travel with frank gehry

1111 Lincoln Road by Herzog & de Meuron

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:48:00 +0000

Herzog & de Meuron have produced not a new cultural behemoth but a strange sculptural structure, reviving the idea of the car park as a figure in the city.

1111 Lincoln Road

Design Team: Herzog & de Meuron

Location: Miami, USA

Status: Completed 2010

Multistorey carpark is always synonymous with paranoid, corrupt dystopia & denied its own architectural expression and buried - beneath the ground, unseen, uncelebrated, a poorly-lit, dirty secret. However, the latest building (carpark) from Herzog & de Meuron is a surprise to all of us.

Envisioned by developer Robert Wennett and designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the multistorey carpark is part of the 1111 Lincoln Road development. Robert Wennett, has used Miami Beach's parking shortage to smuggle in a layer of retail for which he otherwise would have struggled to get permission. Boutiques and bookshops at ground level establish a pattern of (upmarket) retail for (the now mid-market) Lincoln, while four condos on a new street at the side help with profits, leaving Wennett's own penthouse and a restaurant to occupy the top floor. There is even a shop halfway up the ramps, isolated and intriguing.

A stack of raw, sharply chamfered concrete layers is prised apart by wedge-shaped columns, which wind into each other and draw the eye into the slightly sinister shadows against the vivid blue of the Florida sky. It is almost shocking. As you ascend through the structure, its concrete planes fold themselves beneath you, each level exposing a yet more compelling vantage-point on the surrounding city. At one point a complex tangle of steel by artist Monika Sosnowska turns out also to be a safety feature, stopping kids getting struck beneath the ramp. By the time you reach the top, the city, the sea and the sky twinkle before you in a filmic panorama.

The idea is to create a series of layers that extend the public realm up into the building, to attract events, parties and life into the structure. Both architects and developer see the structure as an experiment in a new kind of downtown transport architecture, a building as exciting to enter as to emerge from, blinking into the Miami sun.

The public street in front of the car park has also been transformed. Artist Dan Graham has built a curvaceous glass pavilion outside. Beside the raw concrete, a gleaming white monolithic block provides one of the very few Swiss avant-garde drive-in banks.

This is not a conventional piece of regeneration, even if it is on a site that frankly needed it. A building dedicated to consumption in every way, most notably to fuel and fashion, it nevertheless becomes a stark and thoughtful reflection on the contemporary city. It strips architecture back to its sinewy muscles and the US city back to its autopianism. The diametric opposite of the sunny, pastel-tinted, much-loved art deco for which the city is known it is a vernacular derived from local conditions - sun, shopping, views and traffic.

via ft

M&G Ricerche by Samyn and Partners

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:45:00 +0000

The building is situated like an island in the middle of a rectangular pool and follows the outline of the foundations of a convent which once occupied this site.

M&G Ricerche Research Laboratory

Design Team: Samyn and Partners

Location: Venafro, Italy

Status: Completed 1991

As chemical industry research laboratory, the centre consists of two areas: a technical area with pilot plants for the development of production and processing methods, and a chemical-physical area with labs for the synthesis and analysis of chemical products. The implementation of these chemical and physical largescale experiments has a varying space requirement which is predictable only with difficulty. From this fact resulted the requirement to create an open, column-free space as large as possible, which at the same time would allow for separate tests to be carried out in smaller protected units.

The site eventually chosen, Venafro in the South of Italy, is a large valley surrounded by hills, fields and traditional buildings.

A light tentlike form appeared from the first sketches and evolved into an almost oval form, 85 m by 32 m, creating a single volume covered with a lightweight 15 m high structure, and supported by symmetrical metal lattice arches held by six longitudinal suspension cables. This space, lit by the translucency of the membrane, as well as by the perimeter steel framed and arched window, is used for both types of research.

The structure is placed in the centre of an oval reflective pool, designed for security, thermal regulation, and to enhance the form and the landscape with its reflections and coolness. The closed research areas as well as the offices are completely air-conditioned.

The membrane is made of PVC coated polyester, stretched between metal arches. At its base, a cable holds the feet to the arches positioned in the pool. The junction between the membrane and the metallic perimeter half-arches is made of a supple transparent PVC material that is fixed into the perimeter of the half-arches and on to the membrane's main suspension cable.

via Samyn and Partners

Pearl Academy of Fashion by morphogenesis

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:16:00 +0000

The building is protected from the environment by a double skin which is derived from a traditional building element called the ‘Jaali’ which is prevalent in Rajasthani architecture.

Pearl Academy of Fashion

Design Team: Morphogenesis

Location: Jaipur, India

Status: Completed 2008

The Pearl Academy of Fashion, Jaipur is designed as a low cost, environmentally sensitive campus, first of its kind in India. The design creates a series of multifunctional spaces which blend the indoors with the outdoors seamlessly. Many elements of this thermally adaptive environment borrow from the tradition of passive cooling techniques prevalent in the hot-dry desert climate of Rajasthan.

Environmental design is also employed as a strategy to lower energy costs in the long run. Passive climate control methods reduce/eliminate the dependence on expensive mechanical cooling and heating methods in a state with scarce resources. The design takes two almost inviolable Rajasthani architectural motifs and gives them a contemporary twist: the stone screen known as the "jaali" and the open-to-sky courtyard.

A double skin based on the 'jaali' acts as a thermal buffer between the building and the surroundings. The density of the perforated outer skin has been derived using computational shadow analysis based on orientation of the façades. The screen situated four feet away from the wall reduces the direct heat gain. Drip channels running along the inner face of the screen allow for passive downdraft evaporative cooling, thus reducing the incident wind temperature.

The traditional courtyards take on amorphous shapes within the regulated form of the cloister-like periphery. The shaded courtyards help control the temperature of internal spaces and open step-wells, while allowing sufficient daylighting inside studios and classrooms. The entire building is raised above the ground. The resultant scooped-out underbelly forms a natural thermal sink by way of a water body. The water body which is fed by the recycled water from the sewage treatment plant helps in the creation of a microclimate through evaporative cooling. This underbelly, which is thermally banked on all sides, serves as a large recreation and exhibition zone. Passive environmental design helps achieve temperatures of about 27 degree Celsius inside the building even when the outside temperatures are at 47 degree Celsius. During the night, when the desert temperature drops, this floor slowly dissipates the heat to the surroundings, keeping the area thermally comfortable.

