“Architecture is about giving form to the places where we live. It is not more complicated than that, but also not easier than that.” – Alejandro Aravena
On the first day of the vernissage 15th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, ArchDaily is pleased to show you a preview of the exhibitions and installations that were hand selected by Alejandro Aravena and his firm Elemental. Separate from (but in dialogue with) the National Pavilions, “Reporting From the Front” celebrates work that “address[es] a problem that matters and for which quality architecture made a difference.”
In an exhibition whose aim is to share the “success stories” where architecture is making a difference, Alejandro Aravena has convened offices and practitioners from across the globe to show—”in the simplest possible terms (without trivializing)”—projects that demonstrate innovation, resolve and quality problem-solving abilities.
The “Reporting from the Front” exhibition is spread over two sites: the Padiglione Centrale in the Giardini and the Arsenale. Today we are bringing you a first look at the projects exhibited in the Arsenale, along with an exclusive interview conducted with our partners PLANE—SITE.
“Our curatorial proposal is twofold: on the one hand we would like to widen the range of issues to which architecture is expected to respond, adding explicitly to the cultural and artistic dimensions that already belong to our scope, those that are on the social, political, economic, and environmental end of the spectrum. On the other hand, we would like to highlight the fact that architecture is called on to respond to more than one dimension at a time, integrating a variety of fields instead of choosing one or another.”
From the architect. All housing, but student housing especially, benefits from a network of figural and easy to use spaces and circulation to make a sense of place and connection. The site redesign captured the opportunity created by emergency vehicle access to make a “clearing” with a clearly articulated esplanade connecting this site to the larger campus. The new commons straddles this esplanade with gathering spaces. Acknowledging the difficult soil condition, the commons cantilevers more than 30’ over this poor soil making indoor spaces above and outdoor spaces below. The newly reconfigured site now emphasizes community through a multitude of areas that provide chance encounters which are so important to student life.
SITE CONDITIONS: The 2.8 acre site sits in the north western corner of the UCLA campus along De Neve Drive. The eastern third of the site was found to have more than 60’ of undocumented and unsuitable soil. Additionally, the existing complex did not provide adequate emergency vehicle access and suffered from a “placelessness” that discouraged connection and community. The site did, however, have a dense canopy of trees.
PROGRAM: 96 two bedroom suites were stripped to the studs and rebuilt. A meager common building was demolished and replaced with a new 2story building that includes gathering spaces, study lounges and offices.
Diagram
Diagram
MATERIALITY: Renovated buildings were reclad in a mix of cement board sidings and a composite fiber reinforced hybrid cladding called “Resysta”. Stairs and bridges, as the most visible and active parts of the circulation system, have stainless steel incisions with glass rails and back-lit acrylic panels. The neutral palette of the renovated building’s envelope is contrasted with lighter and brighter “insides”.
The Commons is an expressed steel frame structure with a hovering weathering steel box over edge to edge glazing enclosures at the ground level. The undersides are clad in reclaimed Douglas Fir spaced to allow for lights and mechanical devices. The weathering steel box pivots on a brick clad service bar containing the restroom, mechanical spaces and the laundry room. Its “vee“ shape directs all storm water down a rain chain into an integrated biofiltration basin. Expressive stairs encourage walking up instead of using the elevator. The blank upper level wall overlooking the plaza is designed for community movie nights on the plaza. Students have also started using it to project gaming tournaments.
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Courtesy of CEBRA (Architecture) & SLA (Landscape)
CEBRA, in collaboration with landscape architect SLA, has designed Veris International School for The Sustainable City in Dubai. In opposition to hot-climate educational environments that are often large, air-conditioned structures, CEBRA’s vision for The Sustainable City proposes a permeability between outdoor and indoor learning environments, utilizing both in equal measure.
Courtesy of CEBRA (Architecture) & SLA (Landscape)
“We had to rethink the school in our design. Why not take advantage of the warm climate, move many of the functions of the school away from artificial air-conditioned rooms, and out in a naturally ventilated, cooled environment?” posits Mikkel Hallundbæk Schlesinger, architect and head of CEBRA’s Abu Dhabi office. “[We’ve] worked extensively with [educational] architecture since we established the office in 2001, but this is the first time [we’ve designed] a school, in which the climate and vegetation constitute active design parameters.”
