Arch Daily |
- The Shard / Renzo Piano Building Workshop
- Pátio House / PROMONTORIO
- Dolní Břežany Sports Hall / Sporadical
- Micro House Slim Fit / ANA ROCHA architecture
- Chaoyang Future School / Crossboundaries
- Norhouse / Aaksen Responsible Aarchitecture
- Bright House / HAO Design
- Avonlea House / Robinson Architects
- Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rockwell Group's 15 Hudson Yards Tops Out
- RUCID College for Organic Agriculture / Studio FH Architects + Light Earth Designs
- Papagayo House / Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma
- Docomomo Pens Letter In Response to the Planned Demolition of New York's Union Carbide Building
- 35XV / FXCollaborative
- This Once-Abandoned Chinese Cloth Factory Was Refurbished Into a Thriving Cultural Center by O-Office
- The Top 200 Universities in the World for Architecture 2018
- Colored Windows in Ellsworth Kelly's Last Artwork Add Dramatic Lighting to a Secluded Space
- MR House / Estúdio MRGB
- The Future of Housing: Drones, Automation and Co-Habitation
- Spotlight: Frank Gehry
- Lister Tower / PAD Studio
| The Shard / Renzo Piano Building Workshop Posted: 28 Feb 2018 09:00 PM PST  Courtesy of Renzo Piano Building Workshop
 © Sam Roberts Text description provided by the architects. The Shard, also known as the London Bridge Tower, is a 72-storey, mixed-use tower located beside London Bridge Station on the south bank of the River Thames. This project was a response to the urban vision of London Mayor Ken Livingstone and to his policy of encouraging high-density development at key transport nodes in London. This sort of sustainable urban extension relies on the proximity of public transportation, discourages car use and helps to reduce traffic congestion in the city.  Diagram  Context Plan  Site Plan A mix of uses – residential, offices and retail – creates a building that is in use 24 hours a day. The slender and pyramidal form of the tower was determined by its suitability to this mix: large floor plates at the bottom for offices; restaurants, public spaces and a hotel located in the middle; private apartments at the top of the building. The final floors accommodate a public viewing gallery, 240 m above street level. This arrangement of functions also allows the tower to taper off and disappear into the sky - a particularly important detail for Renzo Piano Building Workshop given the building's prominence on the London skyline.  © Michel Denancé  Sketch  © Ben Marshall Eight sloping glass facades, the "shards" define the shape and visual quality of the tower, fragmenting the scale of the building and reflecting the light in unpredictable ways. Opening vents in the gaps or "fractures" between the shards, provide natural ventilation to winter gardens. The extra-white glass used on the Shard gives the tower a lightness and a sensitivity to the changing sky around it, the Shard's colour and mood are constantly changing.  Middle Section It required a particular technical solution to ensure the facade's performance in terms of controlling light and heat. A double-skin, naturally ventilated facade with internal blinds that respond automatically to changes in light levels was developed. The logic is very simple: external blinds are very effective in keeping solar gain out of a building, but unprotected external blinds are not appropriate for a tall building, hence the extra layer of glass facade on the outside. As part of the project, a section of London Bridge Station's concourse was also redeveloped and the Shard has been the stimulus for much of the regeneration of the surrounding area, now known as the London Bridge Quarter.  © Michel Denancé  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 28 Feb 2018 07:00 PM PST  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
 © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG Text description provided by the architects. The house is located on a large field of mature cork oaks and stone pines in Grandola, Alentejo, near the Atlantic coast. Typologically, it is inspired by the Portuguese rural settlements known as "montes" which were usually located in dominant places in the landscape and formed by clusters of volumes informally positioned around a courtyard. In like manner, the concept for this house spring from the idea of a central patio, which is the main source of light and shade.  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG  Ground Floor Plan  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG Around and against this cut-off space, adjoining volumes aggregate the more private or servicing functions of the house —bedrooms, toilets, kitchen, pantry and storage, whereas the interstitial spaces between the volumes generate the social areas, namely, the living- and dining- rooms and the study.  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG In that regard, the house works in a dialogue between opposites: on the one hand, the aggregate volumes are thick and enclosed whitewashed cells with few openings that suggest privacy and seclusion; on the other, the common areas are organic and visually linked spaces free-flowing through the serenity of the internal glass patio.  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG  Details The latter offers crisscrossing views into the surrounding landscape of oak fields; a contemplative frame that, once again, creates an emphatic contrast with the tectonic presence of the white blocks. The seeming massiveness obtained as the first impression is ultimately dismissed, once the large sliding windows vanish into the walls and release an unexpected transparency across the whole.  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Dolní Břežany Sports Hall / Sporadical Posted: 28 Feb 2018 06:00 PM PST  © Jakub Skokan, Martin Tůma / BoysPlayNice
 © Jakub Skokan, Martin Tůma / BoysPlayNice Text description provided by the architects. Having undergone radical changes in the last few years, Dolní Břežany is a modern and attractive place for living. The municipality has been very active in cultivating the public space in the long term and architecture and town planning aspects are a major focus when considering new projects. The primary school complex adjoining the sports hall has also undergone a major refurbishment and extension; the sports hall is its further development stage. The Břežany School has obtained a new space for physical education; the hall is used by local sports clubs and by the general public in the evenings for recreational sports. The generous dimensions of the interior make the venue suitable for cultural and social events.  1st Floor Plan The building is situated on the edge of a built-up area, in the center of a large development zone. An attractive architectural concept – a spatial rotational ellipsoid form – is a response to both current requirements and an unknown future. The inauguration and operation of the hall can serve as a stimulus and inspiration for the further growth of the municipality, which is why the connection to the surroundings and the public space is as important as the natural link with the primary school.  © Jakub Skokan, Martin Tůma / BoysPlayNice The hall has a rounded, smooth and abstract shape. The dome draws the scale closer to humans, the metallic surface mirrors the surroundings, while the borders of the sky and of the roof remain blurred. The building camouflages its real dimensions and looks smaller than it is in reality. The wide staircase in front of the hall, embedded into the terrain like the building itself, delineates the public space and creates a natural amphitheater.  © Jakub Skokan, Martin Tůma / BoysPlayNice  Section  Section  © Jakub Skokan, Martin Tůma / BoysPlayNice While the exterior distinguishes the sports hall from the school, the interior blends with it using a combination of white and grey surfaces and solid timber. The interior layout reflects the surroundings. The entrance for the visitors is perpendicular to the street and the parking lot, the west facing sliding window with a view of the town provides a connection with the school yard, and the east facing window is a peek into the future. The hall is integrated into the school by means of a walkway. The heart of the hall is a sports surface of 45 × 25 meters, of 8–9 meters in height, vertically divided into three parts using mobile blinds. Each of the thirds fits a volleyball court; the division makes it possible to run three PE classes in parallel. The changing rooms with sanitary facilities are situated on the school side, on the ground floor, and wall bars divide them from the sports area; the machine room and offices are on the first floor. On the audience side, there is a grandstand for 250 spectators, located above storage rooms for sports equipment and other facilities. A gangway connecting the two parts of the grandstand overlooks an open vestibule with a snack bar, also an important space. The Les kanců graphic design studio designed an original signage system for the sports hall, consisting of pictograms and numbers hand-painted directly on the walls made of architectural concrete.  © Jakub Skokan, Martin Tůma / BoysPlayNice The construction of the hall combines arched walls made of load-bearing reinforced concrete and a spatial steel latticed roof construction with bent truss frames with a width of span up to 44 meters. The façade is made of PREFA ridge shingles made of natural aluminum, the surface of the roof section with light tubes is covered by a white Firestone UltraPly TPO waterproofing membrane. A number of acoustic measures have been applied in the hall to achieve the necessary reverberation time and good speech clarity. The ceiling and wall parts are lined with Ecophon Super G resistant acoustic panels; larch cladding has been applied up to the height of 2.5 meters. Heating and cooling is provided by a heat pump, drawing the heat from the subsoil using a system of 24 boreholes with a depth of 112 meters. The financial return of the system has been calculated to 8 years. Linosport xf2 sports flooring has been placed on a flexible surface base, with REHAU underfloor heating installed underneath. Daylight reaches the hall through 68 Lightway Maximus light tubes with a diameter of 1.2 meters. The Philips artificial light system includes a light exposure sensor, allowing to automatically regulate the intensity and lighting consumption depending on the time of the day. Philips Pacific LED lighting has been installed in the hall.  © Jakub Skokan, Martin Tůma / BoysPlayNice  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Micro House Slim Fit / ANA ROCHA architecture Posted: 28 Feb 2018 04:00 PM PST  © Christiane Wirth
 © Christiane Wirth Text description provided by the architects. Concept SLIM FIT is a permanent micro dwelling of 50m2 designed for urban densification. SLIM FIT occupies with its minimal footprint, 16 m2, less area than 2 parking spaces. The smart and flexible design has many applications. The house can be placed freestanding, connected or between existing buildings. Thanks to its compact footprint, SLIM FIT is the ideal home for filling in and compacting the inner areas of city blocks.  Model Due to the large window size and full height of the rooms, the micro dwelling has a luxurious spaciousness. The concept is designed for the growing group of working singles who want to live compactly but comfortably, sustainably, full identity and above all centrally in urban contexts. SLIM FIT proves that spatial and identity full living is also possible within a minimal footprint.  © Christiane Wirth Prototype The design for SLIM FIT was in 2016 one of the winners of the "BuildingExpo Tiny Housing" competition, organized by the municipality of Almere, in The Netherlands. The first SLIM FIT has now been delivered in Almere Poort. Here the house is built detached, with an unobstructed view over the Homerus Park. The house is characterized by carefully designed and positioned openings on all four facades. This strategy offers the most ideal use of natural light; natural heating and cooling of the spaces, and views towards the park.  © Christiane Wirth It feels like a villa The functional organization of the different layers is based on the three basic living functions: cooking and eating on the ground floor, next to the garden; living and relaxing on the first floor; sleeping on the second floor. These three layers are connected by a continuous (book) shelf, which is integrated in the staircase. Thanks to the diversity of spaciousness, view and light quality per floor, the resident does not experience the house as a tiny house but as a compact, light and spacious park villa with its own garden.  Model Materiality To keep the walls as slender as possible the house was built with a wooden frame. The inside walls are finished with birch wooden panels and the facades with Ayous wood. In addition to its sustainable qualities, the wooden skeleton has the advantage of being build within two days. In small houses we often see that - door space shortage - custom-made, and thus expensive parts are needed. At SLIM FIT the kitchen block, sanitary and all furniture have standard measurements. Although placed within a very compact footprint, a standard pine wood stair makes the vertical connection. The other interior elements, such as the (book) shelf and the sliding panels are built out of birch plywood.  © Christiane Wirth Climate The very simple and open floor plans enable various facade organizations. As a result, optimal use can be made of solar heat and natural ventilation, depending on the location of the house, and the way SLIM FIT is connected, detached or not. In Almere the glass surfaces are oriented towards the sun and the small rooms can be heated naturally. The presence of sliding panels prevents temperature loss. The positioning of smaller turn windows opposite to each other ensures natural ventilation and cooling of the spaces. The glass surfaces are equipped with heat-resistant glass and the roof is finished with a white, heat-resistant foil. The house is connected to urban-heating. These installations take up rather little space.  © Christiane Wirth  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Chaoyang Future School / Crossboundaries Posted: 28 Feb 2018 02:00 PM PST  © Chaoying Yang
 © Ziling Wang Text description provided by the architects. Chaoyang Future School, in Beijing, is the latest iteration of Peking University's pedagogic model for China's future creators, in their continued exploration with Crossboundaries to manifest places and spaces that embody their collective vision.  © Ziling Wang The large 26,000m² renovation of an existing educational campus built in the 1980s completely reassesses the landscape, façade and interior. It uses color to negotiate from the urban scale to the human, and multifunctionality to assist both guided and passive learning.  Neighbourhood Densely arranged, the existing campus mirrored its tight urban surroundings. Inside its six buildings, faceless corridors were lined with rooms lacking identity or coherence. However, like the Affiliated High School before it – the first collaboration of Crossboundaries and Peking University– Future School needed to explore the demands of the school to serve the realm of a community.  © Chaoying Yang Learning doesn't just happen in the classroom but throughout the campus, exponentially raising the value of this tight urban area. Formulating a crossover of the in and out and the public and private, the school creates a village that delivers to individual needs, catering to both students and teachers where they will eat, sleep, play, study, learn, and explore.  © Chaoying Yang Rehabilitating a building – building a pedagogy  © Chaoying Yang The Future School campus and its educational methods are in need of an overhaul to meet these demands and be equipped for the future. While leveling the existing conditions of a pedagogy and an architecture is simpler than addressing them, the value added comes from navigating both. The nature of the built environment, education or any cultural institution, is inherited; by starting from and studying existing circumstance, Crossboundaries is able to translate its tested international approach to achieve a truly localized solution.  Section For the Headmaster, the challenge of rethinking the nature of Chinese education is to resist the historical precedent to reduce to tabula rasa a rich collective knowledge in the name of progress and instead leveraging its own history to develop new methods. Crossboundaries' objective works in parallel: to reuse and reimagine, adding to the ongoing lifespan of the existing buildings – to not only prolong their use but also restore their relevance and purpose.  © Chaoying Yang Crossboundaries implemented two key approaches in Chaoyang Future School: 'the conventional', the general upgrade of the out of date and degraded facility to a modern campus, and 'the unconventional' which materialized as multifunctional interventions. All of which attributes flexibility, interconnectedness and identity, the essence of the schools' spirit.
