From the architect. The house is located on a corner site at the bottom of a sloping road in a residential district with some remaining natural elements, in the southeast region of Sapporo City, Hokkaido. The site naturally has a 1.4-meter gap at the ground level, but we chose to keep it untouched at an early stage due to the limited budget. After considering several schemes, we finalized a split level scheme utilizing the 1.4-meter gap, equivalent to 1/2 of the floor height, without much difficulty.
Firstly we placed a two-story box on a site, which is an appropriate volume to accommodate all requirements, with its corner directed towards the lowest point of the site. Then we set a circulation route, which makes a spiral rotating clockwise on the corner site. The spiral elevates itself and enters the box, and all spaces including private room, living room, bathroom etc. are provided along the circulation route, creating the split-level composition. Each split level offers a different viewpoint. Moving along the circulation route, one’s view expands or gets obstructed, and consequently the field of his/her spatial perception expands or gets compressed. Such spatial transformation will trigger changes in density between family members and their community.
Everyone deserves the extra daylight that June 21 brings, including those who are stuck indoors, especially at work.
In celebration of the longest day of the year, Solatube International, the worldwide leading manufacturer and marketer of Tubular Daylighting Devices (TDDs), created National Daylight Appreciation Day (June 21 each year) as a way to increase awareness about the benefits of incorporating daylight into all aspects of our lives.
From the architect. In 2012 Architetti senza Frontiere was involved by the Association Missione Possibile onlus in building a new secondary school in the Roong village, in Takeo province, 50 km south of Phnom Penh, in a agricultural area characterized by a strong industrial transformation.
Missione Possible onlus has been operating since 2005 in Cambodia through education and health projects. In the village Missione Possibile has built the primary school requiring today the opening of a new secondary school to accompany the students to complete the course of study.
The building designed has dimensions of 62.80 m x 10.20 m, and is placed to one side of the lot in order to release the rest of the area currently dedicated to the game. The location of the bathrooms defines the future expansion area of the school that will host educational workshops and divide the open space into two separate courtyards: one for the main game and the smaller one for teaching outdoors.
The project was an opportunity to assess the spatial hierarchies within the school building. From a typological point of view, the building presents a classical structure of linear block with six classrooms distributed by a hallway/porch.
Design attention has been focused on the elements that define and separate the different spaces of the school: classroom, distribution, and backyard. If the classroom is the place of teaching the corridor represents a place of encounter and of sociability that, in modern pedagogy, is gaining more importance.
For this reason the project enhances this space beyond the specific distribution functions through the size and the character of the space. The hallway/porch measures more than 3 meters wide and five meters high at the hipped roof. Two open-air rooms are added to the corridor interrupting the sequence of classrooms and enriching the nature of the connective space. During the rainy season or during the hottest months the corridor has become the place to meet and play. This is also represented by the symbolic and morphological perspective: the porch and the sequences of openings are the elements that mainly characterize the appearance of the entire school.
Floor Plan
The project was an opportunity to rethink the kind of possible space connections between the classroom and hallway. The visit to the school by Giancarlo Mazzanti in Cartagena de las Indias has conveyed new opportunities. In this extraordinary building the classroom walls are made with a cement prefabricated strongly permeable mesh that changes the perception of the classroom rarefying its perimeter.
In this same perspective, we tried to reduce the separation between the classroom and hallway by the use of a series of large bamboo panels fixed. In this way we have replaced the traditional masonry with a diaphragm that favours the constant visual relationship between students and the outside with the aim of standardising educational sites to those of sociality and vice versa.
Each panel measures 3.6 meters per 1.7 and presents a variable rate in the culms of bamboo with greater intensity to the eyes than the sitting position. This device also allows a perfect cross-ventilation of the spaces.
Also the separation between the porch and the courtyard has been subject of debate. A sequence of variable size of wall, but with constant structural steps equal to 2.3 m, defines the boundary between indoors and outdoors.
The aim is to build a variable diaphragm walls that modifies the visual perception allowing more permeability in the areas facing the common spaces and less in the classrooms.
On one hand if the diaphragm between the classroom and the porch is dematerialised, on the other an element of variable intensity has been defined oddly suspended between indoor and outdoor and it leads both to the porch open towards outside and to the hallway closed towards the classrooms.
For the strange logic of identifying revenge, self-denial of poverty and the new forms of cultural colonialism, in Cambodia as in almost all developing countries the construction traditions were replaced by trivialised reiteration of Western building codes that convey the illusory dreams of wealth and prosperity. So over the time corrugated sheets, aluminium, iron and cement replaced the oldest materials.
In our project we wanted to experiment the use of local materials such as soil and bamboo and using them on contemporary forms and industrialized constructive procedures rather than traditional craft forms in order to promote greater rationalisation of the production process that is replicable and economic.
We had the rare opportunity to design (in collaboration with the local workers and associations like Building Trust International and Habitat for Humanity) all four steps of construction: material, element, component and construction system.
First of all we tried to find out the correct material, identify the most appropriate soil and look for the nearest bamboo plantation. Starting from these materials we have designed the soil block sun-dried and bamboo beams so that they were “industrialized” and easily replicable by unskilled workforce.
We designed the aggregation of individual items in constructive components such as walls and beams, and in the end we studied the details to assemble the components into a single construction system of walls and beams.
Carefully examining Glenn Murcutt’s buildings, we thought of a building that was a constant section extrusion inside which developing different processes through non-tectonic elements.
Detail
This has facilitated the standardization of structural elements and their mass production.
In the foundations the iron mesh was replaced with a mesh made by bamboo strips nailed that was laid on a polyurethane separation sheet with the land.
Soil blocks (30 x 15 with 10 cm height) were made (with the support of Habitat for Humanity) with an iron formwork that allows to achieve 16 blocks at a time in order to simplify and speed up the production.
The blocks were laid with cement mortar and have a vertical stiffening system made with round section wire blocks within which runs an iron bar 8 mm connected to the foundations which links the base with the top beam as if it was a pillar post cast in moulds to lose (the wooden formwork are construction elements that require specialized workforce).
