© Dmitriy Yagovkin

• Architects: T+T Architects
• Location: 1st Красногвардейский проезд 15, Mercury City Tower, Moscow, Russia
• Architect In Charge: Sergey Truhanov, Voevodina Polina, Parfenova Yuliya, Denisova Galina, Trusova Olga.
• Area: 5300.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Dmitriy Yagovkin

• General Contractor: PRIDEX Group

© Dmitriy Yagovkin

From the architect. The new Moscow office of telecommunications company Orange Business Services is located on two floors of “Mercury” tower of business center “Moscow city”. The total area of the interior is 5,300 sq. m.

The interior project was implemented by Pridex Group Company, which combined the functions of General designer and General contractor performing the architectural and engineering design, as well as the complex of engineering works. The interior design was developed by T+T Architects bureau. 

Axonometric

Two reference points: customer’s logo, the orange square, and accent elements in the form of circles became the basis for the architectural concept. 

The principle of an open workspace is popular all over the world. However, here the customer has built a distinct functional process in which the tasks go through a kind of “assembly line” of departments and specialists. The final placement of the departments follows this scheme.

© Dmitriy Yagovkin

The office space is divided into working areas and points of informal communication evenly spread over the entire space of the floors. At these points architects set the accents based on the form of circle in a particular embodiment. Workspaces are made contrastly – in the orthogonal forms and monochrome materials. Part of the informal communication points were integrated in the center of some departments showing the inextricable workflow and the process of discussion.

Materials with high acoustic comfort were used for the productive work of 500 employees. Solutions with mobile partitions in meeting rooms made the space for negotiations flexible and scalable.

“The new office for Orange Company has become for us a serious challenge. Complicated architecture of the building and a number of customer conditions demanded high professionalism of the team. Due to the selected solutions and coordinated work, we managed to implement such an ambitious project in the shortest possible time”, – says Sergey Kudryavtsev, managing partner of Pridex Group Company.

© Dmitriy Yagovkin

“Great attention was paid to the corporate standards. “Orange” provided us with the detailed brand book with a lot of restrictions and recommendations. During the implementation we managed to create a unique solution without breaking the basic corporate strategy”, – says Polina Voevodina, the main architect of the project, the T+T Architects Bureau.

“We thank the Pridex Company for the fast and high quality implementation of this complex project. Everything is done in accordance with the requirements of the Orange brand style. New office came out comfortable and functional, and most importantly – helped to raise the productivity of our employees interaction. It will definitely impact on improving the quality of service to our clients”, – commented Olga Nekrasova, Director of commercial real estate and facilities management at Orange Business Services.

© Dmitriy Yagovkin

Product Description: As far as the main point of the concept was minimalistic and neat interior, one of the principal materials was the white color itself. However, we paid high attention to the public spaces: circular reinforced concrete staircase, lounge area near it, coffee points and kitchen, informal meeting areas, reception.

Oppositely to the white and really simple open space areas, there are accent walls with micro-cement decorative coating (Baldini) or bright orange-color ceiling detail (Tikkurilla paintings). There are also some cozy suspended lamps (“Hood”, Atelje Lyktan) with red felt shades, which determine unique areas. Using different colors from Desso Airmaster carpet collection allowed us to distinguish different functional zones by determing the floor color. 

© Dmitriy Yagovkin

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© Kinan Mansour

• Architects: J.M.Bonfils and Associates
• Location: Mar Mikhael, Bayrut, Lebanon
• Architect In Charge: Jean-Marc Bonfils
• Area: 8000.0 m2
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Kinan Mansour , Wael Khoury Photography, Chadi Younes

• Collaborators: Marwan Matta & Lea Ksayer
• Structural Engineers: Rodolphe Mattar
• M E P Engineers: Kamal Sioufi & Associates
• Contractors: Kfoury Contracting & Engineering

© Wael Khoury Photography

From the architect. The concept consisted in lifting key contextual elements – traditional building material and Lebanese gardens –and revives them with contemporary interpretations. So conventional wood and dark stone found an unexpected contrast in vivid red metal, and space-efficient vertical gardens replaced their horizontal predecessors. These elements complement the diversity of the surrounding context. While it looks like a simple geometric shape from afar, the structure consists of three parallel elongated blocks each with a unique identity that’s revealed on approach, while a cantilevered section that extends out towards the street emphasizes the building’s partly public function, a contemporary art gallery that occupies the ground floor to introduce a cultural and commercial element to the project.

