Architect Evgeny Didorenko has released his conceptual proposal, Thames River Museum, which aims to improve connectivity on the North Bank of the Thames River and create an exciting museum space in London.

As a proposal for the Thames Museum, which is currently a project without permanent accommodation, Didorenko’s work seeks to help the museum become a reality by finding a location for it that would not only work with the museum’s context, but that would also solve existing issues on the riverbank.

Therefore, the proposal’s site is an underused portion of London’s North Bank—Queen’s Quay. Historically, Queen’s Quay served as a transportation hub to deliver goods to city residents from the sea, but now lies abandoned, and stays dry during periods of low tide, when water levels drop up to eight meters.

Courtesy of Evgeny Didorenko

Courtesy of Evgeny Didorenko

Courtesy of Evgeny Didorenko

Furthermore, the existing pedestrian route along the embankment in this area is essentially nonexistent, with no access to the waterfront, and no direct pathways, which forces pedestrians to walk inland for several blocks before returning to the river.

The proposal features three main components: a continuous, pedestrian-friendly waterfront, the Thames River Museum, and a public lido on top of the museum, in order to transform the space back into a public attraction.

Courtesy of Evgeny Didorenko

Courtesy of Evgeny Didorenko

The focal point of the project, however, would be the “Thames Screen,” a large, “inverse fish bowl” window that shows the River’s changing elevation throughout the day, allowing visitors “to explore the river from the inside, reflecting the living pulse of the city of London.”

Courtesy of Evgeny Didorenko

Courtesy of Evgeny Didorenko

Concurrent with the Thames River Museum’s dedication to the archaeology and history of the River, the proposal additionally features a display of subterranean archaeological layers, in order to present the Thames as “the oldest ancient monument of the city.”

Courtesy of Evgeny Didorenko

Learn more about the proposal here.

News via Evgeny Didorenko.

http://ift.tt/2ik7PRu

© Stéphane Groleau

• Architects: Équipe SAGP
• Location: Québec City, QC, Canada
• Architect In Charge: François Moreau, Michel Veilleux, Pierre Guimont, François Mathieu, Marc Letellier, Kurt Amundsen
• Client: Ville de Québec
• Landscape Architects: Projet paysage
• Area: 65000.0 m2
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Stéphane Groleau

© Stéphane Groleau

The idea to build a multifunctional arena in Quebec City began in 2009 with the creation of the group “J’ai ma place” (which translate in a double meaning : I have my seat/I belong here), which had the mission to revive the popular craze for the return of a team professional hockey in the old capital. The project, strongly supported by the mayor of the city, has quickly captured the attention of the media and citizens. It’s in 2012 that the mandate to design this project was officially granted to the SAGP integrated team. The Videotron Centre is now a unifying project for an entire population, proud to have witnessed the birth of a unique infrastructure of its kind in the heart of the Quebec City region.

© Stéphane Groleau

 Built on the site of a former hippodrome, on the edge of the Limoilou district, the main volume of the amphitheater clearly marks the function of the building across the city. Its pure white skin and openings evoke the movement of the snow moved by the wind, snowdrifts, and more broadly the nordicity of the city. The snowdrifts, formed by icy winds, delight the eye and shape our landscape. They subtly became the visual representation and conceptual line of this sports and cultural facility of Quebec. The structure that supports this curved façade is in laminated timber, a detail that greatly colors the perception of peripheral passageways. The openings that undulate around the perimeter of the volume offers unique views of the city. From the outside, the white dome is visible from almost everywhere in the city. The internal configuration of the building, following to the principle of open concourses on the bowl, invites to the celebration and the free movement of users. The overall feel of the place is festive, lively and stimulating.

© Stéphane Groleau

© Stéphane Groleau

Videotron Centre presents a hybrid structure of steel and laminated timber. The use of wood has been chosen as a support structure of the envelope of the main volume to elegantly adapts the curve of the outer wall and gives a unique look to peripheral concourse. From the main concourse to the lower roof on a total height of over 25 meters, this structure has only an intermediate support at the upper concourse. The laminated timber arches, located at a distance of 5 meters from each other, create the 92 facets of the oval volume of the enclosure of the bowl.  Black spruce – in section 25 by 25 millimeters – was selected for its local availability and structural qualities, allowing to refine the dimensions of the impressive arches.

