[imagebrowser id=2] Our students in the Spring 2012 Digital Fabrication Seminar have been working on a project called POP-UP.  It is a temporal and interactive space making product that adapts to and transforms public spaces in the Greater East End neighborhood of Houston. Through a series of movable and playful architectural elements, it creates functional scenarios appropriate for markets and other public gatherings. The iconic geometry of the octahedron is simple and unique to the urban environment and invites curiosity. The module scales to become enclosure, seating and stacking blocks. A series of shade structures expand the form into the surrounding landscape. POP-UP exemplifies the ability of ephemeral architecture to transform a vibrant neighborhood in Houston by fostering new forms of urban interaction and informal commerce. DigiFAB Students Spring 2012: Wells Barber Phillip Bridges Felipe Cosio Nathalia Gallego Tom Hoang Mac Little Pedro Martinez Rodrigo Marron Ricardo Sepulveda Anton Stoev Facebook Page

Architecture Center Houston and AIA Houston present AIA Houston 2011 Artist of the Year Exhibition June 14 – July 13, 2012 Opening Reception Architecture Center Houston Thursday, June 14, 5:30-7:00pm A parametric tree that emits a cloud of fog, a photobooth that captures a vortex of Activity at parties and a shipping container that soaks up the sun to produce its own power.  These are a series of projects that will be exhibited and creating their own micro-climates in FORECAST by Metalab. While we can’t control the weather or a turbulent economy that has thwarted many startups, we can make the best of it by reflecting on how an alternate path within architectural practice has generated a body of work in the genres of civic art and product design.  Through collaborations with artists, product curators and solar entrepreneurs, Metalab applies an understanding of the leading edge of design and fabrication technology while working within Houston’s can-do landscape of manufacturing and industry. Metalab was founded 5 years ago by partners Joe Meppelink and Andrew Vrana over a conversation that left off in a metal fabrication shop on Old Spanish Trail and restarted with students at the University of Houston in a new Digital Fabrication seminar in 2005.  They have since built a multidisciplinary design firm that specializes in architecture, civic art and product design and applies invention and innovation in the use of advanced 3D modeling and digital fabrication, interactive technologies, and a practicing commitment to sustainability through product design and entrepreneurship. The exhibit is presented in partnership with artist Matthew Geller, Smilebooth LLC, Adaptive Container LLC and the University of Houston Green Building Components program (UHGBC).  

Our first collaboration with Jim Isermann has gone well and is being installed in a courtyard at Ohio State University.  We worked with Deep South Plastics, the same roto-mold fabricator we worked with on PV-POD.  Jim's work is a fascinating combination of repeating geometric patterns, intense use of color and inventive architectural products.

Swamplot reports on the City of Houston's deployment of 17 OSHA-compliant SPACE units, placed in crucial locations such as fire stations and schools to serve as disaster response centers.  

Houston is increasing its hurricane readiness with the deployment of 17 SPACE units. Metalab has equipped these shelters with a variety of essential amenities: ice- and water-distribution capacity, regriferators for medicine, and charging stations for laptops and cell phones, to name a few.  

The concept for Memory Cloud and its upcoming installation are discussed with ArchONE, the e-news source from the Texas A&M College of Architecture.  

Kara Rosenfeld's April 2012 Arch Daily article on Memory Cloud was picked up by the HuffPost Arts and Culture section.  

Bridgette Meinhold describes the Memory Cloud as "ethereal" in her April 2012 article for Inhabitat.  The weblog is devoted to forward-thinking design and the principles of innovation and sustainability.