Arch Daily |
- Spotlight: Peter Zumthor
- The Wooden House / studio PIKAPLUS
- The Studio / Squire and Partners
- Lee Family Residence / Harmony-design Studio
- Woof Shadow / Tachra Design
- SHHousing / poly.m.ur
- Charles House / Austin Maynard Architects
- Tate Harmer Reveals Plans for Eco-Hotel at the Eden Project in England
- BY Studios / WAATAA_we are all together around architecture
- WAF Reveals Theme for 2017 World Architecture Festival
- Perry World House / 1100 Architect
- Alejandro Aravena Wins 2017 Gothenburg Prize for Sustainable Development
- La Casona RV / Luis Daniel Salazar Machado
- Spotlight: William Pereira
- Korean Curiosity: Is Seoul Experiencing a "Neo-Brutalist Revival"?
- Florence Recreation Pavilion / Morgan Studio Architecture & Interiors + Kuhn Riddle Architects
- The Super Powers of an Architect
- 22 Skinny Houses With a Narrow Footprint and a Broad Impact
Posted: 25 Apr 2017 09:00 PM PDT Known for his sensuous materiality and attention to place, 2009 Pritzker Laureate Peter Zumthor (born April 26, 1943) is one the most revered architects of the 21st century. Shooting to fame on the back of The Therme Vals and Kunsthaus Bregenz, completed just a year apart in 1996 and 1997, his work privileges the experiential qualities of individual buildings over the technological, cultural and theoretical focus often favored by his contemporaries. As a teenager, Zumthor's first job was as an apprentice to a carpenter, and after studying architecture in his native Basel and then in New York, he worked as a conservation architect in Graubünden. Both of these early jobs gave him experience of craft construction and a delicate understanding of materials, and indeed in a 2001 profile in Vanity Fair, Paul Goldberger describes how "all of his architecture has the qualities a great cabinetmaker brings to his work: it is precise, and its glory lies in the perfection of its details and in the excellence of its materials." Zumthor's style of architecture perhaps epitomizes the principles of phenomenology, a belief in the primacy of sensory and experiential qualities in architecture that is inspired by the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. As such, Zumthor believes that in order to truly understand a building it must be experienced in person, and therefore rarely courts media publicity for his projects. He also does little to seek new projects, resulting in far fewer projects than architects of comparable renown, and works out of a small studio in a village in the Swiss Alps. All of this has earned him a near-mythical reputation as something between a hermit and a sage—though it is worth noting that some have questioned this interpretation, arguing that Zumthor has carefully crafted this persona just as many other famous architects have cultivated theirs. Regardless, his work has had a resounding impact on the world of architecture. His buildings are mysterious and enticing but show no signs of style or formal preconceptions. His concern is with context, experience, and materiality, not aesthetic. Perhaps this is his most significant contribution to architecture: a truly meaningful architecture of place and experience. Check out all of Zumthor's work featured on ArchDaily via the thumbnails below, and more coverage below those: Peter Zumthor, Pritzker 2009 Laureate Peter Zumthor awarded RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2013 Peter Zumthor: Seven Personal Observations on Presence In Architecture Multiplicity and Memory: Talking About Architecture with Peter Zumthor Peter Zumthor: "There's Nothing I'm Not Interested In" Peter Zumthor's Therme Vals Through the Lens of Fernando Guerra Peter Zumthor's Bruder Klaus Field Chapel Through the Lens of Aldo Amoretti The Noble Simplicity of Peter Zumthor's Allmannajuvet Zinc Mine Museum Royal Gold Medal 2013 Lecture: Peter Zumthor Peter Zumthor lecture at the Centre Georges Pompidou How Peter Zumthor and His Protégé Gloria Cabral Built a Connection Beyond Language A Photographer's Journey Through Zumthor Valley Video: Bach Comes to Life within the Walls of Peter Zumthor's Bruder Klaus Field Chapel New Renderings Show Major Changes to Zumthor's LACMA Redesign This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
The Wooden House / studio PIKAPLUS Posted: 25 Apr 2017 08:00 PM PDT
From the architect. Awarded 2nd place nationally in 2016 for the best wooden construction in Slovenia, The Wooden House is a residential building embodying the elusive architectural quality of blurring the line between external and internal spaces. The Wooden House was designed with the intent to provide a resilient shelter from adverse weather, whilst creating the internal environment replicating the sensation of being outdoors. Soft wooden interiors are shielded by a durable outer shell. Special consideration was given to the positioning of the house: situated in a natural environment at the verge of a large forest clearing, without disturbing the exceptional beauty of the landscape. With little room to maneuver, given the compact nature of the building plot, the focus was to utilize available space to serve the occupants' wellbeing.The project used wood as the dominant material in order for the house to blend with the wooded background. Simplicity in the design of The Wooden House is complemented by the oblique lateral facade, adding captivating nuances. All rooms with the exception of the bathroom face the sizable glass facade, letting in vivid colors and shapes of the natural surroundings. The living room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom with sauna are on the ground floor while two bedrooms are upstairs, overlooking the rooms in the ground floor. The landscaping design around the house respects the natural environment. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
The Studio / Squire and Partners Posted: 25 Apr 2017 07:00 PM PDT
