Courtesy of de Architekten Cie.

Dutch firm de Architekten Cie. have revealed their design for the Galileo Reference Centre, a new data collection center for the Galileo satellite system in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Primarily housing office space and computer rooms, the center has been designed as a highly efficient and resilient building which can be adapted into the future.   

Courtesy of de Architekten Cie.

The structurally lightweight building sits adjacent to a small bay of sand dunes in the Noordwijk Space Business Park. Wildlife and nature are brought into the building through green terraces aligned to the main functional areas, and the connection between indoor and outdoor is maintained through a “social lobby” which opens up the ground floor. Also functioning as the main circulatory space, the lobby distributes users throughout the building and provides the functional services for the first floor.

Courtesy of de Architekten Cie.

The life-cycle of the building was a driving factor of the design, Primarily comprised of wood, a replenishable resource, the building utilizes prefabricated and composite structures easily disassembled and reassembled. The benefits of using prefabrication, and specifically the pine of the main structure, first floor and roof are threefold. Firstly, the structure is light enough to rest upon the sand; secondly, the structural columns are able to double as wooden partition elements; and lastly, the modular design allows maximum reduction of waste. 

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The facade features a singular repeated component in three different transparencies, from fully opaque to fully transparent. This provides necessary permeability and enclosure in required areas of the building. The future-proofing of the building is exhibited here again, as the interchangeability of the panels will allow the facade to be adapted to internal configuration changes as the building’s program changes.

Courtesy of de Architekten Cie.

Alongside the minimization of material wastage, the building is designed to be highly energy conscious. A series of measurements determined that it will be 35% more efficient than currently required by Dutch building regulations. Construction of the building has been accelerated due to the necessity of its completion and is due to be completed in July 2017.

Courtesy of de Architekten Cie.

• Architects: de Architekten Cie
• Location: Kapteynstraat 1, 2201 BB Noordwijk, The Netherlands
• Architect In Charge: Pero Puljiz
• Design Team: Eric van Noord, Igor Sladoljev, Jeanne Leung, Sander Moerman, Boris van Gorkom, Nico Bos, Andrew Page, Benjamin Russis, Audrey Fischer
• Area: 1500.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of de Architekten Cie.

News via de Architekten Cie.

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© Marc Goodwin

• Architects: Aalto University Wood Program
• Location: Kasarmikatu 24, 00101 Helsinki, Finland
• Studio Name: Wood Program 2016
• Area: 35.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Marc Goodwin, LéaPfister, Courtesy of Aalto University Wood Program

• Tutors: Pekka Heikkinen (FIN), Philip Tidwell (USA), Willem van Bolderen (NLD)
• Students: Alexander Rantanen Barstad (NOR), Akın Cakıroglu (TUR), Eduardo Wiegand (CHL), Ignacio Traver Lafuente (ESP), Ivan Segato (ITA), Käbi Noodapera Ramel (SWE), Kristin Ekkerhaugen (NOR), Léa Pfister (FRA), María Inés Quirarte (MEX), Nicklas Ivarsson (SWE), Satoshi Iiyama (JPN), Sini Koskinen (FIN), Stephanie Jazmines (USA), Taeho Noh(KOR), Tanja Vallaster (AUT), Tomoyo Nakamura (JPN), Toni Lahti (FIN), Yuko Konse (JPN)

© LéaPfister

A modular living system by the Wood Program at Aalto University

As the Nordic countries have recently been experiencing fluctuations in population, it has become apparent that there is a severe shortage of temporary housing solutions for students, asylum seekers, displaced residents, and others with similar short-term needs. 

© LéaPfister

Diagram

Courtesy of Aalto University Wood Program

Courtesy of Aalto University Wood Program

In urban and sub-urban contexts, the pre-fabricated modules can be transported and combined into various configurations to fit numerous sites. Rather than the typical approach of autonomous, deployable containers, Kokoon allows for habitable space that can expand both vertically and horizontally. Additionally, simple approaches to storage, lighting, and spatial division ensure that the interiors are both practical and dignified.

© LéaPfister

Section

© Marc Goodwin

Kokoon is a design / build project from the 2015-2016 Wood Program at Aalto University School of Arts, Design, and Architecture. It was constructed to address the current housing situation in Finland. The three prototype units were finished in Otaniemi and assembled on-site in one day. They are intended to be displayed and used in various locations around Finland over the coming years.

