Arch Daily |
- Pezo von Ellrichshausen and Felice Varini's Urban Room Forges New Civic Space in Hull
- The Wooden Box House / Spridd
- Residence in the Galilee / Golany Architects
- House in Hamajiri / SNARK
- Y House / Anonym
- West Village - Basis Yard / Jiakun Architects
- Ichijoji House / atelier Luke
- Il Mercato / Landa + Martínez Arquitectos
- New Renderings Revealed of Renzo Piano's Motion Picture Academy in Los Angeles
- How Chicago’s Tribune Tower Competition Changed Architecture Forever
- The High Plain House / Andrés Argudo
- Studio Libeskind's Canadian National Holocaust Monument Opens in Ottawa
- LEGO House / BIG
- Foster + Partners Design Sustainable Corporate Campus Featuring Budapest's Tallest Building
- The House of Sculptor Jarnuszkiewicz / yh2
- Piracaia Residence / Nitsche Arquitetos
- In A Male Dominated Field, Women Make Up Only 30% of Architects in USA
- 10 Contemporary Portuguese Houses
- Architectural Upcycling: 3 Materials That Turn Trash Into Low-Cost Construction Elements
- Fredericia, Denmark Embellished by EASA 2017 Student Installations
| Pezo von Ellrichshausen and Felice Varini's Urban Room Forges New Civic Space in Hull Posted: 03 Oct 2017 09:00 PM PDT  © Anna Gowthorpe A Hall for Hull with "Trois Points de Vue" by Chilean practice Pezo von Ellrichshausen and Swiss artist Felice Varini has been unveiled in the British city of Hull. Jointly commissioned by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Hull UK City of Culture 2017, the "monumental" outdoor installation has "transformed" Trinity Square [Hull] with sixteen galvanized-steel columns, arranged in a grid formation in front of Hull Minster, to form a new civic room for the city.  © Octovision Media According to the RIBA, the installation will "provide visitors with a range of different experiences as they enter each of the six-meter-high columns," which are open to the sky. "Perforations across the columns' frosted-like steel skin creates a delicate interplay of light and shadow across the interiors of each inhabited space."  © Anna Gowthorpe
Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen said: "This installation forms a temporary hypostyle room without a roof, with massive but almost immaterial columns barely open to the sky and to the immediate surroundings. The empty stone-paved square is challenged by the size and disposition of a regular open grid and each column (two meters wide and six meters high) is in fact an inhabitable room with a single entrance pointed to a different direction."
 © Thomas Arran
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| Posted: 03 Oct 2017 08:00 PM PDT  © Mikael Olsson
 © Mikael Olsson From the architect. Vallastaden 2017 is a housing expo presenting new ideas for future housing in Linköping Sweden. With the project "The Wooden Box House", the Swedish architecture office Spridd provides an answer to a number of challenges in today's building industry. The request to build sound and economically sustainable dwellings in renewable materials is a global challenge. Sweden, being a country of endless forests, has the capacity and knowledge in developing techniques in multi-story buildings in wood.  © Mikael Olsson Spridd's six-story building contains compact duplex flats both on the ground level and on the top floor creating the particular appearance of a belt of generous balconies stretched all around the building. The balconies give access to compact and flexible double-sided flats and become a social meeting place for the residents. In total there are 20 apartments between 37m2 – 57m2. With a rational system of beams and columns, the building process is fast and efficient, using the surrounding balconies both as access platforms during the construction and easy access for future maintenance of the wooden façade. The use of wood is present everywhere and provides a soft and welcoming atmosphere in both exterior and interior. In a few years time all exterior wooden surfaces will have gained a grey and matt subtle texture.  © Mikael Olsson The technique to develop large-scale structures in wood has finally reached a level where it can compete with steel and concrete. The Expo Vallastaden 2017 presents a number of housing projects in wood and could possibly make a historical mark in this development.  © Mikael Olsson  First and Fifth Floor Plan  © Mikael Olsson  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Residence in the Galilee / Golany Architects Posted: 03 Oct 2017 07:00 PM PDT  © Amit Geron
 © Amit Geron From the architect. The house overlooks the Sea of Galilee with a sweeping view of the Galilee from every room. The Generous openings facing the view at the south and east, require the provision of shading and filtering against the intense sun, which is provided by the wooden shutters. The shutters slide in adjustment to the position of the sun and privacy requirements.  Courtesy of Golany Architects  Ground Floor Plan  © Amit Geron The shutter lattices, as typical of Mediterranean mashrabiya, block views inwards and maintain privacy, while allowing one to enjoy the scenery from the inside. The windows and doors behind the shutters are recessed to improve climate control, creating intermediate spaces of shaded outdoor areas. Even during the very hot days of summer, these measures keep the house cool and pleasant.  © Amit Geron  © Amit Geron The design of the elevations is a contemporary interpretation of the romantic notion of balconies with a view. The vertical proportion of the openings provides continuity between the nearby view and the distant view adorned by the lake. Carefully positioned openings on the rear elevations also capture views of Mount Canaan and the old town of Safed.  © Amit Geron It was a challenge to design the residence while maintaining visual continuity from the lot towards the horizon. The lot is only 500 sqm, so the residence is designed in two floors to have maximum outdoor area. Preserved mature olive and oak trees are an immediate continuum to the garden. Both the house and garden, are leveled for optimal far views, while they seem to continue unobstructed towards the surrounding landscape.  © Amit Geron  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 03 Oct 2017 05:00 PM PDT  © Lo.cul.p
 © Lo.cul.p From the architect. This project is a house renovation with 35 years of age. It is a two-story wooden house located anywhere, consisted of finely divided rooms, according to the needs of the living at the time.  © Lo.cul.p  Floors Plans .jpg?1506915094 "© Lo.cul.p") © Lo.cul.p I wanted to let the sun entering from the opening in the south spread throughout the room because I expected that the room would be left when three families lived, so I dismantled the walls separating the rooms.I was able to feel the freshness by removing the walls, making space, passing through light and wind, and at the same time, I felt coolness that I could not explain by looking at the existing beams and pillars hidden in the finish.  © Lo.cul.p The state where the expression of the tree is visible and the structure is exposed is seen as unfinished, but by cutting the finish it led to a simpler expression.Moreover, by rebuilding while harmonizing with the existing material, it became a design that can only be done by the renovation.  © Lo.cul.p  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 03 Oct 2017 03:00 PM PDT  © W Workspace
