From the architect. This design is a point of sales for a residential complex in San Bernardo County, part of a master plan deployed around a big artificial lagoon.
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The intention was to convey a sensation of rest, recreation and relaxation, providing clear views from the terrace in order to contemplate the lagoon in its entire dimension. The building had to be seeable from the distance yet not be a disruptive element in the landscape. In order to do so, a higher volume was built to serve as reference point from the distance –in daylight and nighttime- and to capture natural light.
The coating is mainly wooden, creating a friendly and not-too-commercial look, and inviting general public to a close experience. Transparent views are open to the lagoon, the main visual attraction in the scene, and facades that do not have direct view to the lagoon are opaque. However, the window on the roof allows light to provide contentment and natural luminosity to the interior.
Floor Plan
There are basic areas to support sales, where sellers transmit to clients the warmth and tranquility of the project, always with clear views to the lagoon and its surroundings. The cover has blank spaces that merge landscape and architecture, and are intended to be a prolongation of the landscaping project developed around the lagoon.
There is a back office space in all its length, as well as restrooms for sellers and clients, where gardens are also part of the view, incorporating landscape in every place of the project. Finally, children’s play areas are defined, along with pedestrian tracks and a parking lot.
In this post originally published on Metropolis, former ArchDaily Managing Editor Vanessa Quirk explores a client’s expectations, and how Nicholas Grimshaw treated them–in both built and book form.
It is not often a client states that their aim is “to build the indeterminate building.” But so Max De Pree, the son of Herman Miller founder D.J. De Pree, expressed his hope for his company’s new manufacturing facility in 1975. Following the ideas of designers such as Charles and Ray Eames and Alexander Girard, De Pree compiled a long list of philosophical guidelines for the project, which he summed up under the laconic heading, “A Statement of Expectations.”
The young architect Nicholas Grimshaw, who had been hand-picked by De Pree for the project, was immensely inspired by the Statement, particularly its emphasis on the longevity and flexibility of the facility, its integration into context (the city of Bath, England), and the necessity for the building to empower its workers. In Grimshaw’s response to the brief, he noted: “Many of the views expressed about the well-being of the users, flexibility, and non-monumentality agree very closely with the approach we have built up since the founding of our practice ten years ago. We feel particularly that any new building should not impose itself on the occupiers, but that it should be a tool in their hands.”
He elaborated on this point in a 1969 interview with Idea Magazine: “As architects, it seems to us pointless to argue whether or not the options will be taken up. The crucial point is that the options offered are real and can be used by anyone over the life of the building. […] The basic aim of the building would be therefore that ‘anything can happen anywhere.’”
The resulting 55,000 square foot facility, the recipient of multiple architectural awards throughout the ’70s and ’80s, boasted innovative architectural features that facilitated adaptation over the long-term: “a hanging walkway containing utilities to allow for change in manufacturing layout; reconfigurable courtyards for employee break periods; modular bathrooms that could be moved to any location in the building; plastic, demountable panels on the exterior of the building to allow for change or expansion.”
When the project was completed in 1976, Grimshaw had the building photographed and published in a booklet, wherein each image is accompanied by one of De Pree’s expectations. Although the booklet is now out of print, Herman Miller has shared the images with us, which you can view below.
Herman Miller eventually vacated the building in 2012, but the company has maintained its ties to Grimshaw, which designed the company’s new facilities in Melksham. You can find the story of that commission—which details a lucky coincidence involving a colony of Great Crested Newts (really)—here.
And while the Bath building may no longer serve the purposes of modern-day industry, it continues to adapt gracefully to its context, as it was intended to. The Grade II–listed facility will soon reopen as the Bath Spa University’s School of Art and Design.
“A Statement of Expectations”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“These statements are intended to structure the programme for the planning and building of a new Herman Miller facility for Europe at Bath England”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“Our goal is to make a contribution to the landscape of an aesthetic and human value”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“The environment should encourage fortuitous encounter and open community”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“The space should be subservient to human activity”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“Commitment to performance for single functions or needs is to be avoided”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“The facility must be able to change with grace, be flexible and non monumental”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“Planning of utilities has to meet the needs we can perceive”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“We wish to create an environment which will welcome all and be open to surprise”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“The quality of the spaces should reflect the company’s commitment and reputation in environmental arenas”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“Whatever we do must be constructively involved with the neighborhood and civic community”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“Utilization patterns should allow for future options, for growth and for change”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“We would like a building that permits maximum relation of work spaces to the outdoors”
Courtesy of Herman Miller
“It is possible to say that our aim is to build the indeterminate building”
From the architect. The history of the site of the St-Michel Environmental Complex has been marked by change and evolution. Since its beginning as a mining center, then as a dumping site, human intervention has taken a severe toll on the land’s topography and symbolism within the city. This location is now destined to become one of Montreal’s biggest parks with a focus on the environment and ecological restoration.
On the site of the former Miron quarry and a future ecological park, the new indoor soccer stadium emerges from the park’s artificial topography as a layer of mineral stratum recalling the geological nature of the site. The mineral stratum is articulated by a continuous roof which cantilevers over the entry plaza and folds down over the interior soccer field and extends to the ground to become the spectator seating for the outdoor field. In that way, the roof’s behavior reacts to the requirements of the program and enables the interior soccer center to become the exterior open-sky stadium.
