© Zuloark

• Architects: Zuloark, Alberto Rey, Tipi Studio
• Location: San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain
• Architect In Charge: Asier Tellería
• Area: 124.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Zuloark, Lourdes Cabrera

• Production Team: Viuda de Ramírez: Uxue Peña, Manuel Muñoz, Patxi Camón, Juan Carlos Gómez y Germán Díaz.
• Structural Engineer: Antonio Fernández Caro
• Services Engineers: Climatizacion tec: Iñigo Arretxe, Juantxo Figuerido, Mikel Arrillaga, Gonzalo Aldanondo
• Electricity: Elektra: Jose Martin Ezkerra, Jose Calvo, Daniel, Elias Arruebarrena
• Foundations, Aid And Support: Campezo: Elena Martin, Teoforo Macias, Tomas Reyes, Javier Gago, Juan Manuel Gago, Marcio Gomes, Vicente Estevez, Alex Fernandez, Jose Mari Villar
• Support Ironworkers: Talleres Martutene: Imanol Jareño, Francisco Javier Delgado, Iñaki Diez, Moises Bermejo
• Safety And Health Coordinator: BPG coordinadores: David Pedrosa y Jorge Goldaracena
• General Support: Estudio Lekuona: Jabier Lekuona, Julen Lekuona, Maite Lekuona y María Jauregui
• Special Collaboration: DSS2016 team
• Special Thanks To: Ula Iruretagoiena, Gontzal Largo y María Andrés Stage Music: Jose Antonio Cazorla, Lorenzo Pulido, Ivaylo Goshov, Sebastián Romero, David Díaz, Emil Ivanov, Jose Manuel Fabian Gonzalez, Ana Soria, Javier Galindo San Millán y Raquel Franco Domínguez
• Client: DSS2016

© Zuloark

From the architect. Design for 2017.

Our proposal doesn’t start from architecture.

Our proposal doesn’t start with the design of an ephemeral pavilion.

Our proposal is not even a structure that can be reused.

© Zuloark

Our proposal intends to be an exercise of urbanism that creates a space for thinking and producing the city of tomorrow.

© Zuloark

We have tried to work backwards, from the future to the present, to see how an information pavilion could mean something for San Sebastian, the European capital of culture. We designed a process of transformation of the city and explored ways in which this challenge could become a pavilion. Our strategy is to intervene in San Sebastian’s public space by designing a pavilion that can be constructed as an assembled chrysalis containing the result of the future of the city. 

Ground Floor Plan

© Zuloark

Section

We propose a new line of street furniture for San Sebastian that can be distributed in the streets and squares from January 2017, but until then it will remain under the form of an assembled information pavilion.

© Zuloark

The pavilion is an assembly of 278 “bow tie” benches with a metal frame and wooden seats which can be combined in many ways. All seats face inwards and become a continuous wooden folding plane. The metal legs of the benches form the three dimensional structure and support for the waterproof tent fabric.

© Zuloark

We propose that the cultural event “DSS2016“ can become a propulsor to literally transform the city, and through this open strategy allow a change that can be observed once the event is over. San Sebastian won’t be the same again. In 2017 all the particles of the pavilion will be transformed into urban furniture and compose a landscape of the scattered pavilion.

© Zuloark

Amplify affection communities.

A pavilion can affect a whole city.

The strategy to design a pavilion made with benches is a response to an ecologic matter, not only in terms of reusing material and optimizing processes but also from the standpoint that architecture becomes more sustainable if more agents can be affected by it in any way. Our desire is that the pavilion makes it possible for many to transform their daily lives through it. Even if you as a San Sebastian citizen that hasn’t used the services provided by the pavilion nor has participated in any of the activities the cultural capital offers which are informed in the pavilion, its construction will be able to offer you service some day in the shape of furniture.

© Zuloark

Participatory process of dismantling

Dismantling the DSS2016 pavilion cannot be done in a conventional way. The bench dismantling system, the share-out process and the way its next destination is decided requires a plan. The plan is to gather and reach agreements with local agents, PTAs, technicians and public administration in order to decide which spaces or institutions are the ones to receive what are today the walls, floors and roof of the pavilion.

Sketch

Urban camouflage.