From the architect. The Studio was created by revitalising a former Victorian depository to provide two floors of bespoke open plan office with an animated street frontage. The unit is the latest in a series of Greencoat projects where Squire and Partners has collaborated with Derwent London to extensively refurbish and extend a family of Victorian industrial buildings to deliver bespoke creative workspace, over a 20 year period. Externally, a metal framed glazed entrance screen with a latticed metal fascia affords views in and out of the space, accessed by a 3m high door with a full height brushed brass pull handle. The reception area has a polished concrete floor leading to two matt black steel staircases which feature a laser cut pattern and exposed bronze countersunk screws. A platform lift is encased with two layers of patterned mesh in fine brass and black copper plate. Office spaces are provided at lower and upper ground levels, linked by a top lit central lightwell spanned by a black steel bridge, which draws natural light deep into the plan. The industrial character of the building was a strong influence on the design, which sought to retain elements of the robust structure within a modern open plan workspace. Existing features such as vaulted concrete ceilings, brick walls and ochre coloured lifting beams were exposed to their raw state, and highlighted with modern light fittings, while other industrial mechanisms such as sliding doors, pulleys and window shutters were refurbished to reference the former use. Original Victorian colours found within the building informed a palette for feature elements such as structural beams in Signal Black and cast iron columns in Colchester Lathe Green. Inspiration was taken from existing patterns and motifs to create a series of contemporary elements including bespoke laser-cut casings for heating/cooling units and patterned floor tiles in the WCs. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Lee Family Residence / Harmony-design Studio Posted: 25 Apr 2017 03:00 PM PDT
From the architect. This is an old house renovation project. The original building was an early-style two-story house built over two decades ago. It is located in a rural area surrounded by vast sugarcane and rice fields. A tributary of Chianan Irrigation runs through the front of the building. In the back lies a folk religion temple with a good number of followers. We spent almost a year discussing through email with our client, Dr. Lee, before we first met. Our main goal is to prolong the house's life and to keep it in usage. Instead of renewing only the building itself, we created a courtyard and a semi-outdoor space by setting up walls around it. As a result, it increases the volume of the building, which invites sunlight, water, wind and plants of different seasons to come into the space and transforms it into a home with nature. Renovation of the original building We reserved most of the old Prussian blue kiln ceramic tiles featuring on the facades and replaced some with pebble-dash to accentuate the aged tiles' color and texture. We also tore down the old stairs, part of partition walls as well as some floor slabs and built a puny courtyard inside. This provides a green view at the new stairs to the second floor. It also creates cross ventilation and brings sunlight indoors. The main purpose is to design a comfortable living space without airconditioning. New construction around the old building By adding three solid white building structures around the original building in different heights, we constructed a southward courtyard, in which a rainwater recycling pool was built to lower the summer heat. The thick concrete walls provide a strong barrier of the chilling north wind in winter. Our intention of this project is to turn an abandoned building into a comfortable rural house. It is also our greatest hope to create compatibility between the old and the new and to see the house stand in harmony with the temple, the old trees, the waterway and the surrounding fields. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Posted: 25 Apr 2017 01:00 PM PDT
From the architect. Designing process The current importance of land value reduced the terraces number and novel shades in urban views. To fill this vacuum we introduced a third dimension on façade to create a deep surface in external figure. In designing the form, the surface had to be one piece with no cuts and using origami, a tri-dimension feature was formed by folding the two-dimension surface. The tri-dimension volume was achieved by creating new texture, creative layout and a body consisting of small pixels with no external addition to volume. The elements created "light and shade" to change façade into a structure in which, overlapped shades form the texture. We chose bricks, inexpensive material, as main element of façade formation as pixel materials that fit the design and more configuration with block texture. View Window frames are unique characteristics of building as they provide various visual views of city to the viewer. A green site was designed in the recessed southern wall as communication place with shades and beauty. Façade Implementation This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Posted: 25 Apr 2017 12:00 PM PDT
From the architect. The intention of the design was ultimately a construction system. Starting with the undivided mass and absorbing data of various layers, the building was completed through nonlinear process entangled with cause and effect. In the process of careful mapping and adjusting, architects can find an opportunity for contingency and intervene. One observes peculiarity in the logical process and completes diagrams as a reactive mechanism, to reflect the peculiarity of the process. The city is a place where private interests fiercely conflict with public interest. Architects play the role of controlling and adjusting two powers. They find the balance between the private interest code like a number of units, in the area, economic and feasibility, and the public interest code like setback regulation, building to land ration, and floor area ratio,. The site of SSHousing is situated in a shantytown-turned-multiplex