Materials such as local stone, mosaic flooring with steel, glass and concrete help meet the climatic needs of the region while retaining the progressive design intent, keeping in line with the aims of the institute. It promotes rainwater harvesting and wastewater re-cycling through the use of a sewage treatment plant. While it has become a successful model for cost-effective passive architecture in desert regions, the design and facilities of the campus complement the ideology of the Pearl Academy of Fashion - a cutting edge design institute with a sustainable approach.

via morphogenesis

Safe Haven Bath house by TYIN Tegnestue

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:37:00 +0000

In order to leave the locals useful model for future construction, the project were highly localized, built with the help of locals, using locals materials and based on local traditional methods.

Safe Haven Bath House

Design Team: TYIN Tegnestue

Location: Ban Tha Song Yang, Thailand

Cost: 3300 USD

Status: Completion 2009

TYIN Tegnestue is a non-profit organization working humanitarian through architecture. TYIN is run by five architect students from NTNU and the projects are financed by more than 60 Norwegian companies, as well as private contributions.

The Safe Haven Bath house is a community project done by TYIN for Safe Heaven Orphanage, which is located at Northern Thailand. Safe Heaven Orphanage houses 49 children that is care by a fantastic woman, Tasanee Keereepraneed, a Karen origin. While all the children come from different places, one thing they all have in common is their Karen heritage. ( The Karen or Kayin, are a group of ethnic peoples who reside primarily in southern and southeastern Myanmar. The Karen make up approximately 7 percent of the total Burmese population of approximately 50 million people. A large number of Karen also reside in Thailand, mostly on the Thai-Burmese border. Source: Wikipedia)

The new bathhouse covers basic needs like toilets, personal hygiene and laundry. A simple structure was already built and became the framework for the project.The most intimate functions are located in the two separate parts of plastered concrete blocks. In the central area you find a space for bathing that opens up towards the vast teak plantation. The bathing area is only partly privatized, adapted to Karen culture. A tilted facade of bamboo covers the front of the building and creates a passage, tying the functions together.

A great challenge in this project is that sewage and drainage had to be dealt with on-site and handle large amounts of water during the rainy season. The waste from the toilets passes through pipes into buried. Concrete tanks that are drained from the bottom and sides. Gravel and wooden floors are easy to keep clean and dry, and all wet rooms are drained by using layers of stone and gravel.

The existing sanitary facilities at Safe Haven Orphanage, as well in the district in general, are narrow, dark and have concrete flooring that accumulates water and dirt. With this bathhouse TYIN has tried alternative solutions that hopefully will be an important asset in the future development in the district. The climate of northern Thailand makes good personal hygiene essential to prevent diseases, especially for small children. With this bathhouse TYIN wanted to create well functioning and dignified facility for personal hygiene.

via TYIN Tegnestue

Villa Astrid by Wingardh Arkitektkontor

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 May 2010 12:20:00 +0000

The difficulties of the site, is the oblique angle of the steep cliff to the view, and a huge rock that was incorporated into the design of the resort house.

Villa Astrid

Design Team: Wingardh Arkitektkontor AB

Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Status: Completed 2005

Located at the scenic West Swedish landscape, the Villa Astrid was tucked between two houses and consisted mainly of rugged and fairly steep rock. The detailed plans was dictated by the local building code, which stipulates a maximum 3.5-metre eaves height and a roof slope of 14 to 27 degrees. With the client requirement of a two-storey building, the answer was to sink the upper floor.

Villa Astrid is low and light, standing there beneath a large pine tree at the end of a small lane. There is a car port and a storage room to the left and you enter the building through the only entrance in the otherwise solid gable end. The sunken atrium courtyard makes an astounding impression as you step inside. What appeared to be a low building suddenly becomes three storeys high.

The rock with which it is united is exposed indoors and forms a wall of the deep courtyard admitting daylight to the reception rooms on the ground fl oor. At the same time the social and working rooms on the upper floor focus on the view, imparting a twist to the building – a contrapposto like a human fi gure with the hips and shoulders in slightly different directions.

Villa Astrid has an open-plan kitchen, a separate dining room and a large lounge nestled between the atrium and a sea view with the afternoon sun and sunsets. The latter are the reasons for the twist of the house. At the end of the space, there is a work shelf raised one floor above the cascading rock. The gable end facing the rock is mainly a huge insulated glass window that has been sunken into a seam-drilled slit in the rock. The floor below has two children’s bedrooms, a living room and the parents’ bedroom. Swing-sliding doors and insect-proof ventilation openings provide direct contact with the outside in all these rooms.

The roof is made of cast-in-place concrete, insulated with Foamglas and then clad with metal sheeting. The walls have been built in solid, light-weight concrete, plastered on the inside and outside, and then clad with metal sheeting. The black, pre-patinated, copper sheets will slowly become verdigrised. Released copper ions are bound by limestone gravel around the base of the building. It is pure and requires no maintenance.

via Wingardh Arkitektkontor

Bucky Bar by DUS Architects

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 May 2010 03:00:00 +0000

Bucky Bar is a spontaneous street party, a temporary public building designed by DUS architects. The dome-bar, entirely made of umbrella's, appeared seemingly suddenly out of nowhere on the street around a lamppost in the centre of Rotterdam.

Bucky Bar
Design Team: DUS Architects
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Status: Built 19 Feb 2010, dismantled at 2.00am

Visitors were asked to show up with an umbrella to contribute to the spontaneous building at an outdoor location on a Friday night in Rotterdam, NL. With the help of a team of architects, the umbrellas were then used to build a fully equipped bar, complete with DJ and drinks. Exactly at 10 the party started in full swing, and old and young, architects and coincidental visitors danced together despite the cold. Umbrellas were attached to each other into one big shelter, so even a bit of rain didn't kill the party.