The settlement where the pavilion is located is very special. Probably the best and most representative place in the city, it is the neuralgic centre of a society strongly rooted in the sea. The pavilion does not camouflage its presence, it camouflages its shape, its size and its direction. This aesthetic and conceptual gesture comes to life as dazzle camouflage, developed by the British Admiralty to mislead the terrible German U-boots. The pavilions dazzle camouflage is painted with the most representative colours of the Gipuzkoan capital, the colours of Txuri-Urdin (white and blue).

© Zuloark

Shared authorship. 

The same way a movie is the result of the effort of many individuals and collectives which are more or less visible and in each case can be nominated for an Oscar and their effort and work can be acknowledged in that way, architecture must show the reality of its processes and acknowledge in an explicit way the summatory of collaborative work that every building requires, no matter how modest the building is.

© Zuloark

So in order to make the shared authorship visible, inside the pavilion we can find a bow tie bench showing the credits of each and every member involved indispensably in the construction of the DSS2016 pavilion.

http://ift.tt/2ep24Sh

Courtesy of LMN Architects

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) has unveiled initial designs by 2016 AIA Architecture Firm of the Year LMN Architects for the upcoming renovation and expansion of the Asian Art Museum. The plans comprise an expansion containing a 2650 square foot art gallery and event space, as well as preserving the museum’s historic Art Deco façade and bringing the museum to modern standards of climate control, fire safety and seismic system upgrades. The historic building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in July 2016.

Courtesy of LMN Architects

“This renovation and expansion project is crucial for the future of the Asian Art Museum,” says Kimerly Rorschach, SAM’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Director and CEO. “The museum’s exhibitions and programming connects to the many cultural traditions and contemporary issues of Asia, helping us better understand our region and our rapidly evolving world; our goal is to ensure that we can continue to serve our community and visitors for years to come.”

Courtesy of LMN Architects

The new expansion will look out onto the adjacent Volunteer Park, improving the connection to the park and bringing its natural beauty into the gallery space through a full-height, glazed curtain wall. In addition to the gallery and events spaces, the expanded programming will also contain educational facilities and the potential for a new Asian art conservation studio in the existing building that will be on display for visitors to look in.

Courtesy of LMN Architects

To further connect to its context, a new glass-enclosed lobby accessible via two new openings in the building’s Fuller Garden Court lobby space will offer views to and from the park, while a landscaping scheme designed by landscape architect Walker Macy will enhance the east side of the building and the east meadow of the park.

Courtesy of LMN Architects

“The architectural design approach parallels the curatorial goals, which seek to create relevance and meaning between the past and the present. Simultaneously, the design is focused on strengthening the relationship between the building and the park—from the outside in and the inside out,” says Sam Miller, AIA, Partner at LMN Architects.

The expansion and renovation is estimated to cost approximately $49 million and is being funded by a mixture of public and private sources. A fundraising campaign for the project is ongoing.

Construction is set to begin in fall 2017.

Courtesy of LMN Architects

Project team

Architecture & Interior Design: LMN Architects
Landscape Architecture: Walker Macy 
Structural Engineering: Magnusson Klemencic Associates 
Civil Engineering: Coughlin Porter Lundeen
Mechanical/Plumbing Engineering: Rushing
Electrical Engineering and Low Voltage Systems: Stantec 
Lighting: Fisher Marantz Stone 
General Contractor/Construction Manager: BNBuilders, Inc.
Project and Construction Management Services: OAC Services, Inc. 

News via LMN Architects. 

http://ift.tt/2eKOoMC

© Lawrence Anderson

• Architects: SRG Partnership
• Location: Eugene, OR, United States
• Architects In Charge: Jeff Yrazabal, Rick Zieve, Bethany Gelbrich, Aaron Plaskac, Scott Mooney, Nita Posada, Jim Wilson
• Area: 19100.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Lawrence Anderson

• Contractor: Howard S. Wright
• Structural Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers
• Mechanical Engineer: Glumac
• Electrical Engineer: Glumac
• Civil Engineer: Capital Engineering & Contracting
• Landscape Architect: Cmaeron McCarthy
• Environmental Graphics: AHM Brands

© Lawrence Anderson

Evoking power and strength, Jane Sanders Stadium is the sleek new home for the Oregon Ducks Softball team. A state-of-the-art 1,500 fixed-seat stadium made possible by a gift from Robert Sanders and named in honor of his late wife Jane, this facility is inspired by one of the most innovative and respected athletic brands in the country but fits gracefully into the fabric of the University of Oregon campus.  

