Arch Daily |
- 15 Colombian Projects Pushing the Brick Envelope
- Architecture Guide: Luis Barragán
- Sant Sadurní d’Anoia Cultural Center and Archive Library / taller 9s arquitectes
- School Rotewis / Rohrer Sigrist Architekten
- House Refurbishment in Seville Historic Center / Harald Schönegger + Inmaculada González
- Longfu Life Experience Center / LUO studio
- Zverineckaya / Yurima Architects
- Corner 60’s / Soar Design Studio
- GLF Headquarters / Oppenheim Architecture + Design
- GENSHANG Restaurant / OFFICE COASTLINE
- REHAU Design Haus / Taylor Knights
- Urban Amenities / Sports Lot / Ricardo Sanz Sosa & Rodrigo Marín Briceño
- RidgeView House / Zack de Vito Architecture + Construction
- Kozlowski + Cardia Design Floating Tree Branch Pavilion for Expo 2020
- Hôpital Vétérinaire du Parc / Thomas Balaban Architect
- UNESCO and UIA to begin Designating Cities as "World Capitals of Architecture"
- North Fork Bluff House / Resolution: 4 Architecture
- Design Criticism Ignores the Places that it Could Help the Most
- Wilkins Terrace / Levitt Bernstein
- Frank Gehry's Jagged Aluminum Luma Arles Takes Shape in France
| 15 Colombian Projects Pushing the Brick Envelope Posted: 27 Nov 2018 09:00 PM PST  Casa La Serena / Sebastián Gaviria Gómez. Image © OLMO Fotografía The greats of twentieth-century Colombian architecture were regarded for their genuine interest in brick. To this day, many of Colombia's iconic neighborhoods are filled with brick buildings. Below, a selection of stunning Colombian brick projects. Llano Grande House / Yemail Arquitectura Casa Llano Grande / Yemail Arquitectura. Image © Santiago Pinyol La Serena House / Sebastián Gaviria Gómez Casa La Serena / Sebastián Gaviria Gómez. Image © OLMO Fotografía Colombian Anglo School Building / Daniel Bonilla Arquitectos Edificio Primaria Colegio Anglo Colombiano / Daniel Bonilla Arquitectos. Image © Rodrigo Dávila Yotoco Music School / Espacio Colectivo Arquitectos Escuela de Música Yotoco / Espacio Colectivo Arquitectos. Image © Santiago Robayo School in Soacha / Alejandro Peña Cuéllar Colegio en Soacha / Alejandro Peña Cuéllar. Image © Nicolás Cabrera & Juan Fleing Virgilio Barco Library / Rogelio Salmona Biblioteca Virgilio Barco / Rogelio Salmona. Image © Simon Bosch Citadel Colsubsidio / Germán Samper Ciudadela Colsubsidio / Germán Samper. Image © Javier L. Ramírez La Palma Building / Planta Baja Estudio de Arquitectura Edificio La Palma / Planta Baja Estudio de Arquitectura. Image © Mauricio Carvajal Rochester School / Daniel Bonilla Arquitectos Colegio Rochester / Daniel Bonilla Arquitectos. Image © Rodrigo Dávila Vivienda Social Rural / Estación Espacial Arquitectos Vivienda Social Rural / Estación Espacial Arquitectos. Image © Sebastián Contreras R. Central Library Eafit University / Juan Forero Arquitectos Biblioteca Central Universidad Eafit / Juan Forero Arquitectos. Image © Juan Forero Arquitectos Arts Center / Taller de Arquitectura de Bogotá Centro de Artes / Taller de Arquitectura de Bogotá. Image © Rodrigo Dávila García Márquez Cultural Center / Rogelio Salmona Centro Cultural García Márquez / Rogelio Salmona. Image © Enrique Guzmán Giraldo Building / Fernando Martínez Sanabria.jpg?1542728504 "Edificio Giraldo / Fernando Martínez Sanabria. Image © Dan Gamboa Bohorquez") Edificio Giraldo / Fernando Martínez Sanabria. Image © Dan Gamboa Bohorquez Left Forest House / Jacques Mosseri Hané_-_copia.jpg?1542730390 "Casa Bosque Izquierdo / Jacques Mosseri Hané. Image © Dan Gamboa Bohorquez") Casa Bosque Izquierdo / Jacques Mosseri Hané. Image © Dan Gamboa Bohorquez  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Architecture Guide: Luis Barragán Posted: 27 Nov 2018 08:00 PM PST  Flickr: LrBln. Used under Creative Commons Luis Barragán Morfín was born in Guadalajara and graduated as a civil engineer. He left an extensive legacy, from renowned texts, conferences, buildings, houses, and gardens that are still in use today. While Barragán was known for his far-reaching research in customs and traditions, above all, the architect spent his life in contemplation. His sensitivity to the world and continued effort to rewrite the mundane has made him a lasting figure in Mexico, and the world. Undoubtedly, Barragán's legacy represents something so complex and timeless that it continues to inspire and amaze architects of all generations. At ArchDaily, we believe that it is essential to immerse ourselves in information, images, and architecture. Below, an extensive guide to the architecture of Luis Barragán in Mexico City and Guadalajara. Casa Barragán Casa Estudio / Luis Barragán. Image © Rodrigo Flores Address: General Francisco Ramírez 12-14, Colonia Ampliación Daniel Garza, Ciudad de México CP 11840 Gilardi House Casa Gilardi / Luis Barragán. Image © Rodrigo Flores Address: General León #82 entre Rafael Rebollar y Tiburcio Montiel, 11850 Ciudad de México Los Clubes - Cuadra San Cristóbal y Fuente de los Amantes © Rodrigo Flores Address: Cda. Manantial Ote. 20, Mayorazgos de los Gigantes, 52957 Cd López Mateos, Méx. Torres de Satélite Torres de Satélite / Mathias Goeritz + Luis Barragán. Image © Rodrigo Flores Address: Ciudad Satélite, 53100 Naucalpan de Juárez, State of Mexico Chapel of the CapuchinasAddress: Col. de, Miguel Hidalgo 43, Tlalpan Centro I, 14000 Ciudad de México, CDMX Efraín González Luna House (Current House ITESO Clavigero)Address: Calle José Guadalupe Zuno Hernández 2083, Obrera, 44140 Guadalajara, Jal.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Sant Sadurní d’Anoia Cultural Center and Archive Library / taller 9s arquitectes Posted: 27 Nov 2018 07:00 PM PST  © Adrià Goula
 © Adrià Goula Text description provided by the architects. The project aims the rehabilitation of the old Sant Sadurni d'Anoia's modernist schools in order to host a cultural center with library and archive. The historic building is located on a rectangular plot bounded by four streets. The historic building is located in the western part of the plot, and develops in the form of an U, a frequent school typology of the early twentieth century, around a courtyard, that stretches eastward. The proposed program surpassed the constructed surface of the historic building and obliged to propose an extension with a new body occupying the old school courtyard.  © Adrià Goula The first decision taken was to respect the façade and the historic building as it was conceived, taking advantage of the original access from the square as the main entrance of the new equipment. The second bet was to build a large stone basing taking advantage of the slope between the limits of the site, as a semi-buried plant, replacing the old fence of the enclosure. The base unifies new and old and allows to sum an important built surface without altering the visual and volumetric affectation of the set.  Ground Floor Plan  Seection The program is completed with a rectangular volume that rests on the basing, behind the historical building, without touching it, leaving between them two courtyards that allow the light to reach the lower floor. Finally, a second new body is placed next to the rear façade of the pre-existing building to resolve the vertical communication between the three levels, and to give value to a very modified façade. The position of the two bodies allows to mantain the central courtyard as the articulating space of the complex, a protected space that will allow controlled activities to be held in the open air.  © Adrià Goula The existing unevenness in the site allows to create an independent entrance to the archive through the semi-ground floor. The library occupies the two upper floors and integrates a series of spaces (a multi-purpose room, the courtyard, study-support rooms, etc.) that, by means of a system of doors, can be used autonomously outside library opening hours.  © Adrià Goula While the historic building is restored in an integral and respectful way, the new bodies are formalized with a contemporary language from the dialogue with the existing one in terms of tones, rhythms and compositional systematization. The new volume is conceived as a porch that shelters part of the old courtyard, where the library's main programme is developed, with opaque side facades and diaphanous main facades, in order to promote continuity between spaces. The necessary connection between new and old is resolved with glass elements.  © Adrià Goula The refurbishment bets on traditional construction systems (ventilated Catalan roof, breathable stucco façade, Catalan vault slabs...), extending the life cycle of the existing solutions and materials, taking advantage of their features and completing them to respond to the new use and to safety features, energy efficiency, etc... The new bodies are conceived with pre-industrialised systems with the same objective of minimising the energy and environmental impact of the intervention. Green roofs, recyclable rubber flooring, metal panels... are designed with this necessary objective.  © Adrià Goula  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| School Rotewis / Rohrer Sigrist Architekten Posted: 27 Nov 2018 06:00 PM PST  © Ruedi Walti