300 people turned up at the event, and just as it began, the beautiful building ended its life spontaneously when the Police showed up at 2:00 AM to ended the party as there was no permit.

The Bucky Bar is part of a series of 5 unsolicited positive advises for the city, that DUS architects in a collaboration with SUA (Studio for Unsolicited Architecture) pasted onto billboards of existing building signs in the centre of Rotterdam.

The Bucky Bar was first in the series and realized on 19 February 2010. A spontaneous public building made from the most common of materials: an umbrella. As Buckminster Fuller showed us how minimal energy domes could open a way to a more environmentally sustainable future, could an umbrella dome lead the way to a more socially sustainable future? The Bucky Bar is a full-scale model of such a future. It shows the power of space for spontaneous gathering, for improvised shelters to host conversations, debates, games or even parties. Quote of the night: "when is the next party?!".

Bucky Bar is a project by the DUS Architects and the Studio for Unsolicited Architecture, produced to coincide with the opening of the Architecture of Consequence exhibition at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi).

via DUS Architects

De Boogjes by Mecanoo Architecten

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:11:00 +0000

The shops also acquire an awning, which at the two ends of the street is raised up vertically in the form of bookends. This serves to create a grouping of the four blocks and enabling the complex to present itself again as a single entity. The two bookends display a changing selection of poems administered by Poetry International Rotterdam, using separate white letters behind glass.

De Boogjes

Design Team: Mecanoo Architecten

Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands

Status: Original building completion 1979; Redevelopment completion 2007

‘De Boogjes’ is a group of buildings designed by the architect Hammel and built in 1979. It is located in the centre of Rotterdam on the Nieuwe Binnenweg and consists of four building blocks comprising shops on the ground floor with three floors of apartments above and the Hotel Emma at the end of the street where it meets the Eendrachtsplein. The four blocks have characteristic arcades at ground level, whereby the shops are set back from the front elevation. These are ‘De Boogjes’ [The Arcades] from which the group of buildings derives its name. Not long after it was built, however, the concept of arcades not only failed to work but even elicited petty crime. The arcades are too low with a large number of columns that are much to wide so as to create uneasiness for the shopping public.

In 2001 the Association of De Boogjes Owners took the initiative to find a solution. Mecanoo decided to demolish the arcades and to bring the storefronts forward by 2.60 metres. The shops in turn gain more window space and the pavement is shifted towards the street. Mecanoo’s design is rendered in highly contrasting materials. The existing complex is built entirely from masonry, concrete ornamentation and wooden window and doorframes. The ceiling of the awning is made of unpainted perforated aluminium panels. The names of the shops are applied to the opal glass on the front of the awning.

via Mecanoo Architecten

House in Romeirão by ARX Portugal Arquitectos

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:21:00 +0000

Our architecture doesn't follow a lexicon or a stabilized language. In every new project we try to find the "vocables" for a specific language to the new context. As in the House in Romeirão, the site's natural beauty dictated the entire house design.

House in Romeirão

Design Team: ARX Portugal Arquitectos

Location: Romeirão, Ericeira, Portugal

Status: Completed 2003

The site has a strong rural character, with small plantations, orchards and pathways limited by roughly made stone property walls and, once in a while, houses, scattered in the landscape. It is a steep slope facing south over the valley, furrowed by a small river and a mountain in the background. While the upper half of the site is ramped, the lower is built in steps. In the transition between both two clear references became the starting point for the project: a walnut tree and a watering tank.

The first site visits immediately suggested a volume lying on the slope, facing the entrance walkway and sheltering the house from the neighbours while opening the interior views to the southern valley. The house develops in an intimate relation with the ground, penetrating it as the slope increases and eventually becoming part of the mountain where one can walk; then it is displaced while descending, reappearing on the slope.

A long volume was then drawn, like a line bent over itself and over the water tank and the tree. Between those elements the primary exterior space was created. Along the house courtyards were excavated building spaces of intimacy and peace, generally lacking in an overexposed context: the entrance courtyard, the guestroom courtyard and the one of the corridor. The edges of this tubular form bifurcate interacting in different ways with the exterior: the end of the main room is narrow and high overlooking the eastern valley; the wide and low end of the living room is suspended over the southern valley.

The private area of the house is serviced by an austere corridor whose ends represent opposite realities: the northern one opens to an intimate courtyard dug on the ground whilst the southern one opens to vast landscape, with the walnut tree in the foreground and the mountain in the distance.

via ARX

Petting Farm by 70F

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 May 2010 16:16:00 +0000

The retreat is a well-crafted structure, with all the design process focus on sustainability, low-impact and off-the-grid design mandate to the site which would precede the design and construction of the house.

Petting Farm
Design Team: 70F Architecture
Location: den Uyl Park, Almere, the Netherlands
Cost: € 150.000
Status: 2008

In the 'den Uyl' park there used to be one petting farm, but it burned down in the early 80's, leaving only its concrete foundation. In 2005, 70F Architecture was commissioned by the municipality of Almere to design a new petting farm on the exact location and the remaining foundation. The building was finally built using almost only sponsored money, and finished late 2008.

The architects designed a wooden box with an open facade system for the upper half of the building, allowing the wind to ventilate the whole farm continuously. Half of the building is stable; the other half consists of toilets, storage and on the second floor an office and storage. The stable itself has no second floor. As you walk lengthways through the building, you will pass the animals that are contained to the left and to the right behind fences. There are no doors in the building, but there are six shutters, two for the public on the short ends of the building and four for the animals, two on either long side of the building. These shutters will open manually or automatically in the morning, reacting on the upcoming sun, as they will close again at the end of the day, when the sun goes down. The animals will easily learn to be inside again on time, if they like. At night, the building becomes a light beacon in the park. One could say that the box, a building extensively reduced in aesthetic violence, wakes up and goes to sleep every day.

via 70f

St. Mary of the Angels Chapel Mecanoo Architecten

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 May 2010 17:27:00 +0000

With its impressive roof, its golden ceiling and wave-like ”moving” wall, the new Rotterdam chapel exhibits the sensual elements of the baroque. The intimate inner room has an aura of contemplative stillness and austerity. The stone foundation walls of the old neo-Gothic chapel form the pedestal for the new building – as a ”footprint” so to speak.

