Interview: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reopens this month with a Snøhetta-designed extension to its original Mario Botta building. In this interview, Snøhetta partner Craig Dykers explains how he tried not to step on the toes of Botta’s Postmodern structure. (more…)
In this video, ArchDaily interviews MASS Design Group co-founder Alan Ricks, who describes the firm’s working process and how the practice, with offices in Boston and Kigali, Rwanda, is intent on improving people’s lives through architecture. The firm has established a fundamental process for creating structures, that according to Ricks “Have an obligation to catalyze and amplify the outcomes that are the core services delivered in our buildings.” Whether serving the fields of health, education, or housing, the firm’s modus operandi is public benefit. “[It’s] how we leverage the building process to expand the impact,” says Ricks. “We’ve taken to the calling that lo-fab, or locally fabricated, it doesn’t mean lo-tech and it doesn’t mean not pre-fab. It just means we’ve uncovered the available resources where we work and are leveraging them to deliver value.” With clinics in Haiti, primary schools in Rwanda, and proposals for library and hospital projects in the United States, MASS Design has proven its ability to act in the realm of public good. The firm has previously been lauded by New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman, was named one of the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices in 2013, and was the winner of both the Zumtobel Group Award and Curry Stone Design Prize in 2012. Watch the video for more about this entrepreneurial design practice that is redefining what it means to be local, sustainable, and most importantly, for the community.
TED Talk: How MASS Design Group Gave the Word “Architecture” a Meaning in Rwanda
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How to Balance Local Traditions and New Solutions in Public-Interest Design
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Three Projects That Transform Low-Tech Materials Into Innovative Design
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A collective of designers and artists in New York has proposed transforming a shipping barge into a verdant floating farm, with berry bushes, lime trees and swaths of lavender, among many other plants. (more…)
From the architect. Officially opened on 16 and 17 May in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, the Françoise Sagan Multimedia library covers 3.500 m2 of usable surface area over one site, the Clos Saint-Lazare, which alternately housed a leprosarium, a priory and a prison before becoming a hospital which was closed in 1998. The site is hidden from view, despite being steeped in history, and is little-known, even by Parisians.
The architects, Stéphane Bigoni and Antoine Mortemard, have successfully renovated the site without being hindered by its heavy past. They preferred to draw their inspiration from the Mediterranean-style covered cloisters for the creation of one of the best-equipped multimedia libraries of the capital, which boasts more than 100.000 documents. Only the façades and two stairways from the old structure were kept and renovated. For the rest, they emptied everything and added a metal structure “with the load-bearing capacity required for such a project, i.e. between 600 and 1.200 kg/m2, whereas he former structure could only support 150 kg/m2”, according to the architects.
Rounded off by an auditorium and exhibition hall, the immaculate reading rooms are sheltered behind a glazed curtain wall removed from the exposed interior of the arched openings that make up the stone façade. Here, nothing is in excess and the slightest detail is impeccably addressed. The only decorum is the curtains interspersed in the thickness of the loggias and the design of a garden planted with palm trees and featuring twisting paths. One way of highlighting the Mediterranean and even tropical feel of the site, a surprising haven of peace a stone’s throw from the Gare de l’Est train station. The downside ? The plans to create a roof terrace of 700 m2 on the building offering magnificent views of Paris where ultimately shelved, despite the designer’s insistence. A property potential which is once again topical, according to the architects.
Architects are famously cynical about the long hours and over-education required for what can be a thankless career. But in a recent study conducted by WalletHub, “2016’s Best & Worst Entry-Level Jobs”, recent grads and seasoned professionals alike may be surprised to find that “architect” is ranked 10th out of 109 evaluated professions. Read on to find out how they calculated their result.
The study’s assessment hinged on 11 key metrics outlined below:
Establishing that most job-market newcomers are seeking a career that combines a high starting salary with long term growth potential and increasing responsibility, architects scored 60.39 in WalletHub’s data set, trailing top-ranked engineers (score of 69.67) by less than 10 points. That being said, the study doesn’t appear to consider the debt that many architects graduate with, and it also doesn’t specify where this study was conducted. Also, though many of the top professions could be based in cities, architecture firms seem to hold affinities to urban environments above other careers, adding cost-of-living as a potential gouge to earnings. Nonetheless, the information should be reassuring to those deciding if they would like to pursue a career in architecture and also to the long term viability for the profession.
