Mirror Market

A client commissioned visiondivision to create a shop for showing and selling goods next to a highway in the Nakhon Ratchasima area in Northeastern Thailand.
The client is involved in many different enterprises, like manufacturing pottery, trading with flowers and garden trees, growing fruits, mushrooms and vegetables and also buying and selling shoes and clothes.
Given the variety of the products, we soon concluded that this spread out variety could be hard to promote successfully in one single shop.
In this region of Thailand, many people has small enterprises where they sell or have a little restaurant in their front yard. The problem for many of these people is that they don’t have any proper location to show their trades outside their homes.
We therefor thought of creating an attractive market where the client can rent out small spaces to entrepreneurs and also sell his own goods mixed up with other peoples merchandise to attract a larger crowd for his products as well as the market.
Since the site is located next to a busy highway, there is a great opportunity to attract visitors to the market that we wanted to take advantage of.
When travelling on the roads of Thailand, you will often see enormous billboards with ads.
These billboards are sometimes so big that small squatter communities uses the steel frame as support for their shacks and takes advantage of the electricity system that the sign has. Sometimes you even see that old commercials have been re-used as facades.
This large scale advertisement, and that the sign can also be the backbone for a small community, was something that we wanted to work with, but instead of showing just an image to lure the bypassing cars in to shop, we wanted to make a sign that directly showed what was going on at the market, like a live stream video that at the same time would draw a lot of attention.
To create this effect, we decided to use a steel structure similar to the huge billboards, but we tilted it forward and clad it with a shiny mirror coating so it would reflect the activity and the products of the market itself and at the same time become a roof for a part of the market.
As the centerpiece of the market, we created an inverted formation of market stands that are formed as the word for “market” in Thai, ตลาด. The gold colored mosaic stands are also lit up at night.
Thus, the market becomes the actual sign that will promote it, and as the customers walks in, they also becomes a part of the sign, making it an interactive experience.
The structure itself has two clearly defined areas; one clean advertising side that are facing the highway and one raw backside with the structure that is holding up the sign, and where there also are some no-frills toilets, an overnight lodge for a security guard, storage rooms, solar panels and water tanks that collect water from the corrugated roofs.
The weight of the water tanks also helps the building structurally.
The market itself is a raised cement platform covered with local mosaic tiles that will create a colorfully chaotic kaleidoscope backdrop for the golden market text and the many goods and people that is on show.


Axonometric view of the market with the surrounding site


Market at night


The market from the back with its structural backbone


The market from the highway


Plan


Facade


Section

The Mega Corrugated Mirroring Metal Sheet & the Machine Gun Mayhem

Visiondivision was assigned to design a new entrance for the music forum “Arene” in Vienna.

In 1976 activists who called themselves “Arenauts“, squatted an old slaughterhouse in Vienna.

Since that day the Forum Arene Vienna has grown to become the provider of Austria's biggest alternative cultural communication center.
Due to the wide array of events and the variety of big music acts to small alternative ones, 

visiondivision's commission was to design a roof for the waiting crowd for the different concerts that would have an aesthetic that would appeal to this wide range of concert goers and their specific musical genres. It would therefor had to please the death metal aficionados, the hip hop lovers and the pop fans at the same time. Since the Arene is a non profit oriented organization, the clients where looking for low cost solutions. Visiondivision designed two different low budget ideas; one based on the tectonic approach of building a simple roof structure, and one idea based on taking a ready made and redesign it by different techniques of subtracting material.

The Mega Corrugated Mirroring Metal Sheet

The tectonic approach is a simple roof structure. Corrugated steel sheets is one of the cheapest materials there is, and it has a suitable atmosphere for an underground club that hosts everything from punk concerts to hip hop. We decided to design our own corrugated steel sheet; a mega corrugated mirroring metal sheet.

One of the experiences while going to a concert is standing in line. Thats often when people interact the most with each other and depending on what concert there is, the crowd looks different as well. The mega corrugated mirroring is designed for that specific purpose. The ceiling will change appearance depending on which type of crowd the concert gathers. If you are on a punk concert the roof will look punk, if there is a black metal concert the roof will look more devilish. The roof also has a social purpose; people can interact with each other through the mirroring roof, get eye contact with the people in front or behind themselves in the cue and perhaps flirt or start talking to each other.

Image of cue                                                                                                               

Diagram and kit of parts                                                                                          

The Machine Gun Mayhem
Since the area for the project almost had the same foot print as a shipping-container, and that the Arene people would most likely build the structure themselves. Visiondivision also looked into the solution of buying a cheep container and remodeling it with different types of tools, ranging from control to mayhem. In the controlled version the people at Arene could carve out the container with different building tools as a social interaction during a weekend. The result could various depending on who and how many would do the carving. Another type of carving would be more aggressive. The container would be taken to a field and shot at with different types of machine guns giving it a finish that could suit a rough environment.  