 © Ruedi Walti Text description provided by the architects. The new building closes the existing settlement gap. Due to the location and the volumetric training of the new school the multi-purpose building will be integrated into the building structure without taking away its independence. The new volume mediates between the Hörnlistrasse and the new rest area, between the school building and the multi-purpose building.  © Ruedi Walti The single-story volume differentiates from the grown building structure. Due to its geometric orientation and volumetric appearance, the new building is, according to public use, related to the multi-purpose building.  © Ruedi Walti In the case of fire, the single floor allows for escape directly into the open. This results in a greater flexibility in the use and furnishing of the area. There other forms of teaching or learning situations that can take place beside the work niches. The illumination of the corridor zone and the group rooms is achieved by courtyards. These can be used on all sides for educational purposes. The arrangement of the multi-purpose room with the kitchen against the playground allows for the use of the roofed entrance area during a town event, etc.  Ground Floor Plan The material concept is connected to the multi-purpose building. As opposed to the multi-purpose building, exposed concrete is used as the outermost facade layer due to its resistance and imperviousness. All interior walls and the roof are created in a wooden element construction. This construction can be made free of thermal bridges and therefore guarantees an energy-efficient and ecological way of building.  © Ruedi Walti The landscape surrounding the building with meadows and fruit trees is complemented by trees and shrubs as well as three hedge rooms. These areas enhance the possibilities of exploring and playing around the school building without disturbing the classes taking place inside the rooms.  © Ruedi Walti On one side, a path leads to the school building and the multi-purpose building. The path expands into a square, thus activating the center of this ensemble of public buildings. On the other side you will find an area in front of the media room which invites you to linger and read under the shady fruit trees.  © Ruedi Walti The playground, which is directly in front of the Kindergarten, and the two atriums are provided with a "finkentauglich" surface, partially interspersed with shrubs and trees. This simple materialization generates a high degree of clarity and security. To the west, the kindergarten is complemented by a second playground in one of the protected hedge ovals. Thus, the kindergarten students can be optimally cared for.  © Ruedi Walti  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| House Refurbishment in Seville Historic Center / Harald Schönegger + Inmaculada González Posted: 27 Nov 2018 05:00 PM PST  © Fernando Alda
 © Fernando Alda Text description provided by the architects. Among the irregular dividing walls in a narrow and barren old town, an old and abandoned house is being recovered. It includes a first original division with some precarious additions that were randomly attached later on.  © Fernando Alda  Ground floor plan  © Fernando Alda In contrast to the previous unclear sectioning and aiming to a unique family house program, the lec- ture of the historical fragment is trying to be understood through the formation of a first refurbished division plus a new sectioning into two different parts. Moreover, sharp volumes are ordered, for the only contention of air and light. In addition, the project aims to include some of the green spaces which were lost in the city environment; therefore, it is conceived as a vessel containing huge trees, covering the roofs, terraces and courtyards with vegetation at different levels.  © Fernando Alda  First floor plan  © Fernando Alda At the same time, history, present and outdoor green areas merge in an open and unified domestic habitat. For this purpose, the first internal inner wall is diluted with a long structural beam bearing the wood slab, and transparent smooth skins blurring the limits create new courtyards .  © Fernando Alda The alternation of void and simple spaces, with a double north-south facade allows crossed ventila- tion and sunlight, which are almost absent in the historical center. Together with an architecture that aims to be friendly and sustainable, the biological evolution of deciduous plants filters and tempers the local climate, introducing inside the house the tones of all seasons.  © Fernando Alda  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Longfu Life Experience Center / LUO studio Posted: 27 Nov 2018 04:00 PM PST  View of the east side. Image © Weiqi Jin
 Aerial view. Image © Weiqi Jin Separation of function and space  South side view. Image © Weiqi Jin The building not only meets the temporary need of marketing but also has potential for a wide range of other possible usages. It's more appropriate to say that we designed a space without functional constraints rather than just a sales center.  Lawn on the south side. Image © Weiqi Jin We turned all necessary service spaces featuring great spatial restrictions such as staircase and bathroom into basic modules in accordance with Ergonomics, and meanwhile tried our best to weaken the functional attribute of other remaining spaces. In this way, we separated function and space, so as to eliminate functional constraints of spaces.  Units can be used for workshop Children's active space Utilization of general timbers to maximize the space and make it extensible  Atrium. Image © Weiqi Jin Timbers, the green and natural materials that suite the client's corporation identity, are undoubtedly the most perfect materials for constructing the building.  Section perspective Cost-effective general timber materials that we could purchase were square logs in the length of 3m, 4m or 6m, with a 200mm side length of the cross-section. To build a large solid space and maximize its possible functions, several square timber pillars were combined together to form a "clustered column" instead of using a single wooden pillar as the supporting unit.  Kids' area on 2F. Image © Weiqi Jin As forces acting on circle plane are even in different directions, horizontal units of the clustered column were designed in the shape of regular dodecagon, which are nearly round, with a diameter of 1m. The section size of timber pillars of the clustered column is 120mm*180mm. As for vertical units design, we applied the shape of trees.  Process of structure model . Image Courtesy of LUO studio The clustered column was divided into five segments, each with the length of about 2m. These segments extend outward and upward to the ceiling, forming a cubic edge space with a height of 4.5m and a side length of 8m. With such clustered columns, we not only maximized the lower space but also the structural strength.  1 Units can be used for small bookstore The bottom part of each "clustered column" is in the shape of regular polygon. These "clustered columns" extend upward from the bottom and form a "square" outside edge. Each unit along the edge was horizontally and longitudinally interlined. Just like Lego bricks, each unit is independent or combined with others to create the desired space. The space is extensible. With "continuous arch" between each unit, the overall structure is very stable. And the more it stretches, the more stable the structure is.  Atrium. Image © Weiqi Jin Rapid assembling via basic construction methods & reversibility  Resting area. Image © Weiqi Jin We offered the following solutions. Firstly, trying best to control labor cost and improve efficiency. We adopted simple and basic construction methods as well as common material processing techniques, through which ordinary technical workers were capable of carrying out the construction work and materials could be processed in common factories, which ensured the building to be constructed in a short time. Secondly, ensuring the standardization and modularization of units. We divided the whole building into several primary units.  