Arch Daily |
- ‘Human Rights’ Sports Center in Strasbourg / Dominique Coulon & associés
- Kengo Kuma Transforms Shanghai Shipyard Into Multi-Use Complex
- Dom Vasco Apartment / Arriba
- Cottage in Muraste / KUU architects
- Kar – Khaneh Office Building / DOT Architects
- HINO / Keitaro Muto Architects
- Oka Haus / Anonym
- Zhulang Huagai: A Figure for the Nantou Urban Village / NADAAA + Cooper Union
- Torquay Concrete House / Auhaus Architecture
- Hamonic + Masson & Associés Unveil Twisting Residential Tower to Be Built in Le Havre, France
- Bradesco Foundation School / Shieh Arquitetos Associados
- Snøhetta-led Team Wins Competition for UNESCO World Heritage Site Education Center in Tasmania
- Grow Box / Merge Architects
- Studio Gang Reveals Design of Arkansas Arts Center Expansion
- Reeds Spring Middle School / Dake Wells Architecture
- The Architecture of Washington DC's Watergate Complex: Inside America’s Most Infamous Address
- House Santa Maria / Pedro Henrique
- Ice Breakers Exhibition Brings Interactive Public Art to Toronto's Waterfront
- Sustainable Proposal Envisions Krakow's New Science Center as a Tiered Garden
| ‘Human Rights’ Sports Center in Strasbourg / Dominique Coulon & associés Posted: 01 Mar 2018 09:00 PM PST  © Eugeni Pons
 © Eugeni Pons Text description provided by the architects. Strasbourg has had the status of European capital since 1948; it is the seat of the European Parliament and of the European Court of Human Rights. The city's authorities quite naturally decided to a propose an educational offer designed to meet the expectations of the European and international civil servants working in the city by creating a European school. The school's educational model, based on a multicultural approach, wide use of different languages, and emphasis on both children's autonomy and parents' involvement, covers a full school curriculum, from nursery school right through to the European Baccalaureate. The school is located in the leafy neighbourhood of the Robertsau, near the European and international institutions. The school has nearly one thousand pupils and, to meet its requirements and those of local residents, the municipal authorities in Strasbourg decided to build an open sports centre. The programme called for the creation of a multi-sport hall and a multi-purpose hall capable of serving as a venue for events not involving sport.  © Eugeni Pons  Ground Floor Plan  © Eugeni Pons Beyond the actual architectural and functional qualities of the building, the sports centre creates a balance and establishes a dialogue with the European school. It prolongs the logic of the fragments already used for the school building. The volumes of the two halls are dissociated and angled, which makes it possible to set the larger hall in an ideal position: perpendicular to the street, on the northern edge of the site, its position minimises the building's impact on the site. The full depth of the site is used; the shorter side of the building gives onto the street, making it more porous in relation to the landscape.  © Eugeni Pons The entrance hall is transparent, allowing sight from the forecourt through to the wood at the back of the site. The elements of the programme form a crown, with changing rooms and other premises surrounding the two halls and providing views both to the outside and among themselves. The project makes careful use of rough, durable materials: architectonic concrete, galvanised steel, glass and linoleum. The multi-sports hall plays on the grey shades of these materials.  © Eugeni Pons The building lies on a north/south line, which is the best way to control natural light, while large expanses of polycarbonate provide and disperse gentle, even light throughout the hall, with no risk of dazzling or inconveniencing users. Particular attention has also been paid to the acoustic: up to a person's height, the walls are faced with perforated coloured MDF panels, and the entire ceiling has been treated. Duckboard panels in galvanised steel placed between the beams create a meshed false ceiling: the technical elements are protected, while the lamps are able to illuminate the hall.  © David Romero-Uzeda The square multi-purpose hall is designed to contrast with the rest of the building. The varnished oak parquet floor laid in a checkerboard pattern curves upwards at the wall, and the upper part of the walls are flocked with acoustic plaster. The coffered ceiling repeats the checkerboard design of the floor. The entire double height of the hall is coloured dark green, enhancing the warmth of the oak. Depending on the light, the variations in grey featured in the project range from milky and rough to transparent and reflecting: perception evolves as the day draws on, setting up a valuable dialogue with nature. The presence of plants and the resulting quality of the light lend a precious elegance to the spaces.  © David Romero-Uzeda  Sections  © Eugeni Pons  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Kengo Kuma Transforms Shanghai Shipyard Into Multi-Use Complex Posted: 01 Mar 2018 08:00 PM PST  © Julien Lanoo In the Lujiazui financial district in Pudong, Shanghai, Kengo Kuma has reimagined a 1972 shipyard into a new 9,000-square-meter multi-use complex, named Shipyard 1862. Behind original, rugged brick walls, the old shipyard was once defined by a 12 by 30-meter grid, which allowed for massive interior spaces to hold ships. In this industrial-style adaptive reuse project, Kuma was careful to preserve the building's structural and material integrity. These photographs provided by Julien Lanoo show how the industrial shell has been transformed by the refurbishment project. "Materiality transcends beyond the visual experience, as it requires all five senses of the human body to engage it, to remember it." Kuma says.  © Julien Lanoo Original brickwork was restored on the North facade, but the South facade was demolished years ago. For the West facade, Kuma designed a pixelated gradient brick system which connects the North and South by reflecting the unique restored weathered brick and remembering what no longer exists in a contemporary way. Suspended by 8-millimeter-thick stainless steel cables, large clay bricks, in four shades of red, gradually fade in permeability toward the transparent South facade.  © Julien Lanoo Inside, Kuma uses void space to emphasize the structure's verticality and monumentality. A five-story east-west atrium links two smaller north-south atriums which act as connectors between the city and the Huangpu Riverfront. Panoramic views of the Puxi skyline can be enjoyed from the 800-seat theater in the East wing, while the west wing holds commercial spaces.  © Julien Lanoo  © Julien Lanoo  © Julien Lanoo  © Julien Lanoo  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2018 07:00 PM PST  © Hugo Santos Silva
