Courtesy of Piuarch

Milan studio Piuarch unveiled their design for the new Latteria Sociale Valtellina cooperative dairy in the Italian Alps. The competition, commissioned by the Latteria, sought to renovate the old building and expand it to include a sales outlet, restaurant, conference room and small museum. Piuarch’s winning design builds on the economic and historic context of the area and surrounding landscape. 

Courtesy of Piuarch

Their design is a reinterpretation of the malga – a traditional Alpine structure – conventionally characterized by a long, low profile. The building proposed by Piuarch is 54 meters long, and consists of a single roof with a front and side overhang. The large overhang adds 340 square meters of outdoor covered areas to the 1,000 square meter building area.

Courtesy of Piuarch

While the “central core is entirely closed in” and contains the conference room, service facilities, changing rooms and kitchens, the areas for customers are “arranged along the perimeter,” including the outlet, cafe/bar, restaurant and museum area.

Courtesy of Piuarch

Following the Design for All principles, the building is void of barriers, both inside and in outside areas so that it “can be enjoyed by people with different needs and abilities,” state the architects in a press release. Framed by large windows around the entire perimeter, the new design will place Latteria’s daily functions in direct contact with passersby.

Piuarch’s choice of materials respects the traditional malga, and incorporates “zero footprint” materials – sheet metal, local stone and laminated wood – to reduce the building’s environmental impact. Moreover, the raw materials are locally sourced, and their aesthetics are harmonious with the surrounding cultural context.

Courtesy of Piuarch

At the heart of Piuarch’s winning design is its tribute to the reciprocal relationship between shepherds’ traditions and the natural environment. The dialogue between the dairy and its surrounding environment is primarily sustained through its long roof, its pitches blending in with the natural slopes of the land, and acting as a shield from the harsh climatic conditions of the Alps. Meanwhile, the lighting and interior decoration are inspired by the culdera, a traditional copper cooking pot that is used for mixing and heating milk. 

• Architects: Piuarch
• Location: 23010 Postalesio SO, Italy
• Area: 1000.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of Piuarch

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© Brigitte Lacombe

The Moinian Group announced that they had been collaborating with the late Zaha Hadid to develop a “visionary” new project for New York City. The project, at 220 Eleventh Avenue in West Chelsea, is a multi-residential apartment building with a cultural institution at street level.

This announcement comes after Zaha Hadid Architects pledged to complete all 36 projects that were in construction or design development at the time of her death, as her office continues her powerful legacy.

220 Eleventh Avenue will contain a mix of loft-like condominiums and penthouses, with a design that intertwines the vibrancy of the Chelsea art district with Zaha Hadid’s own experience of New York as a city of “powerful geometries and rhythms.” The design, which is yet to be unveiled, merges the urban scale with intricate detail. The project is slated to begin construction in 2017.

“We are deeply honored to develop one of Zaha’s final creations and cement her astonishing legacy forevermore here in Manhattan,” said Mitchell Moinian of The Moinian Group in a press release. “Preserving the artistic integrity of this project is paramount in order to engrain the spirit of Zaha herself into the streets of Manhattan.”

Check out the four projects that Zaha Hadid Architects will complete in 2016 here.

News via The Moinian Group.

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© Stephen Goodenough

• Architects: Case Ornsby Design Pty Ltd
• Location: Andover St, Merivale, Christchurch 8014, New Zealand
• Architect In Charge: Case Ornsby Design
• Area: 281.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Stephen Goodenough

© Stephen Goodenough

Floor Plan

From the architect. After the huge earthquakes in 2010/2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand, the devastated original home occupying this site was removed and the land was purchased by our clients.

© Stephen Goodenough

Historically, the city of Christchurch has its roots in agriculture, so we designed an urban take on a typical English pitched-roof farmhouse.  The house is comprised of four interconnected buildings, creating a series of courtyard spaces between each dwelling. Each of the four pavilions are connected by flat-roofed glass galleries, allowing large amounts of light in, and views to the courtyards out. 

© Stephen Goodenough

Materials needed to be lightweight so as not to cause safety risks in the event of more earthquakes.  The buildings are clad in cedar and left in a natural state to weather and silver off.  The cedar runs vertically in fixed applications, and horizontally on expressive features such as doors and ventilation panels.  The vertical cedar cladding is continued internally through the gallery spaces to complete the external skin of the four pavilions, allowing them to feel as though they exist independently of each other.

