Take a look at these tiny kaleidoscopic buildings
New book Nanotecture brings together some of the smallest best built things including these playful creations
The inclusions in our new micro-building book, Nanotecture, might be small, but they are still packed with a full spectrum of colour. Take a look these kaleidoscope-like constructions, all of which are featured in the small but perfectly formed title.
Snowcone (top) was one of the submissions in a competition to enliven the rather utilitarian life guard stations along the edge of Lake Ontario during the winter months. Designed by architectural students Lily Jeon and Diana Koncan from the Ryerson University Department of Architectural Science the small construction was fabricated from steel conduits, nylon zip ties and coloured acrylic.
This multifaceted iridescent pavilion,__ Cityscope__ , by Marco Hemmerling was installed in the forecourt of Cologne Central Station. It is formed from triangular units mounted on an aluminium frame. The angular panes of Cityscope create a kaleidoscopic view of the surrounding environment, challenging the conventional way of looking at the city surrounding us.
Back in 2014__ The Light Cave__ , a radiant, multicoloured elephantine structure by FriendsWithYou, stood outside the Standard Hotel in New York for a month. It was conceived as a fully immersive experience for hotel guests to pass through and for visitors on the nearby High Line to wonder at.
A set of three, bouncy, colourful spatial interventions called__ PlayLAND,__ and including this colourful tunnel, were set up within the public landscape of Paredes de Coura back in 2014. Removed from the usual water-based context, PlayLAND's beach floats serve as a modular construction element that is easily erected and allows the creation of a light, bright structure from functional objects.
Standing in the Royal Danish Library Plaza,__ Kolonihavehus__ is a luminous reinterpretation of traditional Danish garden sheds. Each of the colourful fragments was drawn from local sources in Copenhagen, including an obsolete Perspex distributor and the rubbish bins outside the Danish Architecture Center.
For more beautifully concieved, tiny built things, check out Nanotecture here. Meanwhile, for more small, yet innovative pieces of architecture, also consider Jutaku, which features more than 400 houses - one per page, one image per house - encompassing the sheer volume, variety and novelty of contemporary Japanese residential architecture.