Sketch
The park’s immense size called for an architectural intervention of grand scale, a truly unique gesture in the city. In order to ensure the formal unity of the project, the design has been developed as the transformation of a single expansive element: a structure conveyed as a single formal gesture in cross-laminated timber. The structural grid/cells form a layered mesh, which appears to be random at first sight, but which in reality becomes denser in zones where added structural strength is needed.
Along Papineau Avenue, the architecture adapts to the existing landscape by embedding its supporting functions within the berm. This integration accommodates an elevated pedestrian path as well as preserves the existing trees. A subsequent series of crystals emerge from the augmented landscape to provide daylight and views for the administrative and public spaces behind. They project out from the landscape toward the street to receive abundant natural light. A large crystal box which contains the main lobby emerges from the terrain’s southeast end, signalling the entrance of the soccer centre. Despite the broad scope of the project’s program, these luminous elements and preserved vegetation give the architecture a critical human scale that respects the residential neighbourhood it faces. The transparency of the building also promotes a sense of openness.
Floor Plan
The programmatic elements are organized efficiently by taking advantage of the linearity of the site, as well as considering the program associations and usages of players, spectators and park visitors. The program is divided in two levels. Each level is organized using a main circulation corridor that links the interior to the exterior. On the public entrance level, the corridor is continuous from the plaza entry, through the lobby and central programmatic spaces, permitting access directly to the stands. For the second level, the corridor extends toward onto the exterior playing surface where it integrates with the exterior stands.
The design team worked closely with the engineers of Nordic Structures to develop the structural concept of the project. This integrated design process led to the formulation of a structural grid that takes into account sustainability criteria and optimizes the dimensioning of the structure’s members according to the required efforts and spans.
The structure of Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is the only one of its kind in the world. It is composed of multiple lumber boards layered crosswise at 90° angles and bonded together using structural adhesives. In this process, the wood is sourced locally and is composed at 90% of black spruce. Cross-laminated timber provides new design possibilities, facilitating the construction of structures with a pared-down, organic look and allowing free rein architectural creativity. It is a construction material that is light, cost-effective and sustainable.
Model
The main roof is supported by thirteen separate 69 m long uncambered box beams, 500 mm wide by 4100 mm high, constructed of a combination of Nordic Lam glued-laminated timber and Nordic X-Lam CLT, each weighing 77 tonnes.
The wood structure is flexible and allows the integration of mechanical systems because of the varying heights of its layered chord members – sometimes members are at full height, and at other instances they allow for a gap above to permit the passage of ventilation systems. Lighting fixtures are placed under the mesh’s beams highlighting the seemingly random pattern.
Layered House is a private residence located in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The home was designed by KWA Architects in 2015. Layered House by KWA Architects: “Designed as a family residence for two doctors and their two daughters this five bedroom residence also has an attached annex for any visiting relatives to stay in. Located in a 14 perch block of land in a busy part of Colombo, the design attempts..
Colorful, woven spinning tops decorated the lawn at Houston’s Discovery Green park from November 14, 2015-March 22, 2016 as part of an interactive art installation by Mexico City designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena. Dubbed Los Trompos, the installation featured twenty, 3D structures that also doubled as seating. Only two or more people working together could make the tops spin, “fostering an engaging connection.”
The tops were woven using a traditional Mexican style, and each spinning top had a unique form, “inspired by nature and traditional Latin American design, architecture and folk art.”
“The concept behind Los Trompos is based on traditional toys, their colorful expression and the way they are constructed,” Esrawe said in a press release. “We like the idea of translating these techniques into new symbols used to create an interactive piece that is part installation, part furniture and part playground, a place where human connections are made. Los Trompos is a place of color and joy!”
Courtesy of Discovery Green Conservancy
Esrawe and Cadena work together at their Mexico City firm E+C, carrying out projects in both the US and Mexico. They originally created Los Trompos while at a residency at the High Museum of Atlanta, although the installation was adapted for Houston.
The space retains much of its original appearance because the idea was keep alive the “spirit” of the place giving a playful appearance in order to favor fluency in the communications as well as the exchange and relations among workers.
An open office concept was the request from the customer with a meeting room , an office , a small library , toilets and a resting room to relax and where can eat. The main task was to adapt the project to all of these requirements. A small distribution was made taking advantage the structure of the space that the area was giving.
Diagram
A piece made of wood and glass was inserted to contain the meeting room , the office and the toilets. In the southern part of the area the desks with a common seats, to support meeting spaces and help the communication among the workers. In the other extreme, in a small grid near to the stairs, was placed the resting room, this space keep the privacy even is open through a portic pointing the stairs of one of the entrances.
The organic aspect of the rest of the glue that was found on the wall from the original construction was highlighted placing the lights with a net LED . To give a cozy environment, a hidden LED was placed under the seats and between the wood and the structure, as well as a light focussed on the tables in order to give comfort to the users
In the latest installation of NOWNESS’In Residence series, British architect Ian Simpson describes how was told by his careers teacher “not to set [his] sights too high” when he decided that he wanted to become an Architect. Here, he discusses the design intentions behind his home – the tallest residence in the United Kingdom’s second city: Manchester. For Simpson, “home is [only] forty seconds away by lift.”
In 1996 the largest bomb in mainland Britain that the IRA ever exploded was five hundred yards from here. […] The bomb allowed us to create physical and visual permeability to the North.