Sources for the Study: Data used to create these rankings were collected from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford, Indeed.com and Salary.com.
Main image via Shutterstock.com
“I always liked play as a form of learning; toys are often a prelude to serious ideas,” says Federico Babina about his latest series of illustrations, titled ARCHICARDS. “The game can also be a thought experiment. I’m interested in playing with architecture’s seriousness and illustration’s lightheartedness.”
Babina’s illustrations turn 12 of the architecture world’s most recognizable faces into card-game caricatures, accompanied by the designs and symbols that most characterize their design style. Whether it’s the dislocated planes of Mies van der Rohe (a Jack), Queen Zaha Hadid‘s jagged curves, or the modulor man that accompanies Le Corbusier – who is, of course, a king – Babina’s playing cards are loaded with design references. They might indeed have some educational value, but they are mostly, as Babina points out, for “serious fun.”
Read on to see the full set of 12 illustrations.
This is a chapel, or a small church, built in a particular house for particular people – the brotherhood of Instituto Missionário Pio Sociedade de São Paulo. The project brief is based on principles that don’t necessarily concur: it should be the central area for a house of many homes; a space for prayer and for communication; a place of intimacy as well as assembly.
The chapel, consecrated to Jesus Master, sits within Quinta Rainha dos Apóstolos, in Apelação, on the outskirts of Lisbon. This is a rural plot, overlooking a broad valley open to the river Tagus, where the Institute has been located since the 1970s. The existing complex includes a pair of long 4-storey blocks sitting on a ground-floor podium, originally used as a warehouse. This was the area chosen to locate the chapel, taking advantage of its central position in relation to the spaces where to live, to work, to welcome and to pray. The chapel therefore operates as the heart of the Institute, both physically and symbolically; it provides the link between members of the brotherhood and reaches the wider lay community through their publishing/ missionary activities.
The project reuses the existing building and aims to provide it with a new meaning; this is done through a process of austere and rigorous designing, which relies on the simplicity of volumes, natural lighting and inherent qualities of proposed materials. The concrete structure is retained, bare and imperfect but suitable nevertheless, and somehow up-lifted by the new context. The room is revealed as a whole and wide space, without artifice or excess: a backdrop for the liturgical fittings to enhance and impart with a sacred and theological sense.
Among those, the central altar stands out. This is built in solid timber, with no delineation of presbytery – a place for all, without hierarchies. In conjunction with the pulpit, this allows a wide range of layouts and different degrees of intimacy for liturgical celebrations: private celebrations with community brothers gathered around the altar with the garden behind (orientation north / south); regular celebrations with lay assembly (placed along the longitudinal axis with the celebrant facing west); and festive celebrations that fill the chapel (orientation north / south).
The Cross is designed as an integral part of the celebrations and the building. It is physically connected to the concrete structure through an interlocking joint, but can be disengaged to be carried in procession, thus marking the beginning and the end of celebrations.
The internal space is strongly marked by two joinery elements, both with clear liturgical function: the sacristy to the west side, which includes the confessional booth open to the garden, and the partition wall to the south side, which frames the depictions of Jesus Way of the Cross. This wall does not enclose the chapel completely: it allows for the room to be perceived as a whole, through glimpses of the corridor behind it providing connection between the existing buildings.
The external space to the north replicates the volume of the chapel. More than a mere garden, this area is designed as an extension to the praying space. Part of the whole through geometry and materiality, it adds water and vegetation to the simplicity of the set. Public access to the chapel is granted from the south, identified by a timber door with an engraved cross and a bell, both designed in line with the general principles of the project.
The brief required depictions of particular devotions of this brotherhood to be included. These were considered from the start as part of the design, instead of later additions. Original art work was executed in situ by Bartolomeu de Gusmão, on walls and joinery surfaces, creating an intense and global relationship between the space and the religious community. Together, the space and the elements that populate the space convey a clear and critical message to its users – reinforcing the sense of belonging and sharing that imbued the original commission.
Finnish designer Joanna Laajisto has combined mint-coloured corrugated metal wall panels with red-orange marble furniture inside this restaurant in Helsinki. (more…)
When ArchDaily published “Live on the Edge with OPA’s Casa Brutale” in July of last year, we expected it to be popular on our site, but few anticipated exactly how much attention the project would receive—enough to secure a position in the top 10 most read articles on the site in 2015. But what happened next was perhaps more astounding. By the end of the week, the project had been picked up by the gamut of non-architecture news outlets ranging from Slate to Yahoo to CNET to CNBC. For a few short days, it became difficult to traverse the wild expanses of the internet without a sighting of the project’s lead image, typically accompanied by a hyperbolic headline along the lines of “This Beautiful, Terrifying House is Literally Inside a Cliff.”
