SEED TREES PEOPLE IN TEXAS ARCHITECT
The 2015 July/August Texas Architect Magazine features "Seed, Trees, People", a project that Metalab completed for the Hermann Park Conservancy in collaboration with artist Randy Twaddle. Set within the context of other "Small Stuff" architecture projects, the series of three, sequentially sized curvilinear benches carved from solid block of limestone allow for "far greater experimentation in form, materials, and construction methods." Link to the article online.
NEW HARMONY GROTTO IN ii JOURNAL
The 2014 International Journal of Interior Architecture + Spatial Design (ii) Volume III features "Continuous Tension" by Andrew Vrana. Conceptualizated as a reinterprestation of avant garde architect Frederick Kielser's Grotto for Meditaiton, New Harmony Grotto is chronicled in the article from intial concept design, to the digital fabrication process and final installation. View the full article here.
CLOUD CODE & MEMORY CLOUD FEATURED IN THE TxA INTERACTIVE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Cloud Code & Memory Cloud are both featured in the peer-reviewed 2013 TxA Interactive Conference Proceedings. Held during the Texas Society of Architects 74th Annual Convention and Design Expo, the conference chose to focus on discussions of all things digital in the field of architecture. View full article here.
VRANA ON THE 3D-PRINTED FUTURE IN THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE
In this February 2015 article for the Houston Chronicle, Andrew Vrana emphasizes the emerging importance that plastics and plasticity will have in creating profoundly new opportunities for designers in the near future. "Plasticity", a symposium at the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines college of Architecture, focuses on investigating these materials and digital technologies. View the full article here.
Vrana on UH Digital Fabrication and Design in Texas Architect
In this March/April 2014 Texas Architect piece, Andrew Vrana articulates the creative opportunities that exist in the University of Houston's cutting-edge fabrication lab, the Burdette Keeland Design Exploration Center. Vrana also describes another intriguing UH project, the "Three Continent Studio," in which students devised positive solutions for the problems that vex Houston and other large, industrial cities located in estuary environments.
Metalab and TEX-FAB in January 2014 issue of Connection
Connection is the bimonthly architecture and design journal of the AIA's Young Architects Forum. This particular issue delves into informatics, the technology and applications of digital design and information/data-driven approaches to fabricating, building, and managing. Check us out on pages 24-27!
SPACE for Coca-Cola’s EKOCENTER officially launched!
Mobile Grid and Metalab were hired on by Coca-Cola with DEKA and NRG to design and fabricate EKOCENTER, a 20' shipping container repurposed as a market kiosk, water purification center, and source of electricity aimed at enhancing communities and empowering women entrepreneurs in socio-economically challenged countries around the world. The prototype was unveiled in South Africa with Muhtar Kent (CEO) and Condoleezza Rice. Videos can be found here: Gotas de Vida; EKOCENTER Partnership; Coca-Cola and Multi-National Companies launch EKOCENTER
Memory Cloud featured in Texas Architect
Memory Cloud was published in the July/August 2013 issue of Texas Architect. The issue focuses on light and features work by James Turrell and Morphosis. Texas Architect reserves its "Backpage" for new and notable projects happening in Texas, which is where contributing editor Jack Murphey elaborates on Memory Cloud. Link to online issue.
Tex-Fab SKIN Competition on Fabrikator
Four first-stage finalists named in TEX-FAB's SKIN Competition, an international competition which invited participants to engage innovative facade design with parametric design and digital fabrication. FabriKator is a weekly newsletter written by Architect's Newspaper product editor Emily Hooper.
Fabrikator reports on Tex-Fab’s Applied Research through Fabrication Competition
TEX-FAB's APPLIED: Research through Fabrication competition received 68 submissions from around the world. Cast Thicket, by Kenneth Tracy and Christine Yogiaman of yo_cy, was selected as the winner. FabriKator is a weekly newsletter written by Architect's Newspaper product editor Emily Hooper.