Section

East Village includes 13 loft units, each of the double height characteristic of the region: 10 duplexes, two penthouses with pools on each of their terraces, and one simplex, its balcony framed by red metal. On the simplex’s terrace is a private bar that overlooks the pubs and lounges scattered across Gemayzeh and through Downtown, exposing a panoramic view of the city.

© Kinan Mansour

“East Village is a kind of suprematist composition playing with the paradoxical conditions of today and linking us to a kind of paradigm” – Jean Marc Bonfils

© Kinan Mansour

Product Description: Vertical Garden influenced by a public garden located in the adjacent 1960s Electricite du Liban headquarters, that is no longer accessible to the public. The aim is to reintroduce a more space-efficient vertical green space that the community could enjoy.

© Kinan Mansour

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If you’ve always wanted to take better photos and you have 10-15 hours to dedicate to the endeavor, you’ll be pleased to know this: Harvard, one of the world’s most renowned universities and home to the mighty GSD (Graduate School of Design)—whose faculty has included Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Walter Gropius and many others—is offering a free course in digital photography.

Available via ALISON, an online learning community, the course offers 13 modules that promise to teach the basics behind good photography.

ALISON’s free online photo course gives you the opportunity to gain extensive knowledge and understanding of digital photography including topics such as exposure settings, how to read and use the histogram, how light affects a photograph, how the camera sensor and lenses work, and how to process a photograph using computer software. You will also learn tips and techniques on what not to do when taking a photograph. 

Computer scientist and photographer Dan Armendariz guides you through the course, with lessons covering

• Introduction to Digital Photography
• Introduction to Software
• Introduction to Light
• Introduction to Exposure – Part 1
• Introduction to Exposure – Part 2
• Introduction to Optics
• Introduction to Histograms
• Introduction to Software Tools
• Introduction to Digital Cameras
• Introduction to Digital Cameras – Part 2
• Introduction to Color
• Introduction to Artifacts
• Digital Photography Assessment

Ready to step up your architecture photography game? Join the over 400,000 interested students at ALISON or learn more by visiting the course’s website. 

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A building’s materiality is what our bodies make direct contact with; the cold metal handle, the warm wooden wall, and the hard glass window would all create an entirely different atmosphere if they were, say, a hard glass handle, a cold metal wall and a warm wooden window (which with KTH’s new translucent wood, is not as absurd as it might sound). Materiality is of just as much importance as form, function and location—or rather, inseparable from all three.

Here we’ve compiled a selection of 16 materials that should be part of the design vocabulary of all architects, ranging from the very familiar (such as concrete and steel) to materials which may be unknown for some of our readers, as well as links to comprehensive resources to learn more about many of them.

<a href='http://ift.tt/2iUpNIp Carpets,"</a> an exhibit by Studio Ossidiana at the 2016 Dutch Design Festival. Image © Kyoungtae Kim

1. Concrete

Concrete is the most widely used building material in the world, making it a good starting material to get to know. However it also has significant environmental impacts, including a carbon footprint of up to 5% of worldwide emissions. To get to know all about designing with concrete, the Concrete Center has a collection of useful reports, many of which are free with registration.

