Arch Daily

The Fantoni Plaxil 8 Manufacturing Building / Studio Valle Architetti Associati
Sun City Kobe Tower / Richard Beard Architects
AD Classics: Pennsylvania Station / McKim, Mead & White
AQUA LUNA / Open AD
Exion Office Building / I Like Design Studio
Hodolany Resort / Atelier-r
House Tempe / Eoghan Lewis Architects
Spotlight: Maya Lin
Penthouse in Magdalena / Taller David Dana
Heart of the Park Buildings at Shelby Farms Park / Marlon Blackwell Architect + James Corner Field Operations
Artist Mr. June Brings Urban Facades to Life with Layered Three Dimensional Murals
MF House / Estudio V2 Arquitectos
RAAAF and Atelier de Lyon's Monumental "Deltewerk //" is a Tribute to the Majesty of Dutch Flood Defenses
ecoSuites, A Reed-Clad Hotel / Alex A. Tsolakis Architecture
This Week in Architecture: Visions from the Future
Fentress Designs Norwegian Chancery in Washington D.C. as a Homage to National History
The Heart in Ikast / C.F. Møller Architects
Atelier Deshaus' Transforms Shanghai's Riverfront in 3 Cultural Projects
Flyspot Warsaw / Biuro Projektow Lewicki Łatak

The Fantoni Plaxil 8 Manufacturing Building / Studio Valle Architetti Associati

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 07:00 PM PDT

Architects: Studio Valle Architetti Associati
Location: Osoppo UD, Italy
Lead Architects: Pietro Valle with Roland Henning, Marco Carnelutti, Luisa Foretich, Stefano Bind
Area: 8500.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Adriano Ferrara, Neva Gasparo

Structural Design And Construction Supervision : Mg Progetti (Mario Gallinaro with Enrico Toninato, Davide Pastore, Silvia Turato)
Production Plants Design: Dieffenbacher

Text description provided by the architects. A new building is added to the Fantoni Campus in Osoppo (Udine), in Northern Italy. It's the manufacturing building "Plaxil 8" by Studio Valle Architetti Associati, designed by Pietro Valle together with architect Roland Henning, engineer Mario Gallinaro and manufacturer Dieffenbacher.

The 300-meter long, 48-meter tall structure dialogues with the industrial and natural landscapes all around. It positions itself as a new "cathedral", conquering a role within the complex that includes many buildings designed by Gino Valle. Inside, it accommodates a new totally automated production line for MDF fiberboards, the largest press in Europe and the second largest in the world. This latest building fits well in the history of Italian industrial architecture and keeps up the collaboration, started in 1972, between Studio Valle Architetti Associati and the Fantoni company.

The production facilities of Fantoni Arredamenti are located in the Rivoli industrial area near the town of Osoppo, in the alluvial plain at the outlet of the Tagliamento river valley, north of Udine. All the buildings, from the facilities center (1972-73) to the last factories (2001) were designed by Gino Valle. They testify his continuous collaboration with the president of the company Marco Fantoni and they constitute an exceptional example of seamless growth for a project over time, marked by constant experimentation on industrial architecture.

Here, in the heart of the Fantoni Campus, Plaxil 8 was recently erected, substituting obsolete plants with new technologically state-of-the-art equipment to produce MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard).. An 80-million euro investment that, according to the company's vice-president Paolo Fantoni, represents one of the most remarkable investments in the last few years in the wood furniture sector.

Plaxil 8 is a majestic industrial building encompassing a surface area of about 8,500 square meters. The line consists of a fiber sorting and mat formation section, a continuous hot press section, an unloading and stacking section and conveyor belts to the existing storages. The tallest part of the building reaches over 50 meters, while the lower more linear portion is 14,50 meter high. The building structure itself supports both the envelope and the machinery inside.

Its 28-meter wide, single span linear structure is supported by trusses. An inner concrete building houses facilities and a large metal frame supporting the various levels of the mat formation plant on the west side. On the long sides, two plenums intake air from the outside to create a natural convection cooling circuit, removing the heat generated by the machines and exhausting it as hot air to a vent located on the ridge of the roof of the 14.50 m high linear section.

The same structure supports both the building and the machinery. The challenge of the design was in specifying a load-bearing frame shared by both the plant and the architecture with overlapping erection times. The design process of the building had to take a flexible, step-by-step approach, and be led by the gradual development and sizing of the machine, which had never been built before. The final decision was that of not contrasting individual building shapes against the machinery, but rather to ensure that the building would act as a backdrop to the machinery, creating several levels of depth.

The entire lower section of the building is clad using prefab concrete panels cast onto corrugated sheet metal forms, to create a continuous fretted texture. The sloped section of the roof is also covered by reflective metal panels, ribbed vertically to retain the large diagonal "fillet" that characterises the silhouette of the building against the sky. The stacks and the cyclones of the mat formation plant are enclosed instead and partially hidden by an expanded metal mesh structure.

The existing structures enter into a dialogue with the new stacks and lines, and create a congruent skyline within the campus, a backdrop with multiple elements and scenes. By doing so, Plaxil 8 more than exceeds the previous idea of multiple discrete envelopes, and suggests an architectural discourse made of a succession of surfaces, extending past multiple buildings and glimpsed through the textures of the covers and the visual transparency of the screens.

With this new building and with the recent restoration and extension of the company restaurant, also designed by Pietro Valle, the tradition of Studio Valle in experimenting with industrial buildings and creating interplays with the continuously evolving industrial landscape of the location continues. And the ever-changing mutation of the Fantoni Campus also goes on. The relationship between Studio Valle and Fantoni is founded upon an open and creative dialogue with time, a dialogue which accepts the unexpected and adjusts to change, integrating both into a continuous planning process based not on pre-fixed plans but rather on very precise ideas regarding the transformation process.

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Sun City Kobe Tower / Richard Beard Architects

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 04:00 PM PDT

Architects: Richard Beard Architects
Location: Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan
Architect Of Record: ASAI Architectural Office
Area: 500000.0 ft2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: Steve Hall

Interior Designer: BAMO
Landscape Architecture: SWA Group
Art Consultant: Art Advisory Services
Lighting Consultant: Auerbach Glasow
Mep: Kenchiku Setsubi Sekkei Kenkyushu
Woodwork: Tori Kenko Co.
Drapery Workshop: Ionia
General Contractor : Kajima Corporation
Project Manager: MDA

Text description provided by the architects. With breathtaking views of Mt. Rokko to the north and a vast waterscape to the south, Kobe sits as a strip of land with phenomenal views both inland and to the sea. Located one block from the Kobe Sea on a tree-lined boulevard that includes the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art and several national museums, the 500,000-square-foot Sun City Kobe Tower complex provides the ultimate in senior living through attention to detail and amenities, resulting in a vibrant community in which residents can thrive. The design seeks to create a living environment that represents a seamless merger of architecture, landscape, and interiors, and that celebrates this unique city and environment.

