srijeda, 14. lipnja 2017.

Arch Daily

ArchDaily

Arch Daily


Spotlight: Kevin Roche

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 09:00 PM PDT

College Life Insurance Company Headquarters. Image © KRJDA College Life Insurance Company Headquarters. Image © KRJDA

Known for his progressive aesthetics and vast body of work, 1982 Pritzker Prize laureate Kevin Roche (born June 14, 1922) has headed numerous projects of varying program and scale as the design principal of his firm Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates. In 1980, shortly before the death of Roche's business partner John Dinkeloo, the firm was described by critic C. Ray Smith in 1980 as "the most aesthetically daring and innovative American firm of architects now working."

© Nathan Benn © Nathan Benn

Born in Ireland, Roche's early years as an architect are telling: he first moved to the USA in 1948 to study under Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology but left after just one semester, swapping Mies' strict formulaic style for a much more expressive modernism when he joined the firm of Eliel and Eero Saarinen, eventually becoming Eero Saarinen's principal design associate.

Knights of Columbus Building. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/61614216@N02/7154045899'>Flickr user cjreddaway</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a> (cropped) Knights of Columbus Building. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/61614216@N02/7154045899'>Flickr user cjreddaway</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a> (cropped)

Following Saarinen's death, Roche took over the firm alongside John Lacey and John Dinkeloo. They completed many of Saarinen's unfinished projects, including The Gateway Arch of St. Louis, and the TWA terminal of JFK airport. Among his most notable works at Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates are the College Life Insurance Company Headquarters, the The Ford Foundation, and the Knights of Columbus building.

The Ford Foundation. Image © <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_foundation_building_1.JPG'>Wikimedia user Stakhanov</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en'>CC BY 3.0</a> The Ford Foundation. Image © <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_foundation_building_1.JPG'>Wikimedia user Stakhanov</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en'>CC BY 3.0</a>
The Ford Foundation. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/19375212824'>Flickr user sixteenmilesofstring</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a> The Ford Foundation. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/19375212824'>Flickr user sixteenmilesofstring</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>

During his career, he has garnered numerous awards including the Pritzker, the AIA Gold Medal, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal. In spite of this wide recognition, however, it can be difficult to identify his designs as part of the same body of work, and he has rejected the labels people often try to apply to him; speaking in the early 1980s about his headquarters for General Foods, he explained that the building "is not post-modern or pre-modern. It is simply the most obvious thing I could have done."

College Life Insurance Company HQ. Image © Jimmy Baikovicius College Life Insurance Company HQ. Image © Jimmy Baikovicius

See all of Kevin Roche's work featured ArchDaily via the thumbnails below, and more about Roche below those:

Kevin Roche Reflects on His Five Decade Career, From Beginnings in Ireland to His US Career

Ford Foundation Renovations by Gensler Approved by New York Landmarks Commission

'Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment' Exhibition Review

Wavelength Pictures' Documentary Set to Revisit the Life and Work of Kevin Roche

References: Pritzker Prize

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Central European University / O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 08:00 PM PDT

© Tamás Bujnovszky © Tamás Bujnovszky
  • Architects: O'Donnell + Tuomey Architects
  • Location: Nador u. 9, 1051 Budapest, Hungary
  • Directors: Sheila O'Donnell & John Tuomey
  • Project Architect: Ciara Reddy
  • Landscape Architect: Gardenworks
  • Area: 15638.0 m2
  • Project Year: 2016
  • Photographs: Tamás Bujnovszky
  • Associate: Mark Grehan
  • Architects Team: Anne Louise Duignan, Brian Barber, Jitka Leonard, Geoff Brouder, Henrik Wolterstorff
  • Architectural Assistants: Kevin O'Brien, Jonathan Janssens, Gary Watkin, Iseult O'Clery, Lauren Small, Edin Gicevic
  • Local Architect: Teampannon
  • Project Manager: Central European University Development of ce
  • Structural Engineer: Kenese
  • Mechanical Engineer: Temesvári Tervező
  • Electrical Engineer: Kelevill FZ
  • Fire Consultant: Takács-Tetra
  • Acoustic Consultant: Aqrate Akusztikai, Mérnök Iroda
  • Quantity Surveyor: Tomlin
  • Client: Central European University
  • Kitchen: Kende Gastro Zrt.
  • Ecologist: Róbert Vidéki
  • Security: IJA Consultants
  • Audiovisual Systems: Animative
  • Signage: Remion
© Tamás Bujnovszky © Tamás Bujnovszky

From the architect. This is the first phase of a campus masterplan for the Central European University. The project changes the relationship of the university to the city. Phase 1 provides a public face for the university, a new entrance on axis with the Danube, a library and learning café for citizens and students. The campus becomes integrated with the urban realm.

© Tamás Bujnovszky © Tamás Bujnovszky

Our brief was to design a new 35,000sqm Campus on a World Heritage site in central Budapest, incorporating all University Departments and facilities. The scheme involves the radical transformation of five adjoining, previously disconnected, historic buildings and the construction of two new buildings.

Site Plan 1 Site Plan 1
Site Plan 2 Site Plan 2
Ground Floor Plan Ground Floor Plan

Budapest is a city of courtyards and passageways. The streetscape is repetitive in plot dimension and only slightly varied in parapet height. The contemporary expression of the new building at Nador 15 is designed to be in sympathetic conversation with its neighbours. The limestone façade is locally sourced from the same quarry as most of the historic buildings in the city. This is the first new building to be built in recent times in this historically protected context.

© Tamás Bujnovszky © Tamás Bujnovszky

The existing CEU campus consisted of adjoining buildings, each with their own entrance, with minimal interconnectivity between them. We identified opportunities to intervene in this downtown urban block, to make what was a disconnected and disparate set of buildings into an open campus. We employed a process of selective subtraction and addition to transform the campus into a metaphorical crossroads. By a carefully considered "surgical" strategy we linked existing and new facilities through a legible sequence of connected courtyards. The functional layout provides easy communication between interrelated adjacencies, clusters connected by social spaces, encouraging interaction and collaboration between academic departments.

© Tamás Bujnovszky © Tamás Bujnovszky

We proposed a phased strategy, making connections between existing courtyards, demolishing inefficient buildings and designing new buildings around a series of courts. Courtyards are roofed over to provide a tempered environment from the climatic extremes in winter and summer. The courtyards are the campus, providing circulation system and social space. Openings are cut through to provide visual connections. Flying staircases interconnect department offices to teaching spaces.

© Tamás Bujnovszky © Tamás Bujnovszky
Section B Section B
© Tamás Bujnovszky © Tamás Bujnovszky
Section C Section C

The new building on Nador Utca forms the main entrance to the University. It houses the library and learning commons over a multi-purpose auditorium and conference facilities. The adjoining building is radically refurbished to provide a covered courtyard for public events, with a business school and teaching spaces at upper levels. A roof garden straddles both buildings to provide views over the city skyline.

© Tamás Bujnovszky © Tamás Bujnovszky
Model Model
© Tamás Bujnovszky © Tamás Bujnovszky

The palette of materials has been selected for their endurance and natural material qualities that give character to the overall appearance. Stone, timber, concrete and steel form the fabric of the internal public spaces, with bespoke furniture used throughout the building. The new facades are constructed with local limestone, designed to emphasize the geometric quality of the building and continuing the tradition of solidity and permanence of the Budapest stone architecture.