But despite the enormous traction, with seemingly impossible features like a clifftop, glass-bottomed swimming pool, the project still seemed to be destined for “paper architecture” status. Yet fast forward to today and the house has (incredibly) found a willing client, and is about to break ground on construction. How did this happen, and what takes architecture from viral sensation to real-life construction project?
Casa Brutale was conceptualized as an inverted Casa Malaparte, a tribute to Brutalism carved from the edge of a cliff; in the words of its designers, “an unclad statement on the simplicity and harmony of contemporary architecture.” According to OPA founding partner Laertis-Antonios Ando Vassiliou, the goal of Casa Brutale from its inception was to become a viral phenomenon:
“The whole project was designed for almost 4 months (March to July 2015) in order to “break the internet”. We wanted to create a sensation in every possible way and through this project to actually showcase our platform as this project describes fully our aesthetics and design philosophy.”
The term “break the internet” was famously made popular as the caption to a Paper Magazine cover featuring a voluptuously photoshopped Kim Kardashian which, not unlike Casa Brutale’s moneyshot image, features seemingly impossible structure and a physics-defying water feature. And break the internet it did—within two weeks, Casa Brutale had been featured on an array of news sites, inspiring comments more polarized than those on design blogs, including quotes such as “far more impressive than Falling Water.”
At this point, OPA recognized that taking the project from screen to cliff would require some significant engineering talent, and the firm contacted the Arup headquarters in London to see if they would be willing to consult on the house’s construction. Intrigued by the media attention and the bold scheme, Arup Amsterdam agreed to work with OPA on all the engineering required to put a house literally into a cliff, including Structural, MEP, Building Physics and Geotechnical services.
By August, OPA had even been contacted by an independent film studio that collaborates with a major global documentary channel, who asked to film the construction of Casa Brutale if and when they found a serious client. Since the project’s publication, OPA had received multiple emails “from developers, trust funds, potential clients and some scams that were all interested in realizing the project. We followed-up with all of them,” explains Ando Vassiliou. In the end they didn’t need to wait long—“one email read more serious and ambitious”—and by the end of October, their client had flown to Amsterdam to meet with OPA and decide on the site: the edge of a mountain in Lebanon at an elevation of over 1600 meters.
Truth be told, without the project’s viral reaction, Casa Brutale would likely never have seen the light of day; OPA had originally contacted several developers in Greece and was told that “they only collaborate with famous architects.” It was then that OPA chose to publish online, something Ando Vassiliou recognizes and advocates for other architects to take advantage of:
“Since we’ve succeeded so far, we would definitely encourage our colleagues to follow the same path: dream big, design big, publish big. We’ve been through some tough unemployment periods and we know for sure that the job safari is not the most creative task. By chasing the viral idea at least you sharpen your skills and strengthen your portfolio with interesting projects.”
Casa Brutale’s success has led to many new opportunities for OPA. They received invitations to two invited competitions, including a win for their design of the European Commission pavilion at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, and are currently working on additional projects in Lebanon, Tokyo and South Africa. They’ve also released images for the latest in their cliffside series, Lux Aeterna, a church whose front profile takes the shape of a cross. Time will tell if the building receives a similar treatment to Casa Brutale, or if the market for cliffside structures has, at least for the time being, reached saturation.
What is the takeaway from all of this? Clients and laypersons may hold more power over architecture than ever before. Viral architecture is not about the architect, it’s first and foremost about the clients, who seem to have recognized architecture’s mass potential as a marketing tool. This can manifest as promotional material for an event or institution, like the aforementioned Mobile World Congress 2016, or as a piece of swagger on the belt of the ultra-rich patron.
Everyone wants to be the one to go viral. With apps like Snapchat allowing people to post videos of their homes for anyone to see, the MTV Cribs experience is no longer reserved for pop culture celebrities (even as Cribs itself is being resurrected on Snapchat). It’s increasingly clear that the internet is “where the magic happens.” You can debate whether this is an affront to the artistic integrity of architecture, but for the aspiring firm looking to stand out from the crowd, there’s no better path to success than through the love of the people.