© Marc Goodwin

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The Exposition’s poster, designed by Robert Bonfils. ImageCourtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum

The end of the First World War did not mark the end of struggle in Europe. France, as the primary location of the conflict’s Western Front, suffered heavy losses in both manpower and industrial productivity; the resulting economic instability would plague the country well into the 1920s.[1] It was in the midst of these uncertain times that the French would signal their intention to look not to their recent troubled past, but to a brighter and more optimistic future. This signal came in the form of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Decorative Arts and Modern Industries) of 1925 – a landmark exhibition which both gave rise to a new international style and, ultimately, provided its name: Art Deco.

via Wikimedia

World’s Fairs were not necessarily new in Europe. Since 1851’s seminal Great Exhibition in London’s Crystal Palace, a multitude of similar fairs drew millions of visitors. This tradition was abruptly cut short by the outbreak of World War One, an interruption that would last until the British Empire Exhibition of 1924.[2] Planning for the International Exposition actually began in 1911, but debate over exhibitor criteria and, eventually, the war would delay the opening until April of 1925.[3]

The Exposition, which occupied both banks of the Seine, was tied together by the Pont Alexandre III, itself built for a previous World’s Fair. Imagevia Wikimedia

The Exposition occupied 57 acres in central Paris, stretching from the Esplanade des Invalides across the Pont Alexandre III to the entrances of the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais.[4] Two-thirds of the allotted land was set aside for various French pavilions; the rest was made available to the other participating nations, most of which were European. Germany was notably unrepresented, as lingering tensions from the war meant they were not invited to join the Exposition until it was too late to organize a national pavilion. The United States was also absent, due to a lack of designers whose work met the requirements laid out for display submissions.[5]

The Dutch Pavilion was an example of Expressionist architecture in a largely Moderne fair. ImageCourtesy of the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut

It was these requirements that would set the 1925 Exposition apart from its forebears. The stipulation that ultimately disqualified American participation was that no design could be based on historical styles – everything was required to be exclusively modern. Though it was hoped that the Exposition would reflect the life of the common person, most products displayed were designer goods aimed at the wealthy elite.[6]

Angular geometry characterized Melnikov’s U.S.S.R. Pavilion. Imagevia Wikimedia

As a result of these same requirements, a variety of contemporary architectural styles were utilized in the Exposition’s many pavilions. The pavilion for the nascent Soviet Union, designed by Konstantin Melnikov, was an angular red and white monument to Russian Constructivism realized in wood and glass. The Dutch pavilion, designed by J.F. Staal, was an Expressionist building composed of red brick. Victor Horta’s design for the Belgian pavilion, meanwhile, eschewed the florid Art Nouveau style for which he was known in favor of a stepped, rectilinear structure more in line with the majority of the French pavilions.[7]

Horta’s Belgian Pavilion was a radical departure from his typically curvilinear Art Nouveau style. Imagevia Wikimedia

Despite the presence of these alternative styles, and even a few historicist entries that defied the fair’s guidelines, it was French art moderne that would feature most prominently at the Exposition. Though it was already popular in France by 1925, the Exposition was the first time that this style would be introduced to an international audience. The global influence of the fair was unmistakable in the following decades; in 1966, another Parisian exhibition would rename the style Art Deco in honor of the Exposition that had popularized it.[8]

The sunburst crowning the entrance to the Galeries Lafayette pavilion is a typical element of Art Deco decoration. Imagevia Wikimedia

Art Deco, despite its innate glorification of—and preoccupation with—modernity, was not Modernist in the strict definition of the term. It was not founded upon principles of rationalist engineering or scientific efficiency, instead using motifs and symbols of modernity as a decorative statement. This differentiated it not only from foreign schools like Constructivism and the Bauhaus, but even from the International Style supported by France’s own Le Corbusier.[9] This difference was readily apparent in Le Corbusier’s L’Esprit Nouveau Pavilion, a model apartment that demonstrated his ruthlessly efficient ‘machine à habiter’ without the stylization which defined Art Deco.[10]

The Bon Marché’s pavilion made use of stepped setbacks, another motif frequently seen in Art Deco buildings. Imagevia Wikimedia

Due to its ornamental nature, it is perhaps unsurprising that the most prominent Art Deco structures at the Exposition were not those of architects or countries, but of French businesses and decorative artists. Several notable Parisian department stores—including the Galeries Lafayette, Le Bon Marché, and Le Printemps—set up elaborate pavilions intended to lure attendees in to admire rooms furnished and decorated with consumer products. The exterior façades of these pavilions utilized several common Art Deco motifs, including stylized floral elements, stepped forms, sunbursts, and zigzags. Representatives from various applied and decorative arts employed similar tactics, from book publishers to famed glassmaker René Lalique; the latter had also designed a massive tiered, obelisk Fontaine Lumineuse (Luminous Fountain) with molded-glass caryatids that stood at the center of a neighboring square.[11]

