The Xiamen City Municipal Planning authority has selected Ennead Architects as the winners of a six-week design competition for a new 40,000 square meter (430,550 square foot) Music Center in the Chinese city of Xiamen. The design draws inspiration from the island city’s dramatic topography and history to create a new public institution along the harbor. To provide the beachfront with a new public gathering place, the project’s feature element will be a grand stair likened by Ennead to Rome’s timeless Spanish Steps.
The project takes a reverent approach to the natural terrain, borrowing from the landscape’s natural striation to create the sloping plaza that connects the city to the shoreline. Large sweeping gestures draw from the site’s program and context, evoking a powerful wave, a musical crescendo or the slope of traditional Chinese rooflines. These curves create the form of the building, acting simultaneously as the façade, ground and civic stair and organizing the entire visitor experience.
As the plaza descends to beach level, it carves into the programmed mass of the building, splitting the interior space into two wings: a western wing housing a 2,500 seat concert hall and a eastern wing containing a smaller recital hall. The concert hall is treated as an object within a box, as its wood-clad convex forms smoothly disperse the theater’s acoustics and give the hall a visual texture similar to weathered rocks or driftwood found along the shore. Additional spaces include facilities for Xiamen University’s the music program and a restaurant/cafe.
The project takes full advantage of its sloping site to provide underground parking and a direct connection to the city’s subway system. Building roofs become accessible extensions of the public plaza, and lead to the bridge connecting pedestrians back to the city and towards the island’s botanical garden.
At the complex’s center is a traditionally styled garden and temple featuring lush plantings and views to the sea. Slightly to the east, a naturally wooded landscape acts as a sound buffer between the Music Center and the adjacent highway. The descent culminates at an outdoor concert venue on the beachfront and a circular dock projecting into the harbor.
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A 3D-printed mask based on Björk’s musculoskeletal system, a series of rejected Brexit campaign posters and a house in a Brazilian rainforest (pictured) feature in this week’s issue of Dezeen Mail.
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From the architect. The Periscope Tower is a giant wooden periscope structure that serves as an observation tower and engages the viewer in a dialogue with the landscape. With the help of a large mirror the Periscope Tower makes it possible for everyone to enjoy the views of the surrounding landscape. One can either climb up the stairs to enjoy the view over the lake and into the surrounding landscape from the viewing deck, or simply stay on the ground and get the view through the periscope mirror.
Made entirely of wood, the building is composed of an inner core of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and an external wooden frame that serves as a load bearing structure. The inner core made of CLT forms the frame for an extra large periscope with stairs circling around it. When taking the stairs up or down one can experience a rich range of different views framed by the various openings cut into the structure.
The tower is composed of three prefabricated elements with the roof forming a fourth element. The facades and the stairs are made of larch. The details and the security netting are of steel. The idea was to create a simple wooden structure of high quality in a way that supports learning and reflects a commitment to empowering and strengthening the local community.
The Periscope Tower is situated on the shore of a man-made lake that has been built on top of a hill in the vicinity of the center of the city of Seinäjoki. The man-made lake, Lake Kyrösjärvi, has been created in order to serve three main functions: to help keep the flooding in the plains of Ostrobothnia under control, to generate energy for the electric power plant serving the city of Seinäjoki, and to form an attractive site for a new residential area to be constructed on the shores of the lake. 120 000 square meters of new housing will be built there to provide homes for about 2000 people. The Periscope Tower is part of a larger landscape design project for reshaping the lakeshore, developed by OOPEAA for the Seinäjoki Housing Fair 2016. With the Periscope Tower, the aim is to activate the dam around the man-made lake and to turn it into a recreational area serving the residents of the new neighborhood to be constructed there as well as others living in Seinäjoki and the region at large. It will be connected to a broader network of recreational paths designed to be accessible to everyone.
The Periscope Tower was commissioned by the City of Seinäjoki, realized in collaboration with SWECO Seinäjoki and constructed by the students of SEDU, a local vocational school for building and construction skills. It is part of the area developed for the annual Finnish Housing Fair to be held in Seinäjoki in 2016. The Periscope Tower will remain open to the public to enjoy also after the fair closes.
Hi, Christina Adele Warburg here! I’m a park ranger at Yosemite National Park, and I will be taking over @USInterior on Instagram today. Even after a long day of work, nothing beats exploring this California park that happens to be my backyard, and I’m going to share some of my favorite Yosemite spots with you.
Stormy days in Yosemite are my favorite, and there’s no better place to watch a storm clearing than from Tunnel View. Unfortunately, most park guests know that, too. Taking a quick hike up Inspiration Point trail will lead you to a similar view – but without the crowds. This is where I watch most of my sunsets, which I usually only share with mosquitoes and deer.
-Ranger Christina Adele Warburg.
Head over to http://ift.tt/18D22bU to see more great places in Yosemite to explore.
Sig Nordal 