This piece of Brazilian architecture was conceived in 1961 by São Paulo architects João Batista Vilanova Artigas and Carlos Cascaldi. Together with the architectural movement of the Paulista School, they form part of the most important history of São Paulo, because of the large amount of works they constructed there and the recognition of many of them at an international level.
The project is based on the idea of generating spatial continuity. Therefore, its six levels are linked by a system of ramps in an attempt to give the feeling of a single plane and favor continuous routes, increasing the degree of coexistence and interaction among those who use it.
The space is open and integrated, avoiding divisions and making it a functional place. It was imagined as a large, free, and central space with its functional areas distributed all around.
There are no entrance doors or small spaces, the intention being the generation of a space in where you can perform any activity that you need to.
Concrete in appearance with simple finishes, the building responds to the characteristics of a space suitable for a school of architecture, as a place of practice and learning for students.
The structure needed to express the grace with which the materials give shape to the building, in addition to allowing ample lights and simple shapes to highlight the image of the building’s lightness, despite the weight and the force that it exerts on its environment, which makes it resemble Brutalism architecture.
The architects, the founders of the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, adopted the reinforced concrete as a plastic and constructive language that gives rise to volumes sustained in complex structures of great light. Based on the technical possibilities of the material, its projects and works entail a willingness to be examples of contributing to the technical and social development of the country, and the city of São Paulo’s ambition to be the economic and industrial center of Brazil.
Architect: João Vilanova Artigas – Carlos Cascaldi Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil Project Year: 1961 – 1968 Structure: Escritorio Figueiredo Ferraz Construction: Administration of the Cidade Universitária ANR
Reference images: Courtesy of OWAR Arquitectos, Flickr Fernando Stankuns, FADB and thefuturistics
Located in what was originally a temporary exhibition hall for the 1962 World’s Fair, the now landmarked building has been reborn as a light-filled global music hub, complete with music library, live performance spaces, DJ booths, open office workstations and the first-ever coffee retail concept for noted Italian espresso machine maker La Marzocco.
Courtesy of SkB Architects
According to Kyle Gaffney, co-lead designer and co-founder of SkB Architects, “KEXP connects people through music. Our goal as architects and designers was to to see that connection translated and amplified through physical space. Now, they not only connect with people over the airwaves, but in person via the public gathering space and at a community level by physically connecting the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood with Seattle Center.”
Courtesy of SkB Architects
“We included amenities in KEXP’s new home that road-weary musicians would welcome. They can come to KEXP, play a live show and then relax, take a shower and get some laundry done. When you’re living in a van for a few months at a time, these can be sorely missed moments of luxury,” adds Shannon Gaffney, co-lead designer and co-founder of SkB Architects.
Floor Plan
KEXP’s extensive music library of 50,000+ albums is showcased behind large glass windows enabling passersby to watch as DJs curate songs and prepare for their next show. By activating the building facade through glazing and openings, the design overcomes the wall effect that had previously blocked street energy from reaching further into the neighborhood. A new glazed, mid-block entry further opens the studio to the street, bringing people into the gathering space, which in turn opens to the Seattle Center campus through roll-up doors.
Courtesy of SkB Architects
KEXP’s complex features a 400-square-foot, on-air studio; a 1,090-square-foot Live Room; (2) production studios; (2) audio booths; (2) DJ booths; (2) video edit rooms; a video control room; (2) DJ isolation rooms; a Green Room; Production/Mastering and open office areas; a library and conference rooms. To support the stations’ commitment to airing live performances, a 4,500-square-foot Gathering Space was created, which includes the station’s reception area, a stage for live performances and seating / open space for audiences.
Courtesy of SkB Architects
Brad Murphree, co-founder and lead engineer of Mizzen Media, states that “the systems design needed to integrate the old with the new: to preserve KEXP’s unique broadcasting legacy while giving them a state-of-the-art multi-purpose radio facility.” The facility boasts full AOIP (Audio Over IP) with fully-routable audio that allows bands to perform live in the recording studio, broadcast the session live on the radio, and stream the video over KEXP’s live streaming service.
