Maksim Sodomovsky of iVision3D has created a virtual tour of the Dominion Office Building, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, in Moscow, Russia. Completed in 2015, the project is among the new infrastructure being built to support the growing creative and IT industries in the southeast of the city. The design is organized as a series of stacked plates, connected with curving elements and surrounding a central atrium exposed to natural light.
Six exemplary projects have been announced as winners of the 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Presented once every three years, the award was established by the Aga Khan in 1977 to “identify and encourage building concepts that successfully addressed the needs and aspirations of communities in which Muslims have a significant presence.” To be considered for the award, projects must exhibit not only architectural excellence, but also the ability to improve users overall quality of life.
The Award’s “Master Jury” is appointed by a steering committee chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan (the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims), who together establish the eligibility criteria for project submissions and provide thematic direction in response to “emerging priorities and issues” that relate to the architectural sphere.
Part of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which also engages in a series of programs related to the revitalization of historic Islamic cities from India and Syria to Pakistan and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Award also supports a major online resource on architecture in Muslim societies. This archive—ArchNet—collaborates with the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to “improve the teaching” of Islamic art, architecture, urbanism and visual culture while “[increasing] the visibility of Islamic cultural heritage in the modern Muslim world.” Their primary aim is to advance the practice, analysis, and understanding of Islamic architecture as both a discipline, and a cultural force.
A refuge for spirituality in urban Dhaka, selected for its beautiful use of natural light.
An adherence to the essential – both in the definition of the space and the means of construction – was crucial in formulating the design of Bait ur Rouf Mosque. With land donated by her grandmother and modest funds raised by the local community, the architect has created an elemental place for meditation and prayer.
There are two structural systems in place – the load-bearing brick walls that define the outer perimeter and the smaller spaces, and the reinforced-concrete frame that spans the column-free prayer hall. The brick walls exploit the depth between the outer square and the inner cylinder, allowing http://ift.tt/1T1hbtX for buttressing in the interstitial space. This in turn makes it possible for panels between the load-bearing structure to have a jali of brick, leaving out alternate bricks and rotating them. In the prayer hall itself a simple vertical gap in the brick denotes the direction of the qibla, but the recess is splayed so that worshippers are not distracted by sight lines onto the busy street. What they see instead is sunlight bouncing off the wall behind. Awash with light, open to the elements, the mosque ‘breathes’
Jury comments: “In a transitional area caught between urban hyper-density and rural proximity, the terracotta mosque is an exquisitely proportioned building that is both elegant and eternal. Funded primarily by community donors, the mosque design challenges the status quo and understands that a space for prayer should elevate the spirit. The mosque does so through the creation of an interior space that is rich with light and shadow, but at the same time possesses a robust simplicity that allows for deep reflection and contemplation in prayer.”
A community centre which makes a virtue of an area susceptible to flooding in rural Bangladesh.
The centre is a training facility for the NGO Friendship, which works with communities living in the rural flatlands of northern Bangladesh. In this region permanent buildings are conventionally raised 2.4m off the ground, to mitigate flooding, but the budget did not allow that here. Instead, an earthen embankment was built around the site, with stairs leading down into the building from open ends. Adopting the vocabulary of a walled town, the programme is organised around a series of pavilions that look inwards onto courtyards and reflecting pools. Because of the embankment wall, there is no horizontal light, so in essence the centre is top-lit. This connection, between an architecture of the land and the light coming down from above, makes for a very elemental building.
Jury comments: “The integrative design approach is registered in every aspect of the project, and at every scale. The imbrication of outdoor and indoor spaces, together with the treatment of the roofscape, make this an unusual and innovative building. With its spaces sunk into the ground and the vegetation growing on its roofs, the compound blends beautifully into the natural surroundings. Its relationship to the landscape and to history and archaeology is remarkable in every way.”
A children’s library selected for its embodiment of contemporary life in the traditional courtyard residences of Beijing’s Hutongs.
The hutongs of Beijing are fast disappearing. The residential compounds, with their layering of spaces and multiple courtyards, are often viewed as messy and insalubrious – almost as slums. If they find a place in the modern city, it is often in sanitised form, as a tourist attraction, filled with boutiques. The attempt to find a new use for this traditional building form – one that would benefit the local community – motivated this proposal for a space that would serve both the pupils from the nearby primary school and the hutong’s remaining, mostly elderly, residents. Besides a children’s library and exhibition space, the centre hosts a local handicrafts studio and classes in painting and dance.