St. Mary of the Angels Chapel

Design Team: Mecanoo Architecten

Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands

Status: Completion July 2001

The Catholic ”St. Lawrence” cemetery was designed by Dutchman H.J. van der Brink and opened in 1865. As in the ”campo santo”, a sacred Italian cemetery, the chapel is situated in the middle of the grounds in the centre of a star-shaped system of paths connecting the graves. However, van der Brink’s chapel, designed in the neo-Gothic style, was unable to withstand the poor soil conditions of the location, and in 1963 the old building was replaced with a new one. The new chapel was erected on top of the original cellar vaults in the form of a copper covered cone. When the old vaults were no longer able to bear the burden, Mecanoo Architecten was commissioned to design the ”chapel of their dreams” in November 1998.

What is the proper form for a new, twenty-first century chapel in a nineteenth-century Roman Catholic cemetery in Rotterdam? Mecanoo’s answer is that it should be timeless – a contemporary structure that looks like a jewel case, an extraordinary building like a precious casket, with beautiful light inside and a shaft of light, and a remarkable roof with a heavenly gold ceiling. The chapel should be designed as part of a ceremony, of a journey undertaken, in this last resting place designed as a campo santo. After entering the chapel the ceremony takes place, after which the procession continues through another door. Indoors the atmosphere must always be intimate regardless of the number of people attending. Finally the chapel is built on a site with a history that needs to remain visible.

The chapel consists of a space without any pillars. The organic form inspires meditation: a continuous curving wall without any windows and apparently without doors, raised 70 centimetres above the ground. The wall is deep blue and contains texts from the Requiem mass in many languages, alluding to the fact that the cemetery is located in a multicultural neighbourhood. The entrance and the exit situated opposite one another form part of the wall and are executed as pivoted doors. The roof floats like a slightly folded sheet of paper over the structure. The golden ceiling is lit from within by a lamp. Light enters the building both through the sheet of glass at the plinth and through the strip under the roof. A shaft of light enters the chapel through an opening in the roof, and is accentuated when incense is burned. In the floor, inlaid stone elements indicate the spots for the congregation and for the priest. The chapel is crowned with a modest bell tower.

The chapel is located centrally in the cemetery. Two previous chapels have stood on this site – a neo-Gothic structure of 1880 and a pyramid-shaped building of 1963. Both structures collapsed due to poor foundations in the soft soil. The new chapel has been given a solid foundation within the bounds of the original chapel. This results in a chapel with a palimpsest-like nature. The ground plan of the first chapel becomes visible in the soil by exposing remains of its wall. The soil is as though it were scratched away after which the new chapel has been planted on its surface.

via Mecanoo Architecten

Villa Chabrey by GD architectes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:04:00 +0000

Sculptured in wood and fitting in with the topography of the orchards, this house reminds the world of a hangar and of a barn. It also preserves the rural characteristics of the surroundings and the organisation of the surface area around the positioning of the space it follows the distinctive typology of a farmhouse.

Villa Chabrey

Design Team: GD Architectes (GeninascaDelefortrie SA Architectes FAS SIA)

Location: Chabrey, Switzerland

Status: Completion 2006

The presence of the cemetery, gardens, meadows, pastures & the lake constituting this site overlooking rolling Chabrey is a living testimony to the history of this village. In this context sensitive location, a modern house has to be build without disturb the balances involved.

Villa Chabrey is an interpretation given to the particular specifications desired, its shape and its materialization. Indeed, this house maintains the typology old farm and proposes its report to the field, the play of its roof and by abstraction of its envelope, a term referring to both the world of shed, barn and landscape.

The house is organized around a central space-kitchen, dining-distributing respectively private area - bedroom, dressing room, office, the board friends, living room and indoor pool. If, in contrast to the traditional cuisine (the fire), distribution space allows a perception of a whole house and offers immediate relation to the landscape, other parts have a more confidential, both in size and framed by their connection to the outside.

This house has two registers of expression-one, outdoor-rough; the other interior-Precious-. This shift is the desire to perpetuate the character of the place where it is part and respond to the desires of the client.

via GD Architectes

Southend Pier by White arkitekter

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:53:00 +0000

A key element of the proposed design is to make sure that the people of Southend use the Pier and take it into their heart. The Pier Head should be a vibrant place filled with activities with a walkable and bikeable street with attractive destinations located every 500 metres.

Southend Pier

Design Team: White Arkitekter, Price & Myers

Location: Essex, south east England, UK

Status: winning design

Teamed up with Price & Myers, White Arkitekter from Sweden won the prestigious competition to redevelop Southend Pier situated on the English Channel and the mouth of the Thames.

Southend Pier was in 2007 voted Pier of the Year and is the longest pier in the world. An iconic pier with its own distinctive character, history and people. One of the main attractions of the Pier is the view of the sea, and in particular, the feeling of being on the sea.

The Pier will be an extension of the High Street’s urban fabric onto the sea. White Arkitekter have proposed a series of destinations starting at Priory Park and ending at the Pier Head, transforming the pleasure pier into an urban pier. The Pier Head designed as a public space functioning like a modern Agora, part theatre, part art space, acting as a vibrant meeting place for both the people of Southendon-Sea and visitors.

The main feature of the new Pier Head design will be an open air theatre with a terraced platform that will create lee, view point and seating for the audience. The outdoor theatre, with the Southend coastline as backdrop, has the capacity of 500 spectators. New buildings - a Culture Centre and a Restaurant - will be built offshore next to the existing Pier Head, creating a balanced enclosure and populated edges around the theatre space.

”The dramatic curving shapes of the buildings are derived from the wind and the waves themselves. This public, yet enclosed, space will be perfectly integrated into the scenery. It will be sculpted by wind and wave”, says landscape architect Niels de Bruin.

