North façade of the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston, TX. Image Courtesy of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc.

Michael Maltzan Architecture has released new images of their design for the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University in Houston, Texas, coinciding with the announcement that the building will open to the public on February 24, 2017. The building is conceived as a multi-disciplinary lab for creativity, which will contain “an experimental platform for creating and presenting works in all disciplines” as well as a flexible teaching space and a forum to host partnerships with visiting national and international artists.

Northwest corner of the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University. Image Courtesy of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc.

The $30 million, 50,000 square foot building will be located in the new arts district of campus, adjacent to the Shepherd School of Music and James Turrell’s Twilight Epiphany Skyspace. Program pieces in the building include an art gallery space, a 150-seat black box theater, a experimental performance space and a cafe. These spaces will be centered around a light-filled atrium containing a fully-fitted maker lab, with immediate access to a wood shop, metal shop, paint booth, rapid prototyping areas, classrooms, a technology library and AV editing booths.

Rendering of Creative Open Studio at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University. Image Courtesy of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc.

Flexible Gallery at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University. Image Courtesy of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc.

“The interior of the Moody is designed to foster a sense of openness and possibility” said Michael Maltzan. “The double-height makers’ space at its heart can be imagined as an interior quad, echoing the other quads found throughout the Rice campus. This interior landscape brings the most diverse programmatic functions into contact with one another, while opening views out to the campus.”

“This emphasis on transparency extends to the building’s exterior, whose brick-clad upper story seems to float over an entry level encased in floor-to-ceiling glass. With pedestrian paths cutting across the site’s open lawn and into the building, a set of stairs on the north façade turning back to form an interior amphitheater, and the cantilevered mass of the second story creating covered walkways below, the Moody will be one of the most active social spaces on the Rice campus, and a welcoming facility for all of Houston.”

West façade of the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Summer 2016. Image Courtesy of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc.

Northwest corner detail of the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, August 2016. Image © Geoff Winningham

Development of the Moody is made possible by a $20 million grant from the Texas-based Moody Foundation, a charitable organization with an emphasis on education, social services, children’s needs and community development, with additional generous support from the Brown Foundation and other donors.

The Moody will also contain facilities for its first artist-in-residence program. The first resident will be Mona Hatoum, an internationally acclaimed Beirut-born Palestinian artist whose sculpture, performance, video and installation pieces are currently on display as part of a major survey exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. Hatoum will begin her residency in spring 2017, following the completion of the building, to develop works for a major exhibition to be displayed at Houston’s Menil Collection in fall 2017.

North façade of the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Summer 2016. Image Courtesy of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc.

Gallery at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University. Image Courtesy of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc.

Development on the Moody is funded by a $20 million grant from the Moody Foundation, a charitable organization that places an emphasis on education, social services, children’s needs and community development. Additional support comes from the Brown Foundation and other donors.

The building is currently under construction.

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© Salva López

• Architects: MESURA
• Location: 17467 Sant Mori, Girona, España
• Project Manager: Marcos Parera
• Project Year: 2016
• Photography: Salva López

• Constructor: Construccions i Reformes El Yazidi SL

© Salva López

From the architect. Shade becomes shelter.

…And at the appropriate place, builds up coexistence between individuals. 

A couple, a traditional house in the Empordà and one dream.

© Salva López

Houses should evolve along with its user. Ana María and Manuel, our clients, made the decision of spending as much time as possible in their summerhouse in Sant Mori. Located between Figueres and Girona, Sant Mori is a rural village with irregular geometry, which offers a characteristic Mediterranean landscape scenery to its inhabitants, bounded by  fields and forests.

© Salva López

The Blasco-Nicolau family was already using the house regularly during the hottest months of the year and therefore, the swimming pool has always been an important feature to their summer lifestyle. Nevertheless, its use was mainly focused on the water area, as the adjacent space was not comfortable despite its appeal.

© Salva López

The idea was to bring back the space’s vitality with the purpose of making it the house’s exterior heart: a meeting point, an exterior room for the family. A place under a canopy’s shade, where three generations would coexist, chat and share moments.

© Salva López

The pool area used to be a place of joy and gathering for the family in summer. Due to the pasing of time and to low maintenance, it ended up being a cold, uncomfortable and neglected place. 

Lying under the sun is one of the pleasures of open spaces and a canopy is a haven of shade if you want to get away from the sun.). We should return this area the identity it had one day.