Along the street, a series of low-scale pavilions establish a pedestrian-friendly experience. The pavilions feature gently curving roofs clad in metal that create a modern sculptural feel and hint at more traditional Japanese building forms and the sea beyond. Unlike many urban developments, the 35-story, 483-unit apartment tower (plus 98 nursing units) is pulled to the northwest corner of the three-acre site, instead of the center of the property. The asymmetrical tower location allowed the team to develop a large, sun-filled central courtyard and a rich variety of perimeter gardens that create a buffer from the adjoining streets.

Around this courtyard, arranged as a loose quadrangle and connected by a partially glass-enclosed promenade, are public amenities: tea lounge, library, auditorium, communal baths, and dedicated rooms for mah-jongg and karaoke.

A Japanese screen-like porte cochere is near a large, serene, water feature at the entry. A garden level promenade circulates around the central courtyard offering continuous garden views, access to amenities, and encouraging resident interaction. The architectural strategy for the tower was to create a 'lantern' expression at the top of the tower that contains all the largest residential units and the project's main restaurant and bar. The composition of the tower facade conveys a very modern design, with an inter-locking of volumes and minimalist glass guardrails. The gently shifting colors combined with careful massing create a slender and asymmetric façade. Most of the tower residences have ocean and city views and the form of the tower produces many corner windows.

The landscape concept for the project was to incorporate the elements of city and mountain into a singular vision, not individual gardens separated by building forms. Mt. Rokko has diverse seasonal trees, is a popular place for bird watching, and is also famous as a great quarry and water source. The City of Kobe's art festivals are very popular among the locals and visitors. Responding to that rich art scene, art was incorporated as a core element to the design. Within the project site, a series of interconnected garden courtyards seem to stretch through the building itself, linking the interior and exterior, framing the experience through nature.

The interior was developed in tandem with the building and landscape design to create a seamless environment. The interior design concept was to create a "peaceful harbor" for those within its walls and gardens - a place of tranquility and comfort, beauty and serenity. This concept drives the selection of interior materials, colors, and atmosphere. At the ground level, light wood, white stone, fresh colors and garden views create a casual, relaxed mood in keeping with the waterfront location. Reception, library, activity, tea lounge and Sun City Hall all look into a luscious garden oasis. On the 6th floor, there is a roof-top pool, and ofuros for men and women. Here one is close to the city views yet high enough to enjoy the privacy and serenity of a luxurious spa environment. At the top of the tower are the 34th floor and 35th floor dining and lounge spaces, where dark wood, luxurious stone, rich colors and expansive windows create a dramatic frame for the views of city, sea and mountains. The graceful and elegant spaces combined with the varied landscapes below offer residents an amazing level of comfort and opportunity.

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AD Classics: Pennsylvania Station / McKim, Mead & White

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 03:00 PM PDT

This article was originally published on February 11, 2014. To read the stories behind other celebrated architecture projects, visit our AD Classics section.

New York City's original Pennsylvania Station was a monument to movement and an expression of American economic power. In 1902, the noted firm McKim, Mead and White was selected by the President of the Pennsylvania Railroad to design its Manhattan terminal. Completed in 1910, the gigantic steel and stone building covered four city blocks until its demolition in 1963, when it ceded to economic strains hardly fifty years after opening.

Concourse from South, 1962. Image © Cervin Robinson - Historic American Buildings Survey

Prior to the station's completion, the final leg of rail travel to New York City consisted of a ferry from New Jersey to Manhattan. Alexander Cassatt, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and the brother of painter Mary Cassatt, resolved to bring trains directly into Manhattan. With substantial backing from J. P. Morgan, he purchased many of the region's railroads and transformed the PRR into a dominating force.

© Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection

Cassatt commissioned McKim, Mead and White to design the terminus for a system of tunnels leading to the island from the east and west. The tunnels proved a substantial engineering feat and required several years to construct. Massive columns supporting the train tracks were embedded 15 feet into bedrock, and each tunnel was lined with two feet of concrete. Train technology posed another challenge, as steam locomotives, the preferred technology at the time, were likely to asphyxiate passengers in the tunnels. Cassatt invested in a relatively new alternative, employing electric trains instead.

Facade from Northeast. Image © Cervin Robinson - Historic American Buildings Survey

Several hundred buildings were leveled to make way for the new station, which stretched 780 feet between 7th and 8th Avenues and 430 feet from 31st Street to 33rd Street. Excavation began in 1906 and tore through eight acres of Manhattan's existing urban fabric. Both architects and owner envisioned the station as the preeminent gateway to the city, surpassing even the grandeur of the 42nd Street Grand Central Terminus. Cassatt intended to construct a hotel above the station, but McKim argued this detracted from the station's central purpose. Following much debate, the hotel was eliminated from the scheme and the station met the street at a height of just three stories. This was notably lower than the surrounding buildings, even at the time.

As horizontal area was limited, McKim developed an innovative vertical layout in which inbound and outbound trains were stacked to prevent congestion. Hundreds of steel columns extended from the tracks, which were located 45' below street level, to support the main concourse overhead. Slendor steel stairways rose upward from the platforms, seemingly frail appendages in the expansive atrium. The ceiling was comprised of three barrel vaults, which were devoid of any ornament except the intricate steel patterns that allowed the arches to intersect. In a move that greatly influenced future practive, the platforms, which were originally designed to be the traditional 9" above the tracks, were raised to the level of the car doors to facilitate the movement of passengers.

Track level and concourses. Image © Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection

According to McKim's successor, William Symmes Richardson, the architects aimed to create an efficient system of movement into and out of the station. Pedestrians entered through each facade, directly accessing the tracks via 31st and 33rd Streets. 32nd Street was preserved in the form of an arcade of shops extending from 7th Avenue to the main waiting room. To streamline traffic, carriages entered from the south end of the east facade and exited at the north end. McKim also considered future connections to a then-nonexistent subway system. He instructed the engineers to build the tracks at such a distance beneath the street to allow a subway tunnel to pass above.

The four exterior elevations were clad in pink Milford granite, which was transported to the site in the PRR's own cars. The facades were austere and featured little embellishment, and critics found the colonnades dull and repetitive. The monumental form of the exterior did little to express the presence of the rail cars constantly passing below, though the architects sought to create a building of 'monumental character' and 'an outward appearance expressive of its use'.

32nd Street entrance. Image © Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection

Pennsylvania Station was formally composed of two principal areas: the modern steel concourse and tracks and the neoclassical waiting room and service areas. The contrast was deliberate and intended to express the function of each space. While the tracks were a utilitarian means of entering the city, the main waiting room and adjacent areas provided a grand and symbolic reception. The waiting room was modeled after the Baths of Caracella in Rome and featured coffered groin vaults and lunette clerestory windows. The room was a direct replica of the baths in proportion, except that it was enlarged by twenty percent to rise to a height of 148 feet. Richardson described the reference to Rome as functional, citing the ancient buildings as "the greatest examples in architectural history of large roofed-in areas adapted to assemblages of people."

