© Wikimedia user Jebulon (Public Domain)

The world had never seen anything like the graceful iron form that rose from Paris’ Champ de Mars in the late 1880s. The “Eiffel Tower,” built as a temporary installation for the Exposition Universelle de 1889, became an immediate sensation for its unprecedented appearance and extraordinary height. It has long outlasted its intended lifespan and become not only one of Paris’ most popular landmarks, but one of the most recognizable structures in human history.

© Jean-Pierre Dalbéra (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

In 1884, the French government announced the planning of an international exposition to honor the hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution of 1789 – the fourteenth such fair to be held in France since the close of the 18th Century. Shortly afterward, the French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel proposed the construction of an iron tower 300 meters (984 feet) tall as a ceremonial gateway for the Exposition.[1] Similar proposals had been put forth multiple times at least since the 1830s, and in particular before the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876; however, these projects ultimately never came to fruition.[2]

Public Domain. ImageJuly 18 1887

Eiffel was well established in the field of ironworking in the mid-1880s. His firm, one of the largest in France, had designed a number of significant structures, including the internal framework for the Statue of Liberty.[3] Eiffel had also aided in the engineering of cavernous galleries and pavilions for the Expositions of 1867 and 1878. Despite this illustrious portfolio, the firm was best known for its major railway bridges, most notably the Viaduct of Garabit – then the world’s tallest bridge. It was the experience of creating these enormous wrought-iron structures in particular that would later inform the design of the Eiffel Tower.[4]

Public Domain. ImageDecember 7 1887

Although it was eventually named for Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower’s design was initially conceived by three of his employees. The initial sketches and calculations of the proposed tower were made by office manager Emile Nouguier and engineer Maurice Koechlin in collaboration with architect Stephen Sauvestre. Sauvestre, in particular, was responsible for many of the design elements intended to turn what was essentially an oversized bridge pylon into an aesthetically-pleasing building. These design gestures, including the arches at the base of the tower and the bulbous finial at its summit, were intended to appeal not only to the public, but to Eiffel himself.[5]

Public Domain. ImageMarch 20 1888

The proposed design did not initially impress Eiffel, who nonetheless applied for patents in his, Nouguier’s, and Koechlin’s names. Later in 1884, he bought the two men out and began working directly with Sauvestre to refine the tower’s aesthetics. It was this iteration of the design that the two men submitted for consideration in 1886, and which was one of the three entries chosen among 107 submissions. In the end, the designers responsible for the other two winning designs were commissioned to build other major structures for the Exposition, while Eiffel and Sauvestre emerged as the final victors in the competition for the tower.[6]

Public Domain. ImageMay 15 1888

The Eiffel Tower comprises four iron lattice piers laid out in a square, rising from an initial slope of 54° and curving upward until they meet, at which point the tower rises as a single, subtly pyramidal form until the campanile at its summit. Its form was dictated primarily by concerns about wind at high altitudes, a matter which affected even the size and placement of rivet holes in the tower’s iron members.[7] Three floors are open to visitors, with the first and second levels suspended between the four piers and the third housed in the campanile, 324 meters (1063 feet) above the ground.[8] Before construction began, Eiffel calculated that the tower would weigh 6,500 metric tons and cost 3,155,000 francs; as built, the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tons, and cost two and a half times as much as was expected.[9]

Public Domain. ImageAugust 211888

Despite its unprecedented height, the Eiffel Tower took a relatively small force of 300 workers only two years to build.[10] 18,000 pieces of ironwork were fabricated in Eiffel’s foundry in the suburb of Levallois-Perret, at which point they were transported to the Champ de Mars and lifted into place by steam cranes. Many of Sauvestre’s decorative flourishes were abandoned as the work proceeded, reducing both the construction cost and the weight of the tower. Surprisingly, there was only a single work-related fatality.[11, 12]

Public Domain. ImageDecember 26 1888

The growing tower provoked impassioned reactions in the Parisians who watched it rise beside the River Seine. Its wrought iron framework, seen as a symbol of the widening rift between architecture and engineering, was odious to much of the city’s artistic community. Some decried the tower as “monstrous and unnecessary,” while others compared it to a “black, gigantic factory chimney.” Its detractors included architect Charles Garnier, famed for the Opéra that bears his name, the playwright Alexandre Dumas, and writer Guy de Maupassant – the latter of whom frequently lunched at the tower in later years, as he claimed it was “the only place in Paris where I don’t have to see it.”[13, 14]

