© ZENG Zhe

• Architects: IAPA Design Consultants
• Location: Beijing, China
• Architects In Charge: Paul Bo Peng, Yang, Yen Hu, Stoney Yu
• Area: 2500.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: ZENG Zhe

• Clientother Earth Happiness Group: The Mother Earth Happiness Group

© ZENG Zhe

Yin Ma Chuan of the Great Wall – The Seeking the Happiness of Mother Earth Area is the first cultural resort at the foot of the Great Wall of China. IAPA partnered with The Mother Earth Happiness Group to design works from planning, architecture, landscape, interior, to construction documentation. The design of the resort has a unique emphasis on environmental protection and art culture.  Zhao Hua Xi Shi Living Museum is now complete and in use.

© ZENG Zhe

Axonometric

© ZENG Zhe

The Zhao Hua Xi Shi Living Museum has a modular container as the main body of its structure, which incorporates exhibition, catering, leisure and office spaces. The modular container is connected with galleries, bridges and platforms to create an enjoyable space using the style of the Courtyard House. The design embraces the scenic nature of the Great Wall, offering visitors a magnificent landscape view.

© ZENG Zhe

© ZENG Zhe

Zhao Hua Xi Shi Living Museum is a representation of the continuity of traditional cultural heritage. The structural form, the indoor and outdoor spaces, the contrast of stone and steel, the timber and hemp, the interaction of corridors, bridges, and viewing platforms, provide a pleasing environment to enjoy the enchanting, unique experience of Seeking the Happiness of Mother Earth.

© ZENG Zhe

Product Description. The project is located within the historic site of the Great Wall. The modular containers were chosen to form the main structure body. Locally sourced woven reeds, used for the outdoor corridor ceilings, and recycled timber decking create a natural aesthetic that represents the traditional cultural heritage of the site.

© ZENG Zhe

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© Eric Laignel

• Architects: TPG Architecture
• Location: Winston-Salem, NC, United States
• Architect In Charge: Larry Berger, RA
• Lead Designer: Carly Jacobson, LEED AP
• Area: 37500.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Eric Laignel

© Eric Laignel

From the architect. After a successful teaming for the design of their Boston headquarters, MullenLowe engaged TPG Architecture to design its new office in Winston-Salem, NC: a 37,500 square foot space in the city’s newly developed Wake Forest Innovation Quarter. The office design was an opportunity to create a strong communications touchpoint expressing MullenLowe’s identity as a “challenger” in the advertising industry, a scrappy do-everything ad firm with a global reach.

© Eric Laignel

MullenLowe’s staff work in multiple disciplines for diverse clientele, so their space had to be flexible and inspirational. The space itself was breathtaking when the design team first walked through. Built in the 1930’s, the building was originally a tobacco factory. A large, deep floorplate, 14’ ceilings and metal-frame windows were the raw materials that provided the framework for MullenLowe’s new offices.

© Eric Laignel

The design concept was to respect and celebrate the existing structure, leaving the walls and ceiling untouched by using floating free forms – rectangular boxes built between the columns – to create space within the space.

© Eric Laignel

The L-shaped floor plate naturally split the space in two distinct wings. The reception area is logically situated at the vertex of the wings, in an existing open atrium with stairs to the lobby. By placing reception there and using the free form boxes to subdivide the space, the design team was able to bring focus and continuity to the plan, dividing the raw space into functional neighborhoods and providing myriad open and inspiring creative environments. The program required an assortment of collaborative spaces including conference rooms, huddle booths, photo and recording studios, and a media screening room with stadium seating.

Plan

Structural columns and beams were left exposed, still coated with nearly a century of layered paint, which was minimally sandblasted to prevent peeling. Finishes and furniture were inspired by the raw space; the free form boxes are clad in plywood and dark-gray painted sheetrock, while the chair colors were sampled from the peeling paint on the concrete walls. The designers devised a system of perforated metal screens to allow for magnetic pin-up space throughout the office without interrupting the openness and fluidity of the floor.

© Eric Laignel

Today, MullenLowe’s space is more conducive for hosting events for local groups such as the Arts Council, as well as outside vendors, such as the local coffee house who provide the staff with on-site barista. Internally, the open work environment and common areas allow for more accidental collisions and natural collaborations, all of which are selling points when hiring new talent and pitching clients.