Connected in color  © Ziling Wang
The clean white buildings are punctured with square openings, the rhythm preserved from the original building. Their ornament creates an interface between inside and out – both for each building individually and of the campus as a whole. Window frames washed in green outline the public face of the campus, subtly fading yellow before warming to a deep red by the time they reach the campus center. The openings ebb and flow in size, swelling to mirror the spatial links behind and broadcast an abstraction of their activities to the community around it.  © Chaoying Yang With a new face and its circulation reconfigured and the scarlet red Art Center is the heart of the campus. Meandering past it is the bright yellow running track, a path that ties together the existing with the lives of the new inhabitants - old and new, inside and out. This path rejects former conventions of separating functions and activities, achieving a new efficiency by more than doubling the length of a track in its default location. By marrying sport and exercise with diverse activities and academic subjects, it emphasizes crossover and collaboration at every scale. Even at the very edge of campus, a boundary fence becomes a space: a living interaction with the city beyond to serve both utility and play.
Intervening with the institution  © Ziling Wang In the Learning Center, the existing classroom lined corridors at times become lined with glass and other times opened completely. New visual connections promote previously impossible user interactions. Subject-specific 'islands' develop several functioning zones out of a singular open space on each floor. Vertical 'bridges' connect two floors with multifunctional activity spaces between related subjects on adjacent floors. Each intervention works to dissolve the spatial boundaries of the buildings' rigid structure and uniformity, producing collaborative learning spaces bolstered by user-defined furniture.
 © Ziling Wang Once the changeless box, the "classroom" has outgrown the institutional system – the factory for educational conditioning yielding a standardized product. Led by students and teachers together, it now offers them the ability to claim command of its space and interpret how best to use their time together. Interactive and adaptable interventions connect and respond to the users, a hallmark of any design developed by Crossboundaries. Each campus building provides the user new opportunities and possibilities to interact, discuss, collaborate, create, and explore.  5th floor plan Spirit of a Future School  © Ziling Wang
Chaoyang Future School demonstrates not only the potential of reuse but also a reminder of the responsibility to work resourcefully – to engage the embedded values of the existing, whether they be social, economic, or environmental. The spirit of flexibility, interconnectedness and identity generates more than new uses, functions and values – it represents an evolution within the lifespan of a building and the resilience to adapt over time. Now open, Future School has begun a new journey with a renewed relevance: to guide a community, shape and inspire new lives and leaders, and stand the test of time.  © Chaoying Yang  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Norhouse / Aaksen Responsible Aarchitecture Posted: 28 Feb 2018 12:00 PM PST  © KIE
 Courtesy of Aaksen Responsible Aarchitecture Text description provided by the architects. Urban residential development increases rapidly with the advancement of life expectancy in urban areas. Aside from expensive land prices and low quality of life, it is not difficult to find dense settlements in the middle of the city. Most of those have no access to big vehicles, even though there is a road nearby.  Axonometric Located in a dense settlement with a narrow alley as the only access, precisely in Jalan Pahlawan, Bandung, West Java – Indonesia, NOR House is a residence of a couple, Sisca, and Ovian. The two-floor house was completed in early 2018. The name of NOR House itself is taken from their children, Adara Kaila Eleanor and Sophia Cyrilla Eleonora, who have the word nur or light in Arabic as part of their name.  © KIE  Section A  © KIE The name inspired us to put the element of the sun into the design. Since millions of years ago, the sun consistently rises dawn and set in the early dusk. In Islam, the communication between humans and God is called the five times of obligatory ritual prayer in which the five times indicate the transition of the sun. The obligatory ritual prayer was also our inspiration to design a house with the sun and light as the narrative of the architecture.  © KIE The number of openings in the building maximizes the natural light and good air circulation. The use of artificial light, in the form of a hidden lamp and indirect lighting, accentuates the detail in some areas. The example is indirect light used on parahyba tree in the garden to emphasize its trunk standing upright as though it has pierced and made a hole in the main building mass. In the prayer room, a window was installed to make an impression as though it trimmed the main building's mass. The window also provides the light during daytime. The strong lighting coupled with the word of Allah (God) on the window surface create the writing's shadow in the prayer room's interior.  © KIE With a total area of 105 m2, NOR House has a contemporary tropical architectural concept with white-colored, zinc-coated roof surface and facade. Its building mass and the white color make the NOR House very tidy and distinctive compared with the surrounding buildings when viewed from the air. For the building interior, ivory-colored ceramic combined with parquet flooring and white wall give a simple and clean touch in all residential area.  © KIE NOR House maximizes the space for its residents in two floors. The first floor has an area of 57 m2 consists of living room, dining room, kitchen, toilet, prayer room, drying room, and garden. The second floor, with an area of 48 m2, has a master bedroom, kid bedroom, and a bathroom. Ultimately, in addition, to address the needs of the owners and the challenges of dense settlement, NOR House presents the interpretation of connections among humans and the greatness of the Creator through its appreciation on sunlight that always accompanies us every day.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 28 Feb 2018 11:00 AM PST  © Hey!Cheese
