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Situated in a former industrial district in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht, it’s perhaps fitting that the Bonnefantenmuseum has often been called a “viewing factory.” The museum, with its ‘E’-shaped plan and distinctive domed tower, is one of the most prominent landmarks along the River Meuse that flows around the city center. Europe’s rich cultural history was a key impetus for architect Aldo Rossi’s design, which employed a number of historical architectural gestures to place the Bonnefantenmuseum within a collapsed European canon.
Maastricht, capital of the Dutch province of Limburg, has a history which stretches back to the Roman Empire. It was in this city that the Maastricht Treaty, which ushered in the European Union as we know it, went into effect in 1993. For over a century, the Bonnefantenmuseum has served as Limburg’s premier museum for archaeology and fine arts.[1] The collection was originally housed in the Bonnefantenklooster, a monastery in central Maastricht from which the museum derived its name.[2]
At the beginning of the 1990s, the Province of Limburg committed €40million to construct a new museum building in the Céramique – a former industrial estate directly across the River Maas from Maastricht’s historic center. The Bonnefantenmuseum chose to commission Italian architect Aldo Rossi for its design, as the museum’s director Alexander Van Grevenstein believed he “coupled great expressive inventiveness with a reserved visual language.”[3] The project had a clear, deceptively traditional, outline: a series of galleries lit from above and the sides, organized into wings and surrounding a central stairway.[3]
Rossi’s volumetic proposal was essentially tripartite, comprising a main building, a cylindrical body with a dome, and a belvedere to allow visitors to soak up city views.[4] The main building is laid out in the shape of a large, symmetrical ‘E,’ the arms of which face the bank of the river. The central arm abuts the domed tower, the most prominent feature of the museum’s riverfront façade. The main building is constructed from traditional materials – namely brick, stone, and wood. The heaviness of these materials, however, belies the permeability of the walls, which are designed to admit enough daylight to naturally produce brightness within the gallery spaces.[5]
Natural daylight was key to Rossi’s control over the visitors’ experience of the museum. The front and sides of the museum are closed while the walls of the central wing, which forms the main axis of the museum, are open. Punctuated openings in the building’s brick façades interact with both the artworks and the circulation routes, turning a trip to the museum into a “promenade architecturale.” The long central stairway, meanwhile, is bathed in sunlight from a fully glazed ceiling, creating the sense of a covered street rather than an indoor space.[6]
This staircase is perhaps Rossi’s most symbolic architectural gesture. It is, according to his own description, “linked to the world” – drawing a parallel between the seafaring nations of The Netherlands and Portugal. To paraphrase the Portuguese poet who inspired Rossi, The Netherlands could be seen as the country where the land ends and the sea begins.[7]
Curiously, and despite Rossi’s stated connection to Portugal, the inspiration for the stairway actually comes from a Belgian example: the Montagne de Bueren in Liège.[8] The 374-step outdoor stairway forms a clear visual parallel with the central stairs of the Bonnefantenmuseum, albeit built of weathered stone instead of the museum’s polished hardwood.[9]
While the central stairway is the interior’s most defining feature, the exterior is visually dominated by a domed cylindrical tower. Although it is not detached from the museum proper, it is set apart visually: its circular dome, clad in lustrous zinc, stands out against the rectilinear brick of the main museum building.[10] As with the staircase, the dome was specifically intended by Rossi to reference Europe’s classical architectural canon. He specifically chose to reference the work of Alessandro Antonelli, a Turinese architect whose slender classicist dome over the Basilica of San Gaudenzio likely served as an inspiration for its similarly-proportioned counterpart atop the Bonnefantenmuseum.[11,12]
References to classicist examples were entirely within character for Aldo Rossi. He objected to the Modernist notion that all historical forms and aesthetics must be entirely abandoned; instead, he argued, architecture should respect and connect to its urban context, thereby preserving the fabric of the city instead of upending it with architectural non sequiturs. In Rossi’s view, certain forms and ideas have remained essentially consistent in the history of architecture. In this way his own designs were physical manifestations of his interpretation of architecture. Whether his design for the Bonnefantenmuseum, with its austere brick façades and its contrasting metal dome, merges seamlessly with the fabric of Maastricht is ultimately up to debate.[13]
The new Bonnefantenmuseum first opened its doors to the public on March 9, 1995. Over 175,000 people would visit the museum by the end of the year; a full fifty thousand would visit within the first six weeks of the new museum’s opening, surpassing visitorship for the entirety of the last year the old location had been in service. A survey taken in 1997 indicated that 73% of visitors specifically appreciated the architecture of the new building – a greater percentage of visitors than were satisfied with the art collections themselves.[14]
Although Aldo Rossi passed away only two years after the Bonnefantenmuseum officially opened its doors, his creation remains a landmark in Maastricht. His own words, written during the design phase, can now be read as a retrospective on the creation of the Bonnefantenmuseum: “But now, just as if we were standing on the belvedere, we can view the museum as a whole, perhaps a lost whole which we only recognize thanks to those fragments of our lives which are also fragments of art and Europe of bygone days.”[15]
References
[1] Richards, Greg. Cultural Attractions and European Tourism. New York: CABI Pub., 2001. p94.
