Arch Daily

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• Residential House Cologne Hahnwald / Corneille Uedingslohmann Architekten
• AD Classics: The Parthenon / Ictinus and Callicrates
• Latvian Museum of Art / Processoffice and Andrius Skiezgelas Architecture
• Recreational Community Center Châtelaine – Balexert / STENDARDO MENNINGEN ARCHITECTES
• B’ house / 100 A associates
• Arrow Factory Hutong Media & Culture Creative Space / META Studio
• DSSI Elementary School Renovation / Daniel Valle
• Malvern House 01 / Dan Webster Architecture
• Winners Revealed in Competition to Redesign Mumbai’s Maharashtra Nature Park
• Stinson Beach Lagoon / Turnbull Griffin Haesloop Architects
• Morphosis Architects' U.S. Embassy in Beirut Gets 2023 Completion Date
• Evergreen Line Stations / Perkins+Will
• SOM, LMN Architects Among Winners of AIA Urban Design Honor Awards
• Five Terraces and a Garden / corpo atelier
• Emilio Ambasz: “I Detest Writing Theories, I Prefer Writing Fables”
• Villa Holtet / Atelier Oslo
• Architecture Students: Then Vs Now
• AD Classics: Millennium Dome / Richard Rogers (RSHP)
• White Clouds / POGGI & MORE architecture
• The Unexpected Stories Behind 10 Skyscrapers That Were Actually Built

Residential House Cologne Hahnwald / Corneille Uedingslohmann Architekten Posted: 24 Jan 2017 09:00 PM PST © Michael Neuhaus Architects: Corneille Uedingslohmann Architekten Location: Hahnwald, Köln, Germany Architects In Charge: Yves Corneille, Peter Uedingslohmann Area: 266.0 m2 Project Year: 2016 Photographs: Michael Neuhaus Swimming Pool: KWS Schwimmbadanlagen GmbH Germany © Michael Neuhaus From the architect. The original planning brief foresaw an adaptation of the existing house, which was inhabited by the building owner at the time. The home owner's driving aspiration for the project was the integration of a swimming pool with a visual relationship to the outside. After many design variations and the exhaustion of all building parameters it became clear this would not be feasible within the constraints of the old house. However the strong desire for a private swimming pool remained, leading the owner to the courageous decision to tear down the original house and build new in order to realize their ideas.   © Michael Neuhaus 'House for a swimming pool': the new building was designed for and around the desired swimming pool. Further complicating the design was the development of a structure that would fit within the restrictive polygonal plot while respecting the given lines of the street and neighboring homes.  The resulting diamond-shaped shell responds precisely to these parameters while exploiting the spatial possibilities of the pointed piece of land it occupies. Sections The unique architecture is defined by an off-setting of the upper floor plate which provides visual momentum for the massive building and generates the desired terraces using the ensuing overhangs. The greatest challenge for the planning as well as for construction was incorporating the swimming pool into the top floor. This was only possible thanks to an intensive study of this core theme. The large amount of area which a swimming pool requires inevitably reduced the scope available for the remaining living areas. An open floor plan works against this, achieving much within the relatively little space without compromising the feeling of spaciousness. Flowing interiors and seamless room transitions, as well as the installation of an elevator, resulted in an accessible living area, suitable for the special needs of seniors, without considerable extra effort or advanced planning measures.  © Michael Neuhaus This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

AD Classics: The Parthenon / Ictinus and Callicrates Posted: 24 Jan 2017 08:00 PM PST The Acropolis, the plateau on which the Parthenon stands, served as a fortified citadel in Athens' Mycenaean past. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user Konstantinos Dafalias (licensed under CC BY 2.0) It is unsurprising that Athens, the city widely considered to be the cradle of Western civilization, would have made as celebrated a contribution to architecture as it has to countless other human pursuits. Built on a hilltop above the contemporary city, the weathered marble complex known as the Acropolis stands as a faded remnant from the former city-state's ancient glory years, surrounded by the products of the centuries that followed. The greatest of these landmarks, the Parthenon, captures an age long past when Athens was the wealthiest and most powerful city-state in Greece and beyond. Courtesy of Flickr user Mitch Allen (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0) Before the Acropolis was a temple complex, it was a city. With three steep sides, the hill could only be accessed from its western end, making it an ideal location for a Mycenaean citadel. The settlement which rose on and around the hilltop, while large enough to merit the construction of a city wall, was relatively obscure until its later inhabitation by the Greeks. In the 8th Century BCE, King Theseus—the man legend would later credit with the defeat of the mythical Minotaur—united the disparate settlements of Attica, the region stretching from the Acropolis and its surroundings south to the port of Piraeus. It was at this point that the already ancient citadel became the center of the Athenian city-state.[1] An invasion by Xerxes of Persia in the 5th Century BC forced the myriad city-states of Ancient Greece to band together for survival. Rising from the ashes of a destructive sacking in 480 BC, Athens led what later became known as the Delian League to victory against its greatest enemy. Over time, the once humble city-state gradually accrued greater wealth and authority in the League until it was deemed the "first among equals." In 454 BC, the transferral of the Delian League's treasury—a communal savings intended for expenditure on the safety and security of all members—to Athens allowed Pericles, noted statesman and de facto leader of the city, to divert the funds toward the rebuilding of the ruined Acropolis.[2] An artistic reconstruction of the Parthenon as it appeared in the Fifth Century BC; while the temple is an austere monochrome today, it was originally embellished with bright red, blue, and golden paints. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user CircaSassy (Public Domain) The greatest of the monuments erected under Pericles' ambitious building scheme is the Parthenon, the temple dedicated to Athena – the patron deity from whom Athens derives its name. Its position on the southern flank of the Acropolis, as well as its size and the brightness of its marble, make it the most visually prominent structure in the entire complex. However, the Parthenon did not merely stand out amongst its immediate neighbors, but as what many consider to be the master work of Classical Doric architecture. With the political power of Pericles and the misappropriated funds of the entire Delian League, the enormous temple was constructed in only sixteen years, between 448 and 432 BC.[3] A plan of the Parthenon as it was built; the rectangle inside the cella was the base on which the sculptor Pheidias' enormous likeness of Athena Parthenos once stood. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user Argento (Public Domain) Before the Persian Wars, the precursor to the Parthenon had been a standard Doric temple with six columns supporting its front façade, essentially indistinguishable from any of its contemporaries (including a neighboring structure on the Acropolis itself). The Periclean replacement which stands today, as developed by the architect Ictinus, swelled in size and grandeur and, thanks to landscaping, was placed upon a literal pedestal. It features a then-unprecedented total of eight columns lining its forward and rear façades; the north and south of the temple feature seventeen columns each. Spanning the columns was an unadorned architrave, topped by a frieze which featured alternating decorations of triglyphs and metopes around its perimeter. Pediments with lavish sculpture work depicting the legendary history of Attica crowned the eastern and western façades.[4,5] The Parthenon's columns, following the Doric order, were baseless, fluted, and topped by simple rectangular capitals.[6] That said, and while these details held true to Doric architectural tradition, the overall proportions of the building did not: the columns were unusually slender, an effect heightened by the relatively subdued flare of their capitals. The spacing between the columns exceeded that of previous Doric temples, and with the entablature above situated lower than standard proportions would have dictated, the Parthenon appears less massive than its size would otherwise imply.[7] The Parthenon's columns, being narrower than typical Doric proportions dictated, served to reduce the bulk of the temple and make it appear more airy and graceful. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user Jebulon (licensed under CC0 1.0) These were not the only irregularities incorporated into the Parthenon's design for the sake of aesthetics. Careful observers may notice that the seemingly straight horizontal lines of the building are in fact slightly warped, rising almost imperceptibly from the corners to the center of each of the temple's four faces. Further investigation reveals that the columns of the peristyle are not perfectly vertical, but lean inward; additionally, those columns that form the corners of the peristyle are approximately two inches thicker than their peers.[8] These features, requiring careful distortion of each column's capital to suit its particular position and rake, cannot be attributed to chance or error. The most common explanation is that these refinements were an attempt to combat the optical illusions that cause truly straight lines to appear slightly curved to the human eye. Vitruvius, who claimed to have access to the original treatise written by Ictinus, not only supported this interpretation, but additionally noted that the thicker columns at the corners were made so in order to prevent their looking thinner than the other columns due to being surrounded by the bright sky behind them instead of the shadows of the temple's interior.[9] An 1871 painting of the ruined Parthenon by Frederic Edwin Church. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user Boo-Boo (Public Domain) Behind the peristyle stood a rectangular walled structure divided into two separate chambers. The larger of these, known as the cella, was fronted by a colonnade of six columns and entered by a single doorway in the eastern end of the building. The interior of the cella, itself divided into three aisles by two additional colonnades, housed a 38 foot (11.6 meter) tall statue of Athena Parthenos, with skin of ivory and flowing garments of gold. It was, in part, the enormous size of this statue that dictated the similarly inflated size of the Parthenon as a whole. With Nike, the female anthropomorphization of victory, in her right hand and a shield bearing reliefs depicting Greek soldiers driving the Amazons out of Athens, the symbolism behind this portrayal of Athena was unmistakable: beyond merely representing the city-state that bore her name, she was the embodiment of their victory over the 'barbarous' Persians who had leveled her former temples.[10] The west pediment of the reconstruction of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee depicts Athena and Poseidon fighting for the rule of Attica while the other gods look on. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user damian entwistle (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0) Although this was easily the largest sculpture in the Parthenon, it was not made for the admiration or enjoyment of the Athenian people. Indeed, while sacrifices could be offered to Athena in the open space before the temple, worshippers could not enter into the cella itself.[11] Instead, they could view the extensive sculpture work which adorned the exterior of the building. The western pediment depicted Athena and Poseidon battling for the right to rule Attica, flanked by an audience of the other Greek gods; likewise, the metopes along the architrave below depicted men, gods, and mythical creatures locked in eternal combat with one another.[12] Behind the outer peristyle, the Ionic frieze portrays the entirety of the Panathenaic Procession, which took place every four years in Athens' ancient history. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user Marcus Cyron (licensed under CC BY 2.0) Lining the Parthenon's interior walls was a second frieze depicting the Panathenaic Procession, a cavalcade and festival every four years which ran from the city gates through the agora to the Acropolis itself. The frieze, measuring a full 524 feet (159.7 meters) long, did not depict a single moment in the procession, but rather the entirety of the event, from its preparation to its completion.[13] Curiously, this frieze was not designed in the Doric style, but in the Ionic; while the significance behind this stylistic aberration is not definitively known, it is likely that it was a subtle proclamation that Athens was the leader of all the Greek peoples.[14] A 17th century painting by Verneda Giacomo Milheau portraying the Venetian bombardment that all but destroyed the Parthenon in 1687. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user DicoetziBot (Public Domain) Once the Parthenon's structure and the statue of Athena Parthenos were completed in 438 BC, work began on the other new monuments Pericles envisioned for the Acropolis. The remaining sculptural work for the Parthenon itself continued until 432 BC, only a year before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta brought construction to a halt. In the centuries that followed, the Parthenon was repeatedly adapted to service the different religions of those who conquered Greece: initially converted to a church by the Byzantine Empire, it was then transferred to the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages before being turned into a mosque by the Ottoman Empire.