 © Hey!Cheese Text description provided by the architects. Bright House overturns preconceptions about what a family home should be like; it shows that, even when you have children, your living space can still reflect your own personal taste and style. Bright House combines "industrial" fundamentals with classical elegance, and the living space is planned to suit the lifestyle of each family member, with design aesthetics and circulation routes within the living space interacting to achieve the best possible effect.  © Hey!Cheese Once couples become parents, they start thinking about how they can add elements to the circulation routes within the home that will contribute to their child's development. Because the wife would otherwise have to spend a lot of time clearing up after the child, the couple wanted to make sure that the living space would have plenty of storage areas. After extensive discussions, they decided to move away from conventional room layout and rethink the whole structure of the living space.  Plan The design for the entrance takes account of the differing habits of each member of the family by adding shelves at different heights in the closet in the vestibule, and by incorporating recesses in the wall that can be used to hang things up. The existing kitchen was repurposed as a small storage space, with a dedicated platform for the mother to use. A two-way circulation approach has been adopted, using a sliding door design to facilitate more convenient movement between the vestibule and the platform.  © Hey!Cheese What was originally an enclosed kitchen has been relocated to a location adjacent to the balcony, with a large central island that gives the wife plenty of space for cooking, while also enabling her to keep an eye on the children while she is preparing food. The balcony has a glass wall extending right down to floor level which helps to bring more sunlight into the house, with an area for growing flowers and plants outside, so that the sight of father and son growing fruit and vegetables together can add an extra touch of happiness to the family's daily life.  Visual representation. Image Courtesy of HAO Design Creating an ideal home involves more than just building a safe, comfortable environment for children to grow up in; it is also important to preserve your own aesthetic sensibility, taste and lifestyle preferences. This attitude is reflected in the husband's decision to have an "open" study design, with low-key wood grain textures complemented by metal surfaces; the key elements in the study are the District eight heo-wall-unit-with-medium-shelves and Boconocept's Cupertino series streamlined writing table.  © Hey!Cheese Every aspect of the study reflects the husband's love of industrial-style design, which combines wonderfully with the herringbone wooden floors used for the shared areas of the house to generate an air of classical elegance. The wood-grain pattern is extended into the living room, where the visitor's eye is immediately struck by the ROCHE BOBOIS leather sofa and the Sigurd Ressell "Falcon" winged armchairs, which help to give a unified thematic feel to the house's shared areas. Behind the sofa, a small study has been partitioned off using a sliding door. Rather than using old-fashioned floor puzzle mats, this area has been designed with a wooden floor covered with synthetic foam, making it a safe place for the baby to learn to walk; once the child is older, the foam matting can be removed to create a reading and study room for the child.  © Hey!Cheese Moving from the core living area to the main bedroom, the overall feel is calm and relaxed with a layered use of blue color tones that represents a continuation of the classical style of the main living area. The child's bedroom has its own child-sized door, an innovative feature that is fun while also enhancing the sense of unity of the living space as a whole. Within the bedroom, the bright keynote color tones and the special "blackboard" paint material make this a space in which the child can develop his or her creative potential.  © Hey!Cheese The bunk bed is designed to get the child used to putting things away after use, with cabinets and handles at just the right height for a child to use; the aim is to encourage the child to develop good habits in terms of putting their own toys away and keeping their clothes neat and tidy. The Seletti Monkey Lamp above the bed was specially chosen for a child whose Chinese Zodiac sign is the monkey. Thanks to careful spatial layout and furniture selection, every aspect of this house embodies a sense of mutual consideration between each family member and the others; every part of the house is able to retain the traces of their past life together, while also contributing to steady forward progress into a bright future.  © Hey!Cheese  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Avonlea House / Robinson Architects Posted: 28 Feb 2018 09:00 AM PST  © Nic Granleese
 © Nic Granleese "Simplicity resonates through the design in its connection to environment,material selection and spacial planning. Named after the majestic Queensland house that once occupied the site, Avonlea was designed and built for a young family and stands on a commanding elevated hillside site in the centre of the market town of Eumundi."  © Nic Granleese  Ground Floor Plan  © Nic Granleese The old Queensland house burnt down 9 years ago. The site which was unique given is central location and size (5 acres) was sold with an approved DA for a six lot subdivision. The new owners of the vacant land approached Jolyon to design the new house. Considerable thought was given to how the subdivision was to be handled given its impact on the town. It was decided to sell off just 3 of the 6 lots, build on one and retain the other 2 for garden. We saw this as a one off opportunity to get some quality buildings in such a prominent location in town. The blocks were sold privately to independent buyers coming directly through Robinson Architects office. The only condition was that RA would design the buildings. All are modest in terms of size and budget and show a sensitivity to the immediate built environment and character of the town. Jolyon had a keen interest in the future of the site, not only for its impact on the town (our practice located in Eumundi) but the old house had once been the family home when he and his brothers were boys.  © Nic Granleese The brief for the new house was simple- it would be their family home for the long term. Planning for the future was important with their young son in a bedroom close to the master for now. The guest bedroom at the other end of the house with its own access to the outside will become his bedroom when he gets older. The future house was imagined by both client and architect to be a continuation of the long history of people living in a house on the site, and that the new house would stand the test of time both architecturally and quality of workmanship.  Section Scheme The bedrooms bookend the central living space and are connected by a single hallway. Careful planning has avoided wasted space with storage cupboards, pantry etc. feeding off this axis. The layout provides opportunities for closeness or separation in the arrangement of bedrooms to accommodate the family dynamic. The long linear plan is orientated at right angles to the top of Cooroy Mountain to the north.  © Nic Granleese All rooms enjoy views to the ever-changing mountain vista and cooling cross ventilating breezes. The Eumundi district's distinctive red earth is showcased in the rammed earth walls on the southern side of the long linear structure that also act as a buffer to the noise of the nearby primary school and market traffic. A razor thin steel roof with large eaves shade the building and offers a contrast to the natural elements of the rammed earth.  © Nic Granleese  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rockwell Group's 15 Hudson Yards Tops Out Posted: 28 Feb 2018 08:00 AM PST  Courtesy of Related-Oxford Hudson Yards' first condominium tower, 15 Hudson Yards, has topped out at its full architectural height of 914 feet, with exterior cladding also more than halfway complete. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (the firm's first true skyscraper) in collaboration with Rockwell Group, the tower will contain a total of 285 residences, half of which have already been sold.  15 Hudson Yards. Image Courtesy of Related-Oxford Currently available floorplans include 2-, 3- and 4-bedroom units, all outfitted with high-end finishes. Residents will also have access to 40,000 square feet of amenities. The 50th floor wellness spa will feature an aquatics center with a 75-foot-long pool, a fitness center with private classrooms, a beauty bar and a children's learning center. One floor up, a club room, private dining suites, a sound-proof screening room, a wine tasting room and a buisness center will offer entertainment and lifestyle options. The shared spaces are capped with a skytop entertaining suite offering sweeping views of the city and the Hudson River. In addition, residents will receive special benefits at neighboring Hudson Yards facilities.  Courtesy of Related-Oxford  Courtesy of Related-Oxford "Everything you need to live an enriched lifestyle is available right near your home," said Sherry Tobak, Senior Vice President of Related Sales. "Fifteen Hudson Yards sits adjacent to The Shed, New York's first arts center to commission new work across the performing arts, visual arts, and popular culture; a diverse restaurant and retail collection; new parks; and robust neighborhood health and wellness amenities."  Aquatics Center. Image Courtesy of Related-Oxford  Duplex Penthouse interior. Image Courtesy of Related-Oxford  Wine Tasting Room. Image Courtesy of Related-Oxford The first phase of Hudson Yards – including 15 Hudson Yards as well as five other commercial and residential towers, The Shed, the Public Square and Gardens, "Vessel," and The Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards – is expected to open to the public March of 2019. Check out a timelapse of the building's construction below. News via Related-Oxford  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| RUCID College for Organic Agriculture / Studio FH Architects + Light Earth Designs Posted: 28 Feb 2018 07:00 AM PST  © Will Boase Photography
 © Will Boase Photography Text description provided by the architects. RUCID ('Rural Community in Development') is a privately run College for Organic Agriculture in Mityana, Uganda. Directly funded by The Tudor Trust from the UK, this project created new dormitory space for 72 students as well as two additional classrooms and kitchens, organised into two villages. Existing teaching and accommodation buildings were refurbished as part of the project.  © Will Boase Photography  Floor Plan  © Will Boase Photography Given the school management's keen interest in eco solutions the most local of construction technology was used: manually compressed stabilised soil blocks, largely made from earth sourced on site, and roofs and shading screens made of eucalyptus wood found in nearby plantations. All buildings have a decentralised rainwater harvesting system and kitchens with fitted fuel-efficient wood stoves. The project was built by local teams contracted on a labour basis and overseen by an in-house construction manager.  Sections The buildings were designed in collaboration with Light Earth Designs who prepared the Masterplan as well as the schematic designs of the dormitory courtyards. Studio FH added the pentagon-shaped classrooms, detailed all buildings and oversaw the construction on site.  © Will Boase Photography  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Papagayo House / Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma Posted: 28 Feb 2018 05:00 AM PST  Courtesy of Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma
 Courtesy of Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma Text description provided by the architects. The project starts from a pre-existing building with many structural limitations and very limited areas. It was sought from the beginning to liberate the interior spaces generating new openings that allowed a correct lighting and ventilation, considering that the busiest spaces were the least illuminated.  Courtesy of Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma  Floorplan  Courtesy of Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma To generate this opening, it was proposed to create a new central courtyard inside the house to turn it into the heart of the house, the central space that illuminates and connects bedrooms, social areas and study and also, serves as natural ventilation.  Courtesy of Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma  Facade Axonometry  Courtesy of Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma By integrating elements of parametric design to respond to project constraints, a façade is projected with the help of advanced modeling tools, combining computational design, traditional construction methods and materials from the region -such as artisanal milpa brick- , and this is how it manages to give the project a contemporary and regional identity.  Courtesy of Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma  Section  Courtesy of Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma Considering the sidewalk as the public area of the project, it is proposed to create a quality space based on the idea of sharing the green areas with neighbors and passers-by and providing the city with a pleasant and accessible space. Thus, and according to the specific conditions of each area, the vegetation was selected and divided into three groups; plants of shade, sun and aquatic. Subsequently, in order to integrate this area into the whole project, a cobble pattern for the sidewalk was designed using digital tools, using the geometry of its materials and optimizing the design using the area as a factor to achieve the goals in terms of surface in green areas desired.  Courtesy of Ariel Valenzuela + Diego Ledesma  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Docomomo Pens Letter In Response to the Planned Demolition of New York's Union Carbide Building Posted: 28 Feb 2018 04:20 AM PST  The original lobby of the Union Carbide Building. Image © Ezra Stoller | Esto. Courtesy Docomomo Following last week's announcement of JPMorgan Chase's plans to demolition the historically significant modernist masterwork 270 Park (formerly known as the Union Carbide Building), the US chapter of international non-profit Modernist architecture advocate Docomomo has penned a letter to New York City Landmarks Preservation Committee chair Meenakshi Srinivasan arguing for the structure's preservation. In the letter, Docomomo US President Theodore H.M. Prudon and Docomomo US NY/Tri-State President John Arbuckle highlight the structure's critical acclaim and essential place within Modernist architectural history, urging the Commission to calendar the building for designation as quickly as possible. Find the letter reprinted in full, below. Dear Commissioner Srinivasan, Docomomo US and Docomomo US NY/Tri-State were shocked and disappointed by the recent news that the city wants to approve plans by JP Morgan Chase to demolish the former Union Carbide building at 270 Park Avenue. Designed by the pioneering woman architect Natalie de Blois and Gordon Bunshaft, both of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and built from 1958-60, the building is one of the most elegant and significant office towers on Park Avenue and in Midtown Manhattan. When Ada Louise Huxtable described the building in the New York Times as a "post-war miracle" in 1957, she noted Union Carbide was a building of character and quality designed not to provide "the greatest amount of economically constructed rentable space for the fastest possible return," (as one could argue of the current plan) but as a "work of art." As you are undoubtedly aware, Union Carbide was identified as eligible for New York City Landmarks designation in the Greater East Midtown Rezoning Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). On page 6:54 of the FEIS, 270 Park Avenue is described as:
.jpg?1519839268 "© Wikimedia user official-ly cool. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0") © Wikimedia user official-ly cool. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 In response to the FEIS, the Landmarks Preservation Commission began the process of designation of 270 Park Avenue in 2013 along with seven other buildings. While we understand meetings have been held with the owners of 270 Park Avenue, no public discussion of this eligible and architecturally significant building has taken place. Yet, its demolition has been announced. Its significance has been pointed out to the Landmarks Commission by Docomomo US NY/Tri-State and other preservation groups including on building on lists of potential landmarks, for the better part of 10 years. As the agency charged with implementing the Landmarks law, we urge you--as the Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission--to immediately calendar 270 Park Avenue for local designation. We appreciate the need to partner and work with other city agencies to advance the goals of the City on behalf of its citizens. However, the goals of one large corporation should not nullify or ignore the public interest, the law or the authority of one agency over another. Docomomo US and Docomomo US NY/Tri-State strongly believe it is the Landmarks Preservation Commission's mandate to protect the cultural and architectural resources of New York City for the benefit of New Yorkers and visitors alike. Along with Lever House and the Seagram Building, 270 Park Avenue is among the most iconic corporate office buildings in New York. We feel strongly that it played an important role in the evolution of modern, world-class cities, and it continues to enrich the urban realm. While 270 Park Avenue is one of the most architecturally significant buildings in Midtown East, it is also one of many that have yet to be designated in the area. Like all eligible resources, 270 Park Avenue demands your attention to uphold the Landmarks law and the public's trust. Thank you for your prompt action on this request. For further information contact us or our Executive Director, Liz Waytkus. Read more about Docomomo's efforts to save 270 Park on their website, here.
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| Posted: 28 Feb 2018 03:00 AM PST .jpg?1519810900 "© David Sundeberg/Esto") © David Sundeberg/Esto
.jpg?1519810927 "© David Sundeberg/Esto") © David Sundeberg/Esto Text description provided by the architects. Rising 347 feet above its mid-block site, 35XV is a unique, hybrid residential-academic building located in Manhattan's vibrant Chelsea neighborhood. Utilizing excess development rights from the historic Xavier High School, the design artfully resolves the project's principal requirements: providing needed expansion space for Xavier; creating highly crafted residential units that take advantage of their elevated location; conforming to highly restrictive municipal bulk controls, including sloped sky exposure planes; and being a "good neighbor", relating to the both the Xavier Campus and to the neighboring streetscape, despite the project's overall size. .jpg?1519811018 "© David Sundeberg/Esto") © David Sundeberg/Esto The building design establishes two distinct identities: one for the school, addressing the street realm, and one for the residential tower above, that addresses the sky. Anchoring the building, a stone-clad cubic base continues the scale of the block's street wall. Careful modulation of fenestration and a "chiseled" design vocabulary equally accommodates the school's functions and establishes the residential use's identity. Poised above, the tower's sloped, shard-like forms and fish-scaled glass cladding reflect the sky, appearing to de-materialize the tower. The building's sky exposure plane – a zoning bulk restriction that traditionally limits design – is used here to sculpt a unique form that offers residents light, airy interior living spaces with unparalleled views of the surrounding cityscape.  Floor Plans The building's base incorporates classrooms, a STEM lab, rehearsal space and a commons for Xavier. A mix of one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom units occupy the top 18 floors, while a seventh floor amenity space includes a gym, lounge, children's play room, shared wine cellar, and communal terrace. .jpg?1519810851 "Courtesy of FXCollaborative") Courtesy of FXCollaborative A hybrid structural system was employed, with a steel frame at the base that supports the school addition and allows the tower to cantilever 17 feet over the existing school building, and 36 feet over the rear yard, comprising 40% of the residential floor area. The tower is constructed with flat-plate concrete to provide an ample footprint for apartments, and to allow for maximum planning flexibility. Completely independent MEP systems and vertical circulation infrastructure are provided for the two principal uses.  Section 35XV sets new standards in the growing trend of air rights development, meeting housing demands in a dense Manhattan neighborhood while providing needed support for a local non-profit institution, all within a contextually specific, dynamic design. .jpg?1519811031 "© David Sundeberg/Esto") © David Sundeberg/Esto  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 28 Feb 2018 02:15 AM PST .jpg?1517410628 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu The iD Town in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, is a project with many charms. The building itself has a distinctive history: in its prime, it used to be the Honghua Dyeing factory, but then was abandoned. Topographically, too, this building occupies a unique place, perched on a hilltop and surrounded by the mountains and the coast of the Southern Chinese Sea. With minimal interventions, O-OFFICE architects have managed to refurbish this 8-hectare factory in Shenzhen into a thriving cultural and community center. The original ground floor was converted to form a large open concrete pavilion. What was once a workshop for purifying rough cloth was turned into a reception center – the Z gallery – with 7 individual artist studios, exhibition and meeting rooms and a café. Rotating wall-doors and sliding glass doors help the gallery take on different expressions during different events or in different seasons.