So for architects looking to garner a little self-promotion of their own, where does one begin? Let’s take a look at our case study. What was it exactly that made Casa Brutale into a viral phenomenon? The answer lies in how people use the internet: as viral memes travel from webpages to Pinterest boards to Instagram feeds, a complex project is boiled down into a single image. And with so much other content available, that lead image is often the only chance to grab a viewer’s attention. Looking closer at that image, you find 5 clear reasons why Casa Brutale may have succeed where others have failed:
1. Bold, Simple Concept
In the fast-paced world of internet browsing, there is a whole lot of competing information and little time for nuance. To stand out from the crowd, a project must look radically different and be easily understandable. This phenomenon can be seen in the diagrammatic architecture of firms like BIG, where every project comes with a predetermined icon and nickname. Casa Brutale is clear about its concept (house in a cliffside) and doesn’t distract from it with other imagery.
2. Fantastical, yet unspecific site
Casa Brutale can only be located on a cliffside—but apart from that, where are we in the world? Ask 10 different people where this might be located, and you’ll likely get 10 different answers in return. This allows people to envision the house within their own constructed environment, whether it’s grounded in fantasy or reality. Case in point, the original design proposal mentions a site in Greece, but the final building will be located in Lebanon.
3. Visual and Sensory Contrast
One of Casa Brutale’s key features is its rooftop pool surrounded by nothing but a dry wasteland environment. This trick entices both visually—the pop of blue in a sea of brown—and sensually, quenching the viewers’ sudden thirst. Plus, nearly everyone dreams of someday having their own private pool.
4. Don’t be afraid to court controversy
Whether or not this house can truly be classified as Brutalist, it is without a doubt presented in a cold, calculated style. It comes as little surprise that many authors have noted its resemblance to a Bond lair. And while this certainly adds to the house’s sense of cool, it has also triggered many negative reactions among commenters on news sites—and as anyone who has read a comment board knows, people are more likely to click on an article to leave their dissenting opinion than a positive one.
5. Trust your gut
What’s popular is constantly changing, and the differences between a viral hit and a flop are often subtle. Projects that go viral seem to tap into the public spirit in a unique way, whether it’s through use of a new material or a recently-possible engineering feat. To go viral, a project must show that it’s learning from and responding to what’s popular.
It remains to be seen whether or not placing power over what gets built into the hands of non-architecturally-educated internet users is good for architecture, but as architecture evolves to keep up with the trends of the day, architects must use every tool available to them to make themselves seen. Casa Brutale is one example of a conceptual project that found success through its wild intentions. The only question now is: what will go viral next?
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is the legacy of circus entrepreneur and art collector John Ringling and his wife, Mable. The Museum—which features both a permanent collection and temporary exhibition galleries—sits on a historic sixty-six acre estate that also includes the Venetian-Gothic Cà d’Zan mansion, the winter-residence of John and Mable Ringling, the Tibbals Learning Center, the John M. McKay Visitors Pavilion (housing the Historic Asolo Theater), the Johnson/Blalock Education/Conservation Building and The Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing. Believed to be originally envisioned as one of the most comprehensive art museums in the world, the Museum was ahead of its time in assembling a significant collection of Asian Art. Now governed by Florida State University, the Museum establishes the Ringling Estate as one of the largest museum-university complexes in the United States.
The Asian Art Study Center is an addition and ‘gut renovation’ and to the West Wing galleries on the southwest corner of the Museum complex. The renovation converts approximately 18,000 square-feet of existing gallery space from temporary exhibition space to permanent galleries for the museum’s growing Asian collection. A 7,500 square-foot addition houses new gallery space and a multi-purpose lecture hall. The Asian Art Study Center also includes innovative study/storage space and seminar rooms for scholars, researchers and students.
The addition’s façade is composed of deep-green, glazed terra cotta tiles that address the client’s requirement of a new monumental entrance. The façade relates to the natural environment of the Museum’s extensive landscape, and its color and chiseled profile are reminiscent of the Cà d’Zan mansion’s ceramic detailing. Machado Silvetti collaborated closely with Boston Valley Terra Cotta to develop the color, form and installation technique for the panels. The over 3,000 tiles provide a high performance, visually striking building envelope that redefines the functionality of the surrounding site by activating the existing courtyard and by addressing circulation and infrastructure needs of the site.
