Arch Daily |
- Villa Sterkenburg / DP6 architectuurstudio
- Radar Tower / Barthélémy Griño Architectes
- Mercado do Gado / Carvalho Araújo, Arquitectura e Design
- House in Hertzliya Pituah / Levin Packer architects
- Hair Salon in Nakazaki / Shimpei Oda Architect's Office
- Clerestory House / Lai Cheong Brown
- Cowiche Canyon Kitchen and Icehouse Bar / Graham Baba Architects
- See Richard Meier's City Hall in The Hague Repainted as the "World's Largest Mondrian"
- Norbert Juhász's Portrait of Moroccan Berber Settlements
- EAN University / Daniel Bonilla + Marcela Albornoz
- 14 Shades of Red: Projects to Fall in Love With on Valentine's Day
- Paracas House / Llosa Cortegana
- Thom Mayne, Ando, Kuma & Zumthor Contribute Rooms for "House of Architects" Hotel in Vals
- Shopping Nord Graz / BEHF Corporate Architects
- "The Cloud" by Studio Fuksas Brings a Touch of Modern Baroque to Rome's Rationalist EUR Neighborhood
- The Folding House / B+V Arquitectos
- Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners Tipped to Extend London's Iconic British Library Complex
- The Architecture Student Through 15 Comic Strips
- This Video of Spaceworkers' Casa Cabo de Vila Was Inspired by "The Shining"
- The [B] Zone | 1882 Concept Store / [A+M]2 Architects
Villa Sterkenburg / DP6 architectuurstudio Posted: 14 Feb 2017 09:00 PM PST
From the architect. Villa Sterkenburg is beautifully situatied in the woods around Driebergen (The Netherlands). The construction of the villa uses an innovative timber frame system, with the glazing panels set into the timber structure itself. The lack of glazing frames optimises transparency. The villa is situated in such a way that it respects the historically defined site lines and patterns and allows space for the berceau hedges. The long, slender gabled roof extends over the terrace on the south side, giving the house a natural home on the site. The villa's architecture is light and understated. Wooden facades and timber trusses reference traditional barn construction, and as a contrast plenty of glass was applied. Linking the inside to the outside environment, the glass merges the villa into its leafy surroundings. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Radar Tower / Barthélémy Griño Architectes Posted: 14 Feb 2017 07:00 PM PST
From the architect. Sited on the campus of the Ecole Polytechnique, the radar tower is one of the first project for the large-scale science cluster on Saclay plateau. Over 60m high, the tower provides a reliable air traffic control on the approach to Paris Orly Airport. Rising above trees, the tower is a landmark indicating and orientating this new area of development. It is a 13.9 m diameter cylindrical trunk, housing all the required technical equipment. The only protrusion is the radome at the top. This simplicity of form is reinforced by the choice of only one material, light grey, high quality prefabricated concrete. The tower will be seen against the sky: in order that light may shine through it, the structural wall is perforated. Each level is made of 28 concrete posts, arranged regularly. These posts are trapezoidal, with important variations in width on their back face. High of 4.84m, they are set into annular beams at their head and base, forming 12 superimposed sections. Each section is offset by a half-grid rotation, breaking vertical continuity. The porosity of the trunk, the alternately arranged posts, their multiple faces, go to form a sort of kaleidoscope beneath the changing light. The internal volume is open to the air, interrupted only by the lightweight steel structure of the stairwell and lift shaft. Behind its formal simplicity, this construction boasts a complex structural functionality, particularly in the face of wind. The porosity of the trunk meant that wind tunnel testing was necessary. The tower's stability is obtained using the principles of a Vierendeel truss system with posts embedded into beams. This assembly repeated 666 times constitutes a real technical challenge because of the multiple difficulties that it imposes: securing the parts together at altitude, precision adjustment, substantial and complex loading, the density and geometric variation of the sections. This key point was solved with the use of specific concrete connections (Peikko system). This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Mercado do Gado / Carvalho Araújo, Arquitectura e Design Posted: 14 Feb 2017 06:00 PM PST
El Mercado de la Tierra es algo más grande que la Feria y el Mercado de Ganado de la Feria del Caballo o Expolima y proviene de una ambición más amplia para crear una red de "estructuras", específicos e intervenciones localizadas de mayor o menor medida, Sin embargo, "las medidas exactas." precisos y Elaborar principios de intervención coherentes con una estrategia política, el Proyecto Tierra. Para escalar las tensiones vilacriam, interdependencias funcionales y volumétricas más allá de la superficialidad de una "masa plan" para el perímetro urbano. La solución de Mercado de la Tierra presta esta idea el uso simbólico del sistema, la regla y el grupo. Y la idea de que estas características permiten que la opción política de realizar un seguimiento de los tiempos, para cambiar los "proyectos" dentro del proyecto. Creó y responder al mismo tiempo a las nuevas necesidades del programa. Ha sido mayor, menor, tenía