 © W Workspace From the architect. Y house opens a dialogue with its existing context through the rhythm of building skin layering. It brings about the perception of the flow of spaces from the context to living spaces of the house. The relationship creates enclosed spaces and environment that provides privacy, while connects the house to the urban ecology in harmony with lives inside. The house, designed by Anonym Studio, is composed of four bedrooms, two sitting rooms, and one studio.  © W Workspace The architects, Phongphat Ueasangkhomset and Panduangjai Roojnawate, use limits of the Y-shaped land plot to form small courtyards and gardens to achieve a microecology of the house, connecting living spaces together. They also employ a formal difference while the articulation of the architectural skins and mass creates visual sequences that reflect the owners' memory and long-established relationship with the neighborhood. While one walks through the spaces, one can perceive different fragments of the urban context through the various layers of building skins.  © W Workspace Even though Nonthaburi province in which the house is situated in one of the satellite cities of the Bangkok Metropolitan Area that has a certain distance from the chaos of the center of Bangkok, it does not mean that the rapid changes of Bangkok will not affect the context of this house. For the house stands in the midst of constant changes of the metropolis, an attentive solution to the visual and psychological distance between the house and its context becomes crucial for creating the living spaces.  © W Workspace The environment of the house itself is designed to be both protective as well as open towards the changes at the same time. Under such limited circumstances caused by the particular Y-shape of the land plot, the plot size, and the functional requirements, the architectural language of the house is articulated within the relationship amongst the small open courtyards, narrow strips of the garden along the house, and the layers of the skins.  © W Workspace The architectural elements, therefore, plays a role of interlocutor with the context and life. The architects use the layering of surfaces to achieve the effects of various shades of atmosphere for different functional spaces, keeping the shades of perception of the surrounding context in harmony with life inside. So it brings about another form of living "with" the ever-changing urban context. The white painted steel brise-soleil brings about superimposition of visual perception that draws the surroundings into the interior spaces.  © W Workspace The vivid and colorful row-houses or the detached wooden houses in the neighborhood are not cut out but appear from time to time when one moves freely inside the house and become a part of the environment of the house itself. All of these form a conversation in which the house pronounces its speech to the context by exposing its identity and differences through a simple form, while it still listens, observe and perceives what is going on in its beloved outside world.  © W Workspace  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| West Village - Basis Yard / Jiakun Architects Posted: 03 Oct 2017 01:00 PM PDT  © ArchExist
 © Chengdu Beisen Culture From the architect. West Village is a maxi-courtyard that adopts an atypical design when compared to other commercial complexes in that its centrifugal layout encircles the entire block to maximize the inner area of sports and green like a park, echoing the form of a basin and encompassing a diverse public life. Smaller bamboo courtyards exist within bigger ones. They are open to the public and visitors are welcome to walk through freely.  © ArchExist  Ground Floor Plan  © ArchExist  A-A Section  © ArchExist The spatial design carries on the ever-popular traditional leisure lifestyle under the shade of bamboo among locals in order to refresh their former collective memories. Its functional structure allows a miscellaneous forms of expression to utilize the customizable spaces at will, while the large scale of the courtyard harbors and displays a vernacular façade that encourages creativity of the vast public. An elevated runway tails along the silhouette of the courtyard all the way up to the rooftop and then back to the ground. This constant change of altitude activates a dynamic flow of energy within this architectural project and brings joggers and cyclists an unusual experience.  © ArchExist  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 03 Oct 2017 12:00 PM PDT  © Eiji Kitada
 © Eiji Kitada From the architect. A deliberate balance between modernity and tradition creates this unique and textured retreat in the suburbs of Kyoto.  Section Osaka based design studio, atelier Luke, collaborated closely with craftspeople in Kyoto, Osaka and Nagano to apply traditional finishes and techniques to the design and renovation of this post- war terraced house. The client, a Danish-Australian furniture maker, wished to modernize the home without abandoning the character that makes traditional Japanese houses unique. From this position of respect, a design approach was adopted whereby modern attitudes to living would be balanced and contrasted with tradition.  © atelier Luke Originally constructed in 1961 as one in a block of four homes, this typical exemplar of the post- war Japanese row house typology had been left largely unaltered and allowed to dilapidate for over half a century. The project brief called for extensive renovation of the existing home and a small extension at the rear to accommodate new indoor plumbing and increased flexibility of use.  Floor Plans Unlike many similar renovations in Japan, which erase historical building stock through the unremarkable application of low durability prefabricated systems, an unconventional application of traditional techniques and materials has allowed for the retention and enhancement of much of the home's traditional character. From the stained wallpaper, to the lacquered floorboards, to the timber joinery, every element has been hand finished using traditional techniques.  © atelier Luke Existing structural timber elements have also been alternately concealed and revealed to experiment with and occasionally subvert traditional Japanese approaches to building character. In some cases, such as with the large cambered roof beams, previously hidden elements are celebrated as striking sculptural forms within the home.  © atelier Luke Programmatically, the house has been inverted from its original design; with living spaces placed on the upper floor and private areas on the ground. A sensitively flexible and multileveled living, dining and kitchen space transforms the spatial and experiential qualities of the interior. New prospect to the outdoors and an increased sense of spaciousness are provided by a screened courtyard, which flows from the living space through layers of sliding timber doors and paper screens.  © Eiji Kitada The old ground floor kitchen has been converted into a traditional Japanese bedroom; with tatami matts, shoji screens and handmade wallpaper. A new bathroom and toilet on the ground floor replace outbuildings that were demolished to allow for extension of the house. In these private and contained spaces, lacquered wallpapers bring a vibrancy of colour in contrast the warm neutrality of the living areas.  © atelier Luke A series of bespoke furniture pieces have also been created. Japanese oak kitchen cabinetry is combined with a unique copper worktop and services ducting, resulting in a sensitively utilitarian aesthetic that complements the raw materiality of the home. A fixed oak dining table is supported from the building structure, allowing it to almost float in space. Finally, a timber ladder provides both access to a small loft as well as an invitation to touch and grasp these specially crafted elements.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Il Mercato / Landa + Martínez Arquitectos Posted: 03 Oct 2017 10:00 AM PDT  © Documentación Arquitectónica