housing area. SH Corporation secured the long-term lease of an area of land that had lain undeveloped for two decades and started the project to provide affordable rental housing. As the living rooms and windows of surrounding houses of the site were open toward this site, there were some complaints from neighbors. As such, a position of the opposite building's windows was mapped, and this was applied to window design of SSHousing to avoid excessive visual interference. The site conditions of a slope, a narrow road, and a retaining wall to the north have involved nearly all existing control lines to regulate building mass in Building Act, such as daylighting regulation, setback regulation, retaining wall height, and basement calculation. On the other hand, the client required 30 units, but the site area isn't enough provide any public space except the minimum area for staircase and center. Considering the slope of the site, the upper deck of underground parking lot was planned as the courtyard floor without restriction of building to land ratio. A diagram was made by putting this process together, and imagining line was extended and copied to design a bunch of vertically repeated volume. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Charles House / Austin Maynard Architects Posted: 25 Apr 2017 10:00 AM PDT
From the architect. The clients wanted a house they could live in for at least 25 years. A home that would grow with the family, anticipating and accommodating different needs at each stage. That could adapt to their young children's requirements as they grew into adulthood, and where they could comfortably accommodate grandparents in the near future. They asked for a practical, low maintenance house and garden, filled with light and water features and blurred distinctions between the indoors and outdoors. Sited in Kew, where neighbouring buildings compete for attention and status, our challenge was to create a home that didn't dominate the street and was imbedded in gardens. We aimed to create a home that didn't have a tall defensive fence, but instead offered openness and life to the street. The house is sited on the southern edge of an east/west block, to provide all the living spaces northern sun and direct access to the garden. The garden runs from the street to the school sports fields at the rear of the site, rethinking the suburban backyard and allowing a visual connection through, creating a continuous green strip. Intended to house a family of five, plus grandparents, Charles is a large home relative to our other projects, yet it is small compared to many of its neighbours. To break down the large mass, a number of forms are linked together, each given their own personality by using different slate patterns. Two sections of these forms are lined with bridges and ponds that run out to the garden. The external slate cladding flows through inside in certain areas, which reinforces the separation further. A covenant demanded that any new home built on the site be clad in stone. While there are many recently erected McMansions in the area made of brick, stone and tile, there are also a number of wonderful older homes that were crafted over a century ago. We loved the lichen covered slate roofs on many of these old Edwardian, Federation and Victorian homes and were keen to respond to and connect with this rich material history, without copying or creating a pastiche of the past. The slate contractors (Slate Roof Service Company) engaged to clad Charles are responsible for the care and maintenance of some of Melbourne's most important heritage buildings, including the Victorian Parliament and Carlton Garden's Exhibition Building. During their many decades of working with slate these seasoned craftsmen were excited by the challenges of applying their craft to vertical walls, rather than just the roof. Each of the patterns used on the various facades are patterns recommended by the contractors, from their years of experience working with slate. The beauty, skill and detail usually lost to the sky up on the roof, can be appreciated close up at Charles. With its double stud walls, bulk insulation, solar array, water collection, double glazing, adjustable sun shading and siting, Charles is one of our most sustainable homes. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Tate Harmer Reveals Plans for Eco-Hotel at the Eden Project in England Posted: 25 Apr 2017 09:20 AM PDT Tate Harmer has released plans for a new £8.5million hotel that will provide accommodation for visitors of The Eden Project in Cornwall, England, as the project has received planning approval. The 109-room building will utilize locally-sourced materials and meet high standards of efficiency and sustainability, matching the conservation-minded spirit of the Eden Project. Split into two volumes connected by an underground service corridor, the building will take a low-visual profile that integrates into the surrounding landscape. Connecting visitors to nature, a tree-lined central axis passing between the volumes will create a public area and event space. Circulation throughout has been arranged to maximize views and enhance the natural experience. The lower levels of the buildings will be clad in a local stone, while the upper levels housing the hotel rooms will be wrapped in a local timber pole screen. In addition to the hotel areas, the complex will contain a restaurant and an events and education center to house both Eden Project and private events. The Eden Hotel is the latest project by Tate Harmer for the Eden Project, following the Rainforest Canopy Walkway, the second phase of which recently opened to the public. "This building is a unique response to its local Cornish context and the philosophy of the Eden Project," said Jerry Tate, Partner, Tate Harmer. "Landscape is at the heart of the scheme. We are proud to have developed this design with the Eden Project as part of our ongoing relationship." Work on the project will begin late this year, with completion expected in 2018. News via Tate Harmer.