© Tamás Bujnovszky © Tamás Bujnovszky

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Kindergarden at the Ducklake / Bernardo Bader Architekten

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 07:00 PM PDT

Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten
  • Builder: Municipality of Lauterach
  • Collaboration: Thomas Prattes (PL) Josef Mallaun (PL)
  • Site Management: Thomas Marte | Dornbirn
  • Statics: Merz Kley Partner
  • Color Concept: Monika Heiss
Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten

From the architect. Lauterach is one of the most growing municipalities in Vorarlberg. "Recently, we have cracked the 10,000-inhabitant brand," said Vice-Mayor Doris Rohner proudly. In addition, the town as an "e5" municipality has particularly committed to climate protection and do have a linking to high- quality architecture. This is also evident at the Kindergarten Bachgasse: 25 years the modular container made of wood is already in operation. At the beginning of her professional career, Helmut Dietrich and Much Untertrifaller designed the nursery with skylights and sun screens in a very modular, functional and sustainable way.

Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten

The strong influx required more a new kindergartens: the nursery Bachgasse is located in the settlement border near the Ried, a roughly 800 hectare Natura 2000 landscape conservation area. On its
west runs the Bachgasse, in the north east, the
sufficient space for an extension. A commission
for Vorarlberg) and looked at various kindergartens.
"The kindergarten Susi Weigl in Bludenz by Bernardo Bader was very enthusiastic. He has so much wood and is so natural, calm and warm wanted Bader as architect ..."said Rohner "... his straightforward, sober architecture appealed to us very much."

Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten

Now, with a little respect distance, a 20-meter-wide, 65-meter-long building is closing to the old building: it is entirely wood and has individual shape. Like a caterpillar the building body marches along stream lane in a regular rhythm. Its vertical wooden battens weather naturally and harmoniously with the landscape. Where he follows his predecessor, the neighbor building, he is as low as this one and has large, square window in the middle: This creates an optical relationship and also creates a connection because of the height. In front of the building is an `indoor` parking lot for scooters and other children games.

Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten
Floor Plan Floor Plan
Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten

Currently, the nursery is developing in the north-east direction. Under a building protrusion you can slip into the "Kinderhaus am Entenbach", each group has its own entrance niche: blue, pink and yellow. The color scheme is by Monika Heiss. "It was important for us to design the kindergarten like a village," says Bernardo Bader. "Actually, the individual houses which are connected to each other got certain naturalness."

Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten

A friendly entrée room with coconut floor, wooden ceiling and bench forms the opening to an unexpectedly diversified inner life. A long, bright walkway, glazed on both sides, with beautiful, round lamps, reminding of a friendly volley or balloons, leads straight through the whole house to the square window at the end of the hallway. Under high light lanterns in the hallway are the wardrobes, which act as a necessary and differentiating element between the three groups, the movement room and the dining room. At 2.50 meters high, they are clearly articulated as service spaces and open up to both sides: the active asphalt pavement and the garden with morning sun in the southeast. Marion Moosbrugger von Landrise designed it with a small boulder wall, toddler swing and much more. At the covered terrace are repeatedly, room –high cupboards where they can store toys and garden utensil. At the same time the space provides a rhythm and structure to the building.

Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten

All other rooms, such as the dining room, the exercise room and the three group rooms, are almost five meters high. In this way, the resting areas for the children can be arranged on a gallery: at the side next to a top light, they offer the little ones their own sheltered retreat. If they are curious, they can also stop at the wire mesh and look down towards the group room. The group room is proportioned with about seven by eight meters and opens up with a large glass window to the garden. "We are fully satisfied. We have 65 children here; the smallest are just little bit more narrow side in the long base offered crossed the Ländle south- (shortname that we a very the a than 15 months old, "says Laura Dueler, head of the new kindergarten. She looks after the very small ones. "It is the first time that on the first day no one cried because they had to stay here. We notice a strong difference: the open views and the landscape have a soothing effect on the children. They behave differently. "

Light and wood characterize this nursery: a sleek white fir for ceiling and walls, hard ash at the heated floor, the group rooms are glazed up to a height of 2.50 meters, both to the corridor and to the garden. At this height, the walls are white with a surrounding wooden framework and acoustic ceilings create a homely atmosphere. A lot of loving details - such as the pull-out pedestals of the kitchen basements in the dining room, which also enable the smaller ones to reach the work area, the staircase load as a step-up aid on the changing table in the children's toilet or the compartment for the parents' make the building to a real children's house.

Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten Courtesy of Bernardo Bader Architekten

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Inset House / Delution architect

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 03:00 PM PDT

© Fernando Gomulya © Fernando Gomulya
  • Architects: Delution Architect
  • Location: Jl. Flamboyan, Jatibening, Pondokgede, Kota Bks, Jawa Barat 17412, Indonesia
  • Principal Architect: Muhammad Egha, Hezby Ryandi ST, Sunjaya Askaria, Fahmy Desrizal
  • Design Team: Indira Pramundita Setiadewi S.Ars, Naufal Ryandi
  • Area: 210.0 m2
  • Project Year: 2016
  • Photographs: Fernando Gomulya
  • Technical Team: Pandu Eka Panca
  • Contractor: CRI (Past Conclution)
  • Project Director: Sunjaya Askaria
  • Project Manager : Wahyu Adhinugraha
  • Site Area : 150m2
  • Furnishing : Onel
© Fernando Gomulya © Fernando Gomulya

From the architect. Inset House is derived from an Intersection concept that takes place in a Residential Building, where "Flying Garden" becomes a deliberately inserted object to the front of the building to provide various benefits for this house when inhabited by its inhabitants.

© Fernando Gomulya © Fernando Gomulya
© Fernando Gomulya © Fernando Gomulya

Visible face of the house inserted by "Flying Garden".
Starting from the problem of the west facing house, Architects try to explore the Fasade and the front of the House into an area that can exploit the heat of the afternoon sun light coming from the west. Starting from the 1st floor sheltered by the 2nd floor overstack far enough so that the heat of the western sun will not touch the main room on the 1st floor of this house, the heat will be stopped in the informal guest area equipped by the pool and the garden as the cooler.

© Fernando Gomulya © Fernando Gomulya

Visible overstack on the 2nd floor becomes the main cover of the 1st floor of the west sunheat, equipped with parks and ponds as the cooler Still about the strategy of blocking western sunheat, the 2nd floor we tilt the massing not to collide perpendicular to the heat of the afternoon sun, we give also the second skin of a striped wood as the main obstacle of heat. Behind the second skin we also give the "slit" window opening to reduce the incoming heat. This can be said to be a "layered protection and ploy" to fight against the heat of the western sun which is the main issue.

Concept Diagrams Concept Diagrams

Second skin in the form of horizontal wood that serves to dispel the heat of the sun, seen front bedroom windows are made flat to reduce the incoming heat.

© Fernando Gomulya © Fernando Gomulya

Massing and programming of the Inset House.
The flying garden as the main crown of this house has a variety of functions that ultimately make this house feels beautiful and cooler. In addition to functioning as a hot exterminator and the main elements of the building facade, this garden becomes a good view for 3 rooms on the 2nd floor, namely Main Room, Corridor, and Children Room. Not to forget this park also became a private garden balcony for the main room. It makes the location on the top floor becomes like the ground floor.

© Fernando Gomulya © Fernando Gomulya

The flying garden that can be enjoyed from the child's room and the 2nd floor corridor. The main rooms are directly connected to the flying garden. The atmosphere of the flying garden at noon and at night which also serves as the main crown for the facade of this House.

