Urban integration: Jumps of scale to understand the place The site is integrated into the multi-urban network of Paris, the Grande Couronne and major green spaces and infrastructure networks. The ZAC Clichy-Batignolles is perceived as a new landscape of connection, a wide-open urban door along the major territorial arches towards the historic city.
The site becomes an important urban platform, an exchange node inserted into the system of great Parisian relational spaces. It holds a role of transition between different scales, them being territorial, urban, environmental, social, cultural, and infrastructure standpoints. The ZAC thus acts as a device of resonance and multi-district transfer.
Site Plan
The ZAC Clichy-Batignolles and the Martin Luther King Park are based in a large relational space, an interface of connection lines and urban relationships: powerlines, flowlines, lines of connection and interaction. Echoing the adjacent buildings, the project inserts itself in a coherent and consistent elegance.
One of the fundamental characteristics of the project is the creation of an almost complete opening in the block, perpendicular to the Martin Luther King Park. This opening acts as a true extension of the park, prolonging it to the heart of the block and bringing it to the street and beyond, until the E9 lot.
Thus, nothing obstructs the view from the park to the lot and vice versa. The school group and other residences also benefit from the relatively clear views over the park. Furthermore, greater transparency has been sought at the ground level of the project, completing the idea of a maximal link from the park to the street.
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Elevation
Search for compactness and views
This opening constitutes as well, and more importantly, the integration of an environmental strategy. This provision implicates creating thicker buildings, as opposed to the hypothesis of a U disposition. The buildings thus created will be more dense and compact, significantly reducing energy loss. Moreover, due to this configuration no accommodation will be mono-oriented street side. They will therefore benefit from openings overlooking the park and sunny climate.
The two buildings comprising the residences are broken down into volumes of different heights, the tallest building’s height being 50 meters. These new created blocks are superimposed and offset from each other. The objective is to create dynamic movement over static volumetries, more rhythm than fixed objects. These movements and rhythms associated with the already rich architecture of the immediate context allow to create new “sounds of the city”. Furthermore, these offsets allow for more outdoor space and for the optimization of the city-planning rules, particularly the perspectives. The architectural strategy of this project is the result of a thorough reflection to avoid an IGH (high-rise building) classification of the building.
From the architect. An original and unsual project of approxamately 450 m2, such was the proposal of architects Carolina Sakuno and Fausto Cintra for this residence, belonging to a young family. The volumetry of straight and pure lines pleased the taste of the clients who were longing a comtemporary residence.
The house has two floors and prioritizes architectonics solutions such as large interspaces and swings that bring lightness to the project. Perpendicular to the volumetry of the house, is found a garage that accomodate 3 vehicules. The edification is located at the terrain’s highest spot, with its gap won by stairs, surrounded by a wonderful tropical landscape, up to the main door.
The lower floor potentializes the integration between the spaces. As soon as one enters the residence by its main door, central pivoting made by wood, is possible to see the Living Room and the Gourmet Kitchen. An amazing wood stand is located in the living with double function. At its front, TV, wine cellar, equipments and objects of decoration. At its end, opening shelves harbor the tableware, and when is closed resembles to be a beautiful panel. All of this space opens up, through large running doors which are masked inside the wall, all the way to the pool’s deck. The rear landscaping follows the same tropical lines of the residence front. The contrast stays for the great vertical garden which appears to ‘be born’ out of the pool.
The access stairs to the above storey is hidden behind a wall made of artesanal bricks. The wooden stairs, with withdrawn metallic skirting-board, gained illumination where it shows the path to be tread. The above floor houses the dorms, 4 suits at total. The children suits open up to the recreation area, by large ‘prawn’ doors of Muxarabi wood. The same resource was used in the couple’s room with a street and woods view to the front of the house. The bathroom has the same kind of door, which guarantees a beautiful view to the outdoors, when open. This resource assures ventilation and natural light in the indoors, yet it provides a outstanding quality of privacy. The guests room is inspired by the same idea of permeability/privacy, but now it was used a wall of Cobogós concrete made in front of the window, giving a distinct taste to the lateral edification forefront.
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To most eyes, alleys are—at best—liminal zones. Inhabiting the space between “here” and “there,” they exist but for the grace of their adjacencies.
