Fashion designer Aitor Throup has presented a set of prototype garments on giant marionettes instead of models during this season’s London Collections: Men (+ slideshow). (more…)
Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with independent publisher Blue Crow Media to offer five readers the chance to win an Art Deco London map. (more…)
From the architect. Jardín San Hipólito is a garden venue with capacity for a thousand people, located in a property of 3 hectares of wooded area on the outskirts of Mexico City. The site has housing potential, and will be developed within 10 years, which is why one of the most important premises of the competition was to design and build a removable and lightweight structure.
With that peculiarity, the design still harnesses and utilizes the natural components of the wooden landscape, guaranteeing a direct connection with the surrounding environment.
The project is composed by 3 tents: the main one, designed to serve as a main space for a diverse range of events, covers 1000 sqm (40 x 25 meters), which is free of columns and floored with a concrete slab equipped with a radiating heating system that creates a warm atmosphere; and two smaller adjacent tents of 250 m2 each, which lodge bathrooms and a kitchen, respectively. Service areas, facilities, accommodations, storage and landscaped areas are featured as well.
To curb the prevailing winds and avoid a sail effect inside the main tent, natural slopes were erected to shape and frame the perimeter of the site by reusing and repurposing the materials resulting from the excavations and weeding of the land, anchoring the project to its context.
The tents were assembled with a tensed plastic membrane and a digitally designed and manufactured lightweight steel structure with IPR beams with 80cm cambers that are pinned/screwed in intersecting 45 degrees. The main structure’s highest point and height at the intersection is 17 meters.
Graduate shows 2016: cling-film dresses and pieces constructed from scrapped motorcycles are included in our design reporter Alice Morby’s top five picks from this year’s Royal College of Art Master of Arts in Fashion presentation. (more…)
Konstantin Melnikov (August 3, 1890 – November 28, 1974) played a key role in shaping Soviet Architecture from the mid-twenties to mid-thirties, despite being independent from the Constructivists who dominated architecture at the time. Besides his well-known pavilion for the USSR at the 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, Melnikov was famous in Moscow for his workers’ club building, for his own house, and for his bus garages.
With this recent photoset, photographer Denis Esakov (who is now looking for a publisher to produce a photobook featuring the full set of almost 600 images) has created a unique opportunity to explore – both inside and out – all 12 Melnikov projects that shaped Moscow’s Architecture during the Soviet Era.
After the Revolution of 1917, Lenin put the New Economy Policy (NEP) into place so that the country would regain prosperity after years of Civil War. The building industry, which had ceased at the beginning of the First World War, was facing a heavy programme of construction. Communal housing, government infrastructures, and collective facilities were springing up across Moscow. Architects were expected to follow the Bolshevik programme, by thinking in terms of economy, rationalization and standardization. The aim was to give everyone access to similar standards of living, but also to display Russia’s latest technical advances in the building industry: a claim of superiority against Western countries.
Melnikov was commissioned to build public infrastructures, mostly bus garages – Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage (1926), Garage Intourist (1934), and Gosplan Garage (1936), as well as the Office of New Sukharev Market (1924). Instead of experimenting with new technology – as Constructivists did – Melnikov worked with the materials available from the timber-cutting, brick-making, and cement production industries that resisted the Civil War. For his bus garage roofs, he used lengthened steel girders: a construction method that was already widespread in Russia.[1]
Similarly, when designing his own house in the district of Arbat, Melnikov decided to update traditional brickwork techniques by concentrating stresses into specific parts of the structure. While windows contributed to the aesthetic aspect and provided well-spread natural light, their primary function was to channel and concentrate structural loads. Hexagonal portals were placed evenly across the brick structure. Some were filled-in with insulation, while others functioned as windows. In doing so, Melnikov rationalized an existing method, appointed local industries, and used material resources sparingly, which made the whole project more economically viable.[2]
The house also exemplifies how Melnikov assembled volumes, played with sharp angles and a certain simplicity of lines. Indoors, Melnikov privileged the abundance of natural light and the clarity of colours. Melnikov thought architecture was a “volumetric and spatial art” and disavowed the Constructivists’ “socially responsive” methods that rationalized the design process under a functionalist ideology.[3]
In addition, Melnikov was involved in the development of a new building typology, the workers’ clubs, which furthered the Soviet government’s will to promote a collective ideal. A far cry from the Tsarist era, clubs no longer hosted the elite, but the masses of society. Led by trade-union or political organizations, they offered creative activities and allowed people of any age to rest and get away from the busy factories and the discomfort of overcrowded homes. Workers’ clubs also implemented the idea of a new social and collective order, which Constructivist painter and designer El Lissitsky thought politically wise: “Depending on the prevalent social order, [Buildings designed to serve all of society] have usually been of either a religious or a governmental character: the Church and the Palace. These were the power sources of the old order. Their power can only be transcended by establishing new power sources belonging to our new order.”[4]
Melnikov was the first to find a design solution that would adapt to the new functions and social needs of the workers’ clubs. Before him, the first workers’ club heavily referred to theater or opera buildings, featuring rococo stages, boxes, orchestras, dress circles, superfluous lobbies and extravagant materials.[5] Although Melnikov designed his workers’ club with a central auditorium similar to traditional cultural centers, he understood the growing need for flexibility. The stage could be used by different groups of amateurs, for different sizes of audience and types of production. Melnikov’s club for the Kauchuk factory (1929) was equipped with moving partitions to delimit smaller or larger spaces depending on the occasion. This was a persistent concept throughout Melnikov’s work on workers’ clubs. At the well-known Rusakov Workers’ Club (1929) the auditoria could “be transformed for 350, 450, 550, 775, 1000 or 1200 people.”[6]
Publishers interested in Denis Esakov’s planned photobook can contact him here.
