Oregon
photo via devon
Australian office Bates Smart has unveiled their design for the new Australian Embassy to the United States to be located in the diplomatic heart of Washington, D.C. Developed in partnership with local firm KCCT, the new building will provide the embassy with a contemporary workspace with views to the White House.
Bates Smart’s design draws inspiration from the Australian landscape, allowing the building to become a symbol for their home country.
“The environmentally sensitive design embodies the spirit of Australia through direct references to the distinctive Australian landscape: its bright and clear natural light and open skies, its warm materiality and its vast scale,” said the architects in a press release. “The use of these associations will create a civic building and symbol of Australia that is both enduring and welcoming.”
Offices and flexible working areas encircle a large glass atrium, which provides the building with an abundance of natural light. On the ground floor, a large open public space leads guests into the building and to a series of exhibition gallery and event spaces for ceremonial and public functions.
The building has been designed to meet the highest possible global environment standards, employing a thermally efficient façade system, a green roof with an extensive photovoltaic array and the latest building services technologies, as well as through the expansive use of natural light.
The new building will replace the existing Australian Embassy, which was designed by Bates Smart’s Sir Osbourne McCutcheon in 1964.
“It is with great pride that we have the opportunity to replace this building with the next generation of Bates Smart design,” said Kristen Whittle, Director of Bates Smart. “The design of the new Embassy has been inspired by the unique and beguiling beauty of the Australian landscape. The project has a refined and rich materiality which will make it stand out in Washington.”
News via Bates Smart.
Washington D.C. – USA (by ehpien)
From the architect. The Campus North Residential Commons offers the kinds of social spaces and experiences that enhance campus and academic life for today’s undergraduates. The full block site is intended as a new portal to campus and is designed to encourage interactions and exchange between students while also opening up the university to the greater Hyde Park community.
Campus North offers a mix of student residences, dining options, amenities, retail, and outdoor green spaces. Extending the campus footprint to the north, the location and placement of the structures create a new “front door” for the University, opening up to the greater Hyde Park neighborhood and strengthening pedestrian connections between the campus and nearby communities.
The design situates four slender bar buildings in an urban fabric of plazas, gardens, walkways, and courtyards that together form inviting, public and semi-private outdoor spaces for students and neighbors. The building is scaled to its context, with the highest structure completing the urban edge of busy 55th Street, while nearby structures are more attuned to the residential neighborhood along University Avenue. Pre-cast concrete panels are used to clad the building, a contemporary facade informed by the University’s neo-Gothic tradition.
Enhancing the University’s House system, which encourages interaction and collaboration between students of different years to support social and academic success, the buildings are organized around House hubs, three-story communal spaces that are designed to feel comfortable and homey. Each hub offers distinct spaces for studying, movie watching, cooking, and playing in small groups or individually, while also enabling all House members to assemble together to discuss household chores and energy use and to plan group activities or study sessions.
The Houses share additional communal spaces such as the top-floor Reading Room, which offers panoramic views of the city, campus, and Lake Michigan.
BIG and Heatherwick Studio have been selected as the architects for the new Google Headquarters at their King’s Cross campus in London. The ten story, 650,000 square foot building will be the first wholly owned and designed Google facility to built outside of the United States, and is part of a campus expansion plan that will eventually contain offices for 7,000 employees.
The team was awarded the commission after an original scheme by AHMM architects was put on hold in November 2013. Images of the new designs have yet to be released.
“From the beginning, the project to give Google a new home in King’s Cross has been extraordinary,” said Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Heatherwick in a joint statement.
“Rather than impose a universal style on Google’s buildings in the UK and the USA, we have tried to create an interestingness that fits the scale and the community of King’s Cross. The Silicon Valley startup garage meets the London train sheds in a building that couples clarity with eccentricity and anchors innovation with heritage.“
The BIG/Heatherwick-designed building will be the last completed of three new campus buildings, joining the recently finished 6 Pancras Square, designed by AHMM, and a second 280,000 square foot, 10-story building by Mossessian Architecture that is currently under construction and slated to open in 2018.
Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, said “Here in the UK, it’s clear to me that computer science has a great future with the talent, educational institutions, and passion for innovation we see all around us. We are committed to the UK and excited to continue our investment in our new King’s Cross campus.”
Google is planning on investing more than a total of £1billion on the project, including the new building and the cost of hiring thousands of new staff members. The building will sit within the larger 27 hectare King’s Cross redevelopment masterplan, which comprises more than 50 buildings and 1,900 homes, including the new Coal Drops Yards shopping area, also designed by Heatherwick Studio.
The London HQ will be the second project by BIG and Heatherwick Studios for Google, after their design for the U.S. Google Headquarters (dubbed the “Googleplex”) in Mountain View, California.
News via BIG, Architect’s Journal.
svartifoss by Noam Mai not the most powerfull waterfall in iceland, but definitely a very unique one, due the hexagon shape of the rock that surrunds him
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Noam Mymon Art http://flic.kr/p/fYctVc
Basque Country, Spain
photo via devon
Casa Estudio is an urban regeneratio project that brings a deteriorating house originally built in the 80s back to life, located in a micro industrial area of the city.
El entendimiento de condiciones pre-existentes causa una sutil intervención en el espacio a partir de un sistema de patios y la honestidad en los métodos constructivos empleador
El desafío principal del ejercicio fue hacer más con menos. Desde resolver un planteamiento arquitectónico que logre ampliar un estudio en planta baja e independizar un nuevo departamento en planta alta, hasta maximizar el espacio interior-exterior habitable. La estética/forma del proyecto radica en la funcionalidad y el manejo aparente de los materiales
La implementación de una serie de patios permitió ventilar e iluminar naturalmente todos los espacios. Su revestimiento con barro, material regional que tiene fuerza y contraste, renovó espacios de respiro para la contemplación
Debido al esfuerzo presupuestal, la materialidad de la casa se expone al desnudo. Exige alta calidad en mano de obra, puesto que el tabique, firmes, vigueta y bovedilla que se colocaron son acabados finales. Esto representó gran enseñanza al taller sobre las metodologías constructivas regionales. Se usaron también texturas vernáculas que el bajío ofrece. Como es el caso del junquillo, palma de tallo nudoso, fuerte y con propiedades flexibles por su altitud, extraído de Bucareli, una región de la Sierra Gorda Queretana
El proyecto comprende y respeta su contexto. Pero también asume sus limitaciones. Casa Estudio recuerda su digno pasado y atiende a las necesidades de quienes la habitan para ser un lugar de vivir-trabaja
