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Amazing Door Wows Design Award Judges Before They Even Get Into Houses

BY Cliff KuangWed Nov 25, 2009
At 17 feet high, the door's guts are more complex than a Rube Goldberg machine.

Architectural Review has tapped four projects by young architects in its annual Emerging Architecture Awards. The projects include one gorgeously rustic school in China; a lovely, sylvan research office in Spain; an elegantly minimal friar's quarters in Ireland; and also...a door.

Matharoo Associates

Granted, the door had to be pretty damn cool to win out over entire buildings.

Created by Matharoo Associates for a diamond merchant in India, the door is a whopping 17 feet high and five-and-a-half feet wide, and comprises 40 sections of Burmese teak, each of them nearly a foot thick. Each section revolves around some pretty complex machinery: The door's single pivot hides a counterweight, 80 ball bearings, and 160 pulleys.

But they all work together invisibly. Push on any one plank, and all 40 sections reconfigure themselves into a sinusoidal curve, revealing an opening into the house.

For more pics, check out Architectural Review.

Topics:

Design, Door design, Matharoo Associates, architecture, interior design, Emerging Architecture Awards, Architectural Review, Innovation, Technology, China, Ireland, Spain, India, Design


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Recent Comments | 1 Total

December 6, 2009 at 8:03am by Carl Bailey

I couldn't imagine it's a door. I just thought it's a part of stair inside a house. LOL The design is very appealing. I'm just curious, how many minutes will it take to open the door?

Carl Bailey