We used a load-bearing structure in bamboo covered by fibro-cement panels for the roof. 28 bamboo beams have the same size of 11 meters that lay on three stands of different lengths, 6.60 meters for the classrooms and 3.3 meters for the porch.
The size of the lugs wrench is negligible. To test the load performance requirements we designed a beam composed of three bamboo culms connected by threaded rods. The bamboo beams are connected to the top ones through a system of iron brackets. The false ceiling made by palm leaf, softens the internal image and creates a micro air insulated chamber.
In the end the plasters were made using two distinct ways: outside we used a clay plaster added with cement and colour pigments to increase wetting effect tightness of pouring rain, while inside we used a lime plaster.
From the thermal comfort point of view some simple planning strategies were set: first, the building has one large pitched roof North oriented to decrease the angle of incidence of the sun radiant effect.
The ventilation was carefully taken into account: inner hipped roof height of over five meters favours hot air escape, while the replacement of vertical diaphragms with permeable elements such as bamboo panels facilitate horizontal ventilation.
The porch walls protect the inside from the sun and produce a microclimate that filters the transition between indoors and outdoors. The roof coverings in fibro cement of 12 mm can not be considered the most suitable material to tropical areas but, compared to metal shows better efficiency.
Very fresh classrooms even during the period of heat wave is the excellent outcome even though classrooms are too breezy during the rainy season, and light problems with the wind blown rainfall sometimes occurred.
The school cost approximately € 64,000 .00 (including toilet and well) and has a size of 740 sq.m.
Section
Trying to approximate a percentage we can believe that quantitatively over 75% of materials comes from the territory, while from the qualitative point of view the main tectonic elements (structure, walls and roof) were built using local materials, while concrete and iron were only used to foundations.
The association Missione Possibile onlus, our partner and beneficiary of the project, has accepted the challenge to experiment with a new form of school because it believes it might be a different way of teaching. And now, it’s up to them filling classrooms of meaning and providing Cambodian teens with a new local development opportunity.
From the architect. How can you get a multitude of spaces out of only one?
Susaloon is a minimal intervention in a domestic space to convert Susana’s home into a flexible and transformable space.
Axonometric
The project development comprises three simple strategies. The first one is an acupuncture operation to adapt the configuration of the space to the needs of its inhabitant, relocating certain household items to optimise the distribution and everyday use.
The second strategy involves opening up certain divisions to extend some spaces such as the living room. There will thus be more natural lighting and wonderful views of the Madrid horizon for the inhabitable spaces.
Floor Plan
The third strategy is the integration of a series of fold-down and sliding devices that are used to divide the spaces, deploy a work space, a large dining table, a bed for a surprise guest, a spacious area to practice shiatsu or to reorganise the storage space.
As a result, the main space of the house is configured like the black box in a theatre: a stage that can alter the domestic setting with simple operations that turn one house into many.
Known as both an architect and an engineer, Pier Luigi Nervi (June 21, 1891-January 9, 1979) explored the limitations of reinforced concrete by creating a variety of inventive structural projects; in the process, he helped to show the material had a place in architecture movements of the coming years. Nervi began his career in a time of technological revolution, and through his ambition and ability to recognize opportunity in the midst of challenge, he was able to have an impact on several disciplines and cultures.
Nervi was born in Sondrino, Italy, and studied Civil Engineering at the University of Bologna until 1913. From even the earliest days of his career, Nervi had an incredible artistic sensibility which informed his design decisions. With this natural talent for design, the fact that he never studied architecture at a university never seemed to hinder his architecture. Shortly after graduating, Nervi went to work for a construction company, but left after a few years to co-found the building firm Nervi and Nebbiosi, which would later become Nervi and Bartoli. [1]
Despite his bold designs, Nervi's approach to design was fairly practical. According to the Pier Luigi Nervi Project, "Nervi based his work on sound design and construction experience and on an intelligent intuitiveness, with a permanent intense attention to the relationships between structure and shape." [2] The architect developed a method of building scale models to test some of his more radical structural systems, and even won commissions (such as the Stadio Artemio Franchi) because of his ability to keep costs down. [1]
Reinforced concrete became the dominant material in many of Nervi’s buildings once he started his firm - and as he began his career, other architects and engineers were also gradually discovering its potential. However, what separated Nervi's work was his determination to use the material not only to create structurally sound buildings, but to express its beauty and use ingenious implementation methods to build to great lengths and heights.
Nervi first garnered major public attention with his work on the Stadio Artemio Franchi (1931), in Florence, Italy. With its cantilevered roof and elegantly winding stairs, the project announces the architect’s affinity for visually dramatic structural design solutions. Between 1935 and 1942, Nervi built a series of airplane hangars across Italy for the Italian Royal Air Force; although they were destroyed, these works were instrumental in establishing Nervi’s reputation as a design-conscious fusion of architecture and engineering. At the end of the 1940’s, he produced the Torino Esposizioni (1949), an exhibition hall in Turin which later became an ice hockey rink for the 2006 Olympics, and showcases Nervi’s ability to artfully span enormous lengths.
As Nervi’s career progressed, he brought his design approach to several different typologies and a variety of countries. In the 1950s, Nervi designed the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (1950) and collaborated with Gio Ponti on the Pirelli Tower (1955-1959), bringing structural solutions to office buildings. Across the Atlantic, Nervi designed The George Washington Bridge Bus Station, a large sculptural concrete structure in New York City. Nervi’s portfolio developed, but he still maintained an interest in his ability to span vast spaces; the Palazzetto dello Sport (1961), a project led by Annibale Vitellozi for which Nervi designed a concrete dome, showcases the architect’s artistic sensibility present amidst challenging structural requirements.
Stadio Artemio Franchi. Image via Wikimedia CC
Nervi produced some of his most well-regarded projects towards the end of his career. The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption (1971), produced with Pietro Belluschi, and the Paul VI Audience hall in Vatican City (1971), bear Nervi's flair for producing monumental buildings through imaginative structural systems. By learning from decades' worth of projects and merging knowledge from several disciplines, Nervi's later designs reference many of the innovations he developed earlier, channeling a more powerful sense of ambition for structural achievement than ever before.
