Direction: BIMSA Barcelona Infraestructures Municipals SA
Project Direction: Sergi Godia, Ana Molino arquitectos, GPO Ingeniería
Constructor: COMSA, OHL
Promoter: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona – BIMSA Barcelona Infraestructures, Municipals SA, Ministerio de Fomento – ADIF, Transportes, Metropolitanos de Barcelona – GISA
From the architect. Throughout the past century, the line of train and metro tracks through the district of Sants (Barcelona) has been an open wound in its urban fabric, dividing the district into two virtually unconnected parts along an 800-metre section, from Plaza de Sants to calle Riera Blanca, creating the resulting urban dysfunctions in terms of acoustic pollution and deterioration of the surroundings.
In the year 2002 the city’s administration decided to start up an urban renewal project for the Sants railway corridor. Having ruled out the option of putting it underground, it was decided to confine it inside a lightweight, transparent box for a good part of the section, with the roof being turned into an 800-metre-long raised and landscaped boulevard which would later be extended along the neighbouring municipalities as far as Cornellá, giving rise to a 5-km-long “green corridor”.
Schema
The structure that holds up the building/container is comprised of prefab concrete parts in a sequence on a diagonal which adopts the shape of a great Warren beam evoking the old railway bridges, leaving large empty triangles that lend themselves to glazing them over to allow a view of the train passing through the city, reducing its acoustic impact to a minimum. Not fully glazing the building allowed three great green inclines to be built which rise from the lowest levels right up to roof level. These embankments “anchor” the building into its setting allow the roof vegetation to spill down to the lateral streets and support pedestrian ramps that provide a “natural” access to the roof.
The building’s roof dominates the surrounding streets in heights of between 4 and 12 metres and in consequence its gardens have been turned into a vantage point over the city. They start with a great umbraculum acting as a gateway into the gardens, which are structured along two linear routes: one in the north side of the roof, with a great deal of shade provided by the trees, and another one on the south side, which is permanently in sunlight. The intermediate space between the two routes is configured as the backbone of the gardens, based on the configuration of a complex artificial topography with high density of trees and rich plantings of shrubs and ground cover, chosen according to a highly selective colour palette. The elevations present in the topography, reinforced by the density and the strategic position of the tree groves, favour the creation of spaces in which the passers-by lose the feeling of being in a city and are immersed in a natural environment.
The most widely used types of trees are Tipuanas, Sophoras, Koelreuterias and Malus ‘Evereste’, characterised by their yellow and white flowers. The shrubs and ground cover have been distributed around the lawns, with Bulbine, red salvia, wild roses and Hedera Helix in the sunniest parts and Hedera Helix, Vinca, Gaura and Lantana in the more shaded areas.
UNStudio and textile manufacturer MDT-tex have completed the Eye_Beacon Pavilion for the Amsterdam Light Festival. Serving as a ticketing and information booth for event goers, the pavilion’s design draws inspiration from the festival’s 2017 theme of biomimicry, specifically the bioluminescent organisms of the deep sea world.
“Similar to deep sea creatures that use bioluminescence to signal, attract and inform, the Eye_Beacon uses choreographed light sequences to alert visitors to its dual function as both a sculpture and an information point for the festival,” said UNStudio’s Ben van Berkel.
“Along with the effect of the pavilion partially overhanging the Amstel River, the twist that connects the two halves of the structure emphasizes the crossing point between the land and water routes of the festival.”
Located along the western bank of the Amstel River by the ‘Blauwbrug’ bridge, the structure acts as the connecting point between the festival’s ‘Watercolour’ canal route and ‘Illuminade’ land installations.
The pavilion design consists of two cube forms connected by twisting surfaces, parametrically modeled to optimize the efficiency of fabrication and installation. The result is a system of 250 panels of unique dimensions constructed from tensile textile modules developed in partnership with MDT-tex.
The panels are overlapped to reveal glimpses of the interior and to display focused LED projections, giving the pavilion a constantly changing composition of light and color.
