A rammed-earth school building outside Kathmandu, designed with a hexagonal module and a variety of spaces and views within its modest footprint.
Commercial
The space for this nitrogen-fueled made-to-order ice cream parlor was impossibly narrow. MESH fitted it out with custom millwork to make the most of the narrow space and showcase the creation process. We created a mural that reimagines the East River as an ice cream arcadia and lit the space with color-changing lights that activate colors in the mural to create a form of animation.
Our Financial Consortium participated a competition ‘Seongnam Pankyo Mixed-use Development PF’.
A major goal of the Center is rehabilitation of the wetlands area. The building is both a physical base for stewardship of vulnerable ecosystems and a symbolic base, to demonstrate commitment to conservation. Given the unique goals of Calumet, the building is also a statement about the coexistence of nature and human industry. Can a building, shelter from nature, humankinds most intrusive creation, help teach us more about the natural environment? These suppositions and this question lead us to four principles to follow in designing the Center: 1. The building must be extroverted. It must guide us out of itself, to explore the surrounding preserve, while educating us about the preserve. 2. The building must engage directly, beneficially, the surrounding natural environment. It may not decrease the ability of other animals and plants to thrive in the preserve. 3. The building must be exemplary. It will demonstrate construction strategies and methods that minimize the harmful impact of human civilization on Earth. 4. We must balance science and art, conservation and experience. A building that does not touch the imagination cannot succeed scientifically. Conservation efforts will never get the opportunity to succeed without the promise of gratifying experience.
The High Line is an abandoned rail now being converted into a linear public space. For the first High Line ideas competition, MESH submitted a concept of expansive, raised public event spaces as attractors, connected by an information network. A year later a team of MESH and 3 other small firms, OpenMeshWork.Org, made it to the round of 7 in the competition to plan the High Line for real.
A storefront for an office with walk-in clientele. The space must be both exciting and functional on a tight budget. MESH designed a desk layout that satisfies both office work and client visits, surrounding the work space with backlit parachute curtains. The workspace is durable and affordable, with steel lab cabinetry and waterjet-cut, synthetic-stone desktops.
Taking advantage of a small space to promote big ideas, MESH redefined an experimental school in the new age, introducing ideas of connectivity, interactivity and collective learning to the heart of Manhattan.
http://gvhnyc.org
Dumbospace is a new theatre space in the heart of a neighborhood filled with art and music, aiming to become a exciting new center as well as a defining community experience. The project means a complete restoration of an old warehouse with an extensive reconfiguration for an acoustically superior stage and recording facilities. Seating a total of more than 200, the venue promises to become an important focus for performance. Additionally, part of the creation of multiple residential units on the upper floors will include an entirely new floor. Dumbospace promises to be a spectacular new beacon for the arts in the dynamic Brooklyn district, harmonizing both architectural and technical as a platform for experimentation and creation.
In the latter half of the 20th century, the hotel room has evolved from a place of respite, to one of work, to one of luxury. However, technology has evolved toward a seamless life/work ƒlow across all spaces and territories. The hotel room of the future will reƒlect versatility in the clever components and coordinated, functional continuity. We want to serve both comfort and eƒƒectiveness. All modules can be interacted with digitally through both mobile phone and the main media wall screen. The notion of controls within the hotel room (thermostat, TV remote, phone) that the guest must ƒigure out upon checking in is obsolete. We propose a universal mobile app on the guest’s phone using a standard protocol to control everything. Not only does the guest have a room interface that he already knows, but preferences are stored so that upon entry all systems adjust to the new guest, not the other way around. You don’t check in to the room, you log into it. The mobile app serves as room key, controls lighting, temperature, minibar, and serves as interface to the multimedia wall and hotel services. Individual component modules within the space can be upgraded and installed with ease. These components will consist of the meeting area, wet bar, sleeping area, bath area, etc. This allows for all other functions to be prefabricated oƒƒsite and plugged into the existing slab. Hotel components are easily upgraded to accommodate future technologies while aƒƒording a ƒlow in spatial functions.
Crossing Borders was an exhibition of exquisite medieval manuscripts at The Jewish Museum. MESH designed the exhibition plan, the custom steel, walnut, and acrylic vitrines, the lighting, the graphics (with Karlsson Wilker), and the web site (http://bodleian.thejewishmuseum.org). The material embodies the crossing over of cultural influences among Jews, Muslims, and Christians at a rare time of relative harmony among the European religions. To show other pages of the manuscripts in addition to the ones on display, we designed iPads to be flush-mounted in the vitrines, right next to the actual manuscript. The iPad resolution is astonishing and holds its own alonside the original. And as the pre-eminent form of the book today, the iPad presents a satisfying way to experience a thousand-year-old book – intimate, tactile. The museum commissioned a full photo capture of the Kennicott Bible, and the entire 922 pages are viewable on 5 iPads in the show. Instead of arranging the vitrines around the room, as in a traditional layout, MESH installed over sized, double-sided vitrines in the middle of each gallery. This layout directs visitors to gather around the vitrines for a more communal experience where we are aware of both the objects on display and our fellow visitors. The lighting of the manuscripts is a unique process invented by MESH. We hung compact, LED-based media projectors above each vitrine. Through a careful process, documented in a video on Vimeo.com, MESH created a masking image for each projector that trims the light precisely to the shapes of the objects and labels. The stark contrast makes the requisite low light levels appear brighter, using LED light assures that no UV rays can damage the manuscripts, and the manuscripts assume a glowing aura that draws us in to each one.