Courtesy of CEBRA (Architecture) & SLA (Landscape)
The greenery of The Sustainable City continues into the school and up the building’s facade, and students will actively contribute to this dialogue by maintaining gardens for vegetables and flowers. The City project is being developed by Diamond Developers and consists of townhouses and courtyard villas inspired by Dubai’s historic “Bastakyia” district, as well as a hotel and innovation center. Living up to its name, the City’s energy will come from solar cells and all wastewater will be treated and reused.
Courtesy of CEBRA (Architecture) & SLA (Landscape)
Once completed, Veris International School will serve 1000 students age 3-12.
Building Company: SAS STCE (Gros Œuvre) , BECI SA (Etanchéité), Espace Menuiserie (Menuiserie Extérieure), Metallerie Grillot (Métallerie), SAS Klein (Plomberie-Chauffage-Ventilation), SAS STCE (Electricité), , Menuiserie Nicolardot (Menuiseries intérieures), SARL Noireaut (Cloison doublage ), SARL Pascual (Rvts sols durs et souples), AUDAX- basic system (Parquet ), Bonglet SA (Peinture), SNEL(VRD), VDS Paysages (Espaces verts)
Cost: 1 895 000 €
Courtesy of Ateliers O-S Architectes
From the architect. The project is a creation of 20 housing lots located in Dijon, including 14 flats and 6 town houses. It consists of a succession of small buildings and privates homes with surrounding fences and open spaces looking into interior gardens
Courtesy of Ateliers O-S Architectes
This urban rhythm is strengthened by the recurrent use of stone. The general atmosphere of the street is strongly marked by the series of these mineral textures and the presence of abundant vegetation.
Plan 1
The implementation of the project creates a transition between the apartment building and the surrounding storied house. The 4-storey building is 14m wide along the main street and presents a succession of 2-storey houses inside the plot.
Courtesy of Ateliers O-S Architectes
The project is divided into two distinctive entities: the first located along the street includes 14 flats in a collective housing building of 4 floors. In all the sizes of housing, each at opens onto its surrounding environment and has multiple orientations (at least two). The stairwell has natural light with openings onto the façade.
Section
The second part of the project consists of 6 terrace townhouses organized onto 2 floors. Each house has a south-west facing garden.
Courtesy of Ateliers O-S Architectes
We’ve proposed a façade building made of textured precast white concrete which offers a texture and color similar to the neighboring surrounding walls. On the upper floors, the variation of concrete panels and openings form a simple and elegant pattern.
The façades are load-bearing walls, designed and controlled ahead to manage the feasibility, the cost, the deadline and the quality of the concrete.
Courtesy of Ateliers O-S Architectes
Program / Project Economy
The type of housing ranges from two-roomed apartments to ve- roomed apartments. The houses are
Courtesy of Ateliers O-S Architectes
This project has had a strong economic approach since the beginning. The prefabrication allowed us to offer high quality finishing touches at a low price, such as wooden windows and wooden floors for the communal areas. We also develop the project on BIM software, allowing us to design the concrete panels and anticipate their imbrication.
View
The gap between the building and the east limit of the site is a landscaped strip including the parking lots. The ground floor contains the common areas (lobby, bicycle store, local trash).
Courtesy of Ateliers O-S Architectes
Although at the beginning, the project met with a cool “Not In My Backyard” reception from the local population, since the completion it has been gradually accepted and welcomed.
The resignation itself was demanded* by Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber after Zaera-Polo was accused of plagiarizing parts of a text he produced for the “Elements of Architecture” exhibition curated by Rem Koolhaas at the 2014 Venice Biennale. From the start, Zaera-Polo has denied that his texts violate Princeton’s academic code of conduct, but nevertheless agreed to Eisgruber’s demand. In the documents leaked Tuesday, Zaera-Polo criticizes the actions taken by Princeton both before and since his resignation, arguing that they have damaged his reputation. He is thus suing them on four charges: “breach of contract,” “breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” “tortious interference with contract and prospective economic advantage,” and finally “trade libel.”
The story will undoubtedly receive a lot of attention, given that it involves a controversial dispute between an internationally renowned architect and a university with an international stature. But the real story behind the dispute is not about Alejandro Zaera-Polo’s academic conduct or Princeton’s handling of its staff contracts; instead, it has everything to do with our expected standards for architectural research.