Seats in kids' area. Image © Weiqi Jin And these primary units were further split into various standard components which were assembled based on a unified approach. The minimum unit could be formed only by three basic components, which was conductive to controlling the size and number of modular units. Besides, we established a set of standard and simple approaches for assembling, so as to accelerate the construction and installation process.  2F corridor. Image © Weiqi Jin Thirdly, subdividing all types of work involved in the project as much as possible, processing materials in different factories, and arranging manufacturing workshops reasonably. In this way, all materials and components could be processed before or while the pre-order work on site was carried out. For example, while measuring and grooving work was carried out at the site, components of the steel structure, wooden columns and steal connection components were processed in different factories separately at the same time.  Stairs next to the entrance. Image © Weiqi Jin After back-filling was finished, wooden column units were assembled on the basis of the steel structure. All wooden column units were interlinked through bolting steel connection components. And all relevant work such as installation of indoor furniture, air conditioning and wiring systems was carried out in a coordinated way. Eventually, we completed construction and decoration of the building ahead of schedule.  East side of the setting wall. Image © Weiqi Jin Considering various practical factors, we laid tiles on the ground floor by using cement mortar. However, all other parts in the space were connected by bolts. All components can be completely dismounted, installed, moved and reused for other constructions, making the building thoroughly reversible.  Water surface in day time. Image © Weiqi Jin Construction of a "smart" cavity  64 Units can be used for rail transit hub Other parts of the building were also designed in a way similar to the structure of body. Taking furniture as example, all the furniture "grows" on the structural column, with each table surrounding a single "clustered column". All the furniture and guardrails stretch out of the core structure, and even weave a surface by extending outward. These necessary parts are concomitants of the main structure, providing support against it and making it more stable.  Construction process. Image © Weiqi Jin Equipment, electromechanics, pipelines, furniture and exterior were integrated into units of the structure to achieve the smallest occupancy, which facilitated separation of function and space and created a "smart" space resembling cavity of the human body.  Construction process. Image © Weiqi Jin Universal space&universally-used space  Water surface-night view. Image © Weiqi Jin As designing and constructing the Longfu Life Experience Center, we chose to use standard timbers in China and utilized common processing and construction techniques, with a view to create a "universal space" that boasts infinite possible usages rather than be limited to a certain specific function.  East wing of the front facade. Image © Weiqi Jin The building is a "universal" space, but more importantly it is a "universally-used space". The whole building or any part of it can be enlarged, cut, replaced or moved based on different needs. What's more, it can also be completely dismounted and repurposed, and its materials can be reused for other constructions, hence achieving the objective that both the space and materials can be most universally used.  Southeastern side. Image © Weiqi Jin  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Zverineckaya / Yurima Architects Posted: 27 Nov 2018 03:00 PM PST  © Andrew Posonskyi
 © Andrew Posonskyi Text description provided by the architects. Functionality, zoning rationality and maximum utilization of natural light are the principles by which Yurima Architects experts were guided when elaborating the apartment design, resulting in a laconic and well thought-out spatial solution.  © Andrew Posonskyi Even though the project involved building six rooms and three bathrooms as requested by the customer, the interior retained a sense of lightness and freedom of open space after the zoning was completed. To achieve the desired effect, the architects completely abandoned corridors in favor of blending spaces. Each room is personalized but fits the common interior concept. Light partitions provide for easy interior transformations, opening and joining the premises or, on the contrary, completely isolating the zones. In the living room area, the main decoration materials used are porcelain tiles for the flooring, wood and metal. The room's central element — a wall finished with wood panels and a black metal insert, provides space for a fireplace and TV. A soft spacious sofa is opposite the wall. The ceiling lighting sets the rhythm and direction inwards the apartment.  © Andrew Posonskyi The night area comprising a bedroom and attached bathroom and dressing room can be transformed and integrated into a single whole thanks to the wide sliding partitions. There is nothing in excess in the bedroom, decoration materials are minimalist and reserved. A bed raised above the floor is installed in front of a panoramic window with city views. The area has a cast-in-place floor, while the walls are finished with white MDF panels.  Two separate nurseries located in close proximity to the bedroom share a bathroom, with both doors automatically blocked when either door is closed.  © Andrew Posonskyi The illumination control system offers a number of lighting scenarios, making it possible to create a desired atmosphere, and includes the functionality of automatic brightness adjustment depending on the time of the day. The project also provides for automated microclimate control and multimedia facilities, and all necessary security systems operated via mobile devices.  © Andrew Posonskyi  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Corner 60’s / Soar Design Studio Posted: 27 Nov 2018 01:00 PM PST  © Hey!Cheese
 © Hey!Cheese Text description provided by the architects. This is a renewal project bearing the aesthetics of the old Taiwanese era, in the form of a corner building in a quiet community. We did our best in preserving the old tiles, fine stone finishing and window grille that have marked the era this building has been through.  © Hey!Cheese The owner, a teacher with enthusiasm on education and love of old buildings, hopes to create a learning environment for students, so we proposed a renewal idea that bestows experimental opportunities for students, as well as becoming a café space for cultivating neighborhood interaction.  © Hey!Cheese We envisaged a home that houses a lab space for kids to conduct scientific experiments, a gathering place for neighbors over coffee.  © Hey!Cheese  © Hey!Cheese From the viewpoint of the dwelling characteristics, this design seeks to capture the local architectural aesthetics and the good old corridor social fabric in the old buildings, which are too often on the demise in the contemporary urban environment.  © Hey!Cheese  © Hey!Cheese The overall environment needs to tackle the issues of poor natural illumination and ventilation. So by using materials such as glass tiles and grille, etc., as well as opening up flooring slab, we created double-height ceiling that allows the ground-floor space to become well-lit. Furthermore, by planting a large rainforest-type tree traversing the ground and the first floors, surrounding by open-planning spaces and a mini sky-walk cladded in grille, we successfully rectified the usual ill effect of sub-tropical climate normally would have on urban interior spaces.  © Hey!Cheese  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| GLF Headquarters / Oppenheim Architecture + Design Posted: 27 Nov 2018 12:00 PM PST  © Karen Fuchs
