Design Ideas

Shelter Design | Winnipeg Skating Shelter | Patkau Architects

2013-01-28T09:53:00.000+08:00

Winnipeg is a city of 600,000 residents located on the Canadian prairie. It is the coldest city of its size outside of Siberia. Winter can last six months. So learning to celebrate winter - learning to take advantage of the opportunities that winter provides - makes sense.

Each shelter is formed of thin, flexible plywood which is given both structure and spatial character through bending/deformation. Skins, made of 2 layers of 3/16th inch thick flexible plywood, are cut in patterns and attached to a timber armature which consists of a triangular base, and wedge shaped spine and ridge members (the ridge is a line to negate the gravity loads of snow). Experiments in our workshop with a full-scale prototype mapped the stresses of bending. Stress points were relieved by a series of cuts and openings. The form of the shelter is a resultant of this process of stressing/deforming and then releasing stress...........more about Winnipeg Skating Shelter

Building Conversion | A church into an auditorium and a multifunctional cultural facility | David Closes Arquitecte

2013-01-27T08:48:00.000+08:00

The project was aimed to convert the church into an auditorium and a multi-functional cultural facility. The intervention has consolidated the church without deleting the process of deterioration and collapse that the building had suffered. The project has maintained the dimensions of the church interior space and, also, the unusual entries of natural light produced by partial roof collapses. Rather than reconstructing the church, the intervention has just consolidated the old fabric distinguishing clearly the new elements executed from the original ones. The renovation carried out allows to read historical wounds and the building's most important spatial values without giving up the use of contemporary language in the new elements introduced in the intervention..........more about the conversion

University Design | UNIFEI | Itabira Campus | Brazil | Gustavo Penna Arquiteto Associados

2012-12-05T09:41:00.001+08:00

The intention is to build a university campus with exceptional quality in terms of infrastructure, integration with Nature and social interaction. In such place, the equipments are instruments for socialization and community life, which gives the place an identity and improves the appropriation of the spaces. The coexistence lounges, for instance, not only stimulate the meeting of people, but also allow for an image of the whole.

The setting of the buildings aims at the maximum sun exposure and the best position relating to the wind and the contour lines, assuring minimum earthworks on the original terrain. In the unbuilt areas, the natural slope will be preserved as conservation areas. The lake will be emphasized in the complex, reinsuring its importance within the institution’s environment......more

Art Gallery Design | Firstsite Contemporary Art | Colchester | United Kingdom |

2012-08-28T14:39:00.000+08:00

As the first effort in the revitalization of Colchester’s historic St. Botolph’s Quarter, firstsite:newsite anchors the long-term development plan of an under-utilized district. Rafael Viñoly Architects won the design competition for this new visual arts facility by expanding on the project brief, which would have destroyed the historic character of St. Anne’s Church. Once the construction site was moved eastward, the new museum was designed to create extra public space and parkland and to maintain and showcase local heritage sites, including early Roman ruins, while making a visually striking architectural statement.

To the north, a crescent-shaped building wraps around an eighteenth-century Victorian garden. The building roof, which slopes slightly upward in line with the site topography, culminates in a monumental portico that frames the lobby with full-height glazing. To the south, the outside arc of the crescent faces a small Victorian garden and an intact Roman wall that defines the site boundary. Modern in both form and cladding (the exterior consists of a distinctive gold-hued skin of copper-and-aluminum alloy panels), the building adopts the site’s axial geometry and the approximate height of the neighboring buildings. A concrete raft foundation allows the structure to rest on the ground and leave buried archaeological remains undisturbed, with no deep excavation required......more

Harbour Terminal Building Design | New Keelung Harbor Terminal Building | Keelung | Taiwan | SDA

2012-08-27T11:47:00.000+08:00

Inspired by the geometric patterns of Taiwanese Hen Cages and the structural shells of luxury racing yachts, the building takes shape in a dynamic gradient form that transitions from exo-skin to exo-skeleton in response to programmatic content as well as performative requirements. Thus, what appears to be formal expression, is actually “informed form” which responds to the integration of weather, urban context, program, circulation, and sustainability through integrated design responses that inform the building orientation, spatial layout, façade design, and choice of material and structural system.