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BY Studios / WAATAA_we are all together around architecture Posted: 25 Apr 2017 08:00 AM PDT
From the architect. We found three empty large spaces with substantial height ceilings, large windows dimensions and each with its own sanitary facilities. Their use till the date was commercial. The main purpose of the project focused on the conversion of these commercial spaces into living spaces. We quickly realized that, due to the nature of the pre-existence, the housing core to be generated could not and should not follow conventional patterns. The idea is to solve the problem of inhabiting with the creation of independent wood structures that simultaneously solve the spatial organization and distribute all the functional contents necessary to the house. Pre-existing space walls are covered with cabinets making it the physical limits of the house, with the additional function of providing storage and ensuring acoustic and thermal comfort. Then, there is a reorganization and reformulation of the existing sanitary facilities, making possible its appropriation of the lower and upper levels. Finally, two colored modules are placed inside. A yellow infrastructures container of the cooking act, and a blue one more related to the act of resting. It is essentially these containers that organize the functions and define the space of the house. It can be said that in a hollow and incipient solid, a scenario is created through the introduction of modules that make the overlapping and intertwining of spatial functions. It is with these modules that the inhabitant will interact and experience his existential space of refuge. He will open and close, get up and down, transforming his daily experience. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
WAF Reveals Theme for 2017 World Architecture Festival Posted: 25 Apr 2017 07:20 AM PDT The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has announced the theme for the tenth edition of the conference: 'Performance.' Held November 15-17 at the Arena Berlin in Germany, the festival will focus on the topic of performance in architecture. This will include several new additions to the tour program, including a visit to Hans Scharoun's revolutionary Berlin Philharmonie; Gerhard Spangenberg's Radialsystem V, a former pump station transformed into a venue for contemporary dance and music; and Frank Gehry's recently-completed Pierre Boulez Concert Hall. Commenting on the selection of the 2017, WAF Programme Director Paul Finch said: "This year we will examine the multiple aspects of performance that architecture has to embrace: aesthetic, technical, economic and psychological. We will be discussing buildings designed for performance – for example theatres and concert halls – but also the role that buildings play in the life and spectacle of the city itself." Returning to Franz Ahrens' Arena Berlin, this year's WAF looks to build on a successful 2016 edition that saw the highest attendance numbers ever, with more than 2,300 architects and designers over three days. Entrants for the WAF Awards programme can still take advantage of an Early Bird rate for two more days, until April 27. The final deadline for entries this year is May 18. Practices submitting three or more projects will be able to enjoy a 15% discount on entry fees. In honor of the selected theme, the WAF has rounded up a selection of top performance venues that have been nominated for a WAF Award in its first 10 years: Heydar Aliyev Center / Zaha Hadid Architects Guangzhou Opera House / Zaha Hadid Architects Winspear Opera House / Foster + Partners Oslo Opera House / Snøhetta CKK "Jordanki" / Menis Arquitectos Grand Canal Theatre / Studio Daniel Libeskind La Llotja Theatre and Congress Center / Mecanoo Melbourne Recital Centre and Theatre / ARM Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center / Grimshaw Merce Cunningham Dance Company Stage Design / Miralles Tagliabue EMBT Zénith / Foster + Partners Cultural Centre / Eva Jiricna Architects Ltd UK Centre for Carnival Arts / Ash Sakula Architects Grande Halle / Agence Moatti et Rivière Acoustic Shells / Flanagan Lawrence The Bamboo Playhouse / Eleena Jamil Architect Learn more about the 2017 World Architecture Festival, here.
