Before the summer we developed and delivered our proposal for SUKKAH CITY NYC 2010, a cleverly organized and very popular Design Competition. Although we haven’t been selected as one of the twelve winners, we are still in love with our project and therefore happy to make it public.

‘Build Your own Sukkah!’

This simple statement led us to the development of KOSHO – our design proposal – and persuaded us to build a 1:1 scale prototype to test its feasibility. Thanks to this experience we are not only skilled at building a second KOSHO in NYC, but also willing to share our knowledge and every necessary detail to make anyone else able to do the same at home.

As a consequence we decided that the best way to present KOSHO to the Competition Jury and to the Citizens of New York was to tell the story of how it was built once upon a time, in a hypothetical place, by three imaginary boys. 

The star of David – superimposition of two equilateral triangles – is the generative image of our Sukkah. The octahedron – polyhedron with eight triangular faces – is the three-dimensional materialization of our construction. A wooden fan is the triggering metaphor of our tectonic principle.

KOSHO is a simple, light, transportable, low-cost, kosher construction that meets the rules and regulations listed in the competition brief. KOSHO is small but comfortable, can be easily transported, quickly installed and dismantled.

KOSHO is a symmetrical polyhedron built through the juxtaposition of modular elements, but when perceived from dierent angles and in diverse light conditions, it appears as a dynamic and articulated structure. As the eye moves around, a multitude of slanting trajectories between the earth and the sky reveals the essence and the meaning of the construction.

If you want to know more…

View the COMPETITION PANEL (1.012 KB)
Download the PDF BOOK VERSION (1.960 KB)

Designed by:

Lorenzo Bini
Iacopo Boccalari
Claudia Brunelli
Francesca vargiu

Built by:

Lorenzo Bini
Iacopo Boccalari
Alberto Clerici

Shot by:

studiometrico and Francesca Pozzi

Few weeks ago American artist Dan Colen presented Karma, his first solo show in Italy. The exhibition, held at Massimo De Carlo, features the installation Oh Shit, a 15m long and 5m tall wooden structure that resembles a skateboard ramp and frames the painting Moments Like This Never Last (No. 2) through its large holes.  To develop and build the daring construction Dan Colen asked advise to studiometrico and Atelier LC. See few images of the installation after the break.

The box – that measures approximately 21 x 13 x 9 cm – was inspired by an even smaller Indian box and was developed with the help of Roberta Pezzulla, an architect friend that has already collaborated with studiometrico in the past. UnaBox is made of the best Italian solid olive tree wood, it is meant to last for a lifetime (if not forever…) and it has been conceived to store small, personal and precious things.

For these reasons UnaBox is characterized by a security mechanism that doesn’t feature any conventional key or password, but only allows access to very patient and curious persons.

UnaBox is unique, therefore it doesn’t need to be protected by patents or copyrights… Here are the 10 steps you might need to open it and the instructions you should follow if you want to try to build one yourself!

Only 48 hours after the successful ONLYWOOD (the COMVERT Headquarter Grand Opening Party) we went back to Casacomvert for the first skate-session after the completion of the Bastard Bowl, the first skateable spaceship ever landed on earth. It was not surprising to find out that there was a martian skating upthere!

Here few amatorial pics we shoot of Daniel Cardone:

Find out more about this project here.

We have always been fascinated by the way ivy is capable of climbing on tree trunks until they are completely wrapped up and by the way these deadly hugs transform trees into curious, dark and grottesque figures. Some years ago we started to work on a project for a private terrain in the North of Italy – published on this blog as Garden between apple trees – and one day, while we were driving home from a site visit, we bumped into one of these figures. We decided that ‘Green Monsters’ was a proper name for the phenomenon, and we fantasized of having some of them in the gardens we were about to design. But since we hate to kill trees, we started to think of a way to… ‘build’ them.

This is a very simple manual that we publish to explain everyone who loves Green Monsters how to build them. Although Green Monsters are a studiometrico invention, they are not covered by any copyright, so everyone can build one in his own garden or use them in his own projects!

Step 1

Observe natural green monsters anywhere you have the chance to find them, photograph them and show them to your receptive (or sceptical) clients as one of those reference images architects always use.

Step 2

Work hard on Photoshop to produce images that prove to your clients that Green Monsters are beautiful and can be inserted in a corner of their gardens to create a very special atmosphere.

Step 3

Full around with SketchUp a little bit to convince your sceptical clients and contractors that is possible to ‘build’ Green Monsters with little effort and maximum result.

