Houses in Hardwick "Garden City," a suburb of Chepstow in Wales, that was built in the early 20th century. Image © <a href='http://ift.tt/2i2TiqK user Ruth Sharville</a> licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2cNSQNM BY-SA 2.0</a>

Yesterday, the UK Government announced plans for 3 new garden towns and 14 new “garden villages” across England, expanding a plan that already includes 7 previously announced garden towns. Explaining the concept of the garden villages, the Department for Communities and Local Government described settlements of 1,500 to 10,000 homes, saying that together the 14 locations have the potential to deliver 48,000 new houses. In order to expedite the creation of these new settlements, the government has set aside a fund of £6 million (US$7.4 million), which housebuilders will be permitted to use in order to accelerate development at the sites.

However, the architectural community in the UK has mocked the proposals and the government’s use of language, highlighting what appears to be a poor understanding of Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities concept. Many have also pointed out that the plans are relatively meager in a country that, by many estimates, is falling hundreds of thousands of new homes short of the number needed every year.

@GavinBarwellMP We had New Towns. Then Ecotowns, didn't work. Garden Cities, ditto. Now Garden Towns & Villages. What next? #ebenezerhoward

— Peter Murray (@PGSMurray) January 2, 2017

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We've gone from Garden Cities to Garden Villages. https://t.co/bDaecwtj6k Make no small plans etc.

— Future Cities Salon (@fcp_salon) January 2, 2017

Speaking with ArchDaily, Charles Holland—co-founder of Ordinary Architecture and a former member of FAT—said: “I think the idea of new villages is a very interesting and important one which I have been researching at the University of Brighton. As part of an answer to the current housing crisis, I think new villages offer a plausible model that could reflect changing work patterns and the role of digital culture. This could facilitate a sort of reverse modernity or rural futurism—a migration from urban to rural.”

@edwinheathcote @guardiannews hipster roof gardens

— Cameron Sinclair (@casinclair) January 2, 2017

However, regarding the UK government’s announcement, Holland was less positive: “As for the ‘garden’ bit, well that seems like a lazy, unthreatening way to evoke places like Letchworth minus the radical model of communal land ownership that was an essential part of Ebeneezer Howard’s original vision.”

The garden prefix will not gussy up the same inadequate housing policy, served up in smaller and more lukewarm portions every year

— Matthew Whitfield (@mwhitfield80) January 2, 2017

'Garden' villages – an impotent tweeification of housing policy @mwhitfield80 http://pic.twitter.com/Ghx8M5qJTu

— Catherine Slessor (@cath_slessor) January 2, 2017

Others were also pointed out how the original socialist intentions of the Garden City movement were at odds with the government’s plans, with writer Gillian Darley referring to an article from 2012 which criticized a previous misuse of the term by the government:

Here we go again … a reminder #LRB blog: https://t.co/oFGoYuuZSH via @LRB

— gillian darley (@gilliandarley) January 2, 2017

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© José Manuel Cutillas

• Architects: José Miguel García Pérez
• Location: Ciudad Agroalimentaria, Tudela, Spain
• Architect In Charge: José Miguel García Pérez
• Project Team: Sara Catalán Sesma, Ricardo Martínez Jordán
• Area: 18550.0 m2
• Photographs: José Manuel Cutillas

© José Manuel Cutillas

From the architect. JATA is a company with more than 50 years of experience in the manufacture and marketing of household appliances. With its original headquarters already obsolete, it was decided to build new, larger facilities, which would cover the current requirements of the company and the market. These requirements were mainly a large logistical area and spaces destined to activities of manipulation, recovery, production lines, laboratory, etc. On the other hand a properly administrative area.

© José Manuel Cutillas

With this distribution of the program and under operating guidelines studied by Jata throughout its history, the project was born with two volumes of pure lines and an industrialized construction based on prefabricated concrete elements, as a reference to the company and its production in series, which allowed to reduce the execution time. The largest volume houses the logistics program meanwhile the smaller one embraces the rest of the areas.

© José Manuel Cutillas

The logistic warehouse has 14.6 m of maximum height, 100 m of width and 120 m of length. It is a building with a closed facade of concrete panels placed horizontally, prefabricated structure of concrete sconces of big lights to achieve an interior space as clear as possible, naturally illuminated thanks to skylights and exutorios in deck. The offices, of smaller size and greater complexity, is defined by a facade with prefabricated elements of vertical concrete from floor to deck, with an orientation S-SO that allows to take advantage of the natural light for the whole day, achieving a uniform natural illumination throughout the building, and allowing the best possible views of the open landscape and the Moncayo peak. Light is present everywhere and transparency is intended in all spaces, creating connections between different working areas and achieving greater efficiency and better working conditions within the company.

First Floor Plan

Despite all difficulties, the program has been developed to achieve a project with an architectural value associated to the company, a design that corresponds to the innovative but, at the same time, traditional character of Jata Appliances.

© José Manuel Cutillas

This quality of the building based on repetition, austerity and functionality generates a rigorous piece that is necessary to disrupt in order to mark the access to the interior. Therefore, the entrance to the office building fractures a corner of the main parallelepiped, creating an atrium of double height and broken shape that contrasts with the austerity of the totality.

