Arch Daily |
- Infanta Luisa Hospital / Miguel Blázquez Arquitectos
- Mpirigiti Rural Training Center / Studio FH Architects
- A Viewpoint Towards the Landscape / RGB arquitectos
- TARA MATA Fashion Boutique / PMT Partners
- Aeichi Korean Medical Clinic / By Seog Be Seog
- Hong Leong City Center / Aedas
- Techpump Headquarters / Estudio Bher Arquitectos
- La Serena / David James Architects & Partners
- PH Olazabal / Ignacio Szulman arquitecto
- Studio Gang Designs a Sugarcane-Inspired Tower for Hawaii
- Ghost Cabin / SHED Architecture & Design
- Work Set to Begin on Miami's Answer to the NYC High Line, Designed by James Corner Field Operations
- Interior Refurbishment TS01 / Alventosa Morell Arquitectes
- Opinion: A Plea for Architectural History
- Forensic Architecture and Heatherwick Among Winners of the Beazley Designs of the Year 2018
- Dallara Academy / Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia
- Feyenoord Rotterdam Training Complex / MoederscheimMoonen Architects
- 8 Mexican Projects That Use Bamboo
| Infanta Luisa Hospital / Miguel Blázquez Arquitectos Posted: 16 Nov 2018 09:00 PM PST  © Jesús Granada
 © Jesús Granada Text description provided by the architects. The project consists of remodeling and expanding a hospital located in Triana, a well-known borough of the city, which was an old surgery building in Cruz Roja. The idea for the building was to support the quality health care that the center gives to their patients, as well as solving the existing circulation problems that arised after different changes and expansions, which gave the building a mixed and dilapidated image.  © Jesús Granada  Ground floor plan  © Jesús Granada Keeping in mind these premises, the project was an investment that expanded significantly the hospital facilities and provided the building with a uniform appearance. The proposed design includes a new floor mainly destined to hospitalization, with 27 new rooms. A new basement which takes up the whole central courtyard, where we will find the diagnosis service and the last generation treatments like haemodynamic . In this basement, we will also find a new linear accelerator, which needs thick and high density concrete walls.  © Jesús Granada The outer façade is an important component, considering that it had to display the intervention magnitude, join the new and existing parts, and reflect the technology which the building contains, as well as show a delicate architecture as a public building. We designed a new skin based on natural stone and aluminum, with long glass brise-soleils and a large cornice, in order to emphasize the building horizontally. Finally, we can find two special elements, the entrance canopies which note the different access.  © Jesús Granada  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Mpirigiti Rural Training Center / Studio FH Architects Posted: 16 Nov 2018 06:00 PM PST  © Will Boase Photography
 © Will Boase Photography Text description provided by the architects. Three courtyard buildings on a 13-acre site near Kamuli town in Eastern Uganda provide accommodation, teaching and working space for agricultural students from Iowa State University and Makerere University.  © Will Boase Photography The architecture contrasts a heavily textured clay brick envelop with light-weight timber-glass and coloured render facades facing the courtyards. An undulating roofscape organically embeds the buildings into the surrounding, and the folded metal gutters not only make an architectural statement of the rainwater harvesting that supply the majority of the Centre's water needs, but also act as light reflectors illuminating the underside of the walkway roofs.  © Will Boase Photography  Floor Plan - Main Building  © Will Boase Photography The buildings were designed to minimise on the impact of the Centre on the natural environment. Besides a centralised rainwater harvesting system, solar panels generate a substantial proportion of the electricity demands and an anaerobic baffled reactor with constructed wetland ensures an environmentally friendly wastewater treatment system. Passive design principles including ventilated roofs supported by trussed purlins ensure a comfortable indoor climate throughout.  © Will Boase Photography  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| A Viewpoint Towards the Landscape / RGB arquitectos Posted: 16 Nov 2018 03:00 PM PST  © Mayte Piera
 © Mayte Piera Text description provided by the architects. A plot in the mountain. A viewpoint towards the landscape. The perfect orientation, both in views (sea and tip of Albir), as in sunlight (South). These are the bases with which we start to generate this project, whose idea is based precisely on the fact that the house understand as a lookout, a piece that perfectly marks the will to frame the landscape. Its main form, prismatic, appears by that cinematographic framing concept.  © Mayte Piera The general volume of the house is made up of three floors: the highest one, which houses the access and the garage, is further removed, subtly linked on one of its sides to the next floor, the middle one, destined for bedrooms, which is the that configures the reality of the framing, the one that exerts of true PRISMATIC BOX. Finally, the ground floor, also removed to enhance the flight of the upper floor, which contains the day spaces and is related to the main terrace, the pool and outdoor spaces, treated with much care and detail, (with a leading role very marked of the stone of the place, that in addition was treated of a special form, very geometric), contributing remarkably to the spatial expansion of a house that really is reduced in size. And it is precisely this fact, which contributed to the choice of a floor, against the current trend, of small format, a 60x60, to help mark and recognize the boundaries and the encounters between each room, each piece of furniture, the carpentry external ... the modulation of the pavement was carried out in a comprehensive, almost obsessive manner. The tone chosen for this material was a metallic gray, to generate a soft contrast with the color of the metallic carpentry (what little is seen of it, being a model of minimum lines and embedded profiles), and with the color white of the house, a clear choice from the beginning as it is a construction next to the Mediterranean Sea. In a nod to the relationship with the outer space and the terrain, part of the stone used to contain the terraces of the mountain, is also used inside the house, creating a very unique interior-exterior relationship, mainly due to the particular geometric cut of this stone, which sums up to perfection the work for the detail and for using the materials in a different wa, an action that was very driven by the clients of the house.  © Mayte Piera  First floor plan  © Mayte Piera As is usual in our projects, artificial lighting is used to provide dynamism to the set of spaces and, outside, to make a reading of the millimeter composition of the house, in this case, what it gets is to define to perfection that idea of a prismatic piece exerting a viewpoint towards the landscape.  © Mayte Piera  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| TARA MATA Fashion Boutique / PMT Partners Posted: 16 Nov 2018 01:00 PM PST  © Zhe Zeng
