As every good design professional knows, the client is at the forefront of every project. Sometimes this can feel like the client plays judge, jury, and executioner to every last revision, and in a field as detailed and complex as architecture, satisfying these demands, as well as the designer’s own creative vision, can be bewildering and aggravating. But in the end, doesn’t adapting to another person’s tastes just push us to be better?
Courtesy of Leewardists
Centuries of civilizations built on structures designed by architects and yet, their voice is lost among the countless stories of rulers and armies and sometimes wondrous monsters.
The Leewardists are rewriting the contemporary history of our civilization through the voice of this elusive being, The Architect.
For more of The Architect Comic Series follow them on Facebook, Instagram or visit their website.
Since we’ve started to branch out into China, the ArchDaily China team has been able to discover the rich layers beyond just these rising Chinese stars. As part of the country’s large-scale urbanization process, last year, we posted some of the large-scale projects designed by China’s (largely unknown) Design & Research institutions such as train stations and cultural centers.
In addition, we’ve also come across a series of smaller, lesser known, younger practices that focuses more on small-scale experimental work. Here are our top ten favorites:
Led by principle Ruan Hao, LYCS is one of the most diverse young design practices in China. Based in Hangzhou, the practice has a team structure of 3 partners and 2 associates to allow the firm to operate at all scales, from Masterplans to their infamous Cat Table.
LYCS are one of the first young architectural practices in China to explore the typology of urban schools with the Roof Track School. The practice claims to be invested in critical issues of design building, urban development, and construction within China.
Duo Xiang Studio
Vanke Pavilion, Shanghai World Expo 2010. Image Courtesy of Dou Xiang Studio
Duo Xiang Studio is a Beijing-based studio which explores everyday objects, focusing on appropriateness. This fresh approach has led to an interesting array of works from the Comb Chair, made out of hundreds of combs, to the Vanke Pavilion as a part of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
Public Folly – Water Tower Renovation. Image Courtesy of Department of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong
A research-based practice, META-Projects focuses on discovering and responding to the unusual socio/cultural potential of Asian cities. From the ‘Regeneration-by-intervention’ of their own office, (a courtyard house in the Hutong laneways of ancient Beijing), to the research-based projects designed in collaboration with Vanke (one of the largest real estate developers in China). META-Projects has been very demonstrative of the renewed desire of local architects to connect architecture to its social environment.
Huludao Beach Exhibit Center. Image Courtesy of Department of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong
He Wei has carved out his architectural approach from his background as a researcher and professor at the Central Academy of Arts (CAFA) in Beijing. With a passion for China’s minorities vernacular architecture and concerns over the future of China’s villages, Hei Wei is seeking to create a dialogue between the past and the potential future of China’s leftover buildings.
ArchStudio first caught the attention of local and international media with their visually seductive and contextually sensitive interventions within historic parts of Beijing. Their breakthrough project, the Hutong Tea House in Beijing uses a ‘curvy corridor’ to physically link and repair the relationship between the past and present while providing the necessary modern day creature comforts.
Zi Bo The Great Wall Museum of Fine Art. Image Courtesy of ARCHSTUDIO
More recently, they have extended their approach to renovation of industrial era spaces and striking new structures such as the Tangshan Organic Farm, winner of ArchDaily’s Project Of The Month for November.
Zhu Jingxiang started his career by building a lot and fast, caught up in the fast pace development of mainland China. After designing over 100,000 square meters of buildings in his early career, he took a professor position at the Chinese University in Hong Kong to take a break to research and teach. However, the devastating Sichuan earthquake in 2008 drew him into a crusade of design custom, prefabricated and economically viable buildings for disaster prone zones worldwide.
Dou Pavilion, as a part of the China Pavilion, The 15th Venice Architecture Biennale. Image Courtesy of Department of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong
More recently he has extended the scope of his work practically and geographically. Zhu was one of the principle designers/participants in the China pavilion at the Biennale with his Dou Pavilion, while his innovative light-weight system and post-disaster reconstruction projects have extended beyond remote parts of China to Africa.
Dou Pavilion, as a part of the China Pavilion, The 15th Venice Architecture Biennale. Image Courtesy of Department of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Perhaps young is not the most appropriate way to categorize Atelier Deshaus, as both of the partners, Chen Yifeng and Liu Yichun are both seasoned architects who have been through the largely unknown Chinese system of Design Institutes.
However, the refreshing designs of Atelier Deshaus surprise time and time again, ranging from the brutalist beauty of the Long Museum West Bund to their recent art installation Blossom Pavilion.
Based in Shanghai, Archi-Union combines digital technology and craftsmanship through a low-tech, locally sensitive digital fabrication method of ‘Digital Tectonics’.
The use of digital fabrication extends beyond facade treatments and mere aesthetics to the transformation of circulation flows and folding of space itself in projects such as Fab-Union Space on the West Bund.
Songjiang Art Campus. Image Courtesy of Archi-Union Architects
O-Office, unlike most other offices on this list, is located in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Having experienced the Chinese urbanization climax first hand from their local context, the firm now seeks to exploit architectural design as a critical instrument for research on our spatial and economic reality.