© Lawrence Anderson

Brand Integration
This stadium, including the iconic canopy that soars high above the concourse and seating bowl, has become synonymous with Oregon softball and its innovative brand of play. As the primary sense of arrival element, the wing-shaped structure is elegant and graceful. Key themes—stealth, feathers, the Sanders Family tie to the wood industry, and the home plate—influenced the design process and appear in the forms and materials. The outcome is a unique and identifiable visual articulation of the UO softball story—combining innovation, ducks in flight, the Sanders Family and sport.

© Lawrence Anderson

Home Field Advantage
Student-athlete and fan experience was one of the highest design priorities. The Ducks thrive on interaction and shared energy with their fans. The stadium bowl’s design, with seats extending to field level, create intimacy between athletes and fans. Jane Sanders Stadium uniquely links program components like suites and practice facilities, providing direct connections to the field. This approach also created a cost-efficient solution that maximized seat count and space for the team.

© Lawrence Anderson

Building Community
Development on the UO campus must respond to the global campus goals of the Campus Planning Committee. The design team successfully met priorities by enhancing existing and incorporating new pedestrian connections. An open plaza that welcomes all of campus connects to University Street. 

Floor Plan

The history of the former ballpark, Howe Field, is preserved through the revitalization of Howe Gates. These historic gates again grace the path of many who enter the new public plaza from University Street.

© Lawrence Anderson

Stadium design must also be sensitive to surrounding neighbors. In this case, the site is adjoined by a residential community. Care was taken to alleviate residents’ concerns about light and sound pollution from the ballpark. Light distribution and sound computer models were shared in public meetings to ensure neighborhood concerns where understood and addressed. 

© Lawrence Anderson

Building Performance
The team building and adjoining Softball Performance Center (SPC) make training-practice-game day routine a seamless experience. Prismatic skylights daylight the SPC, conserving energy and emulating outdoor conditions of the field. 

© Lawrence Anderson

Designed to achieve LEED Gold certification, a unique accomplishment in the world of sports facilities. The building also meets UO’s aggressive Oregon Model for Sustainable Development, with an energy reduction of 35% over Oregon Energy Code. The building also reduces water usage by 37% with low-flow fixtures and irrigation savings measures. Turf was chosen for the outfield for its low irrigation and maintenance requirements. The stadium bowl is built from a prefab system. The components have a high recycled content, are easily maintained, and at the end of their useful life, can be deconstructed and recycled again.

© Lawrence Anderson

Product Description. The stadium’s iconic canopy soffit was clad with custom-made plywood panels cut into the shape of home plates. The home plates are assembled in a dynamic pattern, using a plywood module intended to minimize waste during fabrication. The wood element also subtly references the project’s primary donor, for whom the stadium is named. 

http://ift.tt/2ePIqO0

Two weeks ago, Herzog & de Meuron was announced as the winners of the international competition to design the new Museum of the 20th Century to be located adjacent to Mies van der Rohe’s seminal Neue Galerie in the heart of the Berlin Cultural Forum in Berlin, Germany.

We’ve now received additional proposals for the competition, including honorable mention-awarded entries from OMA, Staab Architekten, and Aires Mateus e Associados, and a finalist proposal from REX, that show alternative strategies for the site.

OMA

By Frans Parthesius. Image © OMA

Description via OMA.

© OMA

Berlin’s new museum is planned on a seemingly intimidating site surrounded on all sides by exceptionally strong and articulate architectures, sandwiched between a never fully accepted urban motorway and an anemic pedestrian Prom- enade: the two typologies that (unfortunately) de ne our cities today.

© OMA

As in judo, we have embraced the site’s dilemmas and turned them into the very leitidee of the project. We don’t inter- pret this competition as a loyalty test, we divide our loyalties between the surrounding masterpieces.

By Frans Parthesius. Image © OMA

Two diagonals divide the site in four sectors. Each sector relates precisely to its context and responds directly to its own unique counterpart: the south sector to Mies, the West sector to the Church and the Gemäldegalerie’s piazzetta, opposite the Museum’s entrance, the north to the concert hall of Scharoun, the east to Motorway and Library.

© OMA

The museum is the result of the reassembly of the four sections: it combines classical rooms in the South, more ow- ing expressionistic accommodations in the West, auditoriums inside and outside to face Scharoun in the North and panoramic urban vistas on the East.

You learn more about this project here.

Staab Architekten

© Staab Architekten

Description via Staab Architekten.