The building program is divided into three primary experience groups and cyclical sequences. These three groups share programmatic overlaps and transitions which allow exchange between groups.......more

Performing Arts Center Design | Monterey Park Performing Arts Center | California | H Architecture

2012-08-26T11:06:00.003+08:00

Monterey Park Performing Arts Center, MPPAC, is a mixed-use arts complex in Monterey Park, California with programs including a 3,000-seat performance hall, 5-star hotel, live/work condos, offices, a revolving restaurant and 400+ underground parking spaces. H’s design redefines the relationship among the performance hall, supporting programs and outdoor landscaped plaza, while articulating the beauty, harmony, and poetic movements from the artistry of diverse performing arts.

An elevated landscaped plaza, free from vehicular disturbance, allows easy pedestrian circulation among the various buildings, which mark the periphery of the site with double-skin mesh membrane exteriors. The continuous curvilinearity in the building placement not only creates a monolithic presence of the complex, but also provides visitors and residents optimum views toward downtown Los Angeles and the surrounding regions.

Also connecting the program is a continuous sloped roof, representing the trajectory gestures of a music conductor, which culminates over the performance hall. An infinity wall between the performing stage and the landscaped plaza transforms the hall into an indoor and outdoor theater offering an innovative audience experience.

Located 8 miles from downtown Los Angeles, MPPAC aims to become a complex which will serve the local Asian community and the southern California area as the epicenter for international pop culture and arts.......more

Stage Design | MTV Music Award | Sydney | Australia | LAVA

2012-06-24T09:51:00.000+08:00

The MTV Music Award stage was a digital design, derived from nature, realised in lightweight fabric, using the latest digital fabrication and engineering techniques, to create more with less. It comprised of 108m3 of space enclosed within a minimal surface area of 568m2 and used only 113kgs of lightweight material.Graphic Designer TOKO and programmer/animator Robyn Pyon developed graphics, which were projected for each musical performance.

Tensile membrane company MakMax developed a unique workflow from digital design to digital fabrication. The installation was fast tracked (5 weeks, 3 hours to install on site) to meet the 2009 MTV Awards Ceremony that was televised to an audience of millions around the globe........more

Cultural Centre Design | The Arch In Mandal | Norway | 3XN

2012-06-17T16:44:00.001+08:00

Historic white wooden houses, charming narrow streets, a river running though the center and beach and forest nearby. The town of Mandal is the essence of southern Norwegian idyll. Danish practice, 3XN, has designed the town's new cultural center, a project which required great sensitivity to the town's special environment.

A House of the People

The cultural center, called “The Arch”, is about creating a common base for the cultural institutions of Mandal. Thus, The Arch contains theater, cinema, concert hall, library, gallery and café, offering activities for all ages of the town's 15,000 inhabitants. “The Arch is a house of the people, so we designed a building that in an elegant and soft motion gathers the town's cultural life, while the modern expression bears witness to a town in development", explains Jan Ammundsen, Partner and Head of Design at 3XN............more

College Design | Sault College | Sault Ste. Marie | Ontario | Canada | Architects Tillmann Ruth Robinson

2012-04-14T09:02:00.000+08:00

For the first time in decades Sault College has added a wholly new academic building to their campus. The project includes a new entry and exhibition hall, 17 classrooms, aviation and natural resource laboratories, a 100-seat lecture hall, and administrative spaces. In addition, 8,000 square feet of interactive learning commons is strategically placed throughout the building to provide much needed flexible and dynamic learning environments for students. Organizing the classrooms and laboratory spaces around shared common areas emphasizes connectivity, community and interaction fostering a sense of identity and belonging.