The lawsuit—and in particular the last charge of trade libel—rests heavily on the the rumors of plagiarism that have been spread on internet forums by up to 20 unknown “John or Jane Does” that are listed among the defendants, in comments which the documents argue “could only have been made by a person associated with Princeton.” It also criticizes Princeton’s refusal to release information that might prevent the further spread of these rumors.
Central to the dispute is the text provided by Zaera-Polo for a book connected to the Venice Biennale, in which Zaera-Polo curated the “Facade” section of Rem Koolhaas’ central “Elements of Architecture” exhibition. Zaera-Polo was accused, allegedly by a group of Princeton students, of plagiarism related to the text. In response, he admitted to removing citations, but argued that the text was “polemic” rather than academic (as was clearly stated in the text’s introduction), and that therefore Princeton’s usual standards of academic conduct should not apply to the piece.**
What’s notable is that both parties essentially agree on what happened regarding the text; the disagreement is over what extent Princeton’s usual academic code of conduct should apply to a text that was intended to be non-academic. Critically, the decision to make the text non-academic was made to enable it to reach a broader audience. As Koolhaas stated in an email to defend Zaera Polo, “the point from the beginning was to make a publication accessible to any reader”—with another version of the text released later by a different publisher “in which we will have the opportunity to establish the traditional level of academic standard for all contributions,” according to Koolhaas.
While some might question whether omitting citations is really necessary in order to appeal to a wider audience, it’s worth remembering that this argument is being backed by Rem Koolhaas—a man that has made a career out of toeing the line between weighty theory and populist spectacle. If Rem Koolhaas says that omitting citations was necessary to reach a wider audience, then it’s a fair bet that that’s the truth.
This lawsuit, then, raises the question: what is the best way to construct a robust discourse around architectural research?
When it comes to academic research, the rigor applied to even the best architectural research pales in comparison to that applied in some other fields. Take for example the sciences: in order to publish research, authors must usually be accepted by a publication (in which the publisher’s reputation matters enormously), then go through multiple rounds of peer review and editing before publication. Once published, research might be subjected to a replication study to test the results of the original, and even then it may be regarded with skepticism until its conclusions can be understood in tandem with the other accumulated knowledge of the field in question. In principle, more academic rigor sounds like a fantastic idea, and is no doubt central to Princeton University’s code of academic conduct.
But despite all of the rigor applied to scientific studies, the sciences have a huge problem in communicating their research to a wider audience. Very, very few people other than scientists ever read actual scientific studies, and the media is littered with poor reporting that misunderstands or sensationalizes the findings of science. Believing everything in the media about scientific research into coffee, for example, could lead to an impression that, in the words of John Oliver, “coffee today is like God in the Old Testament: it will either save you or kill you depending on how much you believe in its magic powers.”
This lack of effective communication between the sciences and the public is a serious problem for the field, and has been blamed for things such as the public skepticism over global warming or the number of parents who choose not to vaccinate their children. At its worst, it engenders a complete distrust of science itself.
But while science can to an extent continue regardless of the public’s understanding of it, it could be argued that architecture is even more reliant on communicating its research to the public. Architecture is after all a cultural process, and it evolves in tandem with the cultures—in other words, the people—who will become its users and clients. If these people are ignorant of the wealth of research that supports architecture’s past and future evolution, then what hope is there that new architecture will reach its potential?
So, on one hand, more rigor in architectural research sounds like a fantastic idea; on the other, an attempt to make architectural research more accessible to non-architects is also a valiant goal. This lawsuit by Alejandro Zaera-Polo is an important opportunity for architects to establish where they set their priorities.
* Note: The claim that Zaera Polo’s resignation was “demanded” by Eisgruber is made in the court documents. Previous public statements instead claimed that his resignation was “requested.”
** In a statement, Princeton also retaliated that their actions were motivated not only by the alleged plagiarism but also “in large measure because of statements he made in writing that indicated he was unfamiliar with the University’s policies on plagiarism.” Zaera-Polo again responded, in a comment on an ArchDaily article, that while he had acknowledged unfamiliarity with the rules Princeton had referred to he also “questioned the applicability of these rules to the accused work.” These statements are included here for a complete summary of the two parties’ exchange, but have been excluded from the main text of this article in order to focus on what is (as implied by Princeton’s statement) at least a “small measure” of the motivation for Princeton’s actions: the alleged plagiarism itself.