 © Documentación Arquitectónica From the architect. Il Mercato is a restaurant and entertainment center in Parque Centro, a new development in the city of Saltillo, Mexico. The building is organized around an enclosed patio and has broad windows and balconies towards Parque Centro's entrance plaza and central park. The structure is an exposed concrete frame with brick walls; it brings together Saltillo's industrial character and one of its surviving artisanal construction trades. For centuries, the city has been a brick production center in northern Mexico.  © Documentación Arquitectónica  Longitudinal Section  © Documentación Arquitectónica The project is laid out as one continuous space. The plan is divided into four sections. The first level, occupying one-fourth of the plan, is one meter over the entrance level. The second level is one meter above the first, and so on. Visitors might reach the building's top floor through the ramp and staircase circling the central patio, or through a steel elevator tower, which is independent of the main concrete structure.  © Documentación Arquitectónica The building houses a coffee shop, a bakery, and artisanal products shop, a taco and pizza eatery, a high-end restaurant, a playground, a culinary school, and an area for private events. All spaces can be closed off, but the building's ingenious circulations link all. Thus, guests might have an aperitif in the terrace, eat dinner in one of the restaurants, and stop by the shop in the same visit.  © Documentación Arquitectónica More than 40% of Il Mercato's served spaces are terraces, which makes the best of Saltillo's pleasant weather. They offer views of the mountains surrounding the city and are lookouts to spectacular sunsets. A large, cantilevered roof offers shadows to terraces and the central patio and tops off the building's façade. As a building commissioned by an Italian family as the headquarters of their business, the composition is a modern interpretation of a Renaissance palazzo. Il Mercato's interiors were designed by Weyes and its image and the graphics on its ceiling by Cadena y Asociados.  © Documentación Arquitectónica  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| New Renderings Revealed of Renzo Piano's Motion Picture Academy in Los Angeles Posted: 03 Oct 2017 09:05 AM PDT  © Renzo Piano Building Workshop/©A.M.P.A.S. Images from L'Autre Image New renderings have been revealed of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop-designed Academy of Motion Pictures as the project races toward its 2019 completion date. Located along LA's Miracle Mile, the museum is striving to become "the world's premier institution dedicated to the art and science of movies."  © Renzo Piano Building Workshop/©A.M.P.A.S.  © Renzo Piano Building Workshop/©A.M.P.A.S. Images from L'Autre Image Partnering with Gensler, Piano's design consists of the renovation of and addition to the Moderne-style May Company department store located at the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire. To be renamed the Saban Building, the six-story structure will contain more than 50,000 square feet of exhibition space, a high-tech education studio, a 288-seat theater, a museum store, a restaurant, cafe and a variety of public and event spaces. The project's signature element, however, is the new giant glass sphere that will house the 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater, which will be capable of hosting a range of performances, screenings and premiers.  © Renzo Piano Building Workshop/©A.M.P.A.S.  © Renzo Piano Building Workshop/©A.M.P.A.S. Images from L'Autre Image  © Renzo Piano Building Workshop/ Images ©A.M.P.A.S. Surprisingly, the institution will be LA's first museum dedicated to motion pictures. Three-quarters of the $388 million fundraising goal has now been reached, with completion anticipated for 2019. See all the new images in the gallery below, and learn more about the project, here.
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| How Chicago’s Tribune Tower Competition Changed Architecture Forever Posted: 03 Oct 2017 09:00 AM PDT  © Steve Hall This article was originally published on the blog of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the largest platform for contemporary architecture in North America. The 2017 Biennial, entitled Make New History, will be free and open to the public between September 16, 2017 and January 6, 2018. The Tribune Tower has stood at the heart of Chicago's cultural heritage for almost a hundred years. Like the spire of a secular cathedral, it still symbolizes the rise of the "city of big shoulders" and its defining role in the American Century. But the building is more than a Chicago icon. The story of its origin has proved to be one of the most enduringly influential narratives in 20th Century architecture, key to understanding the skylines of cities all over the world.  A groundbreaking skyscraper was the highest ambition of Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the powerful publisher of the Chicago Tribune and a man who dominated local politics before the First World War. Hoping to project an aura of international prestige for his burgeoning media empire, the competition brief he compiled asked architects to create "the most beautiful office building in the world." More than 260 architects from 23 countries responded with designs in a dizzying range of styles. Some entries stretched the office tower's vertical structure into extended Gothic arches with delicate tracery, while others segmented the facade into Neoclassical orders with stepped porticoes and colonnaded temples for crowns. Forward-thinking architects submitted sleeker designs modeled on factory architecture, Chicago's existing masterpieces, or the angular ornamental motifs that would later be known as Art Deco. Some reduced the building to a single symbol; an arch, an obelisk, a giant Native American figure, or even an enormous billboard spelling out the headlines of the day.  