 © Karen Fuchs Text description provided by the architects. Set on the banks of the Miami River, at the junction of Overtown and Little Havana, this modern office complex was commissioned as the U.S. headquarters for international engineering and construction outfit GLF Construction Corporation. The building was designed with simplicity in mind, featuring large floor plates that allow user flexibility and evoke the feeling of open space. Inside, the program includes office and studio space, conference rooms, lounges, balconies and common areas that maximize both interior and exterior views.  © Karen Fuchs GLF Headquarters' form draws inspiration from its adjacent context and scale - citing both the inherent industrial and nautical overtones of the location. The resulting 4-story structure resembles a stack of shipping containers – a common spectacle visible from the project site – strategically arranged to create large unique volumes and sheltered spaces that accommodate various uses. The elegant, yet simple, exterior is the perfect amalgamation of raw steel accents, pristine glass windows and the exposed concrete that envelops each rectangular form. Materials were meticulously selected and combined to create a timeless piece.  © Karen Fuchs  Sections  © Karen Fuchs  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| GENSHANG Restaurant / OFFICE COASTLINE Posted: 27 Nov 2018 11:00 AM PST  © Alessandro Wang
 © Alessandro Wang Text description provided by the architects. For life-style brand "Genshang", We designed their new tea house on Madang road, downtown of Shanghai. The client wishes to have a place for the slow life in contrast with the daily fast-paced life. We approached the project by making a gentle sequence, from the entrance shop, long tea bar, dining area to the lounge room at the end.  © Alessandro Wang  © Alessandro Wang The project is located on the 1st floor of a commercial complex. The main entrance is set up on the inner side of the shopping complex, framed by copper, another interpretation of their brand color. The door is recessed and open to the side, in order to welcome the guest gently into the shop. The lower display, together with translucent fabric softly hides space behind, and shift the passage to the side.  © Alessandro Wang The long timber counter, almost takes the full length of the side, serves Chinese tea in the daytime and cocktail at the night. Above the counter, the half-vaulted ceiling with copper pendant lightnings creates a cozy atmosphere. Behind the counter, we used uneven wall relief, which gives different expression according to the natural light.  © Alessandro Wang The main dining space is 4.8 m high with exposed ceiling. We designed a table and chairs set like a round cake which can be stood for party or display for an event in the center.  © Alessandro Wang The lounge room with vaulted ceiling is located on the deepest place from the main entrance. With folding doors, it suits for activities such as meeting, event and private party.  © Alessandro Wang  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| REHAU Design Haus / Taylor Knights Posted: 27 Nov 2018 09:00 AM PST  © Peter Clarke
 © Peter Clarke Text description provided by the architects. Set in a rustic red-brick warehouse, REHAU's Design Haus is not your ordinary showroom. Founded in Germany in 1948, REHAU is best known for their quality doors & windows and a vast range of interior finishes. Launching their first showroom in Melbourne, they provided us with a simple design statement; they were seeking to create a space where visitors felt like they were stepping into their own dream home – familiar, comfortable, lush, light-filled, and open.  © Peter Clarke  Floor Plans Option 1  © Peter Clarke With the selection of an impressive warehouse space in South Melbourne, it was essential to celebrate the existing heritage bones; which meant, stripping back obsolete items and starting with a clean slate. Steering away from the traditional showroom approach, we have sought to contextualize finishes and present them in a familiar and engaging setting, allowing visitors to interact with products and get a sense of their inherent quality.  Floor Plans Option 2 Spatially, the approach involves a series of follies; tied together with robust finishes of steelwork, terrazzo, and the warmth of American oak hardwood. An enclosed steel framed pod, elevated lounge, and the structural feat -a giant custom planter suspended from the existing roof structure with cascading greenery – all playful and engaging offerings for staff and customers to enjoy alike  © Peter Clarke  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Urban Amenities / Sports Lot / Ricardo Sanz Sosa & Rodrigo Marín Briceño Posted: 27 Nov 2018 08:00 AM PST  © José Alberto Bastidas
 © José Alberto Bastidas Text description provided by the architects. Amenidades Urbanas (Urban Amenities) was a Project launched in 2015 by Caracas’ Municipality, together with Misión Saber y Trabajo (Knowledge and Work Social Mission), the organization of Pico Collective, and with the support of the organized community from the area.  © José Alberto Bastidas An urban rehabilitation project, which started from the new spaces that resulted from the construction of social housing in Caracas’s Bolivar Avenue.  © José Alberto Bastidas The new areas were defined as recreation public spaces and classified according to a predominating use. Initial designs were chosen through a national competition by a team of experts together with community representatives.  © José Alberto Bastidas The work presented in this publication corresponds to the sports sector of the project. We tried to give solutions for the most common activities of recreation and workout of Venezuelan citizens, understood more like ludic dynamics that promote communal cohesion and health, rather than competition and professional  © José Alberto Bastidas Indeed, in a lot where small dimensions hardly admitted sportsmanship in a strict sense, it made more sense to offer a group of activities articulated in a flexible way that gave response to the different interests of the neighbors.  © José Alberto Bastidas The two elements that where systematically used were concrete for surfaces, and steel, for the devices.  © Ricardo Sanz The first element builds an artificial topography of delicate steps and slopes that solves the connections between the street and the building, planters, benches and anchors for the steel structures. It proposes as well themes such as the skating ramp, and the ping-pong table, as a sculptural massive piece that may survive the  © José Alberto Bastidas The second element is presented as a continuous structural pipe that runs through the place, goes up and down, surrounds a tree, and determines space, orienting the promenades and suggesting uses. Parallel bars, a handrail, a skating rail; there’s a structure that supports a basket, and some swings that hang protected  © Mariluz Volcán The multiplicity and flexibility of the solution aims to satisfy all ages. Teenagers and adults who wish to strengthen their physical condition find a place in the open sky gymnasium idea. However, at the same time, the ambiguous definition of limits, builds a playing platform able to receive the always-changing aspiration of  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| RidgeView House / Zack de Vito Architecture + Construction Posted: 27 Nov 2018 06:00 AM PST  © Cesar Rubio
 © Cesar Rubio Text description provided by the architects. The RidgeView House sits atop the western edge of the Vaca Range overlooking St. Helena and the Napa Valley. The house is perched on a ridge with valley views to the west and forest views to the east, nestled amongst the natural rock outcroppings, and native Oak and Manzanita trees.  © Cesar Rubio  Site plan  © Cesar Rubio  Floor plans  © Cesar Rubio Every room uses doors, windows and materials to visually and spatially integrate inside and outside spaces, enhance the views and vistas and bathe the interior in natural light. The structure is exposed and interior materials contrast elegance and strength, the exterior has a natural palette of materials- concrete, corten and cedar- left to patina and blend into the California flora. Details are expressive of materials and craft, of the designer and craftsman.  © Cesar Rubio  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Kozlowski + Cardia Design Floating Tree Branch Pavilion for Expo 2020 Posted: 27 Nov 2018 05:00 AM PST  Brazil Pavilion. Image Courtesy of Gabriel Kozlowski Architect Gabriel Kozlowski has partnered with Gringo Cardia, Bárbara Graeff, and Tripper Arquitetura to design a structure of floating tree branches for the Brazil pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. The pavilion is inspired by one of the greatest technological achievements of Brazil: the improvement of the Direct Planting System over straw. The design conceptually mimics this scheme through its layered arrangement - soil, an entanglement of protection, productivity - presenting itself as both a building and a symbolic image.  