The transformation of the top floor of Guangzhou’s oldest beer factory into the Silo-top Studio was one of the studio’s first projects, complete with 38 meter high terraces overlooking the city’s old downtown.
People’s Architecture Office believe architecture is for the masses, in fact, it is the masses that inspire their work. From their Courtyard Plugin’s within which a modular system is integrated into century-old houses to enable them for modern living, it is clear to see that PAO’s architecture is not based on form or pure aesthetics but everyday realities.
Courtyard House Plugin en Masse – Second Phase. Image Courtesy of PAO
This blog post covers the one thing I hate the most: People who claim to be entrepreneurs but who aren’t doing any of the shit they constantly talk about. There are way too many individuals who express their next big idea or their future investment of some kind in some type of company that is actually, physically doing absolutely nothing. It’s sad – but it’s a fact, and it’s true.
Let’s face it:
An idea without execution revolves around nothing. I honestly believe that a successful business is 10% Idea and 90% Execution. In other words, if you think have a good, thriving business idea – then you should put your idea into action, and start working on the reality of it. Don’t bore us all by discussing it for years to come.
Starting your own business pushes a person through an enormous range of emotions. It is one of the most thrilling and exciting experiences, as much as it can also be a rather scary situation for many. Perhaps fear or simple inertia is what keeps some people from taking the first step. In the end, talking is easy as f*ck – what’s hard is taking action.
If you are reading this and feel like I am talking about you – then I just want you to realize that you should start moving, taking action, and do what you say will. If your mind is stewing over a strong business idea, then you already have some kind of entrepreneurial mindset.
Don’t let obstacles get in your way! If you don’t have anybody in your entourage that is already an entrepreneur or that can help you get where you want, keep pushing and work harder! Don’t stop to take the time to listen to anyone’s negative comments. Just keep doing what you have to in order to attain your dreams – if that’s what you truly want. However cliché it may sound, you’ve only got one life so make the best out of it!
Again, let’s face it:
Everyone on Earth is going to come to an end in the same way, so why stop yourself from doing what you love most? What matters is what you are doing while you are alive.
Nobody is ever really 100% ready to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is like jumping off a cliff and building a plane on your way down in order to stay alive.
The important thing is taking that first step towards the start of your dreams right now! There will never be a better time, let alone the “right” time to start a business. It’s only up to you to create the right time.
Here is some advice that I received when starting my first business:
Find someone that is already doing what you dream of and ask them questions on how to get started
You actually have to take the first step
Plan your long term AND your short term goals in order to stay motivated
The road to success is a long one so keep yourself pumped up – or the difficulties and obstacles along the way will literally knock the shit out of you.
Follow your heart
Do what you think is right for you and don’t stop to listen to anybody who tries to convince you that your dreams are crazy or impossible. This person is only limited by their own thoughts and you are only limited by yours. If you think that you can achieve something, don’t stop at excuses and make it happen instead.
Work you ass off!
These are the “rules” that I am following myself and that have helped me in moving forward even when I felt like losing faith. If you only remember one thing about this post, remember that you’ve got what it takes to start following your dreams. Stop Talking and Start Doing!
When it comes to attaining your dreams, there is no time to deal with sentiments and feelings. Too many feelings in business and you’re literally out of business. Forget everything else. Put everything aside and let your burning desire and passion take over instead.
BIG are known for unconventional buildings that often raise the question “how were they able to do that?” Such is the case for BIG’s Honeycomb, a luxury eight-story condominium currently under construction in the Bahamas. The project’s hallmark is its hexagonal façade made up of private balconies, each with its own glass-fronted outdoor pool. The façade was also the project’s greatest engineering challenge, with each balcony (including pool water) weighing between 108,000 and 269,000 pounds (48,000-122,000 kilograms) while cantilevering up to 17.5 feet (5.3 meters) from the structure. Tasked with this challenging brief were DeSimone Consulting Engineers, who previously worked with BIG on The Grove. Read on for more detail on the Honeycomb’s innovative engineering.
Central to the Honeycomb’s design of is the use of a specially engineered concrete “superslab” which is able to cantilever over 17 feet without wall brackets below. This was achieved by reducing the slab’s weight while maintaining its strength and stiffness. As explained by Bill O’Donnell, the project lead at DeSimone, “to control deflection and reduce self-weight, 12-inch (300 millimeter) diameter tubes were embedded in a 17-inch (430 millimeter) thick conventionally reinforced roof slab.” These voids hollow out the slab, reducing its weight and increasing the section’s overall efficiency. This step also “eliminated the need for a post-tension slab, further reducing the overall weight and reducing the cost of the project.”
Courtesy of DeSimone Consulting Engineers
Courtesy of DeSimone Consulting Engineers
The balcony decks themselves are constructed from a 13-inch (330 millimeter) thick conventionally reinforced slab. What is especially clever, and what allows the slab to be kept at 13 inches, is that the slabs “fold down at the deepest point of the pool to align with the shear wall of the lower unit” for extra support.