Materials will be low maintenance and long-lasting. In this specific setting we prefer materials with an untreated natural finish such as timber, corten steel and glass. These materials will add personality and warmth to the elegantly shaped buildings. The aggressive maritime environment is extremely hard on most traditional building materials and they have to be considered carefully in the design process. All new buildings will be self-sufficient. Energy efficient design and renewable energy sources including wind turbines for electricity, natural ventilation and sea water heat pump, will make it a carbon neutral development.

via White Arkitekter

La Llotja theatre and conference centre by Mecanoo Architecten

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:41:00 +0000

Regarded from the large scale of the region, the building forms a link between the river and the mountain. Viewed from the urban scale, La Llotja and the river form a balanced composition. At street level the cantilevers of La Llotja de Lleida theater and conference centre provide protection from sun and rain.

La Llotja Theatre and Conference Centre

Design Team: Mecanoo Architecten, LABB arquitectura

Location: Lleida, Spain

Status: Completion March 2010

Situated between the seu vella mountain and the segre river, the building design is influenced by its Spanish surroundings with earthen stone cladding and a light bathed interior with vibrantly coloured accents representing the fruits of the region. Sustainable design principles are integrated throughout La Llotja, with a large cantilever for shade and shelter from the rain, photovoltaics, thermal storage and a large roofscaped garden which also provides a city terrace for Lleida’s citizens.

The large stone edifice seems to have sprouted from the Spanish earth. The building’s horizontal form provides a large garden on the roof, while under the cantilevers begins a square for events, with the stairs of the adjacent building serving as a tribune. Parking has been created underground with the loading area for trucks on the ground level, the same level where the theatre stage, dressing rooms and restaurant kitchen are found. Small trucks can load and unload on level -1. In a light court in the centre of the building, a monumental staircase rises from street level to the multifunctional hall on the first floor. A ramp leads on to the foyer on the second level where there is a panoramic window looking out across the city and the river. The entrances to the theatre, which also serve as a large conference hall, meeting rooms and a small conference room are located in the foyer. The latter is visually connected to the multifunctional hall by means of a raked tribune separated by a glass wall. The press office, VIP rooms and a meeting centre are situated on the city side of the building, accessed by an internal corridor. The entire functional logistics for the theatre and the conference centre are situated inconspicuously but extremely functionally. Restaurants with bars are located on the side of La Llotja facing the river and the square.The monolithic building is in fact composed of different pieces of buildings linked together by sound-absorbing foyers.

Materials ensure distinction and orientation in the interior. The exterior is of stone. Inside there are mainly white, plastered walls and either wooden or marble floors. The entrance hall and the multi-functional hall have a marble floor, while the foyer has a floor of mixed hardwood. The theatre has the atmosphere of an orchard with walls of dark wood in which trees of light have been cut out. Thousands of leaves on the ceiling light the hall. The colour palette of fruit is a theme that recurs in small details throughout the building. After all, the region of Lleida is famous for its fruit production. The roof is colourful: pergolas support a range of creepers and climbers like roses, jasmine and ivy. The garden with its mirador is not only pleasant but also useful since the roof cover keeps the building cool in the summer, provides a beautiful view for people living in the neighbourhood and serves an extra place for conference guests to sojourn.

La Llotja is 37,500 m2 with two congress halls (1,000 and 400 seats), the largest functions as a theatre as well, a congress hall with 200 seats, a multifunctional space and a lounge with a view on the old city and on the segre river, 9,500 m2 of parking and a public square of 15,325 m2, mercolleida office and retail of 2,591 m2. building costs amount to 35 million euro.

via Mecanoo

Bornhuetter Hall by LTL Architects

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:07:00 +0000

Wood-clad study nooks cantilever, like box seats, into the theatrical space of the courtyard, producing a dynamic entrance to the building and establishing private study areas in a collective setting.

Bornhuetter Hall

Design Team: LTL Architects

Location: The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio

Status: Completion 2004

LTL’s work with the College of Wooster began in 2001 with an extensive feasibility study of the residential campus plan that culminated in recommendations for substantial changes in the density and configuration of several student halls. Contrary to the prevailing trend at residential colleges toward apartment-style living, extensive discussions with students, residential life staff, and college administration led to the unanticipated conclusion that a double-loaded corridor type actually encourages the greatest degree of socialization and the most positive student experiences.

The success of the double-loaded corridor as a catalyst for college social life is predicated on several important conditions: 1) the scale of the hall unit--the total number of rooms served by a single corridor--should be neither too small nor too large, as this resulted either in isolation or institutional anonymity, 2) the corridor should be wide enough to function as an ad-hoc social space and connect to or incorporate other collective spaces, and 3) the corridor should be integrated with the main circulation paths through the building.

The generative brief for Bornhuetter Hall, a new 47,500 sq. ft. residence hall comprising 185 beds, was derived from this research. Sited on the northern edge of a liberal arts campus, Bornhuetter Hall encourages social interaction by transforming the conventions of the double-loaded corridor and enriches student experience by providing a balance between private spaces for study and public gathering areas for communal life and discussion.

In order to ensure that each hall fosters a sense of community (25-30 students per hall), the building is made of two separate wings, which share a ground floor mechanical system. Within each wing, the hallways flare at their ends and embraces lounges, a kitchenette, and more intimate sitting areas. A collective outdoor courtyard is created by this split. This exterior room functions as the public center of the building. It is an unusual space, simultaneously at the heart of the building and at the ends of each wing. It contains both social and private spaces. It provides a sequence of entry into the building and passage through to a park framed at the rear of the building.

via LTL Architects

National Heritage Museum by Mecanoo Architecten

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:31:00 +0000

A path built of recycled cobblestones leads one past something that looks like a huge boulder, 13 metres high and without any visible entrance.

National Heritage Museum

Design Team: Mecanoo Architecten

Location: Arnhem, Netherlands

Status: Completion 2000

The National Heritage Museum is an open air museum, founded at the beginning of the twentieth century to preserve memories of rural culture and traditional crafts in Holland. In niches in the wooded countryside outside Arnhem, completely furnished farmhouses, shops and workshops from different parts of the country have been brought together. A visit is certainly educational, but today it has to be an attraction as well. To achieve this broader concept a new exhibition building was needed to display the splendid collection, making the museum less dependent on fair weather. With this in mind, Mecanoo has viewed its task as twofold – to provide practical facilities, while also appealing to the public’s imagination.