Courtesy of SkB Architects
WSDG Project Manager Joshua Morris reports that the design mandate was, “To enhance the synergy between the studios’ function and aesthetics by making it accessible to the public while concurrently maintaining the comfort and security of the station’s personnel and guest artists. We also focused on the need to enable bands of every conceivable format to set up and breakdown quickly between 30-minute sets.”
Courtesy of SkB Architects
The La Marzocco coffee experience, also designed by SkB Architects, is just inside the entrance. Coupled with casual seating, this area provides a relaxed atmosphere in which to hang out, listen to music and watch as the DJs broadcast their live shows from the glass-walled studio that adjoins the space. The open, 1,100-square foot café and showroom takes its design inspiration from La Marzocco’s Florentine factory and espresso machines, merging Italian heritage, meticulous craftsmanship, and thoughtful attention to detail and material.
Courtesy of SkB Architects
Prior to World War II, radio stations often had theaters to accommodate an audience and full orchestras. “Reintroducing live music and audience participation into the fabric of the building and program creates a rich experience for everyone, from DJs to musicians to the public,” notes Shannon Gaffney. “Helping KEXP challenge expectations and continue to innovate is incredibly exciting.”
Courtesy of SkB Architects
Product Description.The DJ booth cladding is old growth Douglas Fir (Teredo wood) salvaged from log rafts once used to transport lumber to the Pope & Talbot Mill in Port Gamble, WA. The material gets its name and hole-y texture from Teredo clams that burrowed into the wood over years of use. The wood was sourced from Trinity River Marine in Indianola, WA. A local material, it helps to convey ties to the Northwest and its industrial legacy.
Staab Architekten has released its plans for the historic center of Cologne, which will include the research and administration buildings for the Römanisch-Germanisches Museum, the Kurienhaus der Hohen Domkirche (curia house of the high cathedral), and the Kölner Stadtmuseum (Cologne state museum). Through these buildings, the project will redefine the urban space around Cologne’s cathedral and generate a place where the city’s history can be “presented and explored from diverse perspectives.”
A new museum forecourt will be created between the main entrances of the buildings, tying the existing Römisch Germanisch Museum to the rest of the new buildings.
A shared lower foyer at Kurt-Hackenberg-Platz will connect the museums’ main foyers and provide access to the Roman excavations located under the base of the cathedral.
The Stadtmuseum is organized around a courtyard that will house Cologne’s city model, and is, with the exception of two building cores, column-free in order to enable a flexible design of exhibitions. Double- height spaces with large panorama windows in the building’s corners permit the display of special exhi- bits in direct relation to the cathedral and the city – described the architect in a recent press release.
Their video covers issues such as the route to the building and how it reveals itself within the city, the way people interact with the design, and the feel of materials. While the video is able to give us a vicarious sense of these sensations, it also makes a strong case that when it comes to understanding all of these elements of architecture, there’s really no replacement for visiting the building in person.
On the other hand, while it’s undeniable that nothing can recreate the experience of visiting a building in reality (unlike conventional architectural imagery, buildings are not static or two dimensional), it’s also important to not over-inflate first-hand experience to the point of reducing the role of role of architectural media. Neither should be posited to replace the other, but rather they should work in confluence.
More importantly, the buildings that are lauded in the architectural world are simply inaccessible for reasons that are geographic, financial or otherwise. And so for many, architectural media is not the lesser, but the only way to consume such buildings.
All the points that #donotsettle raise in their video are sorely true, so although less archi-travelled viewers may be tinged with a slightly jealous longing, user-oriented videos like these may be the closest comparable experience to the real thing… for now.
From the architect. Winner Project of a competition organized by the public company PCTCAN, for two office buildings in the “Scientific and Technological Park of Cantabria”.