For nearly a century, Chicago's Tribune Tower has stood at the heart of the city's cultural heritage. Image Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial Blog (Consortia) The winners, Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells, proposed the Gothic tower that now graces the corner of Michigan Avenue north of the Chicago River. Their design balanced the vertical spirit of US commerce with Gothic flourishes from French tradition – including a dramatically buttressed crown borrowed from the 13th Century Cathedral in Rouen. While major international competitions may be a familiar sight in the architectural sphere today, the Tribune Tower competition was unique for its global influence on the future of the field. Audiences could compare and evaluate starkly contrasting ideas from the world's foremost architects at a glance; the results—published widely—produced a ripple effect which influenced different schools of thought competing to define the look of the "Modern Age".  Some of the more radical proposals for the Tribune Tower by Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer; Max Taut; Adolf Loos; and Bruno Taut, Walter Gunther, and Kurz Schutz. Image Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial Blog (Consortia) Not only did echoes of the design of the winning skyscraper appear throughout the pre-war period, but several other entries resonated with later generations. Eliel Saarinen's design, a runner up, heavily influenced several North American skyscrapers built as late as the 1990s. A tongue-in-cheek proposal by Austrian architect Adolf Loos to turn the building into an enormous Doric column, playing on the "columns" that compose a newspaper, went on to inspire Postmodernist architects with its readymade look and its playful engagement with language. Architects have remained so obsessed with the ideas of the unbuilt Tribune Towers that reimagining the competition has become something of a tradition in its own right. In 1980, the Chicago architect and Postmodern provocateur Stanley Tigerman organized a winking do-over of the original contest. In a volume called Late Entries to the Chicago Tribune Tower Competition, he published the original designs alongside new drawings by the likes of Frank Gehry, Alison and Peter Smithson, Bernard Tschumi, and Tadao Ando.  The "late entries" included fantastical designs by Helmut Jahn, Judith Di Maio, Arquitectonica, and Robert A.M. Stern. Image Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial Blog (Consortia) Some of these designs drew directly on the older source material, like Arquitectonica's red, white and blue obelisk. Others riffed on the metaphors encoded in the statues, temples, signs and columns that topped earlier designs, replacing them with baby bottles, globes, trees, White Sox uniforms, and giant newspaper pages. The book even featured a number of architects who would go on to shape the Chicago skyline in vastly different ways: Helmut Jahn, the designer of the Thompson Center, submitted a geometric tower that floated impossibly above the original building. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien contributed a craggy volume perched atop four enormous boulders – prefiguring their monolithic designs for the Logan Center at the University of Chicago (completed in 2012) and the forthcoming Obama Library and Presidential Center. The "late entries" may have been offbeat, but Tigerman's goal was to take the temperature of the architecture field during a moment of radical change. Just as Gothic ornament and Bauhaus modernism brushed cheeks during the 1922 competition, these represented a cross-section of contrasting ideas from some of the most radical thinkers of the late 20th Century. Some of the more opinionated entries came from thinkers whose drawings would motivate new generations of architects to think in new ways about history, tradition, and form. Others would go on to design real skyscrapers that imprinted the visions developed in the contest on the skylines of US cities.  Eliel Saarinen's 1922 design at left, with views of the Wells Fargo Center, Bank of America Corporate Tower, and 180 W. Madison Street, all designed by César Pelli. Image Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial Blog (Consortia) Argentinian-American architect César Pelli, who would become one of the world's most prolific skyscraper designers, incorporated Postmodern rooflines and decorative elements into buildings like Cleveland's Key Tower and the Carnegie Hall Tower in New York, but he also built several skyscrapers with the classic step-backs and rectangular proportions of Saarinen's snubbed design – like the Wells Fargo Center in Minneapolis (1988) and the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte (1992), as well as Chicago's 180 W. Madison Street (1990). The 2017 Biennial in Chicago, entitled Make New History, follows in Stanley Tigerman's footsteps by introducing a new generation of Tribune Towers that explore the competition's complicated afterlife and connect the groundbreaking dreams of the past with the most pressing issues of today. Artistic Directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee have asked emerging practices from around the world to turn one of the Chicago Cultural Center's grandest spaces into the "Vertical City" display: a lofty grid of imaginative towers representing a new generation of "late entries."  A reconstruction of Loos' proposal (center) accompanies new towers by an international group of young architects. Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial. Image © Steve Hall Two rejected designs from 1922 serve as contrasting points of departure. One is Loos' Doric column, which proved a touchstone for Postmodernists who looked to both metaphor and historical motifs for inspiration. The other is a never-submitted Modernist design by Ludwig Hilbersheimer, which only exists in the form of one perspective drawing – opening up questions about how architects reinterpret visions from the past in the absence of documentation. The new towers are created by an international group of young architects: 6A Architects, Barbas Lopes, Christ & Gantenbein, Ensamble Studio, Eric Lapierre, Barozzi Veiga, Go Hasegawa, Kéré Architecture, Kuehn Malvezzi, MOS, OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, PRODUCTORA, Sam Jacob Studio, Sergison Bates, Serie Architects, and Tatiana Bilbao.  From left, designs by OFFICE Kersten Geers David van Severen, Éric Lapierre, Sam jacob Studio, PRODUCTORA, Tatiana Bilbao, Kéré Architecture, and Ensamble Studio. Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial. Image © Steve Hall Some designs take stylistic pastiche to new heights, while others question what Loos' column would look like with different references and different materials. Many rethink what a skyscraper can do to accommodate new types of work and play in the twenty-first century, from the sharing economy to alternative ownership models. Digital collage, new forms of physical craft, adaptive reuse, historical anecdotes, innovative building technologies, and cultural critique are all vividly on display. Taken together, the new models comment on the ways that ideas in architecture circulate between past and present as much as between architects themselves – and how exhibitions take on lives of their own as they make history for centuries to come. Leo Shaw is a strategist at Consortia. The 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial blog is edited in partnership with Consortia, a creative office developing new frameworks for communication who are editing the Biennial blog. This article also features embedded content from Are.na, an online platform for connecting ideas and building knowledge.