Brazil Pavilion. Image Courtesy of Gabriel Kozlowski Historically, the pavilion is mirrored in the rich Brazilian tradition at International Expos, subtly borrowing from the masterpieces of Paulo Mendes da Rocha at Osaka 1970 and from Sérgio Bernardes at Brussels 1958. The building explores the plastic potential of laminated timber as a structure - renewable material that sequesters carbon rather than releasing it - and of the rammed earth mixed with reinforced concrete - which lowers its energy of production and the absorption of heat. The pavilion produces its own energy, recycles its own water, and makes the use of air conditioning unnecessary by combining the constant flow of air through an open façade.  Brazil Pavilion. Image Courtesy of Gabriel Kozlowski The ground floor is free and opens up under the protection of an inverted topography that floats above it. This continuous entrance pavement hosts the exhibition Together for Nature,which is organized around 6 walls, representing the 6 main Brazilian biomes. The walls are combined with the soils of each biome and surrounded by totems containing the seeds of their native species, narrating a tactile history of the foundations of Brazil through colors and textures. The ascent to the upper exhibitions takes place under an oculus that connects the ground floor directly to the sky. Inside a tangle of tree branches, visitors find the Together for People exhibit. Displayed on the inner facades, it showcases ethnic diversity with the faces of people and the sounds of indigenous villages.  Brazil Pavilion. Image Courtesy of Gabriel Kozlowski After experiencing the textures of the seeds, the roughness of branches on the façade and the coldness of water, after diving into the sounds of Brazil's oldest villages and learning about the future of how Brazilians relate to water, visitors enjoy a viewing space and restaurant that crown the rooftop of the pavilion. In this pavilion there is no distinction between outside and inside, between building and exhibition, between sustainability and technology, all together form a single sensory-cognitive experience that describes the richness and progress of Brazil.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Hôpital Vétérinaire du Parc / Thomas Balaban Architect Posted: 27 Nov 2018 04:00 AM PST  © Adrien Williams / T B A
 © Adrien Williams / T B A Text description provided by the architects. A mixed-use renovation and extension, HVdP squeezes a state-of-the-art veterinarian hospital, SPCA emergency clinic, and four residential units in and on top of a small abandoned photo studio.  © Adrien Williams / T B A Redefining the veterinary experience for the Mile End neighbourhood, the dilapidated storefront space and dark basement are brought to life with a calming minimal palette juxtaposed against existing raw surfaces and generous glazed partitions. Utilitarian materials work within the neighbourhood's aesthetic and the specific needs of a veterinary clinic. Stone foundations, concrete wainscoting and ceramic tiling protect the lower part of the walls required to be resistant to animal wear and tear, whereas milky polycarbonate ceiling panels hide a complex mechanical system revealing only modest graphic lighting.  © Adrien Williams / T B A Technical spaces are efficiently organized around a central circulation spine, allowing for a spacious reception where animals and owners alike can circulate freely. Friendly custom furniture in Corian and orchestrated glimpses through glazed partitions seek to ease anxiety and subvert traditional doctor/client/patient formality.  © Adrien Williams / T B A Building renovation and extension  Structure Integral to the design is a central courtyard that funnels natural light into the center of the structure and provides efficient access and ventilation for all of the residential units. The upper units occupy two floors, with the front giving onto a large private roof top terrace overlooking Montreal's Mount Royal.  © Adrien Williams / T B A  Section  © Adrien Williams / T B A On the exterior, the building is restrained and monochromatic. The façade is clad in a single material, a grid of local limestone quarried 50 km away. A tripartite stacking plays on the city's layered façades, delineating the residential units through tiered setbacks over a generous glass storefront. Subtle aluminum details surround windows and doors, and finely perforated guardrails fade into the monochromatic background. Fully glazed balconies are punched into the façade giving tenants' added privacy while streamlining the building's form.  © Adrien Williams / T B A  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| UNESCO and UIA to begin Designating Cities as "World Capitals of Architecture" Posted: 27 Nov 2018 03:00 AM PST  © Shutterstock UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA) have announced the launch of a "World Capitals of Architecture" initiative, seeking to create a "synergy between culture and architecture in an increasingly urbanized world." Cities designated as World Capitals of Architecture will become a global forum for discussion on the world's most pressing challenges "through the prism of culture, heritage, urban planning, and architecture." UNESCO and UIA will collaborate with local city organizations to organize activities and events promoting buildings, architects, planners, and related sectors.
The initiative is a response to Goal 11 of the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, to "make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable." As more people continue to move to cities, the initiative reflects a commitment by UNESCO and UIA to mobilize governments, preserve heritage, and adapt to climate change and mass urbanization.
News via: International Union of Architects  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| North Fork Bluff House / Resolution: 4 Architecture Posted: 27 Nov 2018 02:00 AM PST  Courtesy of Resolution: 4 Architecture
 Courtesy of Resolution: 4 Architecture Text description provided by the architects. Located in Mattituck on the North Fork in Long Island, this modular, prefab home is designed as a multi-generational retreat for three siblings, their families, and their parents. The home is composed of four modular units that were fabricated in Scranton, Pennsylvania then shipped and set in place at the home's site that looks out over a bluff to the Long Island Sound.  Courtesy of Resolution: 4 Architecture Two of the modules contain four equitably sized bedrooms, each with their own bathroom, for the respective families. The other two modules are combined together to form the home's entry and an open kitchen, dining, and living space with a media room at one end and a music room to the opposite side. The modules are built above a basement that houses a playroom and two bunkrooms for the kids. The living space opens up to a rear pool deck, featuring a barbeque zone and long, built-in benches for lounging, providing multiple zones for all of the family members to congregate.  Courtesy of Resolution: 4 Architecture  Floor Plans  Courtesy of Resolution: 4 Architecture A large overhead canopy shades the roof deck, featuring a wood-burning fireplace and additional outdoor lounging space. On one side of the roof is a putting green for the grandfather and on the opposite side is a bocce court. In total, the house contains 5,100 square feet of living space on three levels with six bedrooms and five bathrooms. It was completed in 2017.  Courtesy of Resolution: 4 Architecture  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Design Criticism Ignores the Places that it Could Help the Most Posted: 27 Nov 2018 01:30 AM PST  Growing economies- and the inspiration of Western style architectural wealth - has led to the development of areas such as these across the world. This example, in Ordos, Mongolia, was built for a prospective population that never quite came.. Image © Raphael Olivier This article was originally published on CommonEdge as "The Design Media Needs to Examine its Own Privilege." Kate Wagner grew up in rural North Carolina. As a kid, her mom, who never went to college, worked in a grocery store deli and later in childcare. Her dad had a steady government job with a pension, and his time in the military meant he had the resources and benefits needed to get a college degree. Wagner describes her economic background as "one foot in the working class and one foot in the middle class, and it was always a negotiation between those two classes." They were, she says, "just normal-ass American people."