“The collaboration between UNStudio and MDT-tex, combined with the expertise that MDT-tex has built-up over the years, led to the development of new forms that required innovative and advanced textile engineering. The evolution of the form-finding and technical translation to contemporary future orientated sustainable materials marks the ‘twist’ within this outstanding partnership,” said Markus Müller-Feist, Managing Director / Owner MDT-tex.
Inspired by Ben van Berkel’s dual function concept, the MDT-tex system has also been designed for use in future projects, including functions as lighting and water harvesting systems.
You can see more installations from the Amsterdam Light Festival, here.
From the architect. Cabo de vila is a house for a young couple that wanted a house that doesn’t look like a regular house. When we first meet the place for the house, the approach to the location give us the central mote for the project. We wanted a shape that can fill the void left by the valley and at the same time we wanted this new shape to embrace and reflects the surrounding green areas giving its users a special perspective on the landscape.
The proposed volume materializes its shape through two concrete slabs with its concave sides, allowing a light glass and wood wall to unroll between them, which in a positive and negative game let the interior of the house communicate with the exterior.
Inside, the house reflects the way of living of his owners. The central courtyard welcomes anyone who enters the house and organizes all the common spaces around it like a no end space. Here, there are no barriers between the different spaces, only an organic geometry that establishes hierarchies between them and that allows mutual visual contact. The private spaces of the house are hidden behind a curtain wall that surrounds the courtyard as well as the garage and the service areas. Like in the common areas the main bedroom is a fluid space without doors, where the hierarchy of the relations between the closet the bathroom and the sleeping area shapes the space.
After a career as a professional skateboarder, Helsinki-based Janne Saario has become one of few landscape architects in the world with a practice devoted completely to designing skate parks for young people. Saario’s designs—all of which are located in Europe—diverge from the typical brutalist stereotypes of concrete skate park masses, and rather, are site-specific and heavily influenced by their natural surroundings.
“Young people are our hope and future,” says Saario. “And by offering beautiful and meaningful surroundings to grow, like wonderful skate parks, we can make a positive change on their picture of the world and future behavior.”
Learn more about the skateboarder-turned-architect by watching the Time Magazine video, above.
Alongside Camilla Block and David Jaggers, Neil Durbach of Durbach Block Jaggers has carved out a unique place in Australian architecture. Known primarily for their carefully sculpted modernist houses, the firm’s architecture is simultaneously rich in architectural references and thoroughly original. In this interview, the latest in Vladimir Belogolovsky’s “City of Ideas” series, Durbach explains the true inspirations behind their work, why these inspirations have little to do with the public descriptions of their projects, and why for him, the intention of all of his architecture “is to win Corb’s approval.”
Vladimir Belogolovsky:You came to Australia while the Sydney Opera House was still under construction. Does this mean you were here even before going to the US?
Neil Durbach: Yes, I first came to Australia as an exchange student while still in high school.
VB:So you have seen the Opera under construction then. How special was that? Did that building change anything in particular in you?
ND: Well, at that time I wanted to be an artist. A friend took me on a boat to see it. It was kind of staggering… And I thought – you know, this is much more interesting than art. And I felt – maybe architecture is what I should pursue.
VB:Why did you think that architecture was more interesting than art?
ND: I think it was its scale… It was so mysterious and overwhelmingly monumental…
VB:You grew up in South Africa and it was not until you graduated from college that you came here to Sydney, right?
ND: First, I went to the US. After my degree in South Africa in 1981, I started my Masters at the University of Berkeley. But I got bored, and realized that I could and wanted to immigrate to Australia, so I did. That’s how I avoided the draft, and I never went back. Soon I started doing competitions. Harry Levine and I won a competition for the overseas passenger terminal at Circular Quay and then we won another one – for a new wing at Tusculum, home of Australian Institute of Architects’ New South Wales Chapter.
VB:When we first discussed the idea of interviewing you, you said, “I have nothing to say.” Were you joking?
ND: No. It has all been said. Architecture is something beyond words. Do you know what I mean?
