A “forest” of sweet gum trees grows through openings in the concrete slabs of this house in Morelia, Mexico, by Roof Arquitectos, providing an alternative to a central courtyard (+ movie). (more…)
The Islington Council, in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects, is hosting a design competition for the new Finsbury Leisure Centre on the Bunhill ward site in south Islington, London. Five firms — Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Grimshaw, Hawkins\Brown, Pollard Thomas Edwards, and Henley Halebrown Rorrison — have been shortlisted to present their proposals to the public.
The proposals include designs for the new Leisure Centre, council homes, facilities for the community, and a public space. The shortlisted designs have been kept anonymous and are on display at the Finsbury Library for residents to view and comment on.
Once a winner has been chosen, the community can further critique the design before a planning application is submitted.
“This is an exciting and ambitious project to build much-needed new council homes and a new leisure centre for local people. We’d like local residents to see the initial design ideas and give us their views. We welcome all comments, and there will be other chances for residents to help influence the final design at a later stage,” said Janet Burgess, Islington Council’s executive member for health and wellbeing, in a press release.
The five proposals are on display until May 23, 2016.
The Swedish exhibition, “The Forests of Venice,” has been selected as a Collateral Event for the 2016 Venice Biennale. Initiated by Kjellander + Sjöberg and Folkhem; and curated by Jan Åman, the exhibit highlights wood as a sustainable material, while looking at “the interaction between nature and the man-made human habitat in order to respond to climate change and limited resources.”
The exhibit examines Venice’s success as a hybrid between city and nature. As a geographically exposed coastal city, Venice demonstrates a unique symbiosis with nature. In a time when climate change and rising sea levels threaten coastal cities worldwide, the strategies of Venice – a city built on the foundations of ten million trees – are a key resource for solutions.
“The Forests of Venice” will be sited between the Venice Biennale’s two main exhibition venues – Giardini and Arsenale – in a greenhouse built in 1894. Exhibits will be located inside, and Kjellander + Sjöberg is creating an installation in solid timber in the adjacent garden.
Some of Sweden’s most prominent architectural practices have come together to examine Venice’s relationship between the urban and the natural. The seven selected practices are: Architects without Borders Sweden; Arrhov Frick; DinellJohansson; Horn.Uggla; In Praise of Shadows; Carmen Izquierdo; and Urbio, as well as the installation by Kjellander + Sjöberg.
From the architect. This house is located in an early 50´s residential neighborhood, more precisely at the western edge, in an area surrounded buy terraced houses, near the Restelo shopping street.
The main area of intervention was the rear part of the house, which was completely redrawn. Searching for a contrast with the main façade, we envisioned a fascia, opened by a series of windows and shutters resembling a pattern of traditional Portuguese tiles. This pattern works like a skin that filters the sun light and also protects the house from intruders.
In order to give the top floor more habitable space, we created a mansard roof with three openings.
At the ground level we transformed the ground floor in one unique living area, joining together the entrance, the living room and the kitchen. A white volume coated with grate lines, disguises an area of a closet, social toilet and storage. This central core also performs a separation within spaces.
The staircase between the ground floor and the first floor are leaning on the left side of the entire volume. This was made in order to ensure an optimized living area and also a central passage to the first floor.
We planned for the first floor the private area, where the rooms are located, including a suite. To make this last request possible, with the areas we had, we placed a lavatory in the bed space that also worked as a sideboard. As for the shower cabin and the toilet, we merged them behind a glass wall, diluting the limits of the space, giving us a feeling of a much greater space.
For the attic we idealized the mansard roof to give us the possibility of more livable area. With great view to the garden, is a bed room, a toilet and an office.
Golden boxes fronted by balconies make up the exterior of this student housing block in Paris by Hamonic+Masson & Associés, which also features a secret garden and nesting areas for birds (+ slideshow). (more…)
From the architect. The “Vegas Altas” Center grows in an ambiguous peripheral location, in a land that is both urban and agricultural. Occupying the first or last crop field. The architectural proposal is intended to highlight this timeless condition of building belonging to the “Vega” as a free-standing building, floating in the countryside like a giant bale of straw with a flat horizon.
On one hand, it is a building that hides its status growing underground. The program is drawn on a half-buried ring that adapts to the terrain and to the boundaries of the plot, but hides his condition hiding to visitors. On the other hand, a cubic volume rises categorically and boldness. The only building perceived above ground, appropriate for both the visibility and the representability required, homes the large volume needed to absorb the magnitude of the stage box. The building has 2 halls for 800 and 275 spectators. They can be used either at the same time or independently, flexibly adapted to the nature of the event.
