From the architect. Walking through the concourse of Shinagawa Station towards the Kohnan exit, one looks up at the glass-clad shopping mall above and find Blue Bottle Coffee Shinagawa Cafe, their 6th shop in Japan, behind the glass facade. The act of “looking up” to find the place inspired James Freeman, the Founder of Blue Bottle Coffee, to imagine a “heavenly space” for the new cafe.
Based on this image, we envisioned a serene white space which simultaneously resonates the urban vigor at the station concourse; we chose Takigahara-ishi (tuff stone produced in Ishikawa Prefecture) as the main interior finish, combined with wood to create a space composed of a white color palette.
Natural hardness of the stone and the horizontal / vertical composition create a cool and sophisticated impression, while the finely textured stone surface gently receives light to enhance the serene feeling; and the stone finish is seamlessly applied throughout the floor, wall and counter paneling to create subdued calmness.
Floor Plan
In terms of plan, a hollow-square shaped counter is placed at the center to facilitate a “fair relationship” between all people present, in the same way as the Blue Bottle Coffee Shinjuku Cafe.
Silver Medal: Crafts Vault / Thomas Chee. Image Courtesy of RIBA
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced the President’s Medals Student Awards at a special event today in London. The awards, recognised as the world’s most prestigious in architectural education, were inaugurated in 1836 (making them, including the RIBA Gold Medal, the institute’s oldest award). Three medals in particular—the Bronze for a Part I student (Bachelor level), the Silver for a Part II student (Masters level), and the Dissertation Medal—are awarded to “promote excellence in the study of architecture [and] to reward talent and to encourage architectural debate worldwide.” In addition to these, the winners of the Serjeant Award for Excellence in Drawing and the SOM Foundation Fellowships alongside a rostra of commendations have also been announced.
RIBA Silver Medal: Thomas Chee (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Crafts Vault: The V&A Academy of Artisanal Crafts
Responding to the uncertain future of traditional crafts industry in the UK threatened by the economic downturn and the rise of new manufacturing technologies, the proposal by introducing crafts workshops into a new extension of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, tries to promote a new typology of museum building for storing and exhibiting crafts that could help bringing the lost touch of crafts back to the modern city.
Tutors: Peter Winston Ferretto, Ingrid Schroder
Silver Medal: Crafts Vault / Thomas Chee. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Silver Medal: Crafts Vault / Thomas Chee. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Silver Medal: Crafts Vault / Thomas Chee. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Silver Medal: Crafts Vault / Thomas Chee. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Silver Medal: Crafts Vault / Thomas Chee. Image Courtesy of RIBA
RIBA Bronze Medal: Allan Chong (Mackintosh School of Architecture)
‘Formless’ – An Alternative Typology for Preservation
This project takes a theoretical path in creating an alternative typology for preservation. It introduces a compromise between the desire for preservation and the cultural shift necessary for architectural expansion in the city’s future. Interpreting the concept of ‘formless’ in preservation means that architecture and heritage are no longer seen as permanent objects, but they keep transforming to re-frame their key spaces.
Bronze Medal: Formless / Allan Chong. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Bronze Medal: Formless / Allan Chong. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Bronze Medal: Formless / Allan Chong. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Bronze Medal: Formless / Allan Chong. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Bronze Medal: Formless / Allan Chong. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Bronze Medal: Formless / Allan Chong. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Dissertation Medal: Roy Khatchadourian (University of Liverpool)
A Juxtaposition of Ideological Expressions: Evaluating the urban transformations of Yerevan (Armenia) during 1915-2015
What determines our sense of belonging to a territory? How can an identity be maintained, or created? Yerevan – the crown jewel and capital city of Armenia – has been grappling with these issues in a quest of rediscovering its national pride, after years of political oppression, even genocide. This dissertation explores the role of architecture in this endeavour through Alexander Tamanyan’s work, an overlooked master whose contribution forms today’s city branding…
Tutor: Iain Jackson
Dissertation Medal. Image Courtesy of RIBA
Dissertation Medal. Image Courtesy of RIBA
The Serjeant Award for Excellence in Drawing (Part 1) went to Lucian Mocanu (University of Greenwich, tutored by Rahesh Ram and Tom Noonan) for New Greenwich Civic Centre: A transformative architecture. The project proposes an alternative centre for Greenwich that can be adapted for society’s needs.
The Serjeant Award for Excellence in Drawing (Part 2) was awarded to James Bussey (University of Kent, tutored by Adam Cole and George Thomson) for The Company, a dystopian graphic novel exploring architecture, isolation and Potemkin villages through the eyes ofa fictional German revolutionary exiled to the island of Helgoland.
The UK office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) also awarded SOM Foundation Fellowships to Jack Bailey (Kingston University, UK, tutored by Michael Lee) and Shenpei Ha (The Cass, London Metropolitan University, UK, tutored by Signy Svalastoga, Edward Simpson and Jonathan Cook).
Silver Medal Commendations
Molly De Courcy Wheeler, University of Westminster, UK, tutored by Sean Griffiths / More or Less, Bricks
Roven Rebeira, City School of Architecture, Sri Lanka, tutored by Tamara Wijayapala / Centre for Ethno-Elephantology: A cross-species design initiative
Mikki Ristola, Aalto University, Finland, tutored by Pekka Heikkinen / Visitor Centre for Petäjävesi Old Church
Bronze Medal Commendations
Muneeb Ali Khan, London South Bank University, UK, tutored by Nicolas Pople / Lewes Art Foundry
Paolo Pisano, Architectural Association, UK, tutored by Ryan Dillon / The Thirty Years of Architecture: A short guide on abandoning accumulated memories at the mercy of an inclement weather
Samiur Rahman, University of Greenwich, UK, tutored by Rahesh Ram and Tom Noonan / Nuclear NOW!