[15] Although the marble stonework of the Parthenon had proven its durability against the ravages of time, it was not indestructible. In 1687, Venetian forces laying siege to Athens shelled the ancient city, igniting a powder magazine stored inside the Parthenon. The resulting explosion was catastrophic, obliterating the cella and the elaborate frieze that had adorned its exterior.[16] Attempts by the Venetians to remove statues from the pediments were similarly disastrous, as multiple sculptures fell to the ground and were shattered beyond repair. Most of the remaining statues and reliefs (known as the "Elgin" or "Parthenon Marbles") were later spirited away in the early 19th Century by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Controversially, these pieces are displayed in the British Museum to this day. Meanwhile, the Parthenon itself has since undergone rigorous restoration and preservation work, with much of the damaged peristyle reassembled to give modern visitors a glimpse of the temple's ancient splendor atop the hill where it has stood for over two thousand years.[17] After almost 2,500 years, the Parthenon still stands tall above the city of Athens. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user Aris Gionis (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0) References [1] Kostof, Spiro. A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. p146. [2] Gardner, Helen, Richard G. Tansey, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996. p149. [3] Janson, H. W. History of Art; A Survey of the Major Visual Arts From the Dawn of History to the Present Day. New York: Abrams, 1962. p98. [4] Kostof, p154-155. [5] "Parthenon". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. [access] (accessed January 5, 2017). [6] "Parthenon." [7] Janson, p98-99. [8] Gardner et al, p150. [9] Gardner et al, p150. [10] Gardner et al, p151. [11] Cowan, Henry J., and Trevor Howells. A Guide to the World's Greatest Buildings: Masterpieces of Architecture & Engineering. San Francisco, 2000: Fog City Press. p23. [12] Kostof, p154-155. [13] Kostof, p150-155. [14] Gardner et al, p151. [15] Gardner et al, p148. [16] Cowan and Howells, p23. [17] Gardner et al, p148-151. Architects: Ictinus and Callicrates Location: Athens 105 58, Greece Architect In Charge: Ictinus Architect: Callicrates Sculptor: Pheidias Project Year: 0 Photographs: Courtesy of Flickr user Konstantinos Dafalias (licensed under CC BY 2.0), Courtesy of Flickr user Kristof Verslype (licensed under CC BY 2.0), Courtesy of Flickr user damian entwistle (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0), Courtesy of Flickr user Aris Gionis (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0), Courtesy of Wikimedia user Jebulon (licensed under CC0 1.0), Courtesy of Wikimedia user Boo-Boo (Public Domain), Courtesy of Wikimedia user Marcus Cyron (licensed under CC BY 2.0), Courtesy of Flickr user CircaSassy (Public Domain), Courtesy of Flickr user Mitch Allen (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0), Courtesy of Wikimedia user DicoetziBot (Public Domain), Courtesy of Wikimedia user Argento (Public Domain) This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Latvian Museum of Art / Processoffice and Andrius Skiezgelas Architecture Posted: 24 Jan 2017 07:00 PM PST © Norbert Tukaj Architects: Processoffice and Andrius Skiezgelas Architecture Location: Riga, Latvia Architect In Charge: Vytautas Biekša, Rokas Kilčiauskas, Marius Kanevičius, Andrius Skiezgelas Area: 8249.0 m2 Project Year: 2016 Photographs: Norbert Tukaj Process Office: Vytautas Bieksa, Rokas Kilciauskas, Marius Kanevicius, Giedrius Spogis, Engineers' Office Buve Un Forma: Janis Praulins, Janis Krasts, Kaspars Snore, Olga Opolcenova, Solvita Snore, Maris Gravitis Climate, Water Supply And Sewer Systems: Engineers' office Buve un Forma: Jelena Uspenska, Tatjana Grava, Sergejs Pivovarovs, Rasa Vilka Fire Safety: US&L: Genadijs Kuzmins, Alina Kavalera UG Projekts: Juris Smits Electrical And Low Voltage Systems: Daina-EL: Ingus Mozalevskis, Eduards Lusis, Ilgvars Kozlovs, Viktors Grincuks Lafivents: Andris Krumins, Nikolajs Bogdanovs Telekom Serviss: Igors Musijenko Lighting Consultants: Think Light, Moduls Landscape: Ainavu arhitekti: Daiga Veinberga, Liga Valdmane © Norbert Tukaj Three Aspects of the Reconstruction Strategy for the Building of the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga © Norbert Tukaj Considering the unique architecture of the building, its representational importance and significant contribution to the cultural heritage, the proposed extension strategy is based on: - retention of the existing building capacity and authentic details; © Norbert Tukaj - need for renewal and extension of museum functions in the clearly expressed modern volume and subtle minimal design of the additional spaces; - redesign of the functional strategy of the existing building enabling more efficient use and ergonomic integration of the extension. © Norbert Tukaj Based on the following aspects, we offer a functionally and aesthetically balanced design project for the restoration, reconstruction and extension of the building of the Latvian National Museum of Art preserving the existing building as a historical urban landmark and ensuring its modern functionality. © Norbert Tukaj Aspect of Heritage As the current museum building is regarded a national architectural monument and listed building of the state significance No. 6530, it is one of the most representative architectural objects in Riga. According to the project, its restoration is intended with the maximum preservation of the functional building elements, use of the modern technology and maintenance of the original decorative details. © Norbert Tukaj Aesthetic Aspect To solve the problem of shortage of the exposition space, we offer the adjustment of the existing unused building space, additional functions, as well as formation of new exhibition spaces concentrated in the new extension, which is designed below the ground level. By such placement of the new extension below the ground level it is possible to maximize the preservation of the building as the historical urban landmark. Next to such exceptional position of the museum building, only the neutral concrete courtyard with an amphitheatre in brass is added. Functional Aspect Working on modernization of the museum building, we have concentrated on the development of the functional strategy, also drawing attention to redistribution of space and logical classification, grouping and connection of the existing and future museum premises and functions. In response to the needs of the museum, we have come to the following functional approach: © Norbert Tukaj - Leaving the site free of any new ground-based volumes, we propose to construct the space for temporary exhibitions, storages with restoration workshops and ancillary facilities in the new extension below the ground level. - Above the underground extension, in between the park and museum building, we suggest a square – stylized social space with an outdoor café, video projection, art installations in the open air and other public events. © Norbert Tukaj - The ground floor is adapted for administrative and public functions of the museum - classrooms, cafeteria/ restaurant, conference hall, children's education classes, which can be accessible both, from the street and park side. New stairwell in the central part of the building connects the ground floor with the new extension and the main hall on the first floor. © Norbert Tukaj - In addition to the existing exhibition space in the old building, we propose to use the cupola and part of the currently unused attic as the exposition spaces. To comply with the requirements for the exposition space, we propose to install skylights with natural light control. Section - For convenient and practical use we suggest to redesign the part of the roof in a way that it could accommodate a terrace with picturesque panoramas, while allowing the natural light in on the second floor exhibition galleries through the original skylights. The impressive cupola space could be used for temporary installations and for access to the roof terrace  © Norbert Tukaj Exposed Archives and Workshops The new extension is clearly distinguished from the historic building and hosts primarily the technical and ancillary premises of the museum.  Walking through the public access loop (the entrance ramp) to the exposition halls visitors can observe the previously and traditionally invisible inner premises of the museum, such as archives of art collections. The restoration workshops can be observed both, from the exhibition hall in the glass covered atrium and from above, while walking on the glass floor. The large 12,0 x 3,5m lifting platform for exhibition delivery transport is integrated into the open air patio and provides natural light and occasional view for the visitors in the lobby of the new extension.   © Norbert Tukaj © Norbert Tukaj Public Square Main purpose of the square is to serve as a platform for public gatherings thus extending the museum's possibilities to display art objects. The monolith concrete surface proposed for easier functional use also exposes the iconic shape of the old museum as a sculpture and clearly marks the new volume of the underground museum extension.   Ground Floor In the middle of the square, we propose an amphitheatre with the 9 X 9 m glass covered atrium at the bottom for the visitors to watch through it observing the everyday life of the museum, while also functioning as a skylight for the exhibition space. © Norbert Tukaj This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Recreational Community Center Châtelaine – Balexert / STENDARDO MENNINGEN ARCHITECTES Posted: 24 Jan 2017 06:00 PM PST © Federal studio Architects: STENDARDO MENNINGEN ARCHITECTES Location: Avenue de Châtelaine, 1203 Genève, Switzerland Architect In Charge: Adrien Menningen Area: 300.0 m2 Project Year: 2016 Photographs: Federal studio © Federal studio From the architect. Situated in a slight slope, the building is located in the center of a public park surrounded by several communal buildings. The image of the East entrance of the site has been requalified by the new construction whereas to the West, bleachers connect the building to the new esplanade.  Plan The new community center located in the Châtelaine-Balexert seeks to preserve a logical continuity and preservation of the existing landscape as well as construct synergies with the surrounding buildings. This functional and spatial continuity along with the existing topography allows for an optimal distribution of the project and its spatial requirements. This strategy ensures a balance between the volumetric needs and the shape of the terrain shape forming a direct relationship. © Federal studio The volume of the new community center twists and folds to satisfy the requirements of the site and allows for a natural openness towards the beautiful surrounding landscape.  The new building thus increases the relationship between the interior and exterior by guaranteeing natural light optimal quality of the internal flow and movement.  The spatial distribution expands and is no longer akin to the traditional corridor but becomes a space in its own right allowing for natural interaction. © Federal studio The single-leveled building facilitates the connections and fluidity of the circulation, taking into consideration the needs of people with reduced mobility.  To achieve this, the ground floor has two core areas on either side located at the end of each activity rooms.  © Federal studio The roof of the building has 4 sides. The front cover of the main entrance offers a protected area. Access to the technical rooms located in the basement can be reached from the outside, retaining its functional independence. The office of the educators and community center administrators are located near the entrance. © Federal studio The new structure seeks to reflect a contemporary public building through its articulated volume as well as through its wooden structure. Product Description.- The façade of the building is composed of wood. The old public buildings on the outskirts of the new building are also made of wood. We have therefore chosen a form of continuity with the existing structure but with a contemporary expression.  © Federal studio This strategy enabled to have the wooden structure executed in a workshop while the masonry work took place, resulting in efficient and timely construction of the building.  The choice of the cladding is carried on a raw larch with applied protection with the objective to have the natural wooden grey shade prevail over the artificial grey underneath. This solution avoids differences in shades due to the different orientations of the façades.  © Federal studio Finally, the cladding of the Maison de Quartier is clad with slabs of different thicknesses so as to give a vibration while the pavilion adjacent, serving as a refreshment bar for the summer events, is covered with the same cladding but with an identical thickness, reinforcing are monolithic aspect. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