un edificio de usos múltiples, la arena y ahora ha ecuestre y campos de eventos ecuestres. Sigue siendo aún hoy en día como el máximo exponente de esta ambición, sólo se coja a la espera de otras conexiones, otros miembros de un diseño político. El complejo se presenta como una morfología poco probable que una feria de ganado, distanciándose de pabellones prefabricados voluminosos. En un lugar del disparo pueblo, pero libera el cierre del tejido urbano para hacer posible otro equipo, más apropiado. Su función es otra, se mueve desde la ruralidad inmediata de los suburbios y el corazón de la historia del pueblo con dignidad. Cohabita con palacios, jardines y capillas. A pesar de sucesivos ajustes del proyecto, siempre se mantuvo a los conceptos que se establecieron al principio del proceso. La estructura del plan está constituido por una rejilla ortogonal, que se relaciona con las rutas existentes y mejora el encordado visual hacia el río. Esta malla es una guía de referencia para colocar los elementos clave de la propuesta, el establecimiento de relaciones con proporción relevante de los edificios o lugares de interés paisajístico. Estabilizadores de este modo el formalismo y la lógica informal evidente en la composición, ya que de esta malla se superpone una composición arquitectónica y la topografía del paisaje que se ajuste a la serenidad. Los edificios no interfieren con el carácter rural de la zona de intervención, o con su entorno, manteniendo la estructura a pequeña escala, parcelada, con la ruptura suave perspectiva proporcionada por las paredes adyacentes a la carretera principal. Durante la preparación de los primeros estudios de la Fase 1 - Feria de Ganado, la falta de referencias en las cercanías en programas similares ha dado lugar a cierta incertidumbre en el área que el equipo debe tomar. Por un lado, debido a la necesidad de adquisición de tierras y en parte debido a que la base de comparación más cercana que teníamos era la feria ya realizado. Resultó ser el modelo para la implementación, una estructura lineal de cajas, con caminos y ancho de rejilla de malla similar a un pequeño barrio. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
House in Hertzliya Pituah / Levin Packer architects Posted: 14 Feb 2017 02:00 PM PST
From the architect. The project is a private urban house of approximatively 200 m2 in Herzlia, situated on a 425 m2 site. The white modernist house is a perfect rectangle with dimensions of 8/17. The rectangular structure is kept, while volumes are subtracted in favor of balconies. The sloping zing roof is also integrated in the rectangular structure. The plot is long and narrow with a blind wall, shared with the neighbour's house. This wall actually has a main functional role. It starts in the kitchen area where it consists of kitchen cupboards, then turns into a floating counter of the kitchen, overlapping a bench, the bench turns into a fire place and continues outside as a long pot for plants where it is again overlapped, but this time by the outside bar counter. This wall continues from one side of the house till the end of the plot, being a plastic play of forms itself and at the same time a key functional and compositional line in the house. As the site is narrow, long and small, the goal was to enlarge the view to all sides of the garden, to allow maximum openness of the ground floor to it, this way letting the garden penetrate through. The garden accompanies the house and becomes an integral part of the ground floor. It is continuous through the whole plot. It starts from the very entrance at the fence of the plot with an oblong garden that leads to the main door entrance of the house, then proceeds and reaches the garden with the pool at the bottom of the plot. Since the ground floor area is only 187 m2, there was no question of putting divisions that can block the view. Thus the staircase, located in the center of the space, creating a vertical axis movement and dividing the floor into two areas, became transparent to let the outside come through. The transparency is achieved by a gap in the wall, filled with delicate thin metal lines that underline the verticality of the element and act as a mindful continuation of the wall. The airy staircase lets the space be completely discovered. The ground floor contains two public areas, the living space and the kitchen and dining space. As mentioned above, there is a full linkage between those spaces, accomplished by the staircase's transparency, yet the staircase positioning provides two separated functional areas. The kitchen and dining area overview the entrance garden, while the living area is completely connected to the back one. The architectural design is minimalistic, rich in details and materials. Natural oak, natural stone, black metal, cement plaster wall, colored textiles, soft wild plants in contrast with the linear strong lines of the architecture. The lighting is very precise and is an integral part of the architecture, providing long lighted accents in carefully selected areas. Repetitive materials create uniformity, natural oak for flooring, stairs and entrance door, black metal for the light fixtures, fireplace, stairway's railing and balconies' railing, black aluminium for all openings and cement plaster walls. On the upper floor are situated all the private bedrooms. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Hair Salon in Nakazaki / Shimpei Oda Architect's Office Posted: 14 Feb 2017 12:00 PM PST
