From the architect. Blossom Pavilion is a cooperative spatial device with artist Zhan Wang, which is also one of the spatial art pieces project of Shanghai Urban Space Art Season 2015 1+1 (artist + architect).
Axonometric
Zhan Wang’s representive project is his rockery sculpture made by stainless steel. The most recent investigate, casted stainless steel, leave a deeply impression on me. Artist leaves a flat, thin and polished stainless steel piece on natural ground or other texture. Then carefully cast the texture on stainless steel by soft packaged hammer. In this way, an industrial material is left with nature information and artificial trace, which is also represented by the specific material behavior.
Supporting and coverage is human being’s most primitive spatial construction form, which could shelter oneself from suffering weather conditions. In the evolution of mankind construction, the principle is tending to be rational and scientific. Engineering gradually become the core of construction technique. The structure of Blossom Pavilion has been scrupulously calculated. The overall overage area is 12metres plus 8 metres, which consist of two types of thickness (8mm and 14mm) steel plates in the 800x800mm grid according to the allowable stress. The height of 14mm thickness cloud-shape ribs above the steel plate stay a range of 50-200mm, which shaped as a natural topographicslope. The chambers among the ribs were used as the pots for flowers on the roof of Blossom Pavilion. The steel plate is supported by 6 places’ single or A-shape solid steel columns, witch size at 60X60mm. A Mies style minimalism construction has been formed like this.
Elevation
The most rational structure mechanics is not the principle when architect decide where to put the supporting point. A space divided by ‘sliced rockery’ is the main picture in mind. As the concept of artist treat stainless steel slice, the rockery spatial concept has been brought in into engineering supporting structures. Architect divided and translated artist’s stainless-steel-rockery sculpture into a space with rockery concept. Artist chose the hill stone cast texture steel as the façade of sliced side. The surrounding plants and trees has been engaged into the Blossom Pavilion with this method.
Undulating brick surfaces are concealed behind the smooth, windowless exterior of this chapel by Modernist architect Eero Saarinen, captured in these new images by British photographer Jim Stephenson (+ slideshow). (more…)
A former theatre in Mexico City has been restored and reconfigured by Bandada Studio into an interactive museum that displays a giant model of the metropolis (+ slideshow). (more…)
Anyone wanting to construct their own tiny house can now buy detailed plans for a micro dwelling designed by Washington DC studio Foundry Architects (+ slideshow). (more…)
From the architect. Between 1890 and 1911, Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon designed and delivered over fifty projects in NSW, some of which are still standing and in use.
One of those is the Pyrmont Fire Station located on the corner of Gipps and Pyrmont Streets in Ultimo, Sydney. It was constructed in 1906 to address the compounding fire danger posed by an intense growth in industrial development in the area during the first decade of the 20th century.
The original building is Federation Free Style and constructed of red clay face brick in English bond with lime mortar over a rusticated sandstone plinth and has decorative sandstone detailing emphasising door and window openings and other features. The colours and textures of the brick and sandstone are in stark contrast. While the Pyrmont and Gipps Street facades have a strongly defined “base”, “middle” and “top” and feature several asymmetrical features.
Elevations
Inside, the building originally consisted of two engine bays with attendant stables, a family size officer apartment and single men’s room on the ground floor. There were also apartments for six families on the second and third floors with a laundry, drying yard and watch tower at roof level.
The Station was staffed until 1945 when it was closed. It then reopened in 1960 and remained active until 1994 when it closed again for minor renovations.
The fire station reopened in 2007, however for over 40 years the two upper floors of the fire station have remained unoccupied and had been subjected to squatters, theft, water damage, fire damage and vermin.
Sections A/B
In 2013, Fire and Rescue NSW commissioned Group GSA to refurbish and extend the operational Fire Station and derelict upper floors to improve conditions for the fire fighters and to provide office accommodation for Fire and Rescue NSW staff as part of their relocation program from their current head office in Elizabeth Street, Sydney.
Major works included upgrading the buildings structural integrity to a Category 4 seismic stabilisation. This was achieved with a meticulous design by Birzulis and construction by MAXBuild installing new steel portal frames to shore up and protect the existing heritage envelope including the prominent bell tower on the corner of Pyrmont and Gipps Streets.
Twenty-four cubic metres of concrete was used to form 1.5 metre deep footings which extended down in to existing bedrock. This formed the foundations for tonnes of structural steel that protect the building from lateral movement.