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Perry World House / 1100 Architect Posted: 25 Apr 2017 06:00 AM PDT
From the architect. Designed by 1100 Architect, Perry World House serves as the University of Pennsylvania's new hub for global engagement. The new space allows affiliates from each of the university's 12 schools to address international affairs in a cross-disciplinary way. To accommodate the organization's diverse programs, the 17,400-square-foot building includes a range of spaces, including classrooms, meeting rooms, 14 offices, a 50-person conference room, and common areas, all designed to encourage interaction. At its core is the World Forum, a glass-enclosed atrium that serves as a dynamic multi-use event space capable of hosting seminars, lectures, and special events. Located at the heart of the University of Pennsylvania campus, the new limestone-clad building sits at the intersection of the main pedestrian route, Locust Walk, and the busy urban thoroughfare of 38th Street. Perry World House mediates these different conditions by modulating its scale accordingly, responding to both the pedestrian scale to its south and west and to the urban scale to its north and east. The building also helps to shape usable outdoor space, as its landscape will be used for informal gathering and as part of the pedestrian experience of the campus. Studio Bryan Hanes, a Philadelphia-based landscape architecture firm, designed the outdoor spaces. 1100 Architect elected to salvage and reconstruct, per historic documentation, a portion of an existing house built in 1851. Doing this allows the new building to relate to the domestic scale of the adjacent campus buildings to its west, such as the Kelly Writers House. The extant structure also helps to reference Philadelphia's westward expansion during the 19th century. The original stucco house most recently served as a fraternity house. On track for LEED Silver certification, the project incorporates many sustainable design features, including abundant natural light (direct views out from 98% of occupied spaces), stormwater capture (90% of the average annual rainfall), energy-efficient fixtures, and materials with high recycled content. "With its open and flexible spaces, Perry World House reflects and supports the aims of the institution it houses," says 1100 Architect founding principal David Piscuskas, FAIA. "We have created an environment, filled with natural light, where different points of view can be discussed in different types of settings. Transparency between spaces reinforces an emphasis on cooperation between academic disciplines and different world views, while the dialogue of a 19th-century cottage and a 21st-century building gives form to the timelessness of these pursuits." "Perry World House is designed to serve a very serious purpose while being welcoming and comfortable. This dual intent is expressed on its primary facade, with the blunt and provocative adjacency of its new institutional scale and pre-existing residential scale components. The turn clearly expresses the university's desire to look to its past and its future, all at once and in one place," says University of Pennsylvania campus architect David Hollenberg, AIA. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Alejandro Aravena Wins 2017 Gothenburg Prize for Sustainable Development Posted: 25 Apr 2017 05:10 AM PDT 2016 Pritzker Prize winner Alejandro Aravena has been selected as the 2017 recipient of the Gothenburg Prize for Sustainable Development, an international award that recognizes an individual or group for "outstanding performance and achievements towards a sustainable future. Given annually since 2005, the prize has previously been awarded to environmentalists, scientists, engineers and political advocates – Aravena is the first architect to receive the honor. In the award citation, the jury lauds Aravena as "an innovative Chilean architect that together with his colleagues in the "Do-Tank" Elemental applies a design philosophy including citizens as part of the solution and not part of the problem, creating bridges of trust between people, government and business. All three dimensions of sustainability are balanced in a participatory process; socially, environmentally and economically." "Mr Aravena, together with his colleagues in Elemental, argues that with the right design, sustainability is nothing but the rigorous use of common sense. The results are often simple solutions to the complex challenges." The jury calls particular attention to Elemental's social housing initiative, embodied by projects including the Quinta Monroy, Lo Barnechea, Monterrey and Villa Verde housing communities. The award, along with a SEK 1 million prize, will be presented to Aravena in a ceremony on November 22 at Draken, Folkets Hus in Gothenburg. Read more about the award here. News via Gothenburg Award.
