![]() ![]() The 's' designation of this surface light has a discrete 55mm (2.2") in diameter mounting plate designed to be mounted on walls as well as ceilings, with transformers mounted remotely. This surface light has a paintable 115mm (4.5") diameter mounting plate designed to be mounted on walls as well as ceilings. The 'sp' comes with a mounting plate large enough to cover a standard North American junction box. The 's' or 'sp' designation in this variation on the 14 refers to it being surface-mounted. 14 can be hung on a wall or ceiling which allows for a variety of compositional possibilities, ranging from ambient to punctuated dense clusters in specific high profile locations. Individual lights are visually quite subtle, but gain an atmospheric quality when multiplied and clustered in groups. This low-voltage wall- or ceiling-mounted light is a cast glass half sphere with a frosted cylindrical void that houses either a 10-watt xenon or 1.8-watt LED lamp. One can only imagine what new experiments in form will herald its arrival.Cast glass, blown borosilicate glass, braided metal cable But like Arbel’s recent exhibition/intervention at the V&A in London (in September 2022), the 75.9 house renders craftsmanship into performance art.Ī potent blend of alchemy and craft, theatre and cinematographic design, ancient site and contemporary home, 75.9 bodes well for Arbel’s next architectural performance: a home for himself and his family on Vancouver’s waterfront, slated for completion in four years’ time. There is a sense of textile art here, and an architectural weave. A raised slope offers an earthy transition from ground plane to roof, as well as an upper walkway to a private office for the owner.Ĭurvilinear concrete structures wrap the bedrooms like thick draperies in a surprisingly domestic way, while rectilinear cedar-clad boxes punctuated by glazing articulate the upper structure. The windows of a bedroom are met at sill level by a carpet of grass. ![]() Instead, Arbel used the landscape as a building material, wrapping it around the house. Due to a high water table, it wasn’t possible to dig deep into the site. Whatever their inspiration, the four concrete canopies that Arbel calls ‘lily pads’ provide both drama and structural intrigue. They also bear a resemblance to the canopies of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, and even to those of Arthur Erickson’s Filberg House. ![]() The forms also act as planters for trees that add to the topography of the rooflines above, as mediators between earth and sky.Īrbel says he was inspired to create the fluted ‘reverse trumpet forms’ of the four structures that he designed the house around when he witnessed a fresco being restored in an antique shop. Micro perforations in the weave of the fabric release air from the surface of the concrete as it cures.īeyond the science involved, the end result is a striking sculptural form with a richly textured woven finish, rendering concrete almost unrecognisable. Working with engineers Fast + Epp, Chris Wright from Build Wright Construction, and project lead Mark Dennis, Arbel and his team came up with a new method of slow, continuous pour and a special concrete mix allowing it to continuously cure throughout the duration of the pour, avoiding horizontal cold joints. The sag of the hydrostatic pressure of the concrete is what gives it its form.’ With 75.9, he explains, ‘we’ve done that by draping a huge sock over a series of plywood ribs. Says Arbel from his studio in Vancouver’s industrial waterfront district, ‘To bring that ethos to architecture has been a huge challenge in terms of scale, as well as the regulatory layers of engineers and builders.’ Arbel says his goal has been ‘to acknowledge concrete’s plasticity and its fluid nature’ by rejecting the conventional use of it in rectilinear forms, a process he finds ‘wasteful’ as it involves using wooden formwork that is usually discarded. 75.9 is his first architectural great leap forward, bringing the principles embodied in his experiments with materials to a residence (he’s designed buildings before, but never pushing boundaries to this level). His philosophy is to let materials express themselves organically, rather than control them and, to this end, he has created lighting fixtures, jewellery and even candles born of both spontaneous and calculated experiments in his studio. Arbel’s rare architectural offering reads like one of his magical objects for Bocci (his Vancouver- and Berlin-based design and manufacturing company) crafted from his unique design alchemy writ large.
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