In the neighborhood of Nakazaki the remaining old homes and Nagaya (terraced houses) creates a nostalgic atmosphere. When you look down the narrow roads seeing the buildings, clothes drying and potted plants it makes you feel as if you have time slipped a few generations back. Recently many old houses in this neighborhood are renovated into various kinds of shops, such as cafés, restaurants, secondhand stores and design offices. This project is also a renovation. In a Nagaya located in the end of a narrow alley, one room was renovated into a Hair Salon. Both an area for cutting hair and a japanese-style room for styling kimono were created in this limited space. In general customers getting a haircut prefer privacy from the public. However considering the semi-private location of the salon, a glass store front was chosen. The interior floor is finished in the same texture and material as the driveway; creating a continuous concrete surface that connects and blends the interior with the exterior. As the concrete rises, it becomes part of the interior by creating shelfs in the cutting area and a Tokonoma (alcove) in the japanese-style room. The concretes dimensions only has value when it is accompanied by the other objects placed in the room, such as the wooden step that connects the floor, concrete and staircase. It was a conscious choice to create a space that works by gathering several volumes, just like the surrounding Nagaya that are formed by several buildings. I expect this hair salon to have a natural flow between the outside and inside, keeping it open and light to the street, while retaining a comfortable private atmosphere for the guest. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Clerestory House / Lai Cheong Brown Posted: 14 Feb 2017 11:00 AM PST
From the architect. The project focused on the re-imagining of a solid brick Inter-war heritage home as both a downsize for a retiring couple and a multi-generational home for additional members of the family. The house also needed to accommodate the gatherings of a large family cohort, many of whom live only streets away. As a heritage controlled building, the design response needed to accommodate all of the expansion to the rear of the block. Externally the project repaired and refurbished the tiled roof, clinker brick façade and chimney while replacing original window joinery to a matched detail. New wrought iron gates were designed based on the motif of the original 1930's ironwork. The extension is completed in a mix of re-used and recycled clinker bricks with the new living space, topped by its lantern roof, differentiated in dark blue dry pressed brickwork. Internally the house provides a new interior that blends retained and refurbished heritage details with contemporary elements. The house accommodates both a retired couple and an adult family member in connected but separate accommodation. An integrated apartment with its own bathroom, laundry and kitchen facilities is set within the house's original master suite. The remaining sections of the house and a new extension accommodate the retired couple comfortably and with enough space to connect with the house's other occupant and a host of nearby family when they choose to. A full height walnut veneered hallway joins the original octagonal entry vestibule to the new clerestory topped open plan living and dining space, which centres the new home and provides a large light filled area to enjoy with extended family. A small snug off the main living spaces serves as a small intimate retreat for the couple day to day. Product Description. Timber was used throughout the project internally to add warmth and texture while drawing together the original heritage elements and more contemporary forms into a single cohesive design. As a central focal point of the project the clerestory exemplified this focus on timber with the use of pre-finished two tone Western Red Cedar lining boards, with a batten profile, helping to add both drama and warmth to this key space. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Cowiche Canyon Kitchen and Icehouse Bar / Graham Baba Architects Posted: 14 Feb 2017 09:00 AM PST
The first half of the 20th-century was a time of growth and dignity for downtown Yakima. Presidents Roosevelt and Taft visited the emerging agricultural center where the main street featured fountains, grand theaters, and stately, multi-story brick-and-masonry buildings. By mid-century, however, most of these structures had been demolished to make way for parking lots as businesses struggled to keep their downtown relevant and residents fled to the suburbs. A local family with long-standing ties to the agricultural heritage of the region sought to counteract this decline by combining their interest in food with their desire to help revitalize downtown Yakima. They chose a site in the downtown core and created a restaurant and bar featuring local food and drink, setting their dream in motion. From the project's honest use of materials celebrating the agricultural vernacular and history of the valley to the synergies resulting from strategic placemaking, the project provides a much needed shot in the arm for civic renewal. The two elements of the