At worst, they are dark, dank, and even dangerous—seen by city dwellers as dead space. However, to a visionary few, the negative space alleys occupy isn’t dead at all; it’s merely dormant, waiting for a rebirth into something functional and new.
In cities where real estate is scarce, expensive, or impractical, alleys are being reclaimed, revitalized, and repurposed for parks, businesses, art, bike transit, and even urban agriculture. All of these green alleys have the potential to create new enclaves that make communities safer, cleaner, and more prosperous.
Among those who appreciate alleys not only for what they are, but also for what they could become, is architect and urban designer Daniel Toole. While living in Seattle in 2008, he developed a mild obsession with these urban veins and arteries in between buildings.
“Every day I walked through alleys from where I lived in First Hill down to my office near Pike Place Market,” says Toole, who, after photographing the alleys on his daily commute, began looking for new ways to engage with them. That led him to a metalworking class where he fashioned trinkets like ashtrays and flower boxes that he used to accessorize his favorite alleys.
“It became quite a hobby,” says Toole, author of Tight Urbanism, a tome dedicated to globe-tripping alleyway architecture, funded by AIA Seattle’s 2010 Emerging Professional Travel Scholarship. “In Melbourne, especially, their laneways used to be very dangerous. Now they’re the best part of that city because the city has created incentives that encourage people to open businesses in them. They’re full of boutiques, restaurants, bars, and art galleries—all kinds of stuff. On one side of a building you’ll have a large department store, and around back in the alley there will be some guy doing pour-overs in a quaint little plywood-clad café. That dichotomy really inspired me.”
So much so that Toole continued traveling alleys around the world, then returned to Seattle and began organizing alley tours and events on behalf of the city. Recently, Toole was commissioned by a developer for his first alley architecture projects: two alleys that are being transformed into pedestrian ways in the Miami Design District, a former warehouse district redeveloped into a creative neighborhood celebrating art, architecture, fashion, and food.
“Once construction in the neighborhood settles down, people are going to find these hidden gems tucked behind the buildings,” says Toole, who plans to start his own design practice specializing in back-alley architecture. “I think it’s going to be very eye-opening for the rest of the country.”
Like Toole, others see the potential benefits of rescuing alleyways from dumpsters and disrepair—or outright destruction. Take architect and urban designer Dan Cheetham, principal of Austin, Texas, architecture firm fyoog. In 2013, he noticed that several of Austin’s historic alleys were being consumed and privatized by “mega-block” developments, which rely on internal infrastructure for utilities and servicing instead of the external alleys dating back to Austin’s original 1839 city plan.
In response, he led the design effort for 20ft Wide, a nonprofit initiative celebrating Austin’s alleys by temporarily turning one of them—Alley No. 111, located on Ninth Street between Congress Avenue and Brazos Street—into a public space for art and activities. During the five-day exhibition, the alley hosted everything from live music and candlelit dinners to yoga and yard games beneath his colorful sculpture highlighting the historic remnants of the alley.
“Turning an alley into a pop-up public space creates awareness and allows people to really appreciate these spaces and learn about the history of the city and its formation,” Cheetham says.
The city’s Downtown Commission took notice, issuing a report, “Activating Austin’s Downtown Alleys as Public Spaces,” and has since undertaken new projects (such as the Rainey Alley Case Study) to explore transforming alleys into viable community spaces and preserving Austin’s rich architectural past.
“Alleys offer a unique glimpse into the history of cities and buildings,” Cheetham says. “They reveal details of how buildings and urban spaces were built and used; their social, cultural, and economic history; and lessons about urbanity that are still relevant today.
“There are all these really old, interesting parts and pieces of buildings that you wouldn’t otherwise see, which gives you a window into the history of the city.”
Rendering of Ivy Street, one of the "living alleys" in San Francisco, which features string lighting and in-pavement lighting. Image Courtesy of San Francisco Planning Department
Cultivating Community in California
In San Francisco, public spaces in alleys aren’t just pop-up; they’re permanent. Architect David Winslow, a project manager in the San Francisco Planning Department, is in charge of a $2 million program to create “Living Alleys” in the city’s Market and Octavia neighborhood. Its inspiration is the nearby Linden Alley, which was transformed in 2010 into a shared street for cars, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Just 100 feet long, it features a curb-free design that seamlessly blends street with sidewalk—adding leafy trees, patches of plantings, stone slabs that serve as benches, and a coffee shop inside what used to be an old garage.