© Salva López

Facing east, the swimming pool was surrounded, on two of its sides, by the façade of the main room of the house and by the cold and hard neighbour’s common facade. On the contrary, the remaining sides were surrounded by vegetation with views towards Sant Mori’s fields and forests.

© Salva López

We had a clear answer:: Generate– a new facade with dominant horizontality  on  the existing common facade, in order to give this space a sense of unity.

Plan 1

Once again, the project’s challenge was how to achieve  the objectives using all resources given and reducing the visual impact as much as possible. The functional necessity to build a large storeroom with a facade to the outdoor area  wasn`t going to  be  an obstacle but a  defining elements of the project’s strategy. The recycling of some extra floor tiles from a previous project carried out by the owners was also going  to sum up . Minimum investment in all resources, maximum transformation in the spaces revitalization. A contained architecture for an intense lifestyle.  

© Salva López

The project starts from an already existing piece  (50×50 cm, with open joints) that helps to organize the project’s development, creating a very structured grid pattern where alignment lines and modular order are respected. The noblest areas, such as the solarium and the living room, contrast with a solid wood pavement, which gives the necessary warmth to the place.

© Salva López

Canopy and storeroom share a common roof: a single supportive element, that rests on a concrete wall. The structure is formed by two metal rectangles and follows the project’s key principle:  8mx2m storeroom  formed by UPN-240 and 12,5mx3m canopy formed by UPN-300, joined together on one side by UPN-200. This connecting line is in charge of assuming everything the project demands: a subtle edge yet complex beam (formed by three profiles that help to reduce the sag or deflection), collects the sliding doors that compose the facade of the storeroom at its lower edge and produces the gutter at its upper profile. One single element with three accomplished objectives.

Detail

The light belts of the canopy project a  sequence of changeable  shadows  on the floor, which reflect the passing of  time. 

Proposal of minimum intervention: A simple horizontal element, which generates shade and transforms  dramatically  the interior/exterior perception. It is not under the sunrays where architecture is experienced, but under the shade’s shelter. Consequently,  walls or openings aren’t limits but a subtle and vibrant barrier created by its own projected shadows.

© Salva López

The project Blasco-Nicolau is an example of Mesura; of how, from a small intervention it is possible to generate an enormous impact on architecture’s use and enjoyment. An effort to reduce what is strictly functional and structural to achieve the highest quality of the space. The smart use of all available materials as well as the way in which they are carefully selected, leads to a transforming and at the same time calm and restrained intervention.

El uso inteligente de los materiales disponibles, así como su cuidadosa puesta en obra, permite una actuación transformadora pero, a su vez, tranquila y sobria.

© Salva López

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Courtesy of Urban Agency

Urban Agency and Group-K have placed 3rd in a competition for a “Wood Experience Center” on the island of Jeju, South Korea. The project location is an area of the island called Redorum, a wild natural environment containing a dense cedar forest and a tranquil lake. The architects responded to this unique site by designing a building that both preserves the unspoiled beauty of the landscape and creates an iconic building containing an exhibition hall, workshop and library.

Courtesy of Urban Agency

The architects began by asking the question, “How [do you] design a building which can truly be in dialogue with the “genius loci” of the site?” The solution was to create a low, one-story building that both blends and complements the natural context. A semi-circular opening in the back of the structure forms a natural courtyard for the building to open onto, while the front features opening with views of the lake.

Urban Agency and Group-K propose a timber structure for the building to reflect its environment through “materiality, proportion and architectural expression.” The building is also clad in timber siding; together with the parabolic roof, the aesthetic begins to mirror the rhythm of the surrounding tree trunks. Because the timber would be left untreated, the timber would silver with time, allowing the building to blend increasingly into the site.

Courtesy of Urban Agency

Wood finishes continue into the building interior, where wooden floors, ceiling and walls envelope visitors in the sensory qualities of the material, connecting the indoors to the outdoors. The only other material in the project is the glazing from the strategically placed windows offering framed views to the forest and lake, giving the space an interior expression akin to a modern tree house or hut.

The parabolic roof gives the interior spaces additional ceiling height, and provides room for a large mezzanine that cuts through the building, bringing visitors higher into the canopy level of the forest and providing the best view out beyond the lake.

Courtesy of Urban Agency

• Architects: URBAN AGENCY, Group-K
• Location: Jeju-si, Jeju-do, South Korea
• Architect Team: Urban Agency, Group-K
• Client: Jeju Island Commune
• Budget: 3,200,000 EUR
• Area: 1500.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of Urban Agency

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