Public Domain. ImageMarch 15 1889

Opposition to the project proved fruitless, and Gustave Eiffel raised the French tricolor atop the completed tower in March of 1889, a full month ahead of schedule.[15] It was opened to the public two months later, drawing droves of visitors who wished to observe Paris as they never could have before. Those wishing to see an aerial view of the city ascended either by climbing one of the lengthy staircases hidden in the base pylons, or in one of a quartet of elevators designed on an articulated piston system that allowed them to follow the tower’s changing slope up to the first level. Here, visitors could take in the view from a covered arcade, as well as dine in one of four internationally-themed restaurants; the more daring could take two more sets of elevators to the second level, and subsequently to the campanile. At its opening, the system of elevators and staircases was designed to allow 5000 people to visit the Eiffel Tower each hour.[16]

The Eiffel Tower soon proved to be a sensational international success. Nothing like it had ever been seen – it was twice the height of the Washington Monument, previously the tallest building in the world, and its novel method of construction only added to the effect.[17] In the 173 days the Exposition was open, over two million visitors from around the world paid to ascend its slender iron form. It made back its initial budget within a year, vindicating the financial contributions of both Eiffel and his investors. However, public interest waned quickly in the years following the Exposition; in 1890, visitorship fell to a fifth of what it had been the previous year. As the intended demolition date of 1909 loomed on the horizon, Gustave Eiffel vigorously defended the tower as uniquely valuable for the study of physics and meteorology.[18] In the debates that raged over the tower, however, it was ultimately not scientific utility that would see it preserved but its ability to be used as a radio (and later television) transmission tower.[19]

In the last century, the Eiffel Tower has come back from the brink of demolition to become one of the world’s most iconic monuments. It held the title of World’s Tallest Building for forty years, and by the time it lost that honor to New York City’s Chrysler Building, it had acquired a newer, greater significance for the people of France. The iconic nature of the Eiffel Tower has turned it into a symbol of both its nation and the city of Paris, with numerous replicas built in cities around the globe. Seven million people visit the tower every year, with much the same desire as their predecessors in 1889: to see the “City of Lights” from a stunning vista made possible by industrial innovation, nationalist fervor, and human scientific progress.[20, 21]

References

[1] Tissandier, Gaston. The Eiffel Tower a Description of the Monument, Its Construction, Its Machinery, Its Object, and Its Utility. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington St Dunstan’s House Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C., 1889. p16.
[2] The Eiffel Tower: Marvels of Engineering. 2014: Marvels of Engineering.
[3] Hanser, David A. Architecture of France. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. p63-64.
[4] Lemoine, Bertrand. Gustave Eiffel. Paris: F. Hazan, 1984. p126-130.
[5] Hanser, p65.
[6] Cowan, Henry J., and Trevor Howells. A Guide to the World’s Greatest Buildings: Masterpieces of Architecture & Engineering. San Francisco, 2000: Fog City Press. p240-241.
[7] Tissandier, p18-31.
[8] “Key Figures: Visitors, Height, Lighting, Number of Steps, Paintwork…” La Tour Eiffel. Accessed October 11, 2016. [access].
[9] Hanser, p66.
[10] Cowan and Howells, p240.
[11] Hanser, p66.
[12] Ayers, Andrew. The Architecture of Paris: An Architectural Guide. Stuttgart: Edition Axel Menges, 2004. p139.
[13] Cowan and Howells, p241.
[14] Hanser, p66-67.
[15] Ayers, p139.
[16] Tissandier, p69-81.
[17] Tissandier, p16.
[18] Hanser, p66-67.
[19] Cowan and Howells, p241.
[20] “Key Figures: Visitors, Height, Lighting, Number of Steps, Paintwork…”
[21] “The Eiffel Tower in the World.” La Tour Eiffel. Accessed October 11, 2016. [access].

