Arch Daily |
- RAVE / Tom Mathieu Architect
- Hessenwald School / wulf architekten
- Refurbishment of Traditional Dutch Farmhouse / Piet Hein Eek
- MANDVI House / SPASM Design Architects
- House in Johoku / Motoki Ishikawa Architect & Associates
- Parabolic Plywood Office / RAW Architecture
- Hyytinen Cabin / Salmela Architect
- TED Talk: Jeanne Gang on Buildings That Create Community
- Fosbury & Sons Co-Work / GOING EAST
- weeHouse / Alchemy
- Steven Holl Architects Unveils Plans for Cloud-Like Cultural and Health Center in Shanghai
- Experimentarium / CEBRA
- UC Architecture School Building / Gonzalo Claro
- As Phyllis Lambert Turns 90, Exhibition Examining Her Impact and Influence Opens in Montréal
- William McDonough on Sustainability: "Carbon Is Not the Enemy"
- Gymnase Jean Gachet / LINK - Chazalon Glairoux Lafond - architectes associés
- The Importance of Human Scale When Sketching
- Budapest's Largest Urban Development in 30 Years Begins Construction
| Posted: 25 Jan 2017 09:00 PM PST  © Yannick Milpas
 © Yannick Milpas From the architect. The building site is situated on a typical Belgian allotment with small plots of +- 500m2. The construction zone is 15m deep and 11,5m wide with on either side a 3 meter construction- free zone, a front garden of 6 and a backyard of 8 metres.  © Kris Snoeck Due to the location of the plot, next to a children's playground and considering its orientation, we decided to use only half of the available construction zone for the construction of the building and create a maximum of east, south & west-oriented outer space.  © Yannick Milpas All night functions are located on the first level in a rectangle volume with only 1 horzontal window on the north side, all other facades on the first floor are windowless.  © Yannick Milpas This rectangle block is build completely out of CLT (cross laminated timber) and is supported on the ground lever by 8 small steel poles and a concrete core. This made is possible to create an open space on ground level, completely contoured by floor- to-ceiling triple glass windows.  © Yannick Milpas  Section  © Yannick Milpas As the ground floor is bordered for 100% by glass, the limits of the house and living spaces are transferred to the borders of the plot. Creating a very spacious and open feeling with abundance of light and roominess, despite the limited floor surface.  © Yannick Milpas Black aluminium screens are installed around the plot limits to guarantee privacy. the construction-free zones left and right of the building zone are integrated in the aluminium screens, making private outdoor spaces. These outdoor "rooms" are transformed in a water area and flower/herb garden, visible from within the house but not from the street. The outdoor terrace-area is visually shielded from street glances by a large sliding metal gate.  © Yannick Milpas Product Description. The aim was to build a compact, contemporary home with maximum attention to energy use and durability , but foremost create a maximum of spacious feeling on a small plot .  © Kris Snoeck The outer walls on the ground level are triple glazing on all 4 sides, there are no solid walls. We choose CLT ( cross laminated timber ) as the only construction material for the complete first level (floors + walls + ceiling ). due to the light weight of the material, the steel structure on the ground level is reduced and made it possible to maintain maximum openness on the ground level.  © Kris Snoeck The CLT has even more advantages : air-tight / prefabrication / fast construction / very accurate / construction material is also finished product /...  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Hessenwald School / wulf architekten Posted: 25 Jan 2017 07:00 PM PST  Courtesy of wulf architekten
 Courtesy of wulf architekten From the architect. The Hessenwald School is located in a glade near the village of Gräfenhausen, a part of Weiterstadt (Darmstadt). It is a cooperative, lower secondary level comprehensive school with multiple tracks that allow student mobility among different school forms, such as academic high school, mid-level secondary school, middle school, and combined lower- and mid-level secondary school for a total of 700 pupils. The new building is subdivided into three pavilion-like elements grouped around a common center. The pavilions establish a sense of individuality and identity for the respective grade levels, and each has a multipurpose room and five classrooms on its two upper floors. The specialized classrooms, administration, cafeteria, and school kitchen are located at the entrance level of the pavilions.  Courtesy of wulf architekten At the heart of the newly created ensemble are the common areas, such as the auditorium, the music room, and the recreation room, which have been designed as a large "public center." The pavilions are grouped around this central hall, which is suffused with light and cites the natural surroundings with its wood surfaces and the terrazzo floor. The perforated sunshading in front of the peripheral gallery filters the daylight, creating an atmosphere much like that under the trees. All areas of the school ensemble can be coupled spatially.  Courtesy of wulf architekten  Courtesy of wulf architekten The design implements in built form the desired spatial division and recognizability of the grade levels and strengthens the genius loci, which lies in the uniqueness of the site and the appeal of the forest clearing. The architectural language of the new school suitably reinforces the conceptual clarity of the design. The serenely designed pavilions are clearly discernible as such. Their facades of exposed masonry coated with a light-gray whitewash are punctuated by large horizontal window openings with low sills.  Ground Floor  1st Floor Plan The special areas in the hallways and on the ground floor are deliberately designed to be transparent. This not only articulates the architectural form, but also develops a sensuous contrast between the classes, on the one hand, and the circulation and communal spaces on the other. A "reading platform" was developed for each grade-level area, creating zones within the flexibly usable area between the classrooms and defining a quiet retreat within the forum.  Courtesy of wulf architekten The outdoor space is understood as a place that can be interpreted, and which draws its strength from the interplay between contact and retreat, between free play and group activity. The space between the buildings and the forest edge can be activated as needed with small garden rooms for different functions, such as a garden laboratory, tree nursery, school garden or green classroom.  Section The school's high energy standard is evidenced by its compliance with the Passive House Institute's criteria for the primary energy demand of the entire building.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Refurbishment of Traditional Dutch Farmhouse / Piet Hein Eek Posted: 25 Jan 2017 06:00 PM PST  © Thomas Mayer