In high school, her interest in architecture was sparked after taking a career aptitude test which told her she should become an architect, and she became intrigued with Modern architecture by browsing books at the school library. Later, she was shocked that there was no blog devoted to the urtext of late capitalist American excess—the McMansion. She found McMansions to be inherently funny and also fascinating. "I find them very effective vehicles for teaching about design, because there is just so much wrong with them," she says. In 2016, she started posting memes mocking McMansions on her blog, McMasnion Hell, wringing mocking derision as well as pathos from each superfluous dormer, bloated cupola, and misshapen window. The blog went viral and Wagner was invited to do TED Talks and riff on architecture in film by New York Magazine. She followed up her blog with incisive critical analysis that situated McMansions as postmodern icons of consumption and commodification, and offered populist reconsiderations of historic preservation as viewed through Internet social media culture, and more. Throughout, Wagner found ways to examine a prosaic element of our built environment (big box stores, ranch houses, McMansions) and place them in a specific cultural and economic context. She did this in a way that tore down the high/low culture dichotomy that exists between extremely online meme-roasting and arcane tomes of architectural criticism. It might be what Bob Venturi would be doing had he been born in the Clinton Administration. In a short time, Wagner has earned a spot as the leading edge of a new generation of design critics.  A typical post of McMansion Hell. Wagner's take on criticism is decidedly open, from the language to the subject material. Image via CommonEdge Wagner's career path is not replicable. Her most enthusiastic boosters (I am one) would tell you that she's redefined architectural criticism in a way that's only possible once a generation. That's what she had to do to walk through the door. And when she did, she discovered that the people that had already crossed this threshold had backgrounds that were nothing like hers. "The reason I got into design writing was because my blog went viral, and that's a very different origin story than most people," she says. Colleagues that write about design and architecture for a living are far more likely to come from upper-middle class homes or better, often with a familial connection to the architecture and design world, and the elite institutions (educational or otherwise) that serve it. Ask a few questions, and a great many design writers had grandparents that met at Yale or some such place, and were born into contexts where knowledge of this relatively esoteric realm of cultural production was something they were raised alongside. Unsurprisingly, these defining characteristics means the design media corps are also overwhelmingly white.  via CommonEdge I can relate to Wagner, though I likely had it easier. I grew up the child of a single mother public school teacher, and my mom was the first and only person in her family to graduate from college. My parents divorced when I was 8, and after their divorce I moved from rural Iowa to a working-class neighborhood in Des Moines, next door to a soybean processing plant, the freeway, and a flood basin. I went to public schools, and most of the kids in my elementary school were on free and reduced lunch. About one-half of my freshman high school class dropped out before graduation, and most didn't go to college. I attended a large state-run university for college and never went to grad school. The only unpaid internship I ever took was one I saved up for by working. But outside of Wagner, I have very seldom met another design writer who came from a similarly humble station in life. I've been writing about architecture for more than a decade, and Wagner and I are rarities. And yet, I'm quite sure I grew up with more privilege than most Americans. First, I'm white and male, which speaks for a lot. But also, my existence was modest but very stable, with cash for a few flourishes. My parents encouraged (and could pay for) artistic pursuits, and I got a fantastic public education. My dad is a bonsai tree artist in rural Iowa, which is nowhere close to lucrative, but early on instilled the value of building your life around the refinement of craft and aesthetics. And there are numerous other lucky breaks and (seemingly) ancillary privileges that have allowed me to shape my career in this way. So if the design media is drawing largely from the socio-economic strata of people above me, then it's drawing from an absolutely miniscule segment of the population that is in no way representative of the whole. If Wagner came from "normal-ass American people" and doesn't recognize anyone in her current station, it's a grim indication that the design media (like many segments of the broader media) isn't opening its door to median Americans often enough. This phenomena is common to the arts media, drama media, or any other number of creative sub-fields. (After studying music and getting a degree in acoustics, Wagner says the music world is downright "aristocratic," and far less inclusive than design.) This is a particularly dangerous dynamic for the architecture and design media, because unlike art or music or dance, architecture and design are functional things required for life. You can ignore a museum exhibition at a museum or an opera, but you can't ignore the built environment because it's gifted (or inflicted) on all people at all times. And that means the public needs architectural interpreters (journalists) who can reach beyond cloistered discourse and speak to a broad audience. The best way to do this, it would seem, would be to make sure you're recruiting from this broad public. There are no trends in the overall media that don't also filter down to the design journalism niche, and a common refrain here is that the media would have the resources and time to focus on being more diverse if it was not hemorrhaging money and stumbling between rounds of mass layoffs. As such, the overarching world of journalism is stubbornly un-diverse. According to the Columbia Journalism Review(CJR), an annual ASNE newsroom diversity survey showed that Latino and non-whites made up 12 percent of newspaper editorial staff in 2000, but by 2016 this number had increased only slightly, to 17 percent. (The country is currently 38 percent Latino or non-white.) And asking these questions of the media is rather taboo. When CJR reached out to 15 national news outlets for information on the gender and racial composition of its political press corps during the 2016 election season, only four responded in full. It's not surprising, then, that a 2014 study from the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that merely 25 percent of African-Americans and 33 percent of Hispanics reported that the news media accurately represented their communities. Most of the analysis and study here is focused on racial diversity, and that's no surprise, considering how little class consciousness there is in America, where people nearing desperation's doorstep and coasting on generations of accumulated wealth both claim to be middle class. But there is this bit from CJR, quoting Meg Fair, who made more money from working at a pizzeria than she did writing for her alt-weekly, Pittsburgh City Paper, that speaks specifically to the media's blindness to class background: "The more newsrooms are diverse class-wise, the more fruitful and intersectional coverage will be. If you don't have a single person in your newsroom who comes from a blue-collar background, or knows what it's like to wipe down tables at the end of night, they'll never be able to empathize when they're writing stories about things like workers' movements, or communities displaced by gentrification. If you don't have that experience, or at least [a connection] to someone that does, it's easier to turn a blind eye to the multidimensional struggles people have." I'll simply note here that "gentrification" is often understood as an explicitly architectural phenomena. All these barriers to entry are intensified by the specificity of the design media. In a smaller universe of publications and editors, there are just fewer on-ramps for people outside of its traditional ranks. And the many rounds of media consolidation, in both the overall media and the design media, have concentrated jobs in New York, an exceptionally expensive city out of reach for those with modest resources. The emergence of the Internet as a primary medium for architectural discourse has enabled a louder multiplicity of voices (like Wagner), but these low-barrier-to-entry platforms seldom pay well. Meanwhile, ad revenue scrambled by social media's lock on our attention lessens the ability of the newspapers still standing to pay for grand, authorial architecture critics, a model that seems likely to go extinct in my lifetime. Given the relatively niche interest the public has in architecture and design (more on this apparent limitation in a bit), design publications can seldom offer compensation levels that young journalists without a financial cushion from their parents need to survive. To get new design journalists into the fold, they need to develop two distinct sets of skills and knowledge. First, are the fundamentals of writing and reporting. But second, they also have to ground themselves in their professional subfield, to learn their Frank Gehry from their Frank Lloyd Wright, and their pilotis from their pediments. And if you don't grow up in a design-savvy home where you were introduced to this body of knowledge early on, you have to perform some