It reinforces its urban character, iconic, with a platonic geometry of a perfect cube, but in turn loses its built character as it is a field sown of strips of vegetation and its surface is ripped with skylights over the underground spaces. The building gives ample public space to the town with a green cover over most of the program. The proposal extends like a large park and a square with a sloped ground serving to create an access to the building and to perform as an alternative outdoor auditorium.
The entrance is a polyvalent space in fluid connection with the outside. Its can be used for multiple purposes. An expanded liquid and continuous public space with the auditoriums at its ends, which bind on the opposite side by the area of services and facilities serving backstage, closing a ring under the ground serving both auditoriums. The building has a high thermal inertia through the concrete walls and green cover to maintain a constant comfortable temperature in winter and summer.
There is a material ambiguity in the general configuration of the building, the soil of the cover, the tone of the concrete and the ropes of the facades mimic the natural environment. However, its underground and watery interior is defined by a more artificial freshness. The exhibition space has a white, tense fabric, which extends the space reflecting an unreal environment. Auditoriums are made with green color polycarbonate that by the effect of indirect lighting becomes a water world without a precise dimension.
The building adheres to the climatic conditions of the environment without losing sight of its economy. Brought with low power consumption and easy maintenance. The performance adapts effectively to the austerity of the current economy, with special attention to construction to meet the tight consistency with existing budget and the needs of the extensive requested program. It is a silent object that aims to go unnoticed, although also is a lighthouse in the sea of the Extremadura’s field.
House in Zakynthos is a private home located in Ammoudi, Greece. The 2,960-square-foot home was designed by Katerina Valsamaki Architects in 2015. House in Zakynthos by Katerina Valsamaki Architects: “Ammoudi House In Zakynthos: The house is located in the northeast corner of the Island of Zakynthos, in the summer village Ammoudi that means sandy beach and it is named after the small beach in front of the site. The house..
Since its first version in 2011, the Moscow Urban Forum has become an important international platform devoted to the development of megacities, and improvement of the quality of life of urban residents in the world, Moscow and Russia. Over the years, it has developed into a major international project that brings together the people who come up with ideas to improve the quality of urban space, and the people who implement these ideas: mayors, politicians, urbanists, and architects from all over the world.
The topic of the 2016 Forum is “Fast-Growing Megacities: Technologies for Dynamic Development.” Why is it so important to discuss growth and development of megacities at this time? What are the rules that determine their existence?
Not every large city can become a megacity. A city may absorb its surrounding areas, but these areas may continue to exist in accordance with their own rules, never merging into a single system with the city. Megacities of the 21st century do not just offer more space in which to work and live. They determine the mindset of the people who live there, expand the boundaries of what’s possible, and offer a variety of options for personal fulfillment. They dictate the rules of the game for all other urban settlements and set the trends in the development of modern urbanism.
We have about 40 successful megacities in the world, and there are cities that have a good chance of being added to this list. The experts who will gather at the Moscow Urban Forum 2016 will discuss the challenges that governments and inhabitants of megacities are facing; mayors and urbanists of leading capital cities will share their experience of dealing with challenges. Here are the core items of the agenda:
The session speakers will be city mayors and other representatives of the authorities of cities of the world, heads of international companies, successful business people and leading urbanism experts, ie all the people who truly effect change in the world and whose work can be seen by citizens every day.
Forum: Day one – Prospects
The program of the first day is called “Cities In the Age of Technological Revolution.” Throughout the day, the seven halls of Manege Central Exhibition Hall and the briefing zone will host sessions devoted to a wide variety of issues:
The day’s program includes plenary sessions, involving mayors and hi-tech celebrities, as well as discussions, presentations, briefings and workshops on key technology trends.
Forum: Day two – Practices
The second day of the Forum will be entitled “Cities And Megaprojects. Cities as Megaprojects” and will be dedicated to specific examples which are already implemented in the megacities of the world. We would like to tell you not only about the impressive future of megacities, but also about the projects that are being implemented right now and which we will be able to contemplate in the near future:
The conference participants will attend a plenary session with the involvement of M.Sh. Khusnullin, authors and builders of the most significant innovations, presentations of sport, transport and real estate megaprojects and discuss the key concepts for Moscow and other world capitals.