   Diagram control vs mayhem                                                                                 

The mayhem approach                                                                                             

Container in day light                                                                                               

Container at night                                                                                                     

Secret Sauna revisited

When the vd team is on vacation they can always stop by and enjoy their old masterpieces and at the same time do a meticulous inspection on how their projects has matured. This summer, the first project ever erected by visiondivision got revisited six years after its inauguration. The result was flawless and the clients praised the building. The sauna experience is world class and there is no bad aging signs what so ever. And most important of all, the project is still under the radar for a certain crowd.

The sauna room in use                                        

Satisfied clients relaxing after the sauna                                     

MoMA Cut 'n' Paste Exhibition

Our project "Villa Village" will be on show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of the exhibition Cut ’n’ Paste: From Architectural Assemblage to Collage City that will take place from July 10 to December 01, 2013.

The Miami Sun

This is a competition entry for a new landmark at the Bayfront Park in Miami where the participants where asked to capture the soul of Miami as well as giving the city a fresh and innovative icon that would boost Miami's architectural legacy.

Background
Miami is located in the Sunshine State of Florida and is a city that is blessed with a tropical climate and great weather almost all year around, making it a major tourist destination and a popular place to retire.
The city of Miami that we know of today is a reclaimed city in many ways.
The land where most of the downtown area is, used to be a part of the Everglades wetland, but was drained to create land opportunities.
A major part of the city was also created by landfill with the dredging of Biscayne Bay. The majority of Miami Beach is mainly created in this way and this is also the case for the many islands that lies between Miami Beach and the downtown area, such as the port of Miami for example, which is the base for the enormous cruise ships that has their embarkation point from this area.
These ships are own little islands in themselves and Miami is the number one cruise port in the world.
The tradition of creating new spaces from water leads to a pretty unsentimental and interesting approach to landscaping as well as architecture.
The Bayfront Park which is the setting for this new proposed landmark was also created in this traditional way to free new spaces, in this case by setting up a retaining wall and pumping out sea water.


Siteplan, facade and axonometric view


Site overview 


View from the harbor

The Idea
The new landmark is both a monument of the good life, as well as a landscape addition to enrich and counter balance the existing park with its already tropical landscaping.
The new monument is a thin, half sphere-shaped hotel with a casino on its lower floors and an observation deck on its upper floors, which gradually shifts its colors during the day, mimicking a dimmed sun at daytime and creating spectacular sunrises and blazing sunsets for the park at dusk and dawn. At night time it shifts to a moon.
The sun and the tropical archipelago will be a relaxed and positive monument that many people also can enjoy physically and that symbolize both the laid back way of the Miami lifestyle as well as the flamboyant decadence.
This tropical vista will attract many visitors, and the Bayfront Park will receive more people as a result, which is what this park lacks when there is not an event going on here. People will hopefully flock once again to the front porch of Miami to catch a relaxing tropical sunset or listening to house music and drinking coconut drinks on a small tropical island next to a huge moon.


Daytime view from the Port of Miami


Aerial view of the building and the observation deck

The building and the water park
The building is reached by tender boats just like the nearby cruise ships has when they anchor in small harbours. This seclusion enhances the monumentality and the sun illusion and also heightens the exclusiveness of the hotel itself aswell as state its energy independence.
The sites close vicinity with the cruises makes this a great destination for cruise tourists that normally have a couple of days in Miami before sailing out on their Caribbean adventures.

The building is a grid shell structure with a glass facade that is coated with a film of transparent solar panels.
This is a new technique which is possible by letting the visible spectra of sun light straight through, and instead absorbing the high amount of ultravilolet and infrared light.
This energy is more than enough to power the building and the surplus goes to the stripes of mono-frequency lights that are integrated on the end of each floor slab and that points outwards to give a glow around the hotel and make the sun effect sharp and bright at dusk and dawn.
Mono-frequency lamps are powerful lights that produce light with a narrow frequency that makes colors other than black and the chosen color invisible.
This makes the surrounding tinted with that specific color and creates an enchanted atmosphere around the building.
At daytime the lamps will be slightly dimmed just to create a shimmering and reflective effect.
At night it glows milky white like a moon.


Section with explanatory diagram


The sun


The moon

The water park between the existing park and the new hotel is made up by a large shallow pool that surrounds a small archipelago with landscaped small sand islands with palm trees on them.
The sand is taken from different popular beaches around the Caribbean so you can sample the best sand from Miami’s neighbours without leaving the city.
The pools are only waist deep so you can wade to the islands and also use the whole premise as a spectacular arena for the Ultra Music Festival and other venues.
The pool could also be completely dried out if needed for any special type of event.

Souvenir City

A close friend to the firm got a praying mantis for his birthday.
The praying mantis is a quite bestial creature that devours its prey very slowly, holding its catch firmly with its spiked forelegs while gradually working its way through the body of the still alive critter.
The primary prey of a mantis consists of animals not so much smaller in size from the mantis itself, ranging from crickets to small birds and frogs.
The mating is also a cruel affair regularly ending up with the female biting off the male’s head during the act.

