Tag Concrete

It isn’t often that you see brutalism as a design style being used outside architecture… but this sculptural speaker is a different beast entirely.

Designed to look like it was chiseled out of actual concrete, “TheSoloist. Sounds.” from Takahiro Miyashita was crafted with the vision of being the absolute centerpiece of your living room. Outwardly, it’s an homage to New York’s Flatiron building, standing at an impressive 43 inches tall with a dizzying amount of detail. Behind that exterior, however, is a 7-speaker setup designed to output a whopping 2000W of audio power, loud enough that its engineers promise “spectacular sound pressure that can be felt directly on the skin.”

Designer: Takahiro Miyashita

Before your ears experience TheSoloist. Sounds.’s audio, your eyes are treated to one of the most beautiful speakers they’ll ever see. Now in the realm of speaker design, TheSoloist. Sounds. is far from traditional. It doesn’t boast your standard acoustic chamber, audio grill, or showcase the drivers. It looks entirely like an artistic representation of New York’s architecture emerging from a block of concrete, but under that facade hides all of the audio magic. The sculpture can be split into two halves, the upper chiseled section and the lower, which arguably house the mid/high, and the woofer drivers respectively.

The lower section sports two 6.5″ woofers, while the upper part of the speaker houses two 3″ mid-range and three 1″ tweeters, covering a frequency range of 20Hz ~ 25KHz. The speaker pulls 2000W of power, and outputs an impressive 110dB of audio. The entire unit comes crafted from faux concrete, weighing 55lb (24.9 kilograms)… which does feel deceptively light for its nearly 4-foot stature.

Recreated for a second edition after the first one sold out, TheSoloist. Sounds. sports an eye-watering $$6,345.32 price tag… but that makes sense just given the amount of effort and intricate detail that went into the exterior as well as its inner hardware. That being said, TheSoloist. Sounds. isn’t for the discerning audiophile. It’s made for people who want an expressive statement piece to dominate their interior spaces – something this brutalist speaker does exceedingly well!

Canadian designer Omer Arbel recently unveiled his latest project – a beautiful family home in a lush green hayfield in the Canadian Pacific Northwest. Named 75.9, the home is built using concrete, intricately and interestingly, featuring monumental trumpet-shaped columns. When it comes to creating structures, Arbel prefers to release control and allows the materials to take over, and naturally create the form, resulting in a mesmerizing interplay of materials and contemporary architecture.

Designer: Omer Arbel

“For 15 years, we’ve developed a method of working with materials at the scale of an object,” said Arbel. “This is the first project where we’ve had the opportunity to apply that same methodology at the scale of architecture.”  The home is constructed by pouring concrete inside the columns. The columns are fabric formed with radiating ribs. A structure like this had never been constructed, hence the client only allowed Arbel to complete the entire home around the foundation, once the first column had been successfully installed.

The impressive concrete columns are the major elements of the home and lead to the creation of large and spacious interiors. The living room of the home has been segregated into four double-height volumes that are built using glass and cedar wood. This forms the living room, timber-framed bedrooms, an open-plan kitchen with a dining area, and modern bathrooms. The polished concrete flooring and pillars contrast against the timber furnishings and fixtures, providing a sense of warmth and comfort to the various interior spaces. Pendant lights from Bocci, the lighting company co-founded by Arbel, light up the spaces, illuminating them with subdued elegance.

The interiors are interspersed with large windows that allow natural light to flow in through the entirety of the day. Folding glass windows line one of the walls edging the dining zone, and it can be slid entirely to the side, allowing the space to open up to an adjoining timber outdoor terrace. A landscaped roof tops the home, and it is adorned with Magnolia trees that grow from the hollow tops of columns, allowing the home to effortlessly merge with its natural setting. “The hay field is treated as if it were a carpet, draped over the volumes of the residence in a series of berms, allowing the entire building roof to be traversed from the exterior,” Arbel concludes.

A minimalist and sculptural bridge was recently constructed across the River Vltava in Prague. Designed by architects Petr Tej and Marek Blank in collaboration with engineer Jan Mourek, the bridge spans 300 meters and is meant to resemble marble. The expansive and sleek concrete bridge connects the banks of Prague’s Holešovice and Karlín districts, giving it the nickname HolKa. The structure also includes a ramp to Štvanice – a tiny island that houses a park and sports areas. The bridge is dedicated to the use of pedestrians and cyclists.

Designer: Atelier Bridge Structures and Blank Architekti

Tej and Mourek work together under Atelier Bridge Structures, while Blank is from Blank Architekti. Tej elaborated that both Holešovice and Karlín are two entirely different parts of the city, and the park on Štvanice ensures that urban wilderness and nature are easily accessible to both districts, hence the ramp was incorporated on the bridge. The bridge features a mesmerizing curved design that is marked by a continuous slender beam of white concrete with a subtle H-shaped profile.

The bridge brings to mind the image of a solid white marble sculpture! It is supported by embankment abutments and piers, with a hydraulic system that ensures the bridge can be raised if any flooding occurs. The design of the bridge is reminiscent of the other low-lying bridges you may come across in Prague, which are designed with the intention of minimizing the disruption of the views of the city.

“The silhouette of the bridge reacts to the Prague skyline in particular by the fact that its structure is not high, with no pylons and tie rods that would disturb views of the city,” said Tej. “All Prague bridges are structures with a lower structure, and the choice of full parapet beams responds to parapets on most Prague bridges. The character of the surface should evoke white marble – the bridge should act as a large sculpture in the city, a white, minimalist line,” he concluded.

The sides of the bridge are marked with fluted metal handrails, that finish at the end with bronze animal sculptures – making a reference to the history of the place. A sculpture called The River by Jan Hendrych is also placed at the foot of the ramp on Štvanice.

“The animal motifs are actually a kind of monument to the animals that suffered on different sides of the bridge. There was a cavalry regiment on the Karlín side, hence the horses, hare hunts were held on Štvanice island, hence the hares and the market area in Holešovice was originally used as a slaughterhouse, hence the bulls,” said Tej.