Courtesy of Maison Edouard Francois

Maison Edouard François, in partnership with ABC Architectes, has won the competition for the requalification of the former Ray Stadium into housing, landscaped gardens, shops, sports facilities, and parking, beating other competing firms like Herzog & de Meuron and Rudy Riciotti. 

Located in Nice, France, the project aims to provide its swiftly growing neighborhood with a “new green lung” by mimicking the form of a vegetated hill and incorporating elements of classic Niçois architecture like white stone and wood. The reinvented stadium becomes a bridge between the urban and natural landscapes, linking new constructions of the Boulevard Gorbella with the new Ray Park.

Courtesy of Maison Edouard Francois

Courtesy of Maison Edouard Francois

This new park will additionally be integrated into the city block on one level, stretching over all the buildings and covering the façades and roofs. Furthermore, the façades will host climbing, flowering plants and the rooftops will be entirely planted.

Courtesy of Maison Edouard Francois

A construction in the interior of the city block will be raised and placed on pilotis, in order to broaden and extend the presence of nature. Underneath this garden object, the spaces that have thus been freed up will be accessible and open to the public, for new domestic and leisure activities – explains the architects in a press release. 

Courtesy of Maison Edouard Francois

Learn more about the project here.

News via Maison Edouard François. 

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Courtesy of William McDonough + Partners and GXN

William McDonough + Partners and GXN have teamed up to develop a master plan for the Agro Food Park (AFP), a hub for agricultural innovation near Aarhus, Denmark. Aiming to serve as a benchmark for future global food industry development, the project will combine urban density with agricultural test fields in a collaboration of academic and commercial business.

Over the next 30 years, the current AFP—which was opened in 2009 and spans 44,000 square meters with nearly 1,000 employees—will expand by an additional 280,000 square meters.

We are privileged to have been chosen by GXN to collaborate on what will become an entrepreneurial ecosystem for addressing the future of food and plant resources, said William McDonough, founder of William McDonough + Partners and co-author of the text, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

Courtesy of William McDonough + Partners and GXN

Five focus areas have been identified to improve AFP through the new expansion: healthy materials, clean energy, increased biodiversity, healthy air, and clean water.

Courtesy of William McDonough + Partners and GXN

We are in the ecological century. After decades of unthinking destruction of climate, water and land, now is the time to restore and replenish the biological resources of our planet for all of Earth’s species, stated McDonough. A carbon positive city demonstration at the Agro Food Park can be the embodiment of this new century – its clean water, air, soil and energy serving as a continuous source of economic and ecological innovation and regeneration, redefining how we can enact a positive and abundant future.

Courtesy of William McDonough + Partners and GXN

Courtesy of William McDonough + Partners and GXN

In combining urban and agricultural development into one larger concept, AFP aims to create economic value within the urban and agricultural infrastructure.

Courtesy of William McDonough + Partners and GXN

The master plan of the project will be composed of three main elements—the Lawn, a central communal green space, the Strip, AFP’s main street, and the Plazas, which will bind together clusters of buildings with individual neighborhood identities.

News via William McDonough + Partners and GXN.

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© Valentin Jeck

• Architects: Felippi Wyssen Architects
• Location: Muttenz, Switzerland
• Architect In Charge: Felippi Wyssen Architects
• Area: 600.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Valentin Jeck , Courtesy of Felippi Wyssen Architects, Mark Niedermann

• Structural Engineer: Jürg Merz

© Valentin Jeck

From the architect. The plot on which this three-story home is built lies slightly below the level of the surrounding area on the edge of a single-family residential district. The response to this  difference in level is an intelligently designed semibasement, above which soar a full floor and an attic. The emblematic facade and the carefully dimensioned saddle roof projecting on all sides add an archaic touch to the building. It’s kind of presented on a pedestal.

© Valentin Jeck

Section

© Valentin Jeck

The eastern part of the semibasement accommodates car parking spaces, on the western side an apartment is stretching over the entire length of the building. In each the upper and the attic floor, two apartments are located which open to three sides. Well defined horizontal layers dominate the visible sides: the partly hidden semibasement, the wide open upper floor and the elegantly tailored roof. Minimally protruding profiles and small plastic  [three-dimensional] interventions accentuate the facades, while the wood of the parquet floors and of the sliding shutters forms a warm counterpart to the fair-faced concrete.

Courtesy of Felippi Wyssen Architects

In the interior, the access areas have been kept to a minimum while the living quarters have been generously conceived. A wide column grid characterises all floor plans and provides for structural affinities between the different levels.  The construction volume draws additional suspense from the alternation between loggias and inside spaces. Floor-to-ceiling doors and passages create intriguing perspectives and attractive spatial volumes. Furthermore, the ground-floor flat benefits from the passage to the green external area which is sheltered by its favourable position.

© Valentin Jeck

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Courtesy of Ruetemple

• Architects: Ruetemple
• Location: Moscow, Russia
• Area: 47.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of Ruetemple

• Other Participants : Alexander Kudimov, Daria Butakhina

Courtesy of Ruetemple

From the architect. Tasks
We were expected to create a living space in a small 2-room apartment in a new solid-cast building.

The apartment owner is a young man, who shares a similar point of view with us regarding the interior living space, therefore it was very easy for us to find a common ground and create a convenient, functional and modern space.

Diagram

Concept
The initial data on the apartment is very convenient: no load bearing elements inside the apartment, the concentration of all wet zones along the wall deep within the apartment, and two large windows along the opposite wall, which provide perfect lighting for the whole area.

Courtesy of Ruetemple

It was important to keep the feeling of air and volume; however, at the same time we understood that it would be impossible to do without a private sleeping zone. Not wanting to construct any solid partitions, resulted in the idea of creating some volume in the center of the apartment, which would be multifunctional, and simultaneously enable the transparency and freedom to be retained. A structure containing the sleeping zone, the zone for watching the projector, a cloakroom, and a sofa in front of TV set has become such a volume. The whole structure is made of wood. We tried to make its form interesting like a sculpture: it has large window areas, which let the light penetrate the lobby; it even has the ladders, the storage racks, and the niches for the bed and sofa. The remaining zones, such as the bathroom and kitchen, have been very compactly located along the wall opposite the windows.

Courtesy of Ruetemple

As wood is a rather active material in terms of color and texture, the remaining space has been designed using calm colors: the white walls, floors, kitchen furniture, and concrete ceiling. It creates an impression of the wooden structure floating among the white walls, floor and concrete ceiling.

Courtesy of Ruetemple

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