[2] “Bonnefantenmuseum.” Steden. Accessed April 4, 2016. [access]
[3] “The Building.” Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht. Accessed April 5, 2016. http://ift.tt/1QGWxwR.
[4] Rossi, Aldo. “Verlust der Mitte.” Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht. Accessed April 5, 2016. [access]
[5] Richards, p96.
[6] “The Building.”
[7] Rossi, “Verlust der Mitte.”
[8] “Bonnefantenmuseum.”
[9] “Stairs of Bueren.” Steden. Accessed April 4, 2016. [access]
[10] “The Building.”
[11] Rossi, “Verlust der Mitte.”
[12] Bordino, Franco et al. Alla Scoperta Del Neoclassico Attraverso Le Opere Di Alessandro Antonelli. Turin: Agenzia di Accoglienza Turistica della Provincia di Novara, 2008.
[13] Zukowsky, John. “Aldo Rossi.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 5, 2016. http://ift.tt/1UnAeDf.
[14] Richards, p98-100.
[15] Rossi, “Verlust der Mitte.”
From the architect. Elongated site is situated next to a valuable villa by architect O. Novotný. The newly built house is positioned in the lower part of the site, to secure enough space for the new as well as the existing villa.
The footprint of the house in “C” shape defines an atrium orientated towards the main garden. In the perspective from the main residential garden, the house with an atrium is divided into several smaller parts, while in the view from the entrance side, it employs its compactness.
The house has most of its living spaces on the ground level, to profit from their connection to the garden. The ground floor is designed as a generous social platform, including the swimming pool, study and the bedroom. Level of the floor gradually follows the gently sloping terrain. Atrium is approached as a private exterior room. Two bedrooms and a bathroom are situated on the upper level. In the basement, the utility rooms as well as garage for two cars are situated.
The dining space represents the center of the house – a living hall. The significance of this space is emphasized with the vault ceiling and additional natural lighting of the space below the vault top. Height of the vault enables illumination of the space from the upper area transverse to the space from the eastern and the western sides. Sunlight is therefore present in the center of the house throughout the whole day.
The entrance hall with glazed ceiling evokes the sense of an outside courtyard. The hall subsequently brings natural light to the basement. The house is intended to be enveloped by vegetation – roofs exposed to view are realized as green roofs, the entire house is intended to be covered with climbing plants. Profiled concrete ceiling visually unites varied spaces of the house. Windows of the first floor will be shaded by sliding timber shutters, which in the open position join the windows into a horizontal strip, which corresponds with the living room windows on the ground floor.
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MaxHaus is a 753 square foot apartment located in São Paulo, Brazil. It was completed in 2015 by Casa 2 Arquitetos. MaxHaus by Casa 2 Arquitetos: “MaxHaus is a 70m² (753.5ft²) condo with the concept of free plan loft style . The young couple that loves get togethers with their friends choose to built only one bedroom, leaving the integrated ambience as broad as possible. The cement floor was used..