© Eric Laignel

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The interior of the Crystal Cathedral in 2005. Image © <a href='http://ift.tt/2hOvV4p user Nepenthes</a> licensed under <a href='http://ift.tt/2aA6y58 BY-SA 3.0</a>

When the Crystal Cathedral was constructed near Los Angeles in 1980, its design was pure Hollywood: designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee for televangelist star Robert Schuller, the design combined traditional elements of church design with features that made it suitable for television broadcasts. However, when Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for bankruptcy in 2010, the building was passed to a very different tenant, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, who then commissioned Los Angeles-based firm Johnson Fain to adapt the building to be a better fit for the Catholic Church.

A recent article by Mimi Zeiger for Architect Magazine investigates how Johnson Fain are converting the 1980 classic into something more suitable for its new life out of the spotlight—including modulating the light within the vast all-glass structure and rearranging the seating.

Visit Architect Magazine here to find out more about the renovation by Johnson Fain—including a set of renders—or find out more about Philip Johnson’s original design for the cathedral via the link below.

AD Classics: The Crystal Cathedral / Philip Johnson//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

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© Nico Saieh

• Architects: 332 Arquitectos
• Location: Colina, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile
• Architects In Charge: Paola Adrovez, Rafael Bas y Daniel Díaz
• Area: 364.0 m2
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Nico Saieh

• Landscape: Cristobal Elgueta

© Nico Saieh

Architectural assignment. 
This project in Piedra Roja is a house designed for a family consisting of a couple and their four children, two small children and two teenagers. Due to this assignment  , the house should have rooms that allow and make compatible the different activities of its members, at the same time foster the convergence of the family group and its friends. 

© Nico Saieh

It was also a requirement that parents have some control over spaces in the house, understanding its spread dimensions. 

Floor Plan 02

In addition, the house had to be developed on one floor and take full advantage of the relationship with its surroundings and natural lighting through large windows. 

© Nico Saieh

The land and the location of the house.
The site adjoins a park that is part of the condominium, and within its almost triangular form, a good part of its boundaries are faces exposed to public spaces. 

© Nico Saieh

Therefore, the first design strategy was to extend the house as much as possible, in order to generate a protected border from the outside, where the main enclosures of the house will be located, in a succession of open volumes To the north, separated by small courtyards and interior planters. This would keep the house garden indoor and private, and all rooms open to this interior space.

© Nico Saieh

The Algarrobo. (Prosopis chilensis)
On the site there is a large Algarrobo tree. Then, the house, along with being extended, was designed to give space to this tree and include it as an integral part of the project. The House´s family spaces  are related directly to the algarrobo through terraces and windows. 

Elevations

Passive architecture. 
Energy efficiency considerations were taken through passive architecture design, using ventilated skins (perimeter walls and decks), orientation to the north of the main enclosures, inclusion of landscaping as a tool to avoid overheating, study and application of Layers of thermal insulation, use of DVH Low-e, etc. 

© Nico Saieh

Section

It emphasizes the projection of ceilings with eaves, according to the solar inclination in order to take care of the room´s sunning, which makes that the house is formally distinguished, without pretending, of the rest of the neighborhood. 

© Nico Saieh

Promenade.
Because of the house´s geometry, programmatic relations between the more domestic spaces are produced; for example, between the workshop, the dining room and the family room is materialized a small south patio that is finally configured as a new way to meet and walk through the house. 

© Nico Saieh

Currently, the gardens of the house have been integrated with the adjacent park and the natural landscape of the hills, making their boundaries blur. Likewise, it is the house that defines its limits and the scope of protection of family privacy, regardless of fences or other normative obligations of the condominium. Indoor, the house is constantly looking at itself.

© Nico Saieh

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Alejandro Aravena at TEDGlobal 2014. Image © TED Conference (Flickr) licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Chilean architect Alejandro has been selected as one of “28 creative geniuses who defined culture in 2016” by the New York Times, in a list that includes personalities such as First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, singer Lady Gaga, photographer William Eggleston and designer Junya Watanabe.

Aravena achieved spectacular success this year, being awarded the Pritzker Prize in January and acting as director of the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale which opened in May. Through his work, he directed a discussion about the role of architects and their impact on society.

Together with musicians, chefs, designers and artists, the Chilean is one of three architects selected by the publication alongside the iconic duo of European Postmodernism Trix and Robert Haussmann.

See the complete list here.

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