The Square / LAVA. Image Courtesy of LAVA

The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies have named LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) as the recipients of their 2016 European Prize for Architecture.

One of Europe’s most prestigious architecture awards, The European Prize for Architecture is given annually to architects who have ‘blazoned a new path and direction for an architecture that is deeply humane and committed to forward the principles of European humanism’.

Chris Bosse, Alexander Rieck and Tobias Wallisser, LAVA founders. Image Courtesy of LAVA

“LAVA successfully uses imagination and intellect combined with social forces and the latest building technologies as both theme and apparatus of their designs, creating a body of work that explores and expresses architecture as a risk-taking, visceral experience,” said Chicago Athenaeum president Christian Narkiewicz-Laine.

“In the process, we come to experience architecture anew: from how it is imagined to how it is drawn, to the challenges and dynamics that define forward-thinking about time, place, and the environment, and how buildings and urban ideas become constructed and take shape as part of a collective public experience.”

Founded by Chris Bosse, Alexander Rieck and Tobias Wallisser, LAVA operates as an international think tank with offices in Berlin, Stuttgart, and Sydney. Recent completed projects include the Philips company headquarters in Eindhoven, a terrace house renovation and an airport retail fit out in Sydney, as well as a university master plan Riyadh, a youth sports hostel in Bayreuth, mixed use projects in Berlin and Hangzhou, and villas in HCMC currently under construction.

“We are very pleased to be recognised as architects who are not only interested in the production of square metres but interested in the broader development of the discipline, constantly trying to shift boundaries and to redefine what architecture can achieve today. How can we create spaces suitable for contemporary lifestyles and how can we contribute towards an environment that offers quality for everyone?” commented LAVA Director Tobias Wallisser.

A formal ceremony presenting the award will be held in Athens, Greece on September 23rd, 2016. Last year prize was awarded to Santiago Calatrava, with previous awards going to Italian architect Alessandro Mendini in 2014, Finnish architect Marco Casagrande in 2013, TYIN tegnestue Architects in 2012, Graft Architekten in 2011 and Bjarke Ingels in 2010.

Check out the gallery below to see some of LAVA’s work.

News via The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, LAVA.

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© Carlos Berdejo Mandujano

• Architects: Apaloosa Estudio de Arquitectura y Diseño
• Location: Tikal, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chis., Mexico
• Project Architect: Luis Armando Gómez Solorzano
• Project Area: 143.0 m2
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Carlos Berdejo Mandujano

• Design: Arq. Daniel Guadalupe Terán Orozco
• Drawings: Arq. Xochitl Abigaíl López Trujillo
• Structural Design: Apaloosa Estudio de Arquitectura y Diseño
• Structural Development: Alexander Coutiño de los Santos
• Renderings: Arq. Carlos Mario Pereyra Zenteno

© Carlos Berdejo Mandujano

From the architect. Do you know the architecture of Chiapas? A house with identity, adapted to its regional and bioclimatic context, always reflecting a constructive honesty in its elements and materials.

© Carlos Berdejo Mandujano

In a site 7.00×15.00 meters, with a single front facing east and surrounded by social housing; we design a house with few resources but with an intensive contextual and formal study.

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The facade does not formally respond to any reading of commercial housing, because it is closed to the outside through small openings on the ground floor and large lattice walls surrounding the terraces of each bedroom. A base of exposed concrete confines the ground floor, while brick walls generate the upstairs envelope. The 143.00 m2 of interiors are distributed among the living, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, terrace and vertical core; on the ground floor.

© Carlos Berdejo Mandujano

The upper level houses two bedrooms with dressing room, a bathroom and the master bedroom with bathroom and dressing room. One of the main studies of this house was the natural light, which maximizes the openings in bathrooms, the vertical circulation and the double height dining room, from which the silhouettes of brick vaults are projected on a canvas of exposed polished concrete.