• Architects: Gustave Eiffel
• Location: Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007 Paris, France
• Architect In Charge: Gustave Eiffel
• Design Team: Emile Nouguier
• Engineer: Maurice Koechlin
• Architect: Stephen Sauvestre
• Area: 15625.0 m2
• Project Year: 1889
• Photographs: Wikimedia user Jebulon (Public Domain), Jean-Pierre Dalbéra (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

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© Frédéric Boudin

In collaboration with Kistefos Museum, photographer Frédéric Boudin has captured Jeppe Hein’s installation “Path of Silence,” now permanently located in Jevnaker near Oslo. The sculpture is inspired by the topography of the Kistefos Sculpture Park, creating a conversation between the installation and its site by adapting the park’s stepped slope and terraces to a freeform profile.

© Frédéric Boudin

A labyrinth of mirrors encloses the sculpture’s three spaces of silence marked by contemplation, expressed through a series of high mirror steles to draw the eye toward the sky; nature, emphasized with a tree linking interior to exterior; and activity, which is underscored with a constantly evolving view resulting from walls of rushing water.

© Frédéric Boudin

© Frédéric Boudin

Overall, the pavilion is intended to encourage visitors to clear their minds and be present with the different kinds of silence from their surroundings. The water flow, for example, refers to silence by acting as a noise that causes all other sounds to fade. The experience of walking through the installation is therefore designed to promote inner silence alongside contemplation, introspection, and connection to nature.

News via: Jeppe Hein

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Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects

• Architects: Bahadir Kul Architects
• Location: Sivas, Sivas Merkez/Sivas, Turkey
• Area: 58700.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects

• Site Area: 131.000 m2
• Capacity: 25.000 seats
• Client: TOKI

Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects

From the architect. Sivas is located in the cold-dry climate region of Turkey, so its winter is strong and the city is under heavy snow in long periods. This parameter is foreground in the design decisions of Sivas Stadium. Energy efficiency is designed according to ecological design criteria, high passive air conditioning measures, active energy production systems, rainwater harvesting and gray water cycle.

Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects

Due to the fact that stadium is located in a cold climate zone, the building shell is designed to be compact and inward, and this makes a buffer zone for cold winds in the north side of the facade. Creating this kind space in the inner shell to provide thermal insulation with air. In the summer, reserve covers on the north side are opened, allowing for air transfer between the walls. If the north facade is not exposed to direct sunlight, this part will be colder than the other fronts, and on this side there will be low pressure points between the walls. This will result in a continuous and stable airflow in the wall, which will also reduce the energy used for building cooling actions in the summer.

South Elevation

Section

In genaral, eastern and western facades are exposed to solar radiation three times more heat than the south and north side facades. Because of this reason, window spaces were created in Sivas Arena on the east and west facades for allow to take solar heat. This approach is thought to significantly reduce building heating actions.

Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects

Floor Plan

Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects

Floor Plan

Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects

Stadium’s roof area, rainwater canal designed for falling rain and snow water. The collected water will be stored in the reserve area to be used in the environment water and wet spaces. This approach will significantly reduce the amount of building water consumption. Moreover, in the roof area, the solar panels will be positioned on the south side to receive the sun’s rays and will generate 798,000 W of energy per day. When it is assumed that a house consumes 5000 W of energy per day; the energy generated in the stadium corresponds to the energy that 160 houses spend. In this context, the building will reduce its energy costs to a minimum by producing its own energy.

Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects

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West Façade. Image © Wikimedia user Thomas Clouet (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

The origin of Gothic architecture, a style which defined Europe in the later Middle Ages, can be traced to a single abbey church in the northern suburbs of Paris. The Basilique royale de Saint-Denis (Royal Basilica of Saint-Denis), constructed on the site of an abbey and reliquary established in Carolingian (800-888 CE) times, was partially rebuilt under the administration of Abbot Suger in the early 12th Century; these additions—utilizing a variety of structural and stylistic techniques developed in the construction of Romanesque churches in the preceding centuries—would set medieval architecture on a new course that would carry it through the rest of the epoch.