The portal frames span two floors and tie to reinforced joist flooring which is braced to the frame with a series of flat bar cross-bracing. The external façade is then tied to the perpendicular walls with a Helibar system.
Sections C/D
Architect, Janine Graves believes “The upgrade of the locally listed heritage building is a win for urban development within Pyrmont. The Vernon building will continue to be a landmark building for many years to come”.
A new extension was also added to the building over the 3 floors. The contemporary addition is inspired by design methodologies adopted a century ago – Innovation, decoration and social creation.
The choice of interfacing materials between the heritage building and the extension produces a strong connection between the old and new. The materials complement each other and flow between internal and external spaces in an asymmetrical fashion much like the building before it.
Original concrete floors have been topped with a white concrete, marking the extent of the original building footprint and in contrast, grey concrete floors segregated by a subtle shadow gap defines the extended premises.
Vertical circulation zones are clad in Zinc, linking all 3 floors and the diverse departments of the organisation together. The zinc cladding also located around landscaping to the level 1 terrace compliments the aged red brick and the new glazed façade encasing the rear of the original building.
Recycled bricks from the site’s dismantled outbuildings were used for infills and repairs.
Janine Graves states, “The major renovation presented many challenges through the construction process. These were overcome by the team’s passion for restoring a standout piece of historical architecture and providing state of the art facilities for the service men and women who risk their lives daily to instil a sense of safety and security within our communities.
Artel Constructions worked collaboratively with the consultant team to deliver a successful renovation within the constraints of the brief and site.”
In addition to the retention of the original envelope and the incorporation of an extension to the Vernon building, another challenge involved retaining and repairing details and material such as the pressed metal ceiling above the existing interior engine bay. In order to install the joist flooring without damaging the ceiling, the builders removed the existing floor boards above the ceiling, cleaned and stored them, and then re-laid them on top of the new joists.
Sections E/F/G
The original walls and rusted tin roof of the ‘fodder’ room, used for the horses in the early 20th Century, has also been retained and can be viewed from the level 2 void along with some original art works preserved behind fixed picture frames.
It is Janine’s view that “GroupGSA and the professional team of multidisciplinary consultants have ensured that the work of the former Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon, continues to function as it was intended but now more aligned with contemporary work processes”.
The Obama Foundation took a different approach to finding a site than past presidential foundations have taken, deciding to build in an up-and-coming part of town as opposed to an established city center. Jackson Park is surrounded by the neighborhoods of Woodlawn, a predominantly African American community, and Hyde Park, which is already in the throes of gentrification.
The selection has not come without controversy, however, as opponents believe the Library could have provided a greater impact at the Washington Park site, which is currently surrounded with several vacant sites. Friends of the Park, the park advocacy group that recently succeeded in driving the Lucas Museum from its proposed lakefront Chicago site, also expressed their disappointment that the library will be built on park land. Both Jackson Park and Washington Park were designed by 19th-century landscape designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.
The Obama Presidential Library is scheduled to be completed by 2021 and will cost an estimated $500 million. The project will feature the library housing the presidential archives, a museum and headquarters for the Obama Foundation.
Business news: the creative industries are growing faster than any other business sector in most of the UK according to new data, with 47 “creative clusters” now scattered across the country – including “less ‘hip'” areas like Slough and Chester. (more…)
From the architect. The purpose of this house is to build a family gathering place that could host during one month up to eight families concurrently or receive a single person alone in winter.
Previously poetry says Casa del Fuego, because it is founded on a territory of ancient volcanic eruptions: it is a land of volcanoes, ancient and powerful. Moreover, the first architectural order was given around fire. The clan gathers around fire, and builds the hut. The architectural response is a family lodge, structured based on two houses. The main house and the annex or children’s house.
First and Second Floors
Third Floor and Roof Plan
The program is divided into three connected parts and developed together by a generating center that determines the entire space. In this center of the house are the fires, that organize the family gathering place; from there the shells peel off in centripetal form accommodating the rest of the program. The image generated by this scheme is that of the Spiral Galaxy rotating in space, which emerges from the ground and is drawn back into it; speed follows shells that bind the three bodies of interior space.
Brexit design summit: UK design education is “very weak” and studios will continue to rely on overseas talent unless the government invests in schools, leading designers have told Dezeen. (more…)