The design for the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts picks up the idea of Hans Scharoun s Stadtlandschaft, or urban landscape, that creates “a lively order from the low, high, narrow and the wide.” In favor of a largely roofed ground floor area that interlocks with the surrounding open spaces, the building volume is compressed into three high points that are visible from afar. The staggered volumes of the temporary exhibition, the collection Marzona and of the administration are oriented according to important lines of sight from the Potsdamer Straße and the Potsdamer Platz.

© Staab Architekten

The intersection of the museum and the public is maximized: all of the museum ́s public functions are visible through transparent facades; courtyards and double-height exhibition spaces extend into the public space with display windows and generate sights of the lower exhibition level. An in-between space, an exterior space for anyone is created in the context of the museum. It invites people to linger with partly shady and partly sunny areas. We developed a complex-orderly spatial arrangement, consisting of five different room types, that can be intuitively grasped from the visitors perspective and offers a wide array of options and configuration possibilities to the curators.

© Staab Architekten

The organizational system of the exhibition spaces establishes the structural and formal framework of the museum, which defines the permeable ground floor and the building volumes that position themselves in the urban context.

Aires Mateus e Associados

© Aires Mateus e Associados

Description via Aires Mateus e Associados.

It is in the link between the past and the future that the proposal comes to being: constructing a building and the urbanity of time to come, fixing our eyes from the buildings of the past that surround and summon it. A confident construction that presents the weight and density of its task which, in parallel, show the attraction of a void yet to inhabit. It is a building that in its isolation, opens itself to the world.

© Aires Mateus e Associados

© Aires Mateus e Associados

The first underground level is totally public and welcomes all the major exhibition areas in a large hall. In this level a connection to the Neue National Gallery is established. An enclosed square, a pivotal moment of the project, is placed at the architectural vortex of the building as the culmination mark of the outside path. The constructed limit of the urban space released by the building’s suspension defines itself as the new center.

© Aires Mateus e Associados

The city, History, the buildings that observe it, the ancestral tree that awaited its conformity, are all invited to inhabit this expectant void.

REX

© Luxigon. Courtesy of REX

Description via REX. Next to the world’s most exquisite frame for art—Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie—we propose its counterpoint: a functional (not aesthetic) objet trouvé for the art of framing collections. The Neue Nationalgalerie is a blank slate on which any exhibition format can be constructed. In practice, as artistic media grow more diverse and museums’ operational budgets become more limited, a blank slate is constrictive: the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin finds the climate, light, and universality of this iconic space challenging to stage exhibitions, and endlessly transforming this empty canvass is an expensive proposition.

Courtesy of REX

The result is not freedom, but imprisonment within a glass box. By embracing a new definition of gallery flexibility, The Museum of the 20th Century (The Museum) avoids this trap. The Museum offers complete flexibility—without increasing operational costs—by providing built-in tools, not a tabula rasa. It is a foil with which or against which curators can operate.

Courtesy of REX

Courtesy of REX

You can learn more about this project here.

News via OMA, Staab Architekten, Aires Mateus e Associados, REX.

http://ift.tt/2frvyfb

© European Central Bank / Robert Metsch

• Architects: Coop Himmelb(l)au
• Location: Frankfurt, Germany
• Area: 185000.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Robert Metsch, Paul Raftery

