Courtesy of Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes

As part of ArchDaily’s coverage of the 2016 Venice Biennale, we are presenting a series of articles written by the curators of the exhibitions and installations on show.

Against the tide presents the efforts of a generation of young architects who have conceived, designed, and constructed works of architecture, while also arranging their financial and contractual aspects as part of the requirements for their professional degree in architecture. All they have in common is that they belong to the Central Valley of Chile, where they have returned following their academic training to contribute to their communities, creating architectural projects which connect to a set of places where the region’s campesinos and their families can live and work.

These architectural projects have been erected with minimal resources, with the residues of agricultural processes and with readily available local materials, contributing value and inserting the territory into a global context through a regional ―but not a costumbrist― approach.

© Andrea Avezzù / Cortesía de La Biennale di Venezia

Out of this rural landscape and environment, in a state of constant transformation due to agricultural activity and urban development, there emerges a series of pavilions, rest stops, viewpoints, lunch shelters, and squares, or simply places for shade and social encounter, ephemeral or permanent, explicit or abstract.

© Andrea Avezzù / Cortesía de La Biennale di Venezia

Against the tide speaks of a contrary direction that things can take. This exhibition moves against the current of those urban battles ―perhaps more global in scope― waged to improve the quality of our built environment. It puts the accent rather on the customs and landscapes of the rural world, fields and forests, helping through architecture to improve the everyday quality of life of its people.

© Andrea Avezzù / Cortesía de La Biennale di Venezia

Curators: Juan Román, José Luis Uribe

Commissioner: Cristóbal Molina (National Council of Culture and the Arts of Chile)
Exhibitors: Felipe Aranda, Ximena Cáceres, Claudio Castillo, Ximena Céspedes, Gabriel Garrido, Carolina Guerra, Juan Francisco Inostroza, Yasna Monsalve, Felipe Muñoz, Daniel Prieto, Javier Rodríguez, Jonnattan Silva, Carolina Solís, Tanya Vera, Cesar Verdugo

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Beatriz Colomina, professor of architecture at Princeton University, gave an interview to Architect Magazine on the current exhibition of her thesis, “Playboy Architecture 1953-1979”, at the Elmhurst Museum in Chicago. Her provocative interest on the correlation between Playboy and architecture, began nearly thirty years ago with her exploration on the role of gender in architecture by Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier. From there, she began to see numerous parallels between Playboy and the design world. 

Since the beginning of production of Playboy, the magazine has featured works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Bucky Fuller, and Mies van der Rohe, to name a few. “Going through them (Playboy magazines), we realized what no one seems to have realized before, that they were full of architecture and design from the very beginning,” Colomina told Architect Magazine. Her research speculates how Playboy was able to present architecture in such a way that it actually, in turn, influenced modern design.

Check out the interview by Architect Magazine, here.

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© Andrey Avdeenko

• Architects: Drozdov&Partners
• Location: Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine
• Area: 823.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Andrey Avdeenko

• Architects: Sergey Vlasov, Oleg Drozdov, Vyacheslav Zhemir, Ekaterina Yolkina, Sergey Kostyanoy, Aleksander Pominchuk, Timofey Ulanchenko

Plan

© Andrey Avdeenko

From the architect. The house is located on a clearing inside an oak-tree forest that is homogenous in its structure. Much in the same way as flat steppe, the homogenous dendrology of the forest is far from being a simple setting for developing a scenario. Therefore, as long as we define the forest as an “occupied” place, we introduce the empty space of the peristyle as an “antithesis” to it.

© Andrey Avdeenko

Under the influence of some centrifugal force, all the elements of the estate are exposed to the forest with their outer contour. The inner courtyard unites and brings together all the functional volumes of the house (living room, kitchen, utility rooms, gym). Typologically, the house is close to the traditional farmstead in the Carpathians.

© Andrey Avdeenko

Plan

The forest manifests itself in two images. On the one hand, it is the forest which approaches the house, and on the other hand – it is the paradoxical perception of the forest from within the peristyle. This perception is further emphasized by the vertical apertures of the gallery that echo the tree trunks.

