Bluarch Architecture and Fisher Maranz Stone - Research Paper Example

?A Comparative Analysis of Three Architectural/Interior Design Companies Bluarch Bluarch Architecture and interiors was founded in 2004 by Antonio DiOronzco, who combines his work as the principal of this company with his continued work teaching both architecture and interior design at several institutions. Orozco is assisted in the workings of the company by some nine other colleagues who are involved both with the design practices as well as with the business orientated aspects of the day to day running of the business. Bluarch, which is based in New York City, offers services in both architectural design and interior design and also caters for any master planning projects. The firm prides itself on being, “Dedicated to design innovation and technical excellence” (Bluarch 7). Having expanded its ventures to many areas of the globe Bluarch has been discussed in various publications and has also been involved with several exhibitions from all over the globe. The firm has used its extensive marketing to extend its boundaries significantly in the few years they have been established, enabling them to carry out projects not just throughout the U.S.A but also in a in a wide range of countries which include Korea, the U.K., Italy, Russia and the Ukraine. In the area of interior design, the company works on projects in both residential and commercial settings. In the commercial area this can encompass work in hospitality (including restaurants and nightclubs) as well as within retail and office spaces. Whilst in the area of architecture their projects are extended to include opera houses, movie complexes and even a parachute pavilion that was constructed in Brooklyn. Fisher Maranz Stone Like Bluarch, Fisher Maranz Stone is based in New York City. More specifically the firm is housed in a classic district loft space and has been around for a little longer than Bluarch having been established in 1971. The company was originally founded by the trained architects and interior designers Jules Fisher and Paul Maranz who continue to operate as the company’s principle designers. They were later joined by Charles G. Stone who, whilst specializing in theatre lighting, has since become the President of the company. They are assisted in the workings of the business by several principal associates who function not only in the area of design but also in finance, marketing and IT. They also employ a dozen junior designers and several administrative staff thereby making it significantly bigger than Bluarch. Specializing in lighting designs, the firm claims to “Use light to narrate the architect’s story enhancing the communication of design through environmentally and economically conscious lighting solutions”. (FMS 1) Furthermore, for over forty years the company has incorporated their designs into a vast range of locations and has created lighting solutions for over 2500 projects around the world, that include museums and towers, corporate interiors and concert halls, private residences, casinos and universities, and have even extended their practice to airports and train stations. Jeffrey Beers International The introduction to this company’s website opens by describing how one can “Step into an environment by Jeffrey Beers International and you will discover a setting rich with imaginative variations on classic themes of glamour, elegance, wit, and seduction”. (Jeffrey Beers 1). Again this company resides in New York City, and was established there in 1986 by Beers who graduated from university with a degree specializing in architecture. Concentrating its projects mainly within the areas of hospitality and retail, the company has nevertheless expanded to carry out projects in private residencies and office spaces as well as nightclubs. The company has now expanded its operations to encompass some 12 countries up to the present time although they are continually looking to expand even further afield. The team is built on the specialists skills of a number of associates who operate not only in the field of architecture and interior design but also graphic design, lighting and furniture design and even incorporate the areas of textile and fashion. Innovative design Work Bluarch has seized the contemporary concerns with the environment by concentrating considerable efforts into the production of eco-friendly constructs. These include constructions in both residential and commercial areas. In the commercial area they produced a two level nightclub lounge in New York which was actually the first Leed-CI certified nightclub in the U.S. Whilst in the residential area their work has included eco-friendly houses in both the U.S and Qatar as well as, perhaps most significantly, a 45-storey eco-friendly residential tower that was built in New York and which was entered for the Wan Awards for 2011. The tower offers ‘pods’ for temporary residents and because it produces energy, the building is energy self-reliant and a “contributing node to the electric grid”. Therefore, “this tower has a negative CO2 footprint, and transcends its architectural identity by acting as infrastructure”.1 Furthermore, the residential units within the tower are customizable to permit fabrication and installation that can be made to suit specific needs. This specific approach allows new design and construction processes to be incorporated into traditional construction methods. This permits that both design and installation are purely based on form and performance. Fisher Maranz Stone has become one of the best-known lighting design studios largely because of their highly innovative moving installation that incorporates two enormous pillars of light rising from Ground Zero. This installation was produced to honour the victims of 9/11 and has thus captured the attention of the public not just in America but globally as well. Further innovations include the technologically sophisticated lighting installed in a New York synagogue. This lighting system, which encompasses some 36 zones in the sanctuary alone, is said to allow an exceptionally extensive amount