Arch Daily |
- Children Village by Aleph Zero and Rosenbaum Wins 2018 RIBA International Prize
- Estúdio C / NPS Arquitetos
- Parking House Ejler Bille / JAJA Architects
- Jameel Arts Centre Dubai / Serie Architects
- Thapar University Student Residence One / Mccullough Mulvin Architects + Designplus Associates Services
- CC Residence / Trinhvieta-Architects
- HSH House / A Milimetre
- FinUp Office Design / hyperSity
- Jose House / Fabian Tan Architect
- Kingsford Terrace / O'Neill Architecture
- Library / Pascali Semerdjian Arquitetos
- The Homeless Cabin / JFD + Clear Architects
- The Met Selects wHY Architecture to Renovate Rockefeller Wing in New York City
- Teph Inlet / Omar Gandhi Architect
- Watch 6 Ruined British Castles Come Back to Life
- House of the Flying Beds / AL BORDE
- Modernism: The International Style that Wasn't
- Foster + Partners Open Apple Champs-Élysées Store by Transforming Parisian Apartment
- Suwalki Kindergarten / xystudio
- Águeda Arts Center / AND-RÉ
| Children Village by Aleph Zero and Rosenbaum Wins 2018 RIBA International Prize Posted: 20 Nov 2018 08:00 PM PST .jpg?1542737949 "Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti") Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti Children Village by Brazilian architects Aleph Zero and Rosenbaum has won the 2018 RIBA International Prize. Located on the edge of the rain forest in northern Brazil, the new school complex provides accommodation for 540 children attending the Canuanã School. The RIBA International Prize is awarded every two years to a building that exemplifies design excellence and architectural ambition, and delivers meaningful social impact. Children Village was recognized for it's vision in imagining architecture as a tool for social transformation. .jpg?1542738184 "Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti") Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti As one of the world's most rigorously judged architecture awards, the RIBA International Prize is chosen from many buildings that are visited by a group of international experts. Children Village was chosen from a shortlist of four exceptional new buildings by a grand jury chaired by renowned architect Elizabeth Diller (DS+R). Funded by the Bradesco Foundation, Children Village is one of forty schools run by the foundation providing education for children in rural communities across Brazil. The architects, Gustavo Utrabo and Petro Duschenes from Aleph Zero, designed Children Village in collaboration with Marcelo Rosenbaum and Adriana Benguela from architecture and design studio, Rosenbaum. .jpg?1542737772 "Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti") Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti .jpg?1542738207 "Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti") Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti Combining a contemporary aesthetic with traditional techniques, Children Village has been described by the judges as 'reinventing Brazilian vernacular'. The building is constructed with local resources and based on local techniques. Earth blocks handmade on site were used to construct the walls and latticework, chosen for their thermal, technical and aesthetic properties. As well as being cost effective and environmentally sustainable, this approach creates a building with strong connections to its surroundings and with the community that it serves. Gustavo Utrabo and Pedro Duschenes, directors of Aleph Zero, said: "We are thrilled to have been awarded the RIBA International Prize 2018. It has been a joy to see the children making the building their own and adapting the space to fit their needs. Marcelo Rosenbaum and Adriana Benguela, directors of Rosenbaum, said: "We are deeply honored to have been offered the RIBA International Prize. This award strengthens our understanding of architecture as a tool for social transformation, a tool that transcends construction and creates a deep connection between young people and their ancestors and knowledge." .jpg?1542738137 "Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti") Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti .jpg?1542737975 "Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti") Children Village. Image © Leonardo Finotti The RIBA International Prize 2018 jury was comprised of architects Elizabeth Diller (DS+R), Kazuyo Sejima (SANAA), Joshua Bolchover (Rural Urban Framework), Gloria Cabral (Gabinete de Arquitectura) and Peter Clegg (Feilden Clegg Bradley Studio). Children Village was selected as the winner of the 2018 RIBA International Prize from the following outstanding shortlisted entries: ● Central European University (Phase 1), Budapest, by O'Donnell + Tuomey. A new university campus in the heart of Budapest that successfully links old buildings and courtyards to create vibrant new spaces. ● Toho Gakuen School of Music, Tokyo, by Nikken Sekkei. A new virtuoso music school designed to visually connect, rather than isolate, practising musicians. ● Il Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest), Milan, by Boeri Studio. The second of two residential towers in Milan in which trees and humans coexist, designed to set a new standard in sustainable housing. In 2016, the inaugural RIBA International Prize was awarded to Grafton Architects for their outstanding university building, UTEC (Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología) in Lima, Peru.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 20 Nov 2018 07:00 PM PST  © Cátia Pimentel
 © Cátia Pimentel The work is a refurbishment on the ground floor of an early 20th century building in the center of the city of Figueira da Foz. The space, once a small broom factory, was adapted into a loft.  © Cátia Pimentel In order to the new condition, the typology was studied to reinforce the presence of the constructive elements that testify its time, among which the irregular granite masonry, the structures and wood partitions, the brick arcs and an iron safe box built into one of the walls.  © Cátia Pimentel  Plan  © Cátia Pimentel In the structural and cladding elements of the new walls and ceilings, it was used Sylver fir wood. This solution aimed to assume the new elements through the use of an homogeneous language that contrasted with the textures that remained in time, especially the granite and wood surfaces.  © Cátia Pimentel The central core, with a smaller height for the introduction of a mezzanine, includes the technical spaces: the laundry and the bathroom. This core separates two distinct space moments: the living room/kitchen and the bedroom, both with double height ceilings. The housing also has a small outdoor space in which solid ceramic brick was used as a coating material.  © Cátia Pimentel  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Parking House Ejler Bille / JAJA Architects Posted: 20 Nov 2018 06:00 PM PST  Courtesy of JAJA Architects
 Courtesy of JAJA Architects Text description provided by the architects. Ejler Bille's Parking House introduces a human scale to the infrastructural facilities that (still) occupy our cities. The ambition has been to transform parking houses from being mere functional necessities for cars, into attractive places for people and our urban environment.  Courtesy of JAJA Architects  Sketches  Courtesy of JAJA Architects Commissioned to design the façade only, we created a patchwork pattern of brick and stretch the metal that varies in scale. On the upper part of the façade, the scale of the pattern is larger, relating to the vast size of the parking house structure. As the façade meets the street, the patchwork pattern becomes smaller and creates inviting spaces for people.  Courtesy of JAJA Architects The aesthetic expression differs depending on the distance of the viewer. From afar, the large patterns are the prevailing experience, while it becomes more intricate in detailing when experienced up close. The façade is also designed to provide a space for building and nature to interact. Assisted by the stretch metal patchwork, vines will eventually cover the building's four facades and create a beautiful contrast between the rigid façade pattern and organically grown plants.  Courtesy of JAJA Architects  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Jameel Arts Centre Dubai / Serie Architects Posted: 20 Nov 2018 05:00 PM PST  © Mohamed Somji