The main concourse, 1958. Image © Nick DeWolf Photo Archive

Clad in travertine marble with all exposed steel painted black, the station's interior was almost entirely monochrome. According to Richardson, the architects selected "permanent and durable materials of simple character...capable of easiest maintenance." Travertine's warm color takes on a luster when rubbed, arguably enhancing its finish over time.

In spite of the vertical separation of program and the meticulously planned systems of movement, critic Ada Louise Huxtable found the functionality "considerably less than noble. The complexity and ambiguity of its train levels and entrances and exits were a constant frustration...it was a better expression of ancient Rome than 20th-century America."

Entrance to loggia and main waiting room. Image © Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection

In addition to the monumental character of the spaces, the station offered an incredible range of amenities. Through the loggia at the end of the arcade, passengers could enter the main waiting room, a formal dining room accommodating 500 people, or a lunch room and coffee shop. From the main waiting room, passengers could proceed to the ticket office, parcel rooms, lavatories, baggage check, and separate gentlemen's and ladies' waiting rooms. An emergency hospital was located on site, as well as facilites for funeral parties and a system for transporting the departed. The fourth floor was reserved predominately for railroad employees. It housed the PRR's own YMCA, assembly hall, lecture rooms, library, billiards room, bowling alley, and gymnasium.

Entrance to tracks, 1958. Image © Nick DeWolf Photo Archive

After receiving the commission to design Penn Station, McKim entered a competition to rebuild Grand Central Terminal (1913) at 42nd Street the following year, which he lost to Reed and Stem. However, McKim, Mead and White were commissioned to design the New York City Post Office (1912). The massive structure was built over the west approaches to Penn Station, directly across 8th Avenue. A complex system of gravity chutes and conveyor belts facilitated the transfer of mail between the station and post office without the use of trucks. Instant messages were sent within Pennsylvania Station itself through a network of pneumatic tubes.

The United States Post Office, 1915. Image via Library of Congress

In 1955, the PRR secretly agreed to sell the station's air rights and later revealed the station was operating at a $1.5 million annual loss. The sale required confining the station entirely below ground and demolishing McKim, Mead and White's colossal gateway to New York City. A legal means of preventing the destruction of historic buildings did not exist at the time and, despite ardent protest from leading architects, demolition was complete by 1966. The granite and marble were dumped, Doric columns and all, into the marshes of Secaucus, New Jersey. The protest efforts were not in vain, however. The event led to the formation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which prevented the destruction of Grand Central Terminal just three years after Penn Station's demise.

Grand Central Terminal. Image © wikimedia commons

The fourth incarnation of Madison Square Garden and its adjacent office blocks were constructed over the subterranean station in 1968. As a result, the PRR fell further into debt and declared bankruptcy in 1970. Penn Station has since become one of the most highly-trafficked transportation hubs in the United States, serving more than 430,000 riders daily. Aesthetic concerns aside, the station is operating above capacity and does not meet all safety regulations. With the expansion of the Highline nearby and the development of the Hudson Yards, the station's strain is likely to increase. The solution seems to demand upward expansion. For the first time in decades, this seems a feasible option. In 2013, Madison Square Garden was limited to a ten year lease and four leading architectural firms presented visions of a future Penn Station.

Main Concourse. Image © Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection

Sources:

Diehl, Lorraine B. The Late, Great Pennylvania Station. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1996.

Huxtable, Ada Louise. "A Vision of Rome Dies." The New York Times 14 July 1966. Print.

Huxtable, Ada Louise. "On the Right Track." The New York Times 28 Nov. 1994. Print.

Kimmelman, Michael. "Flexibility and Moxie Can Save West Side." The New York Times, 14 March 2013.

Kimmelman, Michael. "Restore a Gateway to Dignity." The New York Times, 8 Feb. 2012.

Parissien, Steven. Pennsylvania Station: McKim, Mead and White. Phaidon Press, 1996. Print.

Architects: Charles McKim, William Rutherford Mead, Stanford White
Location: West 32nd Street, New York, NY 10001, USA
Project Architect: William Symmes Richardson
Area: 335400.0 ft2
Photographs: wikimedia commons, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection, Cervin Robinson - Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, George Grantham Bain Collection, Berenice Abbott - New York Public Library Digital Collection, Fay S. Lincoln Photograph Collection, 1920-1968, HCLA 1628, Special Collections Library, University Libraries, Pennsylvania State University, Nick DeWolf Photo Archive

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AQUA LUNA / Open AD

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 02:00 PM PDT

Architects: Open AD
Location: Riga, Latvia
Lead Architects: Zane Tetere- Sulce
Area: 600.0 m2
Project Year: 2013
Photographs: Maris Lapis

Collaborators: Ieva Makena, Paulina Kraszewska

Text description provided by the architects. Restaurant AQUA LUNA is currently located in Andrejsala. The mobile building is a light timber structure and as such it can be easily relocated. The simple formed building is characterised by the façade finish – white diagonal planking and finely split, untreated wooden segments in the frontal façade.

There are 3 main zones – bar, lounge and restaurant. The light and simple interior finishes serve as a background for large scale design elements – trees in metal pots, wickerwork lamps, tall solid wood tables and benches with metal legs, huge leather corner sofas, DJ furniture, long bar counter and shelves behind it. A large fireplace, dividing curtains and restaurant accessories in the shelves ensure warm and cosy atmosphere while details like the mirrors with brass frames, metal and glass lamps, cast iron radiators, shelf ladders, and a glass bar emanate style and elegance. Most of the furniture and design elements are made in Latvia.

The terrace design is done in the same style as the interior, taking "apple tree garden" as the keyword of the concept. The main element of the terrace is the illuminated bar counter made of timber planks with a metal pyramid for bottles in the centre. Shelves in the façade are used for growing green walls that augment the unique atmosphere.

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Exion Office Building / I Like Design Studio

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 01:00 PM PDT

Architects: I Like Design Studio
Location: Soi Prasert Manukitch 25, Khwaeng Chorakhe Bua, Khet Lat Phrao, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon 10230, Thailand
Lead Architect: Narucha Kuwattanapasiri
Area: 4000.0 m2
Project Year: 2014
Photographs: Soopakorn Srisakul

Interior Design: Pisit Kaosangthong
Engineers: Kor-IT Structural Design and Construction Co.,Ltd.
Client: Exion (Thailand) Company Limited

Text description provided by the architects. Located on Soi Prasert Manukitch 25, Bangkok. The project's surrounding land use is mostly wasteland and dwelling area. The opposite land is a Body Repair & Maintenance Car Garage. Adjacent to the site is a cement plant and wasteland. The land plot has two deeds, with one being a square shape and the other a trapezoid shape. The frontage faces towards the west. With Thailand's tropical climate, design challenge may derive especially with a glass or translucent materials.