The landscape was taken as the starting point for the design. In this case this was more or less obvious because it offers possibilities for interventions and also because it is the foundation on which the history of Dutch housing has taken place. In addition, materials with a history have been employed. Cutting across the countryside is a wall, 143 metres long, made of old cobblestones and bricks with different bonds and joint methods. Through the museum gate in this wall one comes to a large airy hall with an outlook to the open air part of the museum. The hall floor undulates with the changing levels of the landscape. The exhibition galleries are located in the lowest floor level. From it a tunnel leads visitors to the interior of the boulder. This is the ‘HollandRama’, a rotating panoramic theatre where a multimedia show brings historic objects to life.

The entrance hall forms the central area of the museum and includes facilities such as toilets, the café and the museum shop. It functions as a link between indoors and outdoors and it also houses the knowledge centre and auditorium, both of which are in keeping with the current trend in museums. The layout of the changing exhibitions and the semi-permanent display of costumes and jewellery from the museum’s own collection also reflect current trends.

via mecanoo

House for Everybody by Kohki Hiranuma Architect

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:01:00 +0000

In trying to create an architectural space that establishes in its environment, the house was design & built with focused on the volumn of the small space in the particular size of its' residents of 150mm height.

House for Everybody

Design Team: Kohki Hiranuma Architect & Associates

Location: Kusatsu City, Shiga, Japan

Status: Completion 2004

This House for Everbody is a three stories house with total floor area of less than 100m2. The site covers a rectangle area of 8m opening by 11m depth, and there was a requirement to prepare a car port on the opening, is on south side of the site, facing to 6m width street. The residents of the house are a family of six contains two household. The family member’s average height is comparatively small that is on 150cm level, so that the point of the project is focused on its volume or height of the small space in the particular human scale, and is required to establish its variation.

With these, the architects was experimenting with ways to root each space in its environment and to redefine the projct identity in response to the unique conditions of house residents.

The requirements from the client and the governing regulations that often bring a difficulty to a small project, and they compose a “condition”. Kohki Hiranuma Architect managed to grasp the achieving point that these “conditions” develop themselves into a “representation” by not receiving them as prejudiced matter but receiving these “conditions” obediently.

The house has won the Grand Design International Architecture Award , England in 2004.

via khaa

Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum by KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:19:00 +0000

The design for the museum was developed with many references to the historic urban environment that surrounds the site. Two u-shaped blocks interlock and refer to the geometry of the surrounding streets.

Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum

Design Team: KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten, Nanjing Kingdom Architecture Design Co.

Location: Nanjing, China

Status: Completion Jan 2010

Located in the cultural center of Nanjing and in the immediate proximity of the historical Presidential Palace of today's provincial capital, the new Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum is one of the most important museums in south-east China. It has space for temporary exhibitions and houses a permanent collection featuring traditional Chinese art. The museum takes up several urban references from its deeply historical location. The main entrance faces the main city square, Daxing Gong Shi Min Square. In addition, the two structures of the Museum that stand at slight angles to one another follow the two flanking thoroughfares: Zhongshan (or Revolution) Road, and Changjiang (or Culture) Road.

The space between the two blocks is a 17-metre-high open plaza inside the building, only covered by a light glass roof. The bright core of the building is surrounded by the massive presence of the two parts containing the museum rooms. One part contains display rooms of different sizes. In the second part, connected by two bridges spanning the glass-covered inner space, the 400 seat auditorium, the training, VIP, conference and office spaces are located. The museum houses a permanent collection of more than 10.000 art works and has additional space for temporary exhibitions.

The travertine natural stone facing with its narrow window indentations obscures the sheer number of storeys and as such reinforces the overall monolithic impression of the museum building. Simultaneously, the alternation between vertical stone panels and window slits with sheet metal jutting out at the sides creates rhythm in the facade.

via KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten

Municipal Theatre and Auditorium by FOA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:17:00 +0000

Given the scarce amount of space in the plot in respect to the required program, the design is to lifts the auditorium from the ground level, letting the plaza penetrate the plot, becoming a foyer that sits beneath the cantilevered mass of the building.

Municipal Theatre and Auditorium
Design Team: Foreign Office Architects
Location: Torrevieja, Spain
Status: Completion 2006

Torrevieja is one of the main tourist towns in south-east Spain, and it is now involved in an ambitious program of infrastructural improvements aimed at raising the profile of the town beyond its current mass tourist destination. This project is the result of a commission to implement a new urban infrastructure, a 650-seat theatre and auditorium, in a corner site inside one of the town centre blocks, and the redevelopment of a neighbouring existing plaza.

The scarce amount of space in the plot made the architects lift the auditorium from the ground level, letting the plaza penetrate the neighboring plot, becoming a foyer that sits underneath the cantilevered mass of the building. The public space becomes an incision into a solid mass, clad in local limestone, which fills the maximum volume allowed on the site, completing the blocks corner. The geometry of the auditorium has been used as the main feature of the cantilevered, stone mass; a reminder of the landscape of limestone quarries that surrounds the town.

The building has been designed as a single container where the proscenium has been made removable, allowing a seamless continuity between the audience, the stage and the scenic tower. This will provide the maximum flexibility of use of the theatre. The interior finish of the room has been designed as a system of folded planes which reflect the sound to provide ideal acoustic conditions, both for theatre and musica (performances. The crystalline geometry of the interior finish and its white color are a reference to the towns trademark salt lakes.

via FOA

Cloud Tower by next-ENTERprise

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:00:00 +0000

The pavilion inserts itself into the landscape and, through its topographical configuration, reinterprets formal elements of the landscape garden — the play with perspective and visual relations, with contraction and expansion, with enclosure and opening.

Cloud Tower/ Wolkenturm Schlosspark Grafenegg
Design Team: next-ENTERprise
Location: Grafenegg, Österreich, Austria
Status: Completion June 2007

In 2007, the centuries-old architectural landscape of Grafenegg was enhanced by the addition of an open-air stage, which slots into the landscaped gardens like a giant pavilion. The building, designed by architects Marie-Therese Harnoncourt and Ernst J. Fuchs of the next-ENTERprise stands in a natural hollow and harmonises perfectly with its surroundings.