 © Hugo Santos Silva Text description provided by the architects. The apartment occupies the last floor of a mid-20th-century building, refurbished in the 80's. The flat is split into two levels: the one below – an ordinary residence; the one above – a terrace of scarce use, where an informal storage construction is placed.  Existing Floor Plan  Lower Floor Plan Proposal The intervention inverts the detachment between these two levels, attempting to unite the inner and outer areas. The proposal reorganizes the spaces of the apartment, empties the terrace and utilizes the ceiling height of the uninhabited attic, exposing the roof structure and the atmosphere of an old building. The social space now includes the kitchen, while the private spaces are gathered in the rear area of the apartment.  © Hugo Santos Silva The wooden staircase is the organizing element, a piece of furniture which sets the entrance, kitchen and living room, giving access to the river-facing terrace where one can enjoy the sun.  © Hugo Santos Silva  Section Proposal  © Hugo Santos Silva  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Cottage in Muraste / KUU architects Posted: 01 Mar 2018 06:00 PM PST  © Tõnu Tunnel
 © Tõnu Tunnel Text description provided by the architects. Estonians have historically been "forest dwellers". Their experience in building from wood goes back to the 3rd millennium BCE when the first timber structure was built – the koda (chamber). Through traditions and customs, this dwelling unit with archaic and simple architecture laid the foundation for a complex ethos that could be called the soul of the Estonian identity.  © Tõnu Tunnel  Diagram  © Tõnu Tunnel Koda is one of the oldest Estonian words, originally meaning "place for living", and it is linguistically very close to the words kodu ("home") and koht ("place"). The archetypal koda in its original form is still in use, even though its basic purpose has changed. Over time, completely new types of koda have appeared: places for making music and meeting others, blacksmithing, worship; all of which shows how deep the koda's roots are in our culture.  © Tõnu Tunnel The concept of the cottage is based on the archetypal koda, which has been modernized in form and function. The cottage in Muraste consists three koda units – one for sauna, one for livingroom / kitchen and one for bedroom / bathroom. Latter two are side by side and directly connected. Between the main house and the sauna there is a large terrace connecting every function of the summerhouse and creating outdoor "nests" for each function. Large openings are directed to north towards the nice view of the Baltic Sea and also south to catch the sunlight. The bright interior and converging ceiling is illuminated by triangular roof windows that strive towards the sun.  © Tõnu Tunnel  Section 02  © Tõnu Tunnel The cottage is a timber frame structure finished with natural larch cladding both the walls and roof. Sauna unit is painted with tar oil.  © Tõnu Tunnel  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Kar – Khaneh Office Building / DOT Architects Posted: 01 Mar 2018 04:00 PM PST  © Deed Studio
 © Deed Studio Text description provided by the architects. The boundary of the adjacent buildings is such that in its western side, according to the city laws and regulations, the building has a 45-degree fillet, and the front of the building on the east, is 10 meters behind, due to the expansion of its land with a twice in length.  © Deed Studio  Diagram 02  © Deed Studio It is only south facade of the project that allows in, natural light and provides urban views.The user is a creative firm who spends long hours at work, therefore, besides management zones, workstations, meeting and brainstorming areas, there is a need for rest and recreation space in the building.  © Deed Studio The Vertical access is located at the northern end of the project. With the placement of a void stretched along East-West, natural light was provided in the staircase as well as the northern front of the office. Also, the addition of a vertical green wall inside the void, brings freshness into the work environment.  © Deed Studio The vertical distribution of programs is in a way that the management rooms are on the upper floors, the work stations and brain storming rooms are in the middle floors, parking on the ground floor and the rest and recreational areas are laid down in the basement floor.  Section A Considering the small width of the plot, in order to increase the efficiency of the space and create flexibility in interior's layout, most of the enclosed areas such as server rooms, filing shelves and bookshelves were packed in the solid boxes on the south facade.  © Deed Studio In response to the neighbor's 45 degree fillet edge and considering the building's front border set by regulations, the south façade was formed by a rhythmic pattern which is the result of playing with solid masses and windows. As a result, there are set backs on the façade which form flower boxes on the urban face of the building and add freshness both from inside and outside. Also displaced boxes on façade cause dance of shadows in different hours of the day and result in having a dynamic urban face.  Detail There is a 10 meter difference between the front border of this building and its eastern neighbor which results in having a blank façade on the east. To meet the city laws and regulations of using white cement on side fire walls and in order to create a three dimensional building mass, the south façade was also covered with white cement. Risk of cracks appearing on the cement façade was reduced dramatically by adding additives to the cement and also dividing large areas by U steel profiles. Use of double layer of anti-static material on the cement, reduces absorption efficiency of the cement and also prevents the façade from absorbing dirt in a polluted city like Tehran. In order to create a unique pattern, a special comb was used on final rendering which created a linear horizontal pattern on the façade.  © Deed Studio The green wall in the void and flower boxes on the south façade are equipped with automatic watering system, and have easy accessibility for maintenance and they use the grey water of the building. All efforts by design team was to create a dynamic work place to produce creativity in the work environment.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| HINO / Keitaro Muto Architects Posted: 01 Mar 2018 02:00 PM PST  © Hiroshi Tanigawa
 © Hiroshi Tanigawa Text description provided by the architects. The residence has been built at the bottom of mountain where was designated REDZONE, which the zone is landslide hazard notice, by public administration. Although there is risk of landslide, the tempting place has scene of green mountain and the park spread opposite side of mountain.  © Hiroshi Tanigawa In line with the law enforcement guideline, it is RC structure by half of second story, which is for withstanding earth pressure of landslide, and light wood structure is on it. The construction is which split the section of second story architecture into quarter by slabs have been spread continuously with upper floor by cantilever wall, which is wall girder. Through part of light wooden structure at top story, sunlight and scene of green mountain are reached the lowest story in a room.  © Hiroshi Tanigawa That interior space which is split every 1,300 millimeters of waist height is attuned to physical senses by interior experience, which come closer to mountain. it is given horizontal spread every upper stair, and it is got closer to green mountain scene  Section Part of ground level is opened the landscape which is connected from mountain to park by excessive cantilever, along with rough texture of concrete by larch formwork, it is gave inherent openness connecting with park.  © Hiroshi Tanigawa Although part of RC interior spaces is not connected to part of exterior spaces, as relation of negative-positive, it has been mutually made the private openness which come closer to mountain and the public openness which thrown into ground-level environment.  © Hiroshi Tanigawa Under stringent conditions, it could be aimed the primitive architecture which seems to be discovered life's pleasure in the residential architecture.  © Hiroshi Tanigawa  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2018 12:00 PM PST  © W workspace