 © Zhe Zeng Text description provided by the architects. TARA MATA Designer Boutique is a fashion store and living hall of Mantai Clothing Company. The project located in Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province, China, is designed by PMT Partners. As a unique business model, fashion buyers' shop takes the distinctive ideas and lifestyle of target customers tastes as its benchmark in order to protect the unique taste and sense of fashion style.  © Zhe Zeng In response to this, a personalized spatial presentation is required. Accordingly, project designer introduced two elements -- "arch" and "lens" which compromise form and function to construct a ritual space for fashion buyers and their customers  Axon In this design, the arch is not only an imagery symbol but also part of the spatial structure as a supporting element and space division. The designer tried to construct a ritual space by the arch in the very limited interior space.  © Zhe Zeng As well as meeting the customer's requirements for fitting, designer exaggerated the use of a mirror in the design by repeating specific specular reflection to construct an infinite space with a unique spatial and visual experience.  © Zhe Zeng As the core of the vertical connection, the spiral staircase is wrapped in a cylinder with rough material. The staircase cylinder not only serves as a ritual background for reception, but also limits the sight of people while walking inside. The entire entrance hall can be seen from a specific spot inside the staircase.  © Zhe Zeng The spiral staircase is enveloped by a rough textured curved wall. Ascending the steps, different windows offer different perspectives on the shops, giving a feeling of climbing in a medieval gothic church tower.  © Zhe Zeng  Section  © Zhe Zeng  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Aeichi Korean Medical Clinic / By Seog Be Seog Posted: 16 Nov 2018 12:00 PM PST  © Yongjoon Choi
 © Yongjoon Choi Text description provided by the architects. Empathy  © Yongjoon Choi  Ground floor plan  © Yongjoon Choi The more meetings we had, I came to think that as time passes, more than something being forced, persuaded or understood, things that can be felt in the heart and soaks in naturally leaves a longer lasting impression. I started designing hoping for the space to become a place where the patients who come to the oriental medicine clinic feel peaceful and be able to talk about everything about them.  © Yongjoon Choi  © Yongjoon Choi Soaking in  © Yongjoon Choi And the second is the devices for communication. We used objet to open the space and to let light soak in so that by welcoming the outside elements naturally the outside light can permeate into the space without disturbing the lifestyle and also to naturally recognize the changes of the day in the space. In addition, the walls are partially opened and doors are minimized to the extent that they do not harm the function. I hoped that through the open section, an emotional communication or bond of sympathy (even if it is not visual communication) beyond space could form. And I think that looking at the space widely gave an extra element that brought out an image of visual communication.  © Yongjoon Choi Finally, we used a familiar and warm material that isn't discomforting to anyone. New and interesting materials continue to emerge, but I thought familiar and friendly material corresponded with the message of 'Aeichi Korean Medical Clinic'.  © Yongjoon Choi Even though this is an era when short and impactful images exist sporadically, the things that come across the mind from time to time even now or the things that we remember are the familiar things that we soaked in without even our knowing. And I hope that 'Aeichi Korean Medical Clinic', as it made me realize that my job as a space designer has soaked in naturally to me, will become a familiar but long-lasting space that soaks in naturally to many people.  © Yongjoon Choi  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Hong Leong City Center / Aedas Posted: 16 Nov 2018 11:00 AM PST  Courtesy of Aedas
 Courtesy of Aedas Text description provided by the architects. Aedas-designed Hong Leong City Center in Suzhou, China, recently opened its doors. As the first commercial project developed in China by Singapore-listed City Developments Limited, this mixed-use urban development in Suzhou Industrial Park offers hotel, office, retail, and serviced apartments programmes with a 150-meter hotel and office tower, a 150-meter SOHO tower, two 100-meter residential towers and a central commercial podium HLCC Mall.  Courtesy of Aedas While facing planning conditions that limit building heights and massing, the four towers are allocated at the four corners of the site to maximize views towards the nearby Jinji Lake. The façade of the two taller towers are also designed in a unified coordination to produce a twin-tower effect.  Courtesy of Aedas Suzhou is famously known as 'the paradise on earth'. The architectural design produces a unique organic form which melds seamlessly into the city's breathtaking landscape. Horizontal lines dominate the façades and the differences in building heights create a three-dimensional terraced form, reminding people of the terraced tea plantations in the region.  Courtesy of Aedas The development is also porous and highly accessible, with a public landscaped boulevard running across the site from north to south. A mix of programmes and functions scatters along the periphery.  Courtesy of Aedas The podium links two towers together and features two atria. Visitors may enjoy both lake and garden views at the rooftop garden and outdoor terraces. The projects seek to become a lifestyle center for all ages.  Courtesy of Aedas  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Techpump Headquarters / Estudio Bher Arquitectos Posted: 16 Nov 2018 09:00 AM PST  © Imagen Subliminal
 © Imagen Subliminal Text description provided by the architects. The commission consists on the design of the new headquarters of a technological company: an open-plan office for 50 people, with three meeting rooms, lecture area, two little cubicle for individual use, and numerous spaces for workers to interact. In definitive, an innovative environment that empowers creativity and communication.