The Wolkenturm is a sculpture which ranges a good 15 metres into the sky, level with the tops of the highest trees, and offers an unexpected view from a range of different perspectives. Here, on the eastern side of the park, the viewer finds a reciprocal relationship between culture and nature. Slanting, unaligned windows fill the arena with light and give an impression of natural airiness. From the seating stands, which have space for 1,730 concertgoers, the view is of the historic castle in its romantic setting.

The open-air pavilion is used as a stage during festival season in summer, and as an attraction for excursionists and flaneurs — similar to the gazebos in historical landscape gardens, which were designed as a destination or a stop-over on extended walks.

The 'Schneise' (loosely translated: an incision in the landscape) creates a vista linking the riding school to the 'Black Gate', and serves as an entrance to and a passage through the auditorium area. The staging of views and spatial sequences, the framing and hiding of points of attraction, often achieved by the meandering layout of paths in the traditional landscape garden, is a theme taken up by varying the elevation of the incision to achieve this effects. Coming from the castle, the visitor is enticed to proceed by the silhouette of the 'cloud tower', visible behind the artificial mound. Immersing himself into the incision, he tunnels through the hill and — after passing this deep narrow — enters the wide arena of the auditorium and the stage, the 'cloud tower' of the stage roof suspended above it.

The basic rule of acoustics for open-air stages, 'what you see is what you hear' serves as a cue to explore affinities between perspective and acoustic space. The topography of the existing depression - the 'Große Senke' - is amplified by modeling the terrain. Artificial hillocks are created by further excavating the depression and subsequently redistributing the soil at its perimeter. Clearly distinguished from the natural terrain by their geometry, stage and auditorium nonetheless merge fluidly with the topography of the site. The stage roof is designed as an autonomous, sculptured object. Suspended above the landscape on a level with the tree canopies, it is placed among the groups of trees as if it were one more of them. The shiny metal surface on the outside reflects the sky and the trees, turning into a cloud-tower.

The Wolkenturm was awarded the Building Prize of Lower Austria in 2007.

via next-ENTERprise

Koushu House by Akasaka Shinichiro Atelier

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:36:00 +0000

The Koushu house caughts between two worlds: with noisy bustling road at the front but an haven in the backyard with wetlands, forest and a river running through.

Koushu House

Design Team: Akasaka Shinichiro Atelier

Location: Sapporo, Japan

Status: Completed 2006

The Koushu House is situated at the bustling road that connecting the west district to the south district of Sapporo City. Having this noisy street in the front and residences on both sides, the site locates in an urban environment. Although in the backyard, it holds rich natural aspects, such as wetlands and forest with meandering of the rivers flowing through the area. There is a “gap” between these differences in this surrounding environment. The main theme of this project was to relate the surrounding environment having this “gap”, to the lifestyle of the client ( His hobby is playing contrabass. And his wife’s is playing piano, which she plans to hold a small piano school as her two young daughters grow up and require less care.), and to the internal environment ( noise and heat created inside), within the small budget.

Due to the budget, the house was build in a simplified plan, not by using some equipments or special materials. Shinichiro set an “offensive area” where to have the active relation with the sunlight and the natural environment in a backyard, which is placed in the center of U-shaped “defensive area”. The “offensive area” can be adjusted in its size for the different purposes and seasons, by opening and closing the doors, which are the entrance windbreak sliding doors or the wooden sashes facing the deck. The sunlight comes through the wide opened toplight facing the woods. By opening this toplight, the cool air from the river circulates through the wellholes during the summer.

During the winter, the wellholes are opened and used to heat up the second level only by using the heat from the floor heating on the first level. In the “defensive area”, storages, laundry room, and restroom are located. This area is a buffering zone for the heat environment of the “offensive area”, a tectonic zone where diagonal bracings of the shorter sides in the building gather, and a soundproofing zone that separates the noise from the traffic in front, and also prevents the instrument sound from leaking to neighborhood. The outer wall of a red rust color makes the building and the green in background to stand out from each other by the complementary color effect. The wall also stands out and shows the children “the place to return” in the white background, when the whole area is covered by the snow in the winter time.

via Akasaka Shinichiro Atelier

Bazar Amsterdam by Kossmann.deJong

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:26:00 +0000

A former Buiten-Amstel Church on Albert Cuypmarkt street has been converted into a melting pot of cultures where everyone can come to eat, drink and endlessly look around.

Bazar Amsterdam
Design Team: Kossmann.deJong
Location: De Bazar, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Status: Completion 2005

In addition to its restaurant in Rotterdam, Restaurant Bazar has now also opened its doors in Amsterdam. This time the restaurant is beneath a golden angel in the middle of the Albert Cuyp market, inside a Dutch Reformed church that has fabulous tile murals and 10,001 Arabian lights to complement the cuisine: from Morocco through Turkey, Lebanon through Persia.

A typical Arab market ambience has been created: a lively, busy place, chaotic but always convivial. Different styles converge here in the interior design, personnel and food. The focal point, visible from all sides, is a large round bar situated on the ground floor, comprising refrigerated display cabinets, food cans and old wood. All drinks are served from here and guests can wait here until a table is free. Around this lie different raised floors in various colours, with balustrades of blue glazed openwork stone. These elevated floors create a division into different neighbourhoods, each with its own uniquely different character. These neighbourhoods give the huge ground floor area a certain degree of intimacy.

via Kossmann.deJong

Ikea Restaurante by Estudio Mariscal

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:45:00 +0000

Ikea means a small hill in Basque. To conceptualize the interior decoration of Ikea, the designers imagined it as a restaurant in a farmhouse set on the top of a small hill, surrounded by a forest of beech and oak trees.

Ikea Restaurante
Design Team: Estudio Mariscal
Location: Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Status: Completion 2006

The fact is that the Ikea restaurant in Vitoria is a fairy story house, which is in the middle of a forest of buildings and apartments. After the reform, the forest is experienced inside. Oak and other local woods share the area with warm stone and granite. Unpolished wood and stone, leaving the grains and knots, the cut of the saw on view... Seeking the authenticity of the materials more than the rustic nature they mean.