of variation and control. Furthermore, due to the extensive research that revealed the walls of the original interior to have been stenciled with between 110 and 120 colors, the firm installed the new lights at a much higher level thus reducing the number of colors to about 69 or 70 and so keeping the hues at the top from appearing garish. This had the result of establishing a connection with the building's history, without specifically replicating it. Jeffrey Beers gained a reputation for recreating atmospheres and the glamour of past years by integrating composites of original design materials into his projects such as blue-grassed mirrored panels, white marble, polished chrome and wenge wood as well as theatrical lighting designs. In the words of Beers himself he states how he wanted to create “compositions that encompassed signature elements, integrating them with innovative new features”.2 Into many of his projects he has incorporated lighting installations that drift through a whole range of changing colors throughout the day. Projects Completed Bluarch’s projects include a club in Astoria, New York called the Cienna Ultralounge. (Figures 1, 2 & 3). Cited by Dexigner.com as “an essay on softness”, the design is based on the mathematical shape of a silk cocoon and is exclusively made of a seamless, tufted upholstered shell. Lining the shell are some 8,888 buttons that were organised by 3D software and behind the shell is a system of LED light fixtures that fill the space with warm hues whilst responding to music impulses via ad-hoc software.3 Further projects include the bi-level 6,000 square foot club, lounge and event space that is Greenhouse Nightclub, situated in New York (Fig 4). The nightclub has been entirely built from recycled or recyclable materials, designer Antonio Di Oronzco states “I decided to stay away from re-creating a greenhouse, and opted to transpose the notion of landscape to an interior space; the design concept was to convey the dynamic richness of nature as a living system.”4 Finally Bluarch were commissioned to design the Juliet Supperclub and the firm set out to create a Persian style interior incorporating concepts based on the symbols and the tales of “One Thousand and One Nights”. (Fig 5) Fisher Marantz Stone were to win an award for their lighting design installed in the Chanel Encore store in Las Vegas (Fig 6, 7 & 8). The lighting design supports the twin environments of fashion and jewelry. Furthermore, the design resolves the problems of energy efficiency and ease of maintenance as well as negotiating complex and awkward spaces. Another award winner for the company was the Citygarden project in St. Louis, Missouri. (Fig 9) The outline for the firm here was to design the lighting to perfectly compliment the carefully constructed sculpture garden. Several special projects have also been carried out by the firm including the lighting design that completed the Washington Monument in Washington DC. (Fig 10) Jeffrey Beers International’s projects include that completed in the Tokyo Hilton (Figs 11, 12 & 13). Here the distinct feature is a trough of shimmering water that flows around the perimeter. This trough serves to theatrically connect three distinct dining areas that are respectively serene, Mediterranean-influenced and exotic. Aura Paradise Island (Fig 14) was to land the firm a place in the finals of Club World Awards. The nightclub design includes pulsating perimeter walls set with illuminated glass/mirror horizontal bands of LED lighting, as well as an impressive sunken dance floor. The company was to go further than the finals by winning the Best Lounge Award by the Club World Awards for three years in a row with their ‘Tabu’ in Las Vegas (fig 15). This lounge design helps to create an edgy atmosphere and literally assaults the senses with kaleidoscope lighting, mutating murals, and reactive imagery. The lounge is further adorned by the solid ice vodka bar, the white Calcutta marble champagne bar, and the secretive Tantra Room. References Bluarch www.bluarch.com www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=16178 http://www.manta.com/c/mmsjyny/bluarch-architecture Fisher Marantz Stone http://www.lightingacademy.org/news.php?pcode=0000000072 http://www.enlightermagazine.com/projects/chanel-encore-fisher-marantz-stone http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=company&lng=3&id=104212 Jeffrey Beers International www.jeffreybeers.com http://milimet.com/2009/09/jeffrey-beers.html http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeffrey-beers/13/aa6/731 Figures 1, 2 & 3 The Cienna Ultralounge by Bluarch Figure 4 The Greenhouse Nightclub by Bluarch Figure 5 The Juliet Supperclub by Bluarch Figures 6, 7 & 8 Chanel Encore Store, Las Vegas lighting by Fisher Marantz Stone Figure 9 Citygarden Lighting by Fisher Marantz Stone Figure 10 Washington DC Monument Lighting by Fisher Marantz Stone Figure 11 Figure 12 Tokyo Hilton Figure 13 Jeffrey Beers International Figure 14 Aura Nightclub Figure 15 Tabu Part 2 iGuzzini and Material Connexion iGuzzini is a company that specializes in lighting that was established in 1958 and is based in the Italian city of Recanati, in the region known as The Marches . Initially going under the name of Harvey Creazioni, the company began on a very small scale by developing from making artistic objects from moulded copper to manufacturing lamps and chandeliers in plastic. Some fifty years later however, the company has grown to become the leader of the Italian technical lighting sector as well as ranking among the top five European companies that operate within this field. In 1981 the company reinvented itself as iGuzzini Illuminazione and some three years later opened its first subsidiary company in Munich, Germany. Expansion was to continue rapidly and, with well-established offices and showrooms already in place throughout Canada, finally opened a new showroom in New York towards the end of the first decade of this century. The company now manufactures lighting systems for a variety of applications including urban furniture, services, museums, commercial spaces and