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La Casona RV / Luis Daniel Salazar Machado Posted: 25 Apr 2017 04:00 AM PDT
From the architect. Tapalpa, proclaimed pueblo mágico (magic town) of Jalisco, is located 118 km away from Guadalajara, and it's set 2070 meters above sea level, where the natural, architectonic and cultural riches endow with magic to the recreational and resting visits. A reservoir gently covers the Rancho Viejo living complex where La Casona is settled, the therm was adopted in Spain, and it designates the stately homes of the mountains. The project was developed under the philosophical organic architecture grounds, where design, material, and construction methods are a reinterpretation of those rooted culturally to the zone. Bank stone, volcanic stone, adobe, pinewood, concrete and roof tile are the regent materials in the construction, the expertise of the local builders are the very soul of walls and ceilings. We inhabited the house before we built it, we tried to evoke the childhood home where imagination and each and every memory find its rightful place. The entrance opens through a stone volume, a compression atmosphere and shelter receives the visitor, just to be surrounded by light, panoramic views and the reflection of the sky on the lake as soon as you pass the threshold. La Casona splits its functions on three big blocks, the main block, which corresponds to the shared services and amenities as the living room, dining room, kitchen, bar, game room and jacuzzi, and two side blocks with two bungalows each. The main hall, lets the sunlight in and articulates all the spaces and activities contained within this block. A stone block opened to nature. On each side there are inserted stone blocks that keep inside the most intimate function of La Casona, a place for sleep and dreaming. The Lake, the landmark of La Casona, it's an artificial 750 m2 reservoir on which the circular plant open terrace seems to float, a simple space that grants all the drama to the water flow. La Casona conciliates the traditional methods and materials with the contemporary life demands, it's the mediator between what building for a human being, and building in communion with the environment was, is and could be. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Posted: 25 Apr 2017 03:30 AM PDT Winner of the 1942 Acadamy Award for Best Special Effects, William Pereira (April 25, 1909 – November 13, 1985) also designed some of America's most iconic examples of futurist architecture, with his heavy stripped down functionalism becoming the symbol of many US institutions and cities. Working with his more prolific film-maker brother Hal Pereira, William Pereira's talent as an art director translated into a long and prestigious career creating striking and idiosyncratic buildings across the West Coast of America. Born to Portuguese immigrants in Chicago, Pereira graduated from the University of Illinois and rapidly established himself as a prominent figure, designing a few notable Art Deco buildings and helping to draft the masterplan for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Moving to Los Angles and becoming involved in the film industry with his brother Hal in 1930, it wasn't until his partnership with Charles Luckman in the 1950s that his distinctive style of heavy masses with stripped down detailing emerged, becoming increasingly radical as his career progressed. In 1958 Pereira & Luckman completed perhaps their most famous work, the Googie-styled Theme Building at Los Angles International Airport. Splitting from Luckman in 1959 and forming his own, independent practice, Pereira's work became a whirlwind of concrete, completing as many as 250 projects in the 1960s and 1970s, and working on increasingly high-profile landmark commissions. His austere geometrical style was soon to be seen in pyramids, ziggurats and domes in a variety of areas along the West Coast, including the San Diego International Airport (1959), plans and buildings for campuses for the Universities of Southern California, California (Irvine) and Pepperdine, the sprawling Los Angles County Museum of Art, and of course his two most prominent landmarks: the inverted ziggurat of the Geisel Library and perhaps the most recognizable building in San Francisco, the Transamerica Pyramid. Pereira's forays into urban planning were also suitably monolithic, for example the masterplan for the Californian city of Irvine, a tightly regulated planned city around the campus of the University of California. Initially planning for a new city of 50,000, Irvine's regimented plan of individually planned and styled villages has since swelled to more than 4 times that size. His plan for the university, with stark brutalist buildings jutting out of the hillside on concrete platforms, formed an academic island within the suburbs he designed. Find out more about one of Pereira's most famous works, the Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego, via the thumbnails below: This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Korean Curiosity: Is Seoul Experiencing a "Neo-Brutalist Revival"? Posted: 25 Apr 2017 02:30 AM PDT During his frequent travels to Seoul, Hong Kong- and Singapore-based photographer Raphael Olivier noticed a new trend taking the South Korean capital: a crop of geometric, concrete buildings of all genres. He calls the new style Neo-Brutalism, after the modernist movement that proliferated