Nike 'Ballman' Made of 3000 Soccer Balls For World Cup

Nike continues to impress with more of their interesting and artful projects for the 2010 World Cup. In addition to the fabulous carved crayons, a giant sculpture comprised of almost 3,000 footballs (that's soccer balls for those of us in the US) designed by Leeds-based Ratcliffe Fowler Design hangs in the atrium of the Carlton Centre shopping mall in downtown Johannesburg.



'Ballman' as he has become dubbed, is a World Cup project for the leading sportswear brand.



Prior to being sea freighted to South Africa, a complete Ballman test build took place at Magna, the Science Adventure Centre and steel visitor attraction in Rotherham, UK. This was one of the few places in the UK with enough room to host the operation, which was co-ordinated by the Magna technical team, Transmitta.




Summit's project manager Jay Call studied the Carlton Centre's structural plans and discovered that the atrium of the building has a 12 x 12m steel grid, complete with 5 beams, 3m apart. Summit then designed an aluminum mother grid to fly below this, which is picked up on 4 x 5 ton hoists.



Once the sub-structure was flown at its 15m trim height, the bottom was filled in with flat panels and clad with moulded polystyrene - all with 537 holes drilled exactly in the right places for the 2x steel wire drops. This completely conceals all the metalwork and rigging, giving the appearance of a solid ceiling with the Ballman 'floating' in the air.



Ballman will stay in place for the whole World Cup tournament period, and when dismantled, the intention is that the balls will be given away. Jay Call commented: "It was a great pleasure to be involved in this project, which was different, challenging and extremely rewarding, both as a feat of engineering and a creative work for public enjoyment."

images and information courtesy of World Architecture News

House Beirings, A Modern Dutch Farmhouse By Rocha Tombal Architects

House Beirings is a very cool looking modern dutch farmhouse. In an effort to avoid visual contact with adjacent houses, the wood home by Amsterdam architects Rocha Tombal, has different shaped openings, windows, skylights and dormers that offer interesting ways to bring daylight in without directly facing nearby structures.

House Bierings
As described by the Amsterdam architecture firm, Rocha Tombal Architecten:
From a basic form, defined by the municipal urban plan, sculptural “eyes” emerge with direct views to the varied countryside landscape. The form and orientation of the building avoid visual contact with the adjacent houses: at the ground floor the angled ceiling of the kitchen accentuates the intensive contact with the garden. On the first floor, the different shaped openings in the roof and façade offer, like “fingers of light”, varied daylight experiences.










The routing through the house starts in the hall, a section of the ground floor volume. After experiencing the entrance area and passing the gigantic pivoted door, the visitor arrives at the “heart of the house”, the kitchen. Here he looks through the big glass wall straight into the garden, which suggests being outside again.





Behind him, the stair cuts a wooden wall inviting to follow the route towards the first floor. Its angled form and extreme proportions (small and high) and the daylight entering from the ceiling, offer the feeling of walking in a medieval street.





At the end of it he discovers the living room, a quiet, north-lighted attic space, from which a big opening exposes the surrounding green like in a framed painting.





the floor plans:


The model:




Rocha Tombal Architecten
Nieuwpoortkade 2A-110
1055 RX Amsterdam
NEDERLAND

T: +31 (0)20 6060772
F: +31 (0)20 6060778
E: info@rocha.tombal.nl

The Safe House In Poland Is A Modern Fortress With Sliding Walls.

It looks like a modern fortress and is built as such. The Safe House by architect Robert Konieczny of Polish architecture firm, kwk promes, is a giant concrete cube whose walls were designed to move. The house was recently a shortlisted entry for the 2009 World Architecture News Awards.



The House is situated in a small village at the outskirts of Warsaw. The surroundings are dominated with usual 'polish cubes' from the sixties and old wooden barns. The most essential item for the clients was acquiring the feeling of maximum security in their future house. This objective determined building's outlook and performance.




The body of the building is a cuboid in which parts of the walls are movable. When the house opens up for the garden, eastern and western side walls move towards an exterior fence, creating a courtyard. After passing the gate one cannot enter the house or the garden any other way but through the main door, waiting in that safety zone, for its opening. The innovation of this consists in an interference of the movable walls into the urban structure of the property. Consequently, when the house is closed (at night for example) the safe zone is limited to the house's outline. During the day, as a result of opening of the walls, it extends to the garden surrounding the house.




Accomplishment of this idea required a lot of technically complex solutions. The sliding walls (both 2.2m high, 15 and 22m long) are not the only mobile elements of the building. Apart from these, there are large shutters – all 2.8m high, with width ranging up to 3.5m, and a drawbridge, leading to the roof terrace above the swimming pool.




A giant roll-down gate closing the southern elevation also functions as a movie projection screen. All the movable elements are based on built-in electric motors. The whole building is a concrete monolith, while its mobile parts – for the sake of considerable size – are light steel frameworks filled with mineral wool. As a result, the building is excellently insulated when closed. The whole house and all movable elements are finished with waterproof alder plywood. It resembles wood widely found on surrounding houses and barns, which makes it fit well into the landscape.




Once the house opens, the interior merges extensively with the garden. Wide glazings behind the movable walls let the building acquire energy during the day, in order to store it at night, when the house is closed.





This proceeding repeats every day – the house wakes up every morning and closes up after dusk. Such routine reminds processes occurring in nature – the house resembles a plant in its day and night cycle. (text description courtesy of world architecture news)

Construction and materials

The construction is a concrete monolith. Only the movable elements are made in light steel structure. Both concrete and steel walls are insulated with rock wool, and covered with 15 mm slabs of waterproof alder plywood, that was stained to darker tone, in order to make the house look alike the other buildings in the surroundings. The fence, that unites with the movable walls, is the same 2.2 m high, and is covered with an identical dark plywood. The interior, to stay in contrast, is kept in white. The floors are made of concrete and whitewashed oak. The walls and ceilings are finished with concrete and whitewashed cement plates.


above: architect Robert Konieczny of KWK Promes

location: Okrzeszyn, near Warsaw
client: private
architect: Robert Konieczny - KWK Promes
collaboration: Marcin Jojko

site area: 2500 m2
usable floor area: 566,51 m2
volume : 1719 m3
design : 2004
construction : 2005-2008


kwk promes architects