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Author: signordal
Angled glazing frames range of views from Ghent house by Steven Vandenborre and Mias Sys
Tara Theatre / Aedas
© Philip Vile
- Architects: Aedas Arts Team
- Location: London, UK
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Philip Vile, Hélène Binet
- Client: Tara Arts
- Director: Julian Middleton
- Main Contractor: HA Marks Ltd
- Fire Consultant: Trenton Fire Ltd
- Number Of Seats: 100
© Hélène Binet
Tara Theatre in London, UK, designed by Aedas Arts Team, has won the ‘Project Design of the Year’ award at this year’s London Construction Awards.
Section
Recently reopened, Tara Theatre is the new state-of-the-art home for the acclaimed Tara Arts, the oldest multicultural theatre company in the UK. The new incarnation of Tara Theatre fuses the global and the local, creating an inspirational space for the country’s first cross-cultural theatre to create art from the dialogue between East and West.
© Philip Vile
Oriental elements were integrated into the design to pay homage to the history of the theatre being Asian-led and owned – and to express the unique identity of Tara Arts in the English theatre landscape. The motif of the Banyan Tree refers to India’s ‘tree of life’ – and the shade it offers a place to meet as a focus of community life. ‘Tara’s Tree’ wraps around the façade and is pargeted, a traditional English craft, which resonates with Indian decorative techniques. It invites audiences into the theatre to hear and share stories, whilst externally providing a lively and engaging urban marker.
Plan
Tara Theatre features a superbly equipped and flexible auditorium with a doubled capacity of 100 seats, a new fully soundproof rehearsal room and other supporting facilities to fulfil the contemporary needs of performances and audiences. The performance space features an adaptable earth floor to offer an original, alternative surface as well as to give a tangible expression of Asian culture in London.
© Philip Vile
7,500 original bricks from the demolition were reclaimed and reused in the new auditorium, whilst materials were sourced locally wherever possible. The ‘Tara’s Tree’ on the façade is composed of 96% recycled ash. The internal spaces enjoy plentiful natural light with glare control by colourful window blinds. Unusual for a performance space, the main auditorium can be naturally lit through the high level windows.
Elevation
The Project Design of the Year award celebrates projects that have been designed in such a way to be sympathetic to the environment and surroundings, functional for purpose and innovative in style.
© Philip Vile
Vattier Design Creates a Contemporary Home in Hsinchu, Taiwan
Apartment Interior is a private residence designed by Vattier Design. It is located in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Photos courtesy of Vattier Design
💙 Celebrating New Year’s Eve at Mount Lillfjället. on…
💙 Celebrating New Year’s Eve at Mount Lillfjället. on 500px by… http://ift.tt/1XrG9sQ
Erdem Selek’s Corrugated Ruler “soothes eyes” when not in use
Our latest Pinterest board spotlights the Dezeen Hot List top 10
To celebrate the launch of Dezeen Hot List, we’ve created a new Pinterest board dedicated to the 10 hottest forces in architecture and design from the last year. Projects include Zaha Hadid’s museum in the Alps and David Chipperfield’s tranquil water-garden apartments. Follow Dezeen on Pinterest ›
Arguelles Apartment Refurbishment / Carrascal•Blas
© Guiomar Martín Domínguez
- Architects: Carrascal•Blas
- Location: Argüelles, 28008 Madrid, Spain
- Architect In Charge: Gabriel Carrascal Aguirre, Sergio Martín Blas
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Guiomar Martín Domínguez
- Carpenter: MELO OTERO
- General Contractor : MAGAREST
© Guiomar Martín Domínguez
From the architect. An awkward distribution, typical of speculative architecture in 1950s Madrid, constituted the point of departure in this renovation, as much as an opportunity to re-think domestic inner space. The commission aimed at the thorough transformation of a 95-square-meter apartment in the central district of Argüelles, which was very much conditioned by the dwelling’s unusual depth, i.e. a considerable distance between the entrance and the main, exterior rooms. The design responded by introducing unexpected relationships while valuing uncommon spaces, often deemed residual. Such a strategy results, in the first place, in a careful articulation between the entrance, the kitchen plus office, and the hallway. The latter’s spinal role within the flat made it worthy of a special treatment through geometry, so reflecting the layout’s irregularity, as well as by a play of quivering textures integrated in the continuous panelling of the surrounding walls and lattices, all in lacquered wood.