Tegoyo I is a project completed by Nestor Perez Batista. The home is located in the Timanfaya National Park of Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain. Photos by: Ruben Acosta
From the architect. MUNWOOD LAKESIDE is one of the two design hotels built by IDO (Init Design Office) in Dali, Yunnan province in resent two years. Located beside Erhai lake, Jiapeng village, it is expanded and reconstructed originally on a farm house, which was transformed from 300 sqm to 1000 sqm. IDO took the control of the whole process in the design and construction from site planning, architecture and construction design, indoors (including soft, furniture design and site fabrication field production.)and landscape design to construction site. After two and half years design and construction, it is now open for business .
Project location
MUNWOOD LAKESIDE locates in west road, Erhai lake, Jiapeng village, Dali, which is the smallest natural village around Erhai lake. The village is surrounded by a unique natural landscape – Haixi wetland，where willow catkins are fluttering, waterfowls are cruising, sky and lake are blue. The village is beautiful and quiet with five or six Inns along the wetland shoreline, and MUNWOOD LAKESIDE is among them.
Project background
Big to city complex or small to private clubs, IDO has completed lots of business projects since the past years. However, a lot of really good ideas cannot be achieved due to various reasons, especially the quality of Party A is not high in the western part of China. We are holding the view that a good building must be the result of the multi – force, particularly a “good” party A. In order to build a house, satisfied by architects themselves, we decided to “ be part A ourselves!”, so we made the decision of going to Dali to build a house at the beginning of 2013. We then encountered various new problems from Party B to Party A, like lack of money. So we established Munwood Hotel Management Co. Ltd, encouraging several architects friends who hold the same pursuits to join the investment team. However, we came to realize that Party A was never an easy job, and a great deal of practical problems needed to be settled. The construction site needed to be controlled and all kinds of relations needed to be coordinated; the plan had been changed lots of rounds, but it was changed to satisfy us own this time. Fortunately, solutions were more than difficulties. In the process of solving practical problems, we shrived to adhere to the basic principles of Architecture.
Reflections on Role Transformation
In those two more years, we acts as not only Party A but also Party B.
Elaborately planned, designing from the user experience: we strive to live up to “Design to create value” by analyzing the use behavior patterns of hotel guest’s , and focusing on the user experience.
Control the cost and emphasize “the suitable construction strategy”: architects can make the space higher quality by controlling the construction ways, in spite of the relatively low construction costs and backward construction technology conditions in Dali.
Emphasizing the sense of social responsibility: Despite the municipal pipe network is not perfect in the Erhai ring road, and investment costs are really limited, IDO spend hundreds of thousands of RMB to equip the reclaimed water system, which can be used as the garden landscape water after the sewage treatment, not discharging a drop of sewage in Erhai.
Architects’ discourse power: The development and construction led by architects can push the construction and operation of the project to a benign, achieving multi- win-win results among the user, the owners and the community, rather than traditional pattern of pursuing return on funds in extensive real estate development period.
Promotion on the design by post occupancy evaluation: The inn has been put into use for nearly one year, and the feedbacks of the guests serving as the real building evaluation to promote hotel design in future.
We believe that this is a pattern transformation, especially in the current economic transition, the role of the architect may be rethinking in the post real estate era.
Insistence as an architect:
A building belonging to the site.
Layout: Controlling the scale, break up the whole into parts and slope roofs echo surrounding farm house .
Boundary: The stone walls ,being served as a boundary ,make the relationship between the inn and the surrounding neighbors are not only different, but also contact.
Multi -level public space design
Creating multi-level public space experience, it established the relationship between the architecture and Erhai Lake from multi dimensions , so that users can get what they need and do not interfere with each other. However,the most difficult part of design is to cross the front road to enjoy the Erhai Lake. The relationship between the building and the road is difficult to deal with. So a half sinking public space was designed to make a link. Space below the partition can make a psychological link with the water .While the platform built on the space established a more direct relationship with the Erhai Lake. This platform used the steel structure which was quite different from the main body. The elevation is reduced to establish a close relationship with the same floor ground. The building on the right side of the platform is open for two reasons. For one thing, make stream line below always feel in the spacious outdoors; for another, seen from the road, it looks more ethereal and light, unlike the surrounding houses which were very thick.