project—restaurant and bar—are conceived as distinct yet connected structures that weave together where they meet. The Icehouse Bar, a board-formed, cast-in-place concrete structure pulled tight to the sidewalk's edge, maintains the street facade established by the existing historic buildings. The Kitchen, essentially a timber-structured, glass-walled pavilion, is pulled back from the sidewalk to open up the corner via a small plaza with restaurant seating. The Kitchen is elegant yet approachable in its aesthetic, with the dining room and kitchen area all under one roof to put the preparation of food at center stage. Surrounding seating affords views of the chefs at work. Wrapped on three sides with large windows, the dining area opens to the neighborhood, visually and symbolically merging the activity inside with the neighborhood beyond. The structural system is exposed, typical of agricultural vernacular buildings throughout the region. A casual dining area at the back of the restaurant connects to a public plaza through garage doors, offering a protected patio setting for three-season dining. The bar is an appropriately moody environment, emphasizing natural and repurposed materials. A zipper skylight situated above the bar washes the bar wall with light. Vintage ice tongs hold cast glass cubes topped with a light source, illuminating the glass from within and creating an aqueous light effect over the bar. An off-center pivoting steel and glass door with inset pilot door provides access between the bar and exterior bar seating. The Kitchen and Bar are separated by a board-formed, cast-concrete wall punctuated by a series of vertical vents. The vents create interesting light-and-shadow play and offer glimpses into each venue. Rafter tails slip through the vents to become a unifying gesture between venues. They also serve as supports for custom lights made from vintage smudge pots, referencing the region's fruit industry. The materiality of the project recalls the agricultural vernacular of the valley and highlights the honest beauty of materials used in their natural or weathered state. Repurposed concrete form boards and formwork are used for ceilings and feature walls, including the wall behind the bar. Sun shades and exterior lighting suspended from angled wood poles, like those used for staking fruit or vines, are yet another nod to the area's agricultural heritage and complete the transition from building to city to region. The Cowiche project has spurred the transformation of an adjacent municipal parking lot to a new central city plaza. The plaza is envisioned to become the centerpiece of an even larger urban revitalization effort. Product Description. The board formed concrete walls and exposed wood structure recall the agricultural vernacular architecture of the Yakima Valley. The board formed concrete box that houses the Icehouse bar sets the bar apart from the restaurant while anchoring the entire building to the site and the context of the adjacent buildings. The concrete walls also support the wood structure so it can float above and create the open volume of the restaurant. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
See Richard Meier's City Hall in The Hague Repainted as the "World's Largest Mondrian" Posted: 14 Feb 2017 08:20 AM PST Richard Meier is well-known for his love of the color white, describing it as "the most wonderful color, because within it you can see all the colors of the rainbow" in his Pritzker Prize acceptance speech. As such, many of his buildings, including the City Hall of The Hague in Netherlands (completed in 1995), are painted head-to-toe in the snowy pigment. But now, all that white has given the building a new unintentional function: as a perfect canvas for the world's largest Mondrian painting. The building is one of several in the city that are receiving the "Mondrian treatment," in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Dutch art movement, De Stijl. The style, ushered in by artists including Piet Mondrian, went on to have a strong impact of architecture of the modern era, its ideas championed by architects including Gerrit Rietveld, Mies van der Rohe, and Charles and Ray Eames. As home to the world's largest Mondrian collection (at the Gemeentemuseum), The Hague is celebrating throughout the year with a range of De Stijl-related events. Check out the video of City Hall's transformation above, and learn more about this year's events here. Video via the City of The Hague. AD Classics: Rietveld Schroder House / Gerrit Rietveld AD Classics: Eames House / Charles and Ray Eames This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Norbert Juhász's Portrait of Moroccan Berber Settlements Posted: 14 Feb 2017 08:00 AM PST In this photo-essay, Norbert Juhász—a Hungarian photographer based in Budapest—presents a study of the Moroccan Berber villages (around Imlil and the surrounding valleys). Located in the High Atlas Mountains, these remote settlements are increasingly connected to the "outside world." In the words of Juhász, "many are now connected to the electrical grid and have some sort of road access." That said, "mules are still a popular form of transport." "Water is still obtained from the mountains' snowy peaks in the form of melted snow. Most buildings are constructed using adobe bricks (made in-situ), but concrete is becoming more and more popular. Although the buildings themselves are quite simple and similar to one another (or use the same architectural elements), the site shapes how and where these are built, creating a unique appearance for each settlement." "The core idea is similar in each situation, however: at the bottom of the valley there's the river, above it the terraced fields for growing food, above that the village itself with a complicated irrigation system, and above that the (usually) unpaved road." How to Change Cities With Culture: 10 Tips Using UNESCO This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