 © Rory Gardiner Text description provided by the architects. Designed as a 10,000-square-metre, three-storey, multi-disciplinary space by UK-based Serie Architects, Jameel Arts Centre is the first non-governmental contemporary arts institution of its kind in the Gulf.  © Rory Gardiner The kunsthalle-inspired complex includes more than 1,000 square metres of dedicated gallery space, plus a 300-square-metre open-access research centre; events and screening spaces; a roof terrace; a restaurant; and a book and design shop. The Centre's adaptable spaces reflect Art Jameel's commitment to diverse programming across mediums and nurturing artist careers, as the galleries are deliberately designed in a variety of sizes and volumetric proportions to allow a flexible range of settings for exhibitions, site-specific installations and new commissions.  © Mohamed Somji  Ground floor plan  © Rory Gardiner Awarded to Serie Architects in 2014 through an international invitational competition, the design of Jameel Arts Centre was initially conceived of as a family of forms bounded by a low colonnade. Inspiration for the building's massing and spatiality draws from two regional architectural traditions on both intimate and community-wide scales: the early Emirati Sha'abi houses that featured a series of rooms circling a courtyard, and the Madinat style of city planning characterised by an accumulation of houses with courtyards. Through a repeated juxtaposition of geometric forms and gardens, the Centre's design fragments and tessellates the courtyard, continually layering a relationship between inside and outside, art and nature.  © Mohamed Somji Christopher Lee, Principal of Serie Architects, explained "We worked very closely with Art Jameel, listening to their needs, responding with architectural ideas, and discursively refining them. The architecture that emerged is one that is able to accommodate a wide range of uses and continues to evolve with the city it serves. It acts as a background structure for the life of the centre to unfold, without disappearing from view. Positioning galleries around courtyard gardens and framed views of the waterfront also serves to create moments of rest and connection, while providing potential spaces for commissioned installations."  © Rory Gardiner  Section  © Mohamed Somji Expanding beyond the static white cube experience, the Centre's design emphasises a connection with the surroundings, a perspective lived out in Art Jameel's programming. Set on a sliver of land that reaches out into Dubai Creek, Jameel Arts Centre is at once connected to and separated from the iconic skyscraper-filled skyline of Dubai. Colonnades create a porous interface between intimate gallery spaces and the social life of the public waterfront promenade, inviting visitors to navigate through and along the space. The decision to overlay galleries also serves to provide sightlines to several spaces from a single vantage point – be it a garden or another exhibition space – continually building connections between spaces and initiating conversation among viewers. The building's surfaces incorporate an interplay between raw concrete and semi-reflective aluminium cladding, creating a subtle shimmer in response to the surrounding water and atmospheric changes, while its clustered form creates self-shading courtyards and allows for cross ventilation.  © Simon Whittle The series of courtyard desert gardens that punctuate the architecture ensure that alternating encounters of art and landscape remain integral to the experience of the building, encouraging moments of repose. Designed by renowned landscape architect Anouk Vogel, Jameel Arts Centre's seven garden installations reflect specific local and global desert biomes, with 33 species represented. The gardens feature a collection of sculptural plants native to the world's deserts, while striking vegetal textures, subtle mineral hues and unusual paving provide each garden with a unique character. The distinct vegetation includes several endangered plants facing loss of habitat that have been individually saved from sites marked for destruction; the rare transplants include a Sesame Bush that is between 220 and 300 years old.  © Mohamed Somji Anouk Vogel, landscape architect, said "Plants grow according to geological and climatological borders, not political ones. Drawing connections across the globe, the individual gardens are inspired on the world's major deserts: the Arabian, Australian, Chihuahuan, Namibian, Socotran and Sonoran deserts, as well as the Spiny Forest of Madagascar. The juxtaposition of their strong and radically different expressions enhance each space's particular features, echoing the Centre's focus on confluence and diverse communities."  © Simon Whittle The gardens also provide inspiration to a range of commissions and interventions debuting at the opening. On the roof terrace is the winning Art Jameel Commissions: Sculpture installation by Kuwaiti artists Alia Farid and Aseel AlYaqoub, entitled Contrary Life: A Botanical Light Garden Devoted to Trees. Shaikha Al Mazrou presents the first in an annual series of commissioned projects for the Artist's Garden, and a sculptural work by Vikram Divecha will be installed within the garden spaces in the coming months.  © Mohamed Somji  First floor plan  © Mohamed Somji The colonnade is an active social space, framing gardens and enlivening the waterfront promenade. The combination of garden and art continues outside to Jaddaf Waterfront Sculpture Park, the first open-air art park located in the heart of the city, and a collaboration between Art Jameel and Dubai Holding, the master-developer of the wider Jaddaf Waterfront area. Created by the award-winning, UAE based architecture studio ibda design, the park serves as a bridge between the public corniche circling Jaddaf Waterfront and Jameel Arts Centre. Its undulating forms curve around large-scale installations, echoing the flow of the waterfront around the building itself. Inaugural sculptures positioned in the Park include works by Helaine Blumenfeld, Talin Hazbar and Latifa Saeed, Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim, David Nash, and Slavs and Tatars.  © Mohamed Somji Antonia Carver, Director of Art Jameel, reflected, "Our first permanent space, Jameel Arts Centre ushers in a new phase of development for Art Jameel, allowing us to expand our programmes, develop new partnerships and share the Collection with wide audiences. We've worked exceptionally closely with Serie Architecture and ibda design, developing the Centre and Park as flexible, open spaces that foreground the needs of artists and audiences. The collaborative, innovative approach of the architects sets up Jameel Arts Centre to fulfill its mission -- to present dynamic, thought-provoking exhibitions, act as a hub for educational and research initiatives, and continue to engage in partnerships with local, regional and international artists, curators and organisations."  © Rory Gardiner  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 20 Nov 2018 04:00 PM PST  © Christian Richters
