Hamonic Masson is envisioning a new Casablanca via the redesign of its financial district, Casa Anfa. The Paris-based firm, which just won a city-sponsored competition to pioneer a transformation of the area, has unveiled big plans for Lot 65-2. The plans respond to questions on the urban scale as well as preservation and sustainability.
“Form and urbanity” underscore the project’s drive for reimagining the links between high-rise entities in the Moroccan city.
The firm stresses the powerful architectural heritage of Casablanca as a driving force in thinking of the project as a means to bring a new form and new identity – along with heightened attention to biodiversity – in Casa Anfa.
Hamonic Masson’s proposal for the renewal of Casa-Anfa draws upon the cultural heritage of Morocco in addition to the sustainability and form of the project. Lot 65-2 presents new ways of living for residents in the district, but, more broadly, challenges citizens across Casablanca to reconsider the area as a focal point of the city.
The Community of Municipalities of the Pays des Herbiers was created in 1995. It enables eight municipalities in the region of Vendée to share resources and competencies in the fields of economic development, town planning, environment, and standard of living. Like the rest of the Vendée, the Pays des Herbiers is a rural area with a strong sense of identity. It is also economically very robust and home to numerous companies active at the national level.
The new Hôtel des Communes (Community of Municipalities offices) was built as an extension of the Herbiers City Hall, a mid-19th century mension situated in a public park. The contemporary architecture of the new building provides its citizens with a custom, high-performing tool that reconciles landscape, architectural heritage, and modernity. It is an expression of the region’s territorial influence and of the high level local cooperation.
The Hôtel des Communes represents a sculptural kind of architecture that approaches Land Art. It is a smart and spectacular building that capitalizes on the strengths of its site – the public park, the trees, and the current city hall – to insert itself gently into the landscape.
Supple and athletic, it coils around the existing trees, surrounding them to preserve them. It pushes up into the sky and outward into the park, finding its place without upsetting the harmoniousness of the place. It slaloms lightly and gracefully, and its skin uses the path of the sun to its best advantage.
Despite its size, it only reveals part of its whole. The visible sides, which are proportionate to the surrounding buildings, blend into the urban landscape, while its curves and texture make the building a singular event in the town. As an installation, it hides from view under the reflection of the surrounding landscape on its skin, as if it were a chameleon.
The intelligence of the building’s form resides in the way it increases the size of the façade and thus the workspaces while reducing the technical areas to their necessary minimum. Offices in the Hôtel des Communes are grouped into compact, effective clusters to create greater work synergies. The ground floor hosts the offices that provide public services (civil registrar, marriage hall, etc.). The spaces on the upper floors were designed to be effective and flexible, on the basis of the principle of modular offices. The curving and counter-curving circulations connect one space to another. They allow people to walk through the building or enter the existing town hall fluidly, with a sense of continuity, all the while remaining immersed in the surrounding park’s greenery.
Space With Flow is a private residence located in Taiwan. It was designed by Alfonso Ideas. Space With Flow by Alfonso Ideas: “This is an mezzanine space that has 3 bedroom ,one dining kitchen and one living area it consists of 3 different floor level where the living area is 2.8 m (918ft) high, master bedroom down below is 1.95m (6.4ft) high , 2 other bedrooms upstairs are 1.9m (6.2ft)..
From the architect. In response to both the temporality of the facility and the context where is located, Peris+Toral stands up for a detachable and reusable construction that minimizes the trace on the territory: a scaffolding system as structure and formal solution of the project.
This temporary facility built a year ago by the Catalan practice Peris+Toral, is part of the provisional urbanization of the Glòries Square in Barcelona. With this project, the studio reasserts a new way of working and enhances its search for new solutions and constructive processes.
The facility is thought to be an information point, an exhibition area about the proposed project of the square and rental point of electric bicycles. Is located in a crossroads of pedestrian circulations; which crosses the square towards the sea-mountain and another which transversely connects the two nearby facilities: nursery oaks and the new pergola.
Axonometric
Axonometric
In its temporary condition, the construction is subtly integrated into the transformational environment of Glòries Square. Its linear shape, materials and its structural system highlight both their ephemeral character and the idea of permeability. Along these lines, scaffolding acts as a support of the three envelopes necessary to provide habitability to the construction: an impermeable and translucent polycarbonate skin, a shade mesh and a metal mesh as a protection.
The areas which host the internal program and services are solved by two structural prefabricated modules of site hut, whereas wood on the pavement and on the transverse thresholds provide warmer areas in the facility.
Single Family House Vallès Oriental is a private home located in Spain. Completed in 2016, it was designed by YLAB Arquitectos Barcelona. Single Family House Vallès Oriental by YLAB Arquitectos Barcelona : “Located in a beautiful valley in the south of the Maresme Mountains, this home was designed to capture the magnificent views of the coastal mountain range with pine and holm oak forests. The clients, a Scandinavian family, wanted..
This project referred to our office when its structure was totally built. And according to client’s demand the ground and basement floor were assigened as commercial spaces and every other levels designed as official saloons with enough flexibility to be divided into different patterns.
After visiting the project site one point attracted all attentions and it was the constant green line of trees across the street that they were hiding the most part of all neighbor buildings façade behind itself. But because of our building extreme height it was appearing as a disharmonious spot across the street and trees were unable to hide its face.
So minimizing this disharmony and adopting our building with its context was the main goal in designing procedure.