See other works by Pier Luigi Nervi featured on ArchDaily by clicking on the thumbnails below:
Gateway Arch / Eero Saarinen. Image Courtesy of Flickr CC Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, NPS https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffnps/
While Eliel and Eero Saarinen may be the most well known father-son architect duo, they are certainly not the only pair to have left their mark in the field. As far back as the 1700s, the Gabriel father and son dynasty (Jacques V and Ange-Jacques) constructed much of Versailles, and more recently both I.M. Pei and Lewis Davis have passed their legacy onto their sons. In honor of Father's Day, we look at four father-son architecture dynasties and their lasting influence on the profession, after the break.
In 1966, Günter Behnische, the late father, founded Behnisch & Partner, best known for designing Munich’s 1972 Olympic Stadium in collaboration with Frei Otto. In 1989, his son, Stefan, opened Behnisch Architekten as a branch office of his dad’s firm. Four years later, it became a completely independent operation, internationally renowned for its sustainability expertise. The two firms ran in parallel for 16 years, until Gunter’s retirement and closure of the firm in 2005. Stefan continues to preserve the spirit of some his father’s buildings, while upgrading them with 21st century sustainable technologies.
Günter’s practice was “very much about the human experience of architecture: how the individual moves through the building, experiences space, interacts with other people, is impacted by things like color and daylight,” said Boston partner Matt Noblett.
Eliel and Eero Saarinen are probably the most celebrated of the father-son architects, sharing more than just a last name. Both were awarded AIA Gold Medals and they were born on the same day (August 20). Eliel, the father, immigrated to the US from Finland when Eero was 13. The two worked together until Eliel’s death in 1950, when Eero subsequently opened his own office.
While Eliel was most known for his art nouveau works in Finland, such as the Helsinki Central railway station, Eero was a leader of the International Style, designing a myriad of buildings across the United States, including the St. Louis Gateway Arch. Other projects carried at by Eero include the MIT Chapel, Dulles International Airport, David S. Ingalls Skating Rink and the Miller House.
One of the greatest modern architects, I.M. Pei had two sons that inherited their father’s passion for design: Chieng Chun (Didi), and Li Chung (Sandi). They spent around 20 years contributing to the work of I.M. Pei’s firm, which designed the expansion to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Louvre Pyramid, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong and the JFK Presidential Library in Boston, among numerous other projects. The two then co-founded the New York-based Pei Partnership Architects in 1992. Although I.M. Pei retired from full-time practice in 1990, both firms are still active, and he often does architectural consulting for his sons’ firm.
Lewis Davis, the father, is known for Brutalist apartment towers as well as ornate Beaux-Arts landmarks in New York City. He co-founded Davis Brody Bond, where his son Steven is now a partner, and carrying on his legacy. Stephen was a key architect for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center.
9/11 Memorial Museum / Davis Brody Bond. Image Courtesy of Flickr CC Thomas Bunton https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasebunton/
From the architect. Located in the center of the town Stoneham, surrounded by a mountainous and wooden environment, the new pavilion of the elementary school of Stoneham-Tewkesbury is built near the existing one. The new school can accommodate an extra of 240 students in order to fill the growing needs of the municipality. The Municipality's expansion is caused by the arrival of young families in the new residential developments. The pavilion regroups fourteen classrooms, a library, a gymnasium, a computer laboratory, a daycare and all the services related to maximize the development and the global learning of the children.
The architectural concept draws its inspiration from the site: the naturel environment, the forest, the trees and the vegetation. The materiality of the forest, the verticality and the rhythmic of the trees, the variation of shadows, light and contrast felt in a forest were all important elements that launched the architectural concept. More precisely, the objective of the concept was to bring a learning place that is stimulating for the children, integrated within its environment and defined by ludic and luminous spaces.
In March of this year, two of the world’s great architects died in the same week. The coincidence was unusual not because of the similarities between these two men - the advanced stage of their careers, their age and relative success - but because of the marked differences. In the few days between their mutual passing, one of the two was awarded architecture’s highest medal, the Pritzker Prize. This year’s winner, Frei Otto, had been notified of his triumph in the months prior to his death. Someone you might call his alter ego – stylistically that is – the late, great Michael Graves, died shortly after the prize was awarded to Otto.
Otto was a leading light of a particular strain of European modernism, whose most lauded works were mainly completed in his youth; on the other side of the pond, Michael Graves ran a busy commercial practice with more than 350 completed buildings, but was reviled by some for his revisionist, classical style.
Personally, I’m not a fan of Michael Graves' work. Yet still, I believe this year’s prize jury has missed a trick in not recognizing the enormous and lasting influence the American architect has had on design culture. The announcement in March that the Pritzker Prize was given to Frei Otto suggests that the prize is awarded based on an architect’s “legacy”, as assessed by the architectural community and previous winners, both of which are represented in the jury. Indeed, it’s been said that past Pritzker Laureates Renzo Piano and Shigeru Ban both pushed for Otto to win due to their belief in his influence. Clearly the Pritzker is not meant to identify emerging architects, as many competitions and other awards do; rather, it's a lifetime achievement award, the mother of all awards that is given to confirm that an architect’s career has already been a success, and that he or (very occasionally) she will leave a lasting influence on the world of architecture.
Otto was known for his structurally daring, materially innovative tensile structures, vast canopies which he used to span major sporting event venues – such as those for the 1972 Munich Olympics – among other temporary and lightweight structures. We may have become used to these kinds of structures, but the sheer scale and elegance of them is hard to ignore. Michael Graves on the other hand, ran a design factory, designing everything from products to urban plans, and working for everyone from Disney to the owners of Manhattan’s most expensive addresses. It’s almost a surprise that Graves wasn’t honored with the Pritzker years ago, given the wide applicability of his style across a range of building types: surely a way to maximize influence.