Making the most of the original characteristics of the premises, the final target of the project is to achieve a totally continuous space, both at visual and accessible levels.  © Imagen Subliminal The brief has been organized around three "enclosed" volumes: two of them are existing and the third one is new, smaller and has been strategically situated. This arrangement allows a functional differentiation without requiring any door. As a result the office is totally permeable and there are no useless zones, empowered this aim by the conception of the meeting rooms as "semi-open" spaces.  Diagram Axonometric The volumes are painted in neon orange, the corporate colour, and cladded with a double skin of galvanized steel sheet, which has been arranged in such a way that allows internal itineraries and filters the views, besides being the integrative element of several technological devices and functional elements such as the "videowall" in the working area.  © Imagen Subliminal The facade has been fully freed in order to maximize the continuity and entrance of natural lighting. This "single-plane" idea is emphasized by the disposition of an interior and parallel system of sliding louvres that provides the solar and darkening control. These louvres also improve the acoustic conditions because they have been fabricated using the sound absorbent panels recovered from the old suspended ceiling.  © Imagen Subliminal The rest of the materials have been chosen following neutrality and functionality principles: the concrete columns have been naked; the suspended ceiling has been eliminated in order to increase the interior height perception; the ceiling has been painted in black, as well as all the services devices and cables, making them invisible above the suspended lighting; the floor is grey and carpeted for better sound absorption; and the rest of the walls are white, except the 12 meters panelled wall in the kitchen and resting area, that has been conceived as a canvas for a high size graffiti.  © Imagen Subliminal  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| La Serena / David James Architects & Partners Posted: 16 Nov 2018 08:00 AM PST  © Tom Burn Media
 © Tom Burn Media Text description provided by the architects. The site is located at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, with fantastic views over the Championship Parkstone Golf course. Mature maritime pine trees and boundary screening ensure that the site feels part of the golf course with optimum privacy. Although the site has a number of trees, the sun moves around the site with a variety of areas bathed in light at different times through the day. The design explores a mixture of floor levels, views and settings to maximize the usability of the site, whilst enriching the occupant's lifestyle.  © Tom Burn Media The original house was a 1970's split-level house, with a very tight driveway and accommodation over 2 floors, the architecture was unremarkable with a layout that did not explore the setting or the views on offer. The concept for the remodeling was to create a house that embraced the setting whilst floating above the landscape. The architectural language needed to be crisp and clean, with a layout that flowed for modern living.  Entrance Level  © Tom Burn Media  Garden Level  © Tom Burn Media The clients brief called for a dynamic four bedroomed house that would tie the various levels together, with an open plan modern layout interspersed with intimate rooms. The house was to be versatile too; possibly a party house, a family home or an ideal retirement house for the couple that wanted something quite exceptional. Due to the sloping nature of the site, on arrival the house appears to be a two-storey dwelling. The natural fall in the topography allows the design to cascade down the slope and evolve into a three story dwelling, featuring in / out living to the large rear terrace.  Terrace Level The final design integrates the three levels. On arrival the large entrance hall spills into the formal lounge and study, which overlook the double volume space. Two separate staircases lead either to the top floor master suite and bedrooms or down into the double volume living space and kitchen. The house revolves around this magnificent double volume living space, which has a two-storey wall of glass facing the garden and golf course.  © Tom Burn Media Externally it was important to create a landscaped garden, from which one could enjoy the fantastic views over the golf course, whilst retaining ones sense of seclusion. Facilities were needed for multiple vehicles, with a private drive and electrically operated gates, with audio/visual door entry system. Whilst being a contemporary design, the external finishes of basalt stone, Grespania wood effect ceramic cladding, and charcoal grey metal, complement the natural, sylvan setting.  © Tom Burn Media The house has been finished to the highest standards, creating a luxurious, private retreat, with bespoke interior architecture and state of the art intelligent home technology and climate control. La Serena epitomises modern, luxury living, in a stunning, unique setting.  © Tom Burn Media La Serena has been awarded 'Best Architecture Single Residence South West England', in the UK Property Awards 2018-2019 and has also received a regional nomination for the International Property Awards, for the 'Architecture Single Residence United Kingdom' category. La Serena was also shortlisted at the 2018 International Design & Architecture Awards, for the Residential £2.5- 5 million (property by value) Award, and was also Highly Commended as Single Unit Development of the Year, for developers Belhaven Homes, at the Premier Guarantee Awards 2017.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| PH Olazabal / Ignacio Szulman arquitecto Posted: 16 Nov 2018 06:00 AM PST  © Francisco Nocito