© Carlos Berdejo Mandujano

The constant circulation of winds is used in social areas and corridors of the house due to the openings at each end and domes allowing the circulation of hot air. Inside the house there are a couple of gardens, one divides the living and dining areas and the other covers the void produced by the stairs.

© Carlos Berdejo Mandujano

In developing a proposal with a contextual character, we keep a close relationship with the materials and techniques of the region, this means that the material and human resources should not impact the expenditure of energy and therefore the economic resource

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The project concept is based on the study of the context, so that both the site and its resources were the guiding principles of the proposal thus generating a character and identity that the state of Chiapas has lost with the need for housing and their promoters. The brick walls and exposed concrete throughout the ground floor as a structural base solution were the references that provide identity and remembrance of the construction processes of yesteryear in the locality.

© Carlos Berdejo Mandujano

This house with regional character represents a constructive honesty not only outside, but also inside. The base made of exposed concrete walls on the ground floor demonstrates both structural and visual stability. The synergy between brick and concrete clearly identifies the context in which this property is developed.

© Carlos Berdejo Mandujano

The technique of leaving the concrete and brick exposed displays the development and design of their structures. An example is the brick vaults resting on IPR double height beams, supported by an exposed concrete wall. To devise a double height area in such a small property represented a challenge for the project and also a satisfaction as we were not forced to sacrifice other spaces.

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© Alice Glancey

“The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise / Were all at prayers inside the oratory / A ship appeared above them in the air. / The anchor dragged along behind so deep / It hooked itself into the altar rails.”[1]

These words by Irish poet Seamus Heaney had a profound impact on the work of architects Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey, who cited the poem as their inspiration for the Glucksman Gallery – a space commissioned by the University of Cork. Named for its patron Lewis Glucksman (a Wall Street trader and philanthropist), the Glucksman Gallery was completed in 2005 and nominated for a Stirling Prize that same year. Thanks to its outstanding site-specific design, the building has since become one of the most celebrated works of modern architecture in Ireland. 

© Alice Glancey

Located at the gateway to the university campus, adjacent to a limestone escarpment in an ornamental garden on the bank of the River Lee, the brief required a building that would be sensitive to its green surroundings. Indeed, previous proposals for development had been rejected due to environmental concerns. O’Donnell + Tuomey’s solution was a vertically-orientated building with a small footprint to minimize disruption to the natural landscape. They assured the President of the university, Gerry Wrixon, that the footprint of the building would be restricted to the area of the two existing tennis courts on the site, and that they would not cut down so much as a single tree.[2]

© Alice Glancey

The resulting building comprises three levels of open exhibition space which host temporary shows as well as providing as a home for the university’s permanent art collection. It also houses lecture facilities, a café, and a shop. At ground level, a limestone podium leads visitors to a glass lobby which provides access to the galleries. This podium also continues past the building to the river, connecting the campus path with a riverside walk to establish a physical link between the university and its environment. The podium, which the architects describe as “both landscape and building, plinth and pathway,”[3] recalls the architectural promenade of James Stirling’s Neue Staatsgalerie, a project which O’Donnell + Tuomey worked on before establishing their own practice.

© Alice Glancey

Third Floor Plan

Their time working under Stirling had a formative impact on their careers. Having met while studying at University College Dublin (where they both later became Professors), O’Donnell + Tuomey joined Stirling’s office shortly after qualifying. Despite leaving after just a few years to establish the architectural partnership O’Donnell + Tuomey (with great success – they were awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 2015 and have been nominated for the Stirling Prize five times to-date), their work continues to embody ideas incubated in Stirling’s practice. They inherited, for example, his “passion for a richness of color, material and texture,”[4] qualities which continue to characterize their designs, not least that of the Glucksman Gallery.