The Project owner required a usable area of approximately 4,000 square meters consisting office and reception lounge. The materials of this project are simple and easy to maintain. The designers allocate the space by arranging a usable area of the building according to the project owner's needs. The project's ground floor is designated to be parking space and MEP room. The building's massing is separated into two large blocks in order to create a central court landscape for the views. To provide shades at the project, the designer has emphasized utilizing green space.

The west and east walls of the building have been designed as solid concrete to block heat from entering the building. On the other side, the northern and southern walls have no concern overheat, and therefore have been designed using glass façade to maximize the views. The entrance walls have been designed bring the main approach into sight. Additionally, the fitness room on the upper floor features a high-level city view.

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Hodolany Resort / Atelier-r

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 12:00 PM PDT

Architects: Atelier-r
Architect In Charge: Miroslav Pospíšil
Area: 2011.0 m2
Project Year: 2015
Photographs: KRESPO, ENDL + K a.s, atelier-r

Client: ENDL + K a.s
Interior Design: Pavel Kříž

Text description provided by the architects. For the last 20 years the original Hodolany Theatre building has served as a warehouse for stage sets. After a period without proper maintenance the building started to develop technical defects and was sold to a private owner. The aim of the project was to submit an architecturally reasonable modification of the theatre and its surroundings in relation to its planned use as well as to find optimum city-planning connection of the premises with the surrounding housing development.

The concept of the reconstruction project was to maintain the original shape of the historic building and complement it with contemporary materials for its new use. Currently, the theatre premises serve as the main entrance with the superstructure supporting resort management offices.

The new buildings are simple blocks which sensitively complement the original and are distinguished by the use contemporary materials, namely glass and COR-TEN pre-weathered sheets. A low block covered by COR-TEN sheets with a casino was added to the original theatre on the southern side. The casino houses a restaurant with a glass-walled facade. You can enter a tall block on the western side of the resort, whose facade was designed as a combination of glass and COR-TEN, through the connecting neck above the entrance to the car park. In this building there is a hotel and wellness centre. Between the two new massings there is a raw concrete wall defining the inner space of the resort.

The project also includes an updated traffic solution based on the reconstruction of the exit from Velkomoravská street to Tovačovského street. The main entrances to the resort as well as entries to the car park are located on the northern side of Ostravská street, the latter situated both in the courtyard, and basement. Supplies are delivered underground.

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House Tempe / Eoghan Lewis Architects

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 10:00 AM PDT

Architects: Eoghan Lewis Architects
Location: Sydney, Australia
Site: 330.0 m2
Area: 125.0 m2
Project Year: 2013
Photographs: Eoghan Lewis, Roger D'Souza

Text description provided by the architects. BRIEF
The site was once a quarry and the existing sandstone cottage 'Markinch' is one of several listed cottage on the street built by the same stone mason in the early 20th Century. Our clients did not think it was possible to renovate the old cottage and came to us wanting what they called a 'Shedio'; a shed for him and a studio for her. One thing led to another once we established that we could, in fact, perform a little surgery on the cottage. There was no ambition to add floor space or rooms, only the ambition to untangle and improve what they had and connect the cottage to the garden, to the sun and to the sky.

KEY CHALLENGES
The house was on the state heritage register so we needed to work hard to convince Council that a contemporary addition was appropriate. The other challenges were connecting the house to the garden, untangling the floor plan and working within tight budget constraints.

SOLUTIONS
Design strategies were derived from a pragmatic mapping of site conditions, potential inside/outside relationships, adjacent building alignments and heritage restraints, coupled with our desire to add a bold and ecologically responsive layer.

Insensitive additions were removed, the bricks re-purposed to create a series of deep steps that mediate between the levels, elongate the courtyard and make stronger the connection between house and garden. Internal spaces were opened up and re-organised, realigning living spaces to the morning sun and the garden. Two new pavilions, one attached for living - the other a detached studio talk to one another but at the same time offer a poetic counterpoint.

The bathroom was imagined as a bathhouse or Japanese onsen. Hardwood sliding screens frame a private portion of the garden, blurring the threshold between inside and out. The black slate tiles and carefully detailed threshold reinforce this idea of the bathhouse / garden refuge.

THE 'SHEDIO'
A small shed/studio sits at the back of the site. The south-west facing wall looking back to the house is clad in a triple-skin polycarbonate sheet that brings in a gentle light ideal for painting. The stud wall has been treated like a piece of joinery and is a dressed, 140mm-deep blackbutt frame that doubles as storage. At night it glows like a lantern and takes the eye to the back of the garden.

HERITAGE
We considered the original cottage as a place of contemporary residence free of any kind of romantic attitude to what was, nor a negative attitude to what is. The general approach was not to attempt retrieval of the original so it's frozen, but to allow history to continue at a slowed pace and so our interventions are geared to render the original core-bungalow as a setting for private and public contemplation. This is an approach evidenced in projects by European architects Scarpa, Zumthor, Utzon, Fenn and Souto de Moura which seek to explore the fine line between restoration and re-fabrication.

Our approach was to keep what is valuable about the original house without compromise, whilst adding a new layer that responds intelligently to climatic concerns and to the particularities of site; that respects the materiality, character and scale of the original dwelling and the street whilst adding a modest, carefully detailed and articulated contemporary addition that acts in complimentary opposition or counterpoint to its host. In this way, the project hopes to relate in a meaningful not a superficial way. It does not mimic; it interprets and modifies around a set of simple and sound design principles and does so with material and construction integrity.

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Spotlight: Maya Lin

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 09:30 AM PDT

Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/derekskey/5249593792'>Flickr user derekskey</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>

At the age of just 21 and while she was still finishing her undergraduate degree at Yale, Maya Lin (born October 5, 1959) won the design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. The memorial went on to become among the most recognizable designs in the world, and heralded a sea change for memorial design, breaking with classical conventions and dramatically changing the discourse of a typology.

© <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/wbur/4066126357'>Flickr user wbur</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/'>CC BY-NC-ND 2.0</a>

Maya Lin was born on October 5, 1959, in Athens, Ohio. Lin's father was a ceramicist and a former dean of Ohio University's College of Fine Arts, her mother a poet and professor. Both fled China in 1948 before the rise of Communism. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1981, and a Master of Architecture, also from Yale, in 1986. For her life's work, Lin was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2009. Her Vietnam Veterans Memorial received the prestigious 25-Year Award from the American Institute of Architects in 2007 for its lasting impact.