Map of the Town of St. Denis by Félibien (1706). Image via pitt.edu

Saint Denis of Paris became established as the patron saint of the Frankish people (a group of people who occupied what is now known as France) by the 7th Century. In the 3rd Century, Denis, along with two companions, was sent to Paris by  Pope Fabian as a missionary, and was subsequently martyred by the Roman Emperor Decius.[1] Legend holds that after his decapitation, Denis’ body carried his head to the site of the town and church that now bear his name. The village was well-established before the Frankish King Dagobert established an abbey there in the 7th Century, but generous gifts from both Royal patrons and droves of pilgrims greatly elevated its status in both the Catholic Church and the Kingdom of France. Despite the abbey’s significance, however, it would not be altered in any meaningful way for half a millennium.[2]

In 1122 Suger became Abbot of Saint-Denis at a time when the abbey itself was badly in need of renovation. The wooden Basilica, having both been a symbol (and necropolis) of Merovingian, Carolingian, and Capetian French rulers and housing relics from the Passion itself, was too small to accommodate the crowds of pilgrims it drew during feasts and festivals.[3] Saint Denis himself had also recently been ordained as the official patron saint of France by King Louis VI, affording even greater emphasis on the abbey which bore his name. Unfortunately for Suger’s ambitions, he could not simply demolish the old church to make way for the new – it was widely believed to have been consecrated by Jesus Christ himself.[4]

Engraving of Funeral Procession of King Louis IX by Félibien (May 22, 1271). Image via pitt.edu

The first element of Saint-Denis to be rebuilt was the western façade. Two key imperatives drove this decision. Firstly, the façade was seen as the least sacred portion of the old basilica; its redesign and reconstruction could therefore be accomplished with a minimum of resistance. Despite its being the least “holy” part of the church, however, it was through the western façade and its doors that visitors would have to pass in order to enter the building. It therefore followed that this face of the building would be the first that most pilgrims would see – their first impression of the abbey, then, would be that of Suger’s comparatively contemporary addition.[5]

Work on the western façade commenced in 1135, proceeding under two different Master Masons in the following five years. A series of “trios” in the design referenced the Holy Trinity: three doors, three vertical strata, and several groups of triple arches form the lower portion of the façade. The division between this lower portion and the two towers that rose above was demarcated by crenellations. While crenellations were a defensive feature atypical for a religious structure, their inclusion here was more a symbolic reference to the New Jerusalem of the Book of Revelations than it was a practical fortification (Suger’s willingness to use it as such in case of an emergency notwithstanding).[6,7]

Félix Benoist (Public Domain). ImageEngraving (1861)

As was custom for French churches, a pair of towers flanked the central portal below. Although both were planned under Suger’s abbacy, only the southern tower was completed in his lifetime. Its taller northern counterpart, completed by one of his successors, did not fare well through history: it was rebuilt twice, due to lightning strikes in both 1219 and 1837. The latter of these efforts, led by architect François Debret, was handled so incompetently that the tower had to be completely dismantled in 1846. This deconstruction left Saint-Denis as it is today, with a single, southern tower – as it was during the time of Suger himself.[8]

When the new western façade was dedicated in June of 1140, attention turned to the far end of the church building. The façade, despite its updates, was essentially Romanesque and introduced no particular stylistic innovations; it was in the choir and chevet (eastern end) that the abbey church would begin to codify a new architectural style. This innovation resulted from Suger’s fascination with light as another reference to the New Jerusalem, which is vividly described as appearing to be built of glittering gems and gold that is clear as glass. It was this glowing architectural image which Suger strove to express in his abbey, a feat that he determined to accomplish through lavish use of stained glass.[9]

Rose Window. Image © Wikimedia user Diliff (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

The need to allow for easy circulation of pilgrims, and Suger’s desire to dematerialize the heavy stone masonry with enormous stained glass windows, required a method of structural support that ran counter to the thick, heavy construction of Romanesque churches. The solution was to replace the deep walls that typically separated the small chapels at the church’s eastern end with slender columns – architectural features which, coincidentally, emulated similar columns in the 8th Century nave. Rib vaults forming pointed arches supported the ceiling, allowing for an unprecedented openness in the double ambulatory of the chevet that also permitted a virtually uninterrupted view of the stained glass that filled the majority of the wall space.[10]