<a href='http://ift.tt/2jQYxhJ wood</a> developed by KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Image © Peter Larsson/KTH

2. Wood

One of the oldest, most traditional building materials around the world is of course timber. The material is beginning to take on new forms thanks to engineered wood products, and with high-rise buildings and even translucent properties, this diverse material is being taken to new heights. reThink Wood has a great collection of resources to learn about, and help architects design with, wood.

A 3D-printed steel structural connecter created using a method <a href='http://ift.tt/2jQWj20 by Arup</a>. Image © David de Jong

3. Steel

The city skylines as we know them exploded out of our discovery of steel, commonly used for reinforcement but serving as a beautiful skin in several examples. The wiki SteelConstruction.info offers everything you could possibly need to know about designing with steel.

A bench developed by Terreform ONE and Genspace <a href='http://ift.tt/2jQToGB using bioplastics</a>. Image © Terreform ONE

4. Plastic

Although this may seem like a cheap, unsustainable material to some, one should not be so quick to judge the possibilities that plastic holds. We produce so much of it; why not recycle it in the form of architecture or bioplastics? What about the whole new world that comes with 3D printing? The American Chemistry Council has a great overview of plastics as a material, as well as a rundown of their major uses in architecture, with links to further resources for each.

<a href=''>Stone staircase developed by Webb Yates Engineers and The Stonemasonry Company</a> for a residential design by RAL Architects. Image © Agnese Sanvito

5. Stone

Another material used over generations in certain geographical locations around the world, stone has a wide diversity of textures, colours and strengths. Despite its heavy, solid materiality, one can still work with it to achieve diverse forms. The Building Stone Institute has a variety of resources including fact sheets and specification sheets for many of the most common types of stone used in construction.

<a href='http://ift.tt/2iUptcy Center in Cambodia by Orkidstudio and StructureMode</a>. Image Courtesy of Orkidstudio

6. Textiles

Textiles have been explored most commonly using tensile structures, however there’s a whole range of opportunities using this material: load-bearing chairs, inflatable spaces, fabric casting and wooden fabrics amongst others. Fabric Architecture Magazine has a collection of technical articles for architects, while their resource guide provides a comprehensive overview of the products on the market in this category.

<a href='http://ift.tt/2iUxsGi in Hamburg by Herzog & de Meuron</a>. Image © Maxin Schulz

7. Glass

Our most used material to achieve transparency and light is without a doubt glass, one of the most commonly used façade elements in contemporary architecture. Some are taking it a step further, attempting to extend its properties to create “intelligent” responsive glass. The PPG Glass Education Center is a great place to learn more.

<a href='http://ift.tt/2jQQLoa; structure in Iran</a> by ADAPt. Image Courtesy of ADAPt

8. Brick

Despite its rigid, rectangular shape made to fit in your hand, brick architecture has been shown to create beautiful structures with the right craftsmanship. Innovative thinkers are also finding new ways to incorporate active sustainability into the small building elements. The Brick Development Association has a collection of resources for learning more about brick.

<a href='http://ift.tt/2jQYxyf Kevlar</a>. Image via DuPont.com

9. Kevlar

A material stronger than metal body armor, with awesome tensile strength, Kevlar is certainly an asset when building large structures. With a less rigid composition than steel however, it could reform the way we think of large load-bearing structures. As a still-relatively-new material, there are few comprehensive information sources on Kevlar’s architectural applications, but this article and this snippet of the book Material Architecture by John Fernandez are good places to start.

<a href='http://ift.tt/2jQW7zN Green School by PT Bambu</a>. Image Courtesy of PT Bambu

10. Bamboo

Bamboo usage is generally dictated by the geographical location of the architectural project. In locations where bamboo makes sense, it is an incredibly flexible, strong, sustainable material that can be useful in many ways.

<a href='http://ift.tt/2iUpwVM Room</a> by P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S. Image © Monica Nouwens

11. Carbon Fiber

Reflecting everything about our new material endeavors is carbon fiber: “five times stronger than steel, twice as stiff, weighing significantly less.” The composition of carbon fibre makes it flexible to work with, allowing it to take shapes from surfaces to rods, depending on your requirements.