alchemical feat to gather this information and get established (like Wagner), or luck into one of the dwindling handful of entry level jobs still available, as I did. The closer I look at my own professional biography, the more I notice how I was different from the norm. But I also can't overlook advantages I had that make it near impossible for those further down social scale to repeat my path. While Wagner struck gold with "a bolt from the blue," she says, I worked through institutions. I was the sort of kid that always did all of the required reading, and genuinely loved writing papers getting good grades on them. My mom put them up on the fridge, and I liked that too, so I just never stopped. I studied journalism in college, which I graduated from with no debt. (This was quite a long time ago.) I wrote about music and film, and got the perfunctory small-town newspaper job in rural Missouri (editorial staff of two) where I did not write about music and film. I moved to Philadelphia for an unpaid alt-weekly internship, and did the normal things one does in this situation, like live in an apartment with no chairs and rely on 50 cent soft pretzels from a foot cart for lunch. When the internship ended, I moved to Washington, DC, to look for arts writing gigs, to crash with my then-girlfriend (now wife) who was working on Capitol Hill after clawing her own way through a longer series of unpaid internships. Without that connection and the ability to live rent free in a place where they were hiring architecture writers, I never would have found my way into a cub reporter type job at the American Institute of Architects. (There was a staff of five full-time editors and reporters working with me when I started in 2007, and much fewer when I left 7 years later.) The most I knew about architectural journalism was that David Remnick paid someone in the New Yorker to write about it every once in a while, so it might be a thing. I gave it a shot, and I had a salary and a 401(k). I realized pretty quickly I won the lottery, and that my professional milieu was going to be radically different from the working class environs I'd grown up in. This feeling was heightened in 2008, when I had a place to wait out the recession amid small plates and craft beer while the rest of the economy fell apart.  Kolson Hurley on holiday with her father at Stonehenge. Image via CommonEdge In DC, I met Amanda Kolson Hurley, then an editor at Architect Magazine now an editor at The Atlantic's CityLab, where I've often written for her. And her path and background is more standard for design writers. She grew up in Northern Virginia, attending a private high school, and later getting degrees from St. Andrews in Scotland and the University of Bristol in England. Her dad was a political science professor that studied urban histories and planning. She remembers childhood trips to see Native American ancient mound sites, alongside visits to architectural mainstays like Fallingwater. "Even though my father was not involved in the profession, it was absolutely part of my awareness growing up, and its part of the reason that I ended up doing what I'm doing," she says. But even with her international education pedigree, Kolson Hurley finds the intercontinental set of biennale and triennial exhibitions and the revolving door of globe-trotting architecture curators daunting. "There's this unstated but widely and totally assumed familiarity with cities outside the US, often around the world," she says. The assumptions is that, for design and architecture writers, "You know, say, different neighborhoods in London. You have been to Paris. You have been to Rome." (I haven't, and you can make an argument that a city I'm far more familiar with—Des Moines, Iowa—is in much more dire need of design criticism.) "I feel like I'm pretty well-traveled, and I had some really good fortune in life," she says. "If I feel like this, I can't imagine how it would feel for somebody that was the first in their family to go to college who didn't have a lot of travel opportunities."  Courtesy of La Biennale de Venezia This current scope and breadth of the design media can be viewed as giving a narrow but loyal audience what they want. But it simultaneously limits its reach, says Kolson Hurley. "What's deemed as important is decided by a culture that's pretty narrow," she says. "The people writing about the topic are so closely intertwined with the people producing the culture that it's very circular, and the logic is not discernable to the people on the outside. It imposes these narrow priorities on what content gets produced that miss opportunities to connect with a larger audience, as blogs like Wagner's show." Kolson Hurley's experience across trade media, as a well-traveled freelancer, and the wider audience of The Atlantic also points to a key question: Who is the design media serving? (She's quick to point out that her gripes with the elite internationalism of the design media were arrived at before her time with The Atlantic's CityLab.) Within professional journals or any publication that's primarily serving architects and designers, there needs to be space for intra-disciplinary discourse and experimentation. These sorts of publications are the breeding grounds for new ideas that are critical to keeping creative fields fresh and vital, and puzzling arcana that's not immediately explicable to the general populace is appropriate. But for a broader group, publications that don't invite a wide swath of the public in to tell their stories risks creeping irrelevancy. This lack of economic and racial diversity often manifests itself through design coverage that presents buildings, landscapes, and more as purely aesthetic objects or lifestyle choices. It's getting better, but when designers do get involved with disadvantaged communities, it's often presented as technocratic experts handing out goodies to rubes, and we almost always hear more from the technocrats than the rubes. And the sum total of design media produced over the decades is an encyclopedic list of Things that Rich People Care About. That's why we know scads of information about museums, luxury housing, and skyscrapers, and almost nothing about, say, Reconstruction Era African-American cemeteries, which are an incredibly vulnerable and historic cultural landscape that almost no one has written about.Wagner's rapid success at critically, accessibly, and often hilariously examining the bog-standard American built environment is the herald of a larger failure. "What I did should not have been disruptive," she says. "It should not have made the waves it did. The reason it was so effective was because things have been stagnant in the design media for so long." .jpg?1543247687 "© Federica Babina") © Federica Babina And as a card-carrying member of this group, it's time to accept some responsibility for this myself. I understand the examples above from personal experience. I'm also complicit in handing over advantages that may well crowd out others with less means; namely, I'm the dad of a toddler who sleeps beneath Federico Babina prints hung over her crib; OMA's Casa da Musica in Porto as a winking pig and the Guggenheim in New York as a smiling snail. It's a mantle she could pick up, and this time around I'd be fully aware of how the machinery of privilege opens doors for her and shuts them for others. As to what can be done to mitigate these blind spots in the design media, a broader base for design literacy, perhaps integrated into K-12 education, would help. And there should be more on-ramps to both the design and media world, so that they might meet in the middle. Non-profits like Territory in Chicago, for example, work to empower public school students in low-income neighborhoods to diagnose gaps and deficiencies in their native urban fabric, designing and building place-making installations and pavilions. And there's Princeton's Summer Journalism Program, which invites low-income high school students onto campus for an intensive 10-day seminar hosted by professional journalists. Recruiting more outside of traditional design media and raising the economic floor for young design journalists could also make a difference. Paying interns and establishing fellowships for recent grads would open up opportunities for writers that otherwise would have to defy great odds to get their interpretation and critique of the designed world heard. Lee Bey was the first, last, and only African-American architecture critic. That's a portrayal he sometimes shies away from because, he says, it's a "description of institutions' racism, not my achievement." From 1996 till 2001, he was the Chicago Sun-Times architecture critic, and has since worked in academia, at cultural institutions, in city government, and at architecture firms. He's currently assembling a book of his photography of South Side architecture, and remains an indispensable member of the design community in Chicago. A South Side native that came from a working-class family, whose parents didn't go to college, it's hard to think of another design writer that has crossed as many barriers as Bey. His family had no explicit connection to the architecture and design world, though his dad was an amateur architecture buff. Bey remembers his dad taking him to see the Sears Tower while it was under construction.  