 © Francisco Nocito Text description provided by the architects. We adopt the courtyard on the ground floor as the center on which to articulate the different rooms. The small dimensions of it made it necessary to open their views as much as possible. For this, pivoting systems were used to solve the opening of the courtyard doors and the terrace, in order to generate greater interior-exterior integration.  © Francisco Nocito  Ground Floor Plan  © Francisco Nocito It maintains the general structure of the house results in two levels. On the ground floor where the social part is, the rooms open, demolishing some walls in order to spatially communicate the hall, the kitchen, and the living-dining room. This level, focuses the view entirely towards the courtyard and closes towards the front and towards the access hall with frosted dvh glass, so as to insulate as much as possible from the street but continue to capture light.  © Francisco Nocito  © Francisco Nocito On the upper floor, the one that faces the courtyard is chosen as the location for the master bedroom, reinforcing the idea of a courtyard as a center. The laundry that was originally presented as a closed place on the terrace, is enlarged by demolishing its walls and is transformed into a flexible space that serves as well as barbecue and playroom depending on the occasion.  © Francisco Nocito  Upper Floor Plan  © Francisco Nocito  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Studio Gang Designs a Sugarcane-Inspired Tower for Hawaii Posted: 16 Nov 2018 05:00 AM PST  Kō'ula. Image Courtesy of Howard Hughes Corporation Studio Gang has revealed a new design for a 41-story tower in Hawaii that's inspired by the island's native red sugar cane. Designed with a mix of ground floor retail and 565 residences above, the tower is called Kō'ula. Embracing indoor-outdoor living and Hawaii's climate, the project is oriented to ocean views with vertical columns that bend and twist like sugar cane. The tower is part of a larger development underway in the Ward Village district on Oahu's south shore.  Kō'ula. Image Courtesy of Howard Hughes Corporation  Kō'ula. Image Courtesy of Howard Hughes Corporation The 60-acre master plan for Ward Village is organized by the Howard Hughes Corporation and will include restaurants, shops, and high-rise residential towers as a LEED platinum–certified community. The village will be built with 4,500 residences and close to one million square feet of retail spaces. Kō'ula will be located just off Ward Village's central plaza. Studio Gang founder Jeanne Gang said that, "we worked very closely on the overall master plan for the whole development and coordinating with landscape architects and the owner to make spaces that are larger scale civic type spaces and more intimate spaces that are shared." Studio Gang's tower will be in close proximity to a yoga studio, outdoor cinema space, and farmers market.  Kō'ula. Image Courtesy of Howard Hughes Corporation  Kō'ula. Image Courtesy of Howard Hughes Corporation As for the tower itself, Gang added that, "the structure is this kind of changing vertical kō'ula, which is one of the plants that's native to Hawaii. The way they move and twist is very beautiful, so the vertical columns respond in that way." Kō'ula is designed with one to three bedrooms units that will range in size from 300 to 1,500 square feet. The tower connects to a porte cochere from the lobby, which in turn will open onto an expansive courtyard. The project will feature natural materials, colors and tones that frame views out across the island and the ocean. Kō'ula is set to begin construction in 2019.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Ghost Cabin / SHED Architecture & Design Posted: 16 Nov 2018 04:00 AM PST  © Rafael Soldi
 © Rafael Soldi "Ghost Cabin" is a site specific installation located in Seattle's Chophouse Row. The installation is inspired by the site's historical past—a frontier homestead whose foundations still lie below the courtyard. By re-imagining the frontier cabin in heavy cedar planks, the artists pay homage to the site's history and create a focal point for the public space.  Diagram Completed in 2018, the installation was commissioned by Liz Dunn of Dunn + Hobbes, developer of Chophouse Row, and Greg Lundgren, a local artist and curator. Criteria included the site-specific artwork "take risks and create an outsized visual and visceral presence that is newsworthy and dramatic." A strong desire was also expressed for artwork that would add "an organic, primordial material presence" to an otherwise forlorn corner in the Chophouse Row courtyard.  © Rafael Soldi To create the installation, cedar planks were applied to the various surfaces within the boundary of the courtyard corner, collaging together the disparate elements to create a unified tactile composition. The distorted field of wood comes together as both a natural focal point in the courtyard space and serves as a backdrop to reorient perspectives.  Elevations  © Rafael Soldi  Site Plan The cabin shape is, from most vantage points, unrecognizable—an evocative and distorted layered wood plank sculpture. But from one precise vantage point, the cedar planks momentarily re-assemble and the silhouette of the gable cabin is revealed.  © Rafael Soldi  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Work Set to Begin on Miami's Answer to the NYC High Line, Designed by James Corner Field Operations Posted: 16 Nov 2018 03:00 AM PST  © James Corner Field Operations and Friends of the Underline, via Miami Herald Work is set to begin on the Miami "Underline" project, a 10-mile-long park and trail under Miami's elevated Metrorail tracks. Designed by James Corner Field Operations, the team behind the acclaimed Manhattan High Line, along with a team of volunteers and entrepreneurs led by Meg Daly and "Friends of the Underline," the scheme has recently broken ground, set for completion by the summer of 2020. As reported by the Miami Herald, the scheme will extend from downtown Miami to Dadeland, with an initial segment in the Brickell district measuring half a mile. .jpg?1542381271 "© James Corner Field Operations and Friends of the Underline, via Miami Herald") © James Corner Field Operations and Friends of the Underline, via Miami Herald The project, in the works for the past five years, was launched by neighborhood activists, with enthusiastic support from government, businesses, and citizens. The James Corner Field Operations masterplan envisions 10 miles of parallel, separated pathways for pedestrian and cycle use, dotted with lush landscapes, native plant species, and connections to parks, gardens, and playgrounds. The scheme is reported to cost up to $120 million, with $90 million currently secured by Friends of the Underline. It is estimated that the scheme will positively impact on an immediate 125,000 people living within 10 miles of the trail, while also promoting Metrorail use above.  © James Corner Field Operations and Friends of the Underline, via Miami Herald The first phase, currently under construction, is expected to cost over $14 million, and presents the most complex, expensive section of the project. It is however predicted that the area's young population and high density will mean the scheme will receive immediate and heavy use. The first phase will offer such amenities as a green, dog-friendly park, gym, three-block promenade, and butterfly gardens. Phase 2, set to go out to bid in November. News via: Miami Herald  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Interior Refurbishment TS01 / Alventosa Morell Arquitectes Posted: 16 Nov 2018 02:00 AM PST  © Adrià Goula
 © Adrià Goula Text description provided by the architects. The AA house is a building thought to be a holiday’s house. It is situated at the end of the center, in a small village in the Baix Empordà region, where the common houses are made of stone and bricks. The site is next to the old road that connects Ullà with l’Escala and Torroella de Montgrí. It is the only access to the plot. This solar has a north-south orientation and it is well affected by the strong winds of Tramuntana.  © Adrià Goula  Ground Floor Plan  © Adrià Goula The aims of our project are based on the will of designing a house integrated with the landscape created by the houses of the center of the village and a private space isolated from the noise outside. Having a bioclimatic house is also a priority in the project, it is to say, that the climatic conditions of the solar were used to achieve the most possible comfort and energy savings. The project is made of three clear and distinct, yet interconnected parts.  © Adrià Goula  Elevations and Section  © Adrià Goula The first one is a compact wall that runs parallel with the road, made of stone from the neighboring, and with the door to the house and one of the garages as the two only openings. This compact wall isolates the house from the circulations on the road and also from the Tramuntana winds. The second and third part are two length-wise spaces with different functions. They are parallel with the wall. In the first one, next to the wall, there are the bathrooms and the laundry room. These volumes are made of hand-made bricks that help to fasten the compact wall.  © Adrià Goula They create three patios that give ventilation and natural light at the same time that separate the outside from the private zone. In the third part, there is an open-plan living space with the kitchen, dining and sitting room; and the bedrooms. All these rooms are orientated south, looking at the garden and the swimming pool opened to a terrace situated and in a superior level from the garden. In order to protect all these rooms from the solar radiation, the bedrooms have wooden shutters and the daily space a pergola for climbing plants, wisterias.  © Adrià Goula The interior walls of the rooms are made of cartoon-fibered plaster, a dry constructive system, in order to create a flexible open-plan living space adapted to the changing necessities of the clients; in the future. The constructive system is based on a framing made of concrete beams that land on the primary walls, and show their edges. The primary walls in front of the road are made of stone and the others are made of bricks with a hand-made process of firing.  © Adrià Goula There is a difference between the way of working the bricks in the first longitudinal space and the second. In the second open space, at the garden and swimming pool the bricks are turned and work as small counterforts. This is our system to ensure the stability of the façades while having dry walls inside; in addition to achieving a remarkable interior façade.  Constructive Details As it is a holiday house, not to be used regularly; we decided not to work with the thermal mass effect but we planned a system façades and roof with a big thermal resistance. A 12 cm. thick thermal insulation material is used in the interior obtaining a continuous perimeter. This system gives us a good bioclimatic function and facilitates a quick heating of the spaces, actually achieving the necessities of the clients. All in all, we designed a house which is adapted to the clients’ needs, environmentally and energy responsible, as well as innovative and comfortable.  © Adrià Goula  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Opinion: A Plea for Architectural History Posted: 16 Nov 2018 01:30 AM PST  Courtesy of Wikimedia user Quibik PD. ImageAn elevation of the entire Acropolis as seen from the west; while the Parthenon dominates the scene, it is nonetheless only part of a greater composition. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user Quibik (Public Domain) This article was originally published on Metropolis Magazine as "Opinion: We Can't Go on Teaching the Same History of Architecture as Before." Architectural students of my generation—the last of the baby boomers, starting college in Europe or in the Americas in the late 1970s—had many good reasons to cherish architectural history. Everyone seemed to agree at the time that the Modernist project was conspicuously failing. Late Modernist monsters were then wreaking havoc on cities and lands around the world, and the most immediate, knee-jerk reaction against what many then saw as an ongoing catastrophe was to try and bring back all that 20th-century high Modernism had kicked out of design culture: history, for a start. I drew my first Doric capital, circa 1979, in a design studio, not in a history class (and my tutor immediately ordered me to scrape it, which I did).