• Client: European Central Bank (ECB), Frankfurt/M., Germany
• Planning: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Wolf D. Prix & Partner ZT GmbH
• Design Principal: Wolf D. Prix
• Project Partner: Frank Stepper
• Design Architect: Karin Miesenberger
• Project Architects: Hartmut Hank, Christian Halm, Thomas Schwed, Michael Beckert (TPL), Johannes Behrens (TPL), Günther Weber, Jürgen Tiltmann (TPL), Oliver Cassik (TPL), Philipp Munz (TPL)
• Architectural Management: Christian Maeder, Sascha Hempel, Markus Tritthart, Damian Witt
• Project Team: Magdalena Baczkowska, Markus Baumann, Michael Beckert, Johannes Behrens, Hilde Benda, Marcelo Bernardi, Nico Boyer, Jan Brosch, Timo Carl, Anna Rita Cedroni, Jasmin Dieterle, Sabrina Dlugosch, Jan Ruben Fischer, Brigitte Fuchs, Sergio Gonzales, Gesine Görlich, Martin Gruber, Guthu Hallstein, Sebastian Haffner, Simone Hainz, Sascha Hempel, Rob Henderson, Emanuele Iacono, Martin Jelinek, Rashmi Krishna Jois, Ivana Jug, Frank Pascal Kaul, Matt Kirkham, Daniela Kröhnert, Bernward Krone, Christian Labud, Anke Lammert, Monika Lyzyczka, Steven M, Christian Maeder, Dimitra Mamou, Ariane Marx, Christoph Maurer, Matthias Niemeyer, Martin Oberascher, Ross Olson, Renate Ott, Gerhard Pfeiler, Ellen Pietrzyk, James Pike, Robert Pippan, Jakob Przybylo, Anna Ptaszynska, Stephanie Rathgeber, Carmen Renz, Salome Reves, Donna Riedel, Akvile Rimantaite, Pete Rose, Penelope Rüttimann, Stefan Rutzinger, Oliver Sachse, Kristina Schinegger, Benjamin Schmidt, Marita Schnepper, Thomas Siegl, Ebru Simsek-Lenk, Denise Sokolowski, Augustin Solorzano, Anja Sorger, Andrea Stöllenwerk, Ernst Stockinger, Crystal K.H Tang, Jürgen Tiltmann, Markus Tritthart, Josef Tröster, Günther Weber, Andreas Weissenbach, Clemens Werb, Judith Werkhäuser, Markus Wings, Eva Wolf, Barbara Zeleny, Thomas Zengger, Zeyneb Badur, Fabien Barthelemey, Oliver Cassik, Alejandro Corena, Alexander Daxböck, Mario Dignöss, Helmut Frötscher, Annegret Haider, Christian Halm, Gregor Kassl, Gernot Köfer, Alexander Laber, Anita Lischka, Rangel Malinov, Oliver Martinz, Philipp Munz, Barbara Roller, Nicole Rumpler, Wolfgang Ruthensteiner, Stefan Salchinger, Stefan Schadenböck, Thomas Schwed, Hannes Schwed, Eckart Schwerdtfeger, Sylvia Spernbauer, Christoph Treberspurg, Johannes Weigl Model building: Ivana Jug, Filip Adamczak, Anna Balint, Mark Balzar, Oliver Berger, Robert Campell, Julian Chiellino, Ariane Dehghan, Jasmin Dieterle, Guido Ebbert, Heike Folie, Emilia Grzadzielewska, Benjamin Hahn, Laura Hannappel, Thomas Hindelang, Michael Hirschbichler, Ulrich Hoke, Rafal Jedlinski, Malte Kaiser, Reyhan Kargi, Vera Kleesattel, Stefan Kotzenmacher, Quirin Krumbholz, Daniel Kuhnert, Gretha Kuustra, Malgorzata Labecka, Jelena Lazic, Marta Leszczynska, Jörg Lonkwitz, Rita Lopez, Ariane Marx, Bruno Mock, Sarah Müller, Yusuke Nishimura, Seoug O, Ross Olson, Ulrich Peintner, Fabian Peitzmeier, Anna Ptaszynska, Jois Rashmi, Danuta Ratka, Salome Reeves, Benjamin Schmidt, Thomas Stock, Kadri Tamre, Philipp Trumpke, Andreas Wachter, Angelika Wiegand, Melanie Wohlrab
• 3 D Vizualisation: Armin Hess (Wien)
• Structural Engineering: B+G Ingenieure, Bollinger und Grohmann GmbH, Frankfurt/M., Germany
• Site Area: 120,000 sqm

© Paul Raftery

The striking twin tower shapes the skyline of Frankfurt’s Ostend 

The design of the Viennese architectural studio Coop Himmelb(l)au for the new premises of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt combines the horizontal structure of the landmarked Grossmarkthalle with a twisted double tower, which rises to 185 meters. United by an entrance building, these two elements form an ensemble of special architectural significance. Featuring bridges, pathways and platforms, the glass atrium between the two highrises creates a vertical city. The semi-public and communicative functions are located in the former Grossmarkthalle. The exceptional atrium and visible steel support structure show that the ECB building belongs to an entirely new typology of skyscrapers.

© Paul Raftery

Site Plan

© Paul Raftery

The hyperboloid cut 

From the beginning it was an explicit request of the ECB to create a unique, iconic building as a symbol for the European Union. A distinctive and unique building can only be achieved by a completely different kind of Geometry. 

