From the architect. Multipurpose Office Space We were requested by our client to renovate a warehouse to make a multipurpose office space which everyone can easily come by. The client was looking for a workplace where they can enjoy their conversation. Then we considered creating some space such as miniature garden inside the warehouse. We placed four kinds of house-shaped booths along circle and made community space in the circle.That makes you feel as if you are in a city in spite of being inside the building.
In order to make a unique world view, we intentionally designed these houses in different sizes. We hope that lots of people will know this work through our workshops and so on. You can relax and work with a calm mind once you visit here.
Have a little extra time this fall and looking to expand your knowledge of architectural history? Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is offering a 12-course online course titled “A Global History of Architecture” that will cover everything from architecture’s origins 100,000 years ago all the way up to 1600 C.E – and the best part? It’s totally free.
Canadian firm +tongtong has overhauled a traditional home in Toronto, adding a large triangular window, dark zinc cladding and an interior lightwell that provides natural illumination. (more…)
The one-of-a-kind Ark Encounter project, said to be the largest timber-framed structure in the world, has been completed in Williamstown, KY (40 miles south of Cincinnati, OH).
A family-oriented, historically authentic, and environmentally friendly themed attraction, the Ark Encounter is a to-scale replica of the Biblical Noah’s Ark, which market studies suggest will see 1.2 – 2 million visitors annually. Phase 1 of the Ark Encounter also has a 1,500 person seat restaurant, zip line courses, and a petting zoo. The project began nearly 7 years ago with the planning and permitting process, now the Ark Encounter officially opened on July 7th, 2016.
The Noah’s Ark story is about a man with great faith who built a large ship to hold his family and 2 of every living animal species to spare them from a catastrophic flood. Today, the life-sized reconstruction is a design feat unlike any other structure, and is a park for all to visit.
A red brick building designed for one of the UK’s oldest libraries will be the first new addition to Lambeth Palace – the historic home of the Archbishop of Canterbury – in almost two centuries (+ slideshow). (more…)
This year’s theme was “Visioning and Re-Visioning,” which focused on “the ways in which pedagogical innovation and cutting-edge design impact and influence each other.” The AIA also notes that education facility design may now be more important than ever, as recent studies have indicated that a positive learning environment can affect a child’s academic progress over a year by as much as 25%.
Find out which projects received awards, after the break.
A 125,000-square-foot, K-8 partnership school and early childhood center is a progressive learning environment for children and a laboratory for the next generation of educators. The school is a cluster of “containers for learning” inspired by East Baltimore’s row houses, stoops, and social civic spaces. Through its intentionally porous, safe, urban plan, and the craftsmanship of light, materiality and performance, its design respects history and supports the future of education and of its neighborhood.
Mundo Verde is a bilingual, sustainability-focused public charter that consists of two buildings: the renewed and refined historic school and a new Pre-K annex. Within the older building, breakout nooks and cubbies are carved from the generous corridors and abandoned ventilation chases. New windows provide natural light to the building core. As in the Annex, high ceilings and grand window expanses are supported by highly coordinated building system integration. The Pre-K annex facade is designed to be deferential to the historic school. A third floor learning terrace, large window openings, and building orientation provide for light-filled classrooms which frame the natural landscape of the interior play court.
Located at the entrance of Wake Tech Community College, building creates a gateway to the campus and symbolizes the merging of technology, education and sustainability. While the primary function of the Regional Plant is to house heating and cooling systems, the project was an opportunity to highlight the striking aesthetic of building technology and to create a unique educational experience that reveals technology’s role in preserving the beauty of the natural world. The building serves as an educational facility for teaching students about energy efficient building systems. A simple rectilinear glass and steel box with a perforated metal screen layer houses, screens and displays the technology and creates a unique educational space for the college.
Echoing the architecture of Western University’s campus, a full height great hall anchors the main circulation, with the dining hall, library and amphitheatre extending into the surrounding landscape as distinct pavilions. Designing from the inside out, the architects created spaces that support Ivey’s unique case-based and team learning pedagogy. The research-based design process involved numerous workshops and a survey of 60 top business schools. The building’s materials—stone, concrete, glass, copper, steel, walnut, and Douglas fir—were selected for their elemental and timeless qualities. Innovative site strategies and embedded technologies were employed to achieve a sustainable design.
Channeling the Pittsburgh area’s industrial heritage, the steel frame and metal clad building was conceived as a “Factory for the Arts.” The project features an outdoor Arts Yard where the making of 3D arts is visible from the commercial Main Street in its host city of Greensburg. The four-level facility features a full complement of studio spaces for traditional disciplines like painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, dance and theater, along with tech-heavy digital and graphic arts. The new building is an economic catalyst for the city’s cultural district, drawing local artists, gallery observers, and performing arts attendees to support and critique student work.
The addition provides 37,000 square feet of new studio, faculty office, and seminar space as well as a 200 seat auditorium and an exhibition gallery. This project is a complex but resolute hybrid of a historic restoration and a contemporary insertion and expansion. Post-tensioned concrete and Indiana limestone honor the weight and substance of the historic, while the west-facing fritted glass brise-soleil and steel curtainwall create a contemporary figure. The overall design is a didactic model, establishing a tangible discourse between past and present, while providing state of the art facilities for 21st century architectural and design education.