 © Thomas Mayer From the architect. In June 2014 we were asked to devise a plan for the renovation of a historic farmhouse (1904) in the Friesian town of Woudsend. The client wanted to turn it into a vibrant meeting place, in which the handicrafts and food from the surrounding area play a central role. The milk and meat come from the Frisian cow, the flour from the mill in the village, the wood from the adjacent mill and you can catch your own eel and smoke it in the smokehouse down the road.  © Thomas Mayer In keeping with this wish for authenticity we wanted to emphasise the original qualities of the farm as much as possible. Showing off the majestic roof construction in its full glory formed the starting point for the design. We were faced with the choice of searching for contrast between old and new (modern) or to match the existing building.  © Thomas Mayer An ugly mezzanine floor had been added during an earlier renovation, in the space where the cows used to stand, that was used to store hay. This had to be removed because the floor obstructed the view of the beautiful roof construction. We eventually decided to keep the later added steel construction, but to create an enormous atrium in it and finish it with clean lines so that the roof construction would stand out from the white plasterwork and be clearly visible from practically every spot on the ground floor. Instead of throwing away the ugly, we have put it to good use.  Ground Floor Plan  Section  1st Floor Plan The ugly steel construction gave rise to the design, but even without it this design would have come to the surface as the most logical and best choice – a sleek shape with an atrium in which the historic roof construction is visible. The remaining choices all stemmed from this one decision.  © Thomas Mayer  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| MANDVI House / SPASM Design Architects Posted: 25 Jan 2017 02:00 PM PST  © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia
 © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia From the architect. Being the birth place and sacred hometown of the family, in Kutch – Gujarat, Mandvi holds a special place in the hearts of the clients.  © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia SPASM was already working on another project for the clients hence understanding the needs of the family was easy. Located in the inner city of Mandvi with very narrow streets, with hardly any view around, the house was visualised as an introverted object drawing light mainly from the sky.  © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia Traditionally the houses in Mandvi have been built of load bearing walls and timber. The choice to build out of a concrete frame was made due to seismic reasons. The studio visited many homes in the neighbourhood and the resultant design seeks to replicate the sense of space, light quality and intimacy of the homes which exist around.  © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia Details such as in-wall storage units, allow for cleaner rooms and better utilization of precious little space.  © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia Thin windows with timber verticals allow light breeze and privacy while restricting sunlight.  © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia The body of the building is completely clad in locally procured 'KHAVDA' stone, in a worn and pitted texture, echoing the worn building bastions of what used to be a major port in Gujarat of the yesteryears.  © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia The floors in the house throughout are white 'Bhaswara' marble from neighboring Rajasthan and the walls and ceilings are seamlessly rendered in cool white lime plaster.  © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia The house is self-contained and compact at the lower level as a response to Mandvi's extreme climate while the rooftop has been treated to provide the much needed sense of openness and release.  Section  Section The timber jaali wraps around the terrace to create an intimate lounging space for cool evenings, from where one may gaze out at the spectacle of the Kutch sky. The blue of the sky bleeds into the gaps between the timbers of the vertical jaali, akin to the balustrades of the neighboring homes.  © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia A video expresses the cacophony of the thin, winding streets of inner cities, of the area, specifically of the Kutch region. Arrival into the coolth of the home heightens the sense of peace and respite from the hustle and bustle around.  © Sebastian Zachariah & Ira Gosalia  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| House in Johoku / Motoki Ishikawa Architect & Associates Posted: 25 Jan 2017 12:00 PM PST  © Masao Nishikawa
 © Masao Nishikawa From the architect. The way how to take distance correspond to the changing city. The project area is a residential area surrounding by buildings, including the front path, consequently all building stands too close to be seen by each other. Even residential area, we can say it will be continue changing because there are many kinds of scenery of many kinds of periods. It can be say not only for city but also for the situations of residents living here. I thought the architecture should be considered the city view and have good distance with surroundings, and have to think about the crowded situation, changing of peripheral part and the life of future residents.  © Masao Nishikawa The construction is divided in the building where each person spends time and where family gather, by the stairs room. The strongly reinforced pent-roof bind the two buildings. For the result of the layout, each buildings surrounding the approach and the pent-roof barrier for circumference that also controlling proportion, the approach acquires compatibility like inner court. This closed, though opened approach become a buffer zone – keeping distance to circumference but also surrounding so that solve narrowness and can get stable light not effected by any situations.  © Masao Nishikawa Inside the building, the continuance of changeful space made by height-different skip floor makes us feel more expanse than the acreage. The lag made by the construction control line of sight, also make moderate connection that can be feel each sign. The stair room between the building become buffer-zone, gives a not too close distance to each room like sleeping space, gathering space. From the opening, we can see neighborhood over the buffer-zone-approach, so it haves good distance with ambient environment. On the top of the building, there is roof terrace and loft. Also here has height level difference to make independency, and to communicate with family at living room or each room.  Plan  Section I examine closely the distance of periphery, outside and inside, and endeavored to make the house that stands natural, quiet, in times in the future, for the residents can receive the good life environments and the architecture can be adapt to each conditions in each time.  © Masao Nishikawa  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Parabolic Plywood Office / RAW Architecture Posted: 25 Jan 2017 11:00 AM PST  © Eric Dinardi