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| The High Plain House / Andrés Argudo Posted: 03 Oct 2017 08:00 AM PDT  © JAG Studio
 © JAG Studio From the architect. The high plains? When we visit the place, the visual impact of the landscape is what’s going to make the strongest impression in the development of the project, a landscape of mountains, a lake and a secluded forrest of pines. We can add a house made of adobe in the middle of the place, already previously reconstructed for the rest of its owner; these are the two main aspects to take into account in the evolution of this venture.  © JAG Studio As we previously mentioned, and following the line of our client, one of the top priorities is to maintain the adobe base material with which the house was made, transforming it in a welcoming space for guests. And to this, we expect to integrate a resting place for families during the weekend.  © JAG Studio From this, we start out with the functional scheme of a household. From a new place of rest with three comfortable bedrooms we’d turn it into a cozy suite-type home that excels from the typical home, using the landscape at its best.  Axonometric How to generate an architectonic solution that mixes up together the old construction with a brand new modern structure, without having the adobe house lose its prime focus? This is where the idea of building the next step in a lower level comes from. Besides this, we consider the lot’s topographic, leaving its surface empty for it to turn into a terrace, this will become part of an old-fashioned social area that’s in no way going to diminish the landscape.  © JAG Studio To successfully achieve what’s planned, we are aiming at having the new construction as open as it can be, having the vast majority of the facade made of glass, taking full advantage of the landscape. Nevertheless, it was of the utmost importance to take into account that, because of the location of the project, camera glasses and floor with its own heating system to preserve the warmth on the inside of the house.  © JAG Studio  Section A  © JAG Studio  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Studio Libeskind's Canadian National Holocaust Monument Opens in Ottawa Posted: 03 Oct 2017 07:00 AM PDT  © Doublespace. Courtesy of Studio Libeskind The Studio Libeskind-designed Canadian National Holocaust Monument has opened to the public in Ottawa, honoring "the millions of innocent men, women and children who were murdered under the Nazi regime and recognize those survivors who were able to eventually make Canada their home." Located on a .79 acre site across from the Canadian War museum, the cast-in-place concrete monument evokes the form of the 6-pointed star of David, deconstructed to create an "experiential environment" laced with symbolism throughout.  © Doublespace. Courtesy of Studio Libeskind "The star remains the visual symbol of the Holocaust – a symbol that millions of Jews were forced to wear by the Nazi's to identify them as Jews, exclude them from humanity and mark them for extermination," explain the architects. "The triangular spaces are representative of the badges the Nazi's and their collaborators used to label homosexuals, Roma-Sinti, Jehovah's Witnesses and political and religious prisoners for murder." Two ground planes establish symbolic and circulatory paths through the structure: an ascending plane that "points to the future"; and a descending plane leading to the contemplative interior spaces. Specific program pieces are located within the six concrete triangles, including an educational interpretation space describing the history of Canada and the Holocaust, three individual spaces for contemplation, a central gathering space, and the cathedral-like "Sky Void" containing the eternally-burning Flame of Remembrance.  © Doublespace. Courtesy of Studio Libeskind Murals by Edward Burtynsky feature on the walls of each triangular space, transporting visitors to the haunting landscapes of Holocaust sites. Gesturing toward the nearby Parliament Buildings, the "Stair of Hope" takes visitors from the central gathering space to the upper plaza. Surrounding the monument, a rocky landscape dotted with coniferous trees will evolve as the structure ages, representing the passing of time and the contribution of Canadian survivors to the culture and society of modern-day Canada. "It is extremely meaningful to have been able to design and realize this monument with an incredible team," said architect Daniel Libeskind. "This monument not only creates a very important public space for the remembrance of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, but it also serves as a constant reminder that today's world is threatened by anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry. Canada has upheld the fundamental democratic values of people regardless of race, class or creed, and this national monument is the expression of those principles and of the future."  © Doublespace. Courtesy of Studio Libeskind Studio Libeskind was selected to design the project in an international competition between top architecture firms. See the 6 shortlisted designs, here. Find more information about the National Holocaust Monument here.
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| Posted: 03 Oct 2017 06:00 AM PDT .jpg?1507043791 "© Iwan Baan") © Iwan Baan
 © Iwan Baan From the architect. BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and LEGO bring the toy scale of the classic LEGO brick to architectural scale with LEGO House, forming vast exhibition spaces and public squares that embody the culture and values at the heart of all LEGO experiences.  © Iwan Baan Designed by BIG and COWI, LEGO House is an experience hub for LEGO fans of all ages, as well as an architectural landmark and a significant step towards the city's goal of making Billund the Capital for Children. The construction of the 12,000 m2 LEGO House commenced in 2014, replacing the former City Hall building with support from three generations of the LEGO family and Billund City Mayor Ib Kristensen.  © Iwan Baan "All activities in the house are related to our LEGO philosophy that learning through play promotes innovation and creativity. Play runs through the LEGO Group's DNA, and it is really brought to life in LEGO House. Everything from experience zones and outdoor areas to our restaurant concepts is based on play and creativity, so no matter what you do in LEGO House, it will have something to do with playing." Jesper Vilstrup, LEGO House CEO.  © Iwan Baan Due to its central location in the heart of Billund, the 23 m tall LEGO House is conceived as an urban space as much as an experience center. 21 overlapping blocks are placed like individual buildings, framing a 2,000 m2 LEGO square that is illuminated through the cracks and gaps between the volumes. The plaza appears like an urban cave without any visible columns and is publicly accessible, allowing visitors and citizens of Billund to shortcut through the building.  Ground Floor Plan  Section AA  First Floor Plan Elevation "LEGO house is a literal manifestation of the infinite possibilities of the LEGO brick. Through systematic creativity, children of all ages are empowered with the tools to create their own worlds and to inhabit them through play. At its finest – that is what architecture – and LEGO play – is all about: enabling people to imagine new worlds that are more exciting and expressive than the status quo, and to provide them with the skills to make them reality. This is what children do every day with LEGO bricks – and this is what we have done today at LEGO House with actual bricks, taking Billund a step closer towards becoming the Capital for Children." Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.  © Iwan Baan The LEGO square is energized by an urban character, welcoming locals and visitors to the café, restaurant, LEGO store and conference facilities. Above the square, a cluster of galleries overlap to create a continuous sequence of exhibitions. Each gallery is color-coded in LEGO's primary colors so wayfinding through the exhibitions becomes a journey through the color spectrum.  © Iwan Baan The first and second floors include four play zones arranged by color and programmed with activities that represent a certain aspect of a child's learning: red is creative, blue is cognitive, green is social, and yellow is emotional. Guests of all ages can have an immersive and interactive experience, express their imagination, and not least be challenged by meeting other builders from all over the world. The top of the building is crowned by the Masterpiece Gallery, a collection of LEGO fans' beloved creations that pay tribute to the LEGO community.  © Iwan Baan  © Iwan Baan  © Iwan Baan The Masterpiece Gallery is made of the iconic 2x4 LEGO brick and showcases art beneath eight circular skylights that resemble the studs of the brick. Like the golden ratio, the proportions of the brick are nested in the geometries of everything man-made in the building, from the glazed ceramic tiles in the steps and walls to the overall 21 block scheme. Atop the Masterpiece Gallery, citizens and visitors can get a 360° panoramic view of the city. Some of the rooftops can be accessed via pixelated public staircases that double as informal auditoria for people watching or seating for performances.  © Iwan Baan  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Foster + Partners Design Sustainable Corporate Campus Featuring Budapest's Tallest Building Posted: 03 Oct 2017 05:00 AM PDT  © Foster + Partners Foster + Partners have revealed designs for the sustainability-minded new headquarters of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Group in southern Budapest. Known as MOL Campus, the plan will center on an environmentally-progressive structure located within in a park-like setting. When completed, it will become this city's tallest building. "This is a landmark project for several reasons, not only for MOL but also for Budapest," said Nigel Dancey, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners. "It presents a unique challenge – to ensure that the building meets the functional needs of the organisation, follows the highest standards of sustainability, and is respectful of its historic surroundings."  © Foster + Partners The building form is a natural evolution of the traditional podium-and-tower typology. A glassy podium sweeps along a series of outdoor spaces and walkways, smoothly turning upward at one end into a 28-story tower. To encourage relaxation and collaboration, vegetation and natural light feature throughout the building from the central atrium to sky gardens located along the building facade. A publicly-accessible roof garden will cap the tower. "As we see the nature of the workplace changing to a more collaborative vision, we have combined two buildings – a tower and a podium – into a singular form, bound by nature," Dancey continues. "As the tower and the podium start to become one element, there is a sense of connectivity throughout the office spaces, with garden spaces linking each of the floors together."  © Foster + Partners Office spaces are laid out in flexible arrangements between offset service cores, further reinforcing the importance of collaboration and comfortability. High-tech climate and light control systems will help to create the optimal workspace while maintaining energy efficiency and sustainability, one of the project's core concepts. "The MOL Campus seeks to preserve live-work relationships as part of the urban experience, where people are able to walk or cycle to work," explain the architects. "All occupants have a direct connection to the external environment providing fresh air, daylight and views, and the building utilises low and zero carbon energy sources, such as photovoltaics, also featuring rainwater harvesting and storage facilities." News via Foster + Partners.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The House of Sculptor Jarnuszkiewicz / yh2 Posted: 03 Oct 2017 04:00 AM PDT  © Francis Pelletier
 © Francis Pelletier From the architect. The house of sculptor Jarnuszkiewicz is a collaborative work between client, sculptor Jacek Jarnuszkiewicz and architects Marie-Claude Hamelin and Loukas Yiacouvakis. The process by which this project was conceived follows the guidelines of the surrealist's exquisite cadaver technique where each designer builds following the work done by the previous one. Each sculptural proposition was debated among ourselves until we finally agreed to express verticality as a strong and clear expression of the given landscape's essence; a vast land overhanging lake Trousers filled by a chiaroscuro coniferous forest.  © Francis Pelletier Once the compositional rules established, the project was developed from the hand of one creator to the other, from volume to plan, from the handling of materials and masses to the upgrowth of interior spaces. The fractioning of masses, the composition of two wood volumes, one light and one dark, the opacity and transparency structural games all make the house unite with nature as well as nature integrate the house.  © Francis Pelletier The open plan of the house offers a natural fluidity and continuity between the forest's ground level and the lower floor of the house, between interior and exterior. The experience offered by the mezzanine on the last floor is completed by a large covered terrace that simultaneously is a wildlife observation tower and a panoramic belvedere opening itself to the mountains and overlooking the lake nearby.  © Francis Pelletier  Ground Floor Plan  © Francis Pelletier Vertical composition reminiscent of the mature trees surrounding it, the house opens itself to daylight and to the majestic scenery thanks to the large glass facade covering the three floors. At dawn, the surroundings disappear and the house emerges as a sculptural lantern in the heart of the forest. Expressed tectonics where spatial composition overrides functionality, it is a sculptural house in nature.  © Francis Pelletier  Sections A and B  © Francis Pelletier  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Piracaia Residence / Nitsche Arquitetos Posted: 03 Oct 2017 02:00 AM PDT  © Nelson Kon