Program Diagrams Program Diagrams

In addition to various strategies to combat of the western sunheat, this house has a very minimal floor programming partition / wall. This is to accommodate the main desire of the client who wants the house feels spacious and not divided by the wall, considering the 1st floor is a joint activity area between family members. At times can also be used to hold various events evenings together with family and friends remember that is the owner's hobby.

© Fernando Gomulya © Fernando Gomulya

The atmosphere of the fenceless 1st floor and very minimal wall and partition barrier, making residents can hold several events togetherness with family and friends. On the under the stairs area, the architect merancanng multinfungsi furniture that can turn into a bed and sofa, which is when not in use can be back to the stairs. So the residents can be flexible in its use. Bed furniture and downstairs sofa multifunctional ladder that can be folded into a ladder when not in use

© Fernando Gomulya © Fernando Gomulya

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Shanghai Baoye Center / LYCS Architecture

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 01:00 PM PDT

© LYCS Architecture. Main Entrance © LYCS Architecture. Main Entrance
  • Architects: LYCS Architecture
  • Location: Shanghai, China
  • Project Team: RUAN Hao, ZHAN Yuan, Gary He, LI Yan, TONG Chaochao, JIN Shanliang, Devin Jernigan
  • Architect Of Record: Zhejiang Baoye Architecture Design and Research Institute SINOBAU
  • Area: 27394.0 m2
  • Project Year: 2017
© LYCS Architecture. Southeast Aerial © LYCS Architecture. Southeast Aerial

"Water + Bridge"——Shanghai Baoye Center

Shanghai Baoye Center is part of the phase-2 urban development scheme for the new Central Business District in Hongqiao, a rapidly developing piece of western Shanghai. The location of the project puts it at the center of car, train, and jet transportation, and is in fact the last building one sees before entering the busy Hongqiao High-Speed Rail Terminal from the south by bullet train, granting the project a significant urban presence.The site has several challenging conditions: sandwiched by two city-designated temporary green spaces into an L shape, with a 60% frontage ratio requirement to the east, west and south, and a 24m tall highway overpass running adjacent to its north face, the building must respond to a maximum FAR of 1.60 and a height of 24m.

Diagram Diagram

In dealing with these conditions, There are many attempts within the design process, it’s more like finding breakthroughs within the limitations.The breakthroughs mainly are: 1. The breakthrough in site limitations; 2. The breakthrough in the rule of “maximum office space availability”; 3. The breakthrough in the standardized elevation design.

© LYCS Architecture. East Entrance © LYCS Architecture. East Entrance

The L-shaped site was first filled in to its maximum extents as a perimeter block, then lofted up 4 stories to the building height limit while satisfying the desired program area of 13,000 sqm. The perimeter is then pushed and manipulated to create three exterior-facing spaces and three distinct interior courtyards, defining the spatial structure of the project. The three main office volumes, designated A, B, and C, can function independently or in combination. The three pieces are linked by suspended bridges on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors. which generate hinged internal courtyards, to satisfy the internal circulation.

© LYCS Architecture. Central Courtyard © LYCS Architecture. Central Courtyard

The enclosing corridors also attract people into the central courtyard and then lead people entering three office buildings. The lift operation creates a depressive space, which creates a spatial sequence as open-depress-open again when people walking from outside via three lifted corridor into the center courtyard. This sequence will indicate people of a sense of entering and creating richer spatial experience in the limited site. In this way, form, circulation and the spatial sequence are highly unified.

© LYCS Architecture. Sunken Courtyard © LYCS Architecture. Sunken Courtyard

The result of these operations, which bring the balance between massing and spatial sequence, between program and promenade experience, is an innovation to the rule of “maximum office space availability”. Since the open floor plan office first introduced in Bloomberg headquarters office building in New York, which significantly increases the efficiency of office working model, how to maximize the area of office space is the major principle of office design. Here we are challenging this by proposing a new idea of” maximizing the quality of office space”, which is organizing outdoor landscape and green space integrated with indoor space, bringing more natural light and ventilation., and enhancing the user’s spatial experience, to create a creative working environment. We believe compare with maximum office areas, this will bring more efficiency to the users in the office.

© LYCS Architecture. South View © LYCS Architecture. South View

Besides, the elevation design is a breakthrough to the standardized uniformed elevation of contemporary office building. Under the “maximum office space availability”, office buildings nowadays are always stacked by standardized plan and elevation. 

© LYCS Architecture. Elevation Detail © LYCS Architecture. Elevation Detail

In this project, besides the “promenade plan” that mention before, the elevation consists of modularized shading panels. There’re around 26 kinds of different panels gradually flows on each level. 

© LYCS Architecture. Central Courtyard © LYCS Architecture. Central Courtyard

These panels have different slopes, which changes the height of windows and controls the interior daylight condition.

© LYCS Architecture. North West View © LYCS Architecture. North West View
Ground Floor Plan Ground Floor Plan
© LYCS Architecture. Central Courtyard © LYCS Architecture. Central Courtyard

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House in Midorigaoka / Camp Design

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 12:00 PM PDT

© HATTA © HATTA
  • Architects: Camp Design
  • Location: Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
  • Architect In Charge: Yusuke Fujita
  • Area: 81.45 m2
  • Project Year: 2010
  • Photographs: HATTA
  • Constructor: kyowatechno inc
© HATTA © HATTA

From the architect. It is a renovation project of one unit of the apartment house in Japan. When construction is built in Japan, the space is born for the law of construction on the site. It is used as a garden and a garage, and the space exists as a place without the name, and invents construction and the relation to the outside environment. It thought the inside and the outside of construction to be able to take the connection with the outside to the room by doing the thought design to one in the building frame exceeding the frame. In the first, a big one room was built while making "Space" for an existing building frame = site. There is no restriction because of the birth of the space this time. However, contexts of the position, the view, and the room arrangement, etc. in the number, the structure, equipment, and the window of the room are edited, and the shape of construction has been decided.

© HATTA © HATTA
© HATTA © HATTA

Various elements to draw close to life are sprinkled in the space. It characterizes, and there are two spaces like the extension of the terrace that is called a room terrace. One is a place where space on the side of the entrance can be taken, and the client be customized freely by the space not described easily as "Doma" of Japan and the sun-room. Another one is space with a dining & kitchen consecutive from the balcony. It is a space with the oneness with the outside by using an existing room arrangement. Additionally, there are a bath and a lavatory like the hut. To take the wind that comes off peculiar north to this provinces to the south to this hut, a big window is opened. Space under the beam on the wall side is servant space to build a large, refreshing one room by arranging the furniture of storage, equipment, and the make putting. It is done that "Space" that is the born between the detached house and the site becomes a garden and the relation between the house and the site ties in a concrete landscape.

© HATTA © HATTA

Plan Plan
© HATTA © HATTA

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Tapestry / SJB

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 10:00 AM PDT

© Aaron Puls © Aaron Puls
  • Interior Design: SJB
  • Client: Princi Properties
  • Text: Holly Shorland
© Aaron Puls © Aaron Puls

From the architect. On a deep, narrow site in Collingwood, SJB's Tapestry holds its own amid a variety of building types by directly addressing the myriad elements within its surroundings.

Comprising three volumes set at varying depths, creating an effect reminiscent of stacked building blocks, the building's diverse facades have been united by a single concrete element that wraps right around the building. It's a singular gesture that consolidates Tapestry's many parts, and is battened to the lower level. Tristan Wong, director of SJB Architects, notes this element is also functional. "The closer the connection with the ground level, more noise, more interruption occurs. So creating this singular, veiled box, it gives a bit more privacy and to the lower and central lower levels."