B’ house / 100 A associates Posted: 24 Jan 2017 02:00 PM PST © Yadah Architects: 100 A associates Location: Guam-ri, Nam-myeon, Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do, South Korea Architects In Charge: Kwang il An, Solha Park Area: 311.0 m2 Project Year: 2016 Photographs: Yadah © Yadah From the architect. There is a small village in Namyangju-si. It is not a large village with large residential houses, but similar to small countryside villages of our childhood memories on holidays. The village isn't occupied by young folk, but with elders. It's not only the elders that make the time pass slowly, but the construction of the buildings may have to do with it. Tired of life's troubles and health, homeowners flock to this village and hope to live with their parents here. © Yadah As we gear towards a residential space project, we aim to give residential space its justice and believe that we must provide different viewpoints than as designers and constructors alone. Because residential spaces are made for and planned by residential owners, it's imperative that we consider their lifestyles, preferences, and backgrounds. In the end, it's the residential owners that will spend the future in these homes, so at 100A we will give up our unnecessary egotism of designers to fulfill the needs of the home owners. © Yadah To achieve this, we try to set up meets with the homeowners at their pesonal locations such as their office or current homes. We are adamant about this in order to have a truthful conversation in a common space the homeowners will be comfortable in. We are also able to observe lighting, furniture, bikes, painting, and other artifacts of their lives to find out more of their lives. © Yadah At the inception of this particular project, we visited the homes of both the resident owner as well as their parents. They were both different in style, but similar in the way they live their day to day lives. Due to the style differences, the owners' house was very simple while the parents' home was very ostentatious, but both were well organized and clean. It was so clean in fact that it was hard to believe that people actually lived there. "The living space is so immaculate, is this a model home?" we asked the homeowner, but she said it was influenced by her mother. Growing up, she was used to seeing how well kept her mother was that if things are not organized, I don't feel comfortable. Come to think of it, the parent's place had only what they essentially needed. Site Plan The 3 main points we focused on this project are: how to maintain the lifestyle of preferences of these two homes, how to mold these two homes naturally, and how to maintain privacy in both homes. The main area of concern was how the interior design will not only keep the styles and preferences intact, but maintain a state of distance and communion. To do this, we kept the lawns in the middle with both the common spaces facing each other. Meanwhile the bedrooms and bathrooms were kept on the further sides of each other. Also, the height distribution between the owners' rooms and parents' rooms are about 1 story apart. Last, the front gate and entrances are connected by a bridge for fairly easy access. © Yadah House no.1 _ minimal & edge 'I'd like our house to be like an art gallery' The residential owners live in all white living space. The living space is also minimalist, so there mustn't be any clutter. With high ceilings (3.5m), long windows seen across a narrow kitchen, wall lighting in bedrooms, the space felt voluminous and open. The sight of their parents' structure seen across the lawn out looking the front window, it was as if their parents' house was another work of art seen from their house. A trapdoor for some privacy was places as well. Adjacent the inner part of the living room was a small room for a bed and closet, and an office for the mother in which gives entry to the bathroom and bedroom. Downstairs is another office in which the husband can use to study and be a big part of his everyday lifestyle. © Yadah House no.2 _ minimal & classic 'I want to bring in my parents' furniture. The furniture must match the interior' There was a lot of thought put into the parents' common space. At the second meeting with the residential owners' parents, the first thing that caught our eyes were the elegant and grandiose furniture they owned. The fitting of this furniture in an apartment didn't quite go hand in hand. It felt as if the furniture is trapped in a small area. The task at hand was to let the beautiful furniture breathe and flow freely in an open space. By adding bold colors, and some finishing touches, the furniture was able to be used to its potential. © Yadah © Yadah First floor's common space was given high ceilings (6m), and dark color finishes were used for the furniture background so that the beautiful designs can be highlighted and notices. The shapes and sizes of the ceiling and living room windows coupled with the location of the long window of the front lawn are within context. The high and tall windows are meant for the two homes to look upon each other with ease. The windows in the kitchen and island kitchen allow for the mother to see the 4 seasons change as if it's an art painting. A crystal chandelier overlooks the dining table in the first floor to add a classical touch and transition to the second floor. The second floor has an office for the father to overlook the lawn as well as guestrooms. © Yadah This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Arrow Factory Hutong Media & Culture Creative Space / META Studio Posted: 24 Jan 2017 12:00 PM PST © Chun Fang Architects: META Studio Location: Beijing, China Design Team: Shuo Wang, Jing Zhang, Yaping Wu Area: 400.0 m2 Project Year: 2014 Photographs: Chun Fang Lighting Consultant: Xiaowei Han © Chun Fang From the architect. The Arrow Factory Hutong Media & Culture Creative Space is symbolically right next to the wall of the Imperial Academy heritage. The site is one the so called "arrow factory"- old warehouses with immense space inside, and the ground floor has already been devided and enclosed as a "Siheyuan" type courtyard, due to the previous hutong re-development. This project is a regeneration-by-intervention, starting from the existing spatial framework, yet aiming at transforming it from a vast empty warehouse to a space that filled with unleashed vitality, for crowds of people from creative cultural industry to gather around and communicate. It will not only offer diverse programs such as: meeting, screening, library, bar, entertainment, co-working…but also become a"collaborative commune"of those who are interested in the innovation of media and culture.  Site Plan Following the old wall of Imperial Academy mottled by hundreds of years of history, the first space you enter is a proper-scaled "siheyuan", reception and meeting rooms unfold around it. If you take the stairway to the deck above, you can actually see the "Biyong"-  the golden-roofed palace hall where the emperor used to give lectures to his students in the Imperial Academy - right in front of you eyes. © Chun Fang In order to fully exploit the height of the space, we added a mezzanine floor for extended program, and leave several voids connecting the double height space. Further more, we have inserted various wood attics (or boxes) into the space, in order to stimulate dynamic communication between the users. Plan If we simply follow the existing open but bland spatial framework, any "creative event"that happens within the huge space would have the danger of falling into a homogeneous setting and lost its focus, that's why numerous "wood attics" are introduced as enabling devices. Activities could now follow different trajectories, unfolding around or within those attics. Once you are inside those small enclosed spaces, you would find many interesting window openings, like view-finders, targeted at specific views, which would re-link different threads of spatial narrative, and therefore, enable the user to experience the un-expected scenarios and exchange their thoughts. © Chun Fang Each Attic has a specific program: display, meeting, library, entertainment, bar…presenting itself in an unique and vivid form. Not only to just express them, each of these exquisite objects also evolves as an enabling device, or a switch that can turn on a tangible narrative experience. In the process of renovation, you may discover some interesting typology of intervention, yet at the end of the day, it all has to be combined with the usage of people. © Chun Fang Section © Chun Fang This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

DSSI Elementary School Renovation / Daniel Valle Posted: 24 Jan 2017 11:00 AM PST © Lee Namsun Architects: Daniel Valle Location: Seoul, South Korea Area: 150.0 m2 Project Year: 2016 Photographs: Lee Namsun From the architect. The project focuses on three main strategies to address the school's requirements: 1. Maximize space. The space was not properly used since the corridor that connects the main door with the other floors was only used sporadically. Diagram 2. Equal size. The two classrooms were very different in form and size due to the plan's layout. The target was to propose a new configuration that gives equal spaces for both. © Lee Namsun 3. Sharing activities. The new school's philosophy has to do with sharing spaces to study and providing diverse number of possibilities to educators to perform new pedagogical practices. The two rooms in the existing condition were duplicating spaces for playing, studying, meeting, sharing, etc. Sketch Sharing spaces and common areas to study can be problematic when other activities or people passing by overlap. Therefore, the design proposed a system that allows both: the possibility to share a common area that at the same time can give certain privacy from others. © Lee Namsun The most significant feature of the new proposal is that the two classrooms are separated by an "exterior" space which is the sharing area. This space is not related to the core of the classroom but, at some times, it becomes part of it. A system of rotational walls will allow this reconfiguration of the space from a smaller concentration-like classroom to a bigger playful-like classroom. The classroom's walls will be storage as well. This will free the main space in the classrooms from obstacles.  The wall is opaque until 1,7m height and glass on the upper part so that we can perceive that we are in a larger space while bringing more natural light to the core of the room. © Lee Namsun This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Malvern House 01 / Dan Webster Architecture Posted: 24 Jan 2017 09:00 AM PST © Jack Lovel Architects: Dan Webster Architecture Location: Malvern VIC 3144, Australia Architect In Charge: Dan Webster Area: 590.0 m2 Project Year: 2016 Photographs: Jack Lovel Landscape Architecture : Nathan Burkett Design Structural Engineer : Marcon Tedesco O'neill Consulting Engineers, Building Surveyor : SWP Partners © Jack Lovel From the architect. This new home is in Malvern, and sits on a tight lane, with small street setbacks to most properties, with a sense of inner city living.  This home replaced a single storey weatherboard miner's cottage, and attempts to provide an improved use of the land, with a two storey home plus a basement. Floor Plan  The clients father was an architect, so the clients did not require any convincing of the importance of engaging an architect, and the value that can be added by working through the design process with one.  The clients were already aware of the softer elements of design – for example, orientation, prevailing winds, natural light and passive solar design.  The ground floor was designed to open its main entertaining and living spaces to the north, creating a sun filled courtyard, perfect for their lifestyle. © Jack Lovel  The street elevation angles away from its neighbour in towards the site, to open up the visual presence of the facade, and not impose on the street.  In a developing pocket in Malvern, the design of this home has taken into consideration the evolving nature and varied styles of residential architecture to its immediate surrounds, proposing a simple but timeless material palette.  © Jack Lovel  Being conscious of the visual bulk of a two storey home in this street was important, so the basement has been used to incorporate more amenity than a typical basement, reducing the program to the first floor, and hence the size of the home above ground.  This also provides greater flexibility for the owners, with multiple zones being created throughout the home for children in late high school and early university.  Floor Plan The street only carries one way traffic, and there is no on street parking, so a single parking space has been provided for casual parking in the front yard.  Cars can pull their noses in under the cantilevered timber clad form, screening the western sun to the casual office space on the stair landing. © Jack Lovel The home was completed in August 2016, since when the clients have moved in, and are living in their home.  The home gives the clients the flexibility they were after, with their three adult children, and the ability for them to have their own separate spaces.  Connectivity between the inside and the outside was really important to the client, which the design caters for.  The courtyard runs down the northern boundary (side), accessible from the master bedroom, kitchen, dining and living areas. © Jack Lovel Product Description. The timber screen to the front of the home, softens the appearance of the front façade, and adds a natural element to the overall composition.  Over time, this timber is going to be left to grey out, so that it suits the overall tones of the rest of the home. One of the challenges with this project was to create a home that looked contemporary and edgy, yet timeless.  The vertical silvertop ash battens achieves the aesthetic required from the front, but also provides a practical screening from the sun for the study.