 © Eric Dinardi From the architect. Located in Alam Sutera, Tangerang, as it completed in 2016, Puncak Keemasan Group Office occupies 2.450 sqm of built area. The building is intended as office for several companies, which is a noticeable challenge in programming scheme. As part of given solution, the design proposes permeable transition to create unifying ambience with structural parabolic shape made by plywood while maintaining separation inside each chamber. Material that used as main language is plywood that covered almost all interior office. The result is jungle-like hall which connect every room with tree bookshelf and library as its main hub.  © Eric Dinardi Primary concern of the design is to restrain any unecessary cost while maintain sense of playfulness and creativity.  Floor Plan Form of design was expressed in two main sequences. The first sequence is to convey the flow by continuous circle form of tree structured bookshelves along the path of the office. The Second sequence is the type of flow expressed through plywood ceilling placement, which creating sense of wave, thus also resulted in dynamic interior lighting. Another use of plywood is manifested in giant curvature bookshelf that also works as room partition. This bookshelf formed double curvature for a reason. The curve reversed each other vertically, like a section of double helix. This way, it has stable load point in the middle of double arch as self-supporting barrier.  © Eric Dinardi The design also aims for material efficiency. By using 600 x 600 waffle module of bare plywood to cover the ceiling, gave results to its cost efficiency up to 50% to compare with normal cost. Not only as transitional element, plywood also became main form for its ceiling structure. Giant waffle is also functioned for mantling cables and pipes by the least usage of material.  © Eric Dinardi Entire interior element is consistent with same porous detail; from square module bookshelf to various high for ceiling, while some part of supporting areas is using modular rectangle layout form. The detail is enhanced by low hanging edison lamp along the office, and synthetic grass carpet to heighten the jungle mood.  Diagram  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Hyytinen Cabin / Salmela Architect Posted: 25 Jan 2017 09:00 AM PST  © Paul Crosby
 © Paul Crosby From the architect. Hyytinen Cabin in Northern Minnesota replaces an old non-insulated structure. From the existing cabin to the new iteration the orientation was shifted from parallel to the lake to perpendicular. The longer plan facing south and looking toward the restored old cinder block sauna allows the east end to be fully glazed without visual obstruction. It provides a south facing deck and a welcoming entry under the cantilevered second floor.  © Paul Crosby  © Paul Crosby The main floor includes the master bedroom, kitchen, and great room, above the lower level workshop. The upper level has two guest rooms, one cantilevered over the main floor entry terrace. A new boathouse flanks the fireplace terrace on the shoreline.  © Paul Crosby  Plan  © Paul Crosby Product Description. The all-wood interior is of locally supplied basswood left to age naturally. The exterior Western Red Cedar cladding is stained with a pine tar-like treatment and a splash base is installed below to protect its longevity. The beautiful texture of the cedar siding is emphasized next to the smooth finish of the wood paper-resin Richlite of the same deep black color. The bright blue accent accents complement the pinkish red door of the existing sauna. The dry laid local stone walls, steps, and pathways provide a wonderful warmth and contextual appropriateness to the rugged Northern Minnesota setting.  © Paul Crosby  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| TED Talk: Jeanne Gang on Buildings That Create Community Posted: 25 Jan 2017 08:00 AM PST
In this TED Talk, Jeanne Gang makes a case for the architect as community builder, and how design choices should begin with creating connections between people. In the 12 minute video, Gang walks through some of her firm's more recent and successful projects, including the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, Chicago's Aqua Tower and a proposal for a completely reimagined police station, outlining the architectural decisions that helped to foster a sense of community. "Through architecture, we can do much more than create buildings," says Gang. "We can help steady this planet we all share." Video via TED. Studio Gang Creates 7 Strategies to Reimagine Civic Spaces As Vibrant Urban Hubs Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership / Studio Gang Video: The "Polis Station," Studio Gang's Ideal for a Post-Ferguson America Studio Gang | Office | ArchDaily  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Fosbury & Sons Co-Work / GOING EAST Posted: 25 Jan 2017 07:00 AM PST  © Frederik Vercruysse
 © Bart Kiggen From the architect. Fosbury & Sons has taken up residence in the WATT-tower in Antwerp, a building by legendary modernist architect Léon Stynen. On the impressive first floor Fosbury & Sons founders Stijn Geeraets and Maarten Van Gool have launched a new and high-quality way of working, 'the renaissance of work', focussing on the needs of today's generation. Fosbury & Sons is an inspiring and professional workplace where entrepreneurs, digital nomads and larger companies come together and benefit from all kinds of additional services. As a member, you will enjoy the comfort of a professional office, with the welcome warmth of your living room, the services and looks of a hotel and the fun of your free time. The impressive 3000 m² area was decorated by the Antwerp-based interior design studio Going East.  © Bart Kiggen Let's bring work to life Fosbury & Sons provides the working man and woman with tools to better juggle their work-life balance. Useful professional services, educational lectures and fun events raise your quality of life during or after work. A quality work environment that inspires both before, during and after work. As a member, you will enjoy the comfort of a professional office, with the welcome warmth of your living room, the services and looks of a hotel and the fun of your free time.  © Frederik Vercruysse BUILDING & INTERIOR Fosbury & Sons offers 3000 m2 of creative energy on the first floor of the WATT Tower. The impressive plateau is supported by concrete columns and the 6 meter high windows overlook the King Albert park landscape. The pioneering Antwerp design office, Going East, founded by designers Anaïs Torfs and Michiel Mertens, turned the creative hub into a professional interior with a mature appearance. The interiors of the recently re-opened gourmet restaurant Veranda and the traditional bakery Konditori, are examples of Going East projects.  Plan  © Frederik Vercruysse "We create a unique setting per project. We love a mix between old and new, by using natural materials in combination with an ethnic touch. There is a lot of customization in Fosbury & Sons in particular. Customizing often also means experimenting. The bar for instance is built completely of 100% recycled bricks and fibreglass." - Anaïs Torfs. The interior of Fosbury & Sons intends to leave you with a kind of High Line (New York) - like feeling. When walking around at Fosbury & Sons, you can take different types of walks and discover something new each time. A new route, a new bit of space. Going East focused on that greatness and breathing space to avoid the typical feeling of a classic office.  © Bart Kiggen "Here you can pause at the bar during a "walk", work at the plants, sit in the library, lie down in the Aster seat, enjoy the view on the steps... That freedom is important." – Michiel Mertens  © Bart Kiggen Product Description. The experience of walking New York Highline inspired the layout of the Fosbury and Sons co –working space. As well as the materials. We tried to give the structure a rough outside look with the use of black steel. Like the recycled fibre glass and bricks stones in bar and entrance desk, rough strong materials that give an outside look. We wanted it to be an experience, like living in a mini-city. A mix between inside and outside materials. The customised furniture like the lamps, sofa's, curtains, desks, tables are the soft and warm elements that make it feel like a home, a hotel. That are the inside elements. We tried to find te righ balance between them, so that the lay-out of our architectural matched the interior details.  © Bart Kiggen  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2017 05:00 AM PST  © Geoffrey Warner