© Nicole England © Nicole England

Tapestry's upper-level penthouse is set well back from the street, with deep balconies along the street frontage. The building's middle section has smaller balconies with moveable metal screens that open and close to let in light and warmth or to create a private outdoor area as required. And the ground lobby area is again set back from the street, allowing room for a jutting block-like letterbox that is at once utilitarian and sculptural.

Plan Plan

Michael Bialek, a founding director of SJB Architects, says the architectural approach for Tapestry is very fitting. "We like our buildings to have a kind of sculptural quality, we like them to have depth, we like them to have detail, we like to have the recognition of materiality and this building, in our view, is one suited to the notion of concrete and steel in its robust industrial precinct."

© Nicole England © Nicole England

Bialek also sees Tapestry connecting with another common feature of the area's landscape, the terrace house: "The screens are like the old verandah on a terrace, or the frieze over the top … (in a terrace house) they may have been wrought iron but ours are a combination of the metal screens and glass balustrading."

© Nicole England © Nicole England

For Wong, one of the most interesting aspects of designing Tapestry was finding a way to get light into the centre of the site's narrow block, while retaining enough floor space for 21 one and two-bedroom apartments. "When you've only got a 10m frontage and you're trying to get two apartments into that frontage, you've got to get the bedrooms to the back so all the front portion is the living, kitchen and dining – all the active day space. And then the bedroom's a bit more secluded," he says. The solution was to sink four light wells through the centre of the development, each strategically placed to maximise light for residents. "The light wells have been turned into landscaped courtyards at ground, private courtyards that bring natural light into the bedrooms," says Wong. "Placing the apartment bedrooms around the light wells meant we could comfortably fit dwellings into the narrow site, without impacting on amenity," he explains.

Elevation Elevation

The light wells also face onto the common corridors and provide additional natural light – and glimpses of greenery via more plantings – for residents coming and going from the shared lifts.

© Nicole England © Nicole England

Tapestry's design also plays with the relationship between the public street and the intimate indoors. First, there are those moveable metal façade screens that give residents a choice about how public or private they want to be. Second, the interiors concept was drawn from one particular external element – the splayed edge of the building's wrapping, as Léo Terrando, SJB Interiors director and project lead, explains: "The one sharp angle – the inspiration came from that. We tried to reference that one detail of the architect's work to the inside."

© Nicole England © Nicole England

This 'angular' detail is evident throughout the interiors, including walls that act almost as joinery in the kitchens, and in the bathroom, where the shower is placed at the tip of a triangle. The large kitchen island bench also has a trapezoidal form, with one end jutting out onto the balcony, so the indoor island bench also facilitates outdoor entertaining.

© Nicole England © Nicole England

"The kitchens are treated as a composition of sculptural objects," Michael says. "Like the exhaust is a circular tube, the benchtop has a triangulated cut-off edge to a rectangular shape, so it's always interesting."

© Aaron Puls © Aaron Puls

The interior details extend into Tapestry's lobby area, where triangular details on the wall give way to a metal screen featuring multiple box shapes that echo the building's exterior, and the large singular gesture that juts forth into the streetscape (and also serves as the building's letterbox.) "There's always a balance between the triangle and the square," says Terrando.

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Open Jobs at OMA: Work for Pritzker Laureate Rem Koolhaas

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 09:30 AM PDT

OMA's mixed-use scheme for Santa Monica. Image © OMA OMA's mixed-use scheme for Santa Monica. Image © OMA

With a majority of architecture schools in the Northern Hemisphere ending and the official start of summer fast approaching, architects across the globe – whether fresh out of school or with years of experience under their belt – are playing jobs musical chairs. And with the AIA's Architecture Billings Index continuing to show growth in the profession, firms of all sizes are looking to add valuable members to their teams. 

One of those firms is OMA, whose Jobs site has seen a bounty of positions open up in recent months to keep up with the continued success of their seven offices across the globe. While many of the openings are given ambiguous descriptors, more than a few have titles that can speculatively be connected to projects announced over the past few years:

"Architect with Stadium/ Arena Experience – Rotterdam," for example, likely concerns the recently planning-approved Feyenoord Stadium and Masterplan, while "California Licensed Senior Architect – New York" will probably be involved in either their San Francisco tower or their mixed-use development scheme in Santa Monica, or both. 

What other projects might need some help? Check out the full list of job openings, below. 

OMA's Feyenoord Stadium and Masterplan. Image © OMA OMA's Feyenoord Stadium and Masterplan. Image © OMA

  • Internship Architecture - Rotterdam
  • Business Development Internship – Rotterdam
  • Mandarin speaking Architect – Hong Kong
  • Mandarin speaking Junior Architect – Hong Kong
  • Internships Architecture - Hong Kong
  • Internship Human Resources – Rotterdam
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ZincHouse / Studio B

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 08:00 AM PDT

© Derek Skalko © Derek Skalko
  • Architects: Studio B
  • Location: Aspen, Colorado, United States
  • Design Principal: Scott Lindenau, FAIA
  • Area: 2400.0 ft2
  • Project Year: 2017
  • Photographs: Derek Skalko
  • Interior Design: Susan Okie- Lindenau
  • Project Manager: Kevin Heath, AIA
  • Landscape Architecture: Ryan Vugteveen - Lift Studio
  • Structural Engineers: Studio NYL
  • General Contractor: Shaun Kennedy
© Derek Skalko © Derek Skalko

From the architect. A constrained property, a complex history and a one-story requirement defined this 2500 square foot residence draped in a zinc cloak perched on a board-formed plinth. The steep angular site is bound on three sides with immediate neighbors and positioned on a busy street resulting in an elevated solution for privacy and view.

© Derek Skalko © Derek Skalko
Floor Plan Floor Plan
© Derek Skalko © Derek Skalko

Sectional differences and an open plan capture natural light throughout with a hidden rear terrace embraced by the architecture. Walking distance to downtown, this residence sits quietly in its transitional neighborhood enjoying ample sunshine and great views to Aspen Mountain.

© Derek Skalko © Derek Skalko

The interiors reflect the clients desire for abundant natural light utilizing floor to ceiling windows and doors, light textured porcelain floors, level 5 drywall, wire-brushed cypress interior doors and ceilings adding warmth.

© Derek Skalko © Derek Skalko

The art and objects reflect the clients love of travel with overtones of gray's and charcoals in the fabrics, furniture and accessories complimenting with the exterior material palette.