© Alice Glancey

Fourth Floor Plan

Each of the building’s architectural components are differentiated through the use of contrasting materials. Nestled amongst the trees, the steel frames of the galleries are wrapped in Angelim de Campagna timber (a sustainably-sourced hardwood) to reflect the building’s natural context, while the window frames use galvanized steel to reduce the effects of weathering. The interlocking planes of the upper façade sit on a concrete platform which is raised above the ground on piloti. The platform features dramatic cantilevers twelve meters deep which, Tuomey explained, “allowed us to place the galleries close up against the trees without damaging their roots.”[5]

© Alice Glancey

The concrete platform is composed of granite aggregate, sandblasted to reveal flecks of mica which allow it to glisten as it catches sunlight. The transparency of the glass lobby below helps to separate the mass of the galleries from the ground, thereby reducing the impact—both physically and conceptually—of the building to the landscape. The limestone podium, meanwhile, references both the geology of the site and the traditional limestone buildings of Cork.

© Alice Glancey

The galleries feature large windows which draw the surroundings into the exhibition space, inviting visitors to reflect on the formal qualities of nature alongside the artworks on display. As Kenneth Frampton observed, “this space constantly compels one to shift and adjust one’s attention, ever divided between the stability of culture and the volatility of nature”.[6] Several of the windows are carefully aligned to frame specific views, namely the river, the university and the city. According to Tuomey, this was intended to place the viewer within a wider context: “you never forget that you are in the world no matter where you are.”[7]

© Alice Glancey

As with the majority of their projects to date, O’Donnell + Tuomey have been content to allow the program of the Glucksman Gallery take precedence over its architecture, in keeping with their belief that “the event is what happens in the building, not the building itself.”[8] For instance, the expansive windows of the galleries flood the exhibition spaces with natural light – a pleasant spatial experience but one which poses challenges for both curators and conservators of art. Light-sensitive works could be easily damaged by the sun’s rays and the spaces are too bright to show film work. To solve this problem, O’Donnell + Tuomey created ‘close control’ galleries (so-called as their environmental conditions could be easily regulated) located in the core of the building. Enveloped by the larger galleries around the periphery of the building, the close control galleries are shielded from sunlight by the interior walls, allowing for a greater diversity of exhibition content.

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The architects have repeatedly referred to the Glucksman Gallery as a “celestial vessel,” alluding to Heaney’s aforementioned poem. Tuomey described the imagery of the poem as a “direct visual reference for us in our idea of the building – a ship straining above a stone terrain.”[9] The parallels are clear: the smooth curve of the galleries’ timber cladding bears a strong resemblance to the hull of a ship, and the structure sits on a base of limestone. Another, perhaps more direct, source of inspiration came from a visit to an exhibition of a Viking ship in Dublin. The ship, suspended amongst the trees to allow visitors to walk beneath, was described by Tuomey as one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.[10]

© Alice Glancey

References
[1] Heaney, Seamus. “Lightenings viii”. Nobel Prize. Accessed 16 August, 2016. [access]
[2] O’Donnell, Sheila and John Tuomey. O’Donnell + Tuomey: Selected Works. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007. p.160
[3] “Glucksman Gallery University College Cork”. O’Donnell + Tuomey. Accessed 16 August, 2016. [access]
[4] “The Story Behind the Architects”. RIBA. Accessed 17 August, 2016. [access]
[5] Ibid. Tuomey. p.58
[6] “Glucksman Gallery”. O’Donnell + Tuomey. Accessed 16 August, 2016. [access]
[7] Ibid.
[8] Lappin, Sarah A. Full Irish: New Architecture in Ireland. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009. p.210
[9] Ibid. Tuomey. p.59
[10] O’Toole, Shane. “Seeing the bigger picture”. The Sunday Times. 27 March, 2005. p.18
[11] Tuomey, John. Architecture, Craft and Culture: Reflections of the work of O’Donnell + Tuomey. Kinsale: Gandon Editions, 2008. Craft, p.30

• Architects: O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects
• Location: Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College, Cork, Ireland
• Architects In Charge: Sheila O’Donnell, John Tuomey
• Area: 2300.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2005
• Photographs: Alice Glancey

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In this TED Talk, co-founder of MASS Design Group, Michael Murphy, presents the question “what more can architecture do?” as the springboard philosophy behind the practice. Following a trajectory of MASS’s projects, Murphy reflects upon their practice’s progress in seeing architecture as an opportunity to invest in the future of communities.

