Temporary Chameleon Cabin Changes Color

chameleon cabin 1The Chameleon Cabin is a tiny, temporary house in Sweden constructed out of corrugated paper. The structure’s material resembles black marble on one side and white marble on the other. When viewed from one angle, it appears completely black, but when viewed from a slightly different angle, it appears completely white.

The Chameleon Cabin’s walls and gabled roof were constructed with 95 paper modules that were fitted together using a simple system of tabs and slots. The interior of the cabin is painted bright yellow, in sharp contrast to the temporary building’s black and white exterior. The three-meter house was designed according to the style of a Swedish friggebod, a small cottage-like structure that is popular in the country because it does not require planning approval.

The Chameleon Cabin was designed by Mattias Lind of Swedish design firm White Arkitekter in collaboration with branding agency Happy F + B. The project is part of a promotional campaign for Goteborgstryckeriet, a local printing company. The Chameleon Cabin is the company’s chameleon cabin 2 way of conveying to the public the message that they can create any type of packaging a customer could possibly want.

Goteborgstryckeriet was created in 1918 and provides specialized printed materials, from brochures to complex products created using CAD technology. The company provides itself on its innovative solutions for marketing campaigns. The temporary structure is being transported to several events, including trade shows, to highlight the company and the types of products it is capable of creating.

Philippines to Enlarge Temporary Shelters for Typhoon Victims

Philippines bunkhouseThe Philippine government announced recently that they expect to complete temporary housing for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the country last November, by March.

The Department of Public Works and Highways is overseeing the project. Department officials say they need an additional one or two months to be sure that the temporary bunkhouses being constructed meet international building standards. Some international relief organizations had expressed concerns that the temporary living spaces were too small to accommodate families. Builders are also addressing issues related to ventilation and security.

The buildings will now be built to accommodate 12 families each, instead of the 24 as originally designed. Partitions between rooms will be removed to create larger living spaces. The government has temporarily suspended construction of new bunkhouses until the ones that have already been built are retro-fitted to make them bigger.

The government is currently in the process of identifying potential sites for permanent housing, which could take over two years to complete. The Philippine government estimates that the price tag for the construction of temporary and permanent housing will be about $8 million over the next four years.

Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines on November 8, 2013. The storm killed over 6,100 people, destroyed over 500,000 homes, damaged an equal number, and displaced over four million people. Before construction of the temporary bunkhouses began, survivors had been living in tent cities and evacuation centers. About 87 construction firms from across the Philippines volunteered to construction the temporary shelters in 42 sites in the central Philippines area of Eastern Visayas.

SDA Designs Temporary Volvo Pavilion

Volvo pavilionLos Angeles firm Synthesis Design + Architecture won an international competition to design a temporary pavilion to showcase and charge Volvo’s new plug-in electric hybrid, the V60.

The “Switch to Pure Volvo” competition was organized by international architecture magazine THE PLAN. It called on architects to create an innovative and original design for a temporary pavilion to showcase the car at fairs and open-air presentations throughout Italy.

SDA’s structure uses a continuous organic form made of HDPE mesh fabric with integrated photovoltaic cells over carbon fiber rods. The mesh fabric was digitally designed and allows the rods to bend. The structure can be completely collapsed into a tent bag and carried in the back of a car, making it highly portable and easy to erect and take down. It does not require a large group of people for construction. The design resembles one continuous surface, not a series of components.

SDA emphasized dynamic form, interactivity, visual impact, functionality, and efficiency in its unique design. SDA saw the competition as a way to address sustainability, identity, culture, materiality, permanence, and personal mobility. The architects wanted the temporary structure to carry the same principles of energy efficiency as the V60. It allows for the charging of vehicles, with a charging cable that is concealed in and peels away from the tubing.

The temporary structure is cost-effective due to its use of light-weight high-tech materials and photovoltaic power. SDA’s architects wanted to push the envelope when it came to materials and geometry.

Los Angeles-based engineering firm Buro Happold is performing structural engineering work related to the V60 pavilion project.

YES WE CAMP! Featured Temporary Hexagonal Structures

Hexa StructuresTo celebrate Marseille European Capital of Culture 2013, YES WE CAMP! Organizers created a temporary urban campground in the center of Marseille, France. Michael Lefeber and BC Studies constructed temporary Hexa Structures from completely reused and reusable materials that were intended to be reminiscent of honeycomb structures designed to accommodate “busy bees” coming and going for the event.