© Derek Skalko © Derek Skalko

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Svalbard "Doomsday" Seed Vault to Receive Multi-Million Dollar Upgrade After Flooding

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 07:30 AM PDT

© <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/landbruks-_og_matdepartementet/4186766565/in/photolist-7nYgQr-7ojkQm-7nYgQa-9icKQV-7nYgQe-7ojm6W-7dzWhi-7o2mkY-7ofsjn-7nYgPZ-7o2mm5-pJjmLU-7ojncC-LH6rG8-7ofsdP-9m8eLQ-9ifSvj-7nYgQk-7ojkzU-rwY8QD-7dDQhj-9ifQML-7ofuTn-6VmKEm-9icSrk-UKfHh3-9icRWz-7ofuHt-7ofrYg-fBdM4e-9ifYYG-7ofutX-9icR9V-7u4rZ6-7u8mzu-7u8mvW-7dDPXY-7uErxU-9ifT2b-6VmKEE-9icMiV-9ifS4S-7ojmq9-9icKyt-9ifTp7-7oft6v-7ojmcC-c8Gnrf-9icPDk-LXUNiL'>Flickr user landbruks-_og_matdepartementet</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/'>CC BY-ND 2.0</a> © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/landbruks-_og_matdepartementet/4186766565/in/photolist-7nYgQr-7ojkQm-7nYgQa-9icKQV-7nYgQe-7ojm6W-7dzWhi-7o2mkY-7ofsjn-7nYgPZ-7o2mm5-pJjmLU-7ojncC-LH6rG8-7ofsdP-9m8eLQ-9ifSvj-7nYgQk-7ojkzU-rwY8QD-7dDQhj-9ifQML-7ofuTn-6VmKEm-9icSrk-UKfHh3-9icRWz-7ofuHt-7ofrYg-fBdM4e-9ifYYG-7ofutX-9icR9V-7u4rZ6-7u8mzu-7u8mvW-7dDPXY-7uErxU-9ifT2b-6VmKEE-9icMiV-9ifS4S-7ojmq9-9icKyt-9ifTp7-7oft6v-7ojmcC-c8Gnrf-9icPDk-LXUNiL'>Flickr user landbruks-_og_matdepartementet</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/'>CC BY-ND 2.0</a>

The government of Norway has announced plans for a $4.4 million USD (37 million NOK) upgrade to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, after record high temperatures caused the "failsafe" structure to flood earlier this year. While no samples were damaged in that event, the situation sparked concern that the facility would not be able to stand the test of time as originally intended.

Located 130 meters inside a mountain in the Arctic Svalbard archipelago, the vault was constructed as part of a worldwide initiative to protect global biodiversity by preserving the seeds of the world's important food crops. The structure, which cost $9 million USD to build, was intended to be buried deep into the permafrost to protect against both natural and manmade disasters, but this year's incident uncovered several design flaws that allowed water to breach the vault's access tunnel.

"The background to the technical improvements is that the permafrost has not established itself as planned," the government said in a  statement. "A group will investigate potential solutions to counter the increased water volumes resulting from a wetter and warmer climate on Svalbard." 

An initial $1.6 million will be set aside for a comprehensive investigation of how to improve the tunnel, with conclusions set to be delivered in 2018. Early ideas include changing the direction of the tunnel's slope to direct water away from the interior – a solution deemed unnecessary when the structure was originally built.

The Norwegian government's spokeswoman for the vault, Hege Njaa Aschim, told the Guardian: "The construction was planned like that because it was practical as a way to go inside and it should not be a problem because of the permafrost keeping it safe. But we see now, when the permafrost is not established, maybe we should do something else with the tunnel, so that is why we have this project now."

Several changes have already been made to the vault, including moving a heat-emitting transformer station to a location outside the tunnel. Other upgrades already in the works include the installation of drainage ditches around the vault and the construction of a waterproof wall inside the tunnel. 

Said the government statement: "The measures form part of a long-term plan to provide additional security to the seed vault, based on a precautionary approach."

Story via The Guardian.

Svalbard "Doomsday" Seed Vault Floods After Record Winter Temperatures

Earlier this year, the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard was flooded after record high temperatures over the winter caused some of the permafrost surrounding the vault to melt, reports The Guardian . The building's entrance tunnel was flooded and then froze to create conditions "like a glacier" for those trying to enter.

6 Structures Designed to Save Humanity From Itself

On April 26th 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine suffered a catastrophic failure, resulting in a nuclear meltdown and a series of explosions which scattered radioactive material across large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

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Ábaco Restaurant / GVG Estudio

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 06:00 AM PDT

© Rubén Pérez Bescós  © Rubén Pérez Bescós
  • Authors: Daniel Galar, Josecho Vélaz, Javier Gil
  • Installations: Naven Ingenieros
  • Design And Publicity: Artworks
© Rubén Pérez Bescós  © Rubén Pérez Bescós

From the architect. Hartza ― 'the Bear' in Basque ― was a widely renowned restaurant run by the Arza sisters in Pamplona. It was considered a real gastronomic temple until it was closed due to retirement in 2008. Since then, many well established restaurateurs have shown a strong interest in its premises, located in the historical centre of the city, but it was not until the arrival of Jesús Íñigo that the Arza sisters decided to transfer their legacy. Jesús' cuisine is radically different from theirs, but they admire each other. He commissioned us to refurbish the premises with one condition: to show the restaurant personality evincing a profound respect towards the old Hartza.

© Rubén Pérez Bescós  © Rubén Pérez Bescós
Plans Plans
© Rubén Pérez Bescós  © Rubén Pérez Bescós

An awe-inspiring wood structure ― split in different levels creating mid and double height areas ― sequences a fragmented space that offers a range of private dining rooms. Dark wood decoration reproduces the domestic sobriety of the typical Basque housing

© Rubén Pérez Bescós  © Rubén Pérez Bescós

A 10 mm steel sheet has been trimmed, folded and continuously welded to give a unitary response by means of an abstract, floating, inserted, sole object that generates some kind of adapted contrast with the old premises, as the cuisine of Jesús does regarding the Arza sisters'. The sheet pattern recreates an old motif from the local popular fabrics.

© Rubén Pérez Bescós  © Rubén Pérez Bescós
Isometry Isometry
© Rubén Pérez Bescós  © Rubén Pérez Bescós

This inserted object solves all requirements: it is the seat, the back, the facing, the screen, the handrail, it includes air conditioning diffusers and sound absorption. This way, the walls are freed from such elements and can be made uniform in dark blue, highlighting the structural, spatial geometry so characteristic of the former Hartza.

© Rubén Pérez Bescós  © Rubén Pérez Bescós

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Carmody Groarke Greenlit for Expansion of Historic Dorset County Museum in Dorchester

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 05:00 AM PDT

Model showing the approved renovation and addition. Image Courtesy of Carmody Groarke Model showing the approved renovation and addition. Image Courtesy of Carmody Groarke

The Dorset County Museum in Dorchester, England has received full planning approval for a 2,500-square-meter renovation and expansion project led by London-based architects Carmody Groarke. The project will consist of a sensitive refurbishing of the historic museum as well as contemporary architectural interventions that will create four new stories of naturally-lit galleries and an improved circulation flow throughout the building.

A central staircase will provide access to the galleries and archive. Image Courtesy of Carmody Groarke A central staircase will provide access to the galleries and archive. Image Courtesy of Carmody Groarke

Founded in 1846, the museum is well regarded for its large collection of historic objects concerning archaeology, geology, literature and fine art. The expansion will allow curators to display an increased number of these artifacts in new thematically-designated exhibition and conservation galleries. Below ground, a purpose-built archive will offer a range of climate-controlled storage, research, curatorial and conservation workspaces, giving the public access to the entire collection for the first time.

Renderings from an earlier iteration of the design. Image Courtesy of Carmody Groarke Renderings from an earlier iteration of the design. Image Courtesy of Carmody Groarke
Renderings from an earlier iteration of the design. Image Courtesy of Carmody Groarke Renderings from an earlier iteration of the design. Image Courtesy of Carmody Groarke

The new buildings will stand out architecturally through its dense roofscape, which interprets the surrounding urban context to create what the architect's explain as a "coherence of a large-scale public building." A new model and visualization released with the news of the approval show a slightly pared-down version of the original scheme (the last 3 images shown here). 