Dissertation Medal Commendations
Tessa Forde, University of Auckland, New Zealand, tutored by Kathy Waghorn and Aaron Paterson / The House that Politics Built: Parliament Aotearoa
Phillipa Longson, The Cass, London Metropolitan University, UK, tutored by Joseph Kohlmaier / Are You My Mother? An exploration into the bonds between people and places
Robin Farmer, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, UK, tutored by Brent Carnell / A Flâneur’s Guide to Boystown: Performativity, pride and place
From the architect. Palermo Lake is a countryside residence that includes the ideals of a family whose greatest aspiration is to live outside the urban boundaries within a natural, remote, and peaceful environment.
Despite its palpable isolating condition due to its location outside the urban fabric, the purpose of the project is completely the opposite, for this is a house designed to encourage those social activities enjoyed by the family, activities revolving around its passion for equestrian activities, water sports, enology, and, above all, country living.
Ground Floor Plan
The parti is determined by the front areas exploitable for such purposes, where the south and the west, which align with the lake and the polo field respectively, define the outline of the house, its landscapes and mainly the unifying thread which harbors all the possible public outdoor recreation areas in a linear promenade, going from the main access to the property, developing along the lake, and ending in the social terrace, crowning the head of the polo field with its shadow.
This design strategy led to a linear and continuous public spine from which the project emerges, and it´s center point along the journey turned became the optimal location for he most important space and the heart of this dwelling -the “great hall”- which purpose is to concentrate, under the same double heighted space, all the possible activities involving family and social dynamics. Aside from being an overwhelming introduction to it´s interior, an efficient distributor of the public and private program in two levels, and a reconfigurable environment, the great hall is the space that allows for light, natural air circulation coming from the south, and the constant breeze of the lake to flow into the house, thus refreshing from the public area to the deepest private spaces of the program in the upper level, in order to keep comfortable interior temperatures during all seasons, in a region with semidesert and warm climate lasting 10 months per year. During the cold months, these large openings oriented towards the south, will allow sunlight to access and generate solar gain while heating the interior, especially the private areas of the residence.
1st Floor Plan
Adjacent and around the great hall in the lower level, complimentary spaces are assembled, emphasizing the gourmet kitchen, cellar, dining room, playroom, terrace, and family memory room.
Communicated with the great hall, as a semiprivate mezzanine in the upper level, the family room may be found; an open and continuous space which adapts to the daily necessities and temporary family dynamics. This area brings together, like a hinge, the two private parts of the program which are located at opposite ends; the master bedroom and the children’s bedrooms. The direction of each of these areas was determined based on the most preferred view according to the users, orienting the children’s bedrooms to the lake due to their fondness for water sports, and the master bedroom, to the polo field, on account of their passion for the equestrian life.
With both ends cantilevering to underline it´s hierarchical ends – the main entrance and the shaded social terrace- the architectural form of the project is defined by a load-bearing mass of reinforced concrete which, apart from giving evidence of its structure, serves as a canvas on which quarry stones from Queretaro, recycled timber from surrounding former railroad tracks, national hardwood finishes treated with oil and steel structures and fixtures tamed by the local workmanship, complement the material palette of this architectural composition.
Finally, the goal behind the outward appearance of the house is to provide a timeless countryside environment, which, despite the fact of formally speaking of its era, it is still open to time’s intervention and patina where we believe the weatherization of the selected materials and nature’s takeover of its concrete canvas, shall end this work which, as wine does, pretends to age gracefully, improve over the years, and acquire a greater sense of belonging with its site and context.
From the architect. The project seeks the configuration of a central void, as an adaptive and flexible extension to the functions of the various uses required by the program, this complemented by a system of perimeter corridors that articulate the various services of the programmatic edge. This configuration contrasts with the existing anteroom, a park of ancient trees, the patrimonial house and the state chapel.
It is propose the renovation of the preexisting buildings arranged in L-shape, a old warehouse and stables, which together with the construction of two new volumes (kitchen and bathrooms), worked in cob brick masonry, confined in metal profiles and limewash painted, structure and contain the new square; Preserving the original formal expression of the time, a neutral and unitary language.
As a complement to the above, it is sought, through specific elements, to inject a new contemporary character that dialogues with the existing traditional architecture; Unifying elements such as Cor-ten steel skylights, as light lamps and composed pine pillars as support for louvers and temporary structures. In addition, some specific maneuver are established that give lightness to the profiles of the corridors and accentuations of color with terracotta and wine tones.
The take-off or detachment, in terms of the order and arrangement of the new elements with respect to the old ones; Generates the project intervention strategy, a maneuvers that allows to understand the pieces of the project, manifesting the origin of each old or new part.
The landscape development, focused mainly on point applications; Lines and specific areas of vegetation that accompany paths and “dresses” certain places, maintaining a arid and clear image, which contrasts with the density and leafiest of the existing park.
At the same time, different textures of floors are worked, river bolls with rounded stones in corridors detachments and random lines arranged in the esplanade; concrete refined slab for corridors; Prefabricated concrete tiles 30x60cm in locked arrangement for the square; And framing slate stone for the intervention of pre-existing damaged slabs.
Architects and developers working in Miami are belatedly responding to climate change, amid a growing sense of alarm over how rising sea levels are affecting the city. Read more
Sig Nordal 