VB:Sure, but you know why I am here, right? [Laughs.] This building where your studio is based here in Sydney, Roslyn Street, you designed it as an homage to Antoni Gaudi. Why is that?
ND: Well… not actually. There are things you have to learn to do as an architect. There has to be an easy narrative to get past so many gate keepers. For the Holman House we used Picasso’s The Bathers painting as a metaphor. But the truth is that this association came much later. It was an easy analogy and we realized a long time ago that to get past so many barriers you need a metaphor, an easy metaphor. If you say “Gaudi,” everyone would say, “I love Gaudi.” That’s what we said to the council to get the approval.
VB:And what did you say to the clients of the Holman House? Did you talk about the painting?
ND: No, we talked about architecture only. We talked about houses designed by architects José Antonio Coderch and Jørn Utzon. But then people ask you, “What inspired you?” So you begin to think of quick and simple metaphors. For Canberra Gallery, it was Christo’s Valley Curtain, for The UTS Science and Health Building it was a grove of trees, and for the Holman House it was The Bathers. I love this painting; its aesthetic qualities and the way it stretches, and folds, and moves towards the edge. I think it is important to think of ways of getting into your projects for other people.
VB:You said about your studio, “We are a practice committed to search for the possibilities of architecture itself – its power and poetry; its pleasure and necessity.” Out of all these words, it is the word pleasure that strikes me most. Do you think architecture is about providing pleasure? Do you see pleasure as perfection? Is that what you are after?
ND: I do think that architecture is about a sense of joy and yes, pleasure. Perhaps these qualities are all on the soft side of architecture. And it could be provocative, of course, as in the case of the Melbourne-based architects, Ashton Raggatt McDougall. And I don’t quite see architecture as the armchair of society. To me architecture should be about joy and a sense of happiness, and beauty. After all, as Stendhal said, “Beauty is nothing other than the promise of happiness.” We need beauty. You know, I grew up in an incredibly boring, conservative, constrained middle-class environment. So when I looked at the images of Le Corbusier or Picasso, there was such an unbelievable sense of liberation through pleasure. I like this idea of pleasure achieved through making beautiful things. You look at Le Corbusier’s work and it seems like changing the world was not that hard.
VB:You also said that you are “aiming for clarity of intent and joyfulness of form.” Could you talk about the importance of form to you and is “iconic” a particular quality that you try to achieve in your work?
ND: There is a painting by Cézanne called The Hanged Man’s House. My mother had a poster of this painting at home. It was an ordinary house but the fact that it was called The Hanged Man’s House turned it from something very ordinary to something unbelievably iconic. For me, it was a painting with a very powerful meaning. I realized that iconic may not be about what something looks like but about what it means. So an icon could be something that makes you connect in a certain way. Iconic is something transcendent; it opens a door into… subliminal.
VB:But your houses, for example, are named after your clients. So if we were to call them iconic it is because of how they look. They are visual icons.
ND: Maybe… And it is difficult for icons to sustain themselves. You know how Corb said that his Ronchamp roof was inspired by an upside down crab shell. But you know, it was not really that. That was a decoy. Nothing is so easy. And just because something is different and memorable does not make it an icon. Or it could turn into a bad icon. It has to have some richness, complexity, depth, and subtlety. You can’t just flip a turtle on its back and call it an icon.
ND: Just to hook the initial interest because, you know, generally architecture is not that interesting to Australians. Architecture to Australians is about as interesting as surfing is to people in Iceland.
VB:Not in general. It becomes interesting when architecture itself is interesting. Are you interested in defining your own voice in architecture?
ND: I think our work has become connected with an image of our practice. But it would be futile and pointless to aim for that.
VB:Let’s talk about some of your inspirations, such as Le Corbusier.