Competition Entry to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial competition. Image <a href='http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97505164/'>via Library of Congress</a>, released to public domain by Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

A sunken slash, chevron-shaped, in the landscape of the National Mall, the memorial comprises two walls of polished granite, each 246 feet 9 inches (75.2 meters) long, both dropping from grade to a central apex height of 10 feet 3 inches (3.1 meters). A chronological list of the dead and missing begins at the center, moves along the east wall and then from the far west side back to the apex.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/2716164844'>Flickr user kenlund</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/'>CC BY-SA 2.0</a>

Lin herself has said that although she didn't expect her design to win, she believed in the statement and was headstrong about submitting it. In a radio interview on WNYC's Studio 360, host Kurt Andersen remarked, "It faces up to death in a way our culture, and memorials, [don't] tend to do." Lin justifies this by stating that every culture becomes more reflective as it ages, and if World War I was a paradigm shift for Europe, the Vietnam War was a similar point of transition for the more youth-centric United States. While Washington typically opines over memorial designs for decades—with Gehry's Eisenhower Memorial the most recent in a long history of controversies—and rarely are designs completed as initially conceived, Lin's proposal received wide support almost from the beginning.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was alarmingly modern for its listing of specific names in order without hierarchy. When asked what people would do at the wall, Lin said with sincerity, "they will cry." Considered iconoclastic at the time, a memorial below ground in black stone explicitly naming the dead, few anticipated the profound effect it would have on visitors, and more broadly, how it would change future memorials. Today it would be difficult to imagine Michael Arad and Handel Architects' National September 11 Memorial, Yad Vashem by Moshe Safdie or the Flight 93 National Memorial by Paul Murdoch Architects without Lin's precedent.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/timevanson/8017951874'>Flickr user Tim Evanson</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/'>CC BY-SA 2.0</a>

Although Lin's career is often overshadowed by her early success, Lin has completed numerous projects including memorials, artworks and architecture. After working on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lin completed the Women's Table at Yale, a cylinder of green granite that chronicles the number of women at the college from 1701 until 1992, when female enrollment first equaled that of men. Her 1989 Civil Rights Memorial is a black granite water wall, inscribed with a Martin Luther King quote, and a circular table with names and dates significant to the Civil Rights Movement. More recently, Lin's "last memorial" is a series of interrelated sculptures that tie into her website "What is Missing?", a virtual mausoleum to animal species either made extinct or threatened by climate change and other human activities.

Women's Table at Yale University, 1993. Image <a href='http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/highsm/item/2012630652/'>via Library of Congress</a>, released to public domain by Carol M. Highsmith

Always seeking to make works that reflect the mood and dialogue of her time, Lin perceives herself not as a memorialist, an artist, or an architect, but a hybrid that defies explicit categories.

Videos: David Adjaye, Bjarke Ingels & Maya Lin Talk to Goldman Sachs

Frank Gehry and Maya Lin Awarded Obama's Presidential Medal of Freedom

Maya Lin Designs Urban Mansion in New York

Maya Lin Wins $300,000 Gish Prize

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Penthouse in Magdalena / Taller David Dana

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 09:00 AM PDT

Architects: Taller David Dana
Location: Magdalena Avenue # 132, Colonia del Valle Norte, Mexico City, Mexico
Authors: David Dana, David Gutiérrez, Jacobo Miller
Area: 1506.95 ft2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: César Béjar

Text description provided by the architects. Penthouse in Magdalena emerges inside a building located in Colonia del Valle, in Mexico City. The concept that generated the design consisted on the integration of allusive elements of the Mexican culture, contrasting with details and contemporary accents, seeking to generate a harmonious and integral composition. The characteristics of the space and its context allowed the development of an environment with adequate natural lighting and views to the exterior, granting freshness to the environment and privacy in relation to the boundaries of the site. The project is characterized by the high degree of detail in its elements, creating a harmonious and aesthetic character, capable of generating different sensations in the user.

The proposal is developed in two general areas, in the first are the semi-private spaces of the project, such as the living room, dining room, terrace and kitchen. A main feature of this space is its relationship with the outside, generated through the terrace and the large window that accompanies the living room, provoking a sense of spaciousness and sense of permanence in the user. Due to the adequate distribution of its elements, a visual composition is created that can be appreciated from different angles, and at the same time it conserves homogeneity and harmony in reference to its materials and decoration, characterized by the contrast of warm and dark colors.

On the other hand, the intimate area of the project is characterized by the dominant use of warm tones, optimizing the lighting in the space and at the same time creating a comfortable atmosphere. The playfulness of the lines present in the finishes and furniture give visual continuity to the project, in addition to subtle textures. In this way, Penthouse in Magdalena is conceived as an interesting project in terms of interior design and distribution, where its elements are related both in functionality and aesthetics, providing identity and character.

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Heart of the Park Buildings at Shelby Farms Park / Marlon Blackwell Architect + James Corner Field Operations

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 07:00 AM PDT

Landscape Architect: James Corner Field Operations
Lead Architects: Marlon Blackwell Architects
Location: Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Area: 34978.0 ft2
Project Year: 2016
Photographs: Timothy Hursley, Justin Fox Burks

Mechanical, Plumbing Engineering: Haltom Engineering
Electrical Engineering: Canup Engineering
Structural Engineering, Engineer Of Record: Engineering Consultants, Inc.
Structural Engineering, Concept Design: Guy Nordenson & Associates
Civil Engineering: Pickering Firm Inc.
Architectural Lighting: Renfro Design Group
Interior Design (Restaurant And Café): Semple Brown
Furnishings: Fleming Architects
Shelby Farms Park Master Plan: 4,500 acres
Heart Of The Park: Approximately 200 acres

Text description provided by the architects. Shelby Farms Park, one of the largest urban parks in the country, has implemented a master plan developed by James Corner Field Operations (JCFO) to revitalize the Park into a unique, 21st-century landmark. Located on land that was once a penal farm and carries on an agricultural use today, the transformed Park is simultaneously a city and regional amenity. The "Heart of the Park," the centerpiece and social hub of the Park, features an ensemble of new buildings and structures located around the 80 acres Hyde Lake.

The buildings at Shelby Farms seek to live in between, balancing the local and the universal, introducing one to another and honoring the value of both. This has long been a role for Memphis, offering a collection of its local culture to the world at large. Now Shelby Farms Park offers the opportunity for these tides - the outflow of the local, and the inflow of the universal - to wash across a common landscape. Intensely specific in their function and articulation but universal in their abstract figuration, each member of this family of silhouettes.

Drawing upon the local vernacular – porches, dogtrots, agricultural sheds – the buildings establish an ensemble of figures with a shared material palette. Centrally located, the Visitor Center creates a new iconic image for the reformed landscape. The building acts as the nerve center of the Park, serving as a point of arrival for visitors and featuring welcome center, gift shop, and administrative functions. Seemingly more porch than building, the Visitor Center embraces and intensifies the landscape. Elegant and rhythmic from a distance, a generosity is revealed in person, with a material palette born of the intersection between the natural and the industrial.