 © Christian Richters Text description provided by the architects. The first phase of student accommodation for Thapar University delivers space for 1200 students in 4 towers ( 3 further towers under construction ) around a new public space on the campus in Patiala. The L-Shaped towers are linked by an elevated garden podium which shades the public spaces and pavilions beneath from the intense heat of the Indian sun. Each of the towers contains generous double height and inter-locking social spaces on all floors while all bedrooms have access to a private sun-screened balcony.  © Christian Richters  Phase 1 Plan  © Christian Richters The Student residences are conceived as one anchor of the overall masterplan, linked to the Learning Centre by a shaded walkway which connects the main teaching buildings of the campus. Looking at traditional buildings where shade and privacy are created with jali screens around verandahs or by cutting down into the ground, we made an artificial geography by creating a podium level linking our towers, under which all kinds of social exchange could take place.  © Christian Richters We wanted to create a specific sense of place for students to live together, on a range of scales from the individual to the community. Using GRC (glass reinforced concrete, locally manufactured - and translating the red ochre soil of the Punjab into a filigree of red GRC screens, a unitary massing is created which lets light through to balconies and allows the massive concrete structures to read clearly from the social spaces to create a strong background rhythm to daily life and patterns. -3.jpg?1542688524 "Section") Section We try to understand the place and what is special about it– the populous cities of India are alternately crammed with busy people in tight spaces, and islands of calm and reflection - generally inside walled gardens, courtyards, and buildings. Thapar University campus is a microcosm of the city outside its gates, generating a series of places alternately buzzing and calm.  © Christian Richters  Exploded Axonometry  © Christian Richters  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| CC Residence / Trinhvieta-Architects Posted: 20 Nov 2018 03:00 PM PST  © Hiroyuki Oki
 © Hiroyuki Oki Text description provided by the architects. The design task of our project CC Residence, similar to most of other housing projects in Hochiminh City, Vietnam is to find a solution to comfortable living condition in a high populated urban area in the tropics. The house is to serve its owner by creating a shelter not only to protect the people from the hot, humid and highly solar-radiated tropical weather, but also to create as much space as possible as well as to provide an enjoyable living atmosphere.  © Hiroyuki Oki Along with the growth of economy, like other Asian cities, Hochiminh City has a rapidly expanding its population and the demand of living had led to more and more slabs being stacked on one another to maximize floor area of buildings. Consequently, suitable living conditions such as natural lighting, ventilation or relaxing spaces are more and more difficult to be adopted.  © Hiroyuki Oki Our idea for this project is to rearrange the allowed build-able volume by taking the volumes of two internal voids from the main volume, dividing them into several smaller volumes and attached them back to perimeter to serve as balconies. By doing this, as a whole, we create a porous volume which allow wind and natural light to flow in every corner of the house while still keep the necessary required volume.  Sketch CC Residence has 5 stories and consists of 7 apartments in which 2 are duplex with private courtyards. These 7 units embrace 2 internal voids with several balconies facing the outside. Internal voids provide private courtyards, laundry balconies and ventilation shafts for the dwellings while external balconies together with the double layer brick exterior create a "double skin" facade protecting the dwellings from the tropical weather.  © Hiroyuki Oki The "double skin" facade is combined with two layers, internal layer of inner brick layer, glass openings and external layer of outer brick layer, balconies' hollow brick, and greenery. This facade creates sunshade, allows airflow in between the layers and more over uses the bio-skin greenery to reduce heat radiation and provide relaxing atmosphere as a bonus.  Detail We try to capture the sense of a tropical dwelling by creating several forms of sun shade from either an eave, hollow brick walls or greenery, etc...in order to ease up the harsh solar radiation and provide comfortable relaxing spaces where natural wind flows.  © Hiroyuki Oki Locations of the balconies and greenery are studied to be random and spontaneous which slightly make the house blend in the surrounding context introducing a new kind of architecture yet paying respect to its neighborhood.  Section Development of a City inevitably brings many impacts on our living conditions including both positive and negative ones. Through this project, we would like to propose a solution for a way of living in a high density tropical urban area which satisfies our demand of spaces while still brings us a "close-to-nature" enjoyable environment.  © Hiroyuki Oki  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 20 Nov 2018 01:00 PM PST  © Jirayu Rattanawong
 © Jirayu Rattanawong Text description provided by the architects. A typical townhouse from the 80's has been renovated on the east of Bangkok. The dull and dark house lacked natural light and ventilation. The original windows were small and the interior lacked privacy due to traffic and pedestrians.  © Jirayu Rattanawong  Plans  © Jirayu Rattanawong To have an open plan with high privacy is the main concept of this project. A vertical façade with multiple usages was created. It is the main entrance to the house. It visually separates the public road from the interior of the house. The residents can look out, but pedestrians cannot peek inside. The facade also works as a security wall which is what living in Bangkok needs. In the interior, rooms with only one function each have been merged into a more open and connected house. We wanted to have a double space area linking other spaces and rooms together. So we removed a floor slab on the second floor in the centre of the house. This created a void that not only makes the most use of natural light and ventilation, but also brings people together.  © Jirayu Rattanawong  Section  © Jirayu Rattanawong Material transformations:  © Jirayu Rattanawong Floor: A floor slab floor in the centre of the house on the second floor was demolished to create a double space that connect all other spaces together  © Jirayu Rattanawong  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| FinUp Office Design / hyperSity Posted: 20 Nov 2018 12:00 PM PST  Courtesy of hyperSity