The buildings conform two regular prisms, where color and contrast play a predominant role.
Site Plan
The formal image of the buildings is based on sustainability and energy savings criteria, but also on its functionality, adopting simple technical solutions in order not to increase the construction costs, and prioritizing functional aspects of modularity and flexibility.
Plants, completely open, can be divided into several offices with separate entrances, allowing to accommodate different companies and giving great flexibility.
The structure is solved with a central concrete core (with the vertical communications, toilets, ducts and piping), and a perimeter of small steel columns integrated in the façade, in order to achieve a completely open floor without intermediate columns.
Axonometric
The buildings rise on a half-buried stone plinth, surrounded by curved landscaped slopes that give contrast to the building rigid geometry. Over this base, the access floor, glazed and set back from the rest of plants, is located. And above all, the colorful office prism that seems to levitate in the plot.
The architectural language integrates environmental solutions. The main volume, that locates four office plants, is solved with a ventilated façade of thermosetting resins panels. Openings are treated in each façade differently depending on their orientation. In the East and West façades horizontal windows are protected by vertical louvers made with the same façade panels, integrating them into its modulation and colorful. This solution gives a very different aspect to the façade depending on the angle from which you observe it, from a totally blind façade, to a complete open one. Instead the North and South façades open to the landscape through large curtain walls. On the South side, the façade is protected from solar radiation by large aluminum louvers. In both façades, maintenance catwalks have been integrated in the design, avoiding the installation of gondolas.
Clément Blanchet Architecture has released their competition entry for the extension of Parc des Expositions (PEX) Bordeaux. Working with an already renowned modernist design by OMA, the architects designed their proposed addition with the goal of embedding architectural fragments to capture the essence of the original building.
The brief required that the design create an adaptable modern intervention, integrating with the building its history and its surroundings. The addition is conceived as a complementary, rather than competing, element to reconstitute a new overall architectural figure with the original Hall 1.
The program’s organization strives to maximize versatility, allowing the addition to interface with the new urban fabric and create connections to the existing halls. The project further aims to engage the surrounding urban condition through transparency and sensitivity toward the history of the site. The linear intervention implements the building’s functional units and celebrates its revered artifacts.
Lambhvella Home is a private residence designed by Dipen Gada & Associates. It is located in India. Lambhvella Home by Dipen Gada & Associates: “The design response of Lambhvella home to the site is bold and minimalist. The dense plantation of mango, palm & coconut trees pioneered the placement of the house. Dipen Gada’s love for nature gave the design venture, a platform which overlooks the entire green premises. Simple..
Petite Pomme is a clothing and shoes retail’s child store located in the centre of a small town, which also aims to boost local trade through careful design and by adding value to the shopping experience.
The brand image intends to move away from the historical style of the building. Therefore walls and ceiling blur boundaries to create an unlinked proposal from its shell.
Plan
At the entrance, a backlit polycarbonate wall contrasts sharply with the granite facade, generating a rift between exterior and interior and also providing guidance for the customer.
The first major decision was removing the dropped ceiling, getting back the original height of the retail unit. This movement allows us to establish the strategy of the new design. An open plan space contains the different components such as light walls, counter and fitting rooms, which create a pathway through the store and organise the products.
This elements provide a set of different scales that offers access to the display products and also allows entertainment for children.
Axonometric
Vibrant colours, scenographic lighting and contrasted materials as wood and polycarbonates draws attention to the passerby, enhancing a contemporary design to the neighbourhood.
El proyecto llama la atención sobre el viandante por la contraposición de los materiales (con maderas y policarbonatos), colores vibrantes e iluminación escénica, puesto que se encuentra en una zona donde predomina la piedra tallada, el monocromatismo y la iluminación pública.
Triplex Apartment in Prague is a residential project designed by Markéta Bromová in 2015. It is located in Prague, Czech Republic. Photos by: Veronika Raffajová
Sig Nordal 