But which of the two has the greater legacy? I’m inclined to say Graves. While his postmodern style, first made famous in the Portland Building of 1982, has mostly been dropped by today’s architecture critics and students as a joke, his legacy continues to influence the wider design world and the mass of non-architectural construction that powers on beyond the influence of the design press.
Drive through any suburb in Germany, France, Britain or America, to name a few, and you’ll find a multitude of houses inspired not by the sweeping canopies of Otto’s tents, but by the superficial colors of Graves' work. These houses suggest that a certain kind of person, whoever he or she may be, has determined to make something that many architects would consider ugly. Ugly buildings, like those of Michael Graves, are everywhere (see Hans Coudenys' Ugly Belgian Houses blog, for example). They're an inevitable, cultural effect of people's desire to be different. The philosophy of self-determination embodied by “ugly architecture” only became mainstream in pop culture in the 1970s and 80s, precisely when Graves' work was most appreciated.
It’s the way in which Michael Graves' style of ugly picked up on a wider political, philosophical and cultural trend of “being different”, in reaction to classic modernism, for which he should be commemorated, and for which he deserved the Pritzker Prize. Even a onetime collaborator of Otto, the German Architect Mahmoud Bodo Rasch, has bitten the bullet and designed the wild, raucously post-modern Arab-fairytale eruption of the Abraj Al Bate Towers in Mecca. This is the architecture that many people seem to want, rather than the technically virtuoso, engineer’s “architecture for architects” of Frei Otto. Picking up on the ideas of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown’s “Learning from Las Vegas” and later books, Graves is the only American architect who really developed the American vernacular in large-scale buildings. In working with Disney, he found the perfect partner to realize his temples to American aesthetics, and as much as we look down on these today - however out of fashion they may seem - there is something naively genuine about these buildings and their blatant populism to some American consumer, whether real or imagined.
Admittedly, the recent design by BIG and Thomas Heatherwick for Google’s Headquarters in Mountain View signifies a rare win for the Frei Otto camp, and its release seemed aptly timed with the prize’s announcement just two weeks later. But Otto’s influence, similar to that of Buckminster Fuller, remains limited to vast cathedral-like structures built to defy gravity, rather than your neighbor’s house. On reflection, I hear that Portland is really nice these days, despite what many, locals and onlookers alike, consider to be the utter ugliness of its eponymous building. I wonder if they’ll say the same thing about Mountain View, after Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Heatherwick are done with it.
Ironically enough, Michael Graves was amply awarded for his work and legacy in the end – monetarily speaking at least. In 2012, he received the $200,000 Dreihaus Prize, double the amount of the Pritzker, which is given to architects of traditional and classical architecture. In 1987, The Chicago Tribune said of Graves that his work would be forgotten by the history books; and it might seem that despite this enormous cash prize, Graves could be forgotten because “he didn’t win the Pritzker.” This year though, a Michael Graves School of Architecture will open which will prioritize hand drawing over the use of computers, with campuses in New Jersey and China. Indeed, thousands of houses are probably being built in his image all over the world at this very moment. It seems that Graves will have a legacy after all.
Lachlan Anderson-Frank is a writer focused on design, architecture, the city and the future. He trained as an architect, and currently works in communications at MVRDV in Rotterdam. His views do not necessarily represent those of ArchDaily.
screenshot from David Licata's documentary "A Life's Work"
Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri (21 June 1919 – 9 April 2013) made his name as a countercultural icon and urban visionary, best known for his theory of "arcology" - a combination of architecture and ecology - and for Arcosanti, the prototype town in the Arizona desert which embodied his ideals and became his life's work, which he founded in 1970 and continued to work on right up until his death in 2013.
Born in Turin, Italy, Soleri gained his master's degree from the Politecnico di Torino in 1946, traveling to the USA shortly afterward to study under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin. In 1948, Soleri gained international attention after his design for the "Beast Bridge" was included in Elizabeth Mock's book "The Architecture of Bridges," published by the Museum of Modern Art.
Soleri moved his family to Arizona in 1956, and in 1970 he began construction on his life's work, Arcosanti. For four decades, Soleri oversaw the construction of his experimental city, with construction almost entirely carried out by over 6,000 volunteers who have, at some point over the project's forty-years, lived at the city and learned from Soleri. Much of the construction was created using "earth casting," a process developed by Soleri in which concrete elements are cast using the ground as formwork.
Today, Arcosanti consists of 13 buildings and, at any one time, houses around 100 people - far short of Soleri's vision of 5,000 citizens. However despite his death, the Arcosanti project continues, funded by the Cosanti Foundation which Soleri established in 1965 - which is in turn funded in part by the sale of Soleri-designed ceramic and bronze wind-bells.
Soleri's affinity with Frank Lloyd Wright is clear from his ecologically-focused countercultural ideology; however, whereas Wright's utopian design for Broadacre City proposed urban sprawl, Arcosanti is a proposal for the opposite: an "urban implosion" where cities are incredibly dense and rural areas are left untouched. This is the materialization of Soleri's theories of arcology.
Soleri is remembered not just for his remarkable designs but also for his proposals of an alternative way of life. Find out more about him via the links below:
From the architect. The Kekkilä Green Shed creates the heart of any kitchen garden. The Green Shed is a unique combination of a traditional garden shed and a green house.
Courtesy of Linda Bergroth
It can be used for small scale growing, storing garden tools as well as leisure and enjoyment. The beautiful and practical Green Shed is the result of long-term co-operation between designers and garden experts.
Courtesy of Linda Bergroth
Kekkilä Green Shed was designed by Linda Bergroth, a Finnish interior architect (freelance) and Ville Hara, a Finnish architect (avanto architects).
Courtesy of Linda Bergroth
The Green Shed comes in two pre-fabricated sizes: Sprout and Zeal. The sheds are designed to suit all gardening dreams and garden types. They can all be built using the same modules, and there are additional modules for further customising your shed. Due to this modular structure, the sheds are easy to assemble.
Courtesy of Linda Bergroth
Made in Finland, the Kekkilä Green Sheds are durable and of a high quality. They are constructed using Finnish pine and toughened safety glass. Paint your assembled shed any colour you like to really make it yours.