Jury comments: “The hutong provides an example of how the adaptive re-use of an older building can become the basis for a new form of micro-urbanism that constructs productive reciprocities between the private and the public. This is an approach that can be potentially replicated in other locations and within a diversity of communities.”
A public space promoting integration across lines of ethnicity, religion and culture.
Superkilen is a kilometre-long urban park located in Nørrebro, a diverse and socially challenged neighbourhood of Copenhagen. Designed by architects BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, artists Superflex and landscape architects TOPOTEK 1 in collaboration with the local – predominantly Muslim – community, the park takes the historical themes of the universal garden and the amusement park and translates them into a contemporary urban setting. With a healthy dose of irreverence, it sheds light on the positive dimensions of cultural diversity and invites people – young and old – to play.
Jury comments: “Living with people who differ – racially, ethnically, religiously or economically – is the most urgent challenge facing contemporary civil society. At a time of growing global uncertainty and insecurity, it has become fashionable to talk in terms of ‘worlds’ – the third world, the Islamic world, the Arab world – as though these occupy a parallel universe, disconnected from the rest and subject to different rules. Superkilen, a new urban park in one of Copenhagen’s most diverse and socially challenged neighbourhoods, emphatically rejects this view with a powerful mixture of humour, history and hubris.”
A multi-level bridge spanning a busy motorway has created a dynamic new urban space.
Tabiat Pedestrian Bridge spans a busy highway to connect two parks in a city with a very dense urban fabric and mostly utilitarian architecture. More than a point of connection between two discrete green zones, the bridge is a popular gathering place for the people of Tehran, offering numerous seating areas over its three levels and restaurants at either end. Like many such green spaces within urban areas, it has come to serve as a locus of identity for the city and its inhabitants.
Jury comments: “The apparent reinterpretation of the original brief, which called for a straightforward connection between two parks, has transformed a ‘bridge’ into a ‘destination’. Inviting people to congregate, interact and appreciate the vista in every direction, the bridge has become a promenade and one of the most successful public spaces in modern Tehran.”
A new building for the American University of Beirut’s campus, radical in composition but respectful of its traditional context.
The Issam Fares Institute – a research centre for public policy and international affairs – has a combined surface area of 3,000m2, divided into six floors. Its facilities include research spaces and administration offices, seminar and workshop rooms, an auditorium, reading room, recreational lounge and roof terrace.
Responding to the givens of the site, the architects significantly reduced the building’s footprint by cantilevering a large part of the structure over the entrance courtyard – a move that also draws the space of the adjacent Green Oval towards the base of the new building. The existing landscape is preserved, including all of the old trees, which form a kind of datum line determining the height of the institute, as is evident from a look at the south facade. Further connections with the landscape are established by the roof terrace, with its expansive views, and by the circulation ramp that snakes smoothly through the trees to the southern entrance on the second floor.
Jury comments: “The building makes a courageous – and at the same time fully respectful – contribution to the multilayered physical environment of this historic and rooted university campus. With its simple, exposed concrete surface and strong volumetric presence, it is an elegant yet unique solution to a complex and special context.”
The shortlist and winning projects were selected by a master jury comprised of the following members:
Suad Amiry, Founder, Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation, Ramallah
Emre Arolat, Founder, EAA-Emre Arolat Architecture, Istanbul
Akeel Bilgrami, Sydney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University, New York
The Award is also governed by a Steering Committee chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan. While the Steering Committee can suggest areas of interest, it has no bearing on the final selections of the independent Master Jury. The steering committee includes:
David Adjaye, founder and principal architect of Adjaye Associates, which has offices in London, New York and Accra
Mohammad al-Asad, the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Built Environment in Amman, Jordan
Francesco Bandarin, Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO, Paris, France
Hanif Kara, a practicing structural engineer and Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University
Kamil Merican, founding partner of GDP Architects Malaysia
Azim Nanji, currently Special Advisor to the Provost at the Aga Khan University and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa
Brigitte Shim, a principal in the Toronto-based design firm Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto
Yu Kongjian, founder and dean of the College of Architecture and Landscape and the Changjiang Chair Professor of Design, at Peking University
The 2016 awards ceremony was held at the Al Jahili Fort, a World Heritage Site in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. A monograph of the 2016 Award will be published by Lars Müller Publishers in November 2016 and will include descriptions and illustrations of the six winning projects. For more information, please see: http://ift.tt/29ubIQv
For more information on the award and this year’s winners, visit the award website, here.