Section
We decided to choose a linear and vertical geometry for the main division of façade as we had this geometry in trees standing across the street. And also we tried to find a way for continuing the greenery of trees on building’s face. After primary division on building facade we assigned some parts as green zones. And by transforming the surfaces to volumes we had some double skin and semi-opened spaces for making greenery in there.
So with this method not only we had many freshness inside, but also the movement of plants toward outside and running on building face could create some relation between building and its context in people minds.
We chose brick as main material because of historical characteristic of our city and we used wood as a complementary for having more harmony with environment.
The MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, located in the northern Thai city of Chiangmai, a thriving art and cultural center, has been created to house an important private collection of Thai and regional art.
To present the collection, an old warehouse was dramatically transformed into a dynamic space that provides a well-facilitated platform for a wide range of activities. While the industrial spirit of the warehouse has been maintained, light wells that brighten and illuminate the interior space have been created with the use of local materials. In addition to the gallery space, a front section of the building was designed for support activities.
From the exterior, the museum immediately draws attention because the main façade is clad with thousands of small, decorative mirror tiles that reflect light, a decorative technique inspired by traditional Thai temple architecture. However, here new techniques of installation have been applied to create tile patterns that explore contemporary art expressions. The reflections help to dissolve the wall into the surroundings and vice versa, while at the same time, calling the attention of passersby with the lightness of the architecture.
Senior Associate In Charge Of Product Design: Brian Lo
Product Designer: Zhao Yun
Associate In Charge Of Graphic Design: Christine Neri
Graphic Designer: Haiou Xin
Architectural Materials: Pre-cast exposed fine aggregate concrete, Electroplated Bronze, American Ash wood (floor & wall finish), Clear Glass, Grey Mirror, Green leather, Gray leather, Wood laminate
Courtesy of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
From the architect. Robin Evans’ 1978 essay Figures, Doors and Passages analyzes how ordinary elements of a plan and their arrangements interact and shape occupancy. A simple corner or window opening is in fact inscribed with a complex matrix of spatial relationships that determine how a space is used. Neri&Hu’s design for Bloomberg Hong Kong’s internal office stair is in part inspired by the mundane elements of space-making – windows, passages, staircases and thresholds. The client’s brief was to design a staircase to connect the 3 different floors of their office with the explicit rule that this stair should to be used daily as the only vertical connection within the office to encourage employee interaction. Part of the brief was to also create a design that would respond to the locale of Hong Kong to create a link to the larger context of the city. The site is situated in the client’s existing office, within a typical office tower and surrounded by existing conference rooms, break-out areas, a recording studio and an auditorium. The existing spiral staircase was sculpturally iconic but the geometry was not conducive for the daily high traffic volume. Our challenge was re-design a staircase that would work within the structural limitations of the knock-out panels in the floor slab, while still creating a more spacious journey.
Courtesy of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
Courtesy of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
The new staircase integrates elements of platforms, landings, built-in seating and strategic window framing that echo what one may find in the extremes of Hong Kong’s natural landscape and urban terrain. Expressed as a wooden box insertion, the staircase massing actively denies the view to Victoria Harbor (a typically sought after and framed view in Hong Kong corporate offices) and instead focuses on framing activity within the office while still offering curated views out. Enclosed in a light ash wood massing, with exposed fine aggregate concrete treads and bronze metal railing accents, the staircase winds and turns to offer unexpected views – through windows, up double height cuts, down large voids and across to surrounding programs. Recessed barrisol lighting was designed to mimic natural skylight cuts in the ceiling.
Courtesy of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
Section
Courtesy of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
Each of the three levels is designed with different functions to accommodate a diverse set of vertical programs. The journey begins on the 25th floor reception, expressed as a carved niche with a window framing the harbor view beyond. This level is designed to be the most extroverted in nature with a large event space stage for gatherings, built in benches on the perimeter as well as dedicated areas for small break-out group seating. The niche seating was also inspired in part by the break-out meeting pods that were displaced in the enlarged staircase scheme; rather than reinstating these as separate meeting spaces, we integrated functional seating and meeting areas into the architectural language of the staircase. Upon closer interaction with the millwork, hidden bespoke details are revealed to the user within these seating niches – small wood and bronze panels fold out to reveal charging ports, mirrors, and functional ledges where a cup of coffee or cell phone may be placed – unexpected details in support of the ordinary rituals of daily office life.
Courtesy of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
Continuing up to the 26th floor, different views are framed along the circulation path. Given that the Bloomberg recording studio is located on this level along with conference rooms, the idea was to create a more introverted space to address issues of acoustic containment and visual privacy. The mass is split into two boxes, allowing the landing to become the threshold zone that visually opens up to the harbor view along the curtain wall on one side and linked to a passage to the conference rooms on the other. The visual framing also satisfied the client’s request to provide a controlled glimpse or “borrowed scene” of the activated staircase from the recording studio as a filming background. In consideration of the more quiet nature of this floor, built-in seating facing the harbor view side is provided for solitary respite.
Courtesy of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
On the final level of the 27th floor, the staircase opens up again to be more extroverted to bring in views of the surroundings. The massing is reduced further in scale, punctuated with larger openings and clear glass to provide expansive views. A cantilevered viewing podium is designed as part of the auditorium break-out space to provide dramatic views down the multiple levels and the journey culminates in a lounge facing the harbor view.
Courtesy of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
Through careful composition and juxtaposition, the ordinary vignettes we take for granted on a daily basis, especially in an office typology, are choreographed into a rich journey that allows for moments of chance encounters, of pause and informal conversations.