This new building at Dwight-Englewood embodies the school’s STEM mission, while still blending into the existing campus. Designers found inspiration in the integrative STEM curriculum to create a facility that fosters a cross-disciplinary community and is adaptable to change. Inside, seven flexible classrooms and eight science labs center around a double height community area that serves as an “Innovation Hub” where students are free to explore. Moveable furniture, audio-visual capabilities and writable surfaces encourage students to “hack” the space and their own learning process. Contrasting with the classrooms’ brick and wood façades, the warm cedar exterior also allows the building’s character to shift with the seasons.
To maintain its competitive advantage in academics, Fayetteville Public Schools tasked the design team to strategically re-structure its high school education program into a small learning community (SLC) model. At more than 500,000 square feet, this project is the largest civic project in Fayetteville over the past 50 years. SLCs are designed with core learning studios that feature discovery, project-based learning, digital and applied learning labs to foster collaboration. Distributed administration, resource centers and dining allow students to spend a majority of their day within their SLC. The addition features abundant glass and overlooks a new landscaped street that creates a collegiate campus feel reflective of the school’s ties to the University of Arkansas.
As an anchor in the heart of campus, this 122,000-square-foot facility meshes an entire new campus of functions into a single three-story structure. The building integrates mediated classrooms with life and physical science labs, a campus library, learning center, one-stop-shop for student services, and a multi-purpose classroom for performing arts. Outdoor spaces, both at grade and at the upper levels of the building, provide a popular amenity and an enhancement to student community life. Such spaces include an accessible roof deck and other educational areas catering to different college and community functions throughout the year. The project is targeting LEED Gold Certification.
Located on the banks of the Charles River, the arc-shaped building creates a porous edge to the campus and a new sense of openness between the school and the city of Boston. Dedicated to the Executive Education program the building groups students into clusters of eight-person suites, each with a common space for work, collaboration and presentations. The detailing and performance of the exterior facade allows the transparency of the ground floors to expose the public parts of the building.
The 350-acre boarding and day school campus, originally planned by the Olmsted Brothers, was functional and serviceable but aging facilities were inhibiting the growth of educational programs and opportunities. This first phase of a comprehensive master plan includes new academic and administrative buildings and complementary landscapes that create a memorable, meaningful place. Porch ceilings and overhangs are crafted of wood and are natural frames of the surrounding environment. Roof monitors on the buildings provide daylighting to each classroom, while a storefront system and high-performance glazing afford views along the covered walkways and to the campus beyond. The project is targeting LEED Silver certification.
Courtesy of Lake|Flato Architects
Award of Merit: Kennedy Child Study Center; East Harlem, NY / Pell Overton Architects
Renovating a 1930’s warehouse building, the design team’s adaptive reuse of the 25,000-square-foot space presented a number of difficult challenges, including an unusually low ceiling and absence of any natural light. In response, one primary design feature took the form of a series of large, colorful lighting bays cut into the otherwise smooth ceiling effectively creating the perception of greater height and illumination from above. To further address the compressed nature of the lower floor, the administrative offices are arranged around two large open work areas, providing direct visual access to new windows and allowing natural daylight to filter deeper into the floor.
The jury for the 2016 Educational Facility Design Awards included: Karina Ruiz, AIA (Chair), DOWA-IBI Group Architects; Christina Alvarez, Delaware Design Lab HS; Helena L. Jubany, FAIA, NAC/Architecture; Bruce Lindsey, AIA, Washington University in St. Louis; Zachary Neubauer, University of Portland and Steve Ziger, AIA, Ziger/Snead Architects.
For more information on the winning projects, visit the AIA website, here.
Dezeen Watch Store: Hong Kong-based brand MMT‘s new collection of timepieces feature engraved patterns that catch the light, which were designed to reference the surface of the moon. (more…)
The mature and secluded site is located in Haslemere on the edge of the Surrey Hills, enjoying stunning, long ranging views towards the South Downs and beyond.
Exploded Isometric
The client’s brief was for a detached ancillary building to the existing house, to provide an indoor pool and spa, gym, bicycle workshop and glasshouse. Above all the building had to be beautiful, finely crafted at every detail using the highest quality materials. The Pool House needed to function effortlessly in a variety of environments, whether for a relaxing solitary swim or a family pool party for 30.
It was important for the building to integrate seamlessly within the sensitive site, to complement its surroundings and in particular build a positive relationship with the main house in terms of scale, form and appearance. The Pool House takes a low slung form to satisfy planning constraints, and is set on a simple alignment to the main house, creating a dialogue, and generating a more complete arrival space.
The existing corner of the site was underused despite occupying a prominent position on the entrance to the house. A simple wrapping stone wall was used to re-orientate this part of the garden and set up a dialogue with the existing house. The stone wall terminates with a new greenhouse, with a picture window creating a viewing shelf in the greenhouse, a request from the client to be able to see in from the kitchen window of the main house.
Diagram
The design has been conceived as a simple copper pitched roof form with adjoining servant spaces in a low sedum-roofed element, all contained by a continuous wrapping drystone wall. The contemporary design uses rich natural materials which create a warm and submissive palette (copper, limestone, oak) harmonising with the local vernacular. Generous sliding glass panels provide a connection to the gardens and glimpses of countryside beyond; expansive roof glazing floods the pool with daylight and views of the sky.
Re-Format’s approach to the project was to adhere to a process of clarity – a balance of creativity and rational thinking. Creative design that required rigorous analysis and attention to detail that grew out of the constraints of the site and specifics of the brief.
Sig Nordal 