 © Geoffrey Warner From the architect. The Sonoma weeHouse is a small, ultra-minimal home—based on Alchemy's original weeHouse®—customized to meet specific style and finishing requirements of the client, Apple's Director of Store Design, and an architect himself. It is composed of two minimalist open-sided boxes set on concrete plinths nestled on the edge of gnarled oaks.  © Geoffrey Warner  © Geoffrey Warner The project proved to be a best-case scenario for illustrating the efficiencies of prefabrication. It was designed in Minnesota for a client in San Francisco, built in Oregon, and shipped to its California site 90% complete. Steel accessories including stairs, porch railings and lasercut trim were prefabricated by the architects in Minnesota and shipped to complete the project.  © Geoffrey Warner The primary structure (640 SF) features a whitewashed oak bed box in the middle of the volume. An open kitchen/dining/living room is on one side, and a toilet and shower on the other. For shipping logistics, this structure was designed as two modules: the 16 ft. x 40 ft. main box, and a 10 ft. x 40 ft. bolt-on porch, which cantilevers into a dramatic landscape valley rich with vineyards, parklands, and the town of Santa Rosa.  Site Plan The accompanying guesthouse (330 SF), also shipped essentially complete, is an abridged version of the primary structure. A large whitewashed oak wardrobe forms the bathroom wall while providing adequate storage and privacy.  © Geoffrey Warner Both structures feature steel frames, 9 ft. tall sliding glass walls that are set into custom corrugated weathering steel boxes, and ipe interiors with oiled oak cabinetry. Pocket doors recessed into the cabinetry close against the steel columns. Privacy screens are pocketed into the bathroom ceilings, with glass walls separating the toilet and showering facilities. In the main house, there is also a 25' long drop-down insect screen pocketed into the ceiling.  © Geoffrey Warner Product Description.  © Geoffrey Warner  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Steven Holl Architects Unveils Plans for Cloud-Like Cultural and Health Center in Shanghai Posted: 25 Jan 2017 04:15 AM PST  Overal Aerial. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects Steven Holl Architects has revealed plans for a new Cultural and Health Center to be located in Shanghai's Fengxian District. Set into the public landscape, the two buildings will serve as a "social condenser" aimed at integrating the community of surrounding housing blocks together into a park along the Punan Canal.  Cultural Center East Facade. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects Employing an open, community-driven approach, the project scheme has been inspired by the concept of "Clouds & Time," a reference to philosopher Karl Popper's famous 1965 lecture on the evolutionary model of free will, "Of Clouds and Clocks." Several clock-like circles form the central public space, where the cloud-like, white concrete buildings invite in visitors through their porosity and openness.  Watercolor - Landscape. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects  Site Plan. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects The Cultural Center has been designed for maximum community interaction, featuring a library, gym, exhibition areas and recreational facilities. The white mass of the upper floors hovers above a transparent glass base, exposing a café and game rooms. From the base, a curved ramp leads visitors up to the second floor. A variety of openings along the facade provide a connection between the interior and the wider neighborhood outside.  Cultural Center Water View. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects  Cultural Center Interior. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects Across the plaza, the footprint of the Health Center has been dedicated by the curves of the landscape, strengthening its relationship to the plan's core concept of "Clouds & Time." Within, the building will house a health consultation and education center, which will include a pharmacy, consultation and examination rooms, a nursery area and lounges.  Watercolor - Clouds & Clocks. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects  Cultural Center Interior. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects Both buildings will be finished off with green sedum roofs and will feature geothermal cooling systems while the quarter circle pool and fountain in the central plaza will provide rainwater recycling. Together, these elements will allow the building to achieve a LEED platinum certification.  Sustainability Axonometric. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects "To work on Architecture for Culture and Health is a social commitment, during these challenging times," commented Steven Holl. The project was commissioned by China's largest food processing company, COFCO, in the Summer 2016. News via Steven Holl Architects.  Model. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects  Cultural Center Interior Court. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects
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| Posted: 25 Jan 2017 03:45 AM PST  © Adam Mørk
 © Adam Mørk THE NEW EXPERIMENTARIUM OPENS TOWARDS THE CITY "The aim of the design is a radical change of Experimentarium's architectural expression. From previously being an introvert building to now appearing as an extrovert, engaging and vibrant attraction", founding partner at CEBRA, Kolja Nielsen, explains. Since 1991, Experimentarium has presented challenging and thought-provoking exhibitions in a setting that originally served as a bottling plant for the Tuborg brewery.  © Adam Mørk "Curiosity is the core element that Experimetarium is made of. We want to light a spark in children and young people, inspiring them to explore and understand our wonderful world. Now, this curiosity gets a new, spectacular, and flexible framework. We have doubled the exhibition area, and the roof terrace will strengthen Experimentarium as an all-year attraction," Kim Gladstone Herlev, managing director of Experimentarium, adds.  Axon The building's different functions are made visible to the city in the form of stacked boxes, which are offset from the base and open themselves towards their surroundings with large expanses of glass, creating a visual connection to the scientific universe inside. The boxes are clad with a lightweight façade of perforated aluminium panels, forming a contrast to the base, where the existing brickwork is preserved and emphasizes the meeting between old and new, between past and future, and between natural science and engineering. At the same time, the perforation creates a pattern that illustrates how the flow of air and fluid changes, when it meets resistance. This façade narrative is developed in a close collaboration between Experimentarium and CEBRA.  © Adam Mørk THE HELIX STAIRCASE The first visitor experience is the Helix staircase that welcomes you with its radiating copper cladding as soon as you pass the entrance. Right away, it lets visitors know that they have entered a world of science. "The staircase ensures a good internal flow and creates coherence between the floors. At the same time, it substantiates the building's scientific focus", Kolja Nielsen explains and continues: "During a workshop with Jakob Bohr, professor at DTU Nanotech, we were inspired to work with the stairs as an abstract version of the DNA strand's structure. And so, the idea for the Helix staircase was born." The 100m long staircase is built from 160 tons of steel and clad with 10 tons of copper.  © Adam Mørk Back in 2011, CEBRA won the international architecture competition to design the new Experimentarium. Besides doubling the exhibition area, the refurbishment includes a large roof terrace, which opens for activities during spring 2017, modern staff facilities with visual contact to the visitor areas, a large café and a picnic-area, a convention centre, teaching facilities and a series of workshops.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| UC Architecture School Building / Gonzalo Claro Posted: 25 Jan 2017 03:00 AM PST  © Philippe Blanc
 © Erieta Attali From the architect. The new building of the Architecture School of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile is emplaced in the south corner of Lo Contador campus, aside of the large patrimonial house. It is the result of a public contest.  © Philippe Blanc  Exploded Isometric  © Philippe Blanc The building consists of a double height volume of laminated wood witch lies lightly over a concrete plinth. The wood structure of columns and beams is arranged in a modulated system, which facilitates the stages of preassemble, installation and later transportation of the parts. There use of wood in the construction of the building consists in avoiding cuts and making an efficient use and taking advantage of its established dimensions. The timber skeleton remains exposed in order to make visible the way that the structure works, and the distribution of loads along the vertical and horizontal development of the building. The complete volume saves a span of 21 meters between supports; leaving the west side with a 9-meter corbel witch leaves a new hallway of access to the Campus.  © Philippe Blanc This volume was built to contain the offices for the professors, this functional programme was left in the main interior, releasing these way the first floor and the ceiling to be destined to display the programs that increases the university life in the building, leaving this way a ground-level covered patio, and a auditorium in the superior terrace wich is at the same time a viewpoint to the surrounding treetops of the neighborhood.  Site Isometric  West Elevation This construction is structured in wood, which helps in achieving the goal of sustainability from the very beginning of the project since it is a renewable resource and a material with a very low carbon footprint. It was mounted as a dry work technique that decreased the construction time along with the impact provoqued in the surrounding neighborhood and its inhabitants. Passive resources used in this building, such as natural cross ventilation, aimed to reduce the mechanized air conditioning and making this construction energetically efficient.  © Philippe Blanc  © Erieta Attali Although its program is mainly for private use, it is a building with a strong public vocation, it opens its front to the city and turns its internal academic activity towards the street generating a new relation of unprecedented permeability of the campus with the neighborhood in which it is located and its community.  © Philippe Blanc  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| As Phyllis Lambert Turns 90, Exhibition Examining Her Impact and Influence Opens in Montréal Posted: 25 Jan 2017 02:00 AM PST  Phyllis Lambert, David Sharpe, Myron Goldsmith, Jin Hwan Kim, and an unidentified student at a Master Class Studio at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1961). Image © Fonds Phyllis Lambert (CCA) This week Phyllis Lambert, widely considered to be among the most influential figures in architecture, turned 90. Known primarily for founding the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in her hometown of Montrèal in 1979, she also acted as Director of Planning for the world-renowned Seagram Building in Manhattan (a tower commissioned by her family). The project is often cited as one of Mies van der Rohe's most important built works. As a practising architect, Lambert designed the Saidye Bronfman Centre (1967) – a performing arts center named after her mother. On the occasion of her birthday, the CCA—for which Lambert currently holds the position of Founding Director Emeritus—are staging an exhibition offering an autobiographical glimpse into the evolution of her ideas and work as an architect, activist, editor, and curator. According to the organisation, the show highlights Lambert's "deep commitment to the city and to intellectual research." It will display archival material from the CCA's collection, other institutional archives, along with Phyllis Lambert's own personal archives in order to "reveal the consistent radicalism of her life."  Composite photograph of Phyllis Lambert and David Fix in their Chicago studio (1970). Courtesy of the CCA. . Image © Pier Associates  Exterior of Saidye Bronfman Centre at night (1968). Courtesy of the Richard Nickel Committee, Chicago, Illinois. Image © Richard Nickel  Seagram Building: view from northwest in the afternoon. Courtesy of the CCA. . Image © Ezra Stoller / Esto  Courtesy of the CCA. Phyllis Lambert to Receive Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice Biennale Phyllis Lambert Receives the 2016 Wolf Prize for the Arts in Israel Phyllis Lambert Wins Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize 2016  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| William McDonough on Sustainability: "Carbon Is Not the Enemy" Posted: 25 Jan 2017 01:30 AM PST  William McDonough + Partners and Aecom's <a href='http://www.archdaily.com/231211/nasa-sustainability-base-william-mcdonough-partners-and-aecom'>NASA Sustainability Base</a> in California. Image © William McDonough + Partners This article was originally published by Metropolis Magazine as "Why Architects Must Rethink Carbon (It's Not the Enemy We Face)." Metropolis editor in chief Susan Szenasy sits down with William McDonough—the designer, author, and developer of Cradle to Cradle design—to understand why we must begin to employ a new language regarding carbon and sustainable design. Susan Szenasy: Your article in Nature, "Carbon is Not the Enemy," really caught my attention. You're redefining how we think about carbon, what it is, and what we should be looking for. It seems like a new phase that you're leading us to. How did you come up with this idea, that there needs to be a new language on carbon? Can you trace back your thought process? William McDonough: [With the UN's Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015,] everybody kept saying, "Oh, we have to do this, to reduce our carbon 20% by 2020." Well, when you think about that Susan, it's absurd. What you're telling us is what you're not going to do. You're going to reduce your badness by 20% by 2020? That would be like getting in a taxi and saying to the driver, "Quick, I'm not going to the airport." It doesn't tell us what you're going to do.  