Because of the staggered partition walls and varied façade, these shear walls sometimes connect to a structural column, acting “as a rigid bracket supporting the slab above and below.” At other junctions there is no column – here “the wall is not as stiff in these locations but still carries vertical load back to the column strip.” These 18-inch (450 millimeter) thick concrete shear walls not only increase structural support, but join into the sloped pool floors in order to form the hexagonal honeycomb structure.
Courtesy of DeSimone Consulting Engineers
Courtesy of DeSimone Consulting Engineers
While the depths of the cantilevers allow for plentiful outdoor space, the balcony’s utilities added further challenges. Both the summer kitchen and pool required a host of services, while also needing waterproofing and long-term serviceability. This meant the need for thoughtful detailing, with “nearly a dozen conduits that had to be carefully placed to get across the column strip and emerge on the sloped slab in the proper location”. The concrete shear walls were also once again utilised, with embedded pool drains serving as a path for balcony drainage.
Because of the Honeycomb’s innovative structural system, conventional materials were able to be used, but used carefully. As all the concrete in the building is conventionally reinforced cast-in-place concrete, special attention was paid to the concrete mixture itself. To ensure durability, “limiting initial soluble chlorides, providing a tight water-cement ratio, and additional concrete cover over the reinforcing steel were critical design measures.” Finally, for further protection, an integral waterproofing admixture and surface applied coating were also used.
Courtesy of DeSimone Consulting Engineers
Correction update:This article originally mistakenly named the project lead at DeSimone Consulting Engineers as Bill O’Simmons. His actual name is Bill O’Donnell.
The Multimodal Interchange project in Vitré comprises the creation of:
– A pedestrian footbridge in Vitré Station, spanning the railway
Courtesy of TETRARC
– An underground car park with 620 spaces, constructed in two phases, and an overhanging pedestrian footbridge, connecting the first footbridge to the “Place de la Victoire” (Victory Square) and thus creating a pedestrian thoroughfare from this square to the Station’s north car park
– A path connecting the upper part of the Place de la Victoire to rue Pierre Lemaître along the south façade of the car park, against the existing hillside
– A public space serving the underground car park, an overground car park with 16 space, drop-off spaces serving the Ecole Sainte Marie (St. Mary’s School) and the Station via the footbridge, and a road system curving around a plot of land earmarked for the future construction of an office building.
The task was to construct a detached house in the best inner-city location. The plot to be built on rises by about the height of one storey from the northern boundary, where the access road runs, to the south and it opens to the south on to a level area. One major aim of the design was to create an optimum sequence of rooms from the public to the private to provide the highest possible spatial quality in each phase.
Courtesy of Spado Architects
The building itself consists of an east-west orientated two-storey base divided by a projecting roof that separates it from the street and protects it to the south and on top of that a north-south running single-storey gable-ended roof construction that minimises the view from the house to the west and forms a protective roof over the terrace. The building fits into its urban environment in that the roof shape and the building line match its surroundings.
Courtesy of Spado Architects
The route through the building is intended to create a series of different spatial moods. The hall in the basement was designed as a cave-like interior space in a positive sense. The warm, dark colour scheme accentuates the feeling of “coming home” and it emphasizes the light falling from top to bottom in the area of the single-flight stairway. The wall in the area of the stairs was designed as light with a reflecting surface to further increase the play of light.
Courtesy of Spado Architects
Via the stairs you reach the open-plan living area storey that is designed as a flowing space between the inside and the outside but still protected from view. The wall structure of the stairway is extended into the exterior space. This creates a flowing transition between inside and outside. Via another stairway you come to the most intimate and private areas of the house, the bedrooms and the bath area.
Courtesy of Spado Architects
Section
Courtesy of Spado Architects
For maintenance purposes you can reach the garden level along the eastern boundary. There is storage space for garden tools built into the wall at the garden level. The canopied spaces provide areas protected from the weather and from view.
From the architect. The project is a public facility, situated on the new campus of Paris-Saclay. The building hosts a mix of activities including indoor and outdoor sports facilities, a restaurant, cafeteria, and various public spaces: a pedestrian square, street terraces, park areas for deliveries, bikes and cars. The building is organised vertically with its different activities superimposed on one another, using the roof as a panoramic playground for football and basketball games. The different areas are linked by an open staircase that allows independant accesses. The building takes the form of an urban shelf, a vertical public space, accessible to all campus visitors, day or night.
It is a shared facility, encouraging the encounter of various populations living close to one another, but rarely meeting. The Restaurant, cafeteria and sports activities are made accessible to students, company employees, teachers, and researchers. It aims at creating a meeting point for everyone by mixing activities that are usually separate.
Courtesy of MUOTO
The building has been conceived as a minimal structure, using rough materials, robust and long lasting techniques. Technology is used minimally to provide a place that will last in time, without need for complicated maintenance.
In response to the low construction budget, detailing has been kept to a minimum. This economical approach has allowed for the inclusion of a generous public square in the construction price, ensuring a planted pedestrian connection with the existing academic buildings next to the site. The vertical configuration of the building provides a minimal footprint.
Product Description.– The main materials used in the building are glass and concrete. The glass façades are characterized by large aluminium sliding doors with triple rails. The concrete beams have been prefabricated and casted in industrial moulds, while concrete columns have been casted on site.
Sig Nordal 