© José Manuel Cutillas

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© Sebastián Crespo

• Architects: Leppanen + Anker
• Location: Quito, Ecuador
• Area: 15000.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Sebastián Crespo

• Other Participants: Uribe & Schwarzkopf
• Work Team: Sofía Chávez, Caroline Dieden, Alberto Játiva
• Structural Calculation: Patricio Ramos

© Sebastián Crespo

It is a 14 story, 15,000 m2 mixed use building: commercial on the lower floor, offices for the next four floors and residential units on the next nine floors. 

Diagram

The building is located at an important intersection within the city where urban elements converge, such as a new metro stop, an important government building, a commercial shopping center and the most emblematic park of the city. Being the first new construction in this zone and highly visible, the building attempts to combine the many existing and new diverse elements through movements that bring new shadow lines  reflections and points of view.

© Sebastián Crespo

Floor Plan

In the search for spatial wealth elements of the facade were eliminated, this is achieved by a design concept that removes strategic corners of the building. Where double and triple height spaces are generated.  Where panoramic visual connections to the entire city, manage to activate these exterior areas traditionally dead, and replacing them with different social programs.

© Sebastián Crespo

Floor Plan

© Sebastián Crespo

These new exterior areas at the top of the building take advantage of the park’s visual and excellent equatorial climate that prevails throughout the year. Deep perimeter balconies around the building help to reduce solar gain in the interior spaces allowing for the use of larger portions of glass in the façade, without sacrificing passive climate controlled spaces. 

Section

The building contains a large roof garden that makes a visual connection with the surrounding Andes Mountains while creating usable green space for the building’s residents. 

The façade of the building uses a material process known as GFRC (glass fiber reinforced concrete).  Molds were made in close collaboration with the architect’s digital model and the fabricators work shop to provide accurate and a well coordinated process. The concrete material in then sprayed onto the molds to create the final product. 

© Sebastián Crespo

The design and the construction process of the building utilizes a repeatable patterning system to reduce the overall amount of molds used in creating the dynamic building facade. Advantages of this material are efficiency of installation, as panels are fabricated up to 4 meters by 2 meters tall. Molds are also able to be reused, reducing the material used and fabrication time.  Also designed and built into the installation process is a system of adjustable metallic connections allowing the complex forms to align with ease. The final product is a continuous dynamic façade system.

The coordination between the Leppanen + Anker Architects, the developer and builder, Uribe & Schwarzkopf, was vital for the development of the GAIA building, resulting in a new landmark for the city, a new architectural and constructive reference, which is incorporated enriching urban life and local architecture, in the Ecuadorian capital.

© Sebastián Crespo

Detail

© Sebastián Crespo

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Courtesy of Atelier Pierre Thibault

• Architects: Atelier Pierre Thibault
• Location: Chemin du Lac-des-Piles, Shawinigan, QC G0X, Canada
• Architects In Charge: Pierre Thibault, Claudia Campeau
• Area: 3200.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of Atelier Pierre Thibault, Maxime Brouillet               

Courtesy of Atelier Pierre Thibault

La Grande passerelle is designed for a young family wishing to enjoy a peaceful lifestyle on the shores of a scenic lake in Quebec, Canada. Two volumes of wood anchored against a gentle slope generate a luminous inner courtyard delimited by the forest. The first, acting as a screen to the street, contains a luminous training room, located under the garage, which overlooks the private courtyard.

© Maxime Brouillet               

© Maxime Brouillet               

Below, a second volume comprising the rooms seems to float above the fully fenestrated ground floor. The connection between the two volumes of wood is made by a large footbridge which penetrates the interior spaces of the house and projects itself towards the lake. The visitors reach the residence by the upper floor to discover step by step the living room, the kitchen and finally the lower level that opens generously on the backyard and the dock. The play of transparency connect the different rooms of the house to the lake that the family can contemplate from all places.

Courtesy of Atelier Pierre Thibault

Floor Plan

Courtesy of Atelier Pierre Thibault

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Courtesy of White Arkitekter

White Arkitekter has proposed a timber-framed “lantern” design for in a new addition to the local art center in Akershus, Norway as part of a limited architecture competition. The design by White Arkitekter was selected as a runner-up, with Haugen/Zohar Arkitekter named the winner. White’s design aims to connect the art facilities to adjacent historical institutions and create additional public space.

The proposal is a direct response to the long-standing establishment of Akershus Kunstsenter as a cultural hub for its community just outside of Oslo and hopes to further cultivate the cultural quarter of Lillestrøm. Physically, this cultural development manifests in a new public space dubbed the Lantern; this area would allow for events, debates, and exhibitions both inside and outside the building. The timber-framed building is composed of galleries joined in a ring around a courtyard, which is not specifically programmed but is equipped for more exhibitions. The daylit interior space is flexible enough to evolve with rotating exhibitions.

Courtesy of White Arkitekter

According to the architects, the design aims “to keep the creative and curative process as transparent and accessible as possible” to optimize community engagement. To this end, the designers kept many galleries visible from the exterior and laid out circulation patterns to draw visitors through the exhibitions.

Courtesy of White Arkitekter

• Architects: White Arkitekter
• Location: Akershus, Norway
• Design Team: Fredrik Pettersson, Christian Hess
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of White Arkitekter

News via: White Arkitekter

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