ND: I have seen many good buildings by great architects and sometimes I would become obsessed about some of them. But often what happens is that certain buildings flare up, but eventually, they seem to just – fade away. But there is something different about Corb. Look at his La Tourette, Ronchamp, or even his tiny Cabanon in Roquebrune. His buildings become richer and richer with time. The work is persistently present. His work is sustainable on every level. It is absolutely brilliant and it gets endlessly better. Perhaps that’s because he was so keenly tuned to making architecture itself; there was this incredibly deep sense of architecture itself, somewhat independent of function. Of course, Kahn, Aalto, Asplund, and Mies had some of that, but to me, Corb was unique. It is as if all architectures were channeled through him. Everything he touched was made into something rich and transformative. He is endlessly fascinating and intriguing to me.
VB:Discussing architecture you mentioned such words as cool not being the same as beautiful and you contrasted such terms as trendy, hip, and sugary to beautiful. What words would you use to describe architecture that you really like?
ND: I think people particularly like certain buildings when its intention creeps up slowly on you… The same is with people. Someone said – you may ride in an elevator 10 times with the same person and one day you hear him or her speak, and you suddenly fall in love with the character. You discover something so compelling, something not evident at first, something quite personal and beautiful. For example, SANAA just won the new addition to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. If you think about their work, it has richness, complexity, subtlety. Ryue Nishizawa’s Teshima Art Museum in Japan is just staggering, breathtaking. And you may see all the drawings and photos but all that is nothing until you go and visit it. That’s an extraordinary talent.
VB:You know, Joshua Prince-Ramus told me he likes SANAA’s work the most. I said, how can you like something that’s so completely the opposite of what you do? And he said, “How can I do something so irrational? That’s not who I am.” He said some of their work is pure shape, and some spaces are not accessible. So my question to him was – how can you so stubbornly follow your mind and not listen to your heart?
ND: Sure, it says something about consistency and fear of change… Waldo Emerson, an American poet and champion of individualism said, “Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” But look at Rem Koolhaas’ work; he has a very fluid way of thinking. He said once that he always tries to escape what he calls an “architectural ghetto.” In a funny way, this is how we started here. Everybody was doing boxes, and as light as possible. But because I was an immigrant, I said, I am never going to really be like them. So why not do the complete opposite? Meaning, as heavy as possible.
VB:You think your work is heavy; in what way?
ND: You know how architecture here seems to be all constructed, put together, and assembled out of parts? So I said, we are going to carve things. We will carve spaces out of solids. That’s what I mean by heavy. Our buildings are sculpted.
VB:Do you like when your projects are described as “quirky” and “playful?”
ND: No, because it implies that our work is frivolous. But we work unbelievably hard here. For us, architecture is serious play. It is not silly. Of course, we try to be playful, but we are very serious while doing it. I am hesitant about picking particular words because then it would imply that we have a style. But that’s what is fascinating about architects such as Asplund and Utzon… They didn’t have a style. You know, Asplund never looked at his old drawings. He never detailed anything the same way. So even if he had to do the same detail again he was forced to think about it from the beginning, which led to new discoveries.
VB:Is that how you work? You never look at your own old drawings?
ND: We try to… That’s the nature of our approach. Georges Braque kept working on his collages slowly and steadily, perfecting them slowly. And then there is Picasso who just went through it; he just kept exploring and never stopped. There are different ways, but here we like going forward.
VB:I think now is a good time to ask you – what is the intention of your work?
ND: That’s easy. The intention is to win Corb’s approval.
VB:How did you achieve the final form of the Holman House? What is your typical process?
ND: We always work in models, and with this house, we have done many models. Each one is different. It is all based on a kind on non-judgement – from one thing to the next. We work very quickly. We start with anything and then we build all these tiny models, one after another. They point somewhere. Sometimes you start with something that you think about for a long time… Sometimes it is just a stumbling of things… The final form becomes a hybrid of many things and ideas. Sometimes it is completely chaotic… And we often feel insecure about the result or the next step… And traumatized… Because you don’t want to do the same thing again. You want to do better.
VB:But what in the world was driving you? Why did it need to be so original?
ND: The very fact that we wanted to build something that we had not done before, is that good enough? We wanted to climb to another height, that’s all. We are constantly doubtful and we try to be critical. We want it to be the best it can be.