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Winners Revealed in Competition to Redesign Mumbai’s Maharashtra Nature Park Posted: 24 Jan 2017 08:30 AM PST Winner. Image © Sameep Padora & Associates The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has named the winners of an international competition to redesign the city's the Maharashtra Nature Park and the pedestrian/cyclist Bridge over the Mithi River. From 30 multi-discplinary teams from around the world, the expert jury selected a longlist of 8 teams, a 4-team shortlist, 2 finalists, and finally, an overall competition winner. The winning team will now work with the MMRDA to develop their master plan to meet the environmental guidelines and construction regulations required to allow the project to be executed following approval from local authorities. Winner SAMEEP PADORA & ASSOCIATES, DESIGN CELL & RATAN J BATLIBOI CONSULTANTS PVT LTD (Mumbai) with Schlaich Bergermann Partner (Germany) and Ladybird Environmental Consulting LLP Winner. Image © Sameep Padora & Associates Winner. Image © Sameep Padora & Associates Runner-Up TIARSTUDIO (Italy) & ATRIA ARQUITETOS (Brasil) with AFA consult, Mariana Siquera Landscape Architecture, Tasneem Balasinorwala & Ami Matthan Runner-Up. Image © Tiarstudio & ATRIA Arquitetos Runner-Up. Image © Tiarstudio & ATRIA Arquitetos The shortlisted teams included: VIRMUELLER ARCHITECTS (New Delhi) with Aldayjover Arquitectura Y Paisaje; Shaheer Associates, Buro Happold Engineers India Pvt Ltd & Jhaveri Associates STUDIO FOR HABITAT FUTURES PRIVATE LIMITED (New Delhi) with M/s Prabhakar B. Bhagwat; OIKOS; The Ecological Sequestation Trust; Dr Prem Krishna & Paul Malcolm Blanchflower & Paritosh Tyagi Longlisted teams were: GRANT ASSOCIATES (United Kingdom) with Paul Baker; Neil Thomas; Pradeep Sachdeva; Mike Wells & Pankish Goel  THE URBAN PROJECT (Mumbai) with Hrishikesh Phadke; Green Angle; Dr Dattatreya  RACHANA SANSAD ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE (Mumbai) SOMAYA AND KALAPPA CONSULTANTS PVT LTD (Mumbai) with Urbanology; Balmond Studio; ADF (Adao da Fonseca) CONSULTORES; Sunjoy Monga; The Landscape Company; Anuradha Mathur; Dilip Da Cunha & Junya Ishigami + Associates More information on this competition and images from all of the longlisted entries can be found here. News via MMRDA. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Stinson Beach Lagoon / Turnbull Griffin Haesloop Architects Posted: 24 Jan 2017 07:00 AM PST © Shaun Sullivan Photography Architects: Turnbull Griffin Haesloop Architects Location: Stinson Beach, CA 94970, USA Design Team: Mary Griffin, John Kleman, Jerome Christensen, Mayumi Hara, Juliet Hsu, Tory Wolcott Area: 2800.0 ft2 Project Year: 2016 Photographs: Shaun Sullivan Photography Interiors: Cleaveland & Kennedy Design Geotechnical Engineer: Miller Pacific Engineering Group Structural: Fratessa, Forbes & Wong Civil : AYS Engineering Group, Inc. Landscape: Michael Bernsohn General Contractor: Sawyer Construction © Shaun Sullivan Photography From the architect. Located in Stinson Beach, the site offers a southern exposure to the Seadrift Lagoon and a view to the north of the Bolinas Lagoon. This house creates an indoor / outdoor retreat to share with extended family and friends. The house forms a courtyard to the south that captures the sun and blocks the wind. The courtyard also creates privacy for the outdoor deck, fire pit, and hot tub. The living spaces open out to the courtyard while an interior dining bay tips up to capture views of the of the Bolinas Lagoon and Marin Hills.  © Shaun Sullivan Photography Details © Shaun Sullivan Photography The interior of the house was designed to accommodate the owner's art collection. The walls are sheetrock, the ceiling cedar, and the floors a wide board oak. The exterior is vertical board cedar with metal windows and doors. © Shaun Sullivan Photography This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Morphosis Architects' U.S. Embassy in Beirut Gets 2023 Completion Date Posted: 24 Jan 2017 06:20 AM PST View of Beirut overlooking Bernard Khoury Architects' B 018 . Image © Bernard Khoury Architects The U.S. State Department is moving forward with plans for a new Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. After awarding the commission to California architects Morphosis in 2013, the government has now granted the construction contract to to B.L. Harbert of Birmingham, Alabama, willing allow the project to get underway. The State Department announced in a statement: "The multi-building complex will be situated on a 43-acre site in Awkar, near the current U.S. Embassy Compound. The new complex will include a Chancery, a Marine Security Guard Residence, representational and staff housing, facilities for the community and associated support facilities. The project is expected to be ready for occupancy in 2023." Initial visualizations of the  project are expected to be released in the coming weeks. The project represents that latest effort of the Department's Capital Security Construction Program the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, which has completed 133 new diplomatic facilities in the past 18 years, with an additional 52 projects currently in the design stage or under construction. News via U.S. Department of State. Morphosis Architects to Design New U.S. Embassy in Beirut Architecture City Guide: Beirut This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Evergreen Line Stations / Perkins+Will Posted: 24 Jan 2017 05:00 AM PST © Andrew Latreille Architects: Perkins+Will Location: Coquitlam, BC, Canada Architect In Charge: Ryan Bragg Design Team: A. Boivin, L. Briney, J. Doble, J. Ho, A. Knorr, D. Lawson, S. Schou, E. Wolpin Area: 1530.0 m2 Project Year: 2016 Photographs: Andrew Latreille Structural: Reed Jones Christoffersen Mechanical: MMM Group Electrical: Applied Engineering Solutions Civil: MMM Group Code: Sereca Lighting: Total Lighting Solutions Client: SNC-Lavalin © Andrew Latreille From the architect. The Evergreen Line is an 11km extension to Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain system that connects the communities of Coquitlam and Port Moody to Vancouver. Estimated to carry 70,000 people per day by 2021, this extension renders the SkyTrain system the longest fully automated and driverless rapid transit system in the world. © Andrew Latreille Perkins+Will designed two stations, Lincoln and Burquitlam, on the seven-stop line. Continuing the transit station design legacy of Perkins+Will's Vancouver office, the Evergreen stations are an evolution and refinement of principles: simplicity of form, restraint in palette, and clear and legible execution. © Andrew Latreille The stations are designed as a family, united by similarities in structure, glazing and roof elements, enabling a high quality, elegant, and economic station design that prioritizes the riders' experience. © Andrew Latreille Floor Plan © Andrew Latreille The Evergreen stations employ the warmth and expression of wood that has become a signature element of the region's SkyTrain stations. Douglas fir glu-lam planks construct the structural roof deck—allowing for off-site pre-fabrication that reduces costs and improves quality. Short Section Wood roof panels and wind screens are carried by simple, elegant moment frames along the length of the platform, with tall slender steel columns to differentiate spaces for circulation and waiting. These distinctive roofs not only provide weather protection, but also clearly identify the stations as part of the Evergreen Line. © Andrew Latreille The stations are fully glazed to create a feeling of spaciousness with a visual connection to the surrounding area. Other systems employed include common signage, wayfinding, and furniture elements. Each station was conceived of as a catalyst for future development and designed to complement the surrounding neighbourhood and accommodate future retail. © Andrew Latreille Product Description. Douglas fir glulam timber roof panels were used for the station roof construction. The panels were pre-fabricated and delivered to site in lengths of up to 20 meters, allowing for rapid installation. The exposed natural wood finish lends a warmth and unique identity to the station interiors. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

SOM, LMN Architects Among Winners of AIA Urban Design Honor Awards Posted: 24 Jan 2017 04:20 AM PST In addition to the 18 architectural projects selected as recipients of the 2017 Institute Honor Awards, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have also named 5 projects as winners of the 2017 Institute Honor Awards for Regional & Urban Design. Also like the architecture and interiors winners, these 5 awarded projects will be honored at the 2017 AIA National Convention in Orlando. The jury for this award included: Susan Chin, FAIA (Chair), Design Trust for Public Space, New York City; David W. Benn, AIA, Cho Benn Holback + Associates, Inc.; James S. Bershof, FAIA, OZ Architecture; Sheila Kennedy, FAIA, Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Ltd. And Robert L. Ooley, FAIA, Santa Barbara County Government, Office of the County Architect 2017 Institute Honor Awards for Regional & Urban Design Cleveland Civic Core; Cleveland / LMN Architects © LMN Architects Cleveland's civic center is one of the most completely realized examples of the City Beautiful movement in U.S. city planning that flourished during the late 1800s. In 1903, architect/planner Daniel Burnham designed the Mall—a large public park flanked by major civic and government buildings on a bluff above Lake Erie. One hundred years later, the Cleveland Civic Core project continues Burnham's vision while reimagining it for the 21st century, weaving together two public assembly facilities with civic green space to catalyze a dramatic revitalization of the downtown core.  Philadelphia 30th Street Station District Plan; Philadelphia / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill © SOM The master plan for Philadelphia's 30th Street Station District, created through the partnership of Amtrak, Brandywine Realty Trust, Drexel University, PennDOT, and SEPTA, and developed by SOM in association with WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, OLIN, and HR&A Advisors, will realize the long-awaited vision of a mixed-use urban district centered on a vibrant transportation hub. The plan, determined through a broad and inclusive public process, creates a sweeping transformation of the historic station and the 88-acre rail yard it anchors to build a new neighborhood above the district's complex transportation infrastructure.   Reinventing Vilonia; Vilonia, Arkansas / University of Arkansas Community Design Center © University of Arkansas Community Design Center The town of Vilonia was leveled by an EF-4 tornado that killed 11 people in 2014.  The reinvention plan, unanimously adopted by the city council in 2015, is built upon a new strategy to employ underground safe rooms as a municipal planning format that can be transferred to other towns susceptible to tornados. To deal with these issues, the plan calls for the implementation of a "safescape" comprising a modulated system of shipping containers buried underground. By combining the network of safe rooms with a park system and new town loop, residents and visitors will be within a five-minute walk of safety during a tornado. Regeneracion: A vision for the campus and district of the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico / Sasaki Associates © Sasaki Associates "Regeneración", the new Framework Plan for Monterrey Tec's flagship campus rethinks the institution's relationship to its complex urban setting to make a new kind of contribution to the city, the country, and the very nature of higher education in Mexico. Inter-disciplinary learning, mixed-use R&D clusters and cultural facilities are carefully connected to the district by a strong public realm, reinforcing synergies with surrounding neighborhoods. The plan reflects a new pedagogical vision, and sets the stage for continued expansion of the Tec's influence as an engine of innovation and development in Mexico. Rock Chapel Marine; Chelsea, Massachusetts / Landing Studio © Landing Studio A shared-use road-salt transshipment facility and recreation and habitat landscape, Rock Chapel Marine is a new model for the integration of active industrial uses with public access on the working waterfront. Through design, the project interweaves industrial operations with everyday life, making use of the seasonal nature of the salt industry to expand public recreation during the summertime and then return to industrial use in the winter. Structures from the site's former use as an oil terminal are re-appropriated throughout, creating new forms of public engagement with the working waterfront. More information on this year's awards can be found here. News and project descriptions via AIA. Studio Gang, SANAA Among Winners of 2017 AIA Institute Honor Awards This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Five Terraces and a Garden / corpo atelier Posted: 24 Jan 2017 03:00 AM PST © Ricardo Oliveira Alves Architects: Corpo Atelier Location: Vilamoura, 8125 Quarteira, Portugal Architect In Charge: Filipe Paixão Team: Filipe Paixão, Rui Martins Area: 380.0 m2 Project Year: 2015 Photographs: Ricardo Oliveira Alves Constructor: Window to the Future Promoter: Vertigem SA © Ricardo Oliveira Alves Level 1 "O terraço era o prodígio da casa, nele passava o vento. eu começara a descobrir o corpo e tinha a luz por confidente." © Ricardo Oliveira Alves Eugénio de Andrade . Branco no branco contra a obscuridade A golf course is limited by empty plots for detached houses and scattered trees of various types and heights. At the ground level an immense lawn is only interrupted by sandboxes and low vegetation arrangements. Above it, between the foliage of the treetops, we discover the distant views of the ocean (to the South) and the mountain (to the North). © Ricardo Oliveira Alves Five white terraces are stacked to allow us to move vertically and experience these different scales of the surrounding landscape. The voids between them create space for human and vegetal occupation, constantly hidden or revealed, formalizing the illusion of an interior garden or an exterior house. © Ricardo Oliveira Alves This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Emilio Ambasz: “I Detest Writing Theories, I Prefer Writing Fables” Posted: 24 Jan 2017 01:30 AM PST Casa de Retiro Espiritual. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz While many of the pioneers of green architecture could arguably be criticized as technocratic and dry, this has never applied to Emilio Ambasz. His concept of "green over gray" has been pushing the debate around sustainability forwards since the 1970s, but alongside this concept he has developed a critical approach to architectural meaning and form-making which competes with many of architecture's more poetic practitioners. Ahead Vladimir Belogolovsky's upcoming exhibition of Ambasz's work, "Emilio Ambasz: Architecture Toward Nature," which is on show at the Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Center from February 6th – 28th, here Belogolovsky shares his interview with the architect – the latest interview in his "City of Ideas" column. Vladimir Belogolovsky: I read that you knew you wanted to be an architect at an early age and when you were 11, you even dared to propose an exhibition on American architecture in Buenos Aires. What was it that prompted your initial interest in architecture? Emilio Ambasz: I was interested in architecture since I was nine, I think. I am a person of steady ideas. Once I have an idea that's it, I persist. I wanted to become an architect and that led to my applying to Princeton. I sent my application with a wax seal telling them that I went to bed every night with the idea of wanting to be an architect and woke up every morning with this idea… Mycal Cultural and Athletic Center in Shin-Sandra, Japan. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: You worked for Amancio Williams while still at high school because you considered him Argentina's greatest architect of the 20th century. Why do you think so, as he was not among the most prolific builders? EA: No, he was a very prolific designer, but he didn't get many things built because of an immense amount of bad luck. He designed extraordinary buildings, but things happened beyond his control. VB: And you wanted to work for him because... EA: Because I considered him to be a great poet. For me architecture has to do with poetry and art. He was a true artist and that's who I wanted to be. Banca degli Occhi in Venice-Mestre. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: At Princeton, you completed your undergraduate and graduate programs in less than two years... EA: I went to Princeton after having let two years go by after finishing high school. But even before that I smuggled in to attend lectures at the university in Buenos Aires. There were thousands of students and no one paid attention to little me, so I went to as many lectures as I wanted. In addition to that, the American consulate had a very good library in Buenos Aires, called Lincoln Library, which had many honorable books on American architecture, including the book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Latin American Architecture Since 1945. I used to borrow these books so much that when it was time to replace them with new ones, many old books were simply given to me. As a matter of fact, I taught myself English by trying to read Alfred Barr's book Masters of Modern Art. You can blame him for my bad English, as well as for my syntax. [Laughs.] Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: I am still trying to grasp how you graduated from Princeton so fast. When we talked about this a few years ago, you said: "If you don't believe me ask my professor, Peter Eisenman. I did and he confirmed it by saying: "I don't know how Emilio did it, no one else has done it before or since, but he certainly did." So this is established. But if you graduated so fast that means your undergraduate design studios were all packed into a single thesis project? Or did you develop a number of projects? EA: I finished the entire undergraduate program in one semester. During the first semester, I had different design projects every week. Peter was involved in all of them; it was his first year teaching at Princeton. And in the second semester I was taking courses in the Master's program. I had my own program there. At Princeton, you could do that... Well, I should have stayed longer. Then I would have learned something! [Laughs.] Lucille Halsell Conservatory in San Antonio, Texas. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: How would you summarize what you learned from your professors there? EA: The thing I took from Princeton was my deep-seated interest in philosophy, poetry, and history. For that, Princeton was marvelous because in the undergraduate school you could take courses here and there. For example, I had a great professor, Arthur Szathmary who taught philosophy of aesthetics. When I started teaching freshmen, immediately upon graduating from Princeton, my focus was on methodology. I taught them methods for solving problems. Various seemingly disconnected elements had to be connected into a graspable structure. They had to solve the problem at hand. I didn't want to give them real projects from my office or competitions, which was typical for other professors. I was giving students a project and every Friday I would critique it. Then I would ask them to design the same project again and the critique would follow again, and we did this every week. It was the same project, a library. My own thesis project was the National Library of Argentina, but I asked my students to design a library that could be built in any American town. I was interested in seeing how the students could apply themselves and understand a particular problem. I trusted that having understood the nature of a problem and provided an answer to that not only would they gain confidence in themselves but also gain an insight into the nature of problems. There is a marvelous Japanese concept called Yugen. It means that if you gain an insight into the essence of a problem, that insight will help you to understand the nature of other problems. Casa de Retiro Espiritual. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: Your buildings have some features of deconstructivism. They are, in a way, de-constructed. Such is your Casa de Retiro Espiritual house [1975], but in a very controlled way, with a concern for the balance, symmetry, and totality of the overall image. EA: No, I am not a deconstructivist in that sense, not like Eisenman or Libeskind. What I do is that I separate elements and they stand apart from one another in a very clear way. For example, in the Casa de Retiro two freestanding walls define a cube. With very few elements, you can define an edifice. Mycal Cultural and Athletic Center in Shin-Sandra, Japan. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: Could you talk about your 1972 exhibition "Italy: The New Domestic Landscape" and how it relates to your theory of two types of curators – one being a farmer and the other a hunter? EA: The farmer would collect the seeds from this year's harvest and keep them for the next year. The hunter is going around and whatever he finds he hunts. OK? That's me. All right? When I did my shows, I didn't wait for the architects to come to me with their projects. I proposed a problem and with the sponsorship that MoMA could give, I was able to develop projects with the invited architects. In the case of Italy: The New Domestic Landscape I proposed the program to the architects. I invited them to design their projects for the exhibit. None of these projects existed before. The Museum was the patron of these architects. We raised the funds to do that. I am not an art historian, so for me to do an exhibition on existing projects was not interesting. Casa de Retiro Espiritual. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: Let's talk about Luis Barragan, whose solo exhibition you also organized at MoMA in 1976, which was the first exhibition of his work in the US and the exhibit's catalog by you was the first ever monograph on his work. EA: The reason I wanted to do a show on him was because so many architecture students at the time were into ersatz sociology and the results were quite pathetic and lousy. So I wanted them to see a real work of architecture. Barragan's work is not simple. It is very complex, but the elements are easy to comprehend. Yet, they have many meanings. So we did the show projecting beautiful slides on a huge wall of 30 feet across and 20 feet in height in a small room. So the effect was as if you were inside his buildings. We made the slides available to American universities as well. It had an immense effect and I wrote the book. Ospedale dell'Angelo in Venice-Mestre. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: Being the curator at MoMA was just one of your interests. So you did not consider becoming a curator elsewhere after leaving MoMA, right? EA: I didn't want that as a profession, no. I resigned from MoMA when I was in sublime glory there. The Italian show had a marvelous success. We never had so many visitors before. But, the real reason for leaving was my desire to be a practicing architect. VB: Is there a particular design process that you go through in your architectural projects? EA: I detest writing theories. I prefer writing fables. They are metaphors, they are standards for approximation. That's what metaphors are philosophically. A metaphor is a model for approximation. I don't work with words. When I design, I try to remove all words from my mind and I work with images. Because if I work with words I will remain in the semantic domain, which is something already understood. But I am interested in images that come to me without being conscious about them until they simply come. And I am not aware of their meanings until I start thinking. Then I start asking questions. This was the case with my Casa de Retiro house. I could come up with a whole theory about that project, but it came to me as a complete image. I think it is a great tragedy when the word arrives before the image. Casa de Retiro Espiritual. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: You also wanted to be an industrial designer. EA: And the way I did it was very different from anybody else. First, I invent products for myself, without a client's commission. I engineer them. I build the prototypes. I build the machinery to manufacture the pieces. I get the mechanical patents, I don't believe in design patents. Then I bring the finished product to a potential licensee and say: "You have 30 days to say yes or no. If you say no, I will go to your competitor. If you say yes, I can even give you a number of units, so you can test the market. I even have professional photographs and texts already written for the catalog." So if the manufacturer said yes, in six months the product would be on the market. Not 30 months of how it is usually done when everything needs to be designed and developed from scratch. Vertebra Chair. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: And what was your first product? EA: Vertebra chair. I did other products before, but that one was the first realized. It was done the same year I left MoMA. Nothing like that existed before. It became the first ergonomically designed and automatically adjustable chair in the world. We developed and patented it in 1975 and Krueger, the company, introduced it to the public in 1976. Vertebra Chair. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: You once said that you dream of the future where "you can open your door and walk out directly on a garden, regardless of how high your apartment may be... within a high-density city, reconcile our need for building shelters with our emotional requirement for green spaces..." Does this remain a dream or do you think some of the most recent projects in Singapore or your own project in Fukuoka [1994] and elsewhere, perhaps made this dream closer to reality? EA: Well, they are all my children! I did the first vertical garden wall in my ENI Headquarters closed competition project for this Italian petrochemical giant in 1998 in Rome. Jean Nouvel was one of the other two invited competitors, but that competition was suspended... It was about modernizing the existing structure, the first curtain wall building in Italy from the 1960s. Water and wind were filtering in, so they had to change the façades on this 20-story building. My solution was very simple and logical. Instead of using 1.2 meter-wide scaffolding to change the façade, I proposed extending them to 3.6 meters. Then I would put one pane of glass at 1.8 meters from the old glass to stop the wind, the rain, the noise. And the remaining 1.8 meter-wide open part of the scaffolding would carry the plants. I tried to make the oil industry more sensitive to problems of ecological equilibrium. Unfortunately, the man who commissioned it resigned a few days before the jury decision in order to run another corporation, and the one who replaced him didn't want to do anything of that sort. That's the story of the very first vertical garden wall. Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: You once talked about the need for ornament in architecture and by ornament you meant the use of nature quite literally. Could you elaborate on that thought? EA: Well, I think two great traditions in architecture were lost with the modern movement. I think buildings have to be ornamented. And my way of doing it is such that it would contribute to the building's performance. If I am adding leaves and garlands made of marble, I am not contributing anything to the building. But if I add real leaves then not only do I decorate the building with a living and changing ornament, I also add to the building's integrity and performance by providing a barrier from the sun's heat and that's what makes it very useful and practical. I am a very practical person. There is a reason why I designed a diesel engine and other industrial design products. The second forgotten tradition is that which, most likely, came before architecture: that is to say the capacity to invent theatrical stage sets. Two of the earliest examples were, first, the erection of defenses against enemies, and, second, propitiatory constructions such as tombstones of one sort or another to appease and gain the protection of the departed spirits. Ospedale dell'Angelo in Venice-Mestre. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VB: I want to finish our conversation with one of your quotes: "I have always believed that architecture is an act of the myth-making imagination. I believe that the real task of architecture begins once functional and behavioral needs have been satisfied. It is not hunger, but love and fear – and sometimes wonder – which make us create. The architect's cultural and social context changes constantly, but his task, I believe, remains always the same: to give poetic form to the pragmatic." EA: Thank you. I could not have said it better! [Laughs.] Emilio Ambasz. Image Courtesy of Emilio Ambasz VLADIMIR BELOGOLOVSKY is the founder of the New York-based non-profit Curatorial Project. Trained as an architect at Cooper Union in New York, he has written five books, including Conversations with Architects in the Age of Celebrity (DOM, 2015), Harry Seidler: LIFEWORK (Rizzoli, 2014), and Soviet Modernism: 1955-1985 (TATLIN, 2010). Among his numerous exhibitions: Anthony Ames: Object-Type Landscapes at Casa Curutchet, La Plata, Argentina (2015); Colombia: Transformed (American Tour, 2013-15); Harry Seidler: Painting Toward Architecture (world tour since 2012); and Chess Game for Russian Pavilion at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale (2008). Belogolovsky is the American correspondent for Berlin-based architectural journal SPEECH and he has lectured at universities and museums in more than 20 countries. Belogolovsky's column, City of Ideas, introduces ArchDaily's readers to his latest and ongoing conversations with the most innovative architects from around the world. These intimate discussions are a part of the curator's upcoming exhibition with the same title which premiered at the University of Sydney in June 2016. The City of Ideas exhibition will travel to venues around the world to explore ever-evolving content and design. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Villa Holtet / Atelier Oslo Posted: 24 Jan 2017 01:00 AM PST © Gunnar Sørås Architects: Atelier Oslo Location: Oslo, Norway Architects In Charge: Thomas Liu, Nils Ole Brandtzæg, Jonas Norsted, Marius Mowe Area: 600.0 m2 Project Year: 2015 Photographs: Gunnar Sørås, Lars Petter Pettersen © Lars Petter Pettersen From the architect. The starting point for this task was a typical challenge in Oslo: densification in an area of existing single family houses. The plot was a lovely old garden, but a flat terrain and a relatively tight situation gave a limited view. It was important for us to preserve much of the garden for outdoor use, but also as a natural quality to the enjoyment of residents, both outside and inside. Therefore, the ground floor has a relatively limited footprint, while the larger upper floor cantilevers out creating covered outdoor areas. Site Plan The house is broken up into smaller volumes to adapt to the relatively tight situation and the scale of the surrounding buildings.  © Gunnar Sørås As an addition to the garden, and as compensation for the reduced view, the project creates an inner landscape, a sequence of rooms with varying scale and use, different degrees of transparency and privacy, changing views and light conditions. The central double height living room is the heart of the house and connects all the rooms and areas. The room is surrounded in first floor by lobby, kitchen and dining room, and the garden with its various outdoor areas. © Lars Petter Pettersen A staircase leads up to a gallery with access to the private rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms. The gallery is a casual place, and acts as an extension of the rooms. A large skylight provides varied light and shadow effects through the day. Plan Plan The house structure is prefabricated wooden columns and beams. All structure parts are exposed in the interior of the project. The cantilevered rooms on the 2nd floor hanging from high beams under the roof. The beams have different dimensions, depending on the cantilever length. The columns have unique dimensions, adapted to their individual loads. It has not been the goal to standardize or clean up the construction, but rather let it be an organic result of the housing geometry. © Lars Petter Pettersen A system that cannot immediately be read as a clear structure, but rather gives the qualities of a forest, where you can let your eyes wander along continuing branches. The project is carried out within a limited budget. An open and trusting cooperation between the builder, architect and contractor has nevertheless enabled a distinctive and elaborate house. Section This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Architecture Students: Then Vs Now Posted: 24 Jan 2017 12:00 AM PST Courtesy of The Leewardists To be certain, architecture students are required to perform a wide variety of skills to complete a project. But thanks to some guys named Gates and Jobs (among many others), we are now able to execute nearly all of our tasks on one magical machine: the computer. While things like sketching and model making will always be fundamental parts of our profession, the laborious task of hand drafting has already become the "walk to school uphill both ways" of architecture – that is, something most of us are happy to have moved on from. Check out more of then vs. now below: Courtesy of The Leewardists Courtesy of The Leewardists Courtesy of The Leewardists Courtesy of The Leewardists Courtesy of The Leewardists Courtesy of The Leewardists Courtesy of The Leewardists Courtesy of The Leewardists Courtesy of The Leewardists Centuries of civilizations built on structures designed by architects and yet, their voice is lost among the countless stories of rulers and armies and sometimes wondrous monsters.  The Leewardists are rewriting the contemporary history of our civilization through the voice of this elusive being, The Architect. For more of The Architect Comic Series follow them on Facebook, Instagram or visit their website.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

AD Classics: Millennium Dome / Richard Rogers (RSHP) Posted: 23 Jan 2017 10:00 PM PST Millennium Dome (licensed under CC-BY-2.0) In 1994, with the third millennium fast approaching, the British announced a national festival to mark the year 2000. Amid a new sense of optimism, the year-long festival, which became known as the Millennium Experience, would take the form of an exhibition celebrating "who we are, what we do, and where we live." Under the project direction of Mike Davies, a partner of Richard Rogers' practice (known today as RSHP) designed the Millennium Dome to house this exhibition. In an extraordinary feat of architecture and engineering, the vast dome, whose canopy encompasses a volume of 2.2million cubic meters, sped from initial concept design to topping out in only two years. Although the Millennium Experience closed its doors as the year 2000, the building which housed it has since been put to a variety of uses, its durability largely due to Richard Rogers' characteristically flexible design. The Skylon and Dome of Discovery at 1951 Festival of Britain (licensed under CC-BY-2.0) The Millennium Dome was the focal point of a larger masterplan by Richard Rogers for a peninsula in Greenwich, London, on the south bank of the River Thames. From the outset this 300-acre site presented a multitude of difficulties. Before being purchased by the government for redevelopment, the site had been owned by British Gas who had used it for the disposal of toxic waste meaning that the land had to be decontaminated at great expense before construction work could commence. A ventilation shaft from the Blackwall Tunnel, which carries road traffic beneath the Thames, stood on the proposed site of the dome and needed to be accommodated into the design. The area was also poorly connected by public transport, and the road infrastructure was unable to accommodate the anticipated numbers of visitors. Fortunately, plans were already underway for an extension to the Jubilee Line on the London Underground network, and North Greenwich station opened on the peninsula in 1999. A dome structure was chosen as the most appropriate design solution to the brief, largely due to the strict time constraints imposed on the project. It was only in 1996—comparatively late for a project of this scale—that the Greenwich peninsula was chosen as the site for the festival, and it was essential that all construction work be completed in 1998 in order to allow sufficient time for the exhibitions to be installed by the turn of the millennium. Rather than creating separate pavilions for each of the exhibitions which would make up the Millennium Experience, it was more time-efficient and cost-effective to create a single enclosure to house them all. According to Davies, the shape of the peninsula also suggested a circular structure: "the site had an incredible 270-degree sweep of the river, so a circle made sense."[1] Two cyclindrical service towers stand adjacent to the dome (licensed under CC-BY-2.0) The design of the dome features a circle of twelve steel masts, one hundred meters high, which support a network of high-tensile cables. The seventy kilometers of cabling is covered by a canopy of white PTFE fabric just one millimeter thin, with an interior lining to absorb both sound and condensation. The Dome's specifications are astonishing: it has a circumference of one kilometer, a height of fifty meters at its peak, and covers an area of eighty thousand square meters. In keeping with the festive spirit of the exhibition it housed, the architecture of the Dome was intended to convey a sense of optimism about the new millennium. As Davies recounted: "it's no accident that those masts reach up at that angle like raised arms, and say 'Yes!'"[2] The Millennium Experience was conceived to be the latest in a long line of national festivals, including the Festival of Britain in 1951 and the globally-seminal Great Exhibition in 1851. The dome also responded to these earlier events through explicit architectural references. The most iconic structures at the Festival of Britain were the Skylon (a steel cigar-shaped structure) and the Dome of Discovery (a dome housing an educational exhibition). The architectural legacy of both these structures is amalgamated into a single building at the Millennium Dome, clearly evident in the cigar-shaped masts and the concept of the dome itself. The 'Body Zone' (licensed under CC-BY-2.0) While the Millennium Dome makes architectural references to the past, the pure-white Teflon-coated PTFE fabric gives the structure a highly futuristic appearance; just one of the building's many apparent contradictions. As the author Elizabeth Wilhide observed, "it is soft and hard, rounded and spiky; it hugs the ground and reaches for the sky."[3] Technically it is not even a dome, as its load does not rest on its circumference but on the steel masts; a more accurate (but less marketable) description for it would be a 'spherical cap'. The Greenwich Meridian Line passes just meters away from the dome, and the design of the building contains many allusions to the concept of time. Davies, who describes himself as a "keen astronomer,"[4] specified that there should be twelve masts, one for each month of the year, and twenty-four 'scallops' (the curved cutouts at the base of the canopy), one for each hour of the day. Furthermore, the dome has a diameter of 365 meters, representing each day of the year, and the panels of the canopy are based on the celestial lines of longitude and latitude. These time-based references are particularly appropriate given the project's purpose of celebrating a significant calendar event. Stage of the Millennium Show at the centre of the dome (licensed under CC-BY-2.0) Sustainability was a key consideration in the design of the dome, with great care taken to minimize the environmental impact of the building. Rainwater runoff from the roof is collected into pools, naturally filtered through reed beds, and recycled as grey water for the toilets. The translucent fabric of the canopy allows sunlight to enter the Dome, thereby reducing the need for interior lighting and lowering the energy demands of the building.[5] Any energy which is needed comes from renewable sources, namely household waste, sewage and wind.[6] The dome is also naturally ventilated, with openings at the center of the roof releasing the rising hot air and twelve fans drawing in cool air from outside. By necessity, the design process of the dome was a collaborative one, as the complexity of its engineering required the architects to work closely with the project engineers Buro Happold. Glyn Trippick, Structural Engineering Partner of Buro Happold, labelled the Dome "a true collaboration between architect and engineer. It's one of the few projects where you can't say that either has led."[7] The stylistic influence of both firms can indeed be seen in the final design of the dome. Richard Rogers applied his signature 'inside-out' treatment to the building, placing the service plants of the building in cylindrical towers around the Dome's exterior for easy access. As at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, various components of the building are color-coded: yellow is used for structural elements such as the masts, while orange is used for pedestrian circulation and red for the interior lighting towers.[8] Buro Happold, meanwhile, had a history of engineering tensile cable structures. The firm's founder, Ted Happold, had collaborated with Frei Otto on several similar projects, such as the aviary at Munich Zoo. An elevated walkway inside the dome (licensed under CC-BY-2.0) The decision to build a single expansive dome, rather than individual pavilions, disassociated the architecture from the exhibition and created a more flexible architectural space. Richard Rogers had explored the use of assisted span structures in many of his earlier works, including the Fleetguard Factory in Brittany and the unbuilt Massy Autosalon.