The project offers a vibrant new architectural vocabulary for the campus. Both modern and natural materials are used to reflect the surrounding geographical context as well as the progressive, forward-thinking vision of the Institution..........more

HotHut | Festival Warming Huts 2012 | Manitoba | Canada | SPMB

2012-04-08T21:45:00.000+08:00

HOTHUT is a project for the Festival Warming Huts v. 2012. The project is a collaboration between Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski and all the students participating in the Superficial Studio, Department of Architecture, University of Manitoba. Superficial Studio is a laboratory to understand the contemporary city, exploring and developing architectures that are critical of the accelerated and often unmeasured urban development. Working collaboratively through analogical models, this vertical studio—composed of both undergraduate and graduate students—proposes alternative hyper-architectures that seek a more balanced, more humanist response for our cities. HotHut is a natural extension of the studio investigation, as we understand the project as a microcosm of the city at large......more

Museum Design | Nebuta House | Aomori | Japan | Molo Design

2012-04-01T19:52:00.009+08:00

Nebuta House is a museum and centre for creative culture in the Northern Japanese city of Aomori. Over the project\’s course, the program evolved from housing and community facilities into a unique cultural building inspired by the craftsmanship and spirit of Aomori\’s Nebuta Festival. The festival, one of Japan\’s largest, is a form of storytelling during which heroes, demons and animals from history and myth come to life as large-scale, paper lanterns (Nebuta) illuminated from within. The building is a house for these mythical creatures, functionally meant to share the tradition, archive the history and nurture the future of this unique cultural art form..........more

Museum Design | Taipei Museum Of Art | Taipei | Taiwan | OTA Plus

2012-03-31T19:18:00.000+08:00

This building proposal challenges the traditional definition of a museum and the conventional relationship between building and site. The ground floor of the building is reduced to a nominal footprint, enclosing only enough space for basic services, structure and ticketing functions. The ground plane is primarily reserved for exterior public space, including an art park, Hall of Fame, and garden walk. The bulk of the program and building mass are split by the open ground floor. Half of the building is coupled with the earth while the other half hovers in the air. The purpose is twofold; to minimize the damaging effects of extreme local weather by harnessing environmental flows toward productive outcomes and to re-conceptualize the identity of a modern art museum. The manicured roof plane of the below ground program is pocketed with water absorbing vegetation and catchment systems, while the hovering museum above expands to form open atriums, allowing diffuse light to brighten the space and passive airflow to comfortably condition the building....more

School Design | MOPI Elementary School | Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | Mareines + Patalano

2012-03-29T14:28:00.014+08:00

The main façade faces a busy avenue that connects Rio's west and north zones. The opposite side of the building overlooks a national forest park with mountains, preceded by single family houses and lots of vegetation. The building was conceived as four separated volumes connected by open balconies and derived from a "U" shaped whole open towards the forest. The two elliptical volumes that faces the avenue contain the main classrooms, while the other two water drops shaped volumes contains secondary spaces such as administration, pedagogic room, art, library, computer classroom and so on...........more

Cultural Centre Design | Ranica | Bergamo | Italy | Paola Giaconia

2012-03-28T14:10:00.008+08:00

The new Cultural Center in Ranica, medieval town near Bergamo in Northern Italy, contains a public library, an auditorium, a kindergarten, and a school for dance and theater.
With its 2.000 square meters, the Center is conceived as a new catalyst of urban life. Not only is the building a laboratory for education and information, but it also becomes a new “piazza” where people can meet and where citizens can reinforce their sense of belonging to their territory.....more

Airport Design | Lleida-Alguaire Airport | Spain | b720 Arquitectos

2012-03-27T12:06:00.012+08:00

The programme includes a terminal building, the control tower and two areas devoted to garages. The project is aimed at joining the three programmes in one look searching for a balance between avoiding the landing of a strange artefact over Lleida countryside and not losing the reference character of the landscape. A big cover simulating a continuous mantle covers the building unifying its different functions and structures, folding up at both sides of the control tower and designing the vertical module........more

Stage Design | Open Air Stage Piberstein | Maria Lankowitz | Austria | Solid Architecture