The new owner of this fascinating pet wanted help to create a habitat that could suit this mini-monster.
Our friend also wanted an enclosure that would look good in his livingroom.

Being an architect at visiondivision means that you travel a lot. Both to meet clients all around the world as well as getting inspiration to produce heroic first-hand architecture.
A couple of years ago we began to collect souvenir buildings from places we’ve been to, resulting in a quite impressive collection of an all-star team of miniature landmarks.
When we then got asked to help out with the new mantis home, we quickly come to the conclusion that a monster needs an inspiring and iconic domain to fully reach its monster potential.
King Kong had a suitable match in Manhattan and Godzilla had Tokyo as its playground.
So the miniature monster got a miniature metropolis to evoke fear and agony in, without any superhero that stands in its way.


Map showing where some of the souvenir buildings was collected.


The Souvenir CIty comes with a great geometric variety that the praying mantis can make use of in its life.

The Souvenir City provides a variety of geometric forms and materials that suits the different needs and the different events that occurs in the life of a praying mantis. After a couple of weeks of studies, we saw a behavior pattern and that the praying mantis had found some favorite spots in the city already.

Food
The Praying Mantis will be fed mostly with crickets, which have a tendency to climb to the highest points in the city, making it an easy target for the mantis when luring around the spire of the Empire State Building for example.
Sometimes the Mantis will also be fed with bugs found in the client’s house and garden, like spiders and such, which have other hiding techniques than the crickets but still highly attractive as food for the mantis.
These prefer to hide in souvenir buildings with cavities, like the Coliseum and the Pantheon or buildings with dramatic shapes like the Casa da Musica or the CCTV building.

Water
The souvenir buildings where water has a central role, will also have real water in or around them, so the Praying Mantis can drink.
These include the Panama Canal, the Marina Sands Bay Hotel and the Fontana di Trevi for example, as well as many of the souvenir bridges that can be found around the city.

Molting
The Praying Mantis sheds its skin many times during their lifespan, and to do this they need a geometry like the St Louis Arch which suits this aspect perfectly.

Guidance
Many mantis males fly during the night to avoid getting caught by birds and to find less-mobile females to mate.
Some of the souvenir buildings have artificial lights that makes their nocturnal travels easier and that also have the advantage that the light attracts their prey so they can have a night snack.

Mating
The sexual cannibalism that occurs during the mating act is a well-studied, but not completely understood behavior. The male have a much better chance to survive when dismounting the female (this is when the risk of getting eaten is the highest) at the Empire State Building than he would at the Pentagon for example, because of the greater chance for the female to catch a prey at the New York skyscraper than the flat and low lying Washington landmark which hardly sees any critters.

Egg Laying
The female lays between 10 and 400 eggs, depending on the species.
The eggs are capsuled in an egg mass called ootheca and often attached on a rather flat surface, like the just mentioned Pentagon or the St Peter’s square which portico makes a nice protective frame to the ootheca.

The Hatchlings
Apart from the many great landmarks, the Souvenir City also consists of many small souvenir buildings as well, a majority being touristy ceramic cottages from different parts of Europe. These enclaves of smaller conurbations with its many alleys makes a perfect hideout for the baby mantis when they are hatched, so they won’t get eaten right away by their parents. Here they will also find smaller prey that suits the size of their appetite just right.

So now there is a small city in our friend's livingroom, with its own little monster in it.


The praying mantis at the US Capitol Building where she later laid an ootheca.


The primary food has a tendency to seek the highest spots in the Souvenir City making them easy prey for the mantis.




Mantis screening the area from the KL Tower.


Petronas Towers, a great place for the molting phase.


This cardboard version of the Statue of Liberty has many hiding spots for the prey.


But the patience of the Mantis is endless.




The Mantis on her way to the Fontana di Trevi to replenish her water levels.


A habitat worthy a mini-monster.


Souvenir City from above with the mantis at the Statue of Liberty.

Global investigations

The team is temporarily doing architectural research in Panama and Uzbekistan for a couple of weeks. We can be reached via e-mail as usual.

Hideaway Preview

Here is a preview of our latest commission which is a refurbishment of an apartment in central Stockholm that involves certain hidden features
Full coverage of the project will appear later in spring.
/The Management

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More glory for Chop Stick

Chop Stick has been selected as one of the five finalist under the Public category by the readers of Archdaily from close to 3,000 projects and with more than 40,000 nominations.
Its now in the final voting stage and you can vote until 13th of February. Click here to vote!

Korea Media Spree

A small outburst of media requests from particularly South Korea, has led to various publications of visiondivision projects that now can be seen in glossy magazines that are for sale on the streets of Seoul, Busan, Incheon and Daegu for example.
Below are two magazines that you can get your hands on if you are in the area and both have extensive features of Chop Stick.
우리는 거기 우리의 한국어 팬들에게 인사를하고 싶은 말!