© Paul Raftery

The design concept of the ECB is to vertically divide a monolithic block through a hyperboloid cut, wedge it apart, twist it and fill the newly created intermediary space with a glass atrium. The result is a very complex geometry and a multifaceted building offering a completely different appearance from each angle: massive and powerful from the South-East, slender and dynamic from the West.

© Paul Raftery

© Paul Raftery

© Paul Raftery

The principle of the “Vertical City”

The architectural concept of the ECB is to vertically divide a monolithic block through a hyperboloid cut, wedge it apart, twist it and fill the newly created intermediary space with several glass atriums. The connecting and transitioning platforms divide the atrium horizontally into three sections with heights from 45 to 60 meters. This is where all vertical entry points are joined – and just like public squares, they invite visitors to communicate. The planned “hanging gardens” ensure a pleasant room climate while elevators and stairs connect these places with the offices and communication areas of the Grossmarkthalle. 

Elevation

The Grossmarkthalle – the communicative forum

The existing landmarked Grossmarkthalle, a former wholesale market from the 1920s, is used as an “urban foyer”.  The conference and visitor’s center, library and employee cafeteria are placed diagonally in the spacious interior of the hall as independent building structures (with a “house within a house” concept). A floating entrance building penetrates the hall structure from the outside. With its asymmetrical contours, slanted facades and generous windows it marks the representative access to the ECB. The lobby, two-story press conference room and a lecture room are located here. The so-called “loop” – a glass walkway between the highrise and the market hall – completes the ensemble.

© Paul Raftery

The sustainable energy concept

Energy efficiency and sustainability were key factors in the competition. The energy concept includes the following measures: utilization of rain water, heat recovery, efficient insulation, sun protection and illumination as well as a natural ventilation for the offices. Some areas, such as the atrium and open zones of the Grossmarkthalle, are not equipped with an air conditioning system; instead they serve as a buffer zone between the interior and exterior climates. The “shield hybrid facade” of the office towers consists of three layers and offers a direct and natural ventilation of the offices via vertical, room-high ventilation elements. 

© European Central Bank / Robert Metsch

Urban construction and architecture

The ECB’s architecture was carefully attuned to its location in Frankfurt’s Ostend district. With its clear orientation towards the urban perspectives, the ensemble enters a dialogue with Frankfurt’s most important reference points: the Alte Oper, the Museum Embankment and the skyline of the financial district. The distinctive double tower can be seen from all of the important places in Frankfurt’s city center and from the Main river, creating an initial point for a second center in the East of Frankfurt.

“This corresponds to the principle of a polycentric city, which is much more dynamic than a monocentric city,” explains Wolf D. Prix, Design Principal and CEO of Coop Himmelb(l)au. “Tension areas begin to emerge between the centers, in which new developments are being provoked.” 

© Paul Raftery

Hessian Culture Prize

Wolf D. Prix received the prestigious Hessian Culture Prize for the design of the new premises of the European Central Bank in November 2013. Since 1982, this award has been given annually for special accomplishments in the areas of art, science and cultural mediation. “With the new premises of the European Central Bank, Coop Himmelb(l)au is creating a new, modern landmark for Frankfurt,” the eleven-member Board of Trustees said in a statement about the award.

http://ift.tt/2fIS4Rw

© Thomas Debruyne

• Architects: Michiel De Backer + Jakub Senkowski + Martin Mikovčák
• Location: Bruges, Belgium
• Lead Architects: Michiel De Backer, Jakub Senkowski, Martin Mikovčák
• Area: 27.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Thomas Debruyne

© Thomas Debruyne

We are students of architecture, who put our heads together to rethink the way people live their fast and stressful lives. Today we witness a perpetual evolution of new technologies in the fast forward moving world. It is a never-ending story of daily pressure and continuous deadlines. We were thinking about a way to escape from our stressful lives and to get back to our roots. We believe people will find the break they need by bringing the nature back. 

© Thomas Debruyne

We had a dream to design the shelter to the last detail. Our dream became reality, while we crafted ARK by ourselves, what we managed with few carpenter friends, to whom we are thankful for their patience.

Plan

Minimalistic design of AKR does not have any ambition to stand out, but wants to merge into the landscape. Shelter provides the ability to enjoy nature by becoming part of it, directing all attention to the open view. Our furniture is designed uniquely for the shelter and crafted from the same wood as used for the walls, floor and ceiling. We keep simple elegance high in our standards. 