The OntarioCollege of Art and Design University (OCAD U) has commissioned Toronto firm Bortolotto to transform the university’s main office building into the Rosalie Sharp Pavilion. The office will be wrapped in a technologically-responsive layer, transforming it into a multi-use, student work and exhibition space and transforming the corner of Dundas and McCaul streets into an interactive gateway for the campus.
Exterior View. Image Courtesy of Bortolotto
Bortolotto designed the patterned façade by mapping Toronto’s artistic community, with the aim of positioning OCAD U as the nexus of the resulting relationships, and as a cross-disciplinary, collaborative institution. OCAD U’s Digital Media Research Lab is currently developing an app to read information from specific sections of the façade, allowing pedestrians to learn about different artists in Toronto. The intricate façade will be comprised of water-jet cut aluminum panels on a metal sub-structure secured by structural steel outriggers, peeling away from the edges of the pavilion to gesture to Frank Gehry’s Art Gallery of Ontario and Will Alsop’s OCAD U’s Sharp Centre for Design.
The pavilion will work with an app currently being developed. Image Courtesy of Bortolotto
Interior View. Image Courtesy of Bortolotto
“We’re proud of this exciting solution that brings together design and technology to redefine the corner and enable the university to communicate with the community in a new way,” says Bortolotto’s President, Tania Bortolotto.
A renovation of the office’s interior will produce a raw, industrial, minimalist space including studios, and interactive meeting and event spaces. This conversion will support experiential learning and attract pedestrians with views of the colorful student work inside.
Model. Image Courtesy of Bortolotto
Light Tests. Image Courtesy of Bortolotto
Construction is expected to begin later this year.
A group of architects, designers and urban planners are working together in San Diego's Upper East Village to produce the Idea District. Started over four years ago, the project was introduced by Pete Garcia and David Malmuth as a way of revitalizing the area and creating a place for the convergence of innovative people. The Idea District, comprising an area surrounded by 11th St, C Street, Market St and Interstate-5, was originally an undeveloped parcel of land, “the last of its kind” in San Diego. Creators began gathering, seeing this no-man’s land as an opportunity to develop good urban planning.
The East Village of San Diego began as a mixed-use neighborhood in the 1900s, developing into a commercial district in the 50s before experiencing a mass exodus and subsequent urban decay in the 70s. Since then, there has been a slow revitalization of the area, and the Idea District is an attempt at harkening back to the truly mixed-use, integrated neighborhood feeling of the 1900s, with the intervention of modern technology and new-urbanism principles.
The project has already developed several areas, particularly in an area known as “Maker’s Quarter,” which includes the Quartyard, a meeting place for all demographics; the FabLab, a community fabrication lab where entrepreneurs and innovators can develop their ideas; the Urban Discovery Academy, a school for young people to learn in new ways; and the Smart Farm, a community garden.
As of now, the Idea District is still growing and changing, the latest development being the implementation of “Idea1,” an urban plan that focuses on opportunities to run into others. Watch Breadtruck Films' video above to learn more.
From the architect. The client of this project, working in an advertising agency as a graphic designer, acquired a piece of land on a hilltop with a good view-then requested the design of a residence with airiness and openness.
The exposed concrete finish wall with cedar form panel pattern and the galvanized steel panel of the building surface create a clear yet tranquil contrast, producing an orderly exterior appearance of the building. It is not possible to grasp the interior condition from the outside, except the part revealing the wooden structure of the building through a large opening.
Inside of the wooden gate door is the entrance court enclosed by the reinforced concrete wall, greeting the owner with its indirect illumination at night. Art piece-like staircase in cantilevered steel frame is situated behind the entrance door. The soft diffused light coming down from the grating illuminates the court space next to the bathroom located at the inner part of the building. All the spaces on the ground floor, including private room and bathroom, are facing toward the inner courtyard. Front facade is accentuated by a piece of Stewartia monadelpha tree planted in the outer courtyard of the child room, standing as the symbolic tree of this residence.
By going up the staircase, the structural body unifying the walls and the ceiling of the second floor is gradually revealed. Repetitive triangular structures composed of SPF timber and laminated veneer lumber rise up from the floor to continuously form a column-free, shell-like space by integrating the wall, the ceiling and the eaves in three-stepped couplings.
The opening on the second floor consists of four large wooden sliding doors, achieving a highly open space, completed by the transparent banister with tempered glass for the balcony. Built-in furniture at the gable end contains multiple functionalities of the kitchen and the living areas, contrasting with the structural body by its white-color finish. Evening atmosphere is revealed when the dynamic structural body is illuminated by the indirect light of the built-in lighting fixed at various positions, providing a space beyond any description.
From the architect. A town house ready for the next century. The façade keeps its historical function and bourgeois radiance, neatly in line. The contrast with the rear is ample. All incorrect additions are replaced by a unit of space and light. Daylight and contact with the garden are introduced. The simple, contemporary glass rear has the world’s largest pivoting window – 3 meters wide by 6 meters high – and makes this house ready for the future.
Renovation old Bourgeois town house.
Bell etage, so no connection on the same level with the garden. Clients wanted to have that connection and a more modern approach in connection with the old details. We broke down the rear part of the building to make this connection on the same level, and give the house a nice view to the garden from the different floors. We wanted to make also a connection with the different floors. This happened wit a triplex in the new built rear extension.
New Groundfloor: kooking and informal eating. (and storage places and garage) First floor: old part: dining and sitting (also with a view to the garden): new part: a suspended office. Second, third and fourth: 2 big rooms with bathroom each floor.
Polished concrete inside and the outside terrace on the same level. Walls: masonry with painted. Windowprofiles: ODS Jansen Ixtra lasercut and tailormade with insulated glass from Saint Gobain. (glass 1.5 ton each slab). Each window (with frame) 2 tons. Dimensions: 3x6m and 6x3m above. Concept window: same form: T shaped as an old standard window. Kitchen: table tops also in concrete. The island is movebla to the terrace. The ideal bbq house. In the old front part we renovated the existing floors and architectural details. The new bathrooms are in the old style with modern approach. But we kept the old lavabo’s that were available in the house.