© Stéphane Groleau

The lobby, generous and open to the exterior public square brings the imposing building to the pedestrian scale. The lobby features a long screenprinted glass wall acting as a sunshade to minimize solar gains in summer. A hybrid structure of wood and steel has been used to support the facade of over 93 long and 11 meters high, dramatically suspended 4 meters above the ground. At night, the wall is highlighted to provide an increased civic presence. Ultimately, the wide public square will undoubtedly become a favorite place to watch a hockey game outdoors on the huge built-in screen.

Section

Floor Plan

Section

The amphitheater has a large number of configurations to enable a wide variety of sports and cultural events. In the show configuration, it can seat 20 396 people and 18 310 in the hockey configuration.  The infrastructure meets the NHL requirements and allows to possibly welcome a team in the upcoming years. The Centre is aiming for a LEED NC Silver certification, which is rather rare for a building of this type. 

© Stéphane Groleau

With the construction of Videotron Centre, Quebec City has adopted a new fun contemporary equipment, evocative, sustainable and connected to its community.

© Stéphane Groleau

http://ift.tt/2jjkhzg

© David Montero

• Architects: Héctor Navarro, ARKHITEKTON
• Location: Tetuán Street, Santander, Cantabria, Spain
• Area: 2432.15 m2
• Year Project: 2016
• Photography : David Montero

• Collaborators: Eduardo Navarro, Laura Fernández, Avelia Chomón

© David Montero

“Between valleys and craters” (the name of the proposal) has sought since its first sketches to create a public space able to generate a continuous ground plane capable of saving the large difference in level that the work area presented (6.20 meters in the worst part). Usable by 100% of its surface and, thus recovering a residual space in the city that had juxtaposed a series of independent operations (parking, electric installation, huge ramp to upper housing block…)

© David Montero

Site Plan

© David Montero

Once the project was assigned, the architects did field work with the aim of collecting proposals and future users concerns for this project. Restaurateurs and other neighboring businesses proposed valuable approaches, above all, existing problems that had to be solved with the final proposal. Some solutions were relocated and greenery were added (at first, the whole proposal was a square defined by a concrete floor as the competition required). It also accomplishes the city councils demands, ensuring the safety of users and taking into account the economic maintenance for the future.

© David Montero

The project has been designed with a ground plane as a sculpted topography, getting with its formal solution, accessible routes to higher areas of the square avoiding ramps and handrails. To this purpose, a regulating plane has been designed to find the easiest solution in its geometry getting minimal slopes capable of fulfilling the standards of accessibility. This plan applies actions which will result in a zoning of the square as “craters” that organize activities and circulations. A visual connection is achieved between all parts of the whole, but allowing the particular development of each of the uses. These craters are materialized in many different ways depending on their use. Concrete floors for terrace areas (for existing businesses) with shrubbery in their slopes, rubber soils in the playground, grass or other one occupied by a stands-like installation.

© David Montero

Over the project, a pattern of 3×3 meters serves as a basis for organizing trees (Pyrus calleryana), streetlights and other urban furniture . This grid also defines the expansion joints that is part of the striped pattern of the concrete floor .

© David Montero

http://ift.tt/2j7rMwj

Courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has finally found a home. Following nearly a decade of searching, the museum’s board has announced that Los Angeles’ Exposition Park will serve as the site for the MAD Architects-designed building housing the life’s work and expansive art and media collection of one of history’s most celebrated filmmakers, George Lucas.

Courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

After proposals for the museum in San Francisco’s El Presidio district and Chicago were turned down by their respective communities, new competing schemes for Los Angeles and San Francisco’s Treasure Island were released in October of last year.

“While each location offers many unique and wonderful attributes, South Los Angeles’s Promise Zone best positions the museum to have the greatest impact on the broader community, fulfilling our goal of inspiring, engaging and educating a broad and diverse visitorship,” the museum board commented in a statement.

The museum will join several other cultural institutions located in the Exposition Park area, including Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the California Science Center, The University of Southern California main campus, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the main stadium of the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and the proposed site of the city’s bid for the 2024 Olympics.

The project will be self-funded by Lucas, who is expecting to spend over $1 billion on the building and programming.

More information on the selection can be found here.

News via LA Times, Lucas Museum.

http://ift.tt/2juXgsC