“It’s a cherished space,” says Winslow, who worked on the alley when he was a private architect with an office above it. When he returns today, he says it feels like a shared front yard for the urban community around it. “What we’ve realized is that in most parts of the city, the value of the urban experience lies in the pedestrian realm. Because of their scale, alleys are a really special place where we can create uniquely pedestrianized environments.”
This small scale—which forces an intimate feeling and a slow pace—is a major reason architects and urban planners are attracted to alleys. “Alleys are like time capsules because businesses have never been back there,” Toole says.
Repurposing alleys comes with social, economic, and environmental incentives, too. “Alleys are a resource that has been entirely overlooked and stigmatized for the better part of a century,” Toole says. “Now they’re becoming hip, and I think that’s going to do excellent things for all aspects of our cities.”
Of course, where there are opportunities there also are challenges. Alleys can be fraught with strict zoning ordinances, buried utilities, public health and safety concerns (such as pests, garbage, crime, and traffic), space constraints, hydrology, environmental considerations like daylight and wind, emergency access and egress, and service continuity for garbage collection and deliveries.
“There’s also a challenge of perception,” Cheetham says. “People in the community may question the value of these spaces and wonder why you’re spending your time and money on alleys.”
But anyone who’s stumbled upon a hidden bar in Chicago, a secluded restaurant in Boston, a secret café in Amsterdam, or a back-alley boutique in Istanbul understands exactly why, according to Winslow: “It’s kind of magical when you wander into an urban environment, look down a narrow little street, and say, ‘Let’s check it out.’”
A157 is a residential project designed by Studio DiDeA in 2016. It is located in Palermo, Italy. A157 by Studio DiDeA: “A157 is Nicola Andò and Emanuela di Gaetano’s apartment, a young couple of architects partners at studio DiDeA. The house is 103 square meters (1,108 square feet) and it employs interior elements that are able to serve several functions. The architects decided to give more space to the day..
The Architectural Association on Bedford Square, London
Brett Steele, Director of London’s Architectural Association (AA) since 2005, has announced that he will become Dean of UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture in August 2017. Although American-born, Steele has since become a naturalized British citizen. He studied at the AA, the University of Oregon, and the San Francisco Art Institute respectively, before working as a Project Architect at Zaha Hadid Architects in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
We happen to live in a time when I don’t think schools—and I believe this very deeply—can pursue monolithic institutional views about what might be right or wrong in the world today.
As reported by the LA Times, Steele has said of his appointment: “I think we live in a time when the ability to assemble and invent audiences is as crucial to schools as all of the attention that most of them give to individual artists and performers and architects and designers. It’s in my view two sides of the same coin. There are a few very special places in the world where that’s built into the DNA and UCLA is simply one of those places.”
From the architect. The Hotel Hubertus is located in Valdaora, at the foot of the famous ski and hiking area Kronplatz in the Puster Valley at an altitude of about 1350 m. The family establishment was generously enhanced and enlarged with 16 new suites, a new kitchen with restaurants and “Stuben”, an entrance area with lobby, reception and wine cellar and a fitness and a relaxation room with panoramic terraces. The new 25 m long pool, functioning as a connector between old and new, underlines the essence of this comprehensive renovation and renewal project.
By creating an unified, rhythmically alternating facade with native larch tree trunks noa* connects “old and new” in a consistent manner. The homogeneous appearance, following the natural topography of the area, creates the theatrical base for the design of the new, cantilevering pool, which thrones between the old and new accommodation wings, floating between heaven and earth…
The new pool, which imposingly rests in-between the two accommodation wings, seems like a floating rock, come to rest at the site, overlooking the valley. The hidden edges of the pool, kept in anthracite-coloured stone, abolish the gap between pool and landscape, creating the impression of the water flowing into nothing, disappearing between pool and landscape. The pool metaphorically reminds of a mountain lake, nestled into the astonishing mountainscape of the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Dolomites…
The highlight of the project is the new sky pool, floating like a natural rock over the new accommodation wing. Without any visible boarders, a width of 5 m, a length of 25 m and a depth of 1,30 m the over 17 m cantilevering pool can be seen as completely unique. The position of the pool, which floats 12 m above the ground, at its extreme edge, gives the swimmer the feeling of floating – weightlessly between heaven and earth. This impression is further reinforces by the glass front and a glazed window on the bottom of the pool.