 Courtesy of hyperSity Text description provided by the architects. The client of the project is a young Internet finance company. The main idea of the company is derived from "let finance have temperature". The company CEO emphasizes that making a simple, transparent and equal office space is the precondition given at the beginning of the design. Therefore, the concept of the design emphasizes the status of equality and freedom, to remove traditional cubicles and the sense of containment.  Courtesy of hyperSity  Courtesy of hyperSity As a experimental work to pursue a relaxed, local, and resource workplace in the post-industrial era, the whole office is personalized curvy pattern following the concept of Galaxy Soho designed by Zaha Hadid. Instead of being confine to a traditional introversion and isolation mode of working division, it is a desire to create a happy mood like a park and a fairground.  Diagram The layout of the office is a circular form, with a lot of diagonal columns in the original structure. Firstly, the architect quantified different functional space into three-dimensional box, such as the working area, meeting room, incubator, exhibition hall and VIP room, etc. The traffic space allows people arriving any place efficiently. Secondly, lots of irregular corner spaces were shaped by creating resting area to hide the original partition wall.  Courtesy of hyperSity The design inserts vertical levels locally for the production of multi-activities. For example, in some public discussion areas in lower levels, a high platform is formed in the upper levels. Park elements such as a slide board are added to bring a richer experience.  Courtesy of hyperSity  Courtesy of hyperSity The integrated functional space containers has weaken the limitations of site conditions, and highlight the original architectural features, to reasonably solve the problems of low spatial efficiency. Hereby, there are cooperative, compact and private corners, to create the area of emotional interaction, and achieve the state of multi-level scenes overlapping.  Courtesy of hyperSity The office interior design makes the coordination and dialogue with the physical quantity of the Galaxy Soho of Zaha's architectural language. In terms of material selection, most of the space is paved with wooden finish and customized with metal. The partial translucent and transparent glass partition increases transparency, and eventually the work scene is fluid and interpenetrating.  Courtesy of hyperSity  Courtesy of hyperSity  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Jose House / Fabian Tan Architect Posted: 20 Nov 2018 11:00 AM PST  © Ceavs Chua
 © Ceavs Chua Text description provided by the architects. The house is a typical single storey terrace house on a plot of 23' x 75' land. The original house layout is typically closed and the brief was to create an open plan on one side and private rooms on the other side of the dividing center wall. With a restricted budget, the layout utilizes the existing structure as much as possible with the addition of a half loft floor which originally was the existing floor slab for an old water tank. The roof timber supports was also untouched and the scale of the building was maintained to match with the existing neighboring houses.  © Ceavs Chua  Ground floor plan  © Ceavs Chua  1st floor plan  © Ceavs Chua The roof viewing deck is proportioned to be unseen from street level and is used for night time hangout and barbecues. The 'U' shaped concrete seats is slightly lowered with a glass table that doubles up as the skylight to bring light to the center of the house. This house was designed through the eyes of a grandmother to recreate her love for nature and light whilst inside. The ideas are explored and distilled to create careful framings of view, light, shadow, void & relationships. Clearly, a natural harmonization of the houses' linear spatial qualities.  © Ceavs Chua  Section  © Ceavs Chua  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Kingsford Terrace / O'Neill Architecture Posted: 20 Nov 2018 09:00 AM PST  © Scott Burrows
 © Scott Burrows 'Duporth' is the first stage of the Masterplanned Retirement Village, Kingsford Terrace. Located in Corinda, it will create a community of over 300 residents when completed. This first stage includes extensive ground floor community facilities, 54 apartments and 18 care studios. The main address of the building is adorned with large brick screen wings. The scale of these screens are in proportion with the surrounding site, and provide a highly crafted and welcoming entry that marks the Duporth building as the hub, and offers some insight as to the scale of the community within.  © Scott Burrows The ground floor provides a gathering space that combines the scale of a central hub with the intimacy of a lounge room. The facade at ground level is ringed in openable glass to allow maximum connection to the external spaces and courtyards beyond. The building design is responsive to orientation and solar access.  © Scott Burrows  Ground floor plan  © Scott Burrows The apartment and common areas are positioned to take advantage of the northern and eastern aspects where possible and provide views to the city and landscaped areas. The apartments are large, incorporating Liveable Housing Design Guideline principles appropriate to the age of the residents.  © Scott Burrows Integrated landscape areas and prioritisation of pedestrian permeability are central to the Masterplan for the site. The Community Facilities within Duporth serve all residents on the site, with accessible, covered access from all apartments to the community hub. The grounds are extensively landscaped with casual meeting points and gathering places for residents distributed throughout.  © Scott Burrows  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Library / Pascali Semerdjian Arquitetos Posted: 20 Nov 2018 08:00 AM PST  © Ruy Teixeira
 © Ruy Teixeira Text description provided by the architects. Located in São Paulo, the library was designed in an existing space attached to the main house. The place, plus the program inspired us to create a working and reading space, a refuge, with a double right foot and a short stretch with a simple right right foot, guided us to create wood panels cvered in straw in a room solely white.  Planta - Térreo Glass Shelfs are supported by the same strcture of the panels. The doors are the wooden panels themselves, however, they are comouflaged in a way that doesn't lose it's continuity. We believe this continuity helps create a space of isolation and instrospection. In this way, the feeling of isolation from the outside world is steep.  © Ruy Teixeira The library has a natuaral light through openings in the space with double right foot. The artificial light that is integrated with the panels also back-lit.Has an automated remote control system that allows the creation of several scenarios: For reading, work, etc...  © Ruy Teixeira The furniture was developed by us exclusively for the library, as the magazine support, drawer and table. We also chose pieces by designers such as Giulio Cappellini, Front Design, Werner Aisslinger and works by the artist Anish Kapoor which fir perfectly into the project.  © Ruy Teixeira  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Homeless Cabin / JFD + Clear Architects Posted: 20 Nov 2018 06:00 AM PST  © James Furzer
 © James Furzer Text description provided by the architects. Multi-award winning Architectural Designer James Furzer collaborated with this year's Grand Designs Live to bring his concepts for 'Homeless Cabins' to life.  Plan + Section 01 With around 1100 people sleeping 'rough' each night on London's streets alone, James's ingenious solution recognises the increasing issue of homelessness in the UK, and the need to provide a safe haven for those with nowhere to sleep. 'Defensive' architecture, aimed at deterring rough sleepers does little to tackle the problem of homelessness and simply shifts the community along.  © James Furzer The 'Homeless Cabin' has been designed as an immediate reaction and solution to hostile architecture and they can be used both independently or as a community of cabins which provide a place of shelter, and safety.  Section 01  Section 02 James Furzer, Founder & Director at JFD and Part III Architectural Assistant, Clear Architects: "As architects, we should be using architecture as a tool to help change the current perception of homelessness and provide thoughtfully designed spaces for those less fortunate. A place of warmth, security and privacy, where one can gather their thoughts and regenerate away from the public eye. In short, a worldwide, immediate, temporary solution to rough sleeping".  © James Furzer This controversial subject was explored by a panel of experts, including TV Presenter Kunle Barker, and James Furzer, of Clear Architects, as they discussed the 'Rise Of The Rough Sleeper' at the Grand Theatre.  