Furthermore, that was—as some readers may remember—a time of social upheaval in most European countries. Many leftist students (and we all were, to various degrees) saw design as an act of complicity with the capitalist order of things. To prepare the proletarian revolution the good Marxist architect of the late 1970s was expected to design unbuildable buildings, or, better still, not to design at all: "drop your pencil, study Brunelleschi, and load your Molotovs," I remember one of our student leaders shouting from a barricade. The reason why he chose Brunelleschi (and not Melnikov, for example, or Hannes Meyer) as the inspirational pastime of choice for the architect of the Western Soviets to come was not immediately clear and it was probably due to sheer toponymy, as that event happened in central Florence, in a square called Piazza Brunelleschi.  Image © James Taylor-Foster. ImageSanta Maria del Fiore, Florence. Be that as it may, many of us ended up studying Brunelleschi, and other like masters, for much longer than needed for the purposes of any sound architectural training. But when, barely 10 years later, I started teaching architectural history in a school of architecture north of the Alps, I found out, with some surprise, that architectural historians and their constituencies in that country were of a quite different ilk. The general expectation there was that, given my interest in the history of architecture in general, and of the classical tradition in particular, I must have been a Roman Catholic, with a sister in the Orders, and a brother in the army; an aristocrat, and the owner of at least a small castle in Périgord, better if attributed to the school of Le Primatice. As none of the above was the case, I investigated the reasons for those assumptions, and I realized that, in many parts of Europe, the history of architecture was still often seen as the outward and visible sign of the territorial roots of some abstract, collective identity: the identity of a people, race, religion, or tribe—of any group willing to assert its hereditary rights on some portion of land, and claim: We are here; we have always been; look at the way we build, ye foreigners, and despair. Such Romantic notions have been around for a long time; they are sometimes harmless, but sometimes not. From the Germanic ideology of a mystical union of blood and soil to the wars of religion in the Balkans in the '90s, countless people have died because of these ideas. In the wrong hands, such views of architectural history can kill. They have already killed aplenty.  © Steve McCurry. ImageAl Shaheed Monument That was also the time when postmodern historicism started going global, and with it, as often happens, rose some notion of the universality of the architectural tradition thus conveyed—which was, mostly, the European tradition: Greek and Roman, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Mannerism, and the Baroque—in short, the syllabus of the history survey then taught in most architectural schools in Europe and in the Americas. But timelessness and universality are slippery ideological slopes. Universality? How did that come to be? If indeed this architectural tradition has conquered the world, should we not assume that it is better, somehow, than all the others traditions that didn't? Political scientists have an expression to refer to a similar ideological conundrum. They call it the "Plato to NATO" issue. Until not long ago, "From Plato to NATO" could have been the actual title of a first-year survey on the history of Western political thought. But the notion of a steady linear progression from Athens to Washington also suggests that classical ideas of democracy, liberalism, and science are the foundation of the West's prosperity and domination of the world (at least until the forthcoming elimination of NATO itself—a more recent, quite unexpected development). The architectural equivalent of this globalist, Western-centered syllabus could be titled "From Vitruvius to Eisenman." For that is the Western canon that every architect around the world was supposed to be conversant with. Until recently.  © Peter Eisenman The West could often be generous and enlightened—when it was winning. Times have changed. Today, what used to be a benign theory of teleological progress—supposedly self-evident—has turned into the aggressive stance of rabid ideologues and bigots advocating the superiority of Western values, and of Western identity—including architectural—against all others. None of us—or at least, no one I know, in schools of architecture or elsewhere—would want to be party to that nefarious plot. That's why we can't teach the history of architecture from Vitruvius to Eisenman any longer (nor to Zaha Hadid, for that matter; even though we may at least welcome the addition of a non-white, non-male name at the very end of the list). The problem is that, once the Western architectural canon has been thrown overboard, together with its now unpalatable ideological ballast, nobody seems to know what else should replace it. Some have tried to expand the canon, which is an excellent and promising but challenging plan. More worryingly, many are simply doing away with all architectural history altogether, just to be on the safe side, and replacing it with trendy and vastly consensual topics such as the theory of scuba diving, the prehistory of computation, or penguin studies (I am not making that up). Far from me to challenge the general relevance and import of such topics. Let us be aware, however, that in many schools of architecture in Europe and in the Americas, including some of the best, we are now—for the first time ever—training a generation of architects who may graduate without having ever even heard the names of Michelangelo or Le Corbusier, or without having ever seen a Gothic cathedral or a building by Mies van der Rohe. Are we sure that this is what we want? Is this good for design, and for the design professions?  © Marcel Gauthero. ImageConstruction of Brasilia, 1956 . I have a feeling it isn't. One reason for that seems banally evident: the history of architecture is an inventory of solutions already found and problems already solved. So it grieves me very much to see so many students today waste so much time reinventing the wheel at every turn, due to their sheer ignorance of precedent. Besides, the classical tradition developed so many strategies and methods and tricks and tools over time precisely to assess those precedents, when relevant; then filter them, reinterpret them, and adapt them to the problem at hand. That used to be called imitation. For centuries, imitation and creation were seen as inseparable: neither could exist without the other. Today, nobody knows what imitation means; so even when we happen to stumble upon some precedent worthy of our attention, most of the time we do not know what do with it, other than a photocopy (or a Photoshopped collage). Quatremère de Quincy knew nothing of photography, nor of Photoshop; yet his theory of imitation would still help us to make sense of both.  © MVRDV / The Why Factory. ImageA spread from The Why Factory's 2017 book, Copy Paste showing similarities between apparently "unique" buildings For at the end of the day that is the whole point. It doesn't matter that some history is good, and some ain't. What matters is that the global history of architecture is an almost unlimited repository of precedents, which we can plunder at will if we have some notion of what's out there. But that is only the start. History never repeats itself identically, so identical copies, as a rule, won't serve any practical purpose. Ignorance of precedent is bad enough; photocopying, the zero degree of historicism, is possibly even worse. Cut and paste is a very dumb way of learning from precedent.
Mario Carpo is the Reyner Banham Professor of Architectural History and Theory at the Bartlett, UCL, London. His latest monograph, The Second Digital Turn: Design Beyond Intelligence, has just been published by the MIT Press.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Forensic Architecture and Heatherwick Among Winners of the Beazley Designs of the Year 2018 Posted: 16 Nov 2018 01:00 AM PST  via Design Museum Forensic Architecture has been crowned overall winner of the Beazley Designs of the Year 2018, with their exhibition "Counter Investigations." The firm has undertaken sterling work in recent years, uncovering miscarriages of justice and international war crimes through architectural analysis of imagery, from official news, satellite footage, and crowdsourced information. The spatial investigation group, based in Goldsmith University London, is currently nominated for the 2018 Turner Prize. The interdisciplinary group of architects, filmmakers, journalists, lawyers, and scientists have devoted their energy to investigating state and corporate violations worldwide.  via Design Museum The exhibition "Counter Investigations" showcases the group's work from its inception in 2010 by architect Eyal Weizman. The online crowdsourcing database behind Forensic Architecture was exemplified recently with news that the team intended to collect people's first-hand accounts of the Grenfell Tower fire in London in June 2017 through the Grenfell Media Archive, in order to map them onto a 3D model of the tower and analyze exactly how the tragedy occurred.  via Design Museum Previous examples of Forensic Architecture's activist work include a collaboration with Amnesty International to create a 3D model of Saydnaya, a Syrian torture prison, using architectural and acoustic modeling in 2016. Reconstructing the architecture of the secret detention center from the memory of survivors-turned-refugees, the project focused attention on traumatic events suffered in the prison.  via Design Museum Heatherwick Studio was also recognized in the awards, winning the Architecture category with their Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. The scheme, carved from concrete, repurposes a former grain silo into the world's largest museum dedicated to contemporary art from Africa.  © Iwan Baan In winning the overall prize, Forensic Architecture joins previous Design of the Year winners such as Adjaye Associates' National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Heydar Aliyez Center by Zaha Hadid Architects.  © Iwan Baan News via: The Design Museum  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Dallara Academy / Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia Posted: 16 Nov 2018 12:00 AM PST  © Stefano Anzini
 © Stefano Anzini Text description provided by the architects. THE SOUL  © Stefano Anzini In Varano de' Melegari, with engineer Giampaolo Dallara and his family, intended both as his personal affections and his company, we found ourselves in a unique situation which only needed to be revealed through the occasion of the project, both in the contest phase and in its construction, in order for it to accept its responsibility of telling the places of the soul of a rare and exemplary story which we believe belong to many areas of our Mediterranean territory.  © Stefano Anzini THE SITE  © Stefano Anzini It is necessary to turn one's gaze, to walk away from the area, to observe it from the different points of view of its "geography" in order to understand its role and soul within the natural balance of nature which becomes landscape.  Site plan  Plan 01 It is necessary to propose a sweet metamorphosis made of actions that confront themselves with the different natures of the territory: to contain, to host, to inhabit, to welcome.  © Stefano Anzini The project lies on a soft hillside slope that opens to the valley of the Ceno stream, while behind it stands the profile of the hills, with a "rock" at the top that stands as a presence that monitors and observes.  © Stefano Anzini THE ORIGIN  © Stefano Anzini THE CHAIN OF THOUGHT  © Stefano Anzini A complex that focuses its attention on the topography of the place, on its integration in the landscape, on its double perception (from the outside and from the inside), and that wants to be a place of research, of project, of encounter, of excellence… A building both fast and slow, silent and sonorous, technological and poetic.  