<a href='http://ift.tt/2iUrK7n solar panels developed at the University of Michigan</a>. Image via Inhabitat

12. Photovoltaic cells

With all the high-rises soaring high above the earth, it’s a wonder photovoltaic facades haven’t become a norm. Due to the evolution of photovoltaic technology, cells may no longer have to be locked in place on the roof. The International Energy Agency’s design handbook for photovoltaics in buildings is available for free online.

Image from the <a href='http://ift.tt/2jQLEnV Structure project by Architecture for Humanity Tehran – Rai Studio</a>. Image © Mahsa Masoudi

13. Earth

Earth is among the oldest building materials we can think of due to its almost universal accessibility and relative ease of use at small scales. It’s capable of being compressed into modules, as well as creating freeform surfaces, all of which can eventually return to the earth with ease.

via Al Jazeera English

14. Waste

We produce a huge amount of waste covering a huge range of materials, but getting to know your waste is an excellent idea for future architects. Whether it’s converting cigarette butts into building material or plastic bottles to earthquake resistant walls, recycling is something to be admired.

<a href='http://ift.tt/2jQYa6R Straw Theatre / Salto AB</a>. Image Courtesy of Karli Luik

15. Straw

Creating a passive thermal environment, shielding from rain and blending into similar natural surroundings are just a few things that straw is good at. It’s no wonder thatched roofs were so popular in the past.

Image from<a href='http://ift.tt/2iUyhPu Oxman and the Mediated Matter group's Synthetic Apiary project</a>. Image Courtesy of The Mediated Matter Group

16. Organic materials

With the massive loss of habitats happening around the world, getting to know organic structures created by animals is something that’s best to do sooner rather than later. Not only can we learn from their use of materials, it also opens up opportunities for us to coexist through incorporating their organic materials into our architecture.

As with all materials, accessibility and cost plays a huge role. There are sure to be materials not on the list that would be the obvious option in certain parts of the world, so be sure to get to know the materials around you in addition to these and you’ll be sure to have a complete resource.

Finally, if you’re looking for a resource to specify products for a project, why not try ArchDaily’s Product Catalog?

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Harvard Graduate School of Design. © Matt, via Flickr. CC. Used under <a href='http://ift.tt/2eAc2NU Commons</a>

One of the main difficulties encountered by students when looking for a job is dealing with a lack of professional experience. This fact is a paradox since people who apply for a trainee position have often never worked in the chosen area. Therefore, it is vital to invest in education and also to know the cultural diversity that’s available. Below we have 10 tips that serve as guidelines for students who want to build up their CV and get through the interview processes: 

1. NETWORK

Via startup101.com.br

Networking means the ability to establish a network of contacts or connections with something or someone. It serves as a personal marketing tool whose effectiveness will depend on authentic communication, a proactive stance, and the ability to cultivate strong interpersonal relationships. In addition, it functions as a system of mutual collaboration for sharing services and information between individuals who have common interests. For example, hearing about a job opening through a colleague. Therefore, it’s important to participate in social networks related to your areas of interest and also to maintain regular contact with people who can contribute to your professional and personal development. Without a doubt, helping and being helped are rewarding experiences, resulting in beneficial partnerships for all involved. 

2. VOLUNTEER

Via Gazeta do Povo

There are numerous NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that offer on-site collaborations with volunteers and the community, in order to achieve a specific objective (their mission). The projects they do emphasize teamwork and the importance of being civic-minded. In addition, it’s an opportunity to develop your technical skills and at the same time get to know other ways of living and contribute to the transformation of a place and the people who live there. 

3. PARTICIPATE IN DISCUSSION GROUPS

If discussion groups meet in your area, try to attend. Usually, texts on current and / or relevant themes are discussed. In addition, sessions of documentaries or films that portray the problems and realities of the architectural universe may be shown. If no such group exists, organize one with your peers and ask for help from your professors so that they can suggest readings and films / documentaries related to the subjects they teach. The exchange of information and opinions with colleagues directly contributes to gaining professional knowledge. 