William McDonough, 2016. Image Courtesy of Marta Chierego – World Economic Forum At this point in history, for most scientists, carbon in the atmosphere is a real problem. It actually meets the definition of a toxin. A toxin is a material in the wrong place at the wrong dose and duration. Water is highly toxic at the wrong dose and duration. If I surrounded you with it, for six minutes, you'd be dead. Wrong dose, wrong duration. If you jump out of an airplane over the ocean and hit the ocean at terminal velocity, it's a very short duration and a very big dose. Either way, you're dead. Water can be highly toxic. Carbon, an otherwise lovely material, could be a problem in the wrong dose, duration, and place. Don't attack carbon. That's the part that upsets me in the language. It makes carbon out to be the enemy. Carbon is not the enemy. Carbon is an innocent bystander. SS: How we should be thinking about carbon? WM: Let's think of carbon on its own terms. Let's define the circumstance the carbon finds itself in. Okay, if I burn carbon and I release it into the atmosphere, I call it fugitive. It's escaped. You don't want to do more of that. In the case of plastic, it's a form of carbon that's often in the ocean. It's fugitive carbon. It's escaped. It's where we don't want it. It's causing a problem. Then, if we look at carbon that is sitting still or being recycled across generations, we can call that durable carbon. It lasts. Limestone Mountain is calcium carbonate. It's sitting there quietly, the clustered carbon. Carbon at the bottom of the ocean's forming limestone. It's stable. It's raw. That is durable. Then, within that, you have things like a plastic bottle made from oil or a wood beam in a ceiling or a book in a library. These are carbon. The beam in the ceiling, if it's there for 500 years, that is durable carbon. It is a form of carbon sitting there quietly for 500 years, durable. A plastic bottle is holding water. If I burn that bottle, then it becomes fugitive. If I throw that bottle in the ocean, it becomes fugitive. Different forms, you see? The third kind I call living carbon. That is carbon in soil. Carbon comes from the atmosphere and nitrogen comes from the atmosphere to the earth's surface and combines with water and the sun and minerals and guess what? Magic happens. Life. Physics meets chemistry and voila, biology, us. This is life itself. It accrues in the earth as soil. This is what I call living carbon. With these terms, you can quickly ask yourself: is it living carbon? Then it must be safe for soil. Is it durable carbon? Then we should be recycling it or let it sit there. Is it escaping and causing problems? That's fugitive carbon.  Courtesy of William McDonough Then, there's another layer, which is human behavior. What is the human behavior that yields these results? If you release carbon into the atmosphere, at this point in history, in natural and unnatural amounts, I call that carbon negative. You're making a problem, causing a problem. You're toxifying the atmosphere. It would be like pouring lead in a river. It would be lead negative. If you keep the stuff and recycle it, or let it sit there for generations and take care of it, that is carbon neutral. That is a balance. It's sitting there quietly. You're not causing it to be fugitive, et cetera. It's inert. If you take carbon from the atmosphere and you put it into soil and it accrues as biota in soil, that is carbon positive behavior. Just like nature takes carbon from the atmosphere and puts it in soil, you're taking carbon from the atmosphere and putting it into soil. We can also take carbon from the atmosphere and make polymers out of it. We can make durable carbon out of atmospheric carbon. We have these types of carbon; living, durable, fugitive. They can cross, right? A wood beam that's durable carbon for 500 years in a building in Oxford, can become soil still, if it hasn't been contaminated. It goes from being durable back to being living. SS: You're really making a distinction between a resource and a poison. WM: That's one way of looking at it, yeah. I would say living carbon is a source. It's the source of life itself. Then, durable carbon is a resource. You're re-sourcing it, over and over again. You're recycling the plastic. You're reusing the earth-bound carbon as wood. You're reusing it. The fugitive carbon, in the wrong place with the wrong dose and duration, is a toxin. SS: How would you ask architects to think about this resource/poison dichotomy that we just identified? WM: If somebody says, "We're going to be carbon negative" they mean they're going to reduce the carbon they release to the atmosphere, right? That's what they mean. The Prime Minister of Bhutan, got up and said, "Bhutan's going to be a carbon negative country. We're going to keep our forests, and we'll capture three times more carbon with our forests than we release by burning parts of it." Okay? SS: Yes. WM: I would call that a positive act in my book. When you call that carbon negative it presumes that the carbon itself is a negative. Then your action of bringing it down is a negative. You have a double negative. You're reducing badness. In their case, they're actually bringing carbon back to soil. I would prefer to call that a carbon positive act or thing. That's one concern of mine. Another is when people say, "I'm going to use a megawatt of electricity and it's going to release this much carbon from combustion. I'm going to offset that, to be net zero, with that amount of renewable power somewhere." This is famously known as renewable energy credits. It's an offset, often somewhere else, often very far away. Now, it's a wonderful thing to be thinking about, but the concern I have is the science. If you use 100 units of carbon to make the energy you need, and then you offset it with 100 units of renewable power and call yourself net zero, that would mean you could use 200 units of carbon power and produce 200 units of renewable power, and call yourself net zero, right? SS: Yep. WM: As far as the atmosphere is concerned though, you just doubled the amount of carbon. The atmosphere does not see the renewables. It just knows you doubled the carbon. As far as the atmosphere is concerned, you're worse.  William McDonough + Partners' <a href='http://www.archdaily.com/780655/william-mcdonough-unveils-icehouse-the-next-step-in-the-circular-economy'>ICEhouse</a> in Davos, Switzerland. Image © Bertrand Radelow SS: How can you explain that in laymen's language? WM: Just stop it. Don't offset it. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is like lead in a river, right? You don't put lead in rivers. You don't start saying, "I'm going to reduce my lead in the river by 20%." You stop it. It's a toxin. Here's a graphic example. How sad would it be if we went to the children of Flint, Michigan and said, "Hey kids. You know, you've got a lead problem. We're going to take out the lead in some other city somewhere because it's cheaper. You're going to be net zero lead." What? It's so absurd. Just say, "We stop doing this." That's all you need. The key graphic message to everybody is: this is not easy, but we're meant to stop putting carbon in its various forms into the atmosphere and in the oceans deleteriously. SS: How do you think we can realize the old dream of buildings like trees and cities like forests? How do we begin to adopt that as a kind of mantra of humanity for the 21st century? WM: We as humans have to have incredible humility. It took us 5000 years to put wheels on our luggage. A tree emits oxygen. A tree emits bird song. A tree emits flower blossoms, fruit, distills water, provides habitat, builds soil, provides fuel. It can self replicate. How are we doing? We just put wheels on our luggage. The reason I get to do my work is because I produce immense value for my clients. They make money, sell buildings in markets that are dead because our buildings are so beautiful. Everything we do is productive in terms of its value and creation. How do I get to the value? You go, "Oh, my building will be cheaper than that building. I'll use less energy than that building." You end up benchmarking everything. Part of the issue is things like certification standards or rating systems. You end up in reference to other things. You try to be less bad or make more money or whatever. It's numbers. It's statistical significance. I start with values. What is right? What is wrong? That's why we say; being less bad is not being good. Less is a relationship. It's numerical. Bad is a human value. You can't mix mathematics and ethics like that. From there, we move to principles. That's why I wrote the Hannover Principles. Those are principles that insist upon the right of humanity and nature to coexist. Eliminate the concept of waste. Rely on natural energy flows. Respect the limitations of design. Be humble. Those kinds of things.  The BSH atrium at PARK 20l20, a large-scale urban development in the Netherlands by William McDonough + Partners. Image Courtesy of DDOCK Then, from principles you move to visions. I have visions of cities like forests, buildings like trees. These are visions. Without execution, they're hallucinations. I know that. From your visions you move to your goals. My goals are not to be less bad or to use 10% less carbon. It's to be like a tree. My goal is very simple. My goal is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world with clean air, water, soil and power. Now, that's a goal. SS: That's an absolute goal. WM: Then you do strategies, then you do tactics, then you do metrics. SS: Here we are in the first 17 years of the 21st century, and every city is building massive developments. They look like they came from the 1970's. Cities like forests and buildings like trees, those concepts have been around for quite a long time. It's not that architects and other people are not aware of them. What is your reaction to these buildings looking and feeling so much like those of 50 years ago or, to be more generous, 20 years ago? Can you offer a critique of this from your point of view—what in the hell are we doing now? WM: I just have to have hope, Susan. I think people are doing the best they know how, but it's unprincipled and it's unprincipled behavior. The issue, to get some core principles in. That's why we need this new language. I think the people who are out there building are caught in a world of trying to feed their children the best way they know how. They see a world of limits, which makes them work in the world of limits and greed. When I see a world of abundance and sharing. It's just a different way of looking at the world. Why are we still doing things that look like they're from the 70's? I think our behavior has not yet shifted from a world of limits and greed. Part of what I'm hoping to do is wage peace with these words. I'm not here to fight. I'm here to wage peace with the planet. The last century became the pollution century. We had the equity century of the 1700's. We had the economy century of the 1800's. The 1900's was the pollution century. This century must be the ecological century because we're destroying our home. I think the other thing that is there, and I know it is a vague and big answer to your question, is a fundamental, psychological concern humans have as a result of the atom bomb. For people my age, even though I didn't grow up in the United States, I remember coming to visit and being in third grade for a few months with my grandparents. They were teaching us how to dive under our desks during a nuclear attack, as if that would help us. I think there's a whole generation that thought maybe the world could end at a moment, so it's time to just go and get what you can while you can. I think that underlying all of this is the need for peace. Yeah, it's big. Yeah it's hopeful. Yeah it's probably wishful and not effective. What I can do about it is a small thing, maybe change some language, help people change the way they think. SS: We need hope now more than ever. I just worry that it's going to be a little bit too late for us. WM: It's always too late and it's always time to start. That's the way life is.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Gymnase Jean Gachet / LINK - Chazalon Glairoux Lafond - architectes associés Posted: 25 Jan 2017 01:00 AM PST  © Milène Servelle
 © Milène Servelle From the architect. Between city center and boulevard, the gymnasiumis part of a global project of urban requalification.  Isometric The program imposes the creation of a void where sports activities (sports field and climbing wall) will take place. This vacuum imposed by the sporting uses draws from the outset the volumetric draft of the project which is summed up with a regular parallelepiped implanted along the boulevard. From this constraint, the project seeks to radiate beyond its own physical limits.  © Milène Servelle The urban scale then becomes the means of punctuating the main volume and anchoring it in the site and in the city. It is through urban windows that the building directs, locates, and articulates this new urban project in the city. These windows are voluntarily out of scale, and are expressed by point stretches of the main volume. Focusing on existing urban and landscape events (garden, large Sequoia, crassier), they become a pretext for opening views and favoring natural light.  © Milène Servelle  Floor Plan  © Milène Servelle Product Description. The use of extruded aluminum on the façade contributes to the moderation of the building's mass by means of changes in color, light, and volume perception.  © Milène Servelle  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Importance of Human Scale When Sketching Posted: 25 Jan 2017 12:00 AM PST
Even with the evolution of technology and the popularization of advanced computer programs, most architecture projects still begin with a blank sheet of paper and the casual strokes of a pen. Rather than simply representing a project, the sketch allows us to examine the project, understand the landscape or topography, or communicate an idea to another team member or even the client. Its main purpose, however, is to stimulate the creative process and overcome the fear of blank paper. Sketches are usually made with imprecise, overlapping, ambiguous strokes, accompanied by annotations, arrows, and lack great technical accuracy and graphic refinement.