Plan 02 THE LANDSCAPE WITHIN THE LANDSCAPE  © Stefano Anzini We founded the building at a slightly higher level than the one of the street, creating a first topography which defines its separation from the road and the Academy. A lightly inclined plane that characterises the space of dialog with the location, defining a sequence of thresholds between the natural and the mineral landscape.  © Stefano Anzini The territorial sequence brought us to imagine the area as a green wedge, in which the sinuous movement of the river draws the external spaces and widens its view to involve, in the composition, the adjacent areas which host the historical headquarters of the Dallara company. BELONGING  © Stefano Anzini The building thus becomes a living and dynamic element, capable of redefining the location by enriching and re-characterizing it, as it is also endowed with a strong iconicity which makes it a real mineral landmark of the landscape, as well as the rock on the top of the hill to which the project turns its gaze.  © Stefano Anzini Four geometries, Four shapes, Four spaces, Four functions create the unique world of Dallara:  © Stefano Anzini  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Feyenoord Rotterdam Training Complex / MoederscheimMoonen Architects Posted: 15 Nov 2018 10:00 PM PST .jpg?1542250725 "© Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros") © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros
.jpg?1542250858 "© Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros") © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros Text description provided by the architects. The training complex has been designed exclusively for the first team of Feyenoord, the accompanying staff and the technical board. The building contains all kinds of facilities which a current professional football club requires. A large area of the building has been dedicated to the sports medical facility and a performance research department for the first team players. This area is supported by several offices, an auditorium, restaurant, relaxation rooms, various wellness facilities and of course the dressing facilities for the players and staff. .jpg?1542250771 "© Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros") © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros .jpg?1542250806 "© Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros") © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros Daily routine as the primary design principal  © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros  Site plan .jpg?1542250539 "© Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros") © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros Concentration and focus .jpg?1542250286 "© Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros") © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros  Section .jpg?1542250916 "© Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros") © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros Privacy and transparency .jpg?1542250651 "© Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros") © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros .jpg?1542250576 "© Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros") © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros A professional sporting environment .jpg?1542250973 "© Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros") © Bart van Hoek and CreativeBros  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 8 Mexican Projects That Use Bamboo Posted: 15 Nov 2018 09:00 PM PST  Pórtico Palmeto Building / TACO taller de arquitectura contextual. Image © Leo Espinosa Mexico is a country known globally for its traditional and contemporary architectural elements. The construction techniques characteristic of each region and the use of materials according to thermic, economic, or aesthetic needs result in unique spaces. Bamboo as a constructive or decorative element, coating, facade, or roof has proven its superiority over materials such as plastic and steel. While it is true that research on this material has advanced significantly in recent years, we know that there is still much to learn. Many architects are seeking knowledge from the past to apply to their current techniques. Below, we've selected a list of 8 Mexican projects that explore the use of bamboo in the hands of architects and artisans. Rural House in Puebla / Comunal Taller de Arquitectura Rural House in Puebla / Comunal Taller de Arquitectura. Image © Onnis Luque Tosepan Kaufen Community Coffee Shop / Proyecto cafeína + Komoni Cafetería Rural Comunitaria Tosepan Kajfen / Proyecto cafeína + Komoni. Image © Patrick López Grow Your House / Lucila Aguilar Arquitectos Grow Your House / Lucila Aguilar Arquitectos. Image © Lucila Aguilar La Ceiba / Lucila Aguilar Arquitectos La Ceiba / Lucila Aguilar Arquitectos. Image © Lucila Aguilar Pórtico Palmeto Building / TACO taller de arquitectura contextual Pórtico Palmeto Building / TACO taller de arquitectura contextual. Image © Leo Espinosa Sport City Oaxaca / Rootstudio + Arquitectos Artesanos Sport City Oaxaca / Rootstudio + Arquitectos Artesanos. Image © Angel Ivan Valdivia Salazar In 4 Days, 100 Volunteers Used Mud and Reeds To Build This Community Center in Mexico In 4 Days, 100 Volunteers Used Mud and Reeds To Build This Community Center in Mexico. Image © Pedro Bravo, Sofía Hernández, Francisco Martínez INFOSISMO San Juan Pilcaya Community Center / Alumnos y Profesores del Taller de Proyectos VI Otoño 2017 de la Universidad Ibero Puebla INFOSISMO Centro Comunitario San Juan Pilcaya / Alumnos y Profesores del Taller de Proyectos VI Otoño 2017 de la Universidad Ibero Puebla. Image © Luis Moctezuma To learn more about bamboo construction techniques, click here.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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