 © W workspace Text description provided by the architects. Oka Haus sales gallery situates in the prime location on Rama 4 road in Bangkok downtown as same as the Oka Haus condominium, a project by Sansiri PCL. A cape like interior space, decorated with almost 3,000 pieces of hinging wooden box to shape the internal volume and to impress the guests with excitement. They installed on metal grid system at 5 meters above floor level.  © W workspace  Ground floor plan  © W workspace Wooden elements can be found everywhere to gives a warm feeling and in-line with the project concept of Retreat & Rebound. Even on the projection room ceiling is decorated with solid teak decking panel in chocolate bar pattern. An unusual way of using decking product.  © W workspace  Ceiling pattern color  © W workspace It is designer's intension to give journey experience to the guests when visit the sales gallery and lead them through the space from the lobby lounge to the projection room, go up to the second floor to visit 3 show flats and the come down to see the condominium model to complete the journey. The model room inside the lobby lounge with enclose partitions that allow the guest to see the model only when they finish the tour but it gives and open view to the outside garden. One wall equipped with LED screen of 6 meters long to provide project information to the guests.  © W workspace  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Zhulang Huagai: A Figure for the Nantou Urban Village / NADAAA + Cooper Union Posted: 01 Mar 2018 11:00 AM PST  Courtesy of UABB
 © Nader Tehrani Text description provided by the architects. The Urban Villages of Shenzhen comprise of a series of historic cores whose presence today is precarious at best. Surrounded by the rapid expansion of the contemporary city, the dense urban fabric of these communities serves as a reminder of a past that is not so distant as it is fundamentally out of scale with the emerging forces of real estate.  Courtesy of UABB  Axonometric  © Jeremy Son The advent of the 'biennale' as a cultural event is maybe a good vehicle to draw light onto these vulnerable communities, but the curatorial constraints require economies that do not afford permanence. Despite this, or maybe precisely because of it, we imagined an installation on the main plaza that, that however vulnerable, is designed to become part of the urban fabric, to serve as a civic structure, and to become conversant with the community it serves for a longer time to come; in tandem, the challenge of the structure is to develop a resilient strategy that has the raw finish of infrastructure, the constraints of economy and the flexibility to imagine many activities, programs and events.  © Jeremy Son The site of the plaza produces an urban edge along the village wall that is ripe for programmatic activation. As a structure that adopts the wall as datum, we proposed a linear organization, broadly informed by typologies whose figural demeanor have the power to activate an edge condition of some length: a stoa, arcade, colonnade, loggia. With each bay composed of a customized section, the structure was originally conceived as scaffolding, but the local material and labor economies dictated a last-minute change-order to adopt standard tube steel extrusions—which ironically was the key mechanism to enable a strategy of permanence.  © Jeremy Son  Composite The structure is clothed in a perforated skin, whose figure is torqued in relation to the very skeleton that gives shape to its body. Meeting the ground on the northern end as a support, the volume of the figure reduces in girth at every bay, eventually compacting itself to a thin canopy towards the south which is supported by an existing building. Not reducible to typological description, the piece oscillates in shape, function, and in urban position, allowing its hybrid behavior. At once compositionally legible through the regimented syncopation of its structure as an urban colonnade, and at the same time the shrink-wrapping of its structure is legible as a colossal figure in the urban landscape, something that gives monumental presence to an urban void.  Courtesy of UABB The new structure gives a face to the urban room—a space that has for decades served as a residue for parking and detritus—and for the first time in history, also offers protection from the dynamic environment, a place of respite and leisure for the very community it serves, and a figure that occupies the collective imagination.  © Yan Meng  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Torquay Concrete House / Auhaus Architecture Posted: 01 Mar 2018 09:00 AM PST  © Derek Swalwell
 © Derek Swalwell Text description provided by the architects. This is a house of concrete, designed for a concreter; and the material has been fully embraced with all its inherent strengths and flaws. We relinquished control over imperfections innate to the material, leaving surfaces untreated. Paired with natural hardwood, the house is elemental and raw, but nonetheless warm and welcoming as a home for this young family - the concreter, the artist, the child and two dogs.  © Derek Swalwell The site, in the Torquay Sands estate, backs onto wetlands and golf course. It is tightly hemmed in on both sides by volume builder houses.c Dialogue with the street is initiated by an open carport and art studio above, inviting filtered views through battened screens into the private world beyond. A translucent screen veils the studio, glowing over the street at night when the artist is at work.  © Derek Swalwell  Ground Floor Plan  © Derek Swalwell Attached to the brief was a potential for growth, requiring flexibility of space, and areas of privacy. The layout itself is simple - a procession of spaces, entered from the street via a portal in the concrete wall. A small and verdant courtyard is the starting point, an antechamber to the softer inner parts of the home. Upon entry, the house opens up into double height gallery, glazed on one side to reveal the plan which wraps around a large central courtyard.The over-scaled circulation spine anchors the plan, linking darker, more intimate bedroom spaces on one side with open living encircling the central courtyard, and loft-style master bedroom above.  © Derek Swalwell Principles of passive thermal regulation are employed throughout the house, resulting in stable internal temperatures year round. Insulated hydronic infill slabs reduce heat loss into the ground during winter whilst cross-ventilation, deep eaves, and the concrete structure's inherent thermal mass keep the house cool in summer. Roof gardens create a thermal blanket over the house, irrigated by a 10,000L subterranean tank beneath the north-facing courtyard. Materials used require little maintenance, and are purposed for longevity.  © Derek Swalwell  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Hamonic + Masson & Associés Unveil Twisting Residential Tower to Be Built in Le Havre, France Posted: 01 Mar 2018 08:30 AM PST  © Luxigon Hamonic + Masson & Associés have revealed the design of Videcoq, a twisting residential tower to be located in the city of Le Havre, France. Containing 70 total apartments, the building will offer views of the downtown and the Bassin du Roy and Bassin du Commerce marinas, as well as the Le Volcan cultural center designed by Oscar Niemeyer.  © Luxigon Project description courtesy of the architects. Overlooking the Bassin du Roy, the Bassin du Commerce and the heart of the city centre reconstructed by Perret, whilst also being located next to Niemeyer's Volcan and the city's historic monuments such as the Town Hall and the Saint-Joseph church, the Videcoq project is a building that sits within the unique city of Le Havre, whose history is formed by architecture. By taking into account the specifics of this context, the project attempts to link two territories: the city and the sea. Its architectural style and affirmed expressiveness combine to create a new piece in the port town's skyline.  © Luxigon The site is located at the nodal point of Le Havre's history and reconstruction. This strategic position, at the articulation between the two urban fabrics of Perret's proposed general plan, bestows a remarkable character and geometry upon the building. Benefiting from great visibility and exceptional views overlooking the docks, the building offers varied scales for neighbouring local residents and a diversity of spaces for the inhabitants. The project plays with the idea of movement, background and multiplicity. Its volume works alongside the differing scales, creating a sculpted fan effect where the concrete netting wraps around the building's body accentuating the transforming, rising twist. Living here allows people to understand and appreciate the vast richness of the urban tissue that makes up this astounding site. Residents will not only be aware of the city's heritage which unfolds before their eyes, but also of the fantastic opportunities that await this territory.  © Luxigon  © Luxigon Both an emergence and a signal, the Videcoq project strives to provide remarkable apartments. The free floor plan allows different typologies to be created upon request. This personnalisation is possible from the building's conception. The question of housing here carries values such as quality of use, diversity, dynamism and optimism. Embracing the future with ambition, the building will be demonstrative of vertical housing in the urban environment.  © Luxigon It is rare to have the opportunity to confront a subject with this much symbolic power and evocative force. During the buzz of Ré-inventer Paris, Inventons la Métropole, Réinventer la Seine and other international architecture competitions, this project primarily poses the question of our connection to history and heri- tage. Invention is introduced within historic continuation and not via style or dogma, but through a certain state of mind. Le Havre is Perret and Niemeyer, but above all it has a sense of modernity and architectural adventure on the same scale as its original history: a town built as the starting point of the quest for new territories.
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| Bradesco Foundation School / Shieh Arquitetos Associados Posted: 01 Mar 2018 07:00 AM PST .jpg?1495690784 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns
 © Fernando Stankuns Text description provided by the architects. The new Bradesco Foundation High School was inaugurated in Osasco, nearby São Paulo Brazil. Designed by Shieh Arquitetos Associados, office with over 40 years of practice and focus on educational architecture, the project converted an administrative building originally occupied by Bradesco bank into a school compatible with the high principles of the Institution. The proposal sought to make the most of the existing structure while using constructive resources that could give new character and life to the building, in order to accommodate educational facilities. .jpg?1495690659 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns Some of these strategies were the inclusion of facade pre-shading for thermal comfort and diffuse light filtering in classrooms, adoption of large vertical atria, new internal stairs, new entrance walkway, lower ground floor converted as large patio and garden, among others. .jpg?1495690770 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns Plans were organized to solve some of the challenges imposed on a vertical building: large flow of students and limitation of patios. Hence, classrooms were organized on the lower floors – except for the ground floor, which is dedicated to arrival patio and cafeteria.  Perspective Section The first floor accommodates 7 classrooms, while the second includes another 10, totaling 17 classrooms. Special rooms (library, laboratories and study rooms) were allocated on the upmost floor, considering that the flow to these spaces is rather smaller. .jpg?1495690575 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns  Upper Ground Floor Plan .jpg?1495690582 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns The library, with all its symbolism inside an educational institution, is located on the topmost floor at the front facade of the building – as if the library was leaning over the front street and as if people were invited to enjoy the institution. .jpg?1495690665 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns The lower ground floor is treated as a "Arrival and Conviviality Patio" of all students, whether coming from the street or school van. Since this patio is sunken below street level, the design offers a small arena to the students, with benches adjacent to cafeteria and internal patio. .jpg?1495690693 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns With the partial demolition of two stretches of front slabs, it was possible to create large central atria that aerate vertically the existing building.  