References:
his project is located in a quiet neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia and is situated on a corner lot. The lot is also wider than the typical Vancouver lot.
The building addresses its long public frontage with a punctuated white brick facade. The brick is handled two ways on this facade. It forms a strong base with planes that extend into the landscape defining entries and outdoor spaces. The upper brick plane floats above delicate corner glazed windows, defining the upper deck and adding visual tension. The planes fly past the dark cedar walls, and impart movement to the facade that we felt was appropriate for its corner lot setting.
The interior is filled with light, and the owner wanted to feel the full width of the lot on the main floor. The plan is very open, and very little cabinetry goes to the ceiling. The expansiveness is reinforced by the large floor opening at the stair, which features a bamboo stand emanating from the lower floor. The punctuated openings in the white brick wall frame views to the west, and east light is brought in from sideyard windows centered around the stair and bamboo garden. The stair rail is solid, giving the bamboo a neutral backdrop and adding to the gallery-like feel.
The interior material palette is deliberately simple, and timeless. Wide plank oak flooring is contrasted with darker walnut cabinetry and panelling throughout, which in turn is set off by simple and elegant white tile and counter tops.
Paris architecture office Dorell Ghotmeh Tane has created a new home for the Estonian National Museum – a 350-metre-long sloping glass building that rises from the runway of a former Soviet airbase near the city of Tartu (+ slideshow). (more…)
NeoCon 2016: London studio PearsonLloyd has added to its collection of office furniture designed for the open-plan workplace as part of its partnership with Teknion (+ slideshow). (more…)
See the latest from our new and improved recruitment site Dezeen Jobs, including positions with Studio Link-Arc, David Chipperfield Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, which recently revealed designs for a space-saving vertical framed bamboo farm (pictured). This is also the last chance to apply for roles with NBBJ, Heatherwick Studio, Lee Broom and more… (more…)
Purcell has been announced as the winner of the St Mary Redcliffe Design Competition, organized by Malcolm Reading. The competition sought a design which successfully reconciled the preservation of the building in its historical form with the necessary expansion to accommodate growing programmatic requirements.
The two-stage competition drew initial submissions from 53 practices, both local and international. Of these, Eric Parry Architects, Carmody Groarke, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, dRMM and Purcell were invited to submit concept designs, all of which can be viewed here. Purcell’s winning design uses two main axes to “stitch” the church into its neighborhood and is described by Malcolm Reading as showing “the deepest understanding of the site and context and the opportunity at St Mary Redcliffe.”
St Mary Redcliffe, a church grand enough to rival European cathedrals, has provided a place of Christian worship at the heart of Redcliffe for almost 900 years. Its significance as a masterpiece of gothic architecture is undeniable, and it attracts tens of thousands of visitors per year. The building’s eminence brings with it a series of programmatic strains, as medieval plans no longer provide space for the facilities needed. The body of the church, with a distinctive cruciform floor plan, operates as one large space disallowing activities outside of worship and welcome. The church staff are without auxiliary space to carry out community or missionary activities, and are relegated to the parish offices and church undercroft. Access throughout the precinct is limited, with staircases acting as the main circulatory elements.
While these elements have held their function in the past, they are not enabling the church to operate at its fullest capacity now. Therefore, rather than focusing solely on historical restoration, Rev. Dan Tyndall outlined that the successful scheme should “help us both tell our story and shape it,” as “valuing our heritage is only part of our present mission.” This mission centers around the expansion of facilities to create a more inclusive community centre.
The competition was the result of 12 years of detailed studies by the management team. The new centre was to include administrative and support spaces, exhibition spaces, a café, a shop, a meeting hall, and a new community centre, while amending accessibility to all existing amenities with a step-free circulation approach.
Purcell’s scheme responds to this vision with what the architect describes as “a ‘stitch’ of interconnected buildings, [which] re-establishes the church’s medieval enclosure and creates a new, permeable edge to the church grounds that will improve public access.” The new buildings respect the inimitable gothic architecture, subtly playing up to existing design elements by creating a new “red cliff” of structures to mirror the building’s namesake. Senior Architect Dan Talkes said: “For the church, this project represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to repair the fault lines that exist in Redcliffe’s urban fabric and, in doing so, to position the church at the physical, spiritual and social heart of the city.”
The site is positioned at the epicenter of the Redcliffe Neighbourhood Development Area, with each of its adjacent neighborhoods due for regeneration within the next decade. Purcell’s scheme, which aims “to position St Mary Redcliffe as the centrepiece of wider regeneration,” aligns its core goals with those of the Redcliffe Neighbourhood Development Forum, a collective guiding the regeneration of greater Redcliffe. Purcell’s design focused on urban integration and the activation of existing assets in the community.
Two main axes cut through the precinct and link up to existing streets, creating a new urban village. Rev. Dan Tyndall also noted that a “particular strength was the dispersal of accommodation across three locations, helping to tie the disparate northern and southern parts of Redcliffe together.”
Learn more, here.