4. TAKE MORE CLASSES

Just participating in the courses for your degree isn’t enough if you want to excel professionally. You should further develop your skill set through specialized classes that correspond to what interests you. There are several options offered by public and private educational institutions, among them: distance learning courses, technical vocational courses, seminars, certification classes and technical training courses.

5. ATTEND LOCAL EVENTS

Via Expo Revestir

Be aware of the calendar of events in your field (architecture, urban planning, design, landscaping and construction), including international fairs, forums, symposiums, conventions, round tables, architecture and urbanism week, regional / national / international meetings for architecture and urban planning students, etc. Choose which ones you’d like to participate in from the available options. 

6. PARTICIPATE IN STUDENT COMPETITIONS

Participating in a competition means fully meeting all the requirements set out in the call for proposals, whose work will be evaluated by skilled and technically qualified judges. It’s essential that the project is presented in the requested formatting since any non-compliance is cause for disqualification. All these types of experiences are valuable, even if your project doesn’t win since participating demonstrates attention to detail, discipline, teamwork, and organization in order to fulfill all the requirements. In addition, the projects you make can be included in your portfolio (see tip 10) and also mentioned on your CV. 

7. VISIT IMPORTANT WORKS OF ARCHITECTURE

Copan Building. © Rhcastilhos – via <a href='http://ift.tt/2gVPZW2; commons

Researching architectural and urban projects that were or are relevant to society allows an architecture student to expand his repertoire of projects. However, seeing the places you studied in person and getting to know them is an irreplaceable experience in the training of an urbanist architect. Being physically in a place stimulates the senses of the human body because it is possible to experience different smells, noises, tastes, textures and sights all at the same time. In addition, observing people interacting with a space provides critical analysis for the architect in decision making. If you can’t travel right now, try to get to know the history and the architectural structures in your own city or even your neighborhood. There are always at least a few interesting places to visit and in many of them are free. Oh! Always bring a notebook to write down your impressions and ideas. 

8. PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH

Participating in research is the starting point for those interested in delving into a specific subject or pursuing an academic career. In general, the interested student integrates with some research group at an institution and develops a project together with the instructor, which in turn encourages him to participate in conventions and seminars, as well as to publish articles in newspapers and magazines. In addition, you can obtain research grants by sending in grant applications and project summaries whose relevance will be evaluated by the technical committee of the requested institution.  

9. PARTICIPATE IN AN EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Florence. © Irene Grassi, via Flickr. CC. Used under <a href='http://ift.tt/2eAc2NU Commons</a>

A professional who has already participated in an exchange program stands out in the job market because the experience acquired is associated with a series of challenges that the person has already overcome, among them: dealing with distance from family and friends, learning different customs, adapting to the reality of a new country and, above all, to communicate in another language. An exchange student learns the importance of teamwork and has experience with the cultural diversity of another country. Additionally, you make new friends and expand your network (see tip 1), you acquire new knowledge, responsibility, and independence and, again, can become fluent in a foreign language. There are different exchange programs, some of which offer scholarships and housing and food aid. It is important to thoroughly research the available information and look it over well to determine what destination and length of stay fit your budget. 

10. MAKE A PORTFOLIO

Your portfolio is a kind of “display case”, whose main objective is to demonstrate the quality of the projects you’ve done. Students who are planning their careers should gather their work done both at university and from student competitions (see tip 6) so that the portfolio ends up being creative, organized, and well structured. Make sure you always keep it up to date. 

Article written by Tarsila Miyazato, Master of Architecture and Urbanism – FAUUSP. She is currently a professor of architecture and urban planning and civil engineering courses at Cruzeiro do Sul University (UNICSUL) and works as an architect at Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM). 

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