Section 03  Section 04 Melanie Clear, Founder & Practice Director at Clear Architects said: "As a practice we have always sought to support the 'uncomfortable' social causes, taking on several charitable challenges each year. We are immensely proud of James' work, his passion and inspirational designs to provide respite and safety for those most in need. It is fantastic to see Grand Designs take up the debate and further the nation's awareness of this incredibly complex problem". Anthony Goodey, Event Manager, Grand Designs Live commented: "The team behind Grand Designs Live are thrilled to be working with James Furzer on this project. Offering an innovative, cost-effective solution to the UK's homeless crisis should be at the forefront of all our minds as a growing concern. Grand Designs is synonymous with pioneering innovation – no matter what scale. The rise of the rough sleeper in the Midlands has recently been brought to our attention, so this is a perfect feature for our Birmingham based show which I know will resonate with our visitors"  © James Furzer This is a subject which is close to James's heart, appalled at the criticism levelled at 'rough' sleepers, using his architectural background, he has set out to find a solution. Drawn from a familiar form, previous concepts have been critically acclaimed including the innovative 'homeless pods', which could be suspended from an existing building above street level.  Section 05  Section 06 To ensure designs are as simple as possible, materials are carefully selected to enhance the thermal qualities and natural lighting within the shelters. Each concept is designed to be easily adapted to become self-sufficient, meaning no mains electricity would be required. Inside would be a simple material design and fit-out, providing the minimum requirements for a secure and comfortable night's sleep. The concept is not about providing a 'luxury night's stay' but an appropriate atmosphere for safe sleeping.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Met Selects wHY Architecture to Renovate Rockefeller Wing in New York City Posted: 20 Nov 2018 05:00 AM PST  Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. Image Courtesy of wHY Architecture The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has selected Kulapat Yantrasast and wHY Architecture to renovate its Michael C. Rockefeller wing. With arts produced in Africa, Oceania and the Americas, the 40,000-square-foot wing is located on the southern side of the Fifth Avenue museum. The $70 million project aim is showcase the collection of arts and artifacts from sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas.  Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. Image Courtesy of wHY Architecture Almost 50 years after the founding of the met's curatorial department on the arts of Africa, Oceania and Americas, the new AAOA renovation will reimagine the galleries to draw on the architectural traits of the regions. Kulapat Yantrasast commented on the renovation of the galleries, stating that, "we will be seeking to illuminate their artistic brilliance by invoking a sense of place through referencing architectural vernaculars relevant to each segment, while also tethering these aspects to historical movements." Daniel h. Weiss, president and CEO of The Met, said that, "by ushering artistic traditions of three-quarters of the globe into the met, the building of the Rockefeller wing helped define us as an encyclopedic fine arts museum. Its expansive and diverse character uniquely resonates with our global city. The renovation of this suite of galleries will at once make a unique and timely civic contribution to our community and immeasurably enrich and deepen appreciation of a vast swath of the world's artistic dynamism."  Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. Image Courtesy of wHY Architecture The project is one part of a larger museum plan, including the renovation of the British decorative arts and sculpture galleries, updates to the European Paintings galleries, and renovation of the Modern Wing.The AAOA department was established in 1969 after former US vice president Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller donated his fine-arts survey of non-Western art traditions. The collection included African and Oceanic works that were not yet represented in the museum, and the addition prompted the start of the new wing. The renovation of the Rockefeller wing is set to begin in late 2020, and aims to be complete in 2023.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Teph Inlet / Omar Gandhi Architect Posted: 20 Nov 2018 04:00 AM PST  © Ema Peter
 © Ema Peter Text description provided by the architects. Located in the picturesque coastal cottage country of Chester, Nova Scotia, Teph Inlet is a summer home for a young family. Formally composed of 3 rectilinear volumes on a plateau overlooking the ocean, the home is designed for optimal interaction with the outdoors. The main house is a stacked box clad in red cedar-clad horizontal boards hovering above a glass-encased ground level. Massive sliding glass panels allow the heart of the home, the kitchen and living room, to open up to the swimming pool and deck. Adjacent to the pool, at a right angle to the main house, is a pool house which accommodates private guest living quarters. The pool and main house make for an enclosed court on the private side of the house while an aluminum panel-clad garage forms the entry court on the public side of the house.  © Ema Peter White quartz stone tops both accessory buildings which are stitched in plan by a linear sports area designed to accommodate a zipline and various activities enjoyed by the family.  © Ema Peter  Main Floor Plan  © Ema Peter Floating white oak stairs connect the ground floor program with the light-filled upper level through both punched windows and skylights. A massive corridor window stretches nearly 30 feet and provides ample space for reading, relaxing, and taking in the landscape.  © Ema Peter  Second Floor Plan  © Ema Peter The house is composed of herringbone patterned white oak floors, floor to ceiling over-scale doors and a mixture of light-toned stones and tiles. The mature, mid-century themed furniture palette is juxtaposed with fun programmatic spaces including a movie room and ping pong space.  © Ema Peter  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Watch 6 Ruined British Castles Come Back to Life Posted: 20 Nov 2018 03:00 AM PST
The landscape of the United Kingdom is littered with historic castles reaching back centuries. Once proud structures commanding the surrounding countryside, many stately houses, castles, and churches have since collapsed into ruin. While the ruins evoke a sense of magic and curiosity in their own right, a study into how these castles looked in their heyday is a worthy venture. With this in mind, Onward and NoeMam Studios have joined forces to digitally reconstruct six ruined castles across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The series of gifs sees the castles fluidly re-emerge from the landscape, retelling the sense of place by showing "the true splendor enjoyed and defended by yesteryear's barons, queens, and kings. Below, we have laid out the series, with an edited description from Onward. Visit the official website here for more information on the castles and their legacy. Dunluce Castle, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland
Onward: Dunluce has one of the most dramatic histories of any UK castle. Built around 1500, it was abandoned as early as 1639. The castle's kitchen – and kitchen staff – had collapsed over the cliff edge and into the sea as the 2nd Earl of Antrim's family sat waiting for their dinner. Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland, England