in the late 1950s to 1970s, in which raw concrete was meant to express a truth and honesty. Olivier's observation led him to capture the phenomenon in a personal photo series—a photographic treasure trove of these projects which, when taken as a whole, uncovers a cross-section of this trend in the city's architecture. The "Brutalist Revival" has been well documented over the past several years, but the phrase usually refers to a positive shift in our perception of the style, rather than a return to the actual construction of Brutalist buildings. A central part of this movement is the presence of Brutalist buildings on internet sites like Instagram and Tumblr, where dedicated accounts with tens of thousands of followers post photos of both real 20th-century projects and entirely imagined designs. These photos can border on the sensationalist: they often cut off the edges of buildings in a way that makes them lose their scale, or view the buildings from angles that appear looming. Olivier's series departs from this visual vocabulary—in nearly every photo, the entire building is framed in the shot, often with surrounding buildings, cars, and passersby to establish the subject as a living part of an urban fabric. Yet despite its deviation from the standard style for today's Brutalist photography, the series works in a familiar way. With its square framing and sometimes imperfect shots, Olivier's series feels like (a more determined and informed version of) the documentation and urban exploration of more amateur photographers. The photographer says of the work, "the core motivation of this is just that it's fun for me to explore an urban environment with an angle, with a specific thing that I'm looking for. So it's really the process, I think that's what's interesting to me. The process of finding the spots and getting them at the right time, in good light—basically it's the process of shooting that I find fun." Following one architectural thread through a massively complex and diverse city like Seoul helps to make sense of it. Olivier's initial recognition of the Neo-Brutalist buildings was followed by research into specific projects, like Moon Hoon's Two Moon, on sites like ArchDaily. He compiled a list of buildings and addresses, and spent several 10-hour days "hunting." The city has become so saturated with these buildings that, on the way to a known project, Olivier would stumble upon more. He describes the experience as exhausting, but ultimately rewarding: "day by day, I was discovering more and more and finding that they visually it had, I would say, a storyline, and the pictures were articulating themselves pretty well into a narrative." With tiled and textured finishes and flowing forms, some of the buildings documented by Olivier are more Neo- that Brutalist. The commercialization of the style is evident—hence Olivier's use of the word "trend" to describe the phenomenon—and these buildings seem more popular and numerous in the city than 20th-century Brutalism ever was. And the photographer thinks the trend is still growing: "when I was walking, I could see that there was so much in construction, that were obviously kind of half-built, that were in this vein, in this style. So it seems like the trend is definitely not over." Many of the projects which make their way into the series express their own architectural merit, but some are included to serve a different purpose: "some of them are just trying to be cool but they don't really have a budget, or they don't really have the concept, so it's just like 'oh let's just make something grey and minimal' and it's sort of boring. I tried to ignore them and just focus on the ones that are a little bit more interesting because of their design or because of their function." Packed into a commercial storefront and sandwiched between two other Neo-Brutalist buildings, one such project is the Torchlight Baptist Church, in which the architecture itself is neither particularly unique nor impressive. "You feel like they just kind of built that. I find it weird that it's a church and it's, you know, right next to a bar. Between a parking lot and a bar," explains Olivier. "It could be a store, it could be anything. It could be a record shop or whatever, but it just happens to be a hardcore Baptist church. This building doesn't make sense but it's quite intriguing, so I quite like it." Olivier has his own theories about the growing prominence of Neo-Brutalism in Seoul. "Something that's very Asian, or at least very Korean, is that it's good to be the same as everyone else," he says. "Maybe in the US or in Europe, we try to differentiate and have a separate identity, as opposed to in Asia where it's hard to do something new. But once one person does it, or a few people do it, then it kind of becomes acceptable and then everyone does it, and nobody feels like 'oh, you're just copying.' Everyone does the same thing, that's cool. And I think that's happening in Korea: 'Oh! This is the new cool, that's what we're all gonna do now!' Until something new shows up." Olivier is clear that he has no intention for his series to be a statement or judgment. It's an observation, a window for him to discover the city. He has plans to return to Seoul to continue the series, and thinks of this as "part one," for discovery and experimentation. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Florence Recreation Pavilion / Morgan Studio Architecture & Interiors + Kuhn Riddle Architects Posted: 25 Apr 2017 02:00 AM PDT