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After a three-day event attracting over 1,000 visitors, the 2016 ARCHMARATHON came to a close, with the presentation of its annual awards. Now in its 3rd year, the Milan-based exchange awarded projects in ten different categories, as well as an overall winner, and a “crowd award” based on voting on the event’s website. The 42 presented projects were judged by the international jury, chaired by Luca Molinari and composed of internationally famous architects and critics such as Lucy Bullivant, William Menking, Wassim Naghi, Li Brian Zhang and Elie Haddad. See all 12 awarded projects after the break.
Seashore Library by Vector Architects. Image Courtesy of Vector Architects
Jury’s motivation: “A poetic balance between architecture and nature. A human refuge from the complexity of urban life.”
About a three hour drive from Beijing, the library is located inside a vacation compound along Bohai Bay. While Beijing has been experiencing massive growth in economy and city development, many have pointed out the issue of a drop in living environment. The design key point is focused on exploring the co-existing relationship of the space boundary, the movement of the human body, the shifting light ambience, the air ventilating through and the ocean view. If we slice through the building along the north-south long axis, we can see how each space elaborates itself with ocean distinctively. And the movement and memory of human body together choreographs a series of experience.
Jury’s motivation: “This project celebrates the complexity of marrying between the existing structure and the new spaces.”
The project addresses the whole complex, including the future of the Velarde Palace and the Casa Oviedo-Portal. The project contemplates raising an altogether new building within the urban complex. That is, the sequence of existing facades around is taken as a contextual condition, and these facades take on the role of an urban ‘backdrop’, unquestioned, against which to erect a new building with a facade of its own; a facade that reveals itself, is discerned, through naked, totally frameless openings. In the exterior it will be possible to complete a large luminous construction, glazed and full of reflections that will project outward and superimpose itself on urban history, giving the new Museum a bold but complex image.
Jury’s motivation: “It represents a valuable connector within the public environment of the University Campus.”
Located in the center of three separately defined campus zones at Case Western Reserve University the new university center contains student gathering spaces, dining facilities, meeting rooms, and offices for student organizations. The new building features three wings that are designed to facilitate the convergence of students from all three zones and serve as a connection point to tie the entire campus together.
Jury’s motivation: “A strong architecture form and a great spiritual quality to the different spaces.”
The open international competition for Våler church is one of the largest in Norway ever, with 239 proposals from 23 countries. The competitions winner proposal was finished in spring 2015. Våler is a small village along the Glomma River. The churchyard is one of the few planned areas of the town centre, and when the old 19th Century church burned down in 2009, people felt the loss very keenly. The buildings expression was generated as a direct response to the place, and organised around a quadrant with four oriels pointing north, south, east and west, as an analogy to the old cross-church.
The main story of the liturgy has become the narrative of the church: from fire to resurrection. The new church is placed on the existing processional axis, and clad in straight board of heartwood pine, reflecting the local forest landscape. Due to climate they slowly get darker before ending up going back to nature. Every fifty years the façade-wood will be renewed and the church will resurrect as new for every new-born generation.
The Foundry Social Justice Center by 00 Architecture. Image
Jury’s motivation: “A thoughtful adaption of an old factory extended with new facilities creating an affordable and socially welcoming ensemble”.
The Foundry is a landmark new home in Vauxhall, London, for voluntary and charitable organisations from the social justice and human rights sector. Created by the transformation of an early 20th Century shoe polish factory, it provides an accessible and collaborative base for these mission driven organisations. The open ground floor and external decks at upper levels encourage the local community to utilise the new facilities in partnership with the building users to develop a sense of shared ownership and mutual understanding. Spaces were also created to encourage serendipitous encounters at the tea points, widened corridors or free meeting spaces. Also embodying principles of environmental justice, the transformed building achieves EPC A-rating and Bream Excellent. This was done within an extremely tight budget of £1050/sqm.
Jury’s motivation: “A nomadic, temporary architecture which explores the unknown spaces of the city in a new way. A re-interpretation of the space for leisure”.
Priceless Milan is a temporary structure serving as a restaurant fitted out with an extremely flexible space that carefully adapts to the locations in which it is installed. Made out of a modular structure consisting of eight blocks assembled on site that are fully furnished and equipped with all the latest electrical appliances, the pavilion (150 m²), is constructed in a workshop with the distinctive feature of being easy to move around and assemble in a very short space of time.
Jury’s motivation: “It is like an adventure that eliminate all cliché of a private housing. Playful and updating the traditional local housing typology”.