It is important to note that the structural innovations employed in the chevet—the pointed arch, the flying buttress, and the vault rib—were not originally invented for Saint-Denis itself. These techniques, which offered greater structural integrity and adaptability, had been available to Romanesque architects who subtly employed one or the other in various buildings long before Suger. The significance of Saint-Denis, then, was not that its master builders pioneered these forms of construction; it was simply the first time that they were used together with the intention of creating a markedly different effect than that which prevailed in the abbey’s Romanesque contemporaries. In combining these pre-existing threads into a unified architectural logic, Suger and his architects built the earliest example of what would eventually become known as the (French) Gothic style of building.[11]

Floorplan by Félibien (1700) – note: not current. Image via pitt.edu

The completion of the western and eastern ends of the abbey church left only the Carolingian nave to be rebuilt. Unfortunately for his grand project, Suger was forced to turn his attention to matters of state when King Louis VII, who had departed to join the Second Crusade, appointed him to serve as the Regent of France. With Suger’s focus elsewhere, construction on Saint-Denis slowed to a crawl, and only the foundations of the new nave were completed when the abbot died in 1151. For eighty years, the abbey church remained an awkward, eclectic hybrid of architectural styles. Work resumed on the nave in 1231, a project that included reconstruction of the upper works of the choir in order to ensure a relatively unified aesthetic. The nave, as completed in 1281, was as innovative as the chevet that preceded it: its massive windows and slender masonry typified the Rayonnant Gothic style, again establishing Saint-Denis as the example to follow for sacred spaces across Europe.[12.13]

Very little of the abbey church changed after the 13th Century. Its accessory structures were rebuilt between 1701 and 1781, but the church itself was allowed to remain much as it had been since 1281. As a Catholic abbey, Saint-Denis was unfortunately a victim of the French Revolution’s rebellion against the church: its lead roofing was stripped away, its royal tombs desecrated, and its innovative sanctuary put to ignominious use as grain storage. The former abbey’s salvation came at the hands of Napoléon Bonaparte, who appointed François Debret to restore the church to its former glory for service as his family mausoleum. Debret, who worked more as a decorator than an historian, did not restore the church so much as create a general air of medievalism. His failures at structural restoration, which led to the aforementioned dismantling of the north tower, led to his resignation and replacement with Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, who did everything he could to replace Debret’s work with the more accurate reconstruction that exists today.[14]

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (Public Domain). ImageElevation (1860)

Today, the Basilica of Saint-Denis is recognized as the very first example of Gothic art and architecture. Returned to the Catholic Church, it was officially granted the status of ‘cathedral’ in 1966. It is also the world’s largest museum of medieval and Renaissance statuary, home to over 70 pieces of funerary sculpture from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries.[15] Its northern tower may be gone, but its imaginative Gothic interiors continue to be admired by visitors who, in entering Saint-Denis, step into a turning point in architectural history itself.

References

[1] Brown, Elizabeth A. R., and Claude Sauvageot. Saint-Denis: La Basilique. Saint-Léger-Vauban: Zodiaque, 2001. p42.
[2] Jordan, William C. A Tale of Two Monasteries: Westminster and Saint-Denis in the Thirteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
[3] Calkins, Robert G. Medieval Architecture in Western Europe: From A.D. 300 to 1500. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. p172-173.
[4] Ayers, Andrew. The Architecture of Paris: An Architectural Guide. Stuttgart: Edition Axel Menges, 2004. p288-289.
[5] Brown and Sauvageot, p79.
[6] Leniaud, Jean-Michel, and Philippe Plagnieux. La Basilique Saint-Denis. Paris: Éditions Du Patrimoine, 2012. p40-43.
[7] Brown and Sauvageot, p82-83.
[8] Brown and Sauvageot, p82.
[9] Kostof, Spiro. A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. p330-331.
[10] Calkins, p173-177.
[11] Kostof, p332-333.
[12] Calkins, p177.
[13] Ayers, p289.
[14] Ayers, p289.
[15] “Basilique Cathédrale De Saint-Denis.” Centre Des Monuments Nationaux. Accessed October 04, 2016. [access].

• Location: 1 Rue de la Légion d’Honneur, 93200 Saint-Denis, France
• Client: Abbot Suger
• Project Year: 1135
• Photographs: Wikimedia user Thomas Clouet (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia user Diliff (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0), Wikimedia user Myrabella (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0), via pitt.edu

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© Filip Dujardin

• Architects: Wim Goes Architectuur
• Location: Flanders, Belgium
• Architects In Charge: Wim Goes, Anja Houbaert, Tim De Messemaeker, Johannes Berry
• Area: 71.0 m2
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Filip Dujardin

© Filip Dujardin

From the architect. Spring

We were asked by our client, diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), to adapt his house with an eye on the future. After meeting with the ergotherapist, we knew we had no time to spare considering the aggressive nature of the condition.