The new bathrooms are in between the two big bedrooms with double doors ‘en enfilade’ (a classical term for doors of different rooms on one view axe). So we didn’t do a lot; but what we did has giant repercussions to the way of living in that house.
North Landing From Arundel Street. Image Courtesy of Arup
As reported in the Architects' Journal, Transport for London (TfL) – the authority in charge of the Garden Bridge programme, which was approved last year – have ordered a review into the procurement process leading up to Heatherwick's selection to design a new bridge spanning the Thames. Sir Peter Hendy, Commissioner for TfL, will "review of the overall process of procurement of the design contracts, the findings of which [will be published] in full." This statement follows the revelation that Heatherwick Studio’s estimated total price (which was wrongly redacted in response to a Freedom of Information request made by the AJ last February) "was far higher than its two fellow bidders in the 2013 invited concept design competition." Full information about the request is detailed here.
At £173,000, Heatherwick’s initial estimate was more than three times that of Wilkinson Eyre’s £49,939 and more than 11 times Marks Barfield’s £15,125. Heatherwick’s bid was nonetheless judged by TfL the most ‘economically advantageous’.
From the architect. The title of the Estonian pavilion, “Gallery of _”, symbolises the nature of the entire pavilion and, more broadly, the idea that Estonia is a dynamic and smart small country, with every citizen’s initiative but also every foreign investment, collaboration with international reach and foreign investor affecting how it fares. “Gallery of __” is an open platform for creative Estonian people, who will fill it with life and content. The architecture of the entire pavilion is created based on the idea that it should create the best conditions for holding various performances, exhibitions, actions and presentations. The pavilion will not be form for form’s sake but rather a framework for content that will bring the building to life.
The philosophy of the pavilion rests on democratic Nordic values that respect every individual’s right to self-expression and creativity. What is more, it as if this is indeed a model of a dynamic democratic small country: how it fares may be influenced by all who are doing something there or who visit there. Collective creative output will be formed, which can be complemented by new ideas and contemporary applications. The final nature of the pavilion will form up with Estonian creative people but also with all the visitors, who will be provided with an experience of Estonia through the collective impact of nature, technology, culture and cuisine.
Elevation 3
More broadly, an open platform also means a transparent and flexible business environment that favours new initiatives, as well as responsible connection to global processes. Upon closer inspection, this idea informs all the activities and initiatives that we are proud of in Estonia and that we wish to zoom in on the 2nd floor of the pavilion, in rotating themed exhibitions: a separate exhibition area will be provided on 2nd floor of the pavilion for the focused presentation of innovative companies, e-state solutions, green rural enterprise, rural tourism, creative sectors and fine arts. All presented themes and stories told by us will be intertwined with the pervasive theme at the pavilion: Estonia as a country of nature, creativity and innovation.
The pavilion will be linked to the main theme of the EXPO, “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, by the green execution of the pavilion and the subsequent recycling of its modules, a food programme paying tribute to organic Estonian raw ingredients and talented chefs, and the permanent exhibition recounting on both the ground floor and 2nd floor, Estonia’s stories born in nature, given a novel form and functionality by means of contemporary technology and design. Guests at the pavilion have free choice of what activities, facts or stories to weave into their personal experience of Estonia. The most important thing that anyone entering the pavilion should remember is a warm, open and hospitable atmosphere, laced with exciting facts, gripping stories, rare sounds of nature, elegant technological simplicity, tasty bites and good music.
The pavilion is created to be a multi-functional environment for holding performances and presenting creative output. The space will draw its meaning and atmosphere primarily from events held at the pavilion (concerts, exhibitions, presentations, conferences etc). The architectural premise for the pavilion will be a space with a clear identity, enabling visitors to get an idea of what Estonia is about. The pavilion is structured as a gallery of nature and creativity.
The pavilion composes of “nestboxes” stacked off-centre like cubes, forming the main volume of the building towards the Russian pavilion and along the side of the road inside the quarter. A “nestbox” is a high room creating a chamber-like sectioned-off area of space. After the end of the EXPO, these modular-assembly elements would travel back to Estonia and be used there as children’s play grounds, natural viewing points or, for instance, bus stop shelters. Theoretically, it will be possible to dismantle the entire Estonian pavilion and to set it up in the exactly the same form in Estonia.
The main opening of “Gallery of_” towards the south, Decumanus, entry from which, under a high, lofty awning, along with the spacious interior creates a powerful experience. Additionally, there will be entrances from the plaza to the north and between boxes from the street. With its openness, the pavilion both invites EXPO visitors and allude to Estonians’ openness to innovations and the world. The building will have three floors. The ground floor houses a kitchen with ancillary premises, bars and a souvenir stand. Furthermore, “nestboxes”, forming cosy “compartments”, which together with the rest of the exhibition space on the ground floor provides visitors with an opportunity to quench their thirst for information about Estonia.
First Floor Plan
Immediately upon entering off Decumanus, there is an area planned for a stage which, consisting of 1.2 x 1.2 m modules, will be flexible and capable of being readily re-arranged as needed. Access to the 1st floor will be provided by a narrow stairway will lead along the west side of the building and an airy double-flighted stairway from the centre of the building. On the first floor, the main exhibition area profiling Estonia, our entrepreneurs and sectors, where visitors will be able to explore in-depth sectoral achievements. Similarly, the first floor will house a “rye bar” recounting the story of Estonia as a unique country producing clean rye.
The 2nd floor houses a roof garden where plants and trees characteristic of Estonia set the tone. Plants are placed in dedicated containers with space in between for walking or sitting, inviting visitors, for instance, to also have a picnic, if they so desire, with a picnic set bought from the ground floor to take away. Access to the 2nd floor is provided through the stair wells on the north side of the building. Adjacent to the rear northern side of the building above the small plaza, a lounge has been planned for holding business meetings for a smaller group of people in a cosy setting on soft furniture with a view of the garden on the 2nd floor.
