asymetrical, but that is subjective I suppose. I also wonder if the beautifully impressive space might overwhelm and overshadow any exhibit placed within?
January 21st, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Look like http://eternallycool.net/?p=280
January 21st, 2009 at 7:24 pm
wow !! look at the solution he made for stiking differant parts of layers even by considering the circulation !!
January 21st, 2009 at 7:29 pm
I would live in a smaller version of this.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:36 pm
the symmetry makes it formally poor but a fantastic idea and well rendered too.
It would be great if there were more competitions an projects like this!
Ciao
fly
January 21st, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Perhaps they didn’t know the Thames has many bridges, way too low for this to pass under, unless maybe you let the air out of its tires? Is that the idea?
This really is embarrassing claptrap.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:10 am
Really cool idea, I love the renders! Super Sweet!
Like a animal in a cage!
Kind of like the flying blimp thing in the sky in the film Aeon Flux
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:30 am
I like it and think the Architect has made this project their own but I can’t help but think this is an inspired adaptation of Kapoor inside the turbine hall or the Fuksas Congress Centre in Rome with a little Ali Rahim (www.c-a-p.net) thrown into the blender.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:11 am
Awesome work!!
@muntman,
^^ Ask the Jury !
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:52 am
What a fantastic concept and an exciting idea, I love the thought of being able to view exhibits in something like this!
I have to agree with muntman though, it sounds like it wouldn’t be able to travel far because of the bridges, although to be fair I don’t know the relevant dimensions so I(we) could be wrong!
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
burn down the bridges!!! who cares!!! what matters here it’s the space concept, and, about that, breathless and sweet!!!
mandaram muito bem!! parabéns!!
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I love that ‘wave’ within.
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Really really nice.
the long section make me think of the National Assembly in Cardiff (Wales UK)
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/wales/national_assembly_for_wales.htm
(which is nice too)
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
It looks like the majority of the space is wasted. Also, one must really consider who will patronize this. The youth of London cannot be allowed to just climb up the structure like this. It is nowhere near hooligan-proof.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:39 am
Maravilhoso. Sou brasileira e fiquei orgulhosa da criação ser de arquiteta do meu país. Quem sabe poderíamos construir, aqui, algo parecido. Parabens à arquiteta e ao site por divulgar seu trabalho.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Euh, guys…
why all the good comments?
It’s a silly and very UNspacial! concept, without viewpoints, without open and closed, without oriëntation, … . Just a 3DsMAX feature made reality.
I think this just sucks, and as mentioned above, the majority of space is wasted.
This is popular crap.
January 24th, 2009 at 4:41 am
The comments about “wasting space” are ridiculous.
Do you think maximum space efficiency is valid criteria for designing an art gallery, let alone any cultural venue? That sounds more like criteria for designing a joyless industrial storage facility.
Im not an unconditional advocate for this particular proposal, but its obvious that its intent is to be poetic and exciting, not efficient and dull.
If taken by the same measure, Wren really botched up St Pauls with those high space-wasting ceilings and excessive circulation space – his QS really dropped the ball on that one!
And honestly, if you really knew what you were talking about, you’d note that the real problems with the proposal (as illustrated above) are drainage and on its flat glazed roof, the certain over-heating due to its ubiquitous glazing and lack of clear ventilation strategy, and the lack of credible structure to support either the roof or the wood interior.
Its a theoretical proposal! Enjoy it for its obvious visual delight, and relax with the armchair value engineering.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Hey JDR,
Hard comment.
Any link to your work?
January 25th, 2009 at 1:47 am
what do the spectators actually spectate upon in this gallery?
telling us a little about this and showing it in the drawings might give the idea more of a sense of purpose than it currently has.
or are the spectators all AA students?
“A winding and fluid space allows individual events, creates different environments, or integrates the entire space of the gallery by projections, holograms, multimedia presentations and virtual experiments, proposing not just a single focal point, but a new perceptive universe.”
To me this sounds really flakey and needs to be specific. If you’re projecting images you might want to project them onto a flat surface, or have some way of controlling the lighting within the projection space. Saying everything and anything can be displayed there is giving yourself a huge number of possible constraints to which the architecture could and should respond, and is not realistic.
I quite like the tiered seating also being the walls and this function also operating on a visual level, however I don’t think it’s at all successful in that attempt to mediate outside and inside. By that I mean I see it all as having exterior characteristics, and appears to be more or less the same from one end to the other.
Also…
What is a new perceptive universe?
It sounds amazing, and I think you should show it in your renders.
The idea of a kind of boat/gallery/building is nice, but without any sort of program, and with specifics being pretty much ignored, I can’t help but think this is a formal exercise in 3DsMAX.
January 25th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Amazing concept
January 25th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
the best i have seen recent times. wow……..
January 30th, 2009 at 9:14 am
i think it’s the start for the evolution of the interior spaces.
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:05 pm
So uhh… where do you hang the painting?
I agree with JDR… yaaaaaaaawwwn (see the winning interior for 08 chosen by Wallpaper – http://static.wallpaper.com/images/214_banq_Rest_jp080109_a.jpg)... very very impractical from a gallery curators standpoint. And nautically very unsound.
Basically an ‘in vogue’ aesthetic lifted from various other projects applied in unrealistic manner.
February 6th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Excellent! Congratulations! forget the crap critique above -envy has no limits- and continue with more projects, please!
February 6th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
It is fascinating! I am just curious about the build ability and operational costs… Apart it is breathtaking
February 6th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
This building is seriously beautiful. The uniqueness is astounding, but it needs niches and hiding corners for people to sit. People love public spaces and ths building could be an awesome place with some people planning in mind.
February 7th, 2009 at 9:52 am
I believe the idea of the concept is very nice, I just would like to see something like this here in my country. ( Belgium)
However, I also believe it is a concept, a thought, an iedea….but not very practical.
Someone – let it be the original designer – should work out this – very nice – concept to a realistic design; why not a real gallery or a performance space….
I think with some adjustments it could realy work; and ys, forget the bridges. No-one has said this thing has to travel for kilometers, it could accept a number of vistors, then slowely float on the river for the time of the performance and return……
February 12th, 2009 at 2:19 am
moire attack!
beautiful light patterns
February 13th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Awesome stuff, this is some real good thinking…
February 14th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
uh….
It won’t really travel will it.
It will stay stuck between two bridges that are many along the Thames.
February 15th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I really love the curves in these sexy concepts…, and what an idea they will be there soon!
February 16th, 2009 at 3:45 am
i love the use of the soft curves surrounded by a rigid exterior. pleases the eye
March 14th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
The architecture is beautiful. My kind of building.
If the final building can hold onto the simplicity of forms that are in these renders then it will be a stunner… but then that is always the difficult bit of building design…
August 18th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
It’s interesting the idea of giving a wave to a plave were it’s very difficult to find such.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
…and it’s a place, not a plave… you got it.
October 26th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Unbelievable, this has to be the most incredible thing that I have ever seen in design, to come up with a concept like this is truly amazing. thank you for sharing this and it something that I will be sharing with others.