© Thomas Debruyne

ARK is placed into the landscape in a very mobile way. We do not use fixed foundations to leave the surrounding nature untouched. By collecting rainwater and using solar power for electricity production, shelter becomes a self-supporting house. This ecological shelter is sustainable and completely independent. As a result of this, the destination of our cocoon is never locked.

Section

The philosophy behind ARK provides a place to live in the wild, back to basics. With the sides folding open, shelter takes in the landscape and becomes an extension of nature. Designed in a way of a low tech architecture, to let users a make effort, to feel a live and understand the rural way of life.

© Thomas Debruyne

Product Description. Oak wood is used on the horizontal surfaces, since it is waterproof, like the floor, terraces, kitchen and furniture is also produced from the same oak. The vertical parts and the ceiling are made of pine tree bio plates which are painted with white oil with UV protection to keep them light. This contrast between the light vertical and the dark horizontal parts is playing the main role inside of our shelter.

© Thomas Debruyne

http://ift.tt/2fDm7cQ

One of the most limiting factors of any project is the budget. A low budget demands much more of the architect’s inventiveness to ensure the quality of the work. Since most house constructions have a lower financial investment than architects would like, we thought it essential to highlight some examples which stood out because of the architect’s ingenuity in solving the low budget “problem” by creating quality solutions.

Details of each project after the break. 

Casa Vila Matilde / Terra e Tuma Arquitetos Associados

© Pedro Kok

In early 2014, the house showed clear signs of deterioration and began to collapse. Ms. Dalva went on to live on rent at a relative’s house. The new house had to be built as fast as possible, else her expenses would completely consume all savings.  We used our recent experiences in exposed, structural wall blocks to erect a low-cost building, with great control and agility.

Casa Vila Matilde / Terra e Tuma Arquitetos Associados

Casa Bovero / German Müller

© Federico Cairoli

The tight budget led to the decision to try to avoid subsequent finishes after construction was over, and that the construction itself was to be its own material expression. The materials are exposed defining the colors and textures of the construction as result and expression of the implicit technique in the process that does not seek to hide its essence.

Casa Bovero / German Müller

Casa dos Caseiros / 24.7 arquitetura design

© Pedro Kok

“Casa dos Caseiros” was first created to answer a private order for a social interest dwelling project to be built numerously throughout some cities in Rio de Janeiro state. 

You can download the Casa dos Caseiros project free of charge here.

Casa dos Caseiros / 24.7 arquitetura design

House in La Prosperina / Fabrica Nativa Arquitectura

Cortesia de Fabrica Nativa Arquitectura

With great determination and thinking of a strategy to recycle some of the existing materials, with a limited budget, we started the project. Of the existing 4.80 m by 5.50 m of construction, we recycled: the roof, sanitary facilities, three out of four walls, the bathroom, half the floor made of wooden slats and particle boards.

Residência na Prosperina / Fabrica Nativa Arquitectura

Gutter House / Núcleo de Arquitetura Experimental

© Alexandre Prass

After choosing the site, the big challenge was to overcome the limitations of the Brazilian Programme, Minha Casa Minha Vida, and so, provide the opportunity of living in a house with contemporary architectural  concepts with its functional, technical and aesthetic qualities. The low amount of money available to build the house demanded dexterity to optimize the interior spaces and for choosing building materials and construction techniques.

Casa Calha / Núcleo de Arquitetura Experimental

http://ift.tt/2eJwhqm

Mental Canvas is not the first software that attempts to save the act of sketching–we have seen 3D “sketching” tools such as SketchUp, as well as applications that simply simulate sketching on paper, such as Morpholio‘s popular range of sketching apps. But what makes Mental Canvas revolutionary is that you have the ability to sketch freely in a three-dimensional space without the constraints of traditional CAD modelling; it’s what Julie Dorsey, founder of Mental Canvas, calls a “graphical media”; not fully flat but not fully 3D. The software will be released later this year on Microsoft Surface devices, including the recently announced Surface Studio, working with the hardware of the Surface computers and the Surface Dial to provide a natural sketching experience on a virtual canvas.

