Chinese residential buildings dated from 1980s/90s are now facing challenges of being upgraded in order to adapt to new needs and current way of living.
The site consists of two parts, the front part along the street, and the back part which is an apartment with a separate access from the residential building. In-between there is an open space, forgotten and abandoned by its previous users, hidden behind by a brick wall.
In the design, this open space is revealed, transformed into three green patios, and a transparent glass pavilion connecting the front and the back, providing the space with a continuous sense of interior/exterior with natural light, enriching, and adding stimulating moments to the overall experience of the space. Extended into the front space, one of the green patios can be seen from the street level. While standing inside of the glass pavilion, street life can also be seen directly or captured by mirror reflection.
The shop is called DressingForFun. Located in a local Chengdu street, it encourages young people to come back to our street life rather than spending enormous time in shopping malls. A series of fun elements are designed, creating interesting and interactive moments in the space. The space itself is also designed to be flexible, allowing the possibilities for events and exhibitions.
The entrance revolving door has the shop logo cut out from the front steel panel, with back-lit colorful acrylic plate behind, which can be rotated by a door handle from inside, accordingly the logo will show different color.
The idea of clothes racks comes from unfolding paper clips. Two types of clothes racks are formed by “unfolding”: moveable standing ones, and fixed hanging ones with lighting integrated.
The changing room is a moveable box with ceiling open. Its location in the shop can be varied according to the program and layout in the space.
Joyful Church chose Beck to create a new facility for the church’s growing, vibrant worship and education programs on Sundays and for the church’s many social welfare ministries during the week. The church’s vision was to have a design that expressed a strong symbolic Christian message, but that also used traditional Korean symbols in a fusion of architecture, faith and culture. The location was a 10 acre site in a new town development area of Pohang. This site had many development challenges included steep, wooded hillsides and strict zoning limitations.
Beck’s solution provided a 383,500 SF design that integrated into the landscape with gently flowing lines that wrap around a large central plaza. Spaces included a 2700-seat sanctuary, 800-seat chapel, cafeteria, cafe, library, fitness facilities, children’s and youth spaces, welfare ministry facilities and a 350 car underground parking garage. Placement of the buildings into the natural hillsides and careful orientation of the windows allowed ample natural light into the spaces while providing greater energy efficiency. Forms and patterns in the architecture were inspired by traditional Korean crafts and calligraphy, and the use of natural materials and colors further harmonized the entire building into its unique place.
“Beck showed its devoted effort and undivided attention to our church until completion of the building and advised church step by step during church’s decision making procedure.” Senior Pastor Park, Jin Suk, Joyful Church
Product Description. Brazilian granite was used to create forms and patterns in the architecture which were inspired by traditional Korean crafts and calligraphy, and the use of natural materials and colors further harmonized the entire building into its unique place.
From the architect. House M is located on a corner plot overlooking a public park, about a mile away from the coast, in Lima’s 1950´s traditional residential neighborhood of San Isidro.
The project has been developed as a basic composition of volumes, planes and materials that define the spaces in response to the views, light, privacy, and a large program.
The four story building is defined by a half sunken garage, office space and service area, all of which raises the living quarters above street level generating a platform for the rest of the building.
The first floor of the house, with the garage roof top garden, living, dining room and the kitchen area sit above the street, overlooking the park through glass walls, while solid concrete walls block the view from the street and generate an entry sequence in to the house.
The third and fourth levels are defined by a two story wood screen and a horizontal white cantilever volume, with the bedrooms, family room and gym that floats along the tree canopies over the ivy covered concrete wall that surrounds the house.
Seattle – Washington – USA (by blanes_jm)
BAD. Built by Associative Data’s Associative Data Research has collaborated with Green Studios to create Kinetic Green Canvas, a prototype Green-Art Installation for building façades.
The Canvas consists of individual modules, each of which is a cube made from steel framework, back paneling, L-shaped jambs, secondary structure, waterproofing board, irrigation piping, Green Studios hydroponic skin, and plants. These layered components are assembled on four sides of the cube module, with a motor and water pipe attachment that circulates water throughout.
Thus, hydroponic plants in varying shades are grown on each face, and when put together, modules can create changeable “pixel” art.
News via BAD. Built by Associative Data.
From the architect. AEW Architects has completed a £15m, 91,000sq.ft headquarters for Moneypenny, the UK’s leading telephone answering specialist. The offices in Wrexham have been said to rival the offices of Google and Apple, and boast a tree house meeting room, nature trails, vegetable gardens and even its own pub.
The staff are at the heart of Moneypenny’s business and the brief from the client reflected the importance of its team and the desire to create an interesting, inspiring working environment for them, bringing everyone together from several different offices.
The office was designed as two three storey wings flanking a dramatic, 17m high central atrium, known affectionately as ‘the middle’, which is the hub of the building. One of the challenges was to ensure that the staff, no matter which floor they were on, felt connected to the ‘middle’. This was achieved through the use of large picture windows looking directly into it from the offices and through the placement of bridge links crossing at high level. The atrium includes a treehouse meeting room, indoor terrace and stadium seating.
Set within a 10 acre site in a semi rural location on the edge of the Wrexham town centre, the office building was designed in response to the surrounding environment to provide a strong relationship between interior and exterior and includes a nature trail for staff through the extensive grounds with landscape features including a meadow, woodland, an orchard and wetland.
Phil Hepworth, Associate at AEW Architects said “This really has been a dream commission for AEW Architects and a real honour to work with such an exciting, forward thinking company such as Moneypenny. The opportunity to create a bespoke office of this magnitude on such a beautiful site where the brief is to ‘ignore the norm and create a space that inspires’ is rare. We really hope that the design helps the company continue to excel and inspires the staff to enjoy working there.”
Ed Reeves, co-founder and director of Moneypenny believes the building represents the future of office design. He said:”What we believe is simple – the happier our staff, the happier our clients. So when we made the decision to build a new office, we asked ourselves: how we can make sure that our receptionists are the happiest in the UK? The answer was easy – ask them. So that’s what we did. AEW Architects were the perfect partners to help make their vision become a reality. They took our thoughts, suggestions and ideas and created our dream home. What’s even more remarkable is that they have delivered a world-class and visually stunning commercial development for the same budget we’d been quoted for a standard brick ‘box’ office”
The main contractor was Pochin’s Ltd, with Hatrick Property as Development Director, Avid Property Consultants as Project Managers, Cundall as M&E Consultants and Structural Engineers, CW Studio as Landscape Architect and Todd and Ledson as Quantity Surveyor.
Sig Nordal 