A model representing an earlier iteration of the design. Image Courtesy of Carmody Groarke A model representing an earlier iteration of the design. Image Courtesy of Carmody Groarke

"Achieving Planning Permission and Listed Building Consent will enable a wonderful opportunity for Dorset County Museum to realise a much more coherent and comprehensive visitor experience," said Kevin Carmody, Director of Carmody Groarke.

"Careful restoration of existing buildings will be given new context and meaning by the addition of contemporary architectural interventions. Not only will this be a locally and regionally important civic building, it will allow an international quality collection to be cared for and exhibited in one place for the first time and to be enjoyed for generations to come." 

News via Carmody Groarke.

Carmody Groarke's Cliff-Top Seaside Hotel Secures Planning Approval

Carmody Groarke's competition winning design for a new hotel retreat on Burgh Island off the coast of Devon, UK, has received planning approval, clearing the way for the dramatic structure to begin construction.

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The Barn / Carney Logan Burke Architects

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 04:00 AM PDT

© Audrey Hall Photography © Audrey Hall Photography
  • Project Manager: Matt Bowers
  • Project Foreman: Benchmark Builders, Jeff Thomas
  • Interior Designer: WRJ Design
  • Butterfly Installation: Paul Villinski courtesy of Tayloe Piggott Gallery.
© Audrey Hall Photography © Audrey Hall Photography

From the architect. Whatever the attraction, the architectural barn style was the look that the homeowners were after when they decided to add a guesthouse to their 15-acre property on Tucker Ranch. The couple's architect and friend, John Carney of Carney Logan Burke Architects in Jackson, equivocated - for am minute. "I remember that handed me photos of the real barns.

© Audrey Hall Photography © Audrey Hall Photography

I suggested maybe we didn't want to settle on a form so quickly, but in this case it really was them saying 'No, this is what we want'". 

© Audrey Hall Photography © Audrey Hall Photography

But because the abarn shape "is very classic and traditional", Carney says, "we knew we wanted to add an element of surprise in the design.  That surprise took the form of a huge second-story gridded glass wall, which looks due north to the Tetons and the  

© Audrey Hall Photography © Audrey Hall Photography
Upper Level Plan Upper Level Plan
© Audrey Hall Photography © Audrey Hall Photography

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and has two lower hopper windows that open up to provide fresh air. "The whole thing is proportioned to look like a loft hay-loading space, as if it were big double doors you brought hay into" say Camey.

Section A Section A

"The 2400-square- foot new-build, finished this past summer, actually serves three purposes: besides needing a guest house for the familys many visitors, the homeowners wanted a dedicated workout area for her ("I exercise outside whenever I can, but needed something with views to use in bad weather" she says.) and, for him, an expansive first-floor garage with a ceramic checkerboard tile floor.

© Audrey Hall Photography © Audrey Hall Photography

The building pays homage to 19th-cenf:ury working barns: the exterior and interior walls, in fact, are built of old barnwood (from Montana Reclaimed Lumber), two-foot- square punched windowson the first floor mimic traditional barn windows, and the interior has a pitched ceiling supported by knee braces interspersed between trusses, a design that is both striking to look at and necessary to support the cedar shake roof during Wyoming's heavy winter snows.

© Audrey Hall Photography © Audrey Hall Photography

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How Photography Helped to Dehumanize Our Cities

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 02:30 AM PDT

Singapore skyline at night. Image <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Singapore_Skyline_at_Night_with_Blue_Sky.JPG'>via Wikimedia</a> (public domain image taken by Wikimedia user Merlion444) Singapore skyline at night. Image <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Singapore_Skyline_at_Night_with_Blue_Sky.JPG'>via Wikimedia</a> (public domain image taken by Wikimedia user Merlion444)

This article was originally published on Common Edge as "How Photography Profoundly Reshaped Our Ideas About Cities."

Early in the 19th century, an invention arrived that would change the form and function of cities for generations.

Like all new technologies, it started out rudimentary, expensive, and nearly ineffectual. But it caught many imaginations and developed dramatically, eventually reaching the point of mass accessibility. Soon enough, it took aim at the public realm, with consequences that were indirect and unintended yet profound.

It reconfigured streets. It influenced the height of buildings. It altered foot traffic. It recast the relationship between buildings and streets. It changed how people felt about their cities and changed their points of reference. It turned cities into abstractions and, in some ways, turned city-dwellers against each other. Its influence nearly complete by the close of World War I, the invention has remained fundamentally unchanged, and is still universally celebrated, to this day.

All this with the press of a button.

Needless to say, the gas pedal played its part too. But, for all the primacy of the way we move through cities, we must also consider how photography changed the way we saw cities and, by extension, the ways we build and experience them.

Before the invention of the camera, we could behold the world only through our own eyes. That which pleased us and functioned for us took place in fine detail. There was no distinction between sight, touch, and presence. Anything we could see, we could probably touch. Anything we could touch was by definition within our presence, ours to behold, control, and, cherish.

The detailed cityscapes of antiquity present feasts for the eyes. A Parisian side street, Beijing hutong, or Philadelphia alley, no matter how cramped, unsanitary, or inequitable, could contain entire universes of visual detail and human activity. There is no way to pull back and pan out; no way to rise above the fray.

Wide-angle views with the naked eye, such as the revelatory vista afforded by the Pont Neuf when it opened in 1607, were exceptional and special. Life was close. It took place at ground level. And that's where beauty was found. Even in rough cities, human interaction—pairs of eyes catching other pairs of eyes—gives cities their allure. Appreciation of urban beauty found its apotheosis in the Parisian flaneur, for whom strolling and observing was its own reward.

Interestingly, the very first photo was of buildings: a heliograph called View from the Window at Le Gras taken from a second-story vantage point on the photographer's estate in the mid-1820s. An auspicious start.

Because the earliest photographic technology measured exposure times in minutes, it was good mainly for still lifes and portraits of very patient (and very wealthy) subjects. A notable successor to the Le Gras photo came in 1838 when Louis Daguerre, the pioneer behind the technology that bears his name, shot a Paris street scene from a handful of stories above the Boulevard du Temple. Whether intended or not, Daguerre caught two apparitional figures in his frame, doing what people used to do in cities: idling.

In both of these early photographs, technology provides a new way of seeing the landscape. The street becomes an object to behold rather than a place to occupy.

The photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson marked a decisive moment in the history of photography and, indirectly, in the history of cities. "Decisive moment" was Cartier-Bresson's own description of the challenge that photographers face. Knowing when to press the button matters every bit as much as knowing where to point the camera. A crucial, fleeting gesture can leap from banality to intrigue in the blink of a shutter.

Cartier-Bresson haunted the streets of Paris and other cities searching constantly for those moments. He found them in abundance, anonymous, intimate images that celebrate faceless humanity and urban minutiae.

Think of a Bresson image. Even a puddle or a cobblestone becomes the quintessence of Paris, because Paris is in the details. Though Bresson wielded the camera, he did not destroy Paris. He saw Paris through new technology but with an old eye. Paris formed before the camera, and so did Bresson's sensibilities, like a grandparent who still writes longhand letters even though she could send a text message just as easily. The photographers and views who came after clung to no such quaint notions. In our reproducible age, Bresson is the exception that proves the rule.

Consider the postcard.

However you spin it, the rack at the drug store holds all sorts of images: barnyard animals, points of interest, thinly veiled advertisements for tourist traps. But if the rack is in a city, one type of image is bound to dominate: that of the skyline. From Manhattan and Los Angeles to Wichita and Toledo, there is, essentially, no American city that is not defined by its skyline—that is to say, by a photograph of its skyline.