The central premise of Mental Canvas is that the designer draws on individual transparent canvases in an infinite space, which can be combined simultaneously in order to provide a three dimensional experience that is still very organic. Strokes on a canvas can be projected into space, automatically creating a new canvas, and entire canvases can also be rotated in relation to each other to create a desired illustration. What separates Mental Canvas from a sketch with pencil on paper is that is can be viewed from multiple angles, pulling the viewer through a scene that tells a more compelling story. On the other hand, what separates it from our usual 3D modelling software is its ease and fluidity, as Julie Dorsey explains:

[CAD modelling] comes at a cost. The cost is that one, you have to have a fully resolved three-dimensional model, even if it’s just a cube; second it’s very hard to edit a CAD model, it’s not fast and fluid like a sketch. At any given moment when you’re sketching, the designer or artist has full control over everything in that representation, but with a CAD model, that’s defined by the computer.

3D drawing on the new Surface Studio

//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js

The endless white backdrop that makes up Mental Canvas may feel intimidating at first, lacking the safety of architectural scales that come with most CAD modelling software, or an ordinary piece of paper. However this infinite space has been created with the intention of liberating the architect or designer from the constraints of a computer, says Dorsey: 

What we’re really going for here is freedom. We don’t want the computer to get in the way; it’s really up to the designer to set the scale. When you draw on Mental Canvas, you really have an infinite canvas so you can keep going in any direction, and we really did that by design. It doesn’t feel like you’re being limited; it’s like sketching unbounded.

In addition to the version scheduled to be released later this year, the Mental Canvas team is also working on a version for a research project that allows the user to place photographs of an architectural site, or mapped data to act as a backdrop for sketching, in effect implying a scale. This process of adding, adapting and changing is really at the core of the software, and is what Dorsey thinks will appeal to clients: 

What an architectural client would like about this is that they can see possibilities here. The beauty of architectural design is possibilities, and that if you want to, at any given time, look at a design, you see more and are able to add to it.

A scene that is sketched on the Mental Canvas can be turned into a guided tour with a “Bookmark” tool that allows you to save a series of scenes that can be replayed in a particular order (try exploring this scene sketched by Carol Hsiung, by clicking the play button on the top left corner). These “tours” can be shared with any device that has access to a web browser, making it incredibly easy to hand over drawings to a client, as well as to adapt and change those drawings at a much faster speed than ever before. Carol Hsiung, Senior Designer at FXFOWLE and one of the first architects to test the software, vouches for Mental Canvas’s communicative value:

A sketch has a quality when it’s unfinished; there’s so much possibility, there’s so much room for interpretation, and [Mental Canvas] expands the idea of a sketch. It makes it less flat. In architecture you always want that “Wow” design that gets everyone excited in the room, and [Mental Canvas] enhances it.

Hsiung, as many architects, started her journey in the profession due to her love of drawing and says that Mental Canvas made her fall “in love with my drawing again, because it allowed me to see my drawing in a new way.” Hsiung adds that the power of sketching comes with its ability to tell a story, or convey a meaning in a way that CAD models and words can’t. “When you’re working in architecture at a big firm like [FXFOWLE], there are a lot of designers and not a lot of time, so in order to help everyone understand and get on the same page with the design, you draw,” she says. “When you’re in a meeting, the person who draws and sketches can help to communicate the idea and I think Mental Canvas has power in doing that.”

Part of the ease of drawing with Mental Canvas is a result of the carefully engineered relationship between the software and hardware of the Surface devices and Dial. Julie Dorsey explains that the design is intended for users to work with the Dial in one hand and the pen in the other, allowing for changes in color or pen width to be executed without ever having to move your focus from the drawing:

As an architect, Mental Canvas is really about allowing you to be immersed in the design and drawing process. Dial plus pen, with the onscreen experience of the Dial, means that you can really focus on just drawing. It frees the designer from having to do lots of interactions with tools.

Mental Canvas essentially frees the architect from having to create an entire model in order to illustrate a space, but rather allows for the sketching of separate views to communicate a holistic concept. As Carol Hsiung puts it, “You can show this to your clients, people who don’t understand two-dimensional drawings, and they can kind of feel it.” Emphasising this point, Julie Dorsey uses an example of the importance of sketching: 

One of the firms worldwide that makes the biggest use of computation is Gehry and Partners. What’s interesting is that if you go to Frank Gehry’s website the first thing that you see isn’t a CAD model, what you see is a sketch. You can see more in one of Frank Gehry’s sketches than you can see in any CAD model, I would contend.

Architects, designers, illustrators and clients: you have a lot to look forward to. 

http://ift.tt/2fCVvc4