EAN University / Daniel Bonilla + Marcela Albornoz Posted: 14 Feb 2017 07:00 AM PST
EAN University, Classroom building is the result of a competition by invitation, where we propose to set up a university campus where the buildings are as important as the common open spaces. A place where students can meet, study or rest; a second home for education and fun. The strategy was to generate a large collective space, a central upward spiral, surrounded by a classroom building (Phase 1) and the offices and welfare building. The classroom building responds to a seven level’s prism. On the first floor are located the access areas and the central library. On the upper floors standard classrooms are located, ending with a rooftop terrace for collective uses. The prism is affected by a series of random out coming concrete boxes that break the volume’s monotony while serving as studying and meeting rooms. For the façade we developed, along with the manufacturers, a singular element: Stressed micro perforated green shades, protecting the interiors from direct sunlight. This element gives a particular image to the building while highlighting the "random boxes." The proper bioclimatic aspects for a building of this nature located in Bogota are, take advantage of the geographic orientation, qualify the solar incidence in the interior, take advantage of natural cross ventilation, and optimize energy and water consumption. In addition, the existing building was moderately intervened through a simple chocolate-colored painting process, and the perimeter gratings were removed to replace them with an abundant perimeter garden interrupted by two gentle corner blocks of pedestrian entrance. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
14 Shades of Red: Projects to Fall in Love With on Valentine's Day Posted: 14 Feb 2017 06:00 AM PST Happy Valentine's Day! 1. 'André Malraux' Schools in Montpellier / Dominique Coulon & associés2. Bridging Teahouse / FR-EE / Fernando Romero Enterprise3. LightPathAKL / Monk Mackenzie Architects + Landlab4. Vanke Pavilion - Milan Expo 2015 / Daniel Libeskind5. Museum of Rock / MVRDV + COBE6. Cuadra San Cristobal / Luis Barragán8. BBVA Bancomer Tower / LEGORRETA + LEGORRETA + Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners7. Red Wall / 3Gatti Architecture Studio9. Instant Red / Wutopia Lab10. Didomestic / Elii11. Couch / MVRDV12. La Muralla Roja / Ricardo Bofill13. Red Ribbon Park / Turenscape14. Nestlé Chocolate Museum / Rojkind ArquitectosThis posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Paracas House / Llosa Cortegana Posted: 14 Feb 2017 05:00 AM PST
From the architect. South of the bay of Paracas, there is still a neighbourhood that allows to walk along their streets and to maintain a community life. We are able to find there traces of the old houses that generate a domestic scale border in a surrounding silence. This project takes place in the second row from where it tries to focus the view to the bay through an opening on the urban structure between the existing houses. According to this, it is orientated to the north and creates patios that are born from the mass subtraction in the second level which direct the view to the see protecting the interior private spaces from the vehicular flow on front. Based on the circumstances of his location and from the disciplinary interpretation of the program and its elements, the form is generated. The architecture of this house is articulated by two different buildings that create two different moments at the same time. The first one articulates the city through its urban scale and gathers all the dormitories and the service areas of the house. This area is developed from elevated patios over the pedestrian scale that allows to open to the north directing our vision to the ocean, keeping a formal and material austerity. The function of this building is to serve and contains the main part of the program. It is crowned by spaces on the third floor that foment the familiar encounter being the only place where two confront directly with the ocean view and the surroundings. On the other hand, a building / a space of shadow confines the social activity of the house in a big independent concrete cover, joined only by a stair which connects the public space with the resting and private areas. This structure gives us shelter and silence. This environment is created by the rough materiality of the cover, with perforations that allow the filtered and punctual entry of zenith lightening which soften the pace from light to shadow. The project takes special care of the way it makes contact with the street, from the abstraction of the figure to the relation with the interior of the house across an entrance yard. This patio permits your way into the house passing through a hanged staircase showing a weightlessness, generating a threshold in relation to the street, a patio deconstructed from the light of Paracas. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Thom Mayne, Ando, Kuma & Zumthor Contribute Rooms for "House of Architects" Hotel in Vals Posted: 14 Feb 2017 04:00 AM PST Four top architects – Thom Mayne (Morphosis), Tadao Ando, Kengo Kuma and Peter Zumthor – have been tapped to contribute designs for the new "House of Architects" at the 7132 Hotel in Vals Switzerland. The latest addition to the hotel, The House of Architects features a lobby and entrance also designed by Morphosis Architects, and 7 room designs centered around a single material. Four of the new guest suites have been designed by Morphosis. Two of which, dubbed the 'wood' rooms, are clad entirely in timber; the other two, the 'stone' rooms, feature locally quarried quartzite – the same material used by Zumthor in the adjacent Therme Vals spa. All four of the rooms contain a glass shower in the center of the floorplan and a balcony overlooking the mountainous landscape. The other three architects have designed a room a piece, also starting with a material as inspiration. Ando's contribution, using wood as the primary material, is imagined as an homage to Japanese teahouses. Also utilizing wood, the Kuma room is described as an "oak cocoon" inspired by the finesse of Japanese carpentry. Meanwhile, the Zumthor-designed room features walls and an ceiling finished with dark Stucco lustro, a plasterwork technique that dates back to the Italian renaissance. Morphosis was also asked to redesign the building's lobby and entrance area to provide a better sense of welcoming to the retreat. At the top of a entry ramp and staircase, an overhead aperture shines light onto arriving visitors and frames a view to the mountain sky. The project is Morphosis' second commission in Vals, following their selection in a competition to design a new luxury hotel for the 7132 complex. The winning proposal, a 1,250 foot tower featuring 107 guest rooms with panoramic views, has been a source of controversy for its massive scale and withdrawal of support from several jury members. Learn more here: Morphosis Unveils Plans for 381-Meter-Tall Skyscraper in Vals Jurors Deny Support of Morphosis' Vals Hotel Appointment The Therme Vals / Peter Zumthor News via Morphosis, 7132 Hotel. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Shopping Nord Graz / BEHF Corporate Architects Posted: 14 Feb 2017 03:00 AM PST
BEHF Corporate Architects of Vienna/Austria has won an Honorable Mention in the first annual AAP American Architecture Prize which recognizes the most outstanding architecture worldwide. The architects won this in the category Architectural Design /Commercial Architecture for their project "Shopping Nord Graz". Design architect and principal BEHF Corporate Achitects Armin Ebner: "Our project tells a story, as architecture should do, it is about location development, refurbishment and sustainability and it is about the upgrade to a smart shopping center, which maximizes shopping, gastronomic, work and leisure experiences". The largest shopping centre north of Graz/Austria, owned by the Austrian Kovac corporate group, has been converted and extended by the architects to meet actual and anticipated evolving, future standards. It also boasts state-of-the-art technical refurbishment. Significant architectural highlights of Shopping Nord Graz are two new transparent pavilions housing retail and gastronomy outlets and restaurants connected to the main building by a single, free-standing roof to create a unique – almost ten meter high – canopy. This is built on reinforced concrete stilts that appear randomly arranged to create a lively and bright space. The effect is accentuated by a glazed, asymetrical and circular roof opening to allow plenty of natural light that also illuminates seating areas on the curved and colourful paved promenade further enhancing user enjoyment. The soffit of the exposed concrete roof is not only broken up by the three free-form skylights, but also shines as a result of the colour applied to areas of the ceiling around the skylights. The former closed structure of the main building has been transformed by huge glas facades and expanded, inviting entrances that also promote a better user orientation. This all represents distinctive shopping center refurbishment that more than delivers on all criteria and refinements – including on ecological and economical challenges – and demonstrates BEHF Corporate Architects' well-deserved reputation for outstanding work in this speciality area. Since its opening in 2015 "Shopping Nord Graz" has received several other accolades, including the Special German Design Award. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