Belogolovsky’s column, City of Ideas, introduces ArchDaily’s readers to his latest and ongoing conversations with the most innovative architects from around the world. These intimate discussions are a part of the curator’s upcoming exhibition with the same title which premiered at the University of Sydney in June 2016. The City of Ideas exhibition will travel to venues around the world to explore ever-evolving content and design.
Odessa Flat is a private project located in Odessa, Ukraine. It was designed by Mooseberry Design Group. Odessa Flat by Mooseberry Design Group: “Apartment with sea view in costal city Odessa, Ukraine. Very masculine design was made for a real man.Dark colors, raw materials and natural wood make flat brutal and cosy at the same time. One can easily imagine waking up here with sunlight through glass wall and making..
The architectural team comprised of Davis Brody Bond and Kieran Timberlake has unveiled its newest updates on the design for 181 Mercer, a 735,000-square-foot complex for New York University that will replace a 35-year-old gym facility and become NYU’s largest classroom building, as well as a space for performing arts, athletics, and students and faculty housing.
The design, which features a slimmer massing and 20% less gross square footage than permitted by the City approvals process, focuses on transparency, lightness, and connection, in an effort to contrast with the bunker-like character of its predecessor—Cole’s Sports Center—and to make Mercer Street itself more engaging.
Through the addition of 60 new classrooms, 20 music instruction rooms, and a variety of study spaces, NYU will accommodate a growing need for properly sized and equipped academic spaces, thus allowing for other buildings to create more laboratories, as a part of a long-range effort to support the sciences.
Additionally, the space will feature three new theaters, an orchestral ensemble room, ten performing arts classrooms, and 50 individual practice rooms, giving “young performing artists in Tisch and Steinhardt practice, rehearsal, and performance spaces in keeping with programs of NYU’s caliber.”
While the academic purpose of the building was foremost, the architects were asked to do more than that, said NYU President Andrew Hamilton. They were asked to meet our academic needs while achieving the highest standards for design in order to produce a building of which the University can be proud, one that reflects our character and is thoughtful and responsive to the concerns of our neighbors. And they accomplished just that.
In lieu of a traditional university “quad,” the second floor of 181 Mercer will become a “Commons” space that will encourage casual interactions between different disciplines and activities for students and faculty alike.
The building will also include housing for approximately 420 freshmen, 30 to 60 faculty apartments, and an athletics facility with spaces dedicated to various sports and the capability of hosting up to 2,700 people for assemblies.
Because the building will be used for such varying programs, separate entrances for classrooms, athletics, residences, and theaters will work to control traffic flow and optimize user interactions. Moreover, the first-floor atrium will be accessible to neighbors, with a dedicated room for local community users.
With a transparent façade of floor-to-ceiling windows, the building aims to save energy by admitting natural light. Similarly, sustainability was kept in mind for the design of an outdoor greenway, green roofs to moderate water runoff and naturally cool the building and a connection to NYU’s co-generation plant. Overall, 181 Mercer will pursue LEED v4 Silver at a minimum and is targeting a Gold rating.
Demolition on the existing Cole’s gym began in October of 2016. Construction of the new building is slated to begin in February 2017, and be finished in 2021.
Learn more about 181 Mercer through interactive floor plans, here.
From the architect. The new two-storey, 410m2 building caters for around 100 young adults and houses two multi-purpose halls, music room and recording studio, café, a series of activity pods and break-out spaces as well as an outside recreation space. The £860,000 project is used by 11-19 year olds during weekday afternoons and evenings and is available to the wider community during the daytime and weekends.
The Point is a project for the community and by the community. The young people of Tadley worked in collaboration with the architects to create ideas and develop the design through a series of workshops and consultations events. Their ideas and aspirations were supported and brought to life through the town’s residents who voted to have an uplift on their own council tax charge to help fund the project – for every £1 contributed by Tadley council taxpayers, the Tadley District and Community Association secured an additional £2.88 in grants or donations towards the project.