Step 4

Find a joiner who’s good enough to nail logs together and trustful enough to accept that you’re not insane because you like askew and cranky structures. Use very good, long lasting wood, chestnut is the best.

Step 5

Don’t listen to people that ask you the meaning of ‘those odd western totems’, find a gardener that can provide ivy plants and that is patient enough to plant them and arrange them nicely around the trunks.

Step 6

Wait patiently, remember that good things need time. Go and visit your Green Monsters from time to time, observe them and shoot pictures to record their growth.

to be continued…

Few months after their move into their new home, Those Lazy Italians at Bastard, with the help and guidance of Marco Clozza (a.k.a. The Engineer), are eventually busy with the construction of the Bastard Bowl, their spectacular and hazardous ultimate recreative device. Daily updates of the construction works are available here.

See also previous posts about this project:

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan | 2

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan | 3

Casacomvert!

We are finally able to post an ‘almost’ complete set of pictures and drawings concerning a project that has kept us busy for more than one year: The new home of Comvert s.r.l, the italian clothing company that produces and distributes Bastard. Few years ago Comvert asked studiometrico to look for a location for its new headquarter in Milan; the place should have been large enough to host offices for 15-20 people, services, a big storage for their products and an indoor skatebowl for employees, team riders and friends. In spring 2005 we eventually found a Cinema theater from the 50′s that really suited Comvert needs and few months ago – after the conclusion of the refurbishment works – the company has moved into its new home: Casacomvert!

Conceptual diagrams

We have tried to establish few principles that could help us to deal with the existing space: the cinema theater designed by Ing. Mario Cavallé has been perceived as something to preserve, a valuable example in a city like Milan that has apparently forgotten how to produce ‘good architecture’. The following diagrams are a brief attempt to establish basic rules to add new layers within the existing environment without overwriting it, our 5 rules to avoid succumbing to architecture.

Ground floor plan

On the ground level plan – the former foyer of the cinema – constituted by a regular square room facing the street – will be turned into the first bastard flagship store. The ‘half-moon’ shaped space, flanked by two curved staircases leading to the upper balcony, has been transformed into offices for the administrative department. Through this joint element is possible to enter the space of the former pit, now occupied by the two storey metal structure of the storage. Few service spaces, toilets, kitchen, an archive, an enclosed office, and an access courtyard complete the ground floor layout.

Longitudinal section

This schematic longitudinal section shows in a sequence from left to right: the bastard store and the administrative department in the spaces of the former foyer, the creative department built on top of the balcony, the storage that occupies the area of the old pit and, on top of it, the skate bowl that is going to be built in the first one or two months of 2008.

Upper floor plan

The upper level plan shows the creative department built as a number of wooden platforms of different height on the existing balcony and the 144 sqm skate bowl that is going to be installed above the storage structure.

Constructive diagrams

The following Diagrams explain the constructive system of the platforms that constitute the office spaces of the creative department.

• Steel columns have been placed on the concrete bearing structure of the balcony
• Horizontal steel beams have been welded to the vertical columns
• Wooden beams and osb panels have been bolted on the horizontal beams
• 3-layered wooden panles have been placed to clad the platforms and to create furnished banisters.

Maquette of creative department

The office spaces above the existing balcony have been conceived and developed with a 1:50 scale cardboard maquette. The actual design, which is described by the previous diagrams, is eventually different from the one described by the maquette. The final version has been infact adjusted and re-organized on the existing structure of the balcony. The main reason is that the full comprehension of the bearing structure of the balcony was only possible as demolition works started.

Pictures of the buidling site

The following pictures are a selection of the ones we have been shooting during our visits to the building site. The first sequence of photographs focuses on the construction of the creative department platforms, which has been the most challenging and exciting part of the project.

The administrative department offices on the ground floor have been realized with same materials and similar constructive principle. On the slightly sloping marble floor of the foyer we have added another wooden platform that could leave the existing pavement untuched, provide a flat surface and host electrical installations.

Pictures of the ‘squatted’ headquarters

At the end of the summer Comvert has eventually managed to move in its new home! Nevertheless the project is not completely finished… The bastard store and the bastard bowl will come very soon and we are still working on a good deal of finishings, furnitures and details. We are therefore not really able (but then again, shall we ever be?..) to show jet those slick pictures that you often see on architecture magazines where everything is clean, neat and into place… Comvert staff was just too eager to take control of their new headquarters and… they did!

see also previous posts about this project:

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan | 2

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan | 3

Building Bastard Bowl