Sketch
Isometric
In second place, the renovation seeks to preserve the flat’s identity by the modulation of light, the use of warm tones in wooden overlays and hydraulic tiling, or the restoration of the traditional, hard-wood floors, in a herringbone pattern with edgings.
In the main rooms, the ampleness of the original height is emphasized by lowering the hallway and server spaces, as well as by particularizing the ceilings at different places: entrance (pyramid), office (pitched roof) and dining room (gilded, with a curved moulding). The combination of different textures and tones in wood, along with the variation among stances result in a spatial interplay of surprise and familiarity.
© Guiomar Martín Domínguez
Including demolitions, the work had to be ready in barely three months, so leading to the use of dry solutions for the partition walls and their facing. Speed was thus made compatible with the high quality of detailing and materials in the final result.
© Guiomar Martín Domínguez
The Science Behind Smiling
You’re reading The Science Behind Smiling, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Charles Darwin, best known for his theory of evolution which he presented in one of the most important books of all time, On the Origin of Species, explained how populations adapt to their environments over time. In doing so, he laid down the foundation for evolutionary biology as we know it. On The Origin of Species is Darwin’s most famous work, but he also wrote a much lesser known book titled The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, where he claimed that all humans show emotion through similar behaviors. This view is one that psychologists today generally agree with, affirming that certain expressions of emotion are common to all of us, regardless of race, culture, or age. One of these universal facial expressions is a smile.
Smiling and Happiness
The natural response to happiness is smiling. And according to science, the reverse is also true: smiling can actually create happiness.
Recently psychological scientists Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman conducted experiments to find the link between stress and smiling. They found that when people smiled while completing mundane tasks, they had lower heart rates and stress levels than those who wore a neutral expression throughout their tasks. This effect was especially pronounced for participants who produced a big ear-to-ear smile, known as a Duchenne smile. The experiment led the researchers to conclude that when faced with stressful situations, it may be a good idea to put a smile on your face, if only for a moment, as this lowers stress. Smiling also tricks our brains into believing we are happy, and one way it does this is by making us think of happier memories, which boost our moods.
Smiling and Stress
Even though the exact relationship behind facial expression and mental state is largely unknown, it has been suggested that smiling reduces levels of the stress-inducing hormone cortisol. Increased levels of cortisol could potentially lead to cardiovascular disease, mental illness, and obesity, so it’s worth every effort to try to decrease our cortisol levels.
Smiling also has a positive impact on the balance of neurotransmitters present in your brain. Neurotransmitters are powerful neurochemicals that are responsible for regulating our physical, mental and cognitive functions such as sleep cycles, pain resistance, weight control and even emotional state. The effect of smiling on neurotransmitters can help stabilize your mood during daily stressful activities ,and help calm your nervous system.
When an imbalance in neurotransmitters occurs, it can trigger a range of complications such as obesity, alcoholism, caffeine or nicotine dependency, depression, panic attacks, bipolar disorder, and many other conditions. Therefore, the simple act of smiling can activate neural messaging in your brain that promotes health and happiness.
Smiling and Attraction
Research shows that when you smile, people treat you differently. Smiling instantly makes you appear more reliable, relaxed, sincere, and attractive. The Face Research Laboratory in Scotland conducted a study by asking a group of men and women to view images of people and rate their attractiveness. The study found that people who smiled more were rated as more attractive than those who avoided eye contact and didn’t smile at all.
Perhaps this is why celebrities invest in perfect smiles, often opting for porcelain veneers to give them flawlessly straight, white teeth. According to a cosmetic dentistry practice in Boston, broken and stained teeth can make a person look older, while a brighter smile gives a look of health and youthfulness. Anyone you spot on television will more likely than not have a perfect smile. This gives them a youthful glow while simultaneously making them look more attractive.
Smiling and Endorphins
When the smiling muscles in our face contract, it sends a signal to the brain to stimulate the reward system that further increases our levels of endorphins, or happiness hormones. This triggering of the reward system can have the same effect on our happiness as eating chocolate or receiving a monetary prize. According to science, it really is possible to have a “million dollar smile!”
When it comes to happiness, children clearly have an advantage over adults—they smile 400 times a day on average, as compared to 20 times a day for adults. If you find it hard to smile, try being around people who tend to smile a lot. According to a Swedish study, it is difficult to keep a straight face when constantly faced with people who are smiling at you.
So not only does smiling reward our brain’s feel-good system, it also makes us look more attractive and lowers stress levels. In stressful situations, smiling is a great way to temper extreme levels of stress and to keep your cortisol levels under control. Smiling is an act that many of us may have to practice in order to make a regular habit. However, it’s a habit worth investing in, as smiling, happiness, and health have a scientifically proven link to one other.