Postcard of Seattle, estimated 1930-1945. Image via <a href='http://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/pk02ck511'>Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers collection #69007</a> (public domain) Postcard of Seattle, estimated 1930-1945. Image via <a href='http://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/pk02ck511'>Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers collection #69007</a> (public domain)

Skylines appear on nearly every city's website. They adorn the backdrop for nearly every local newscast. They accompany promotional materials and magazine articles. Their synecdochal power is nearly limitless. The Midwestern massif that culminates in the Willis Tower is to Chicago what the telephone booth is to London. Peachtree Plaza and its fellow Portmans are to Atlanta what the sushi bar is to Tokyo. Even the most unremarkable skylines—Des Moines, Fresno, Rochester, whatever—represent their respective cities for lack of imagination or of anything more distinctive to portray.

But, iconic and photogenic as they are, skylines belie what cities are. And they betray what cities should be.

The skyline is the image of recession. It comes into view not as you approach it but as you pull away. On foot at street level, there is no "skyline." The eye and camera strain to capture it. Only from afar—from automobile-scale distances—does its full silhouette come into view. You cannot, by definition, behold a skyline and experience it at the same time.

The primacy of the skyline is, of course, a deception. Yes, downtowns are crucial components of their respective cities. But they rarely house the souls of their cities. For better or worse, American cities expand into vast orbitals, within which the downtown is often just a tiny nucleus. By lavishing attention on them, photographs elevate bureaucracy and business above all other urban virtues.

In the Emerald City, not only do we not know what is behind the curtain. We also do not know what lies on the ground. What are the sidewalks paved with, exactly?

A street in Montemartre, Paris, 2011. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/chodhound/5935303780/'>Flickr user chodhound</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/'>CC BY-SA 2.0</a> A street in Montemartre, Paris, 2011. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/chodhound/5935303780/'>Flickr user chodhound</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/'>CC BY-SA 2.0</a>

But city life is overwhelmingly experienced at the street level. That's where residents emerge from their front doors every morning. It's where the smell of baking bread wafts out and where lines extend out the door at coffee shops. It's where strolling takes place, and where strangers bump into each other in the first step towards becoming friends. It's where humanity and design intersect to create culture. That's the ideal, at least.

Secondhand images don't eliminate these possibilities. But they routinely fail to celebrate them. They enable residents to take them for granted and, as a result, allow them to disappear or degrade. The activity, intimacy, greenery, artistry and details that appeal to pedestrians are of no concern when we define cities according to those long-distance views. Consider how, as long as we have a skyline we can be proud of, we instinctively tolerate the Starbucks in the lobby of the office tower, with a little imagination, we could just as easily have Café Schwarzenberg on one corner and Cafe Landtmann on the other. Thoughtless photographs create thoughtless attitudes.

In the 1960s and '70s when cities were hemorrhaging, literally and demographically, a clean, distant skyline—such as that seen from a faraway suburb—was about all a city might have to recommend it. These images bred a vicious cycle, masking urban renewal and other forms of neglect. A stately bank building or old-time department store not tall enough to get into the frame might as well be a parking lot. And so they become parking lots. As long as the requisite towers stand high enough, and as long as they are viewed from far enough away, the voids below them do not matter.

It's worth remembering that photography was also a mass-produced, mass-marketed American product.

The world has plenty of impressive skylines: Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Toronto, and so on. Even London now has a skyline, with the addition of the Shard. But most are impressive only superficially, more for the capital that went into them than for their aesthetic merit. Many of these skyscrapers seem to be competing with each other for some unnamed award for garishness.

The more midair spires, cornices, cut-outs, and light shows I see, the more inured I become. Every preening new tower belittles those that preceded it while instantly proclaiming its own ridiculousness. As Alex Marshall put recently in Governing, "when you go from the view of the skyline down to the ground, you find that these big skyscrapers sit on giant superblocks, on roads that are more highway than street." They are usually surrounded, I might add, by pointless landscaping.

Photos make cities a purely visual experience, rather than the spiritual, emotional and sensory experience that they should be. They absolve planners and designers from creating environments that comport with what humans, at all of five or six feet tall, actually enjoy.

Of course, no single technology is causal or catalytic. The automobile, elevator, I-beam, smartphone, and many others crucial to the development of cities arose in tandem with the hubristic supernova of modernity. But to assume that photography merely reflects the environment and does not shape it would be shortsighted. As John Stilgoe teaches, locations do not become landscapes until they are seen. It's the same reason why photographers refer to "making" photos rather than "taking" photos. Photography is active, not passive.

The image doesn't supplant the city, but it says what's important. It says what the city is supposed to be. We build cities the way we view cities. When we don't value streets and don't value humans, we get the cities we deserve. We pay little attention to detail.

Bresson knew that. His images make the city intimate. The postcard makes it impersonal, eliminating people entirely from the city. It renders the city static, antiseptic, asocial, and atomized. It reduces the city to an abstraction: an object, to behold in a single view, hold in the palm of the hand, and manipulate rather than a place to be shared and enjoyed. Like the mountains that they mimic, these "objects" can be beautiful, but at great cost.

Think of the great modern American photographers: Charles Sheeler with lifeless factories. Weegee with the bright spirit of socializing. Cindy Sherman with portraits. Robert Mapplethorpe turning bodies into sculptures. Few besides Robert Frank approach life at street level. And yet, Frank's masterpiece, The Americans, laments suburbia and homogeneity. He captures the aftermath of de-urbanization, not the distinctive magic that used to make cities great.

Among amateurs and tourists, the most photographed street in America is brick-paved Acorn Street on Beacon Hill, dating back 400 years. Otherwise, the pedestrian's image of America thrives far from its great cities. It thrives on main streets of small towns and in gems like Charleston, Santa Fe, Santa Barbara: our most distinctive, pleasant cities. Think of those postcards: none has glass towers to distract from their charms. The best cities are always ready for their close-ups.

The saying goes, "take only photographs, leave only footprints." I wish it was that easy.

The photographs of which I write have made it harder to leave footprints. The cities that photography, along with its modern brethren, have wrought cannot change in the blink of a shutter. They certainly cannot change as quickly as photography is changing. We can now capture every moment – not just the decisive ones – if we want to. But let us hope that new perspectives, and heretofore unfathomable technologies, can help the old, analog world stroll back into the past.

Josh Stephens is contributing editor to the California Planning and Development Report and a freelance writer, specializing in urban planning. Based in Los Angeles, Josh writes frequently for Planetizen, Next City, and InTransition, among others. His website is joshrstephens.net.

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Extension of the Charlie Chaplin School Complex / SAM architecture

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 02:00 AM PDT

© Charly Broyez             © Charly Broyez
  • Architects: SAM architecture
  • Location: La Courneuve, France
  • Architects In Charge: Boris Schneider, Aurélien Clovis
  • Area: 1225.0 m2
  • Project Year: 2015
  • Photographs: Charly Broyez
  • Engineering Office: Cap Ingelec (structure and HBAC),
  • Industrial Kitchen Design Office: Process Cuisine
  • Construction Firms: Lacroix (structure),
  • Carpentry: Lifteam
  • Exterior Carpentry: Dabin
  • Plumbing: Brunier
  • Electricity: GSE
  • Interior Design: DSO
  • Kitchen Equipment: Médinox
© Charly Broyez             © Charly Broyez

From the architect. The project is composed of the construction of a school cafeteria and a recreation center, the renovation of a courtyard, the construction of a covered walkway, and the conversion of the former school cafeteria into 4 classrooms. The design is based on a rational architecture that is based on a simple exterior geometry that follows the guiding lines of the site (street, party wall, and neighboring façades), completing the original architecture.