"The Cloud" by Studio Fuksas Brings a Touch of Modern Baroque to Rome's Rationalist EUR Neighborhood Posted: 14 Feb 2017 01:30 AM PST This article was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "Studio Fuksas' Controversial (Yet Striking) Convention Center Opens At Last." Despite its evocatively fluffy name, "The Cloud" (Nuvola in Italian) has been one of the most seriously discussed and debated architectural projects in Italy in the last decade. Even after its opening in October 2016, the building continues to generate controversy over its cost (an estimated €353 million, or $390 million) and the delays its construction incurred. The EUR Convention Center, as it's officially known, is the largest new building to be built in Rome in more than 50 years—a flicker in time for the Eternal City, perhaps, but not an inconsiderable span either. The design was hatched by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas in 1998, but it languished on the drawing boards for nearly two decades after that. In that time the city elected five different mayors and had three temporary commissioners. It also weathered a number of corruption scandals. Meanwhile, the EUR remains as pristine as ever. The neighborhood, constructed in the late '30s to host the planned (but canceled) 1942 World's Fair, is home to buildings by some of the greatest Italian architects of the 20th century, including Adalberto Libera and Marcello Piacentini. It is here that you can find the Pigorini Ethnographic Museum, the Colosseo Quadrato (Square Colosseum)—today Fendi's headquarters—and a number of public agencies and private companies. The orthogonal streets and the ruthlessly geometric buildings with their double-height porticoes create a landscape of alternating voids and masses, light and shadows. The Cloud reinterprets these characters, proportions, and simple geometries—but using glass and steel instead of the ubiquitous marble and masonry. The complex sits on the southern edge of the EUR, on the former site of an abandoned parking lot that Federico Fellini used as a movie set in the '60s. The massive convention center comprises three main architectural elements: a glass box known as the Theca, measuring 230 feet by 570 feet; the Cloud itself, a steel-and-fiberglass structure inside the Theca; and the Blade, a narrow jet-black prism (and soon-to-be hotel) that runs along the south side of the glass box. The northwest approach to the building on Via Cristoforo Colombo is utterly spectacular and illustrates one of the building's greatest strengths—its grasp of the architectural promenade. A set of travertine stairs drop down below the street level and empty into the entrance hall, a 48-meter-tall open space flooded with light. The ghostly structure of the shape-defying titular Cloud, covered with translucent fiberglass panels, looms overhead. From the entrance hall visitors can reach the two main functional spaces of the Theca. The first spans almost the entire floor plan of the building. This completely black, hangarlike room, made more inviting by its wooden floors, has space for up to 6,000 and can be subdivided to accommodate smaller groups. A second route takes visitors up to the Cloud itself. Starting from the entrance hall, two steep escalators lead to a mezzanine level; a smaller escalator up ahead disappears into the Cloud, like the ramp of an old Hollywood spaceship. Once inside, the riblike supports of the structure—previously only glimpsed through the Cloud's milky skin—are finally exposed; walking through it is like being inside the belly of a large beast. A set of black doors lead to the main auditorium, entirely clad with American cherry wood panels. The architects use these varied materials—stony travertine, shimmering glass, glowing fiberglass, warm woods—in very direct (perhaps even blunt) ways to distinguish the zones within the building. The Fuksases based the entire concept of the project on the dichotomy between free and more regimented forms. "The problem," Massimiliano says, "was to solve the confrontation between a shape that is completely free like a sculpture [the Cloud] and its more regular envelope [the glass box]." This challenge is not new—precomputer architects worked hard to reconcile the rectilinear with the free-form—but here it takes on an urban analogue. According to Massimiliano, the convention center reunites the spirits of different architectural Romes, from the baroque to the modern. "The building has two sets of inspirations: the rigid geometry of the EUR on one side and then the baroque Rome, the organic Rome, the Rome of Borromini. I wanted to put all these Romes close together and see what happens." Critics say that the complex was unnecessary—another similar venue, designed by Libera, stands just a few hundred feet away—and simply cost too much. Studio Fuksas claims the final price was below initial estimates, and the public company that owns and manages the center said it expects to generate €300 million to €400 million a year through congresses, events, and tourism. Yet no hotel developer has shown an interest in taking up residence in the Blade, and legitimate doubts have arisen as to whether the center will deliver the numbers of visitors it promises. Architecturally, there is a problem, too: The building was conceptualized almost 20 years ago, and it responds to needs that might have been appropriate at the time but are less so today. (Massimiliano Fuksas, for his part, takes pride in having kept the original design unchanged.) Even so, it must be said that this is quite an impressive modern building, one that brings a touch of the contemporary baroque to Rome's iconically rationalist EUR neighborhood. What's more, it is in a way a perfect metaphor for Rome today: beautiful, contradictory, a bit messy. It's a bold reflection of the city itself.