Local, second-growth cypress walls offer warmth and tactility in the dogtrots that serve as the transition to the striking cleft overlooking the new lake. In contrast, an elusive skin of aluminum bar grate gently filters sunlight while hinting at the architecture of industrial agriculture and allowing the humid Memphis air to drift in, slowly threshed by large fans hovering overhead. A deep porch is provided at the Restaurant and Event Center, a place to watch as the sun sets across the subtle bend of the lake. Located at the east end of the lake, the Restaurant and Event Center is an economic and social catalyst for the Park. Slung low and spreading as it becomes one with the landscape, the stone base provides a permanence that complements the ethereal, protective wing of the roof.

The Event Stage, Boat House, and Lakeside Picnic Pavilions contribute to the Heart of the Park's active and dynamic landscape. Each pavilion connects to the pathways that weave together the physical and social experience of Shelby Farms Park. The scale and ambition of the project will likely take a generation to be fully appreciated; however, now even in its infancy, the renewed landscape and augmented offerings enrich the City of Memphis, providing an invaluable resource to a diverse population.

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Artist Mr. June Brings Urban Facades to Life with Layered Three Dimensional Murals

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 06:00 AM PDT

Artist David Louf, aka Mr. June, has earned a reputation for creating striking urban art, most recently using three-dimensional murals that play off architectural elements. As Colossal reports, within the last year Mr. June's geometric abstractions have become increasingly architectural as they aim to challenge viewer's perceptions. Producing work since 1985, Mr. June recently completed a 130-foot diameter dome in North Carolina and a 3D mural for Urban Nation in Berlin.

"Whether he is painting a graffiti piece, working in his multi-disciplinary graphic design studio, or creating a large mural project, Louf continuously aims to blend his love for typography, fascination with abstraction, and free spirit of graffiti culture. These results are regularly applied to the most unusual and unexpected urban structures. Challenged by the existing architectural elements and obstacles, Louf likes to construct creations that will interact with their environment. He uses a laser liner to sketch up the main directional lines. Then he paints his abstract designs in an almost organic way, typically filling the entire side of whatever structure he is working on."

Future projects for June include work in Amsterdam, Aruba, and China, as well as prepping studio pieces for a solo show during Art Basel week. Find out more about Mr. June and his geometric interventions on his website and Instagram.

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MF House / Estudio V2 Arquitectos

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 05:00 AM PDT

Architects: Estudio V2 Arquitectos
Location: La Plata, Argentina
Architect In Charge: Matías Villadeamigo
Area: 340.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographer: Alejandro Peral, Courtesy of Estudio V2 Arquitectos

Structural Calculation: Ingecon SA – Ingeniero Roberto Scasso
Landscape: Sincron Paisajismo

Text description provided by the architects. The Single Family Home is located in a closed neighborhood of City Bell, on a plot of 900m2 with a leafy ash forest. The intention is to conserve most of the trees and generate spaces for expansion and larges visuals.
The project is based on three specific premises: spatial flexibility, large environments and a fluid relationship with the outside.

The morphological conformation of the house is given by a large prism of concrete seen of 13 m X 13 m, suspended in the air that contains the private areas of the house. To delimit internally the different areas we use mobile and flexible panels, generating storage modules, creating a flexible and adaptable floor to the needs of each stage.

The social activities of the house are developed on the ground floor in a single inside space, maintaining a fluid relationship with the outside generated by the continuity of concrete slab, which is projected from the inside to the galleries, officiating as sunscreens, this inside-outside spatial continuity is supported by a linear container module covered in wood, which contains big storage spaces.

The possibility of hiding windows in the walls and the power to generate a unique inside-outside open space allows duplicating the using area of the house.
The boards of the formwork used for the execution of the walls of concrete seen were reused with the Japanese technique of carbonization of the wood, employed to cover the south surface of the house and isolating it from the adverse climatic conditions.

The supporting structure is hidden and backward, emphasizing the suspension of the prism. Wood, glass and concrete, materialize the totality of the spaces and offer through their texture a fluid harmony with the environment.

The landscaping was planned from the beginning of the architectural project, creating a communication with the existing and generating a direct relationship with the environment, always taking as a premise the climatic variables of the inside spaces, transition and exterior spaces. The vegetation and the containment of different spaces were used, giving rise to an aesthetic characteristic of each site, generating a link between people and outside space.

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RAAAF and Atelier de Lyon's Monumental "Deltewerk //" is a Tribute to the Majesty of Dutch Flood Defenses

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 04:00 AM PDT

Amsterdam-based RAAAF and Atelier de Lyon have completed an imposing Dutch monument paying tribute to the country's centuries-old flood defense systems. "Deltawerk //" appropriates the enormous decaying test models in the Waterloopbos national monument, a former Dutch Hydrodynamics laboratory.

Deltawerk //, which opened September 27th, is envisioned as a "tribute to the majesty and seemingly indestructible power of the Dutch delta works," shedding new light on the "practice of preserving cultural heritage."

The flood defense measures themselves—a network of dams, sluices, locks, dykes, levees and storm surge barriers in South Holland—have collectively been described as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

One structure in Waterloopbos, a collection of test models each no longer serving their original function, is the Delta Flume – a structure used to artificially form enormous "full-scale" waves to test the strength of the Delta Works projects.

The project has been created by the excavation of the sand plateau around the Delta flume, creating a 22-foot-high, 850-foot-long (7-meter-high, 250-meter-long) "delta work" surrounded by water. Imposing concrete slabs turned 90 degrees around their axis, and cut from 80-centimeter-thick walls, create spaces of intense light, shadows, reflection, and views through the complex.

As time passes, it is envisioned that the slabs will be "colonized by a nature," while the atmosphere changes depending on time of day, season, or year.

News via: RAAAF

Client: Natuurmonumenten & Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency
Artwork: RAAAF | Atelier de Lyon
Team: Erick de Lyon, Ronald & Erik Rietveld, David HabetsLocation: Waterloopbos, oorsterweg 36, 8316 PT Marknesse, Noordoostpolder

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ecoSuites, A Reed-Clad Hotel / Alex A. Tsolakis Architecture

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 03:00 AM PDT

Architects: Alex A. Tsolakis Architecture
Location: Tristinika Beach, Greece
Architectural & Landscape Design: Alex A. Tsolakis, Eva Besmerti
Area: 900.0 m2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: Alex A. Tsolakis

Lighting & Furniture Design: Alex A. Tsolakis, 157+173 designers.
Structural Engineer: Andreas Khlioumis. Swimming Pool Engineer: Intel Water

Text description provided by the architects. Hotel extension, Tristinika Beach, Greece. The camouflaged hotel. The swimming pool facade (NE-NW) is completely covered with sliding panels clad in local reed that grows on the hotel site. The reed panels hide the full-height glass windows behind them, creating a softer, more discreet, non-reflective facade that blends into the natural surroundings. At the same time, the sliding reed panels provide sun protection and privacy to the inhabitant, as they enable guests to transform their balconies into private outdoor rooms.