The Prairie Shores Development in Bronzeville, Chicago . Image Bey's own experiences illustrate how vital it is that the design media let a wide swath of people criticize and interpret the built environment. African-Americans, he says, experience space differently. If you're black, space is often contested and exclusionary, from Chicago's deep history quasi-state sanctioned violence aimed at persevering segregation, to the murder of Trayvon Martin, singled out by a vigilante for appearing to be somewhere he just didn't belong. It's seldom hard to find an explicit and often violent interest in delineating exactly where black people can be. It's an intrusion I've never faced when, say, I'm touring around a predominantly black neighborhood, gawking at its architecture. And you can read this racist and classist urge to control and manage architecturally, through the legacy of red lining, through the design and placement of public housing, and via the history of urban renewal. For those on the outside, the built environment is a measure of inequality itself. "Being African-American, you are constantly aware of buildings, space, architecture, all of that," Bey says. "If you're black, this is contested. Growing up in the 70s in Chicago, the parks on my side of the city, even though they were Olmsted-designed parks, clearly looked different and were maintained differently than parks on the North Side of the city. My greystones were raggedy. Their greystones were not." There aren't many stories of systemic racism and classism that don't have built environment components, and can be interpreted through design media. The disastrous history of urban renewal could probably only unfold as it did when the people most affected by it are kept away from the public discourse about it. Bey mentions the history of Englewood Plaza, which ripped out a bustling shopping district deep in the South Side in the late 60s, and replaced it with a half-installed suburban-style pedestrian mall surrounded by a partial ring road and moat of parking lots, which went broke within 20 years. But there are countless examples. Mid-century architects and planners often saw poor and minority communities as in need of paternalistic shepherding at best, or as fungible inconveniences at worst. And make no mistake, these communities are already having these conversations whether they're listened to or not. One place they're happening is Bey's Facebook page, which hosts the most inclusive and diverse discussion on architecture I've ever seen. When he posts photos of Chicago architectural curios or b-sides (like this particularly beautiful block on Chicago far West Side neighborhood of Austin), some people like me might chime in with a bit of professional commentary, but there'll be a lot more neighbors and friends sharing their memories and recollections of the place in explicitly architectural terms. Bey says this group skews white, though not by much. "Black folk," he says, "are talkin' about it."  Courtesy of TWBTA. ImageThe Obama Library After the Obama Foundation seized public parkland designed by Frederick Law Olmsted on the South Side for the Obama Presidential Center, Bey noticed a preponderance of articulate and well-informed design commentary springing up. "If you walk the streets and talk to people, folk are talking about issues of urbanism," he says. "What is the parkland going to be like? Why does the tower have to be so tall? These are people we could consider laymen, but they're wrestling with these issues, and I wish their voices could be heard, not just as quotes in a news stories, but as part of the body of things being written about this library." No matter how progressive and enlightened the design media's values are, this issue of authorship can only really be addressed by diversifying its ranks. Anjulie Rao, editor of AIA Chicago's Chicago Architect, says coverage is becoming more cognizant of putting architecture in a social context. There's more opportunity to explain how architecture is "impacting people's ability to thrive in the world," she says. "But I don't think they're being made by the people who have actually been affected by them. We have an opportunity to tell the story of how places affect people, and the more diverse [a group of] people we have telling their own stories, the better." Rao says the culture of architecture and design is itself becoming more diverse and inclusive. "There are very clearly people with money who are making decisions. It's clubby. They exist in this cute world of nice houses. Some of them are elitist, but they're dying. That group of people is dying off, and it's giving more power to people who [are] working in the architectural world and may actually be thinking about better ways of doing it." There's a rising class of emerging designers and practices in Chicago (several of which are founded by women of color) who display their progressive values unabashedly, and use architecture as a way to both frame discussions around inequity and find solutions to it. Local examples include Paola Aguirre's Borderless and Chicago Architecture Biennial standout Amanda Williams, though they certainly have many parallels in other cities. By covering them, Rao is hopeful that the design media might absorb some of their values. We don't definitively know how un-diverse and un-representative the design media is right now, but we do have the advantage of starting this conversation at a time when some segments of the population are more open to interrogating their own privilege and finding ways to ameliorate the resulting inequalities. We're a ways away from quantitative numbers on who we are. But I don't know of any other way to gather this data and start this conversation than by beginning with our own stories. And if we don't start telling this story and rectifying it, the broader public won't listen to the next one we tell.
_Theory_Suite__2014%E2%80%9316._Courtesy_of_the_artist_and_McCormick_Gallery__.jpg?1543247746 "Amanda Williams' work in Chicago. Image © Courtesy of the Amanda Williams and McCormick Gallery") Amanda Williams' work in Chicago. Image © Courtesy of the Amanda Williams and McCormick Gallery  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Wilkins Terrace / Levitt Bernstein Posted: 27 Nov 2018 12:00 AM PST  © Ben Blossom
 © Ben Blossom Text description provided by the architects. Through UCL's masterplan, Levitt Bernstein identified an opportunity to create a new courtyard terrace above an existing service yard. As well as providing a high-quality outdoor space for staff and students, this opens up a new east-west route to improve accessibility across campus. The existing service yard had become unsightly but was overlooked by a number of important university buildings. The challenge was to connect these disparate elements with one cohesive design – all the more problematic considering the Wilkins Building is Grade I listed.  Plan Quite apart from the creation of the new terrace, there were a number of practical issues to be solved: providing good access and maintaining services to the surrounding buildings. Levitt Bernstein enclosed the service yard as an undercroft, allowing the external space above to form a new flexible terrace, with a shadow gap to minimize the impact on the historic building fabric. The terrace's lower level serves the new Lower Refectory, which is linked by a new lift and grand staircase.  © Ben Blossom A new 'fourth façade' in Portland stone completes the composition, using London stock brick to create a harmonious relationship with surrounding buildings. Designed to classical proportions, this also conceals the myriad services required for the Lower Refectory. Other building elevations were also restored and decluttered. New classical planting, including large pleached trees and climbing wisteria, complements and provides a softening frontage to the built form. A number of edible species also allow staff and students to further interact with the new space, be it through flowers, herbs or fruit trees.  Axonometry A steel frame superstructure and composite concrete slab form the basis of the construction, with a mixture of load bearing and hung Portland stone cladding used for the terrace and fourth façade. Professor Susan Collins, Director, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, said: "The success of this magical, elegant new space, conjured out of what was an old physics yard, is that it manages to feel new, contemporary and uplifting whilst being so sympathetic to the original architecture that it feels as though it's always been here."  © Ben Blossom  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Frank Gehry's Jagged Aluminum Luma Arles Takes Shape in France Posted: 26 Nov 2018 11:45 PM PST .jpg?1543322326 "© Hervé Hôte") © Hervé Hôte New photography by Hervé Hôte has been released, showcasing the Frank Gehry-designed Luma Arles complex as construction continues in the French town of Arles. The arts center, situated on a former SNCF rail yard, will offer exhibition, research, education, and archive space within a 46-meter-tall, aluminum tile-clad tower. Constructed from a concrete core and steel frame, the scheme emerges from a circular glass atrium echoing the town's Roman amphitheater. The distinctive jagged form above the atrium echoes the region's rugged mountain ranges, with glass boxes extruding from reflective aluminum panels. .jpg?1543322226 "© Hervé Hôte") © Hervé Hôte The scheme forms part of a complex with six existing industrial buildings, five of which are being restored by Selldorf Architects. The site will be located within a public park designed by bas smets, reactivating a site which has been abandoned since 1986. A selection of images of the Gehry-designed scheme under construction has been collated below. The center is due to open in Spring 2020. .jpg?1543322549 "© Hervé Hôte") © Hervé Hôte .jpg?1543322671 "© Hervé Hôte") © Hervé Hôte .jpg?1543322739 "© Hervé Hôte") © Hervé Hôte .jpg?1543322396 "© Hervé Hôte") © Hervé Hôte  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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