A crystallized Christmas with Swarovski

Daniel Swarovski, born in northern Bohemia in 1862 (now the Czech Republic), son of a glass cutter who owned a small glass factory, became skilled in the art of glass-cutting. In 1892 he patented an electric cutting machine that facilitated the production of crystal glass. Today Swarovski is the luxury brand name for the range of precision-cut crystal glass and related products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria. Visit their site at  www.crystallized.com and www.swarovski.com

The Swarovski Crystal range includes crystal sculptures and miniatures, jewelry and couture, home decor and chandeliers. In order to create a crystal that allows light to refract in a rainbow spectrum, Swarovski coats some of its crystals with special metallic chemical coatings. Aurora Borealis, or "AB", is one of the most popular coatings, and gives the surface a rainbow oil slick appearance. Other coatings include Crystal Transmission, Volcano, Aurum, and Dorado.

The Swarovski company also offers architectural and design services in crystal for special projects, visit their website at http://architecture.swarovski.com/Content.Node/main.php#/en/home

Watch the promotional videos of their collection Sands of Time, Spring 07 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvJHalLdTSU&feature=related and the making of at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tVusB9nwhY&feature=related, State of Grace  at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqIwCDcQEzQ&feature=related and some interesting events and shows below.

In 2007 Swarovski formed a partnership with electronics giant Philips to produce the "Active-Crystals" consumer electronics range. This includes four USB Memory keys and four in-ear headphones, and in 2008 they included Bluetooth wireless earpieces for the brand, all with some form of Swarovski crystal on them as decoration.

Swarovski has opened a new flagship store in Tokyo in the renowned Ginza district. The store better known for its Crystal Forest has been designed in collaboration of Swarovski and famous Japanese designer Tokujin Yashioka. Visit his website and browse his beautiful projects at www.tokujin.com

Watch "Lake of Shimmer" , the Swarovski stand at Basel World 2009 designed by Tokujin Yoshioka.

And this Christmas linger in a winter wonderland with Swarovski...

Rafael Moneo, architecture that respects the site

José Rafael Moneo Vallés, born in 1937, is a renowned Spanish architect who won the Pritzker Prize in 1996. After graduating in architecture from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) in 1961, he worked in the Denmark office of Jorn Utzon for two years. He then worked as an assistant at the Academia de Espana until 1965 when he established a private practice in Madrid. He taught architecture at various locations around the world and from 1985 to 1990 was the chairman of Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is the first Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture. And also in 1997, he became Academic Numerary in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid.

Murcia Town Hall on the Cardenal Belluga Plaza. Learn more about the project at http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/murciacityhall/index.htm

Unlike many contemporary architects, Moneo does not borrow from the trends associated with European utilitarianism and expressionism. Instead, Moneo produces a softened version of Nordic and Dutch traditions. To this conception he adds an evaluation of his own historic traditions. This range of influences and aims is especially clear in his works of the 1960s. During these years Moneo was one of the centers of interest and excitement in Madrid architecture. "For others … the reality of the building will be sought in its lasting tangible presence, which speaks about the architectural principles behind its construction. That is where I would like to be.” - Rafael Moneo.

Art and Nature Centre of the Beulas Foundation, in Huesca. 

Learn more at http://www.mimoa.eu/projects/Spain/Huesca/Centre%20for%20Art%20and%20Nature 

and (Spanish only)  http://www.arkinetia.com/Articulos/art132.aspx

Against a growing trend for ephemeral designs, Moneo works to maintain the competence of architecture. He sees architecture as a vast history in which the architect conscientiously looks for models and resources to transform. Today, as both an architect and as a teacher, Moneo remains one of the most important figures in Spanish architecture. "The site is an expectant reality, always awaiting the event of a prospective construction on it, through which will appear its otherwise hidden attributes.” - Rafael Moneo.

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles. 

View more detail photos at http://figure-ground.com/ola_cathedral/0001/

His scholarly work includes numerous articles and lectures published throughout the world. His projects include the Bankinter Building in Madrid, the Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, the L'Illa building in Barcelona, the Pilar and Joan Miró Museum in Palma de Mallorca, the "Kursaal" Auditorium and Congess Center in San Sebastián, the extension of the Prado Museum in Madrid, as well as the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.

Watch a great special about Moneo, showing him analyzing and explaining the thought process behind all his buildings, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp8XgBBE-7w&videos=ZQuePHIAe3M&playnext_from=TL&playnext=1 ( 4 videos in Spanish only)

National Museum of Roman Art in Merida

Library of the University of Deusto in Bilbao.

"Kursaal" Auditorium in San Sebastián.

Rhode Island School of Design's museum. www.risdmuseum.org

Extension of the Padro Museum, Spain. 