2012-03-26T11:51:00.000+08:00

Optically and functionally, the 3-dimensional building structure merges with its surrounding, by presenting a multiplicity of different views and connecting terrain and stage towards the swimming lake by means of a stand.
The stage rests on a prefabricated concrete basement housing, apart from a covered access area for the artists, also cloakrooms, rooms for sanitary facilities, showerrooms, a first-aid-room, a room for technical facilities and storage rooms. The stage proper is situated above these ancillary rooms. Two lateral stage towers, with one of them closed and the other one in an opened-up structure, open up the stage towards the natural arena, by being diagonally arranged. At the backside, a stand connects the stage level with the open-air terrain.........more

Visitor Centre Design | Ocean City Visitor Center | Guanzhou | China | Synthesis Design + Architecture

2012-03-24T10:48:00.000+08:00

The design of the Ocean City Visitor Center responds to its beautiful beachfront site by incorporating the fluid language of the ocean, integrating the built mass with the natural landscape, and providing privileged views of the pristine sand beach and the surrounding development of Ocean City. The fluid and dynamic lines created by these natural phenomenon will provide a visual connection between the project, the landscaping, the beach, and the South China Sea.

Rather than consider the visitor center, the tower, and the sculpture plaza as three distinctly separate structure each of them is viewed an articulated moment within a continuous field of flow which visually and literally connects the surrounding buildings, the beach, and the sea. These articulations are merged into a constant morphing, peeling, and blending of the natural topography to form landscape, boardwalk, building, plaza, stair, bridge, portal, and tower.......more

Office Design | H2Office | Smartpark Research and Technology Park | University Of Manitoba | Canada | Cibinel Architects

2012-03-22T12:57:00.014+08:00

By challenging the standard planning principles of the business park subdivision, H2Office is a building that blurs architecture, landscape, water management and sustainability. Early on, development guidelines were pushed with the desire to locate the building closer to the water. In breaking the predefined lot line, the “building as a bridge” emerged, reminiscent of the low horizontal bridges of the Canadian prairie landscape.

The narrow volume, supported on thin columns, draws a prairie datum line across the retention pond, offering abundant natural daylight and expansive views of the landscape. Through clear detailing, the exterior butt-jointed, mirrored glazing allows the building to embed itself in its surroundings, reflecting its modulating landscape........more

Restaurant Design | Yufutoku Restaurant | Tokyo | Japan | ISSHO Architects

2012-03-21T11:46:00.000+08:00

Located in central Tokyo, right around the corner from the major thoroughfare Meguro Street, is a ‘soba’ noodle shop, the owner’s residence situated above. The building has Machiya-style wooden louvers, invoking a traditional Japanese townhouse, but the depth of each louver is varied sequentially across the face. Regionally different patterns of light spill through the façade from the interior, allowing a gradual change of character at dawn, especially as viewed from the main street...........more

The Monueal Headquarter Building | Jeju | South Korea | H Architecture

2012-03-19T12:18:00.006+08:00

The Monueal Headquarter Building in Jeju, South Korea required a futuristic yet practical design that incorporated several programs and different phases of construction.

The unique program included office, research and development, testing facilities, and dormitories. The Jeju context involves a rich cultural heritage as well as a strict code to avoid hindering the image of the beautiful, unique landscapes of the island.

The design stems from analysing the modern sleek products of Monueal as well as the client’s vision of a circular ‘spaceship’ like form. The result is a building shell pivoting around a central outdoor space. Each building revolves around the central space, being planned and developed in phases. The radial form is connected by a Digital Gallery where occupants can experience the Monueal brand and image.......more

Student Services Center | Santa Monica College | Los Angeles | Steinberg Architects

2012-03-18T11:06:00.000+08:00

The new Student Services Center not only consolidates all of Santa Monica College’s major Student Services departments into one location in order to improve access to services and provide an efficiency of common shared spaces. It is also a contemporary architectural statement that resonates with echoes of the campus’s physical setting, evoking images of running water, the nearby cliffs, ocean, and beach. The new facility will also be energy-efficient, easy to maintain and service, and LEED® certified at the Gold level. The streetscape adjacent to the new Student Services Center and existing Drescher Hall along Pico Boulevard will be transformed into a new campus edge.........more