Product Description. The hidden edges of the pool, kept in anthracite-coloured stone, abolish the gap between pool and landscape, creating the impression of the water flowing into nothing, disappearing between pool and landscape.
House Under Eaves is a residential project designed by MRTN Architects in 2016. It is located in Point Wells, New Zealand. House Under Eaves by MRTN Architects: “Located in a new subdivision less than an hour from Auckland this new house was one of the first built on a flat site that has been split up to create well sized semi-suburban semi-coastal sections on what was once pastoral land. Faced..
From the architect. Haiming, a village with almost 2000 inhabitants lies at the meeting of the rivers Inn and Salzach. The natural environment of both rivers, their valleys and meadows, characterise the landscape of the Niedergern. Rare bird species nest and breed in the nature reserve “Unterer Inn” and numerous beavers do their work. In the west of the village, behind the cow pastures and the forests, you can see the smoky chimneys of the nearby industrial area with its refineries and chemical plants. The design for a new club sports hall for SV Haiming also results from a similar ambivalence of “values”. Despite many built banalities the village centre is still intact. The urban setting of the new Sports Hall refers to this harmonious frame of reference. It follows the primacy of restraint and subordination. The play with banality actually is even the starting point of the design. Construction wise, but also on an architectural and formal level, the hall seems to be taken from the catalogue of local timber construction and precast factories.
It refers to the cheapest and ignoble means of joinery – to the galvanized gang nail plate and corresponding binder and wall systems. In the sense of a spatial framework – which it actually isn’t – the roof construction creates the image of a filigrees surplus of supporting elements. On the other hand the posts, bars and diagonals are appropriated as large wall graphics. The breaking of the rule, as in the case of fat, sculptural-formed concrete beam on the inside of the south wall and the merely suspended prefabricates columns on the outside, are just as important as the rules and their formalisms themselves.
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1st Floor Plan
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The direct catchy image of a structure vs. a sort of vagueness of what is truly load bearing and what is only an image of it. This ultimately results in a tension in contrasting pairs such as forced banality vs. a romantic scale on the outside and constructional pragmatism vs. “heroic” exaggerated construction on the inside.
Product Description. We wanted to fulfil the explicit wish to build the sports hall as cheap as possible. We tried to interpret this (restraining) fact as a design freedom. So with great pleasure but with extreme discipline at the same time we were searching for possibilities of undermining the standards of a common and usual sports halls. This is also the beauty, if the standard is not applicable, because then the building would be too expensive. Then one cannot fall back on it. If this had not been the case, the hall would probably look like many others. Therefore we have used a kind of transfer of technology by using a timber construction system that is usually not used for public buildings, but mainly for agriculture buildings or for discount stores such as Aldi or Lidl: the galvanized gang nail plate. This is the cheapest and ignoble means of joinery. And with their corresponding binder and wall systems we tried to create a kind of a spatial framework – which it actually isn´t – but the roof construction creates the image of a filigrees surplus of supporting elements. On the other hand the posts, bars and diagonals are appropriated as large wall graphics.
We wanted to create the “feeling” both of an ideal or even heroic space and of a very functional even relaxed space – just for doing sports. So we admit that we tried to create a kind of sacred space dealing only with structure and light on the one hand … But we also tried to avoid the consequences of such a space and atmosphere. So the user should of course not be irretated in practicing sports. The sports hall therefore is a very robust space. We try to achieve this by the staging (Inszenierung) of the selected structure and, in particular, by the north wall with its polycarbonate elements in front of the structure and the light incident filtered through it into the hall. And on the other hand, by using very robust materials and simple details, and also by a culture of the raw / simple.
Contemporary House Extension is a private residence renovated by Capital A. It is located in Edinburgh, Scotland and was completed in 2016. Contemporary House Extension by Capital A: “The extension was designed by Níall Hedderman, director of Capital A Architecture Ltd. The project was commissioned by Joanna Stuart and James Wilson, who needed to add more space to their detached suburban house. This project is immediately next door to an..
Sig Nordal 