Onward: King Edward II's most powerful baron, Earl Thomas of Lancaster, built this enormous castle as a show of might when relations soured between the two men. However, the earl was captured and executed before he could enjoy his epic crib. Bothwell Castle, South Lanarkshire, Scotland
Onward: Architecturally, Bothwell is notable for its "cylindrical donjon" (a fortified refuge for the castle's inhabitants), which was ruined in a series of sieges. Visit on Halloween and you may encounter the ghost of Bonnie Jean, a noblewoman who drowned crossing the River Clyde to elope with her lover. Goodrich Castle, Herefordshire, England
Onward: Goodrich was begun in 1102, and strengthened later that century by the fantastically named Godric Mappestone (from whom the castle probably took its name). It wasn't until the Civil Wars of 1642-6 that the stronghold would sustain serious damage. Cromwell's army pelted it with 200-pound balls from Roaring Meg, a cannon built specifically for the purpose. Caerlaverock Castle, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Onward: The UK's only triangular castle has a triple history: built in the 1280s, it was partially dismantled in the 14th century on the word of Sir Robert Bruce, to prevent it falling into English hands. Once rebuilt, it was again taken apart after being besieged by the Earl of Sussex in 1570. Again rebuilt, a thirteen-week siege during the Bishops War resulted in one last dismantlement; and that is how the castle is to be found today. Kidwelly Castle, Dyfed, Wales
Onward: Kidwelly was initially built as a wooden structure as the Normans entered southwest Wales, around 1106. Major stone fortification was added in the final decade of the 1300s, just in time to withstand a five-month siege at the outbreak of the Owain Glyn Dwr rebellion.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| House of the Flying Beds / AL BORDE Posted: 20 Nov 2018 02:00 AM PST  © JAG Studio
 © JAG Studio  © JAG Studio Text description provided by the architects. Built in the late eighteenth century, at first sight the house gave the impression of not being useful at all. It had only one-floor plan, the brick floor was broken, the eighty square meters were dark and cold, and the wood roof structure was rotten. Only the earth walls seemed able to be refurbish, which at first glance they did not look so bad at all.  © JAG Studio  Floor Plan  © JAG Studio  Attic Plan The family does not seek for privacy: kitchen, living, dining, and bathroom are for communal use. Almost public because the project is thought to receive visitors and friends all the time. In this house for all, the private space is reduced to the bed of each one of the members of the family.  © JAG Studio The final finishes of the completed work are almost the same as they were there in eighteenth century. The refurbish actions are a few and strategic: structural walls are reinforced, rammed earth is treated, doors and windows that were in poor condition are changed, and the floor is polish concrete.  Longitudinal Section  Section AA The project demands a new roof, so we take advantage of this action and solve the bedrooms too. A new upper bond beam connects the walls. Over it, eucalyptus trusses were installed each meter and fifty-five centimeters. Between each truss there is a bed, in total three pairs of habitable trusses were assembled.  © JAG Studio It was impossible to reuse the roof tiles; their poor condition turned them into patio backfill material. The roof is solved with shingles of old tires and a ridge of recycled glass that swallows light, heats and illuminates the interior.  © JAG Studio  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Modernism: The International Style that Wasn't Posted: 20 Nov 2018 01:30 AM PST  Farnsworth House / Mies van der Rohe. Image This article was originally published on CommonEdge as "Was Modernism Really International? A New History Says No."
 Courtesy of 375parkavenue.com I taught architectural history in two schools of architecture during the 1980s and 1990s. Back then it was common for students to get a full three-semester course that began with Antiquity and ended with Modernism, with a nod to later twentieth-century architecture. My text for the middle section was Spiro Kostof's magisterial History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals. With many centuries to cover, he spent very little effort in dealing with the twentieth century. In the last third of the course, students read texts such as Towards a New Architecture by Le Corbusier and Reyner Banham's Theory and Design in the First Machine Age. My colleagues and I felt that we offered students a pluralistic and comprehensive review of key developments in the history of the built environment. Today things are quite different. If even two semesters are spent on World Architecture, students head quickly for the twentieth century and stay there for most of their mandatory history education. They get a heavy dose of "Modernism" in texts such as Kenneth Frampton's Modern Architecture: A Critical History. They come away thinking that the Modern Movement was an inevitable and heroic development stemming from the culture of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Then they go on to study "theory" and read texts written by contemporary architects, with little grounding in where their ideas came from. This historiography has been questioned during the past twenty years, but nothing has supplanted the "grand narrative" about Modernism as a reflection of a progressive, space-age zeitgeist. In fact, "Modernist" is a term now applied to just about any architecture that is published in establishment magazines—a flat roof and some glass curtain walls will earn the label. It ought to be alarming to well-educated observers of our built environment that so many architectural writers and younger practitioners believe they are well-informed about twentieth-century architectural history. The Modern Movement began just after World War I and ended following the Second World War—it was victorious in its stated aim to banish all "historical" styles from acceptability among serious architects and urban planners. Architecture since the 1960s has varied throughout the world and much of it should not be labeled "modernist" by any good art historian. ![Model of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye from Modern Architecture: International Exhibition [MoMA Exh. #15, February 9-March 23, 1932] Photo: Modern Architecture, International Exhibition. 1932. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photographic Archive](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5bf2/998f/08a5/e515/4e00/024f/medium_jpg/515f52f5b3fc4bc5260001f3_out-of-site-in-plain-view-a-history-of-exhibiting-architecture-since-1750_villa_savoye_model_1932-1000x720.jpg?1542625673 "Model of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye from Modern Architecture: International Exhibition [MoMA Exh. #15, February 9-March 23, 1932] Photo: Modern Architecture, International Exhibition. 1932. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photographic Archive") Model of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye from Modern Architecture: International Exhibition [MoMA Exh. #15, February 9-March 23, 1932] Photo: Modern Architecture, International Exhibition. 1932. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photographic Archive Oxford University Press has just published a controversial new assessment of the Modern Movement entitled Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism by the British historian, James Stevens Curl. Curl has spent his career researching architecture in the British Isles, with an emphasis on monuments, cemeteries, and freemasonry. His scholarly output is prolific. As its pithy title suggests, this new book doesn't look kindly on the narrative presented by the major historians who chronicled the emergence of Modernist architecture in Europe and America during the last century. It does, however, present a cogent and well-argued history of the period before 1945 that should revise our understanding of how the "International Style" was invented and mythologized. Curl first underscores the fact that Nikolaus Pevsner, Henry Russell Hitchcock, Sigfried Giedion and Philip Johnson were not disinterested scholars looking objectively at the architecture of their time, but rather had good reason to proselytize for a style of building that would transform the world according to the zeitgeist of a machine age, one that saw mechanized warfare destroy half of Europe. The political and cultural landscape was radically changing following the Armistice, and architects in France, Belgium, and the Weimar Republic, were primed for a revolution in building to efficiently rehouse a large refugee population.  Courtesy of Flickr User konigDaniel. ImageEinsteinturm / Erich Mendelsohn Using 1914 as a starting point, Making Dystopia shows how economics and politics influenced the careers of leading architects in Germany, allowing some to prosper and others to fade into obscurity. One was Erich Mendelsohn, a German Jew who was forced into exile after a very successful ten years of building around Berlin. Other architects appeared only in obscure journals and regional histories, so it is refreshing to see their work illustrated here. There was no dominant approach to design prior to the Depression, but a wide-ranging debate about an appropriate style for the new age occurred globally. Curl did a lot of primary source research to unearth this material, but he did not have to look hard to find truly critical, scholarly views of the lives of Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, or Walter Gropius. Recent scholarship has unearthed a raft of new evidence showing these figures to be much more complex and unsavory than any twentieth-century biography might have revealed. Significantly, the historians who wrote about the "form givers" of the Modern Movement were complicit in hiding some unpleasant facts about European architects working for Fascist regimes, as long as they fit the correct account of the rise of avant-garde art and architecture that was seen as "modern." Whereas the heroic narrative of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's life recounts his reluctant exile from his native Germany to escape Hitler's regime, we learn that in fact Mies sought support from the National Socialists once the Bauhaus had been closed, and received it. He worked under the Nazis for several years with nary a complaint before emigrating to the U.S. in 1937. Likewise, Le Corbusier sought the patronage of the Vichy government and wrote virulently anti-Semitic prose in journals of the period. Walter Gropius was a canny and unscrupulous opportunist who changed his allegiance several times before coming to the U.S. to teach and Harvard.  Villa Savoye / Le Corbusier. Image More damning than these revelations about the leading architects of the Modern Movement is Curl's history of the pr campaign that was unleashed in Europe and the U.S. following the First World War to create a false inevitability for the emergence of a new style of building that featured flat roofs, white stucco walls, strip windows, and pilotis instead of columns. Though by the early 1930s there was little "modernistic" architecture on either side of the Atlantic that fit the definition proposed by Alfred Barr, Philip Johnson and Henry Russell Hitchcock in their famous catalogue for the first Museum of Modern Art exhibition on architecture, that did not stop them from making extravagant claims to the contrary. Their audience had no information on how much rebuilding after the war was in non-traditional idioms, so they could be easily convinced about the "international" spread of the new architecture in 1932. Because he had traveled extensively in Germany during the previous decade, Johnson was able to obtain enough photos of the Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart and other buildings to suggest a wider acceptance of the style in Europe than was actually the case.  Courtesy of Wikimedia. ImageImperial Hotel Tokyo / Frank Lloyd Wright Curl contends that Johnson and Barr ignored the connections between Bauhaus artists and the Third Reich in order to further their claims for the superiority of modern art. He is certainly correct in claiming that without Johnson's influence European modernism would have taken longer to gain a foothold in the U.S., especially since Frank Lloyd Wright was put off by him after being excluded from the 1932 exhibition (he was later given a separate room). An objective survey of the most advanced and exciting buildings of the 1920s and 1930s would surely have featured America's Art Deco skyscrapers, Detroit's huge factories, and Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. None of these caught the attention of Johnson, a Eurocentric critic of the Roosevelt administration with distinctly pro-German political sentiments. In many respects he set back appreciation of modern American architecture for decades by promoting his German heroes in the 1930s. Curl has particular disdain for the misinterpretations of English Arts and Crafts architecture that appeared in Pevsner's influential book, Pioneers of the Modern Movement (1936), later reissued as Pioneers of Modern Design. The German historian now lionized for his Buildings of England series was a fierce promoter of Walter Gropius, whom he identified as the leader of a new movement in Europe by virtue of his teaching at the Bauhaus in Dessau. Connecting the Bauhaus, through the Werkbund, with English followers of Ruskin and Morris was an absurd distortion of reality, but one that Pevsner accomplished with aplomb. C.F.A. Voysey "became cross" with Sir Nikolaus for associating him with a style which he "disliked." M.H. Baillie Scott and C.R. Mackintosh wanted nothing to do with German modernism. This challenge to the prevailing narrative is not trivial, nor is the record presented in Making Dystopia, with its large bibliography and careful endnotes. Once a lie is told, its proliferation becomes a matter of citation, a reference to the work of one of the four pillars of Modernist historiography. We cannot know that their feet were made of clay unless someone unravels the web of falsehoods that were spun decades ago. Curl's book does this, and more, to set the record straight on how Modernism came to dominate world architecture by the mid-twentieth century. His first five chapters are dense and comprehensive, though he does not sustain that level of investigation in the concluding portion of the book, which deals with architecture since 1945.  Courtesy of Wikimedia. ImageMuseo Soumaya / FR-EE Unfortunately, the architectural establishment has already tried to discredit Curl's efforts with vituperative reviews in a number of publications. Critics (such as Stephen Bayley in The Spectator) have carped about Curl's colorful, sometimes hyperbolic send-ups of contemporary trends in design, such as Parametricism and Blobitecture, ignoring the virtues of his scholarship and failing to refute his assertions. Mainstream writers cast him as a cranky, conservative stone-thrower, when in fact he has spent his life as a diligent researcher. Bearing that in mind he can be forgiven for some laxity in his synopsis of recent history, such as the swift rise and fall of Postmodernism, Philip Johnson's promotion of both classicism and deconstructivism, and the influence of CIAM on British development during the 1960s.