The SE-SW facade features vertical wooden planks, that indicate the private entrance to each suite. The wooden facade blocks direct sunlight, while letting the sea breeze circulate through the suites. The rooms of the suites flow into one another, and the huge glass sliding windows blur the boundary between inside and outside. The open floor plan and its orientation work together with the facades, keeping interiors cool during the summer heat. As the new ecoSuites are an addition to an existing hotel, the existing buildings and view orientations had to be considered.

Each suite floor plan is pivoted and shifted within the building envelope for optimum orientation. The design involved local materials, local labour, handcrafted furniture and flooring. Structural steel was utilized for the frame and precast concrete for all the wall partitions. On-site construction time amounted to 4 months for 900m2.

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This Week in Architecture: Visions from the Future

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 02:30 AM PDT

Life in Space

Our dreams for life in space are crafted in fiction, with visions ranging from the romantic to the dystopian. But as science continues to buffer reality toward our dreams, these visions have started to take on a new significance. This week, the New York Times asked some of art and architecture's leading voices to envision life on the moon. Perhaps the most enigmatic (and least feasible) proposal comes from Daniel Libeskind, who suggested turning the moon from a sphere to a cube by means of paint.

"My son Noam is an astrophysicist at the Leibniz Institute in Germany, and we did some calculations about how it could work...I get that it's probably not the cheapest concept — our estimate is about $10 trillion for paint costs alone — but I like the way that it would transform the moon into a work of contemporary art. Think of how amazing it would be to watch the phases shift; the light come across the visible portion, the craters, the Sea of Tranquillity, all framed by this rigid black square. Like a Malevich or Mondrian painting hanging in the sky. Literally a lunatic project." - Daniel Libeskind

If life on a Vantablack cube moon isn't quite your cup of tea, perhaps you'd be more interested by OPEN Architecture's vision design for a house onMARS. Their prototype, a collaboration with electronics giant Xiaomi,, was exhibited at this year's China House Vision event and focuses on the house's ability to maximize resources through the combination of cutting-edge technology, product design, and architecture. The future is just a planetary horizon away.

© HOUSE VISION. Photo: Nacása & Partners Inc

Bird's Nest National Stadium in Beijing, the design is part of an annual cross-industry innovation and research platform known as House Vision, which uses the medium of the "house" to explore and question the direction of our living habits and urban environments in the future.

Your Home - in the Future

Perhaps it's no surprise that the most intriguing visions for housing in the future come via China. The 2018 China House Vision event (which took place next to Herzog & deMeuron's Bird's Nest) featured designs from architects including MAD, Atelier Deshaus, Penda, and Go Hasegawa.

MAD

Atelier Deshaus

Penda

Go Hasegawa

The World on Display

But for future visions that hit a little close to home, look no further than Expo 2020. Designs have been trickling in over the past week, offering insight into how countries want to represent themselves to the world. Highlights include:

UK - Es Devlin

Pavilion will feature an illuminated "Message to Space," with each of the Expo's projected 25 million visitors invited to contribute. The idea draws directly on one of Stephen Hawking's final projects, 'Breakthrough Message', a global competition that Hawking and his colleagues conceived in 2015 inviting people worldwide to consider what message we would communicate to express ourselves as a planet, should we one day encounter other advanced civilizations in Space.

Spain - Selgas Cano

Unfortunately a second place finish, the Spanish architects' proposal reinterprets the plaza typology, offering a new take on the public square. The pavilion was made to be ultralight as a more sustainable structure that could be easily removed and transported. Formed as a 'breathing pavilion', the design allows two inflatables to move up and down to respond to views, light and breeze.

Austria - Penda + Smartvoll

One for the Weekend

While not a vision for the future, Mark Alan Hewitt's memories of mentor Robert Venturi offer personal insight into a mind set firmly in a world that designers often seem keen to ignore - our own. Venturi and partner Denise Scott Brown (who celebrated a birthday this week) saw the world for all the simplicity and complexity it was and continues to be. It may not always be beautiful, but it is always something to marvel at.

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Fentress Designs Norwegian Chancery in Washington D.C. as a Homage to National History

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 02:00 AM PDT

Fentress Architects has revealed their design for the expansion of the Norwegian Chancery in Washington D.C. A prominent new addition to the embassy's Washington D.C. campus. The scheme expands the architectural language of the existing embassy buildings, embracing contemporary design techniques within the context of traditional bureaucratic architecture.

Fentress' design integrates materials of Norwegian cultural significance as prominent features of the façade. The use of Norwegian spruce timber, Oppdal stone, and patinated copper pay homage to the country's traditions in shipbuilding and woodworking, as well as their abundance of natural resources.

The 30,000 square-foot addition was designed to ignite an intriguing dialogue between the new and the old. Most importantly, the contrast between Fentress' vision and the existing neo-classical buildings was meant to create a harmonious dichotomy.

While providing significant functional, accessibility, and sustainability upgrades, our architecture will make Norway's rich heritage visible on one of the most culturally significant streets in the United States and the world.
-Steve White, Principal-in-Charge, Fentress

The Chancery's curvilinear copper mansard roof encases the entryway while delicately intersecting with the existing garden's stone wall and connecting the chancery, embassy, and residence inside. The portal welcomes those who enter, guiding visitors into the new courtyard containing an extensive garden, outdoor seating, and a covered gathering space.

Best known for the Denver International Airport, Fentress has established a vast portfolio of design experience. Similar to airports, security and circulation play a key role in the design of an embassy building. A highly-trafficked structure will see visitors, administrators, and political officials pass through the chancery, gaining a glimpse of Norwegian culture and hospitality in America's capital.

News via: Fentress Architects

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The Heart in Ikast / C.F. Møller Architects

Posted: 05 Oct 2018 01:03 AM PDT

Architects: C.F. Møller Architects
Location: Vestergade, Denmark
Landscape: C.F. Møller Architects
Engineer: Ingeniørne
Contractor: KPC
Area: 3660.0 m2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: Adam Mørk, Julian Weyer, Thomas Olsen, Thomas Moelvig

Text description provided by the architects. C.F. Møller Architects is behind a major project next to the International School Ikast-Brande with a much-awaited expansion with several halls, multi-functional and educational facilities. The project makes the educational facilities at the school even better, and at the same time creates a new meeting point centred on an area of fast growth in Ikast.

'Hjertet' (the Heart), as the project is called, includes a multi-purpose building, as well as an activity park, to create a new relation to the neighbouring Business College HHX Ikast, Ikast Brande upper secondary school, the teacher training college, and the International School Ikast-Brande, which was also designed by C.F. Møller.