Lower Ground Floor Plan .jpg?1495690687 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns  Section These atriums, covered by sheds of illumination and ventilation, and open laterally, also provide abundant circulation of air by cross ventilation and chimney effect. .jpg?1495690844 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns Another key point is the suitability of vertical circulations. Taking advantage of the open atria, two new and prominent stairs were created, allowing the demolition of the existing staircase. To allow access of wheelchair users into the building, the project replaced an existing steep concrete walkway, by a new steel ramp that goes deeper into the building. .jpg?1495690826 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns This new walkway gives direct access to the first floor of the building – which includes the school's administrative rooms. Thus, it is understood that parents of students, staff and visitors will use this walkway instead of descending by staircase to the ground floor – main access to the students. .jpg?1495690834 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns Along the 3 upper floors, classrooms and special uses occupy the perimeter areas and release large central portion of the project's slab, nicknamed "Aerial Patios" – characterized by two large voids and vertical circulations. Seen from the Aerial Patios, the classroom walls are special pieces, with continuous upper glass strip and air circulation slot with chicane for sound absorption. In plan, the organization of the classrooms generated unusual angles, mainly due to the position of the existing emergency stairs. These very angles are highlighted through the new wood-veneered walls with recessed blackboard, shaped as benches and tables. .jpg?1495690374 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns It is important that the furniture entice students to appropriate themselves of the Aerial Patio, in a manner to compensate the small site available. These opportunities for interaction directly reflect on educating through companionship. .jpg?1495690631 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns The existing building, stripped of its external masonry, gives way to large glazed panels – now protected by an extra layer of expanded aluminum sheet and louvers. .jpg?1495690679 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns Placed 75cm away from the existing façade, the expanded white aluminum sheet has two functions: to filter direct light in a homogeneous, high-quality ambient light to classrooms, and to pre-shade the building to minimize thermal gain. This avoids the so-called "iced tea dilemma" which expects the building to gain heat and then spend energy to treat its cooling. This system of the facade is divided into articulated modules, which provides a better orientation in relationship to the sun, and facilitates maintenance and cleaning. .jpg?1495690850 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns The expanded aluminum sheet system is fixed through an auxiliary metal structure that also supports a catwalk, which serves as a continuous technical gallery for cleaning and maintenance. This interstice between two facades also accommodates equipment, in particular air conditioning. .jpg?1495690672 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns Critical question in schools, acoustic performance of the building was given special attention in the project. Inside the classrooms, the teacher needs both the reflective surfaces to make themselves heard, but also needs absorbing surfaces for noise. The solution adopted by the office was the adoption of alternating "lanes" of gypsum board ceiling, plain and perforated. .jpg?1495690778 "© Fernando Stankuns") © Fernando Stankuns  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Snøhetta-led Team Wins Competition for UNESCO World Heritage Site Education Center in Tasmania Posted: 01 Mar 2018 06:00 AM PST  © Brick Visuals Snøhetta, in collaboration with Australian firms Liminal Studio and Rush Wright Associates, has been selected as the winner of an international competition for the design of the new History and Interpretation Center at Cascades Female Factory Historic Site in South Hobart, Tasmania. One of the most significant female penal sites dating back to 19th century, when Australia was still a British penal colony, the Cascades Female Colony was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010. The new History and Interpretation Center will allow visitors to learn about the site's history and how its social, cultural and political implications have impacted present day Australia.  © Snøhetta The winning design concept stresses the experiential dualities found in the site – the "struggle between light and dark, imprisonment and liberty, punishment and reform, threat and opportunity, horror and hope." This has manifest itself in the architecture of the new structure, where indoor and outdoor spaces will be integrated into a symbiotic whole. At the core of the design is an open forum referred to as the "empatheatre" (a portmanteau of empathy and amphitheater), where lectures, performances and discussions of present-day events can be discussed within its historical context. The visitor path through the center has also been imagined as a phenomenological experience, as scale and proportion are used to aid in the understanding of the prisoners' experiences. Transparent floors will offer views into the excavated foundations beneath the building, will interpretive spaces will give visitors the opportunity to come face to face with the past.  © Brick Visuals "The journey into the History and Interpretation Centre is guided through a long, isolated walk with only the sky as the connection to the outside. Removed from reach and slowly stripped of the natural world, visitors are disconnected from the familiarity of their everyday environment and are confronted by the despair of the female convicts," explain Snøhetta. Located along the Hobart Rivulet, the museum's landscape design will unveil the layers of human settlement in the area and their interaction with the land's natural processes. A selection of the ruins of the former penal buildings will be expressed with sensitive landscaping to call out their historic significance, while others will planted with wild gardens as a metaphor for "the ability of nature to heal." News via Snøhetta  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 01 Mar 2018 05:00 AM PST  © John Horner Photography
 © John Horner Photography Text description provided by the architects. Grow Box is a 1,975 sf home in Lexington, MA, designed for an MIT University Professor of Engineering, his wife, and their young son. The landscape surrounding the house was (and still is) in pristine condition, with elaborate plantings and over 40 different varieties of Japanese maple trees painstakingly cultivated and maintained by the clients. The extents of the existing gardens limited the footprint of the new house, but inspired an architecture that utilizes landscape to affect space that expands beyond the physical limits of the house. The resulting design is a compact volume penetrated by slot gardens and entry decks that both define space within the house, and erode the boundary between interior and exterior.  © John Horner Photography  Diagram  © John Horner Photography In an effort to elaborate on our interests in social threshold and expanded boundary conditions, we incorporated six recessed exterior gardens within the interior of this tight 1,975 sf two-story 'box' wrapped in Cor-ten steel. Each recessed garden expands and negotiates a new type of relationship between standard programs: bed and bath, kitchen and living, upstairs and downstairs. These pockets of exterior space nested within the interior create the perception of spatial expansion while paradoxically compressing it. These spaces pursue a curious connection and social dynamic between the users within these various corners of the house. A spatial buffer is able to amplify and frame through transparence and spatial layering.  © John Horner Photography  Floor Plans  © John Horner Photography The slot recessed gardens are organized geometrically by one five foot by six foot central "landlocked" courtyard garden on the first level that contains a single Himalayan birch tree. This garden, which will collect rain in the summer and snow in the winter, underlines one's experience of the elements as the literal and metaphorical centerpiece of the home. Entryways on each facade provide ready access to the yard, while copious operable windows, sliding doors, and framed views reinforce the reciprocal relationship between house and garden. On the exterior, the visual contrast between the hard geometry of the house and the sinuous landscape is both enhanced and obfuscated by the raw hue of the weathering steel panels that comprise the house cladding. Large areas of glazing surrounding the slot gardens and floor to ceiling windows reflect the surrounding trees and plantings, further blurring the distinction between architecture and nature.  © John Horner Photography  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Studio Gang Reveals Design of Arkansas Arts Center Expansion Posted: 01 Mar 2018 04:00 AM PST  New North Entry from Crescent Drive. Image Courtesy of Studio Gang Studio Gang has revealed the design of their $70 Million expansion of the Arkansas Arts Center, located in historic MacArthur Park in the state capital of Little Rock. Working with associate architects Polk Stanley Wilcox and landscape architecture firm SCAPE, Studio Gang has envisioned a sweeping roof structure that will connect the existing architecturally disparate museum pavilions into a cohesive whole.  Architectural Model. Image Courtesy of Studio Gang The concept plan calls for a total of 127,000 square feet of new and renovated spaces, including a new second floor of gallery space; a parkside indoor/outdoor restaurant; expanded artists studios and educational facilities; a new research center and laboratory; a black box theater; and a flexible "Cultural Living Room" that can be adapted to be used as an extension of the galleries, an event space or a relaxed gathering space. A new north entrance will unveil the museum's architectural history, allowing visitors to pass through the original 1937 Museum of Fine Arts façade. "Because the Arkansas Arts Center is made up of eight additions to the 1937 Museum of Fine Arts, it's a very complicated puzzle," said Arkansas Arts Center, Executive Director Todd Herman. "We have the right architects and the right landscape architects to transform our institution into a destination for arts education and a hub that connects the programs of the AAC with newly designed outdoor spaces."  North Entry Courtyard Revealing the Original 1937 Facade. Image Courtesy of Studio Gang  New South Entry from MacArthur Park. Image Courtesy of Studio Gang The standout architecture feature of the proposed design is the organic, pleated roof connecting the new north entrance on the city side with the southern park-facing entrance to create a circulatory artery through the building. "Starting from the inside out, the design clarifies the organization of the building and extends its presence into MacArthur Park and out to Crescent Lawn," explains Studio Gang founder Jeanne Gang. "By doing so, the Center becomes a vibrant place for social interaction, education, and appreciation for the arts."  Looking South in the New Center. Image Courtesy of Studio Gang  New South Dining Pavilion. Image Courtesy of Studio Gang Environmentally sustainable practices cover both indoor and outdoor spaces, from improved building mechanical systems to native, rainwater reclaiming landscape elements. Described by SCAPE founder Kate Orff as a "museum within the forest," the landscape plan draws inspiration from Little Rock's unique terrain features, including the banks of Fourche Creek, the bluffs of Emerald Park, and the agrarian landscapes of the Mississippi Delta. "The site design will rejuvenate and expand the connection between the AAC to MacArthur Park, welcome and orient the Little Rock community to the grounds and weave native regional landscape forms into the existing park," said Orff. Groundbreaking on the project is scheduled for Fall 2019, with construction to be completed in early 2022. News via Arkansas Arts Center
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| Reeds Spring Middle School / Dake Wells Architecture Posted: 01 Mar 2018 03:00 AM PST  © Gayle Babcock, Architectural Imageworks
 © Gayle Babcock, Architectural Imageworks Text description provided by the architects. The design approach for the Reeds Spring Middle School denies the conventional act of scraping the site clean, flattening the hilltops and destroying the natural character of the site. Instead, the building is strategically positioned at the edge of a 150 acre wooded site to lightly nestle into a hillside and gracefully flow down the valley in the heart of the Ozarks. The heavily wooded site and steep topography were preserved to allow this state of the art school to seemingly emerge from the landscape. A competition gymnasium and a 1,000 seat auditorium are buried in the hillside, secured with a 480' long retaining wall, and topped with a vegetated roof for maximum storm safety in this tornado prone area. A three-story classroom wing lines the trees and has operable glass walls, charging stations and collaboration spaces to connect students to each other and to the world. A cascading stair in the three-story atrium flows through the center of the building and attracts occupants for informal learning, social activities and lunchtime. The design accommodates the districts push for state of the art technology integration, collaborative learning environments, and tornado safety all in one facility.  © Gayle Babcock, Architectural Imageworks  Exploded Axonometric  © Gayle Babcock, Architectural Imageworks The classroom building features an outdoor classroom accessible from each floor as well as flexible spaces designed for collaborative learning. Marker boards, wireless access points, and convenient charging stations for devices are scattered throughout the building. Standing-height countertops with technology integration, soft seating and operable partitions encourage the notion that learning happens everywhere. Team teaching is also supported in these collaboration spaces for multi-class gatherings and group projects.  © Gayle Babcock, Architectural Imageworks The design was inspired by the district's desire to be "environmentally ethical" and to preserve the natural environment. The project was designed to meet a site EUI of 36.2 kBtu/sf/yr, and saves 29.9% of energy cost over the ASHRAE 90.1-2007 baseline. This theme permeated the collaborative design process and the four elements of the design solution that emerged - the cave, the bluff, the stream and the shed - all common elements found in the Ozark landscape. The retaining wall (bluff) breaks open in two locations for access into the gym and auditorium (caves). Along the bluff runs a three-story cascading stair (stream) that is flooded with daylight and is a natural gathering place for social activities. The classroom wing (shed) is one of the only visible signs of construction and houses the collaborative and ever evolving learning spaces. The series of wood slat guardrails mediates between the classroom wing and atrium while recalling the verticality of the trees beyond.  © Gayle Babcock, Architectural Imageworks  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Architecture of Washington DC's Watergate Complex: Inside America’s Most Infamous Address Posted: 01 Mar 2018 01:30 AM PST  Courtesy of Joe Rodota Joseph Rodota's new book The Watergate: Inside America's Most Infamous Address (William Morrow) presents the story of a building complex whose name is recognized around the world as the address at the center of the United States' greatest political scandal—but one that has so many more tales to tell. In this excerpt from the book, the author looks into the design and construction of a building The Washington Post once called a "glittering Potomac Titanic," a description granted because the Watergate was ahead of its time, filled with boldface names—and ultimately doomed.  Courtesy of Joe Rodota Earlier that year, Moretti, on his way back from Montreal, stopped in Washington to celebrate the "topping off" of the first building, Watergate East. He stepped out of a champagne reception at the sales center to share his thoughts with a Washington Post reporter. Washington's public buildings, Moretti said, "are too many, they are too massive, and they are too conformist." There was no evidence in the typical federal building, he said, of either the "spirit" of the architect or the function of the government agency. As a result, "the overall beauty of Washington has suffered." He said that Edward Durell Stone's rectangular design for the Kennedy Center did not conflict with the "delicately flowing" Watergate, but provided "a welcome contrast.  Courtesy of Joe Rodota On April 1, 1967, the Watergate Hotel opened to the public. The interiors of the 213-suite "apartment hotel" were designed by Ellen Lehman McCluskey of New York, a daughter of a Lehman Brothers partner and a debutante, presented at the Court of St. James. According to a Watergate press release, she selected "period pieces" to "soften" the hotel's modern interiors. Her lobby design was "oriental in feeling," with leather sofas, antique Chinese chairs and a European commode. She placed abstract paintings throughout the common areas. "The curvature of the exterior walls, the vast expanse of windows and the fact that all the supporting members of columns extend into the rooms posed a number of interior designing problems," according to Interior Design, "which Mrs. McCluskey has solved by presenting 89 different furniture arrangements to satisfy each irregularity of plan…." The Watergate Office Building opened the same day. According to a press release, the office building was "more restrained in its design" than the hotel and apartments and was the only building "without sweeping balconies." The complex was near completion. Watergate West was under construction. Only one building remained – the third apartment tower, to be built adjacent to the Kennedy Center. On December 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson had turned the first shovel of dirt at the groundbreaking ceremony for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Later that day, Roger Stevens briefed the trustees on the Watergate. The fifth and final building in the development, he said, would rise forty-one feet above the above the main roof of the Kennedy Center. At a meeting on March 12, 1965, the center's executive committee unanimously adopted a resolution stating that the final Watergate building would "seriously impair the esthetic values of the Center." Wolf Von Eckardt, the Washington Post's architecture critic, sided with the Kennedy Center. "The southernmost, massive, sausage-like building of this wiggly complex," he wrote, "encroaches to within 300 feet upon what is to be a national shrine. The dignity of the John F. Kennedy Center demands more land, air around it." William R. Lichtenberg, an attorney for the Watergate developers, had a solution: If the Kennedy Center needed to be taller than the Watergate, then it should add a few feet to its own building.  Courtesy of Joe Rodota At its September 1967 meeting, the Kennedy Center board of trustees voted unanimously to oppose construction of the final Watergate building. They had tried to work with the developers to reduce the height and had been unsuccessful. Now they wanted the building nixed entirely. The Commission of Fine Arts, the federal agency responsible for protecting the aesthetic quality of Washington, took up the matter in a closed session later that month. In the eyes of the commission, the Watergate was no longer an issue. The problem was Stone's design for the Kennedy Center. "Frankly," said Gordon Bunshaft, a Kennedy appointee, the Watergate fit the Potomac River site "much better than that thing Stone is doing." The Watergate, he added, was designed before the Kennedy Center – and therefore was one of the "problems" Stone had to work with, "which he ignored." The next day, in public session, Stone appeared before the Commission. "It is my belief that this building should not be built," Stone said, gesturing to an illustration of the final piece of the Watergate. Commissioner Ted Roszak, another Kennedy appointee, asked Stone what he would do if someone came to him and suggested one of his designs should be cut in half. Now, you may not agree with Mr. Moretti," Roszak said, "but this man has a right to his expression, and I think it is tremendously presumptuous to tell an artist what to do." "I have a compassion for fellow creative workers," Stone sniffed. "I haven't said the buildings were ugly." Nicolas Salgo, representing the Watergate team, read from a Washington Post report five years earlier in which Stone said the Watergate would not "crowd in" on the National Cultural Center, the original name of the Kennedy Center. "I think it will look wonderful together with the Center," Stone reportedly said.  Courtesy of Joe Rodota "I have no recollection of making such a statement," Stone asserted. "Certainly, I never made it formally. It is a suicidal statement, and I doubt under any circumstances that I would be that foolish." Stone failed to persuade the Commission of Fine Arts to stop construction. The commissioners approved the final Watergate building, at the same height as the rest of the complex. They added, however, that their action "should in no way affect" any efforts by the Kennedy Center to acquire the site from the developers. The Washington Post published an editorial slamming the "unattractive arrogance" of the Kennedy Center trustees. "Maybe the Kennedy Center would look a little better if the White House were moved slightly to the left," the Post sneered. "Maybe the lily of culture could be guilder a trifle by moving the Watergate Development to the other side of the Potomac." The Kennedy Center trustees, however, refused to surrender.