Each project seeks to consider what Murphy calls the “human handprint” of buildings, and his discussion includes the LoFab building process in Rwanda, healthier hospitals in Haiti, and a visually communicative campus for the deaf community in the US. Focusing on more than just the final design, Murphy explains how a building process that sources and hires regionally can “improve the local economy and inspire dignity” in the communities in which they work. Although the projects covered vary in scale, context, and client, they all pursue the same ethos that “simple, site specific architectural designs can make a building that heals.”

To conclude the talk, Murphy reveals images of MASS Design Group’s latest proposal, the Memorial to Peace and Justice, which will be erected in Montgomery, Alabama, to recognize and memorialize the United States’ dark racial history.

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© Juan Antonio Monsalve

• Architects: Alberto Burckhard + Carolina Echeverri
• Location: Girardot, Girardot, Cundinamarca, Colombia
• Design And Construction: Alberto Burckhardt C, Carolina Echeverri B. Arquitectos
• Project Area: 2761.0 m2
• Photographs: Juan Antonio Monsalve

• Structural Design: Seteyco-Ing. Joaquin Fidalgo
• Site Survey: Ing. Carlos Arango
• Hydraulic Design: Ingehidrar S.A.S, Ing. Luis Alberto Fernandez
• Electrical: Ing. Enrique Mejia Coomenares
• Wood Framing: Wilson Bello
• Metal Framing: Vialbo
• Contractor: Jacinto Mora

© Juan Antonio Monsalve

The project is located on the Santo Domingo plateau, Municipality of Nilo, Cundinamarca Department. The plateau dominates the place and views of mountain profiles form a beautiful environment. The climate is tropical, with temperatures between 27 ° and 38 ° and in some seasons with pleasant breezes. The houses are located in two neighboring lots overlooking a lake; their areas are 3,380 m2 and 2,761 m2 respectively.

© Juan Antonio Monsalve

The direct commission of the clients, two brothers, consisted of two houses with a unique architectural design, for each of their families, and to establish a house on each lot.

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The definition of the program required large areas with a scheme of two floors, whose main spaces have been distributed as follows:

© Juan Antonio Monsalve

•A large entrance courtyard that links in an L-shape the volume of the social area with the volume containing the double-height space of the stairs and 2nd level rooms.

© Juan Antonio Monsalve

•The social volume houses the living area, dining room and kitchen, in direct communication with the pool. The area becomes a lookout over the mountains and the edge of the pool is responsible for defining the frame for the landscape. Alongside is the wing that houses the two secondary bedrooms that open onto a garden on one of its long facades, and the other on a reflecting pool which in turn is the element that articulates the rest of the space.

© Juan Antonio Monsalve

© Juan Antonio Monsalve

•The second floor is conceived as the private part of the houses, where the main bedrooms are located, which in turn extend over the decks constructed as green roofs.

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The proposed architecture is of a minimalist reading, with volumes mainly defined by the horizontal planes. These planes, built in concrete, are the characteristic feature of the project. The roof plane of the social area folds perpendicularly on itself twice, forming the volume of the second floor. Other vertical planes are constituted by enclosures with wooden window frames and shutters. The gardens designed and planted related to the spaces contain the houses so that the domain of the site is through views and climate management.

© Juan Antonio Monsalve

The orientation of the houses responds to views and implantation on the edge of the plateau. The tropical climate is handled with generous openings, allowing the circulation of the breeze. The sun is screened by vertical wooden blinds, creating patterns of light that are reflected on concrete and wood surfaces featured in the project.

© Juan Antonio Monsalve

The materials present in the project are mainly architectural concrete and woodwork. Some planes include plastering and painting, the finish for the floors is a veneer of the same color palette as concrete and wood, but easy to maintain.

© Juan Antonio Monsalve

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