Hexa Structures is a BC Studies prototype project designed to accommodate urban nomads that builds upon the company’s experience with an “urban spaceship” it constructed in Brussels, Belgium in 2012. Hexa Structures’ modular design allows them to evolve from singular to polyvalent structures, which facilitates co-design, flexibility, and adaptability on site and on time.

The structures use steel Lahyer scaffolding as load-carrying structural members, wooden pallets as load-carrying infill, and wooden or aluminum plates as a cover. The vertical load-carrying component “standard” is used horizontally, and the horizontal load-carrying component “ledger” is connected to the standard’s connection ring “rosette” at a 60-degree angle to create a stable hexagonal structure. They can be assembled and disassembled in short periods of time and leave no waste after being deconstructed.

The temporary Hexa Structures can be used as infrastructure for an event stage, exhibition space, urban bar, public space reappropriation tool, or camping shelter.

They can be used legally in public spaces since they are not conventional buildings and do not have any lasting impact on the area where they were constructed after they have been deconstructed.

YES WE CAMP! was an experimental and alternative camping event held from May to October, 2013 on the docks of l’Estaque in Marseille, France. The event included activities such as cultural events and festivals. The project was crowd-funded by local residents, as well as international supporters. Travelers came from around the world to camp out in Marseille for the event.

UK’s Chichester Festival Performances Were Held in Temporary Venue

Chichester FestivalChichester Festival Theatre spent two years planning and constructing a temporary structure for Theatre in the Park in the summer of 2013. Event Industry News has nominated it as one of the top 10 temporary structures built in the UK this year.

The designers created a state-of-the-art 1,400-seat temporary structure that opened in July to widespread praise from industry critics, festival-goers, and members of the community. The tensile structure was 129 feet in diameter and resembled a circus big-top. It was supported by three 75-foot high kingpoles, and almost 500 4.5-foot stakes held the structure in place. The roof supported thousands of pounds of lighting, sound, and rigging equipment. The structure was climate-controlled, sound-proof, and built for the first time in Chichester, England. It took three weeks to construct and was open for 12 weeks, and then dismantled to return the park to its normal state.

Performances included the musical Barnum, which ran for six weeks and included a tightrope and trapeze, and the play Neville’s Island, which required flooding most of the stage with water to create an island where the characters were shipwrecked.

The original Festival Theatre is being redeveloped as part of the Theatre’s “RENEW” project. It was constructed in 1962 and can no longer keep up with the demands of the artistic projects currently being undertaken. Theatre organizers have come up with an imaginative new design and are in the process of raising funds for the upgrades. They plan to make repairs to the original structure, add an addition, increase seating capacity, improve access, upgrade public and backstage facilities, and make the building more energy-efficient.

Appareil Proposes Temporary Structure for Mons 2015, Capital of Culture

5178a2e8b3fc4b36690000e8_naves-temporary-pavilion-proposal-appareil_naves02-528x360Spanish architecture firm Appareil has proposed Naves, a temporary pavilion for the city of Mons, Belgium, Capital of Culture in 2015.

According to its designers, Naves explores the relationship of gothic architecture to lightness and transparency. The proposed gothic arch will be made of glass fiber tubes using tension to create a maximum sense of lightness.

Gothic structures historically sought to reduce a building to its core essence and create a sense of lightness by incorporating natural light into the design and creating pillars, arches, and vaults that were as light as possible. Gothic churches used linear elements based on the ogive, or curved arch, and maximized permeability while minimizing weight.

Naves will consist primarily of reusable materials, including a wooden deck and partitions and a temporary skin made of ETFE, a fluorine-based plastic that is strong and resists corrosion over a wide range of temperatures. The structure will be centered around a central circulation axis that will provide access to cultural spaces, similar to the nave of a gothic church. Naves will consist of differentiated sections with varying rod density, which will gradually vary the interior volume of the structure and serve as a transition between the building and the surrounding park. The design is based on an analysis of the Sainte Wandru Cathedral, which is visible from the site.

The Capital of Culture is a movement that studies technology, art, architecture, economic and social change, culture, and the environment throughout Europe. It hosts exhibitions, theater, music, and events with literary and technological themes highlighting European culture. Its partners, such as museums and music and drama institutions, collaborate on a series of original projects. The 2015 event is designed to develop the city of Mons and give its people, companies, and artists the opportunity to advance by combining art, economics, the city, and its people and heritage.

Appareil is an architecture firm founded by Edouard Cabay in Barcelona in 2011. It uses process-based design methodology that combines traditional methods with digital design and manufacturing.