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| House Santa Maria / Pedro Henrique Posted: 01 Mar 2018 01:00 AM PST  © José Campos
 © José Campos Text description provided by the architects. Located in a rural context, but close to the historical and central center of Santa Maria da Feira, the project develops based on the recovery of an existing stone housing and the construction of a new concrete body interconnected through a wooden structure and wide openings in a frank dialogue with the outside and surrounding.  © José Campos The existing construction confines directly to the road and the terrain is delimited by a water line that confers greater breadth and beauty to the place. Along the road, the concrete wall interrupts the existing stone wall to give rise to the new entrance and consequently to the new body.  © José Campos The entrance of the house is the central and intermediate point of distribution that relates the two floors. The upper floor, dedicated to the private area, with the concrete volume destined to the rooms and sanitary facilities of the children and the stone volume destined for the parents' room, the lower floor is intended for all social area and services.  © José Campos  Ground Floor Plan  © José Campos Inside, we are surprised with the double right foot and the full transparency of the wooden body, with a broad view in contrast to the two bodies that make up the house. The materials in the interior are intended to have a simple white color on the walls, the wood on the floor and ceilings, allowed to create a comfortable environment where the simplicity is valued.  © José Campos  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Ice Breakers Exhibition Brings Interactive Public Art to Toronto's Waterfront Posted: 01 Mar 2018 12:00 AM PST  © Briony Douglas An "Ice Breaker" is a colloquial term used to connote something that relieves inhibitions or breaks the tension between people. In Toronto, Ice Breakers is an annual international design competition for innovative public works that break up the dreary, seemingly endless winter with engaging, colorful, and humorous installations along the city's waterfront that encourage spontaneous interaction. Now in its second year, the 2018 exhibition is produced in partnership between Ports Toronto and the Waterfront BIA to bring five unique structures to life around the theme of "Constellation." Proposals from enlarged bears inspired by the Ursa Major constellation to giant wind chimes were among those selected from hundreds of entries from all around the world, now on view until February 25. See all five winning installations below. Through the Eyes of the Bear / Tanya Goertzen (HTO Park West) © Briony Douglas Installed in HTO Park West, this submerged ursine sculpture by Tanya Goertzen of the Calgary-based landscape studio People Places Design Inc. playfully questions our relationship with the natural environment. Composed of entirely renewable, recyclable and compostable materials, the whimsical installation appears to ask: What might the world look like through the eyes of a bear? Root Cabin / Liz Wreford and Peter Sampson (Harbourfront Centre) © Geoff Fitzgerald Riffing on the nostalgic trope of the "cabin in the woods," Winnipeg's Liz Wreford and Peter Sampson of Public City Architecture weave pink-tinted cuts of wood and weathered roots together to create an inhabitable dwelling reminiscent of a Canadian icon. Winter FanFare / Thena Tak (HTO Park) © Briony Douglas These gradating and rotating sculptures by Vancouver-based Thena Tak create a winter playscape between their fanning edges. Located in HTO Park, Tak's vibrant structures provide clusters and pockets where visitors can interact, climb, and literally break the ice. Black Bamboo / Bennet Marburger and Ji Zhang (Lower Simcoe Wavedeck) © Geoff Fitzgerald 90 bamboo poles painted jet black compose this teetering pavilion by Bennet Marburger and Ji Zhang of Chinese firm 2408 Studio. Located near the Lower Simcoe Wavedeck, the intersecting poles create an inhabitable cube that is only truly complete in our imagination. Ensemble / João Araújo Sousa and Joana Correia Silva (Toronto Music Gardens East) © Briony Douglas What to you get when you merge music, astronomy and architecture? The result is Porto-based JJs Arquitectura's installation "Ensemble," comprised of wind chimes that visitors can modulate to produce an abstract composition and "ever-changing soundscape." Project descriptions via Waterfront BIA.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Sustainable Proposal Envisions Krakow's New Science Center as a Tiered Garden Posted: 28 Feb 2018 10:00 PM PST  Courtesy of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci's stacked garden-like proposal has been awarded third place in a competition for the new Małopolska Science Center in Krakow, Poland. The competition brief asked for the design of an innovative cultural institution with an iconic architectural form that would represent creativity, openness and independent thinking. As a reflection of both the city and the region, the center is also intended to provide a model for sustainable construction, energy efficiency, and education that inspires immersive visitor engagement. See the complete design below.  Courtesy of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci  Courtesy of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci The 25 meter-tall structure is clad in a grid of pillars and terraces enveloped with living greenery. This vegetal facade is envisioned to constantly change during the seasons and the building's lifespan. Situated in a meadow flanked by the Polish Aviation Museum and the Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny Airport, the architect's proposal conceives the new Małopolska Science Center as a sustainable synthesis of architecture and nature; between building and garden.  Courtesy of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci  Courtesy of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci Beyond the gridded facade, which also extends across the roof, the four-story interior of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci's design is structured around four tower-like masses that frame a central courtyard. Exhibition spaces are dispersed across all three floors alongside generous theaters, classrooms, interior gardens, a cafe, restaurant, and administrative spaces. These various programs are stacked and offset, linked by bridges or walkways, to create a "composition of interpenetrating modules."  Courtesy of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci  Courtesy of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci A network of external ramps, balconies, and terraces connect allowing visitors to circulate within the facade. The steel-grate paths further provide visual communication between floors and spaces to emphasize the "flexible system" linking the areas—both horizontally and vertically. The rooftop is reserved for a recreation zone including an educational playground, meteorological garden, renewable energy garden, and picnic spaces.  Courtesy of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci  Courtesy of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci The design also takes into consideration the ecological impact of the new center. Aside from aesthetics, the living envelope provides natural shading in warmer months while creating a buffer to stabilize temperature and humidity within. The organization of atriums, patios, and terraces allows for natural ventilation and natural light to penetrate deep into the space. Low-parameter heating and cooling through a thermo-active slab system are complemented by glazed walls and the high thermal insulation of the flat roof to achieve maximum energy efficiency.  Courtesy of OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci News via: OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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