Format
After each Forum, visitors and guests submit feedback and suggestions. In particular, one of the most common has been that it would be nice to have more sessions, but that they shouldn’t be too long. Therefore, at the 2016 Forum, sessions will last 30-45 minutes. Presentations by speakers will be shorter, and the range of topics will be wider. To keep up with the times, Forum guests will deliver short speeches in TED format. In addition, this year the event will feature more workshops, presentations and lectures. Many Forum guests will have the opportunity to participate in the debates and present their views on urbanism issues.
In 2016, there will be numerous areas for informal discussion at the event.
Special Events
When megacities are discussed, the first thing people think about is something global and certainly futuristic. This is why we have prepared two large-scale special projects: A Summit of Global Mega Projects Organisers and The Urban Futurism Conference.
The first project will attract those who make decisions related to Russia’s hosting of major international events such as the Olympics. The speakers will discuss the status of ongoing projects (such as the FIFA World Cup to be held in 2018).
The second day will feature a conference and exhibition of the most daring mega projects of our time, organized in cooperation with the organizing committee of the Venice Architecture Biennale. Examples of the projects of the future include Hyperloop (conversion of Central Park in New York), Zeekracht energy infrastructure, competition for the project of settlement on Mars, and many others.
Festival
This year, the Moscow Urban Forum festival, which has become popular with the people of Moscow, will open on the same day as the Forum, on June 30th. The festival venue will not be limited to the Manege building: events will be held at various venues in Moscow — in the streets, in parks, at VDNKh Exhibition Centre, in Dostoevsky Library, in Strelka Creative Space and many other places.
As part of the festival programme, all participants are invited to exhibitions, lectures, workshops, film screenings and other activities that are sure to interest and inspire. The map and schedule of the events will be available at special stands in Manege.
From the architect. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March 2014, and rapidly became the deadliest occurrence of the virus since it discovery in 1976. Already a country with severe economic and social challenges, recovering from over a decade of civil war, the Ebola epidemic has been yet a further blow to its development and growth. Yet, for one community in the country’s eastern province, the opening of the new Swawou School for Girls offers hope and inspiration to a remarkable group of young women.
Two years ago, in February 2014, Orkidstudio broke ground on a new girls’ school in Kenema, in the eastern region of the country, employing as many as seventy men and women from the local community each day. The Swawou Foundation sought to provide extensive new learning facilities for up to 120 young girls from the local area. First set up in 2009 by Ahmed Jaward and Kirsty Wood, it was the only school around that didn’t allow corporal punishment, and is producing young girls with confidence and intelligence unparalleled elsewhere. The building was voted the ‘best school in Sierra Leone’ on a national radio station before it even had a roof on.
Yet, just four weeks from completion, and with the final roof sheets still uninstalled, progress was brought to a halt and site closed as the first confirmed cases of the Ebola virus hit the region. Even then, misguided rumours of witchcraft, curses and political playmaking were in circulation. This period was characterised by mixed feelings of fear and confusion, nobody really knew how to protect themselves let alone understood what was going on. Sierra Leone’s last horror, the civil war which erupted in 1991 and lasted some eleven years, was still a recent memory for many of its people and despite continued political corruption and crime, the country was at peace and trying hard to better itself. Already one of the world’s poorest nations, Sierra Leone is now faced with further social and economic suffering as a direct result of Ebola.
The number of recorded deaths exceeded 11,000 across West Africa before the region was declared Ebola free. Yet, what role can architecture play in the aftermath of such a crisis? Architects have often found a clear cause for intervention when faced with natural or manmade disasters, helping rebuild fallen towns and cities or offering up solutions to populations displaced and without shelter. However, when the disaster itself is formless, an invisible threat of devastating proportions, is there any role at all that architecture can play?
The Ebola epidemic may not have torn down buildings or left people without a home, yet the extent of social and economic reconciliation that it has left in its wake is vast. In January 2016 work resumed on the school building which had become badly overgrown with weeds and long grasses. Following many new challenges and difficulties, a building that had stood neglected and forlorn for two years now stands proud and gleaming in the west African sun. It’s a long way ahead to get this wonderful country fully back on its feet and striding forwards, and further still to transforming its global image, however, in this case a new building has opened its doors to a cohort of excited young school students, offering new jobs to the local community, and might just stand for something far more than the materials it’s built from.
About The Swawou Foundation
The Swawou Layout Community Primary School for Girls was set up in 2009 to offer a free primary education to girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. The school is located in an area called Swawou Layout in Kenema town, eastern Sierra Leone. All of the girls reside within the local community with their parents, guardians or other family members. The Swawou School Foundation strives to assist the school in achieving its goals and ambitions through fundraising and support. www.swawou.org