Arch Daily - Memory Cloud / RE:Site + Metalab
Arch Daily publishes daily architectural news from around the world. In March 2013 Alison Furuto authored a post on the installation of Memory Cloud, the winning commission for Texas A&M’s Memorial Student Center 12th Man Hall awarded to Metalab and RE:site.
Metalab recognized for PV-POD on U of H website
Mike Emery writes on Metalab's receipt of ARCHITECT Magazine's Research and Design Award for PV-POD, a solar panel mounting system designd for flat roof space, as well as several other accolades accrued by principals Vrana and Meppelink in affiliation with UH Green Building Components (UHGBC).
Chronicle covers deployment of 17 SPACE units around Houston
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.
Smilebooth earns honorable mention in I.D. magazine’s 2011 Annual Design Review
I.D. Magazine's Annual Design Review is a prestigious competition that recognizes the best in product, furniture, graphic, and environmental design. Smilebooth Queso earned honorable mention among other product submissions in 2011.
AIA Houston Artist of the Year 2011
Metalab received Artist of the Year award for 2011 from the Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Some of the projects for which Metalab was recognized this year include the PV Pod, SPACE, Linus in collaboration with Smilebooth, gro-POD, and installation of Jaume Plensa's Tolerance.
Houston Chronicle shows some love for local entrepreneurship
The Chronicle shows love for local business with a giant spread on SPACE in the January 2011 Events/News section. The piece spotlights designer Joe Meppelink of Metalab, developer Joey Romano, and Laura Spanjian, sustainability coordinator for the City of Houston.
Houston invests in SPACE as part of disaster preparedness effort
SPACE received press on Swamplot, Houston's all-encompassing real estate weblog. The November 2010 article delves into the evolution of SPACE and how the adaptive container has been marketed and employed. The City of Houston plans to purchase 25 units as part of its disaster preparedness program.
Radiant Fountains on Swamplot
New York sculptor Dennis Oppenheim received a one million dollar commission by the Houston Arts Alliance to realize his design for Radiant Fountains, a work of art welcoming visitors flying in and out of Houston at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Metalab is coordinating the fabrication and installation.
Texas Architect spread on UH Green Building Components
Texas Architect featured several University of Houston Green Building Component projects in its November/December 2009 edition. The article first chronicles the inception of the UHGBC and then feature press for early iterations of PV-Pod and SPACE from designers at Metalab and their student and industry collaborators.
Ceiling Cloud receives first prize at the AA|FAB Designing Fabrication Awards in London
Ceiling Cloud was awarded first prize in the "interior" category of the Designing Fabrication Awards for its successful integration of design aesthetics, lighting, environmental performance and fabrication. Part of the London Design Festival, the awards were organized by the AA|FAB cluster of the Architectural Association School.
The curious beginnings of the New Harmony Grotto
The origins of Frederick Kiesler's design for the New Harmony Grotto and how UH architecture students turned those plans into a reality... Orignially intended to accompany a church designed by Philip Johnson in New Harmony, ID, the grotto could not in fact be built with technologies available in the 1960s. Fast-forward 50 years to the emergence of digital modeling and fabrication and suddenly Kiesler's far-fetched ideas are plausible. Now the reimagined grotto is slated to rest, appropriately, next to the Philip Johnson-designed Gerald Hines College of Architecture building.
Grotto to call UH Home
This piece from the University of Houston student newspaper The Daily Cougar tells a little about how plans for the New Harmony Grotto came to fruition: from the original 1963 design by Frederick Kiesler to the project's resuscitation by UH Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture students under faculty advisors Joe Meppelink and Andrew Vrana with assistance from visiting critic Ben Nicholson.
Round Pen, winner of a Houston AIA Design Award, featured in Houston Chronicle
Lisa Gray of the Houston Chronicle reports on the 2008 American Institute of Architects:Houston Design Awards, noting the prevalence of "little projects with big ambitions." Round Pen was one of the winning designs for this year.
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