You may learn more about the Prado Museum extension at http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3098889 and http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=1522

Santiago Calatrava Naturally Challenges Structures

Santiago Calatrava Valls, born 1951 in Valencia Spain, is an internationally recognized award-winning architect, sculptor and structural engineer with offices in Zurich, Paris and Valencia. He studied at the Architecture School and Arts and Crafts School of Valencia. Following graduation he enrolled in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland, for graduate work in civil engineering. In 1981, after completing his doctoral thesis, "On the Foldability of Space Frames", he started his architecture and engineering practice. Since then he has been bridging the division between structural engineering and architecture. Visit his website at calatrava.com

The innovative 54 story high twisting tower, called Turning Torso, Sweden

The Chicago Spire set to completion in 2011, Chicago. Will be the tallest building in North America at 2,000 feet.

80 South Street, a skyscraper with 10 townhouses as stacked cubes, Manhattan.

The interior of the BCE Place Galleria, Toronto, Canada (1992).

Bridge of the Woman, Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Chords Bridge for pedestrians and train in Jerusalem, Israel

“There was a wish to get something exceptional. I also wanted to deliver something technically unique.” - Santiago Calatrava.


“I have tried to get close to the frontier between architecture and sculpture and to understand architecture as an art.” - Santiago Calatrava.

The Quadracci Pavilion of the Milwaukee Art Museum. First US building 2001.

The Milwaukee Art Museum at night.

The Milwaukee Art Museum interior.

Tenerife Opera House, Canary Islands, Spain.

Science Museum, Valencia. Read more about the project at spanish-living.com/regional/Valencia

Calatrava designed the future train station - World Trade Center Transportation Hub - at the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York City. His theme is meant to see the beauty within despair and provides hope for a brighter future.

The glass and steel structure is meant to have a profound impact on Lower Manhattan at all times of the day. During the day, natural light will flood into the Transportation Hub. At night the illuminated building will serve as a lantern for the plaza and the office towers surrounding it. The roof of the Hub's freestanding structure will be fitted with an operable skylight located along the central axis on fine spring, summer, and fall days, as well as on September 11th each year, the skylight will open thus providing the interior space with a slice of sky and its natural light.

Read more about this project in the New York Times at nytimes.com and also at nytimes.com/santiago_calatrava Watch photos of the Freedom Tower project at youtube and also the construction in progress of Calatrava's Hub bellow.

"The most touching thing that anyone can say to me is that I have done something beautiful for the community.” And while landmark projects such as the WTC Transportation Hub define this architect’s career, he says that even “a small bridge in a beautiful natural place, a winery in a delicate setting, can also move your sensibility and show you how important it is that architecture does not become a predator on the landscape, but rather gives dignity and human scale to its environment. Even in the most modest circumstances, there is the possibility for emotion and poetry.” - Santiago Calatrava.

Walk through another Calatrava future project, the Future Train Station In Liege, Belgium.

Herzog & de Meuron, setting ground for innovation

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron founded Herzog & de Meuron Architekten, BSA/SIA/ETH (HdeM) in 1978. A Swiss architecture firm, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland known by their commitment of articulation through materiality.

Their formal gestures have progressed from the purist simplicity of rectangular forms to more complex and dynamic geometries. The architects often cite Joseph Beuys as an artistic inspiration and collaborate with different artists on each architectural project. Their success can be attributed to their skills in revealing unfamiliar or unknown relationships by utilizing innovative materials.

Beijing National Stadium, colloquially as the Bird's Nest, designed for 

use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, China

In 2001, Herzog & de Meuron were awarded the Pritzker Prize, the highest of honours in architecture. Architecture critic and Pritzker juror Ada Louise Huxtable summarized HdeM's approach concisely: "They refine the traditions of modernism to elemental simplicity, while transforming materials and surfaces through the exploration of new treatments and techniques."

CaixaForum Madrid is a post-modern art gallery in the centre of Madrid, Spain. 

Which combined an old unused industrial building with rusted steel.

An amazing structural challenge, the 56 Leonard in NY, watch the animation at http://www.youtube.com/watch? Read more about the project at http://www.dezeen.com/2008/09/14/56-leonard-street-by-herzog-de-meuron/ Visit the building website at http://www.56leonardtribeca.com/

56 Leonard Street, NY.

Browse some other interesting projects as 40 Bond Street in NY http://www.triplemint.com/triplemint/2006/02/40_bond_in_deta.html , the Tate Modern in London http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/transformingtm/, GSAPP animation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9KE2DOzlSE&feature=related and the Young Museum of San Francisco http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwXxpB69VPs&feature=related

Laban in Deptford, british college and centre for contemporary dance (2003)

The M.H. de Young Museum is a fine arts museum located 

in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

They designed a Prada store in the fashionable Aoyama district of Tokyo in 2003. Read more about it at http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/pradatokyo/index.htm You may also watch a model animation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xGw1jrUPq0&feature=related and live the whole experience at http://vimeo.com/1449787

And if you wonder what is going on in Lincoln Road and Alton (South Beach, Miami), well it is 11 11, the new multi-space designed by the firm. Visit the website at http://www.1111lincolnroad.com/ and watch the transformation of an iconic corner.

Watch the animation video and the construction progress