AiLingKwonARCH1390: August 2010

I chosed Javier Senosiain, a Mexican bio-architect from Arquitectura Organica.

Javier Senosiain born in 1948 is a Mexican architect. He is also a member of the movement "organic architecture", a building style that follows the models and patterns of great geniuses like Frank Lloyd Wright, Hundertwasser, Paolo Soleri or Antoni Gaudi, who sought the integration of natural principles of buildings interspersed with plants or animal forms with a purpose : humanize architecture, create lines and shapes as natural as possible, as close to nature. He is currently also a professor of architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. One of his most interesting modern architectural accomplishments is the Nautilus House which he built for a couple with two children. The Organic Nautilus House was built in 2006. The inside decor is all about smooth rounded surfaces, rich colors, and greenery all over the place.

It is an extraordinary giant space age snail. Nautilus is a kind of sea snail with a smooth,coiled and chambered shell. His other great work can be found in this website www.arquitecturaorganica.com

The house above is a blend of modern architecture and contemporary art. The sculptural whimsical house features a striking entry cut into a wall of colorful stained glass. From the outside, it’s enough to draw you in; while inside it casts multi-colored spots of light onto walls. But surprisingly, that’s still not the most unusual feature of the house. This interior “grass carpet” is just amazing, leading residents and guests through a network of stone paths to the various areas of the home. The bathroom is simply amazing. In it, you actually feel like you’re under water with the sandy walls, gorgeous blue tiles and the window overhead. This cool home comes together using “ferrocement constructio,” which involves a frame of steel-reinforced chicken wire covered in a two-inch layer of composite of concrete. Not only is the result beautiful, it’s also earthquake-proof and maintenance-free.

One of his structure which is called The Mushroom built in year 2009 inspired me during progressing my assignment 1 but i'd like to share another building by him which is so bizarre. It is called Quetzalcoatl Nest built in 2005.

(Please click to enlarge picture for clearer view.)

Located on an irregular parcel of land with over 12.36 acres to be covered, the Quetzalcoatl Nest provided many challenges for its Mexican designer. Since the lot was covered with a ravine that had oak trees running the length of the area, the construction of the Quetzalcoatl Serpent proved most difficult especially since the designer wanted to preserve the greens on the property. The solution lay in making use of the slopes and the depressions on the land for designer purposes which left 98% of the land to free space and forests. The remainder of the very flat terrain was utilized for parking purposes which helped in retaining the natural environment and at the same time gave a very modern touch to the architectural project. This home was also featured on an episode of "World Most Extreme Homes".

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