Focus on the relationship between the modern and traditional architectures
Low technology as a strategy: It is widely applicable to select the regular structure and construction system under the restriction of cost and local construction conditions.
Contemporary expression of traditional materials: Focus on the relationship between modern and traditional architecture; create a resort atmosphere with plain materials by employ stone walls in frame system which is a mature approach to local artisans.
Reuse with old materials: furniture furnishings are made from local dismantled wooden beam system, reflecting the traces of time and a place-based state .
Plants and lives：A one-hundred-year old tea tree is planted in the heart of water courtyard, which leaves can be roasted in the fire pit. While the fruits of pomegranate and plum in the courtyard can be brewed into wines, that will be a welcome drink at the time of arrival. The vegetables picked in the backyard can be served on breakfast table. The designer intends to convey a simple life concept to the user.
Besides localization, we also emphasize the sense of social responsibility as an architect. Make full use of the local climate advantages to employ solar hot water system. For the “do not drop a drop of sewage in Erhai”, despite the municipal sewage pipe network is not perfect there, we spend hundreds of thousands of RMB to set 10-ton water treatment system, purifying and reusing for landscape water. We express the love for the natural environment with the responsible attitude; and set up the display window of the water system at the main entrance of the hotel to convey the idea of environmental protection design to the guests.
Regret and surprise
The original design was a lean-to roof (Model photos),expected to be a more modern tendency of new vernacular architecture; however, it was regret that it was changed to the double pitched roof ,due to a sudden control of style in the construction process. While what make us excited and beyond our imagination in the modification is that the internal rooms and lake view constitute more spiritual space under the frame of the double slope roof.
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From the architect. Jaggendorf House, at 10 Yehuda HaLevy Street, was designed in 1925, by the architects Liberson and Feinstein, in the eclectic style. The building was declared conserved according to the conservation plan and located in the area declared a cultural world heritage site by UNESCO. The house represents a somewhat minimalist style from the 1920s, with the symmetry mainly expressed on the west side. The façade includes an arcer and a projecting balcony with a parapet, as well as an upper section that conceals the tiled roof. The façade is rich in rectangular reliefs, decorated cornices and moulding at the roof edges. At the rear of the house one can discern the sandstone restricting the railway line that was laid here in 1892.
In the early 20th century the “Homestead Association” introduced a novel idea: no longer would small and crowded neighbourhoods be built, devoid of prior planning, such as Neve Tzedek and Neve Shalom, but instead a new, Hebrew, pre-planned city would be constructed, which would alter the face of the settlement in the land. This new approach constituted the complete opposite to the typical eclectic construction of the Homestead Association. The project revealed this new look not only through its turning to the city but also through the architectonic space of each of the apartments. The addition and the original building became one homogenous unit through the use of black zinc plating to coat the roof, walls, stairwells and window sills. The monolithic colour stressed the solid sculptured appearance of the building, shaped by the multitude of functional elements beyond the clean space of the apartments.
The design of the addition responds to the geometry of the original tiled roof that characterised the eclectic houses of Tel Aviv. The zinc-plated walls of the addition frame the urban landscape. The building’s functions that need to be enclosed (e.g. stairways, lift, toilets, etc.) are located in the tin “pigeon-holes” that protrude from the side walls. The geometry enables each apartment to have a view of the city, with the sun at twilight penetrating deeply into the space. The floor plan is simple but the change in vertical levels creates an experience of change in space and an inclined orientation inside the apartments, somewhat resembling that of a loft.
The project exploits a maximum use of the ground as determined by the conservation plan. The distorted and inclined body of the addition follows the restrictions of the conservation plan quite literally. Each individual point on the roof depicts the maximum height permitted for an addition. The amorphous shape of the addition is increased by the “pigeon-holes” – the reliefs – fire escape and access to the stairwells. These additional elements help to integrate the fragmented appearance of the project into the environment. The project overlooks the remains of the early settlement in Tel Aviv, like a theatre setting: the original building is the stage, the old houses create the second layer and the new town provides the background.