Situated on a vacant parcel of land to the rear of the existing 1980s Community Centre, The Point is modern and playful, complementing the scale of the surrounding buildings. The L-shaped configuration and striking roof form create an entrance courtyard space against the existing building, while the eaves to the rear is kept low to avoid overbearing to neighbouring properties.
Dark grey fibre cement cladding acts as the skin of the building, wrapping around the roof and walls to create a seamless mass into which windows and openings are punched. These breaks in the form introduce warmer timber tones through timber veneered rainscreen cladding which in turn reveal the internal spaces beyond. Inside, walls and ceilings use birch faced plywood while the exposed roof structure is made of glued laminated timber and plywood panels. The timber-framed wall panels and floor cassettes were prefabricated offsite for improved quality control and to speed up the construction time.
A generous entrance space opens onto a floated concrete floor that complements the tones of timber while providing a hardwearing surface that will stand the test of time. The building plan is based around a flexible ‘spine wall’ of storage and activity pods. These pods are conceived as ‘secret spaces’ situated throughout the building. At ground floor a café/kitchen space and large multipurpose hall form the main spaces while the upper level houses a fully equipped music room and recording studio, breakout spaces, meeting room and another multipurpose hall.
Outside, a generous recreation area provides activity spaces for both the existing Community Centre and The Point while a new pedestrian walkway and raised sculptural seating emphasise the main entrance.
‘We worked closely with the young people of Tadley to develop a sculptural design that is a landmark building for them and the wider community. But more than that it’s somewhere they can truly call their own.
Process Text
The roof, with its dark folded ‘cloak’ appearance, gives the building a contemporary edge while internally a series of uplifting spaces create an environment the young people want to use everyday.’ – David Ayre, Director, Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt
‘Since we started working with Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt on the initial Feasibility Study, they have demonstrated a complete understanding of our original brief that The Point should have a distinctive identity of its own – influenced by the youngsters themselves. What has been delivered is a wonderful interpretation of those ideas.’ – Adrian Noad, Chairman, Tadley & District Community Association
House of the Sun is a residential project designed by Studio Persian Primavera, It is located in Kiev, Ukraine and was completed in 2016. House of the Sun by Studio Persian Primavera: “The project is located in one of the apartment block of residential complex. During the design, we considered two essential factors to develop the concept of Mehr Khaneh interior design. The first factor is the client’s interests in..
Inspired by the roman villa and by Spanish and Arab heritage, the house takes form through the natural lexicon of Italian expressionism (Moretti, Michelucci etc.), which also maintains a strong memory of Rudolf Steiner. For Metroarea, infact, designing a contemporary building in 2016 means establishing a dedicated dialogue with history and with nature.
So for example the continuous inside outside relationship obtained by the big glass windows, is filtered by hanging gardens, canopies and custom made bamboo shutters, that are a reminiscence of the traditional awnings and latticework Moucharabieh.
Diagram
The typical central patio is the fulcrum of a complex network of multi level paths and, at the same time, as the impluvium was used to gather water, it is enriched by a waterfall and creek that connects the two swimming pools.
The Villa shape, follows the natural slope of the ground and it is lying perfectly on the hill, in a shape the reminds of an amphitheater, surrounded by nature.
The use of simple materials like irregular board formed concrete and drywalls, underlines the desire to avoid a popular image of luxury, while instead pursuing a connection with the island, the ground and its tradition. The result is thus informal and hospitable, according to the lessons of Busiri Vici, Couelle and Vietti.
Product Description. Most of material is custom made or produced on site. The use of simple materials like irregular board formed concrete and drywalls, underlines the desire to avoid a popular image of luxury, while instead pursuing a connection with the island, the ground and its tradition. The result is thus informal and hospitable, according to the lessons of Busiri Vici, Couelle and Vietti. Custom made bamboo shutters are a reminiscence of the traditional awnings and latticework Moucharabieh. Concrete was produced on site as no cement plant on the island could guarantee concrete density.
Sig Nordal 