© Stephen Goodenough

Internally, the palette of materials was confined to natural cedar, oak joinery and oak and concrete floors, lending warmth and permanency to the spaces.   The living room features a double-height gable ceiling, creating a sense of volume and light.

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Revised Design (view from the street). Image © David Chipperfield Architects

Earlier this month The Guardian reported that the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustav, has denounced David Chipperfield’s designs for Stockholm’s new Nobel Center (Nobelhuset) in the Dagens Nyheter (DN), a national Swedish newspaper, as both too volumetrically large and badly sited. The practice’s initial proposal, which was lauded by the awarding jury for its “lightness and openness,” is a glass and stone structure which attempts to “convey dignity” and embody the ideals of the Nobel Prize.

Revised Design (model). Image © David Chipperfield Architects

For the King, who personally presents the annual Nobel prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Literature (the Peace prize is delivered in Oslo), “Nobel is a name that we want to protect, of course.” He continued by arguing that “we [also] want to preserve and increase its value. The purpose is laudable. [But] the fact that the building has become so big, and has landed a bit in the wrong place – it is a shame.” The Swedish Monarch has, among other notable public statements, previously called for a global ban on bathtubs ahead of UN Climate Talks in 2015 and, more recently, offered Swedes health advice related to steak and jelly-gums.

The King and Queen of Sweden. Via The American Swedish Institute. Image © Bruno Ehrs

David Chipperfield Architects’ proposal received harsh opposition from heritage protestors in mid-2014, who declared in an online petition (which has gained just under 7,000 signatures to date) that they are against “star-architects constructing their angular spectacles of glass and steel right in the middle of the protected historic environment, as monuments to themselves, at our expense and the city’s.” The City Museum of Stockholm also spoke out to argue that the design is good, but not in its proposed location.

A Customs House located along the Blasieholmen, designed in 1876 by Axel Fredrik Nystrom, sits at the heart of this debate. The structure, which represents the last remaining wooden harbor warehouse in the city, will be demolished to make way for the proposed Nobelhuset. Although David Chipperfield Architects submitted revised plans for the building in late 2015, in which the size and scale of the building were significantly reduced with “a clearer division into a base, middle and top floor that relates to the surrounding structures on the Blasieholmen peninsula,” Queen Sylvia has gone so far to suggest in the Dagens Nyheter that a referendum would be welcomed to determine the outcome of the plans.

Original Design (auditorium). Image © David Chipperfield Architects

Revised Design (auditorium). Image © David Chipperfield Architects

As reported by The Guardian, Chipperfield has spoken on Swedish radio to argue that “the size of the building is determined by what is necessary for a Nobel Center. It’s not exploiting the value of the land or something – it’s not a developer building, an office building or a hotel. I disagree with the criticism, but I respect that it is part of the dialogue.”

In response to a column in the Architects’ Journal, in which Paul Finch argued that “it is difficult […] to accept the argument that the building has to be its current size because of precise functional requirements [as] it has already been lowered once,” Chipperfield retorted: “I will indeed consider Paul Finch’s advice, although I must point out that an auditorium that must seat 1,200 people does have an objective result on the size of the building.”

Chipperfield continued: “It is our experience […] that the civility of such societies, based on a fundamental commitment to social democracy and dominated by a concern for the welfare and opinion of its citizens, tend to struggle with issues that open up conflicts and differences of opinions.” […] “It is a tribute to such societies that these things matter. Although it puts projects such as the Nobel Center […] in a precarious situation, and it inconveniences the process and our task, I retain a certain respect for this condition and the predicament that it puts the architect in.”

Original Design – view towards Nybrokajen. Image © David Chipperfield Architects

Revised Design – view towards Nybrokajen. Image © David Chipperfield Architects

Original Design – façade. Image © David Chipperfield Architects

The building is being partly financed by the Wallenberg and the Persson families, the latter of whom own the H&M corporation.

You can see some of the practice’s latest vizualisations of the proposal, here.

News via Dagens Nyheter [SE], The Guardian, Architects’ Journal, The Local [SE]

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