This 3,300 sqft project serves as a pavilion for community recreation fields in Florence, Massachusetts. The program includes storage, restrooms, a meeting room and a concession booth. The structures are uninsulated, and only open intermittently during the warmer months of the year. The roof was designed to accommodate a future photovoltaic array, which will provide power to the site. The buildings provide a quiet backdrop to the activity on the fields, and offer shelter for the players and spectators gathered there. Strung between each structural module is a built-in bench, inviting visitors to stop, rest, and enjoy the views. Although the budget was very tight, the project presented an opportunity to create more than just the functional shed the program required. It is an offering of truly public architecture, with a rich spatial experience that can be enjoyed by all. AGRICULTURAL INSPIRATION Prior to the town purchasing the land for public recreation, the fields had been farmland for over a century. The form of the pavilion references the agricultural history of the site by taking a modern approach to the classic New England barn, in general, and to the tobacco barns of the area, in particular. SCALE: RESIDENTIAL VS. RECREATION On one side of the site are single-story ranch houses, while on the other side are two-story high baseball fences. The buildings facilitate the transition between scales, sloping lower toward the residential area, and rising higher toward the recreation area—and the fences, fields, and forest beyond. BUILDING AS GATEWAY Rather than create a singular mass, which would terminate views and movement, two separate buildings were formed to act as a gateway to the overall site. TRANSITION FROM SOLID TO VOID As the buildings move toward the playground, main vehicular access, and community gardens, they transition from solid to void, as a way to engage these public spaces. BUILDING AS BENCH CHALLENGE: How to make a closed building still feel open. REPONSE: Make the entire building act as seating, available at all times. The biggest challenge of the project was to have the buildings continue to be inviting and engaging to the public, even when the interior is closed, as it will be much of the year. Although this was not a requirement of the program, it was recognized to be critical to the project's success. The design solution was to make the entire building function as seating, by stringing benches between each module. Where the benches are open on both sides, they are particularly deep—24" wide—for comfort. On the recreation side, they can function as spectator seating, and on the parking lot side, they can function as a place where kids can wait for their rides home. In the covered area by concessions, the benches serve as additional seating, to supplement future mobile picnic tables. And when the building is rented out for parties, and special events, some of the seating is already built right in. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
The Super Powers of an Architect Posted: 25 Apr 2017 01:00 AM PDT "Look up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane?" Nope, just another sketch model flying out of the studio window, armed with powers of frustration and rage of its creator: the architect. Asides from all technical know-how and caffeine tolerance levels, successful architects have a specific set of gifts that set them apart from regular citizens. These superpowers, gained through the slice of the radioactive cutter, are essential as they fulfill their destinies meeting budget constraints (BAM!), producing spectacular ideas (POW!) and managing clients' expectations (KABOOM!). But most important of all is the iconic underwear. You didn't think just anyone could pull that off now, did you? 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 |
22 Skinny Houses With a Narrow Footprint and a Broad Impact Posted: 24 Apr 2017 11:00 PM PDT Skinny houses have a wider appeal than their footprint would suggest. With cities becoming denser, and land becoming rare and expensive, architects are increasingly challenged to design in urban infill spaces previously overlooked. Although designing within these unusual parameters can be difficult, they often require an individual, sensitive response, which can often lead to innovative, playful, even inspiring results. With that in mind, here are 22 houses with a narrow footprint, and a broad impact. The Keret House - Jakub SzczesnyHouse in Nada - FujiwaraMuro ArchitectsskinnySCAR - Gwendolyn Huisman and Marijn BotermanBlemen House - Blemen ArchitectsThe White Snake - Space4architectureThe Junsei House - Suyama Peterson DeguchiSurry Hills House - Benn & Penna ArchitectureLes Tiennes Marcel - Mohamed Omaïs & Olivia Gomes architectsHouse H - HAO DesignStacking green - Vo Trong Nghia ArchitectsScenario's House - Scenario ArchitectureGrangegorman Residence - ODOS architects7x18 House - AHL architects associatesGrown House - FHHH FRIENDSLucky Drops - Atelier TekutoTwo Homes in Jeongwang-dong - MaasarchitectureThe Acute House - OOF! architectureSaigon House - a21studioHouse for Pottery Festival - Office for Environment ArchitectureVertical Loft - Shift Architecture UrbanismIslington Maisonette - Larissa Johnston ArchitectsHouse of 33 Years - ASSISTANTThis posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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