[9] Like the dome, these buildings are largely free of internal supports, allowing the layout of the spaces to be easily modified. At the dome, this flexibility was taken a step further. The service cylinders around the perimeter of the dome feature what Davies described as a "flexible racking system",[10] wherein the outer fins of the cylinders can be easily detached and service plants added or removed as required. Thanks to the great degree of flexibility in its design, the dome has been successfully adapted for multiple uses since the closure of the Millennium Experience. In 2003 the Dome hosted a music festival organized by the Mayor of London as well as a Winter Wonderland festival. The following year, the charity Crisis made use of the dome as a shelter for the homeless over the Christmas period. In 2007, after a two-year period of development, the dome reopened as an entertainment center. Rebranded as The O2 (after a sponsorship deal with the telecommunication company of the same name), it has since been successfully used as a venue for concerts and sporting events, hosting gymnastics and basketball competitions during the London 2012 Olympics. A steel strut pierces the canopy of the dome (licensed under CC-BY-2.0) The Millennium Experience received highly negative press, largely due to the spiraling costs of the exhibition and its poor visitor figures – it drew a mere six million visitors over the course of the year, just over 10% of the British population at the time and half of what was expected. The Millennium Dome suffered by association, and often faced criticism for being over-budget. In fact, at £43million the architectural project was well under-budget and relatively inexpensive for a building of such scale, but Rogers explained that "the cost quoted invariably includes the contents."[11] The greatest success of the Millennium Dome does not lie in its contents, but in its triumphantly exuberant and celebratory architecture. The dome's architects and engineers created one of the iconic structures of the 20th Century, and its endurance is a testament to their foresight and prowess. In designing an adaptable building, they allowed the dome to respond to the demands of a new millennium. Tony Blair, who championed the construction of the Millennium Dome as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, summarized its legacy: "we will celebrate the millennium with a new dynamism in our country. The Millennium Dome symbolizes this dynamism."[12] The base of a steel strut (licensed under CC-BY-2.0) References [1] Wainwright, Oliver. "How we made the Millennium Dome". The Guardian. 17 March 2015. Accessed 10 August 2016. [access] [2] Wilhide, Elizabeth. The Millennium Dome. HarperCollins: London, 1999. p.14. [3] Ibid. Wilhide. p.9. [4] Ibid. Wainwright. [5] Ibid. Wilhide. p.146. [6] Powell, Kenneth. Richard Rogers: The Complete Works (Vol. 3). Phaidon: London, 2007. p.86. [7] Ibid. Wilhide. p.32. [8] Ibid. p.166. [9] "The Millennium Dome". Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. Accessed 10 August 2016. [access] [10] Ibid. Wilhide. p.138. [11] Davidson, Andrew. "The Andrew Davidson Interview: Richard Rogers". Management Today, May 1999. pp.78-83. [12] Blair, Tony. "Foreword" In Elizabeth Wilhide. The Millennium Dome. p.6. Architects: RSH+P Location: The Millennium Dome, Millennium Way, London SE10 0BB, United Kingdom Project Head Architect: Mike Davies Architect: Richard Rogers Engineers: Buro Happold Area: 80000.0 m2 Project Year: 1999 Photographs: James Jin, Martin Pettit, Chris Dixon, Peter Benton This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

White Clouds / POGGI & MORE architecture Posted: 23 Jan 2017 09:00 PM PST © Javier Callejas Architects: POGGI & MORE architecture Location: 17100 Saintes, France Others Patricipants: SNC Lavalin + Emacoustic Project Year: 2016 Photographs: Javier Callejas © Javier Callejas From the architect. A new social housing project in Saintes has totally reinvented what living together means. A seemingly inhabited cloud effortlessly signals the entrance to a recently rehabilitated working-class neighbourhood, known as 'Les Boiffiers', dating back to the 1970s. Landscape and architectural design come together in meaningful harmony, showcasing the new development.  © Javier Callejas The building is positioned in such a way as to respect the site's quality, rather than merely colonise the given space. A sense of depth has been created, structured by footpaths and enticing visual perspectives, with the landscape slipping effortlessly in and around the architectural volumes, offering multiple orientations for the apartments, all of which are secluded, standing well back from the road and enjoying open vistas over the surrounding spaces. © Javier Callejas The harmonious association of setting and architecture makes way for a design which, rather than closing in on itself and looking inwards, opens out to embrace the neighbourhood as a whole, while still providing protection from direct line of sight and noise thanks to its perforated cladding.   © Javier Callejas This building functions as a pivotal point and its strategic position means that the eye at once perceives it in its entirety. It has no main façade, and no front or back. The three volumes which compose it are compact and the amply proportioned exterior private spaces are grafted onto them in accordance with their internal spatial arrangement and specific needs, playfully disturbing the line of the building's façades. © Javier Callejas Plan © Javier Callejas Exit conventional balconies, terraces and loggias with their separating walls and shields of varying transparency, used to hide unsightly objects or provide a modicum of intimacy. In this design, the outside spaces are extremely secluded and provide genuine additional spaces, equipped with utility rooms for drying washing or storing bulky objects, just like garden sheds. The apartments flow out into these exterior facilities, thereby offering ample extra space.  © Javier Callejas These 'additional rooms' are the design's main distinguishing feature and endow each apartment with some of the qualities inherent to detached homes.    Pragmatism, experimentation and know-how. © Javier Callejas This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The Unexpected Stories Behind 10 Skyscrapers That Were Actually Built Posted: 23 Jan 2017 08:00 PM PST Torre Velasca. Image © José Tomás Franco As long as there have been buildings mankind has sought to construct its way to the heavens. From stone pyramids to steel skyscrapers, successive generations of designers have devised ever more innovative ways to push the vertical boundaries of architecture. Whether stone or steel, however, each attempt to reach unprecedented heights has represented a vast undertaking in terms of both materials and labor – and the more complex the project, the greater the chance for things to go awry. Ryugyong Hotel. Image © José Tomás Franco Ryugyong Hotel / Baikdoosan Architects Envisioned as a glorious statement for and by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)—North Korea—the Ryugyong Hotel was to have been the tallest hotel in the world. When work began on the tower in 1987, speculation abounded as to what prompted its construction: some believed it was a response to the completion of a massive hotel in Singapore by a South Korean developer, while others considered it architectural one-upmanship in response to South Korea hosting the 1988 Winter Olympics. Whatever the true motivation for building the Ryugyong, however, it was to have been decidedly impressive. The Ryugyong Hotel consists of three wings radiating out from a central core, each rising at an angle of 75 degrees to come together in a conical pinnacle. It's 105 floors were to hold seven revolving restaurants and no less than 3,000 hotel rooms. The concrete structure of the tower was completed shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union—North Korea's greatest financial benefactor—in 1991. The resulting economic downturn in North Korea, which triggered a famine that starved an estimated 1 million people, also forced work on the Ryugyong to grind to a halt in 1992. For the next two decades, the North Korean government made a concerted effort to avoid acknowledging the embarrassing concrete hulk that dominated the skyline of Pyongyang. Despite claims that low-quality concrete and misaligned elevator shafts made completion of the Ryugyong Hotel impossible, in 2009 the Egyptian telecommunications company Orascom were tasked with the project as part of a deal to run a cellular network in North Korea. Over the next few years, the concrete structure was strengthened and clad in reflective glass, finally giving the outward appearance of a finished building; however, by 2013, international tensions as a result of North Korea's testing of nuclear weapons led to foreign investors pulling out and, once again, leaving the Ryugyong Hotel a highly visible white elephant with an uncertain future. John Hancock Tower. Image © José Tomás Franco John Hancock Tower / Henry Cobb, I.M. Pei & Partners With its reflective blue glass cladding, which almost seamlessly blends into the sky on a clear day, the John Hancock Tower was designed to be as inconspicuous as possible – for a skyscraper, at least. Situated next to Boston's historic Trinity Church, the monolithic skyscraper was intentionally laid out in a way that would not overshadow its neighbor. Unfortunately, these good intentions were marred by a series of staggering engineering issues, the worst of which infamously involved many of its large plate glass windows spontaneously coming loose and falling to the surrounding streets. The Hancock Tower, now the tallest building in Boston, was originally conceived as the John Hancock Company's response to the 52-story offices of Prudential, its New Jersey-based insurance rival. When the company chose a site on historic Copley Square, the city's residents protested the construction of such a large building immediately adjacent to some of the city's most notable historic landmarks, particularly Trinity Church. It was consciousness of this threat to Boston's historical urban fabric that informed architect Henry Cobb's design: an extruded trapezoid clad in uniform sheets of mirrored plate glass. The obsequious angling of the tower preserved views to the church and indicated it as the compositional center of Copley Square; the mirrored façade, rather than call attention to itself, reflected the historic architecture of its neighbors. Unfortunately, the Hancock Tower's reputation suffered for years due to a series of escalating engineering mishaps. Excavation for the tower's foundation led to soil settling that damaged surrounding structures and, in 1975, warnings of potential structural collapse under certain weather conditions delayed completion as a series of cross-braces were added to the building's framework. The building was also notorious for the tendency of its window panes to unexpectedly pop out of their frames, showering the sidewalks and streets below with falling glass and necessitating costly replacement of the entire façade. Once these problems were resolved, however, Cobb's design was vindicated by critics and observers alike, and the Hancock Tower is now a celebrated aspect of the Boston skyline. F&F Tower. Image © José Tomás Franco F&F Tower / Pinzon Lozano & Asociados Arquitectos The spiral form of Panama City's F&F Tower began as a purely theoretical experiment in the offices of Pinzon Lozano & Asociados Arquitectos. Although not originally intended for actual construction, the concept caught the eye of a potential client which subsequently teamed with Pinzon Lozano to develop it into a practical design. The result is 52 floors twisted into a helix around a concrete core, the skewed alignments of which allow for four small office balconies at each level. The floors at the top of the skyscraper gradually shrink toward the base of the spire that crowns the whole building. This striking design developed in spite of two major constraints: a relatively small site in the city's banking district and a strict budget of $50 million USD. A neighboring gas station with underground wells had to be accommodated in the tower's foundations, while its above-ground bulk was initially hampered by setback requirements. Despite these challenges, the glass-wrapped helix was completed in 2012. At 233 meters (764 feet) tall, the F&F Tower is just one of the many skyscrapers built in Panama City in the last several years. The city actually tied with Busan, South Korea for the highest number of new skyscrapers completed in 2012; however, this construction boom has outpaced the country's business growth, resulting in a glut of unused office space and declining rental values. The F&F Tower is not immune to these issues and, in combination with its limited number of passenger elevators, its innovative formal strategy has not yet yielded commercial success. Tour Montparnasse. Image © José Tomás Franco Tour Montparnasse / Cabinet Saubot-Jullien, Eugène Élie Beaudouin, Louis-Gabriel de Hoÿm de Marien, Urbain Cassan, A. Epstein and Sons International In the uniformly low-lying urban fabric of central Paris it is impossible to miss the abrupt aberration that is the Tour Montparnasse. From the moment its design was proposed in 1959, the city revolted against what they felt was a hideous incongruity in the historic city center. Permission to begin construction was not granted for nine whole years, and even then only with the personal support of then-President (and architectural aficionado) Georges Pompidou. Extensive prefabrication allowed the skyscraper to grow six floors a month, and construction