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The Folding House / B+V Arquitectos Posted: 14 Feb 2017 01:00 AM PST
The project is located near Lake Rapel, on a site of 896.5 sqm. This is characterized by a privileged view of the lake and a strong slope in most of its development. The budget forces to minimize the intervention in the slope, containing the largest amount of program in the minimum of flat space available at the beginning of the site. This, together with the high temperatures presented by Rapel's microclimate in summer, implies the following problems: high program density, excessive solar radiation and lack of comfortable space for recreation. The methodology for dealing with new projects arises from the following disciplinary concern: the program is resolved in an intentionally neutral and generic way in SIP, for then to solve all the architectural problems through just a single operative element. This element, which in each project takes a different form and function, is understood as the main operation and is transversal to all the proposals of the office; giving them a uniform character. The resolution element in this case is the plane, which when folded generates a space of mediation between the common areas, protects the interior of excessive solar radiation and enables a large space for recreation oriented to the main view on the deck. During the hot season, the fold generates an eave that protects the house from excessive solar radiation, allowing to privilege the main views without generating overheating. This strategy is combined with the use of a double ventilated wooden façade - both on the walls and on the roof - avoiding the overexposure of the envelope to direct radiation. Finally, the south windows are mirrored with the ones on the north and a central patio in shade, which favors cross ventilation and keeps the interior temperatures comfortable. During the cold season, the main eaves allow the entrance of radiation to the interior, which combined with high levels of insulation and elimination of all possible thermal bridges in the envelope, allows the small wood stove to be needed only during cloudy days. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners Tipped to Extend London's Iconic British Library Complex Posted: 14 Feb 2017 12:05 AM PST As reported by the Architects' Journal, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP)—the London-based practice led by Richard Rogers—have been selected, "following a developer-led competition," to expand the iconic British Library complex in London – designed by Colin St. John Wilson in 1962 and eventually completed in 1997. The national library is widely considered to be the largest public building ever constructed in the United Kingdom over the course of the 20th Century. In 2015, the buildings were awarded the highest level of Listed (protection) status. The project, which is slated for completion "by 2023" ("in time for the library's 50th anniversary"), will offer additional galleries, events spaces, a new entrance on Midland Road and space for the Alan Turing Institute. "A new science hub with about 65,000sqm of commercial development space will also be delivered." According to the AJ, while a spokesperson for the British Library "declined to confirm the appointment," they said in a statement: "As part of our Living Knowledge strategic vision to 2023, the British Library has ambitious plans to expand and develop our site at St Pancras." They have "undergone a competitive dialogue procurement process to select a commercial development partner to help realise our plans, which will deliver additional research, learning and gallery spaces, and will transform our capacity to anticipate and meet the needs of our growing number of users." They stated that "the British Library Board has selected its preferred development partner and we expect to make an announcement in early 2017, to be followed by a period of close consultation with our local community and other stakeholders." News via Architects' Journal This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
The Architecture Student Through 15 Comic Strips Posted: 14 Feb 2017 12:00 AM PST As a young architecture student looking for a way to take his mind off schoolwork, architect/artist Tristán began drawing comics that drew inspiration from what he knew best: architecture school. Settling on the protagonist of the architecture student, he created a full series of comic strips focusing on the day to day routine of architecture students and teachers. The comics take on moments from the life of architecture school, from the stresses of pulling all-nighters to the realities of dealing with clients in the professional world. By creating these strips, Tristán aims to shed some light on the complexities of being an architecture student – not forgetting that humor can sometimes be the best medicine for what ails you. You can submerse yourself in his comical world by following him on facebook. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
This Video of Spaceworkers' Casa Cabo de Vila Was Inspired by "The Shining" Posted: 13 Feb 2017 10:00 PM PST
In this film, by architects Spaceworkers and produced by Building Pictures, of Cabo de Vila House instead of using the tricycle and the space to install a sense of madness, the idea of the project is to show that the house has no barriers between the different spaces. The house is set up as an organic geometry that establishes hierarchies between spaces allowing mutual visual contact. What better way to show this than to follow a young girl as she travels through the house on her tricycle. Check out the full video and more about the project after the break. Building Pictures starts the film in the garage, once the protagonist of the story hops on her tricycle she starts her route through the long study desk, the electric guitar and makes it around to the living area and television room, which features a hanging wood-burning stove. Here she stops and enters the living room to observe the views from Paredes. She gets back on her bike and cycles her way into the kitchen and dining room, as well as through the white curtain wall that separates the more private areas. She goes outside and pedals along the glass facade. The reflections bring up a connection between the house and the rural environment around it. We follow the girl through the courtyard of a house that begins where it ends and that blends with the changing landscape. The video continues with a series of images of the house, conveying the idea that it blends with its rural surroundings. The movie ends in a surprising way with a touch of silliness. Cabo de Vila House tries to vanish all the walls and barriers between spaces, the same way this film tries to break the usual way of representing architecture. Credits This project won the "Houses" category in the ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards 2017. Casa Cabo de Vila / spaceworkers This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
The [B] Zone | 1882 Concept Store / [A+M]2 Architects Posted: 13 Feb 2017 09:00 PM PST
The former Pellizzari's pumps factory was still as it was during the production, before it was left abandoned. The site – the [B] zone - showed the ravages of time and the sequence of layers that have been added time after time. The project, then, comes from the industrial nature and the peculiar materials of the site - concrete and steel - and aims to preserve all the distinctive features of the building. One more layer only has been added: the exterior platform in black concrete. On the inside, an open and neutral space is divided through the archetypical steel frames of the greenhouses that host the 'production' and the new 'product'. Each area is then personalized with the selected and designed furniture. The objects and the materials create an intriguing contrast between the classy atmosphere and the rough industrial case (the existing building). The project dialogues with the natural light through a completely custom made approach. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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