progress | SsD

Cloud goes up

18 July 2011

The structure for SsD's 'Cloud' has been installed at the Heyri Art Valley. 'Cloud' is an interactive light/sound sculpture that will react to people's movement as well as dynamic weather patterns. Like an actual cloud, it reveals atmospheric qualities that are usually invisible to the eye. Although the skeletal structure seems relatively straigtforward, all the electronics must fit inside its narrow members: design tolerances were taken on with a high level of precision matched with much pre-planning. Lighting and sound arrays will be installed next…

White Block ‘Supercore’ Completed

14 April 2011

The stairs and railing of the 'super core' have been installed at White Block. This main vertical core of the building allows the varied gallery spaces a sense of interior intensity while simultaneously linking them to the exterior topographic condition. As one progressively moves through a series of volumes, one is reoriented toward the immediate environment.

As all the galleries are adjacent to this core, motorized vents allow a constant flow of air, passively ventilating the entire building.

Curved Glass at White Block Installed

9 April 2011

The curved glass entry has been installed at the White Block Gallery. A shallow curve that includes glass pivot doors is difficult to achieve. Some doubted it could be done at all, but we pushed for it and the fabricator ended up even surprising themselves. Signalling entry within an otherwise taut building skin, the geometry is a precursor to the sequence of choreographed spaces: the compressed entry hall, the tall super-core, and the landscape and pond in the distance…

White Fog

4 March 2011

In the early hours of dawn, fog descends often in the Heyri Art Valley. The curtain wall installation of the White Block Gallery nears completion: The fritted glass pattern works in many different ways - as the environment dynamically changes, the way the building is perceived also shifts.

Shading with Patterns at White Block

28 February 2011

The glazing at White Block Gallery is nearing completion. We are very excited about our custom fritted glass pattern which encloses all of the transparent parts of the building. Seemingly simple, the gradation works in multiple different ways: It shades the space during the warmer summer months while allowing in the low winter sun for passive heating. It also filters views to the outside giving the larger galleries a sense of interior intimacy while allowing controlled views to the natural surrounds. From the exterior it lends the building many complex readings: sometimes reflecting and augmenting the landscape and sometimes allowing views to the interior logic of the structural system.

White Block is unwrapped

8 January 2011

We started the New Years at Heyri by unwrapping what seemed like a giant, building-sized present: Due to the harshest winter in Korea in 30 years, the Gallery White Block has been completely covered for the last 6 weeks and work has been delayed. And just like opening a holiday gift we were at first incredulous, eager and elated. But soon we realized that what was inside was not quite as advertised. The curtain wall had not been installed exactly as we specified. Nothing that some old-school, on-site brainstorming (and headbutting) can't fix…

Hidden Fortune House completed

17 October 2010

The Hidden Fortune House is a a 350 square foot addition to an existing historic residence. The project’s dimunitive size is deceptive: Placed between the interior collective areas of the existing house and the exterior garden, it is conceived of as not an autonomous object, but as an extended frame that forms new spatial connections and continuities. Its folded shape (which we likened to a fortune cookie) negotiates the goal of creating a light and lofty space with the reality of restrictive zoning processes. Our first foray into the use of prefabricated SIP panels, we attempted to go beyond the limitations of the prefabricated ‘box’ to create more nuanced geometry that extends views, shades afternoon sun, and mediates scale differences.

Braver House nears completion

1 September 2010

Sprawling surburban lawns consume 60% of our domestic water use. Multiply this by 79 million detached single-family homes in the U.S. consuming an average of 107,000 gallons of water per year and we have a serious issue: not only in the amount of fresh water being expended (and it is not as renewable as one might think), but also in terms of the energy and resources required to deliver and then treat the byproducts of this consumption.

We are proposing a prototypical alternative: Simply build a small, brave, efficient house but build the suburban ‘fence’ out to its legal setback limit. What this does is give you more sense of house (and less water and resource use) by expanding the perceived interior space to the limits of the fence. It also allows the neighbors to think you have a beautiful green lawn just like theirs (which is most likely a non-local species) while allowing you to have a no-water xeriscape that is as strange as you always wanted it to be within the confines of your ‘fence.’

There are other mimimum footprint measures we have taken as well which we will post soon on our works page: some of these include a solar hot-water radiant heating system coupled with a 100% passive cooling system based on a centralized stack within the house.

White Block Gallery begins construction

12 August 2010

It was around this time last year that we were working on the competition for White Block Gallery. Little did we know that not only would we win the competition, but that the work would proceed so quickly. The excavation has just been completed and the foundations will be poured in about a week.

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