You’ve read The Science Behind Smiling, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Project of the Month: Casino and Hotel Ovalle
Courtesy of Turner Arquitectos
Geography and climate are two important conditions that determine how people can live in a certain environment. When we add to this the cultural characteristics of a region, what appears, as Carl Sauer would say, is a “cultural landscape,” a result of humankind’s settlement and adaptation to the territory. When architecture adopts a sensitivity to these conditions, and concerns itself with what the environment offers, living conditions take on a quality of lasting comfort.
For October’s Project of the Month we want to highlight the Casino and Hotel Ovalle by Turner Arquitectos, which adopts an aesthetic pertinent to the geography and cultural landscape of its location. ArchDaily en Español spoke with the project’s architects to find out more about their design.
The project’s site seems like a very powerful location. We would like to know more about how you translated the cultural context of the area into the design—what comfort strategies did you use in the face of the extreme climate?
Courtesy of Turner Arquitectos
Courtesy of Jadue Livingstone
On the numerous trips that we made during the process of design and construction of the project, from Santiago to the Limarí Valley, we went North via Route 5. On this 400-kilometer journey, you can observe how the landscape of Mediterranean climate in the central zone becomes more and more arid and radical as one moves towards the North. Turning eastwards towards Ovalle, the geographical features are accentuated, forming impressive arid plateaus and gorges, where human beings have sought shelter for centuries.
Courtesy of Turner Arquitectos
The geographical and cultural context that characterizes the Limarí Valley is so powerful that, however commercial the program included the commission, the design should communicate with its surroundings and form a “settlement”—where its visitors are protected from the arid climate and Northern landscape, but at the same time where they can understand the local culture and topography while inside the building.
Courtesy of Turner Arquitectos
Courtesy of Turner Arquitectos
The description of the building in formal terms is simple because it imitates the geographical location of the city of Ovalle and the surrounding villages. Just as water, by means of erosion, once formed the ravines and gullies of the place, we wanted to propose a large regular volume, into which we carved a diagonal gully which the building’s functional spaces open toward. The openings in the outer faces of this volume, on the other hand, are small and precise, thus protecting the inhabitant from the extreme climate.
Courtesy of Jadue Livingstone
Courtesy of Jadue Livingstone
Is this proposed hermeticism a response to the programmatic requirements of security and traffic control within the complex? What were the requirements and restrictions regarding the hotel and casino program?
Courtesy of Turner Arquitectos
A casino by definition needs high standards of security to improve its games, so the volume that housed this program had to be quite closed. To design the hotel, spa and the rest of the enclosures we had complete freedom when proposing orientation, degrees of openness and materials. Despite this we repeated the concept of closedness for the rest of the programs, although to a lesser extent, because we believed it was the best way to guard visitors and make them feel as if they are inside a series of caves carved into the edges of the main ravine.
The way to unify the multiplicity of programs was, on the one hand, to choose common materials for all volumes; the stone, concrete and metal seen are present in all the buildings, in both the facades and the interiors. On the other hand, there is the central ravine that constitutes the main pedestrian walkway and meeting point of the project.
Courtesy of Turner Arquitectos
Respect for the surrounding material environment seems to be an important part of your formal approach. Could you delve deeper into how the indigenous culture influenced the realization of the envelope and how the building was constructed?
Looking at the palette of colors and materials present in the surroundings, we decided to use the most characteristic ones. The predominant use of low stone walls to delimit plantations, stables and other terrains led us to think of a large stony base from which the different volumes emerged. On the other hand, we wanted to recover the positive side of the aridity and coarseness of the northern landscape, using materials and coatings with thick textures and ocher and gray tones which, used correctly, give warmth to the spaces. That’s why we kept all the concrete visible and textured it using rough wood moldings.
Courtesy of Turner Arquitectos
We also did some research on the geometric patterns present in the impressive ceramics of the Diaguita indigenous population. We did several facade studies looking for a way of imprinting these patterns on the envelope, trying not to fall into exact reproduction but instead to use these patterns to deconstruct and to disorganize the openings resulting from the hotel rooms, which generally produce motionless, monotonous facades. Therefore, the zigzag shapes of the chosen Diaguita pattern allow the reading of an entire volume, which is not marked externally by walls or slabs.
Courtesy of Turner Arquitectos