In Saigon, there is a story about Van Duong Phu, a masterpiece of architecture, built by Mr. Vuong Hong Sen, a culturist, an academic, and a famous collector of antiques. Moreover, he also has a deep knowledge of southern Vietnam and wrote many books about Saigon. At the end of his life, he would have liked to dedicate his house as a museum in order to prevent the antiques from being stolen and introduce Saigon culture to visitors.
SOS Children's Village by Urko Sánchez Architects. Image
Jury’s motivation: “A highly, sensitive interpretation of Children’s Community needs and a project which adapts well to this particular context and tradition”.
Djibouti is located in the Horn of Africa, which suffers from persistent droughts and severe scarcities. We were approached by SOS Kinderdorf to design a residential compound of 15 houses where to run their family-strengthening programmes. We learnt about SOS systems, about the community where the project would take place, their nomadic traditions and the extreme climate of the region. We searched for traditional housing references in similar cultural and climatic environments and finally decided to design a medina with certain singularities: that it is a medina for children, with plenty of open spaces and with lots of vegetation.
Courtyard House Plugin by People's Architecture Office. Image
Jury’s motivation: “An ingenious system that not only solves the demographic issues but also inspires the whole new community life”.
The award-winning Courtyard House Plugin is essentially a house within a house. It is a prefabricated building system for inserting modern living conditions into dilapidated courtyard houses. This alternative approach to urban renewal does not require tearing down existing structures or relocating residents. Currently, over a dozen Courtyard House Plugins have been built with more under construction.
Jury’s motivation: “It shows a creative relationship between Architecture, Engineering and Urban Design”.
The competition-winning design for the replacement opening footbridge at Paddington Basin spans 20m across the Grand Union Canal at the heart of the new waterside Merchant Square development. The design concept is both simple and spectacular: a 3m wide cantilevering deck is hinged at its north end and is raised using hydraulic jacks with an action similar to that of a Japanese fan. The aim was to create an elegant, innovative design that utilised proven technologies, resulting in a structure that would have a significant impact on its locality.
Jury’s motivation: “This project uses infrastructure as a means to activate public spaces for the redevelopment of the whole community”.
The Luchtsingel threads estranged parts of the city of Rotterdam back together. The design is a long wooden bridge, which swings from a car park behind the Schieblock building towards the neighborhoods of Pompenburg, Hofbogen, and Delftse Poort. This creates a major route: about 1.5km, of which 350m is the wooden bridge. Different width staircases descend to specific ground-level areas, such as a playground, a bus stop, and a public building’s entrance. It is more than a structure; it is a new urban infrastructure.
The objective of the project is the construction of a new parking which gives service to the environment of the Maternity and Children’s Hospital and the Cancer Center of Galicia. The building is conceived as a large car container, which fits into the quarry excavation. This container consists of a base of stone gabion, sheltering the two lower floors, which sits as the foundation of the building. Above this rests a lightweight facade composed of vertical metal profiles, which are positioned at different angles to create a sense of movement.
From the architect. Studio Farris Architects transformed a small barn, part of a farm complex with several buildings, into an office space with meeting room, library, office desks and a resting/reading area.
The owner wanted to have a small office detached from his house so he would be able to work from home at times. The stable was no more in use so he decided to use it as his home-office.
The original stable, dating back to the early 1900s, was composed of several small rooms on two floors. With their renovation, the architects wanted to transform this fragmented space by enhancing the perception of the total form of the building. So they completely emptied it by demolishing the rooms and the first floor. Within this outer brick envelope, they created an inner one made out of concrete. A new “box” with a serene atmosphere was designed and inserted into the original volume. Also,this box-in-box system allows to improve energy efficiency and avoid any chemical reactions with sulphates in the ground and walls of the original farm.
In order to respond to the functional requirements from the client, the architects decided to design an autonomous furniture object that could divide the space without blocking views nor altering the perception of the whole volume.
Diagram
This object, made out of layers of stacked timber beams, transforms the space into a very functional office. The wooden beams top out to a small shared work area with two desks. A meeting area is created below with a view onto the landscape. The stacked beams become library, bookshelves, storage and resting and reading corners.
The beams were stacked in this particular way to create a staircase to climb to the upper workspace, and can easily reach the different bars on each level.
The original façade was restored and new openings were created, responding to programmatic needs. Extra windows and skylight take full advantage of natural daylight. A large sliding glass door opens up the interior to the outside.