© Charly Broyez             © Charly Broyez

The compact mass of the building is made up of three elements with a mineral appearance. Their proportions are in line with the width and height of the existing construction, and outline the contours of the new building. The center of the building is defined by a roof carried by crossed wooden roof beams. This roof extends to the façade as a concrete netting, framing the large bay window of the main cafeteria.

© Charly Broyez             © Charly Broyez

The plan of the school complex is inspired by the evolution of teaching programs in English-speaking countries. On entering the building, the architecture shows its generous nature, with its fluid and luminous spaces. The children can easily identify the functions of the various areas. The three exterior volumes built in white precast concrete are the kitchens, recreation center and cafeteria for the primary school sections and the auxiliary areas. The fourth volume develops in continuity with the roof structure on the courtyard, and houses the elementary cafeteria and entrance hall, the only surface that was voluntarily enlarged in order to offer additional uses through the wooden platform.

© Charly Broyez             © Charly Broyez

The project design arose from a focus on its materials. Concrete forms the vertical structure, and wood, the ultimate in ecological building materials, is used for framing and furnishings.

Ground Floor Ground Floor

The roof, in the form of a hull, makes it possible to adapt the ceiling height according to use and to the size of the spaces that are created. Two vaults increase the volume at strategic points (the main cafeteria, the wooden platform of the entrance hall).

© Charly Broyez             © Charly Broyez

The principal material is the LVL beech wood used for the complex roof design. The architect, design office and builders had to devote considerable effort to develop the structural concept in order to integrate vaults into a horizontal layer. This meant combining structures that compress with structures that deflect, in turn generating counter curves and therefore reversing moments at its edge. 3D modeling, as well as building an actual physical model obtained from a laser cutting, made it possible to visualize and simulate the geometry of the exposed wooden framework throughout the design phase.

Diagram Diagram

To reduce cross-sections and consequently optimize the amount of wood used, the framing was built using beech LVL beams in beech wood. These beams, recently developed by Pollmeier, are being used for the first time in France for this project.

© Charly Broyez             © Charly Broyez

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13 Reasons Why We Love Millennial Pink

Posted: 13 Jun 2017 01:00 AM PDT

Millennial Pink has broken into the design consciousness of more than its named generation. Though hugely successful in fashion and pop-culture (and Instagram), the playful color has established a presence across design products and the built environment like never before. Colour is a fundamental tool in our perception of architecture, with architects like Ricardo Bofill and Luis Barragan having baptized pink into a high-impact contributor through their works. With that in mind, check out these 13 projects showing why pink is here to stay: 

12,000 Pink-Painted Wooden Sticks / Ideo arquitectura

 Ideo arquitectura © Imagen Subliminal Ideo arquitectura © Imagen Subliminal

LightPathAKL / Monk Mackenzie Architects + Landlab

Monk Mackenzie Architects + Landlab © Russ Flatt Monk Mackenzie Architects + Landlab © Russ Flatt

La Muralla Roja / Ricardo Bofill

Ricardo Bofill © Gregori Civera Ricardo Bofill © Gregori Civera

Kolmio+LIM / Yusuke Seki

Yusuke Seki © Takumi Ota Yusuke Seki © Takumi Ota

NGRS Recruiting Company HQ / Crosby Studios

Crosby Studios © Evgeny Evgrafov Crosby Studios © Evgeny Evgrafov

A Room / Salottobuono + Enrico Dusi Architecture

Salottobuono + Enrico Dusi Architecture © Moritz Bernoully Salottobuono + Enrico Dusi Architecture © Moritz Bernoully

'André Malraux' Schools in Montpellier / Dominique Coulon & associés

Dominique Coulon & associés © Eugeni Pons Dominique Coulon & associés © Eugeni Pons

Didomestic / Elii

 Elii © Miguel de Guzmán Elii © Miguel de Guzmán

Beets and Roots Restaurant Berlin / Gonzalez Haase 


Gonzalez Haase © Thomas Meyer Gonzalez Haase © Thomas Meyer

Lano Fruits Office / Laura Ortín

Laura Ortín © David Frutos Laura Ortín © David Frutos

Vendsyssel Theatre / schmidt hammer lassen architects

Schmidt Hammer Lassen architects © Adam Mørk Schmidt Hammer Lassen architects © Adam Mørk

Footscray Apartment / BoardGrove Architects

BoardGrove Architects © Haydn Cattach BoardGrove Architects © Haydn Cattach

Nursery in Buhl / Dominique Coulon & associés

Dominique Coulon & associés © Eugeni Pons Dominique Coulon & associés © Eugeni Pons

BBVA Bancomer Tower / LEGORRETA + LEGORRETA + Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

LEGORRETA + LEGORRETA + Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners © Roland Halbe LEGORRETA + LEGORRETA + Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners © Roland Halbe

BONUS

Pink Flamingo / Stephane Maupin

Stephane Maupin © Guillaume Clément Stephane Maupin © Guillaume Clément

Collective Housing in Baró Tower / MiAS Architectes

 MiAS Architectes © Adrià Goula MiAS Architectes © Adrià Goula

Cuadra San Cristobal / Luis Barragán

Luis Barragán © Flickr User: Steve Silverman, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Luis Barragán © Flickr User: Steve Silverman, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

                     

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                    Nike Designs Shoe-Shaped LED Track in Manila

                    Posted: 12 Jun 2017 11:00 PM PDT

                    Courtesy of NIKE/BBH Courtesy of NIKE/BBH

                    NIKE has created a new experimental lab for running aficionados: the world's first full-sized LED racing track. Built as a pop-up in Manila, Philippines, the "Unlimited Stadium" coincided with the launch of their new LunarEpic running shoe. The 200m long figure-8 course follows the imprint of the running shoe, scaled up to a 100ft long footprint lighting up the heart of Manila.

                    Courtesy of NIKE/BBH Courtesy of NIKE/BBH
                    Screenshot Via NIKE Video Screenshot Via NIKE Video

                    The Unlimited Stadium was a project conceptualized and created in partnership with BBH Singapore. Runners on the track compete with their avatar – a virtual silhouette of themselves running alongside on the LED screen that wraps around the track like a ribbon. A sensor is attached to each participants shoe upon their first run, with their avatar appearing as a visual opponent, running the lap with their previous time and pace. Each time a runner beats their avatar, it runs with the faster pace, encouraging runners to improve their personal best with each lap. The figure 8 deviates from a traditional loop by its shape and through an uphill element as it crosses over itself in the middle, challenging runners further through its design.

                    Courtesy of NIKE/BBH Courtesy of NIKE/BBH
                    Screenshot Via NIKE Video Screenshot Via NIKE Video

                    An athlete's greatest competition is always themselves. Our ambition was to bring our athletes face to face with themselves - NIKE.

                    Screenshot Via NIKE Video Screenshot Via NIKE Video
                    Courtesy of NIKE/BBH Courtesy of NIKE/BBH

                    Despite NIKE's recent quest to beat the 2-hour marathon falling just short, the sports giant demonstrates an unrelenting dedication to improving the art of running which lies at the heart and soul of its brand. With the anticipated launch of new shoe designs, we can anticipate further collaborations between NIKE's products and its pop-up urban interventions - marking future cities with its trademark swoosh. 

                    News Via: NIKE.

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