Second Floor Plan
In addition, the second floor houses utility rooms and premises for the staff and management of the pavilion. All three floors are inter-connected by stairs, with the main stairs open to all and the rear stairs used as escape stairs or by staff moving between various floors. Furthermore, a platform lift will be installed in the building for mobility-challenged persons.
The interior architecture design is based on a single comprehensive design for the exterior and interior space, doing away with boundaries between the two. Comprehensiveness is emphasised by the copious use of wooden surfaces, creating rhythmic repetitions along with the pixel structure of the building. The design of the space has been created to be as multi-functional as possible, so that it may be re-arranged according to need and the programme happening at the pavilion. The interior design will be simple and intended as a neutral backdrop for the widely used LED-screen presentation space in the interior. Based on the rationale for the space, wooden box modules will employ various standard designs: swing module, presentation modules with LED screens on floor 1, rotating exhibition module on floor 2, conference room module and blocks of ancillary premises.
Section 1
Concept for spatial and functional modules
The open general area on the ground floor with a green counter of potted plants create a fresh and flexible space enabling various programme events to be held. The general area on the ground floor is bordered by rhythmically alternating energy swing nests and permanent exhibition nests with LED screens. Near the block of ancillary premises, there are drinking fountains of clean water for visitors. First floor provides more privacy. In the middle, there is a rye-themed bar and an area with suspended chairs for hanging out, complemented by groups of tables with bar stools for conversation and supporting food or drink. The spatial rationale of floor 1 continues, with exhibition space alternating with private energy swing nests.
The roof garden on the second floor are open to all those interested; it is bordered by conference rooms for invited guests and meeting appointments. Between plant boxes in the roof garden there will be provided sitting modules and an oasis with a dime and warm lighting design. The roof garden is surrounded by a gallery with an awning, giving access to the block of offices / conference rooms. The concept of nooks and crannies and of private nests for the entire building will be supported also by the lighting design at the pavilion, which will be automatically adjustable according to the natural night / day light conditions.
By looking back on the thousands of projects that have been nominated over the years, one can see a new identity take shape in the EU after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and thanks to the free movement of people — and therefore creative capital - that the EU developed.
In this interview, Giovanna Carnevali, the director of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, tells us how the award is also becoming a database of hundreds of recognized architects, a powerful network that can be used to assist EU countries by linking "institutions that do have money but they don’t know how to use it and professionals."
"We can help public administrations give more visibility to their projects… and also organize workshops or studies on any kind of scale from the city to the building," Carnevali said.
Check out our complete coverage of the European Union Prize - Mies van der Rohe Award, including interviews with the 2015 edition winners, in our special section here.
Wife and husband pair Alison (22 June 1928 – 16 August 1993) and Peter Smithson (18 September 1923 – 3 March 2003) formed a partnership that led British Brutalism through the latter half of the twentieth century. Beginning with a vocabulary of stripped down modernism, the pair were among the first to question and challenge modernist approaches to design and urban planning. Instead, they helped evolve the style into what became Brutalism, becoming proponents of the "streets in the sky" approach to housing.
Plan for Robin Hood Gardens by Alison and Peter Smithson
Born in Stockon-on-Tees, Peter began studying architecture in Newcastle, then part of Durham University, but was interrupted in his studies by the outbreak of the Second World War. Enlisting in the army and fighting as an engineer in India and Burma, he met Alison Gill upon his return to Durham University after the war ended. After the completion of Alice's own architecture degree, the pair married in 1949 and initially joined the architectural department of London County Council, then in charge of a wide range of powers including city planning and council housing.
Hunstan Secondary Modern School
The disruption of the war led to huge changes in society that gave the Smithsons their break. A new expansion of education following the passing of the 1944 Butler Education Act created an entirely new form of school; the Secondary Modern. The baby boom and this new schooling system required new, architecturally bold school buildings on a massive scale - winning the commission while still in their early twenties, the Smithsons were able to use the boost to set up their own practice. Hunstanton School, a starkly stripped down formal building, immediately attracted attention from critics for its resolutely formal plan and going against the prevailing method of easily replicated, modular school buildings. The building was nevertheless pragmatic and a relative success, proving cheap, well planned and popular with staff, although severe problems with glazing and heating emerged over time.
Using the cachet provided by Hunstanton to join Team X's challenge of modernism within the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne and form their own design philosophy, the Smithsons helped form the core tenets of Brutalism: low cost modularity, material focus and purity and, most importantly for the Smithsons, buildings that reflected their inhabitants and location, ones that fostered community - Modernism with a Human Face. Ambitious and defiantly avant-garde, the pair's impact on the architectural scene in Britain was enormous, creating a plastic, mass produced house for the 1956 Ideal Home Exhibition.
Creating sensitively thought out yet radical schemes for high profile commissions including the headquarters of the Economist, the British Embassy in Brasilia and a new building at St Hilda's College of Oxford University, the pair then moved on to what they hoped would be a beacon of modern housing design: 1972's Robin Hood Gardens. Hoping their "streets in the sky" could combine the community of the Victorian slums with the efficiency and density of Le Corbusier's housing blocks, it instead became known for structural problems and a crippling crime rate, and ended the pair's public career. Despite this, the Smithsons continued working quietly through the 1980s and never stopped defending their designs.
Find out more about the Robin Hood Gardens project and the controversy surrounding it via the links below:
Robin Hood Gardens is a social housing complex in East London in the residential area of Poplar. It was designed by architects Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972. The Brutalist buildings stand as an example of the Smithsons' theories in practice. Practices that today face an uncertain future.
Collaborators: Karim Ammor, Mariuca Calin, Blandine Capelle, Jan De Coninck, Alfonso Di Mascio, Sarah El Mann, Dikran Gundes, Elodie Noorbergen, Fransesca Stroppa, Monika Studzinska, Gaofei Tan, Lien Vancoppenolle, Brecht Van Lerberghe, Emilie Willain
The building follows the route of the N4 highway, respecting the natural landforms. The building is standing on stilts and floating above the rolling landscape. This gives a better view from the E411 motorway and the N4. Its orientation is slightly off-kilter in terms of cardinal points (15°) although this guarantees an excellent amount of sunshine. Pedestrian and automobile pathways enter from opposite ends of the grounds but come together again south of the building where the glazed entrance hall welcomes AGC staff and visitors.
