Research Exercise 1 - Design influence

Choosing from one of the given 20 persons/firms was not easy at all. In the end I had to make a descision between Studio Gang Architects, Santiago Calatrava, UNStudio and Coop Himmelblau. All four work with complex shapes and very interesting structures, which were what I was searching for. One particular building that I could not forget while researching the others was the Bengt Sjostrom Starlight Theater by Studio Gang Architects. When I researched more of the theater I learned that the Studio Gang Architects did not originally design the building but were just in charge of refurbishing. I decided to go back to another architect that fascinated me, Ruy Othake.

Chosen person - Ruy Othake

First of all, I like that he works very organic shapes, which I like to become better at. I always think in lines and boxes. From the pictures seen at Google it also looks like he does both beautiful exterior and interior designs which I find very important. I like his use of colors and bold shapes which is hard to ignore if you find them in an urban environment almost no matter which city.

A particular building that I admired was the Hotel Unique based in Sao Paulo.
Pictures of the hotel are seen below (sources beneath them). The hotel reminds meof a horizontal half moon supported by two big plates at each side. The windows are round which I found logical compared to the exterior shape of the building. As seen in picture #1 the rooms are located along the sloping floor, which could mean a lot of wasted space. But as seen in picture #2 the rooms simply have a sloping floor. I find this to be truly unique! This building is very interesting from a structural point of view - because as seen on picture #3 - the ground floor has glass exterior walls which means there must be some serious supports inside the building to maintain this structure. 

   

Picture sources:
https://www.google.com.au/search?rlz=1C1ASUT_enDK485DK485&hl=da&q=hotel+unique+pictures&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.50500085,d.dGI,pv.xjs.s.en_US.ciY8R2R6XC8.O&biw=1745&bih=860&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=XxQDUsGoJYiPkwXS6YH4Cg#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=brsrFc843KlXPM%3A%3B2maA-iTEhsz5lM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwearedevelopment.files.wordpress.com%252F2013%252F03%252Fhotel-unique_1.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwearedevelopment.net%252Fbrazil%252Fgroupe-seb-farewell%252F%3B910%3B606

https://www.google.com.au/search?rlz=1C1ASUT_enDK485DK485&hl=da&q=hotel+unique+pictures&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.50500085,d.dGI,pv.xjs.s.en_US.ciY8R2R6XC8.O&biw=1745&bih=860&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=XxQDUsGoJYiPkwXS6YH4Cg#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=brsrFc843KlXPM%3A%3B2maA-iTEhsz5lM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwearedevelopment.files.wordpress.com%252F2013%252F03%252Fhotel-unique_1.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwearedevelopment.net%252Fbrazil%252Fgroupe-seb-farewell%252F%3B910%3B606

https://www.google.com.au/search?rlz=1C1ASUT_enDK485DK485&hl=da&q=hotel+unique+Sao+paulo+pictures&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&biw=1745&bih=813&bvm=pv.xjs.s.en_US.ciY8R2R6XC8.O&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=zxQDUovBA4LMkAXXqICADg#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=-JOtImCRwR31PM%3A%3BY-8jxQBm96-24M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcdn.luxatic.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F12%252FHotel-Unique-in-Sao-Paulo-5.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fluxatic.com%252Fthe-sophisticated-hotel-unique-in-sao-paulo-brazil%252Fhotel-unique-in-sao-paulo-5%252F%3B970%3B546