© Andrey Avdeenko

Following the principle of the Medici palace in Florence, there is a direct correlation between the rank of the premises and their physical parameters, such as area and height. All the premises are arranged as a flexible sequence of interflowing spaces, starting from the parking space and going as far as the open terrace with a swimming pool. The peristyle fits into this chain of premises and acts as an important intermediary between them, articulating all the major directions. The rhythmic colonnade of the peristyle enters the house enhancing the feeling of transit movement. The same principle is maintained on a lower scale due to partition walls, furniture and other elements.

© Andrey Avdeenko

The landscape shows two opposite tendencies: emphasizing the natural surroundings and introducing utterly man-made agricultural elements.

© Andrey Avdeenko

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© Felix Gerlach

• Architects: Tengbom
• Location: Stockholm, Sweden
• Team: Mark Humphreys, Johan Cederlöf and Karin Löfgren
• Client: Stockholm City Real Estate Department
• Area: 1970.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Felix Gerlach

© Felix Gerlach

Plan

Östermalm’s Square was home to a thriving market trade until the municipality banned the sale of fresh produce outdoors in order to reduce health risks. In 1888 market trade moved in to the newly completed Market Hall on an adjacent site and the square lost its original function. With the erection of a temporary Market Hall directly on the square we are able to contemplate an alternative urban reality that could have been the result of a decision to retain the market’s central location in this busy thorough fare.

© Felix Gerlach

Elevation

The old Market Hall is in desperate need of modernizing and during the period of its refurbishment (also carried out by Tenbom) there was a need to find a temporary home for the market’s traders in the local area, to retain their clientele. In lack of suitable spaces, the municipality decided on a temporary solution smack bang on Östermalm’s Square. In order to be able to house all the traders and the associated functions the building had to occupy the entire open area of the square (1970 sqm).

© Felix Gerlach

It’s quite a remarkable and historic situation which we’re proud and happy to be part of.
From Stockholm city’s perspective it was important to turn the temporary loss of urban space into a positive addition to the urban fabric. We did this by applying considerable care to the design of the building. It required a sense of quality suitable to the local context and the historic Market Hall while using light weight, cost efficient and sustainable materials befitting the temporary nature of the building.

© Felix Gerlach

The temporary building’s facade consists of a lower band clad in vertical untreated pine battens of varying size mounted on plywood sheets. In the South West corner of the building and along the Eastern facade the wooden wall gives way to glazing, providing views into the Market Hall and views out for restaurant diners. The upper section of the façade is completely clad in a modular system of translucent multiwall polycarbonate sheeting, providing daylight during daytime and lights up during nighttime. The large scale structure is designed and built with a modular mounting system of steel brackets that enables quick erection and dismantling with the possibility for subsequent reuse and an alternative function at another location.

© Felix Gerlach

Plan

Market stalls, restaurants and storage are located on the ground floor; while kitchens and technical installations are located on the two mezzanines that stretch along the Northern and Southern facades. The market stalls are situated along wide, straight thoroughfares and the main entrance faces that of the old market hall on the edge of the square. With an entrance strategically located on each of the building’s four facades, the existing flow of pedestrian traffic is able continue across the square through the Market Hall during opening hours.

© Felix Gerlach

The goal has been to create an attractive temporary addition to the heart of Östermalm that has a positive effect on its surroundings day and night. A transient event in Stockholm’s urban history that will generate a strong flow of visitors to Östermalm and build upon the internationally renowned reputation of the historic Market Hall.

© Felix Gerlach

Longer opening hours in the temporary hall has brought the area new life during evenings, as well as a new clientele, without excluding or losing the patrons. A local newspaper recently reported that business actually is going better in the temporary hall, compared to the old. As architect’s we’re proud and happy to be able to show how good architecture pays off, both to the city, it’s inhabitants and to the market’s traders.   

Section

Elevation

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