reception facilities. iGuzzini now has some 17 subsidiaries throughout the world covering much of Western Europe but also extending as far afield as China, Hong Kong and Russia. In fact, it has some kind of presence in as many as 72 countries employing a total of 1,170 people. The board, however, remains dominated by the Guzzini family and are presided over by Adolfo. The turnover for 2010 has been established at around 175 million euros However, the company stresses its operation is not restricted to the engineering of lighting fixtures but it also focuses on studying and understanding light, to “make the others understand it and improve the integration between light and architecture through industrial design”. (iGuzzini North America p 1). Because of their views regarding the growing importance of the innovative philosophy on light, in 1995 iGuzzini decided to create its own Research and Investigation Center. This has led to the production of many innovative products including the result of the center’s belief that one type of lighting system could be used to “re-establish circadian rhythms and thus strengthen the rehabilitation processes” [of coma patients] by means of multi-stimulation with the intention of recreating an environment full of reminders of the patient’s biography”. (iGuzzini –Research center p 4) Thus the ‘Sivra luminaire’ (Variable Lighting System with Automatic Regulation) has been used to simulate the properties of natural light through regulating the intensity as well as the colour temperature of artificial light. (Figure 16) Further innovations resulted in the production of ‘the Crown’ (Figure 17), which “enhances the distribution of the luminous flux in roads and public spaces where vehicular traffic at moderate speed coexists with pedestrian traffic”, for example in urban avenues or public parks (iGuzzini New products 1). The optical assembly, which contains the light source and the reflector, ensures total protection against penetration of dust or liquids whilst effectively reducing light pollution. Along similar lines a street lamp known simply as ‘Street’ has been developed by iGuzzini (Figure 18). Here the use of a metal halide lamp allows optimisation of energy consumption where the level of CO2 emissions in the environment is minimized, while maximum light efficiency is maintained. Material Connexion is a worldwide resources consultancy that offers help to companies with regards to sourcing innovative materials that are designed to enhance the presentation, aesthetics and sustainability of their projects. The business is based in New York City and was established in 1997 by George M. Beylerian. Whilst retaining its headquarters in New York the company has since expanded to include premises in Bangkok, Cologne, Istanbul and Milan, and also maintains an online materials database. Furthermore in May of this year Material Connexion declared that it would be inaugurating ten materials libraries throughout China by 2017. The firm's chief location in China will open in Beijing in 2011, followed by agencies in Shanghai and Guangzhou in 2012. Material Connexion preserves one of the major physical libraries of progressive, innovative and maintainable materials and practices in the world. The firm depends on an independent jury of design specialists to assist it in determining a new material’s or process’s value. All of the resources in its collection are classed depending on their chemical composition for example they are either, Polymers, Naturals, Metals, Glass, Process, Ceramics, Cement-based or Carbon-based. They aim to provide large corporations, small forward-thinking companies as well as designers of all disciplines with a worldwide, cross-industry view on resources and their possible usages. In 2007, Material Connexion was named a “Top Eco-Innovator” by The New York Times.5 Specifically, the firm has become renowned for its hard work in ensuring the facility of gathering information on sustainable materials and sustainable design practices for both designers and corporations. Elsewhere, Material Connexion’s consulting work and Materials Library has resulted in the improvement and progress of consumer goods, architecture, packaging, interiors and various other design-related projects. The company's clients have not only included design and architecture firms but also government agencies as well as large corporations such as Target Corporation, PUMA, Adidas, and BMW. When PUMA began considering the inevitable demand for producing more eco-friendly packaging - specifically for their sneakers range - it was to Material Connexion that they turned. The collaborative result was ‘The Clever Little Bag’ which serves as a replacement to the traditional cardboard shoebox and which will allow PUMA to reduce their annual consumption of consumables such as water, cardboard and diesel by 60%. Another company, the New York based architectural firm HWKN, also turned to Material Connexion when they were faced with the many challenges encountered in the construction of roof-top deck construction. Specifically, the project MINI rooftop (figure 20) required materials that could be both sufficiently water resistant and durable whilst conforming to the weight restrictions imposed by the buildings construction. On visiting the Material Connexion library they were to discover the perfect solution, a material known as Kay-Cel that is rigid, relatively lightweight and totally water-resistant. Finally, Material Connexion was to assist one of its corporate members – Adidas - in finding the perfect material from the SuperFabric manufacturers who provided them with the flexible and lightweight fabric that effectively emulates metal. Thus the revolutionary new running shoe was developed that can help athletes to maximize their performance. (Fig 21) Figure 16 Diagram of The Silva Lamp by iGuzzini Figure 17 The Crown by iGuzzini Figure 18 The Street by iGuzzini Figure 19 PUMA’S Clever Little Bag collaboration with Material Connexion Figure 20 HWKN Minirooftop collaboration with Material connexion Figure 21 Adidas Lone Star Shoe collaboration with Material Connexion Read More