Australian architecture studio Design Office has converted a former power station in Melbourne into a cafe and restaurant with exposed brickwork and abundant planting (+ slideshow). (more…)
Vancouver-based Leckie Studio Architecture + Design has founded the Backcountry Hut Company to bring affordable recreation structures to outdoor enthusiasts. Inspired by IKEA’s philosophy of providing superior design at a moderate price point, the prefabricated hut prototype aims to embody the company’s four cornerstones: function, quality, sustainability, and value.
The hut system is designed for adaptability, and can be constructed on any backcountry site accessible by truck or helicopter. The engineered wooden post-and-beam frame can be assembled in the tradition of community barn raising. Prefabricated wall and roof panels are small enough to be lifted with a pulley and winch. The hut can then be finished with a simple nail-on window system and customizable interior fit-outs and exterior finishes. The modular structure is also customizable by combining 10-foot units.
Though originally intended for backcountry use, the hut is flexible enough to be used on both rural and urban sites. The shell can be furnished to accommodate full-time habitation, similar to a tiny house.
Stjörnubjart. by Hrímnir One lovely evening I decided to try out my “new” tripod, only had time to snap off 4 photos but I look at it as a success since it was my first time shooting the stars! http://flic.kr/p/btizAx
From the architect. We expanded a traditional shingled cottage home by marrying a new addition and a renovation project together. The design reorients the house to the garden, an existing swimming pool, and the bucolic views of the neighboring farm in order to reinforce the relationships between outdoor activities and the surrounding landscape.
The living area, dining area and kitchen were moved from the old cottage into the new addition to establish clear connections to the garden and pool. The addition creates a new main entrance to the house, drawing guests directly into the most socially vibrant part of the home.
The first floor of the cottage was renovated and converted into a family room, home office and guest bedroom suite. The upper floor was renovated to provide larger bedrooms, a shared bathroom, and a sitting area that overlooks the neighboring farm.
Courtesy of Desai Chia Architecture
Courtesy of Desai Chia Architecture
Our concept for the addition included a bold interpretation of vernacular forms and materials. The new addition offers an expressive counterpoint to the old cottage; its form is defined by a powerful, undulating, vaulted ceiling of structural framing that celebrates the living areas. The architectural language of the original cottage was refined and simplified with a new palette of details and lighting concepts to enhance the flow of light and space.
The clients are thrilled with the design and also the fact that the renovation/addition approach reduced their construction time frame, kept costs down, and met their sustainability goals of reducing demolition waste.
Since 2009, Mario Carvajal has captured amazing panoramic photographs from his hometown in Colombia as well as top destination spots around the globe. He has climbed the Empire State Building in New York and Colpatria Tower in Bogota, Colombia. Carvajal has captured the geographical beauty of Iceland as well as the intensity of Paris at night.
As Carvajal mentioned in an interview with ArchDaily, images in 360 degrees “allow the viewer to dive into an attractive and interesting ‘virtual world’ to experience immersive sensations”. Of course, with the new surge in popularity these types of pictures have experienced with the hardware becoming more readily available and these images being shared more and more every day through Facebook, Carvajal’s work reaches new levels, allowing thousands of people to see the world from above.
Below, we invite you to see his best shots of iconic buildings and landscapes around the world. For a complete experience, we recommend using Google Cardboard.
Carvajal suggests that the impact of 360-degree photography “is becoming more and more important thanks to the hardware that is becoming part of people’s everyday lives. Hardware such as virtual reality glasses, cell phone incorporating a gyroscope, tablets … but also to new cameras that allow virtual reality with little effort, capturing scenes spherically. For example, Ricoh Theta, the Samsung Gear 360, the Nikon KeyMission, among others.”
When asked about his favorite shot, Carvajal explains:
It’s so hard and I don’t know how to choose between the photo that I titled “The last view of King Kong,” which represents the final view that King Kong had from the Empire State Building in New York, or the photograph of Caño Cristales, my favorite place in Colombia, where a river of colors, especially red can be seen. I do not know! I’ll take both!
Sig Nordal 