Oak floorboards on the floor. On the ceiling, a framework of unpolished, cut trunks without seeking perfection, as if they had been hand cut, through which artificial light filters. On the inside walls, panels of different woods on which a mosaic of irregular pieces has been made, in which stone occasionally finds a place. Different varieties of wood, different textures and cuts to provide a primitive sensation in which formal imperfection was simply a quality of the material.

On some of the panels there are crabs, made of fibreglass and illuminated with fibre optics, which provide a contrast and will be a reference to contemporaneity, somewhere between crudeness and sophistication. A kind of metaphor from Jose Ramon Berriozabal's kitchen, who prefers cooking to experimenting, but who does not scorn researching into flavours and including products that do not come out of the traditional recipe book.

As far as the treatment of the space is concerned, the old dividing walls were removed to create light and airy spaces that coexist with other more intimate and welcoming ones, when diners wish to enjoy privacy.

To introduce natural light into the lower ground floor, an English courtyard was created, long and narrow and closed in on one of the sides by a concrete wall which will be covered in plants, while the wall that communicates with the diners has had large windows opened in it.

On the exterior, box hedges will follow the perimeter of the facade.

As an annexe to the restaurant, there is a marquee; a place for holding banquets, which Mariscal has conceived as a "lay cathedral". A structure made of strips of beech wood envelops an interior space and gives it great character.

via Estudio Mariscal

Ílhavo Maritime Museum by ARX

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:32:00 +0000

The building where the museum resides, inaugurated on the 21st of October 2001, is itself a public work of art. Water is visible from all parts of the building, it is a beautiful model of the modern architecture of black and white combination with the volumetric space.

Ílhavo Maritime Museum
Design Team: ARX Portugal Arquitectos
Location: Ílhavo, Portugal
Status: Completed 2002

Created by the Ilhavenses (citizens of Ílhavo) the Museum started as a place of memory and recollections assuming an ethnographic and regional vocation. It was and still is a certification of the strong link between the Ilhavos to the Sea and Ria de Aveiro.

The Museum enlargement and remodelling, done by ARX Portugal Arquitectos, of the brothers Nuno and José Mateus, was a strong impelling element of the Museum´s renovation.

The architects carried out a deep transformation on the existing structure, dignifying the social, economic and cultural importance of fishing while improving the surroundings. The extension and remodeling undertaken were extensive, almost doubling the previous surface area (now 3850m2) and restructuring the layout, installations and image. The existing alignment on the street front was kept intact; the new volume was added inside the plot, creating a new interior garden.

The constraints imposed on the project conditioned the decision to juxtapose volumes while preserving their autonomy. A first element of the project was to rethink the construction and functional elements of the existing structure, to which a narrow wing was added along its entire length to house accesses and the technical infrastructure of the building. The new volumes were anchored onto this wing: the large Sala da Ria; the black slate central tower for temporary exhibitions, enigmatic, floating on water; the administrative block with library and coffee shop.

Ílhavo Maritime Museum was distinguished with the AICA/MC 2002 award of the International Association of the Art Critics of the Portuguese Ministry of Culture.

via ARX

House in Kodaira by Suppose Design Office

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:29:00 +0000

The house keeps private yet it could open to the outside with a tent garden. The tent is coveting the garden as if it was a roof, a wall and a fence. This house dilute the limits between interior & exterior with the reinterpretation of space, lighting conditions, distribution, etc.

House in Kodaira
Design Team: Suppose Design Office
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Status: Completed 2010

Japan-based Suppose Design Office designed this residential project with a unique garden at the front of the house.

The building is located in a residential area in Kodaira-shi, Tokyo. As the client's demands, the architects were building a garden in front of the house to separate the public area and the private building. To create a garden semi private, which could connect outside and inside space gradually, a tent structure was used as a partition to separate the areas.

The sliding doors at the living room, which is placed next to the green area, can connect the two areas, the inside of the house and the outside area, as one space. The tent could offer comfortable green space and also private rooms, which could also open to the outside.

via Suppose Design Office

Oresen house by Akasaka Shinichiro Atelier

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:03:00 +0000

Though at first glance, from the snow-filled surrounding this little house looks as if it is in a suburb of Oslo or Helsinki, it is actually in Japan.

Oresen House
Design Team: Akasaka Shinichiro Atelier
Location: Sapporo, Japan
Status: Completed 2007

Located at the outskirt of Sapporo, in the low-cost housing area facing the moderate slopes stand the Oresen house designed by Akasaka Shinichiro Atelier. Compacted into a tight sloping site, hemmed in by unremarkable houses and further constrained by a limited budget, architect Shinichiro Akasaka deftly transcends these limitations to create a memorable piece of domestic architecture. Based in Sapporo, he clearly understands the local context and climate, allied to a poetic austerity.

Rather than dig into the site, the foundations step down the slope, thus reducing the amount of concrete used. A large, fluid volume contains the living, dining and kitchen positioned at the south-facing top of the slope, with bands of storage, bathrooms and a spinal corridor stepping down gradually across different levels. Spatial permeability is key; there are virtually no internal doors, and instead changes in level demarcate different functions, encouraging a sense of informality and setting up through views. A staircase with an open landing overlooking the living room leads to the upper floor.

Walls and ceilings are entirely lined in a skin of birch plywood, creating the impression of being cocooned in a warm, blond womb. And though the kinked external walls were a response to site conditions and budget, such expediency is dignified and elevated by likening them to traditional Japanese byoubu screens. Covered in gold leaf, these ornate internal freestanding screens were used to reflect and conduct light and so it is with the angled planes of pale plywood. Precisely square windows punched apparently at random into the walls admit daylight and animate the ascetic exterior. The cranked roof profile reprises the byoubu effect, but it is also a response to the direction and intensity of snowfall. Thoughtful in both design and execution, the house is a gently provocative reinterpretation of suburban domesticity.

via Akasaka Shinichiro Atelier