Slipped under the offices following the natural gentle slope (1,5-2,5%), the parking area is discreetly positioned under the building, preserving the surrounding landscape which is covered with greenery (mown lawns and meadows of flowers) and a scattering of fine oaks.
First Floor Plan
Natural light
The internal office layout, which is evenly plotted onto a square plan with sides of 81 m, is determined by the natural light and the quality of the views. The duality between compactness (energy performances) and layout (visual comfort and well- being in the workplace) has resulted in the division of the plan into four wings, arranged around large exterior patios enlivened by wind, rain or sun. 84 % of workstations are positioned less than 4 m from the walls; 95 % enjoy an unobstructed outside view and 100 % of meeting rooms have both these features.
Peripheral glass facades are equipped with glass sun shades which automatically turn towards the sun. The light filtration provided by these slides is possible because their surfaces have been treated and printed with alternate bands of white, allowing the passage of diffused natural light. All other openings are equipped with removable blinds consisted of bamboo wood. The coating for lightweight opaque spandrel glass, which has been well-insulated, maximises heat reflection through glass panels etched (on the outside) and enamelled (on the inside).
Crosswise to the office wings, a gallery (or atrium) provides an obligatory route for everyone in the building; all of the services in the building converge at this point.
The generous size of the gallery - 10 m high, 13.5 m wide and 83.7 m long - makes it a ideal venue for various events: informal employee meetings, launch parties for the latest glass products, conferences at the foot of the great staircase (on tiered seats), external events etc. The gallery provides access to all the useful areas in the building: the reception desk and associated services, the restaurant with its terraces to the west, the conference centre and each of the eight office wings (to which access is controlled). Consisted with the environmental approach that prefers stairs to elevators, the new head office is spread over two levels. Movement between interstages is comfortable and the elevator is rarely used.
The floor deck covers 12.120 m2 for 575 members of staff. The departmental organisation at AGC Glass is flexible and its interior design can keep pace with changes through open-plan areas, closed offices or separate wings if necessary. The same flexibility applies to meeting areas and restaurants where the space is divided up as stipulated in the blueprint, by using movable, acoustic partition walls.
It is possible to extend the new office by prolonging each office or meeting wing. On the other hand, the maximum possible subdivision would be eight autonomous, secure wings of between 575 and 800 m2, still linked by and accessible from the gallery. In the interests of user-friendliness in the workplace, the preference is to have open-plan areas to be on the south elevation. The shared spaces and meeting areas are strategically centralized or situated near a staircase or next to a terrace or patio with a particular view.
The conference centre brings together all the meeting rooms which can be independently managed and by this are available for other users than AGC. Each room is fitted with audiovisual equipment and enjoys natural light and outdoor views. The restaurant area stretches along the western elevation and opens up to the outdoors by large terraces. The room can comfortably accommodate 180 people and has a lounge bar. The kitchen, stocked with professional equipment, receives deliveries from a separate service lift and can cater simultaneously to the restaurant, the conference centre and the gallery (cocktail parties, standing buffets etc.). The decor gives each area a unique ambiance and character.
The project demonstrates numerous uses of glass- based products (vision glasses, enamelled and sand spandrel glass, LED glass, screen-printed glass, photovoltaic panels etc.) in a bid to showcase the AGC products as well as possible. The entrance to the building, in particular, is signposted by a large sculpture in glass.
Façade Section 1
The park
Given the hilly nature of Wallonia, the impact on the landscape is subtle. Vehicle access is a long a hollow path, dug into the landscape. The site is fenced in by hawthorn hedges that are impenetrable despite their modest height (1.5 m) and do not compromise the view of the AGC office. The main entrance is on the Avenue Jean Monnet side of the building and two further entrances are planned for pedestrians and cyclists arriving a long the public transport and from the town centre.
A variety of types of oak trees (quercus robur, petraea and pubescens) are particularly suited to the environment, which benefits from their reflected glory. The roofs of the patios are intensivly planted with evergreens (luzula sylvatica). The car park skylights make it possible to plant trees with light foliage at the heart of the building (prunus avium or tilia cordata). The evacuation of rain water is realised by some buffer zones whom ensure to reduce and regulate the discharges.
In terms of energy performance, the aim for the building is to achieve zero energy. Energy saving, throughout (natural light, insulation etc.) the use of efficient materials (energy-saving circulation, regulation etc.) and reliance on renewable energy (photovoltaic panels, ground probes, heat pumps etc.) made it possible to do so. It has been certified by VALIDEO and/or BREEAM.
The 2015 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion was revealed today in London, showcasing the colorful plastic design by SelgasCano to the public for the first time. Consisting of a minimal steel frame wrapped in multi-colored ETFE sheets and webbing, the design is encompassed by "secret corridors" which provide access to the main internal space, inspired by the multi-layered and sometimes chaotic network of the London underground.
Known for their work with synthetic materials, SelgasCano's use of colored ETFE provides the structure with "movement and lightness" as the plastic is able to deflect a little within the rigid steel frame - offering a dynamic and almost fragile alternative to our usual expectations of enclosure. Working with engineers Aecom and David Glover, the ETFE used was printed in 19 colors to achieve the kaleidoscopic design of the architects.
As the 15th anniversary of the Serpentine Pavilion program - which was inaugurated in 2000 with Zaha Hadid's angular tent structure - this year's architects José Selgas and Lucía Cano explain that although it does not resemble anything that has been realized on the site before, the new pavilion is nonetheless "a tribute to them all and a homage to all the stories told within those designs."
The Pavilion is officially open to the public from June 25th to October 18th, during which time it will also host live events on Friday evenings as part of the "Serpentine’s Park Nights" series. More information is available at the Serpentine Gallery's website.
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