Even the old dormitory building was transformed into modern living units by making small adaptations in the existing framework and providing contemporary living facilities. By being considerate of the spatial history of the building and combining it with modern demands of use, O-OFFICE architects have created a dynamic center where people can live, work and play. .jpg?1517410674 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517410032 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517409616 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517409890 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517409804 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517410842 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517410213 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517410294 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517410062 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517410389 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517410421 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517410903 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517409773 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517409683 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517409653 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu .jpg?1517409564 "© Laurian Ghinitoiu") © Laurian Ghinitoiu  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Top 200 Universities in the World for Architecture 2018 Posted: 28 Feb 2018 01:31 AM PST .jpg?1519827682 "Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Ray and Maria Stata Center, designed by Gehry Partners. Image © Wikimedia user Lucy Li. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0") Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Ray and Maria Stata Center, designed by Gehry Partners. Image © Wikimedia user Lucy Li. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Global higher education analysis firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has revealed its rankings of the world's top universities for the study of Architecture / Built Environment for 2018. The eight edition of the survey compared 2,122 institutions across the globe offering courses in architecture or the built environment, narrowing down the list based on criteria including academic and employer reputation. For the fourth straight year, MIT has topped the rankings, once again coming out ahead of the Bartlett School of Architecture and the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Read on for the full rankings. 1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) / United States 11. Tsinghua University / China 51-100. Aalborg University / Denmark 101-150. Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand / Thailand 151-200. Aarhus University / Denmark QS has produced an annual survey of universities since 2011, rating the top universities based on academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact. Visit QS's site for the full 2018 architecture rankings, or see the lists for other subjects, here.
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| Colored Windows in Ellsworth Kelly's Last Artwork Add Dramatic Lighting to a Secluded Space Posted: 28 Feb 2018 01:30 AM PST  © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, courtesy Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin This article was originally published on Metropolis Magazine as "Ellsworth Kelly's Last Artwork Was a Building." Ellsworth Kelly died in December 2015 at the age of 92, less than a year after he announced a gift of one of his most lasting creative contributions: plans for the artist's only building, which had been sitting in his New York studio since 1986. Titled Austin, this 2,715-square-foot work on the grounds of the Blanton Museum of Art on the University of Texas at Austin campus would be his final—and perhaps greatest—effort, an immersive space whose artistic value matches that of the marble panels and sculpture within. Unlike the Rothko Chapel in Houston, in Austin the artist and architect are one, says Carter E. Foster, the Blanton's deputy director for curatorial affairs.
 © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, courtesy Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin The cruciform stone structure is sited north of the museum's other two buildings in a grassy space, and features 12 skinny, rectangular-paneled colored windows on the west side of the building resembling the loading symbol on a smartphone. The other faces feature luminous windows of different colors and orientations, bringing a spectrum of light to the granite-floored interior galleries. A totemic redwood sculpture greets guests walking through the door.  While not officially designated a chapel, the building's 14 black-and-white marble panels we're partially inspired by religious themes, said Kelly. Image © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, courtesy Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin Kelly's love of bird-watching and his many years spent designing camouflage and inflatable tanks in the World War II deception unit the Ghost Army provided the artist with a deep understanding of shadow, line, and color, Foster explains: "He had an unbelievable ability to perceive things. The exact angle of how two lines meet. The exact radius of a curve. He could perceive differences in color that I can't see."  Kelly wanted the space to be for contemplation, telling the New York Times, "Go there and rest your eyes, rest your mind... Enjoy it". Image © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, courtesy Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 28 Feb 2018 01:00 AM PST  © Haruo Mikami
 © Haruo Mikami Text description provided by the architects. The residential area where the house MR is located is characterized by a sequence of medium and large houses, the majority of which are located in the front area of the site. This systematic inattentive occupation in relation to the topography and to the scale of a neighbourhood, that is essentially residential, has consolidated a dense building-like structure, very compact in comparison to the other streets of the residential condominium.  © Haruo Mikami Faced with this scenario, we thought that we had to innovate in this consolidated urban context. The idea, apparently paradoxical, of building a house with approximately 600 m² that could be identified not by the grandiosity of its dimension, but precisely by the absence of it, and, in particular, by the discretion of its draw, was one of the most challenging and appropriate alternatives we came up with. The design strategy was, therefore, directed to electing the void space, the non-built space, as the main element of the concept.  © Haruo Mikami  Ground Floor Plan  © Haruo Mikami As a mean to reach the pre-defined end, the house was located along to one of the borders of the site in a way to release, in the opposite direction, the necessary area to build in the void, which composes, and articulates with all the activities of the house. The landscape design creates a pleasant atmosphere. Both the social areas, allocated in the ground floor, and the intimate areas distributed in the first floor, were purposely planned to be around this space, the most relevant in its entirety, easily recognizable even from the street. All the delimited spaces open directly to the void as if they were part of it.  First Floor Plan The limits between the exterior and interior are subtle and lightly delimitated by the doors and windows frames. The spectator's view easily passes through every place in the house, while being assisted by the constant sight of the landscape area, which functions as a spatial and sensorial orientation reference in relation to permanence and displacement within the house. The understanding of the space is also composed of the visual permeability generated in part, by the integration.  © Haruo Mikami The topography was carefully modified to establish a consistent tectonic relation between the built object and the site. The house sits gently on the site. So, through delicate changes and sections in the topography of the site, a very honest and harmonic dialogue was established between the building and the site. This corroborates with a definition of the house proportions that are appropriate to the scale of a residential area. The intention was to establish an easy way to read the architectonic language. Simple and over-layered volumes, carefully located at the site, define the residence's spatial composition.  © Haruo Mikami  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Future of Housing: Drones, Automation and Co-Habitation Posted: 28 Feb 2018 12:00 AM PST  via Humphreys & Partners Architects Humphreys and Partners, a Dallas-based architecture firm, presented a vision of future residential living at the 2018 International Builders' Show earlier this year. Tackling current issues of affordable housing, sustainable design and how technology is changing the way we live, their futuristic vision Pier 2: Apartment of the Future consists of two soaring skyscrapers on the Manhattan waterfront.  via Humphreys & Partners Architects The design fits into a vision of the future where autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, drones and automated homes are omnipresent and a part of our day-to-day lives. And perhaps this vision is not as limited to the realm of science-fiction as it may seem, with Elon Musk's proposed Hyperloop recently receiving a permit from the D.C. transportation department to conduct preliminary excavation. The Hyperloop is a transportation system with an in-service goal of 2021, consisting of vacuum tunnels where capsules would speed through on a cushion of air. Humphreys and Partners' design of the twin apartments incorporates the Hyperloop in their site plan, as well as considering other transportation-related technology, such as full-service bike stations, landing pads for drones and energy-generating walkways. The design also anticipates a fully-automated future for retail, with a cashier-less Amazon Go store on the ground level.  via Humphreys & Partners Architects Pier 2: Apartment of the Future also tackles the current issue of affordable housing. It uses a modular design to create units of affordable micro-apartments that can be adapted for co-habitation with others. The design encourages co-living spaces that achieve a sense of community in an often alienating urban landscape. With the advent of the gig economy, where the tradition of having a lifetime career gives way to more and more entrepreneurial and contract-based work, the design incorporates co-working spaces at the lower levels.  via Humphreys & Partners Architects In terms of sustainability, the apartments would use photovoltaic glass, which, according to the firm, will reduce electrical consumption by up to 34 percent. The design also uses wind turbines that are located under the upper platform that links the two towers to generate energy for the apartments, as well as solar panels, Tesla energy and using the nearby Hudson River for tidal power. On the sides of the towers, green walls are used for vertical farming and to filter the air. More information can be found in the video below: News via: Humphreys and Partners Architects.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2018 10:00 PM PST  Walt Disney Concert Hall. Image Courtesy of Gehry Partners, LLP Internationally acclaimed architect Frank Gehry (born 28 February 1929) has been headlining architectural news platforms since he established his Los Angeles practice in 1962 and remodeled his home in Santa Monica. Notorious for his expressive use of form (and its-sometimes inflationary effect on project budgets), Gehry is best known for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which fellow architect Philip Johnson once dubbed "the greatest building of our time."  © Alexandra Cabri Gehry's fresh criticality inspires and incites; his career-long commitment to the style of Deconstructivism, demonstrating that form needn't always express function, has revealed itself in titanium-clad undulating envelopes, perplexing volumes, and aesthetically discordant detailing. To facilitate this signature style, Gehry borrowed software that was intended for the aerospace industry, eventually founding Gehry Technologies, a company which develops cutting-edge design software.  Gehry Residence. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/ikkoskinen/350055881/'>Flickr user ikkoskinen</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a> Gehry has also become known for his honest and outspoken tendencies, perhaps most notably displayed at the October 2014 press conference where he gave a reporter the finger and claimed that "98 percent of everything that is built and designed today is pure shit."  Guggenheim Bilbao. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/ndrwfgg/9480202128'>Flickr user ndrwfgg</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a> But over and above his public persona, Gehry's office continues to provoke professional discourse with innovative architectural projects. Among their more recent international commissions, the Los Angeles-based Gehry Partners has designed the Facebook headquarters in California and in New York City, a residential building for the Battersea Power Station development in London, and another Guggenheim Museum, this time for Abu Dhabi.  Fondation Louis Vuitton. Image © Todd Eberle Upon awarding him the Pritzker Prize in 1989, the jury said it best: Gehry is "always open to experimentation… being bound neither by critical acceptance or his successes. His buildings are juxtaposed collages of spaces and materials that make users appreciative of both the theater and the backs-stage, simultaneously revealed."  Jay Pritzker Pavillion. Image © Guillermo Hevia García Check out all of Gehry's works featured on ArchDaily via the thumbnails below, and more coverage of Gehry below those: Frank Gehry: "I'm Not a Starchitect" Frank Gehry and Maya Lin Awarded Obama's Presidential Medal of Freedom Frank Gehry Wins 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts Frank Gehry Wins 2016 Annenberg Award Frank Gehry Claims Today's Architecture is (Mostly) "Pure Shit" Video: Frank Gehry, Paul Goldberger and Charlie Rose on the Art and Science of Architecture Frank Gehry Discusses Project Costs on Never-Before-Seen "The Competition" Teaser The Indicator: Ten Years Later, Has the Disney Concert Hall Made a Difference? The Unexpected Low-Tech Solutions That Made the Guggenheim Bilbao Possible The 4 Most Amusing Responses to Frank Gehry's UTS Business School Frank Gehry Discusses the Design Behind his Recently Completed Concert Hall in Berlin Mark Zuckerberg Praises Frank Gehry: "He's Very Efficient" 5 Reasons Frank Gehry Might be the Perfect Choice for the LA River Master Plan "Briefly": a Documentary About Design's Least Significant Piece of Paper Getty Research Institute Acquires Extensive Frank Gehry Archive Gehry's Software Enters the Cloud, Promotes Paperless Construction Frank Gehry to Teach Online Course on Architecture & Design Frank Gehry's Online Masterclass: A Review By Architecture Students  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2018 09:00 PM PST  © Nigel Rigden
 © Nigel Rigden Text description provided by the architects. Located within the New Forest, Hampshire, this four storey water tower was first constructed in the early 1900s to gravity feed water to the adjacent Fritham House. The attached cottage building housed the diesel generators which pumped water up to the top of the tower for storage. The tower was in very bad state of repair with a number of single glazed timber and metal framed windows which had deteriorated to the point of leaking.  © Nigel Rigden PAD began the refurbishment by stripping away the existing furnishing and decor to reveal the water towers historic fabric, before proposing a number of contemporary interventions, including a large protruding window and sculptural steel staircase. The former acts like a camera lens, puncturing the building at first floor level, focusing one's view out to the garden and beyond. A window seat is also formed creating a space to sit, soaking up light and prospect. The latter, a new sculptural steel stair, was designed as an industrial feature in the day room, rising up through the double height space to the bathroom on the fourth floor. Elsewhere, new minimally framed Crittall windows were designed and installed to maximise natural light and improve the buildings thermal performance.  © Nigel Rigden As part of the renovation, a carefully selected pallet of materials complements the existing brick allowing the original architecture to be clearly expressed against the new additions. Furthermore, extensive cleaning was undertaken to refresh the buildings external walls and bring back the original brick's colour.  © Nigel Rigden  Plans  © Nigel Rigden  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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