© Filip Dujardin

Refuge II is a temporary project.
The existing concrete carport was chosen for the project because of the limitation in adaptability of the existing house.
Of course, a barrier-free floor plan was a major concern, but what came to me as being even more important was mental accessibility.
There is no hope to heal.
There is a need for a universal hope, helping each other, involvement, engagement, friendship beyond limits.
How can we make architecture with this?
Why not building with friends and family?
With materials everybody knows from their childhood.
Straw and sand referring to the playground, the smell, the memory…

© Filip Dujardin

Summer

More than a 100 friends and family contributed in constructing Refuge II.
With tutoring from/and more complicated jobs done by professionals like the sustainable heating and ventilation (with heat recuperation) system or the domotics to manage the doors, curtains, lighting,…  controllable by the client.
While building, coffee, tea, food, beer and wine, were served to celebrate life.

© Filip Dujardin

Fall

Everyone being involved recognized him/herself in Refuge II.
They were part of it, it created a mental accessibility.
The focus changed from sickness and death to hope and future.

Floor plan

Winter

Everything will be taken away.
83% of the project (straw and loam) will be spread out over the landscape as fertilisation.
Technical equipment (sponsored) will be returned.  Glass, metal, wood,… will be recycled.
Parallel to this attitude, and above all there is a human investment.
The ritual.
The cycle of life.

© Filip Dujardin

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© Schnepp Renou

• Architects: Joly&Loiret
• Location: Versailles, France
• Architect In Charge: Paul-Emmanuel Loiret, Serge Joly
• Area: 787.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Schnepp Renou

• Engineer : OTCE
• Acoustic Consultant: Vincent Hédont

© Schnepp Renou

The project is located at the heart of a city block in a school playground. The new volume extends an existing school building up the slope of the passageway that leads onto the site, and settles itself onto the playground’s sloping surface. 

© Schnepp Renou

The building is accessed from the street by passing through a porte-cochère that opens onto a passageway. From here the southernmost end of the building can be seen in all its verticality. This stretched volume signals the presence of the dance centre. The building’s pale facade of hand-made brick fits well with the creams and beiges of the neighbouring buildings. Rather than breaking with the context, the building fits into the existing stone-coloured environment, at the same time underlining its own presence with its eye-catching volumes and natural materials. 

© Schnepp Renou

Surrounding homes look over the steeply pitched roofscape with its glazed white tiles, a dancing sculpture of changing colours as sunlight plays across the undulating dance studio roofs. 

© Schnepp Renou

As you walk up the passageway, large windows give views into the heart of the building’s organisation; horizontal and vertical circulation spaces provide generous reception areas and spaces for meeting people, waiting and relaxing between classes. These uses are visible from outside, comings and goings are theatricalised, different activities meet and a relationship with the town is developed. The ambiance inside is hushed. Soft lighting is tinted by oiled oak and the clay-rendered walls. On the ceiling a piece by artist Marie Maillard evokes nature, the sun, the movements of dance and the hum of music. These circulation spaces contrast with the white, light-filled practice rooms. On the ground floor overlooking the playground, two openings are provided into each music room. A large square window frames views of planting at the rear of the site. Its high level sill screens views in from the playground and separates the view from the bustle. A small opening for ventilation hidden behind brick screens allows for manual adjustments to the temperature in the room. 

© Schnepp Renou

Section

© Schnepp Renou

The dance studios on the first floor have wide windows that come down to the floor, overlooking the playground. Large glazed skylights for ventilation bring in extra diffuse light and highlight the asymmetric ceiling that is particularly suitable for use in a dance studio

© Schnepp Renou

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© Daisuke Shima / ad hoc inc

• Architects: CAPD
• Location: Tokushima Prefecture, Japan
• Architects In Charge: Kazuo Monnai, Hirokazu Ohara, Dai Tsunenobu
• Area: 91.82 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Daisuke Shima / ad hoc inc

• Construction: Nishino Co., Ltd. (ASJ HIKARItoMIZUnoMACHI STUDIO)
• Site Area: 339.71 m2

© Daisuke Shima / ad hoc inc

From the architect. Located in the southernmost part of Tokushima Prefecture, the town overlooking the majestic Pacific Ocean. To clear a site of about 110 square meters, husband and wife, of residential dwelling is a family of four of two children plan. As you can see, clear concept to the big box made of roof and wall, in extremely simple that in a residential packed a small box as needed. 