Like so much that has been dumbed down in contemporary education, architectural history has not fared well under the watchful eye of the NCARB and ACSA. That is no excuse for the proliferation of false histories that defend untenable positions and faulty ideas because there are many fine historians who are well aware of defects in "standard" texts. Just as we need to understand Frank Lloyd Wright's litany of bankruptcies and broken marriages, or Richard Meier's longstanding sexual abuse of employees, a complete reckoning of the complex history of Modernism requires a clear-eyed, critical examination, something not found in Frampton's Critical History or William Curtis's highly praised text on twentieth-century architecture. If we ignore books like Curl's our cities and landscapes will continue to get the same insipidly abstract designs we have lived with for decades, and our profession won't advance to meet the challenges of this troubled century. Putting flat roofs on a building in Bangladesh or central Africa to get kudos from critics in New York or London is as silly as wearing a grass skirt to go whale watching in Nome, yet many young architects will do just that in the name of Modernism—at least until they understand what that term really means. __by_Heinz_Fenchel_and_Thomas_Leiterdorf__1962-1970._Image_%C2%A9_Iwan_Baan__.jpg?1542624844 "© Iwan Baan") © Iwan Baan Mark Alan Hewitt is an architect, author, preservationist and historian practicing in the New York area. He is currently writing a book about neuroscience and architectural design.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Foster + Partners Open Apple Champs-Élysées Store by Transforming Parisian Apartment Posted: 20 Nov 2018 01:00 AM PST .jpg?1542719332 "© Nigel Young | Foster + Partners") © Nigel Young | Foster + Partners The latest Apple Store designed by Foster + Partners has opened on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, occupying the grounds and courtyard of a historic Parisian apartment. The ornate Beaux-Art building has been appropriated by "carefully interweaving several layers of history with contemporary, light-filled and inviting spaces." The design is the result of a close collaboration by Foster + Partners and Apple's chief design officer Sir Jonathan Ive, which has produced Apple Stores around the world including Piazza Liberty in Milan, Michigan Avenue in Chicago and Regent Street in London.  © Nigel Young | Foster + Partners The surviving detailing of the building, situated on the corner of Champs-Élysées and Rue Washington, has been restored and incorporated with the design, "sympathetically juxtaposed within dynamic contemporary interior spaces. Visitors enter via an ornate 19th-century Parisian passage flanked by display spaces, before being directed to a newly-revived "cour intérieure" (interior courtyard).  © Nigel Young | Foster + Partners The courtyard, adorned with large mature trees, is activated by a unique Kaléidoscope solar roof-light with mirrored pyramids reflecting sunlight onto internal surfaces. The roof light is covered in solar panels on the exterior, while reflecting fragmented images of the surrounding urban landscape from below. As day turns to night, the effect of the Cubist-inspired roof light changes, offering new experiences from every corner.  © Nigel Young | Foster + Partners Original features retained during the renovation include a restored timber and marble "escalier d'honneur" (grand staircase) connecting the levels. Given that the apartment has transcended several uses through its lifetime, the Fosters proposal sought to revive the original spirit of the building, with restored features such as the staircase juxtaposed with the dynamic new additions such as the roof light. The constant transition between old and new is designed to allow visitors to appreciate the history of the location, catching glimpses of historic fabric from contemporary spaces, and vice versa.  © Nigel Young | Foster + Partners
 © Nigel Young | Foster + Partners Apple Champs-Élysées opened on November 18th, 2018. News via: Foster + Partners  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Suwalki Kindergarten / xystudio Posted: 20 Nov 2018 12:00 AM PST .jpg?1542589175 "Courtesy of xystudio") Courtesy of xystudio
.jpg?1542589472 "Courtesy of xystudio") Courtesy of xystudio Text description provided by the architects. Kindergarten in Suwalki is the second kindergarten founded by furniture factory Fabryki Mebli "Forte" S.A. for their employee's children. It is planned for 150 kids. Location in the north part of Poland had a strong influence on the building shape. It's located in the beautiful but windy suburbs. That vast plot gave an opportunity to design a one-story building. Building location and the functional layout are determined by the sun. East part of the building is designed for younger children. They need more light during morning classes before nap. In the afternoon they play outside. Location and orientation of the building provide shade on the playground during hot summer days. .jpg?1542589448 "Courtesy of xystudio") Courtesy of xystudio  Sun Movement Scheme .jpg?1542589591 "Courtesy of xystudio") Courtesy of xystudio Kindergarten is located in the west part because older kids don't sleep during the daytime so sunlight is useful throughout the whole day. Garden with the small greenhouse is visible from the kindergarten classrooms. Playground, on the other hand, is located on the south to do not distract the children. In a few years, planted trees will shade the playground. Additional toilets for kids are located near the playgrounds. The whole building is surrounded by multifunctional roofed terraces with built-in sandpits. It allows children to play near the classrooms. Furthermore roofing protect from the rain and sun. We indicated roof holes location to shade part of every sandpit. All classrooms have a direct connection with the terrace. .jpg?1542589574 "Courtesy of xystudio") Courtesy of xystudio It is possible to open big windows and enlarge the classroom area. During the summer, roofing protects halls from overheating and during the winter, when the sun is low, rays of the sun comes to interior. All classrooms are lighted by skylights. Thanks to this whole interior are full of natural light. The building plan is in H shape. This way there were created two patios – one from the entrance and the second from the garden. The building is surrounded by wooden terraces. It protects from wind, sun and fulfills the function of a doormat. A big multifunctional hall is "the heart of building". It is lighted by skylights and big glazing from the patio. Inside there are ladders, swings, and wall with mirrors. .jpg?1542589625 "Courtesy of xystudio") Courtesy of xystudio  Sections .jpg?1542589556 "Courtesy of xystudio") Courtesy of xystudio When it is raining this room is a perfect area for playing. The land development plan is as important as building plan. The surroundings are a complement to the building and are its continuation. Classrooms have a direct connection with terraces and terraces are connected with playgrounds and greenery. Along east border are flowerbeds and greenhouse. In the garden grow raspberries, blackberries, blueberries as well as many other edible plants. Surrounding is covered by lawns and hills. It is a perfectly natural winter play area. It is illuminated with exterior lights powered by windmill located on the hill. .jpg?1542589512 "Courtesy of xystudio") Courtesy of xystudio The additional attraction for kids is spiral slide on the front facade. To ensure comfort to children whole building is adapted to their scale. To make them feel comfortable roofing are lower to make high cubature not overwhelming. From the outside, you can get the impression that the building is small but it grows when you come inside. We gave up with external patio because of bad weather conditions and many rainy days during the year in this part of Poland. Instead of that, there is a big multifunctional hall as "the heart of the building". It provides children the opportunity to play in spite of bad weather conditions and air pollution. .jpg?1542589338 "Courtesy of xystudio") Courtesy of xystudio  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 19 Nov 2018 10:00 PM PST  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
.jpg?1542599757 "© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG") © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG Text description provided by the architects. The design of the CAA / Águeda Arts Center responds to the challenge of creating a solution well adapted to the context (not only physical but also cultural, economic and political) while creating a world-class cultural platform. A rational approach to the program was translated into a system designed to maximize functionality.  Ground Floor Plan .jpg?1542599850 "© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG") © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG  Section  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG The building, with 4,500sqm, consists in three dynamic physical forces, which house and organize the three major valences of the indoor program – an auditorium with 600 seats, exhibition hall, and concert-cafe – spreading out from a central distribution core. In addition to the main program, the building also houses a studio room, bookstore/shop, conservation, administration/production, among many other support spaces. .jpg?1542599789 "© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG") © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG The exterior architectural image is characterized by a volume of exposed concrete that embraces the terrain and creates a new public square that qualifies the city. The volume seems to levitate on a transparent glass mass, permeable and inviting to the public.  © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG The architecture that formalizes the building is stripped of iconic artificiality, without losing the institutional relevance that the equipment deserves. It tries to reach a fusion between the pragmatic technique of execution and context response, and the poetical of space, which takes the visitor on a journey marked by the body built as a receptacle and generator of culture. .jpg?1542599741 "© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG") © Fernando Guerra | FG+SG  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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