 © Nelson Kon From the architect. The residence located in the municipality of Piracaia develops from a crop on a large plot of 36.600 m² with constant inclination of 13%, allowing the insertion of one foundation in concrete that houses the garage, services and technical areas.  © Nelson Kon  Ground Floor Plan  © Nelson Kon On this foundation, the social and intimate areas of the house were developed, in one single level which is elevated from the natural ground.  © Nelson Kon  Elevations  © Nelson Kon The metal structure of the house is guided by 17 modules of 3.80m that are able to define sometimes a bedroom, other times two bathrooms and sometimes unite in larger spaces such as covered balcony, dining room and living room.  © Nelson Kon  Structure Diagram  © Nelson Kon The great gabled roof, made by metallic tiles, settles on this structure and defines different heights for the environments enabling ventilation on the lining of the intimate areas, where pre painted MDF and wooden beams form the structure.  © Nelson Kon Rooms and bathrooms are protected by wooden mashrabiyas that constitute bays in front of the toilets and bifold doors in the rooms.  © Nelson Kon In the main rooms, the double height ceiling is guaranteed by the insertion of polycarbonate panels between the spans of the metal structure.  © Nelson Kon Large glass sliding doors allow the rooms and kitchen to mix with a covered free space, dissolving the boundaries between inside and outside, which the house insists to disrupt, either by the stand in grass that connects the main floor to the ground, either by the infinity edge pool that visually unites with the dam, where the plot ends.  © Nelson Kon A large covered free standing space connects intimate and social areas allowing the landscape to cross the house.  © Nelson Kon  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| In A Male Dominated Field, Women Make Up Only 30% of Architects in USA Posted: 03 Oct 2017 01:40 AM PDT  via Flowing Data Nathan Yau collected US Census data between 1950 and 2015 to create a set of visualizations that demonstrate how the diversity of the workforce has evolved. "Naturally, men and women now work many of the same jobs, but many jobs are mostly men or mostly women," explains Yau. So how does the architecture profession fit into this narrative? Data from the 2015 American Community Survey revealed the "most male" and "most female" jobs (carpenter and preschool/kindergarten teachers, respectively). It's not entirely surprising that architects fall towards the male spectrum, but this interactive graphic allows you to explore other professions and the share of men and women who labor in these fields. While exact numbers aren't available, the data shows that only 30%-35% of architects in the United States are female.  via Flowing Data  via Flowing Data Which professions have a similar male/female breakdown? Emergency Medical Technicians, Environmental Scientists, and Morticians/Funeral Directors. Yau also compiled 65 years of data to show changing proportions of males and females in specific workforces. As shown in the graph below, architecture is making a slow but determined march towards a 50-50 split. When assessed against other professions—such as model makers ("Woodworkers Including Model Makers and Patternmakers, Misc.") which is, according to Yau's data, becoming less gender diverse—this is a comparatively positive statistic.  via Flowing Data Visit "Most Female and Male Occupations Since 1950: The shifting majorities of the sexes in the workplace" to search for other professions and explore Yau's interactive data visualizations.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 10 Contemporary Portuguese Houses Posted: 03 Oct 2017 01:00 AM PDT
Housing is certainly one of the most interesting themes that present itself to the architect, after all designing a residence allows the study of the usage and customs of human beings according to their culture, desires and daily life. Each project brings a new customer and, with it, an unprecedented challenge. Through the ten selected projects, it is possible to see the inventiveness of the architects and how each work distinguishes itself from the other through the colors, geometry, relation with surroundings or even the way in which it innovates when proposing a new daily life to its inhabitants. Grândola House / ColectivArquitectura  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG House in Matosinhos / nu.ma | unipessoal  © ITS, Ivo Tavares Studio  © do mal o menos Paredes de Coura / Escritório de Arquitetos  © João Morgado House in Alentejo Coast / Aires Mateus  © Juan Rodriguez Monte Do Córrego / Atelier dos Remédios  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG The Dovecote / AZO. Sequeira Arquitectos Associados  © Nelson Garrido  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Architectural Upcycling: 3 Materials That Turn Trash Into Low-Cost Construction Elements Posted: 03 Oct 2017 12:40 AM PDT  Courtesy of MetaComb, inc. This article was originally published by Autodesk's Redshift publication as "Architectural Upcycling Builds Earth's Better Future Out of Trash." Contemporary designers are recycling waste materials into useable and well-crafted objects, and it's easy to get the impression that this burgeoning realm of fabrication is destined only for the craft fair. A quick survey of Blaine Brownell's new guide Transmaterial Next: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine Our Future turns up a half-dozen Etsy-ready art and furniture curios. There's jewelry made from coffee grounds, bowls made from plastic bags, and a chair made from artichoke thistle fibers (the "Artichair"). But these items don't demonstrate the necessary capacity for heavy lifting and mass-market applicability for an age of climate change and dwindling resources. To grasp the kind of architectural upcycling that can divert trash from landfills and carbon from the atmosphere on a mass scale, it pays to step out of the design gallery and into the laboratory, where architects are inventing a new breed of modular building materials.  Rolled magazine pages glued to cardboard panels give the TrashWall a pixelated, mosaic appearance. Image © Jannita Bolin At Washington State University, researchers are tackling a prosaic problem with trash. In many older and run-down rental apartments—sometimes housing seniors or low-income residents—landlords don't bear the cost of utilities, and thus have no incentive to make sure these units are well insulated and energy efficient. What might an extremely affordable interior wall insulation system look like? It might look like the TrashWall prototype, which recently received an AIA Upjohn grant. Washington State architecture professor Taiji Miyasaka and engineering professor Robert Richards have outlined two wall systems and claddings. One method uses a grid of cardboard cut and notched to be joined together with paper towel tubes. The other uses plastic pop bottles fused together for rigidity. For insulation, plastic bags or shredded paper is shoved into these frames. On the outside, rolled up magazine pages are glued to cardboard panels for a pixelated, mosaic appearance. Alternatively, tiles of "papercrete" (a mix of paper pulp, cement, and water) can be applied for a fireproof finish. "The resulting tiles are very fire resistant, with tiles not igniting after 15 minutes of exposure to the flame of a propane torch," says Miyasaka. These interior, non-load-bearing walls are a DIY way to retrofit existing homes to be more energy efficient, and residents could make them in a matter of hours. They're also flexible and modular. "The systems are flexible enough to create different wall configurations to respond to irregular conditions of the space where doors and windows are located," says Miyasaka.  