© Daisuke Shima / ad hoc inc

Passed a structure with beams and walls, to form the building of the box-like with no pillar warehouse, private room, rather than the required space as water around like a house on the wall and columns, separated by a box. By doing this, the upper space of each private room becomes a loft-like, as a playground for children who dressed, also books a lot of your owner-like archive, also to something elimination of storage shortage of things more often parenting generation play a role buy.

Floor Plan

The interior is he drew the intention of your owner-like, Kiyoshi of the top class among the houses that have been designed until now. The beams rest part number that has been burned, mortar of Doma followed from Entorasu, partition “box” is structural plywood as it is of the form, the wall is not the filling was painted putty, find the seam of the plate it is clearly state . Material who hide without showing covered with a cloth or tile usually is, this in the house claiming to show proudly the figure, a personality no other.

© Daisuke Shima / ad hoc inc

© Daisuke Shima / ad hoc inc

However, rather than to go unchecked it, tighten with the discipline of design, was sublimated in housing that also combines a kind of elegance, yet seemingly rough.

© Daisuke Shima / ad hoc inc

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Courtesy of Feel Design

• Architects: Feel Design
• Location: Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
• Architect In Charge: Goofy, Elva
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of Feel Design

• Materials: Oak Wood Finishing, Steel Tubes, MDF,timber floor, Grey Latex Painting, Cement Wall

Courtesy of Feel Design

From the architect. The project is located in one industrial zone of Shenzhen, China; the former architectural space was in chaos and disorder when the Owner took it over after being ended with the run-down industrial workshop and warehouse. The operating team of the project hoped to turn the space into a complex that includes  dining, coffee, musical activity and Tarot zones; further, the designing and construction would last two months only. 

The estimated cost of the project is relatively low, in fact the project can be designed and constructed with very little difficulty. Therefore, optimization of materials and the processes will be the subject of focus throughout the entire project. As-cast finish concrete shall be utilized as the main material in view of its economy, convenient construction process, and duration. Construction of all spaces shall be implemented sequentially in an attractive tonal gradation when the unified material atmosphere is available. On this basis, the arc steel pipe customization shall be the important element in the space, and the column structure dividing the space shall be formed by the round pipes in bundles; and their integration shall also be the greatest highlight of this project.    

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Plan

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The concept of environmental protection shall be integrated into the project with the upmost imperative due to the design and understanding of the material and the process; therefore, all materials can be recycled, the pollution to the site can be reduced and the duration of the project can be mitigated by using this method of customized installation. Besides, the energy-saving factor shall be considered fully in terms of application of light of the project, and the light effect which is warm and has rich levels shall fit positioning of the project well.

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Inspiration

After embarking on the project, the design team started with the mysterious color that emanated from the thematic concept of the project and they expect to draw inspiration from buildings on a spiritual level. The design team checked and visited a large number of Gothic architectures, and felt a sense of power and connection with God in the tall and straight spatial structure. They then transplanted it in the project as a salute to traditional buildings in a contemporary form of structure. 

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Meanwhile, after deliberating the spiritual strength of the project and taking into account the fact that the site will be a consumption space, the design team decided not to design it entirely in accordance with a religious space. On the contrary, the design team selected many interesting contemporary art works to introduce a fashionable and relaxing environment to temper the space, and then accompanied it with multi-faceted lighting giving the space a graceful and interesting Yuppie look. The serious and facetious atmosphere of the space made the project one of the favorite spaces by contemporary artists on the block where the project is situated.

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The circular-tube design evolved from Gothic architecture and is regrouped and alternated in the space, thus deducing Gothic drama. The climax of such drama is nothing more than a white floating cloud in the coffee house. Time seems stop at the moment when you sit under the cloud and smell the coffee.  

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