'The Heart' combines education, activities, community, exercise and recreational pursuits in new ways. The international pupils will thus be a natural part of a very wide-ranging group of users, including sportsmen and women, musicians, skaters and users in a social psychiatry project. Overall, 35 user groups were involved in the development of the building and park.

"The aim of the Heart is to combine many different facilities and parallel activities, and to use all of the rooms, all the time, all day long, so that the building is always used actively from early morning to late evening - expressed in an architecture that resembles a small town, with varying roof heights and a square which gathers, leads and distributes the users," says Julian Weyer, architect and partner at C.F. Møller Architects.

Building with room for everyone
The Heart covers 3,660 m² in total, and features a central square with a performance stage. The square distributes users out to the various rooms in the multi-building. One wing holds the school's teaching rooms, which in the afternoons and evenings can be changed to multi-rooms and art workshops for associations and evening schools. For young people and younger sports enthusiasts, the street sports hall is particularly interesting, as it is designed so as to retain a sense of being outdoors. There is also a café with a service kitchen, and a shop area where organic groceries from a local socio-economic initiative as well as handicraft by blind producers can be sold.

On the first floor of the multi-building there are various large and small rooms for relaxed movement activities such as dance and yoga, as well as cultural events and performance culture, and counselling services for young people in the municipal Youth and Education Advisory Centre.

The surrounding activities landscape is designed around sustainable drainage principles and includes very active pursuits such as a skate bowl and flowskate parc, a cycle pump-track, parkour facilities and playgrounds, beach volley pits and a multi-use playing field; as well as more quiet and shared activities such as spots for petanque, picnics and campfires.

For every walk of life
"The Heart" is a very open and accessible building, which also draws attention through its use of many small, informal venues and seating areas, to reinforce the multi-building's capacity as a social gathering point that is not just a place to spend active leisure time.

In its essence the project is a showcase in how broadly different user groups of leisure facilities can be combined.

The Heart will give a great boost to leisure time activities, local socioeconomics and teaching opportunities for the school. This also creates a strong contact between the many different users where the young people for instance can obtain advice on important life choices to pursue active and social lives. In this way the Heart connects every walk of life to make it easier to make the next step for each individual.

A number of local and national collaboration partners have joined the field to ensure the project in Ikast-Brande Municipality comes to fruition, including local businesses such as Bestseller, and major Danish foundations Realdania and the Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities. The Carlsberg Foundation has contributed integrated artworks for both the building and the site.

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Atelier Deshaus' Transforms Shanghai's Riverfront in 3 Cultural Projects

Posted: 04 Oct 2018 11:30 PM PDT

Long Museum West Bund / Atelier Deshaus. Image © Laurian Ghintiou

In a creative scene that is already bursting with talent and innovation, Atelier Deshaus' works in China stand out. Their projects, often renovations of existing spaces, do not follow particular rules of style set by others or even themselves. Yet they are united in their subtle and enigmatic take on the experience of space in the ever-changing urban environments in China.

Shanghai Modern Art Museum

From the architect: In retrospect, the design of the Modern Art Gallery is a risky endeavor. Industrial civilization acts as a vital part of Shanghai's own modernity development. With the renewal of urban functions in the post-industrial age, many industrial buildings are facing the destiny of being demolished or transformed in some way, which becomes a meaningful topic.

Long Museum West Bund

From the architect: Long Museum West Bund is located at the bank of Huangpu River, Xuhui District, Shanghai Municipality, the site of which was used as the wharf for coal transportation. Before the commencement of the design, a Coal-Hopper-Unloading-Bridge of about 110m in length, 10m in width and 8m in height, which was constructed in the 1950s, is remained with a two-storey underground parking completed as early as two years ago.

Renovation of 80,000-ton silos on Minsheng Wharf

The Minsheng Dock SIlo is an active - and unusual - approach to spatial reuse in a country often more interested in building for the future than drawing on their past. An escalator on the outside of the structure (a sly nod to the Centre Pompidou) allows visitors to travel to the interior space while also experiencing the majesty of the surroundings. While the silos, originally part of the surrounding docks, are no longer in use, the preservation of the space allows visitors a glimpse into the structure and area's past.

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Flyspot Warsaw / Biuro Projektow Lewicki Łatak

Posted: 04 Oct 2018 11:00 PM PDT

Architects: Biuro Projektow Lewicki Latak
Location: Wspólna Droga 1, 05-850 Mory, Poland
Lead Architects: Kazimierz Łatak, Piotr Lewicki
Area: 926.0 m2
Project Year: 2015
Photographs: Wojciech Kryński, Michał Braszczyński, Piotr Łatak

Collaborators: Begoña Herrera, Mateusz Albricht, Marek Sanecki, Mateusz Manecki

Text description provided by the architects. The wind tunnel building is a reinforced-concrete structure with walls and ceilings of various thickness. Its almost cubic shape measures 33 m x 22 m in base and 38 m in height (11 m above ground level).

The structure consists of an internal solid in a shape of a cylindrical tube, formed by a square with the side length of 7.5 m and contains the core technology of the vertical wind tunnel. The rooms (3 - 4.5 m wide) including: the reception, office and hotel rooms, conference facilities, bathrooms and dressing rooms are spirally arranged around it. They are accessed from the entrance hall by an inclined corridor, which ascends gradually until it reaches the glass cylinder - the key feature of the building. Inside – the powerful units generate wind of 300 km/h directed upwards, which allows people to be lifted up to more than a dozen metres. This movement along with the associations of 'floating' kites or plastic supermarket bags – the latter perhaps invoking less friendly associations – were the key inspiration in designing the external form of the building.

The location was also crucial for the shaping of the building. The chaotic urban sprawl at the intersection of the motorways, perceived just briefly and fragmentary by going through, encouraged us to propose a distinctive and autonomous form.

We were also able to minimise the environmental impact of the building thanks to the availability of the road system, power lines and a concrete plant, as well as the possibility of rainwater retention and disposal of excavated soil. This, along with the energy savings during the construction and operation of the facility – closed air stream circulation and re-use of related heat – enabled us to ensure a highly balanced relationship between the building and the environment.

Another challenge for the design of the building, which had an ambition of showing the struggle between the force of wind and gravity, was the choice of material. Initially, we considered using high-tech structural textiles. Yet, considering the functional and economic requirements it was decided to use reinforced concrete. It allowed the building to accommodate more functions and, due to its mass, ensured a stable air stream, creating optimal conditions for the use of the wind tunnel – fully controlled vertikal movement of people.

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Tech News

subota, 6. listopada 2018.

Arch Daily

Arch Daily

Life in Space

Your Home - in the Future

The World on Display

One for the Weekend

Shanghai Modern Art Museum

Long Museum West Bund

Renovation of 80,000-ton silos on Minsheng Wharf

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