A rendering of an affordable upcycled interior wall insulation system designed by Washington State professors Taiji Miyasaka and Robert Richards. Image Courtesy of Fernando Felix Most importantly, Miyasaka estimates that the entire system will only cost 10 cents per square foot—though balancing cost with the level of fireproofing has been one of his team's biggest challenges. Miyasaka calls the design a "win-win strategy. Reduced energy use by residents of rental units will pay off immediately in reduced greenhouse gases," he says. "Since TrashWalls will be built primarily of materials locally harvested from the waste stream, this approach will take solid materials destined for landfills and recycle them to save energy." Material ubiquity was also on the mind of Vsevolod Tsodokov, CEO and founder of MetaComb, who turned plentiful piles of cardboard—found outside any large apartment building or department store—into a business. "I just saw this material that was overly abundant and not being used," he says. "That's one of the reasons [MetaComb] was created."  MetaComb uses a patented process to upcycle corrugated cardboard into decorative and structural panels. Image Courtesy of MetaComb, inc. MetaComb—one of the Builders in Residence at the Autodesk BUILD Space in Boston—uses a patented process for upcycling corrugated cardboard into decorative and structural panels. The cardboard is laminated into large blocks using standard adhesives, cut into shapes, and covered in sealing polymer. The "macro-honeycomb surface configuration," Tsodokov explains, lets the material take loads uniformly in all directions and expand and contract evenly when managing humid conditions. MetaComb Decorative Resin Panels are lightweight and partially translucent, as the honeycomb cells of corrugated cardboard are lined up to allow light through. MetaComb Composite Structurally Insulated Panels are well suited for interior and exterior load-bearing lightweight building applications. Like any business that uses waste-bound material as its primary feedstock, MetaComb has had to contend with how to insert its needs into the traditional curb-to-landfill waste cycle. The cardboard MetaComb requires has to be dry and intact, so they usually get it "on the side of the road," Tsodokov says, or from businesses (mattress stores are ideal). As the company scales up, it'll need to formalize its relationships with more high-volume cardboard consumers. And because these businesses are everywhere, MetaComb's cardboard feedstock is everywhere, allowing more building material fabrication to happen near the building site, thus lowering transportation carbon footprints. At the University of Michigan, architects are taking cues from the way nature recycles and forms new materials. But if you're envisioning pastoral fables of birds building nests or coral forming out of seawater, think again. Meredith Miller and Thom Moran, both architecture professors, are studying plastiglomerates and their potential as building materials. Plastiglomerates are rigid composite materials made of microplastic that's combined with natural aggregate, like sand or rock. (Rope and fishing lures are common sources of plastic.) Whether melted by the sun or compressed by the weight of the ocean or both, tons of discarded plastic is being churned out by the earth as a new material. Plastiglomerates will be part of the planet's geologic record for millions of years—aided by the fact that people produce the equivalent of all human biomass in plastic each year, according to The Guardian. "A lot of sustainable approaches to architecture have this attitude of lamenting the past, and trying to return to this pristine idea of nature, but I think nature is a very creative and evolving phenomenon," says Miller.  T+E+A+M's rendering of the Detroit Packard Plant re-imagined as a stockpile of concrete, brick, and other construction materials transformed into a new architectural material. Image Courtesy of T+E+A+M She and Moran also received an AIA grant to fund their research, which started out rather primitively (their early experiments took place in a rotisserie chicken oven) but has become more sophisticated. Currently they use a refrigerator-sized oven large enough to rotate molds in. The grant money will help them investigate modular joinery systems, since the material is unwieldy to cut. The material can have a milky translucency, a metallic sheen, or be neon-colored. With rough, mineral texture and bright colors, it's a bizarre hybrid between geologic strata and the toy aisle at Target. Miller wants to "preserve the legibility of the components. We like the idea that you might recognize, 'this is a bottle cap, and this is the bottom of a Solo cup." For the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, Moran and Miller (with their architecture firm T+E+A+M) envisioned applying plastiglomerates to the hulking and abandoned Packard Automotive Plant in Detroit. Concrete is harvested from the plant's structural frame and concrete, combined with plastic, and installed back into the factory's remaining structure. "We joke that we designed a building that's eating itself," says Miller. It's not as shocking as it might sound. In any closed system (like planet Earth), resources are finite, and always taken from somewhere else. The main difference is if these resources were buried underground for millions of years or stowed away in an empty factory for just a few decades. For designers like Miller, the task is to find ways to shorten the recycling time loop from epochs to hours.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Fredericia, Denmark Embellished by EASA 2017 Student Installations Posted: 02 Oct 2017 11:00 PM PDT In the summer of 2017, Fredericia, Denmark was touched by EASA [European Architecture Students Assembly]. The largest network of architecture students in Europe, EASA is a diverse community where the common language is architecture. The theme for EASA 2017 was: Hospitality - Finding the Framework. Hospitality was the foundation for the 30 different projects the groups of students worked on for two weeks. The EASA community includes 500 students representing over 40 countries and 200 different architecture schools. Run by students, for students, EASA had an organizing board of 12 international architecture students this year who were chosen by EASA. A few of EASA's goals are to connect with the local community and be a catalyst of change in the urban environment it chooses each year. Located at a major highway intersection, the city of Fredericia was chosen by EASA for its central location and historic ramparts which give the city defined physical boundaries. Fredericia's history is rooted in diversity and industrialization. The theme of hospitality, and finding the framework, reflects the historical and modern-day challenges the city of Fredericia faces. Theoretical and practical workshops helped the EASA community to further analyze hospitality and frameworks for it. The following projects, completed at EASA 2017, reflect the student's responses to the world's current hospitality crisis. Unline © Kononchenko Alexandra Penelope © Kononchenko Alexandra Interofcourse © Kononchenko Alexandra Lantern © Kononchenko Alexandra Current © Kononchenko Alexandra Neptune © Kononchenko Alexandra Babette © Kononchenko Alexandra Bubble © Kononchenko Alexandra Hi! © Kononchenko Alexandra Foreigner Body © Kononchenko Alexandra Learn more about EASA 2017 on their Instagram and website.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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