Auditorium Design | Teulada Auditorium |Teulada-Moraira | Alicante | Spain | Francisco Mangado

2012-03-06T09:59:00.006+08:00

Teulada-Moraira is one of those municipalities divided into two separate physical units. It could well have been called ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ Teulada, or ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ Moraira. The built area of Teulada is in the mountain, and that of Moraira is further down, following a valley of some five kilometers along the Mediterranean shores.

The building of the new auditorium acts as a hinge between the two physical areas of the municipality. A reference that allows seeing and being seen from both spots. As far as hall types and complementary uses are concerned, the program is simple........more

Science Centre | Block 39 | Belgrade | Serbia | Eric Owen Moss

2012-03-05T10:24:00.010+08:00

The competition site area is on Block 39 in New Belgrade. Block 39 is roughly 350 meters by 350 meters and will become a science and arts campus.
The new Centre for the Promotion of Science building is conceived as a flexible elongated circulation/exhibition space. The building wraps around three existing depressions on the land. These depressions are then transformed into outdoor exhibition areas and a pond adjacent to the south entrance to the building.
Pedestrian paths run from north-to-south and east-to-west connecting the building to bus stops on the surrounding streets. Pedestrians can walk through the north and south lobbies of the new building as they walk across the site. A large plaza adjacent to the only existing hill on the site will become the main gathering space for visitors to the museum and buildings occupants..........more

Headquarters Design | General Society of Authors and Publishers Headquarters | Santiago | Chile | Ensamble

2012-03-04T09:58:00.012+08:00

The SGAE (General Society of Authors and Publishers) Central Office in Santiago de Compostela, is located in Vista Alegre property, a privileged site with intermediate scale between a private garden and a public green area, from where the skyline of the historical city can be glimpsed. The project for the development of the plot was designed by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, and contemplated the construction of a series of buildings with academic purpose, most of them already built. The SGAE Central Office situated in the west limit of the site completes the intervention in Vista Alegre and defines its boundaries.

The architectural conception of the building incorporates the spirit of the city of Santiago developing a singular identity and entering a dialog with the history and memory of the place, as well as a close relationship with contemporary artistic language.

The program includes not only social activities for the attendance of authors and publishers, but also a wide range of public cultural activities. It is divided into four functional areas distributed in four levels respectively: Diffusion, Formation, Public Area and Management, with accesses from the garden and the street. Three thousand square metres in total constructed to serve the city and its artists...........more

Sports Hall Design | Podčetrtek Sports Hall | Podčetrtek | Slovenia | Enota

2012-03-03T15:17:00.014+08:00

The municipal sports hall is located at the main road to Podčetrtek near Terme Olimia spa resort. It is located
directly by the road, behind the existing roadside dyke.
The main entrance itself is facing the road and is accessible via a connecting path between two driveways
at the extreme points of the dyke. Due to its size, which greatly exceeds the outlay of traditional constructions, it is impossible to look for similarities with indigenous surrounding architecture,but it seems logical to seek the design resemblances with larger facilities of the thermal complex. Especially the Termalija building, which is also located directly by the regional road. A specific dialogue is established between the two facilities. Termalija on one hand appears empty, light and colorful - almost playful, the municipal sports center on the other hand acts rather serious - as a full, heavy, monolithic structure.
Its incidence is, to some extent, connected with the role and purpose it aspires to have in the city. Podčetrtek is a small town, and the new sports hall represents the single local indoor venue. Although primarily intended for sports activities, the main municipal hall will be also used for cultural events with larger number of visitors. It is this dual role that defines the platform for the specific design of the building. Its primary design element is a "red carpet", which leads visitors to the events in the building. The pathway that connects both driveways on
the two extreme points is carved into the existing dyke........more