 Church of the Administrative Center of Bahia. Image © João Filgueiras Lima  Pedestrian Bridge. Image © Miro Rivera Architects The main issue in a sketch is the act of recording an idea through a rapid drawing technique mastered by the designer. There are sketches that approximate children's drawings; some employ simplicity as a virtue, while others show a complexity and mastery of technique that makes them works of art.  Abedian School of Architecture. Image © CRAB Studio  © Sebastián Bayona Jaramillo In this sense, although many sketches do not possess technical rigor or intrinsic artistic quality, the important thing is that they can communicate a clear image and pass on the intended message, either for other people or even for the designer themselves in the future. One instrument widely used to make sketches more understandable is the inclusion of elements that help support a better comprehension of the object in question. Among these methods, the "human scale"—a figure or figures that represent the future users of the space—stands out as perhaps the most common. The human scale, as the name suggests, gives an indication of the proportions of the object drawn, independent of its dimensions. It can also demonstrate the proposed functions of a space, suggest intended routes and breathe life into the design.  Olympic Golf Course Club House - Rio de Janeiro. Image © RUA Arquitetos  New London Design Museum. Image © John Pawson  Manzeum. Image © Modus Studio After years of practice, Oscar Niemeyer developed the ability to create sketches with just a few strokes. With them, he could show complex perspectives, landscapes, and situations, that reflect the volumetric clarity proposed in his designs. The drawings' human scales might be difficult to identify when first looking at them, but they are fused into the sketches and become essential for a better understanding of their scales and uses. Others, such as Eduardo Souto de Moura, demonstrate their design process with trembling, overlapping lines and an apparent confusion. If writing is the art of chopping words, should a good design also emerge from a tangle of lines? Maybe we'll never know.  Pampulha's Church. Image © Oscar Niemeyer  Passarela Professor Darcy Ribeiro - Sambadrome - Rio de Janeiro. Image © Oscar Niemeyer  Canoas' House. Image © Oscar Niemeyer  Bernardas' Chapel. Image © Eduardo Souto de Moura  Cantareira Building. Image © Eduardo Souto de Moura  Serralves Contemporary Art Museum. Image © Álvaro Siza Vieira Aside from human figures, Renzo Piano is adept at writing in his sketches. With an artistic and almost unintelligible handwriting, the architect shows that most of his projects are generated from expressive schematic cuts. The human scale enters as an important unit of measurement for the parts of the building. João Filgueiras Lima, also known as Lelé, mixed artistic and representative sketches with labels for materials and structural elements. Lina Bo Bardi added colors to create humorous sketches that end up demonstrating various technical aspects.  Renzo Piano Pavilion at the Kimbell Art Museum. Image © Renzo Piano Building Workshop  Harvard Art Museums Renovation and Expansion. Image © Renzo Piano Building Workshop  Taguatinga's Regional Hospital. Image © João Filgueiras Lima  Church of the Administrative Center of Bahia. Image © João Filgueiras Lima  Valéria Cirell House. Image Courtesy of Instituto Lina Bo e P. M. Bardi In a previous article, we discussed the role of freehand drawings in today's architecture, given the many available technologies and software, which led to a healthy debate by our readers in the comments section. We have also presented an interesting collection of human figures used by some outstanding architects, where we can observe how much their human figures mirror their work. Check the gallery below for different sketches by different architects. Compare the styles for each one; which most resembles the architects' way of expressing themselves?  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Budapest's Largest Urban Development in 30 Years Begins Construction Posted: 24 Jan 2017 10:00 PM PST  Waterfront. Image Courtesy of ADEPT Architects ADEPT Architects has won the commission to design a new masterplan for the Budapart neighborhood of Budapest, a project that will become the largest singular urban development in the city for nearly 30 years. Based on a distorted grid structure, the design will reference both historic and modern parts of the city, and will encompass 54 hectares of mixed-use space.
 The Distorted Grid. Image Courtesy of ADEPT Architects  The Budapart Distorted Grid Ccombines the Qualities of the Regular Grid with the Qualities of the Irregular Historic Budapest Urban Fabric. Image Courtesy of ADEPT Architects In an effort to keep the inherent assets of the area, the Budapart plan mixes together the irregular and historic quality of the city with a rigid urban grid, creating a design that combines flexibility with a human-scale streetscape.  Masterplan. Image Courtesy of ADEPT Architects In total, the masterplan incorporates a large ratio of green space, as well as equal proportions of office and residential space. The plan additionally seeks to strengthen riverfront links and improve public access to the Danube, highlighting the historic and future importance of the river as a cultural and economic asset.  Courtyard. Image Courtesy of ADEPT Architects  Central Buda Park. Image Courtesy of ADEPT Architects Construction of the project's first buildings—all of which will total 600,000 square meters upon completion—has begun. News via: ADEPT.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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