was completed in 1973 – over a decade after it was supposed to have begun. At 210 meters (689 feet) tall, the Tour Montparnasse was the tallest skyscraper in Europe for almost twenty years. It is the second-tallest structure in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower standing at 324 meters (1,063 feet). Although it consists almost entirely of office space, the tower does offer some public amenities, most notably an observation deck on the 56th floor and Le Ciel de Paris, the city's highest restaurant. In an echo of sentiments originally expressed toward the Eiffel Tower, it has been stated that the view from the building's observation deck is the best in Paris as it allows one to see everything but the Tour Montparnasse itself. After its completion, the city government of Paris passed new codes forbidding the construction of any new buildings over seven stories tall. This law, evidently drafted in response to the public outcry over the tower in question, ensured that no more skyscrapers would be constructed within the limits of the city center. Recently, the owners of the Tour Montparnasse have launched a competition calling seven firms to propose major renovations to the tower, removing asbestos and revitalizing its much-reviled façade to make its blatant modernity more acceptable to the people of Paris. CCTV Headquarters. Image © José Tomás Franco CCTV Headquarters / OMA (Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren) In 2002, Rem Koolhaas was forced to make a decision: whether to focus on proposals for the new World Trade Center in New York or for the new headquarters of CCTV (China Central Television) in Beijing. In the contentious political debate that grew around the former, Koolhaas, feeling that such an atmosphere could not hope to produce architecture of real value, elected to turn his sights toward Beijing. Politics followed him, however, and he was criticized for designing a monument to what many claimed was a propaganda machine for the Chinese government. Rather than shrinking from further controversy, Koolhaas and his design partner Ole Scheeren created a radical formal strategy that spurred even greater debate. It was, according to OMA, a "skyscraper in a loop" – two towers rising from a studio block and bridging together at the top. As its layout makes a conventional core impossible, the structure is composed of a diagonally crossed network of steel tubes, with areas under high stress visibly supported by denser concentrations of tubes. During construction, the two sections had to be joined in the morning to minimize the effects of thermal expansion on their alignment. The construction process was fraught with setbacks. An inferno caused by a botched fireworks display all but destroyed a neighboring building also designed by Koolhaas; the incident resulted in the incarceration of 20 people for negligence, including the project manager. Later, a Chinese critic claimed that the CCTV Headquarters' form was based on a pornographic image of a woman on her hands and knees, prompting a wave of bad publicity so severe that Koolhaas was forced to issue an official denial. Despite these unfortunate incidents, however, the CCTV Headquarters has become one of the most celebrated architectural icons of Beijing – a symbol of modernity in one of the most ancient cities in the world. Chrysler Building. Image © José Tomás Franco Chrysler Building / William Van Alen As the 1920s drew to a close Walter Chrysler, owner and founder of the Chrysler Motors Corporation, approached architect William Van Alen with a commission to design his company's new headquarters in Midtown Manhattan (New York). He had a simple mandate: to make the new building taller than the Eiffel Tower, which by then had been the tallest structure in the world for almost forty years. The dazzling Art Deco skyscraper that resulted from this order, with its gleaming steel crown, sunburst windows, and automotive decorative motifs, was an enduring icon of the heady "Roaring Twenties" in which it was conceived. Before work began on the Chrysler Building, Van Alen was alarmed to discover that his professional rival, H. Craig Severance, was already breaking ground on a tower at 40 Wall Street downtown that was also projected to be the tallest in the world. What followed was a series of mid-construction design changes as each architect strove to outdo the other: dimensions were stretched, penthouses were added, and, ultimately, Severance placed a 50 foot (15 meter) flagpole at the top of his skyscraper that seemed to be the final word in the unofficial competition. Once 40 Wall Street was topped out, Severance, along with most of the world, assumed that it had won the race. However, Van Alen had a trick up his sleeve – or more precisely, inside the pinnacle of his tower. Unbeknownst to Severance and the general public, a spire had been secretly constructed inside the Chrysler Building's steel-plated crown, its existence concealed until 40 Wall Street had reached its final height. At that point, the 185 foot (56 meter) tall spire was hoisted up through the crown and mounted into place, bringing the building's total height to 1,048 feet (319 meters) and earning it the title of World's Tallest Building. While the Chrysler Building only held that accolade for 11 months before losing it to the nearby Empire State Building, its clandestine spire remains a celebrated feature of one of the world's greatest Art Deco masterpieces. Cayan Tower. Image © José Tomás Franco Cayan Tower / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) Having already designed the world's tallest building in Dubai, SOM was tasked with building the world's tallest twisted skyscraper in the same city. Like Sweden's Turning Torso—the previous record holder—the Cayan Tower turns exactly 90 degrees from the ground level to the top floor, with the entrance facing the Dubai Marina and the uppermost apartments looking out over the Persian Gulf. The Cayan Tower's floor plates are larger than the Swedish tower's, however, requiring the entire structure to twist with them for the 1.2 degree turns between each floor. Initial plans to name Dubai's latest record-breaking skyscraper the Infinity Tower were shelved when it was determined that the name was shared by a number of other building around the world; the name Cayan Tower was chosen specifically for its uniqueness. The tower's developers stated that they would not replicate Cayan's design in any other projects, as they were as dedicated to preserving the rarity of its form as they were its name. A catastrophic mishap during construction almost prevented there being any Cayan Tower in the world at all. In February 2007, roughly a hundred workers were nearly finished excavating for the building's foundations when a loud, sharp sound caught their attention. Shortly afterward, as sand began running down the edges of the pit, the workers were ordered to evacuate the site; thankfully, there were no fatalities as the wall holding back the waters of the marina collapsed and flooded the work site with seawater. Although construction took a full seven years due to the setback, there have been no major mishaps since the Cayan Tower's opening in 2013, when the twisted skyscraper was awarded fourth prize in the annual Emporis Skyscraper Awards. Citigroup Center. Image © José Tomás Franco Citigroup Center / Hugh Stubbins and William LeMessurier Although the Citigroup Center's 45-degree roof stands out in the Manhattan skyline, it is the nine-story stilts at its base that make this skyscraper unique. Rather than supporting its corners, the enormous columns stand at the center of each of the building's four faces, allowing the upper levels to cantilever over a church standing at the corner of the site. A series of inverted steel chevrons direct the structure's weight toward these pillars and into the ground; a tuned mass damper in the upper floors, one of the world's first, counteracts the tower's tendency to sway in the wind. After the Citigroup Center's completion in 1977, an architecture student named Diane Hartley called the offices of William LeMessurier, the tower's structural engineer. Her calculations had indicated that while the building could withstand high winds against any of its faces, high quartering winds—that is, winds hitting two faces at a diagonal—posed a serious risk unaccounted for by his firm. After assuring Hartley that they had indeed prepared the Citigroup Center for such conditions, LeMessurier looked into her claims and found, to his horror, that she was right: due to a change from welding to bolting of the steel framework during construction, a storm capable of toppling the skyscraper would hit New York approximately once every 55 years. Worse still, should the power fail and the tuned mass damper be rendered inoperable, the number fell to every 16 years. LeMessurier presented his findings to Citigroup, prompting a secret scramble to strengthen the building before a storm could destroy it and the surrounding urban fabric. A convenient newspaper strike helped to keep the story from breaking as workers swarmed the tower each night to correct the issue. Contingency plans made with the NYPD and Red Cross were almost put into effect as Hurricane Ella approached the city in 1978; fortunately, the storm never made landfall, and the Citigroup Center was made safe before disaster had a chance to strike. The near-disaster is now cited as a prime example of professional ethics thanks to LeMessurier's swift and decisive response in spite of the threat to his credibility. As for the unintentional heroine of the story, Diane Hartley remained unaware of the effects of her 1977 phone call until she heard the full story in a BBC documentary in 2000. Find out more about this project, here. Torre Velasca. Image © José Tomás Franco Torre Velasca / BBPR The Torre Velasca has a unique characteristic: it manages to blend in and stand out at the same time. Set amid the historic domes and bell towers of Milan, the skyscraper is virtually impossible to miss; indeed, the fact that it was constructed in the 1950s might lead one to believe it was built with Modernist disregard for the established urban fabric. Closer inspection of the Torre Velasca's unusual top-heavy form and aesthetic details reveal, however, an intentional reference to Milanese architectural tradition. The Torre Velasca is fundamentally a medieval watchtower of gargantuan proportions. Its stone walls, small windows, and pitched copper roof are clear references to this model, dating back to a time when the Italian peninsula was an embattled collection of city-states. The projection of the upper levels, while allowing greater space for the apartments contained within, mimics the Gothic styling of surrounding Milanese landmarks – an homage made even more apparent by the exposed struts supporting the upper levels. This odd blend of historicism and modernity was the result of an ongoing debate in Italian architecture during the 1950s. Rather than eschew traditional aesthetics for international uniformity, a movement rose in Italy which prized the local and vernacular over placeless rationalism; the Torre Velasca was one of the most prominent built works of this school of thought, despite its architects' claim that its unusual form was simply a means of accommodating its mixed residential and commercial program. Whether the Torre Velasca represents an irrational, and even ugly, rejection of Modernist design thinking or an ingenious contemporary interpretation of historical architecture has never been settled.  The only point on which everyone seems to be in agreement is that there is nothing quite like it. Find out more about this project, here. Robot Building. Image © José Tomás Franco Robot Building / Sumet Jumsai Thai architect Sumet Jumsai has earned a reputation for whimsical buildings; in 1997, his design for the Chang Building—known more colloquially as the Elephant Building—achieved the rather narrow superlative of "world's largest elephant-shaped building." A decade before, when tasked with creating the headquarters for the Bank of Asia, Jumsai produced a design that unmistakably resembled an enormous robot. Formally, the Robot Building is a simple stack of boxes with setbacks necessitated by building regulations. While its massing is unremarkable the same cannot be said for its ornamentation: a pair of lightning rods resemble futuristic antennae, enormous metal circles fixed to the side façades look like bolts, and a pair of large circular windows form the robot's eyes, complete with sunshade eyelids. Adding to the overall sense of whimsy, the eyes are designed to wink in time with a composition by Thai composer Jacques Bekaert entitled "Robot Symphony." The Bank of Asia Headquarters' robotic aesthetic, purportedly derived from a toy owned by Jumsai's son, carried symbolic intent beyond mere fantasy. The choice of a robot was, according to Jumsai, meant to reflect the increasing computerization of the banking industry during the 1980s; that the robot appeared benign evoked the friendlier aspects of technology. Aside from serving as a commentary on computerization, the Robot Building was also Jumsai's personal counterpoint to the rise of the Postmodern style toward the end of the 20th Century, which he decried as a protest seeking to "replace without offering a replacement." Exactly how Jumsai would categorize his own designs is unclear, but there is no question that the Robot Building remains one of the most peculiar skyscrapers ever to have been built. Sources Ryugyong Hotel: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] John Hancock Tower:[1], [2] F&F Tower:[1], [2] Tour Montparnasse:[1], [2], [3], [4], [5] CCTV Headquarters:[1], [2], [3], [4] Chrysler Building:[1] Cayan Tower:[1], [2], [3], [4] Citigroup Center:[1], [2] Torre Velasca:[1], [2] Robot Building: [1] This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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