The Luminous Fountain by Lalique was one of the Exposition’s main centerpieces. Imagevia Wikimedia

The most acclaimed pavilion at the Exposition was the showcase for an individual artist, furniture designer Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann. Designed by Pierre Patout, the Hôtel d’un Collectionneur (House for an Art Collector) consisted of a suite of elegantly-decorated rooms laid out around an ovular Grand Salon at the center. These opulent interiors were contained in a stepped, largely rectilinear building decorated with classical bas-reliefs depicting dancers. Critics admired the elegant modernization of traditional forms which, when paired with the luxurious interiors, ultimately earned the hôtel a reputation as one of the greatest achievements of French Art Deco.[12,13]

The Hôtel d’un Collectionneur was a highlight not just of the Exposition, but of French Art Deco in its entirety. Imagevia paris-pepites.fr

During its six month run, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs attracted roughly sixteen million visitors, creating massive international demand for the style to which it ultimately lent its name. In accordance with the organizer’s aims, the Exposition also established France as the arbiter of taste and fashion in the interwar era; Paris itself was put on display as the world’s most fashionable city.[14] But the ramifications of the Exposition Internationale would spread far beyond Paris. Though several similar world’s fairs would follow in subsequent years (including two more in Paris in 1931 and 1937), none would have such a resounding impact as the one which took place in 1925. Time would eventually move past the frenzy of Art Deco that followed the 1925 Exposition, giving way to Modernism in the wake of the Second World War – but no single event would ever have such a profound effect on global design sensibilities ever again.[15]

Plan drawing of the Hôtel d’un Collectionneur. Imagevia maximeold.net

References
[1] Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. “France”, accessed August 09, 2016, [access].
[2] Rydell, Robert W. World of Fairs: The Century-of-progress Expositions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. p3.
[3] Raizman, David Seth. History of Modern Design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004. p155.
[4] Poulin, Richard. Graphic Design and Architecture, a 20th Century History. Beverly, Mass: Rockport Publishers, 2012. p86.
[5] Windover, Michael. Art Deco: A Mode of Mobility. Québec: Presses De L’Université Du Québec, 2012. p120.
[6] Raizman, p155.
[7] Bayer, Patricia. Art Deco Architecture: Design, Decoration, and Detail from the Twenties and Thirties. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1992. p38-40.
[8] Bayer, p12-37.
[9] Pile, John F. A History of Interior Design. New York: Wiley, 2000. p349.|
[10] Bayer, p21-22.
[11] Bayer, p38-46.
[12] “Art Deco: The 1925 Paris Exhibition.” Victoria and Albert Museum. Accessed August 9, 2016. [access].
[13] Bayer, p39.
[14] “Art Deco: The 1925 Paris Exhibition.”
[15] Bayer, p37-38.

• Architects: Various Architects
• Location: Pont Alexandre III, 75008 Paris, France
• Area: 230671.0 sqm
• Project Year: 1925
• Photographs: Courtesy of The Victoria and Albert Museum, via Wikimedia, via paris-pepites.fr, via maximeold.net, Courtesy of the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut

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© Daici Ano

• Architects: MAMM DESIGN
• Location: Tokyo, Japan
• Area: 89.34 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Daici Ano

• Structure Engineer: Ohno JAPAN
• Lighting Designer: LIGHTDESIGN

© Daici Ano

“ondo” is a house with a cafe, having 3 floors, a basement and a roof terrace. On the north side of the plot, the house faces one of the most famous parks in Tokyo. Since the plot is only 38 square meters, it was very important to pay attention to characteristic of the plot which dramatically changes with its vertical level.

© Daici Ano

The first floor, the café, is raised from ground level by 1.1 meter to be aligned with the park level to have pleasant atmosphere of the park and to provide visibility from the park. It is also advantage to make the basement floor with less excavation. On the second floor, a public lavatory and a transformer station come into sight. So the floor has fewer windows from outside but has two skylights. At the top floor level, by building volume regulation, a volume of the south side house has setback. So the floor can have both north and south views. On the rooftop, you can feel as if you were at the tree top.

© Daici Ano

Section

© Daici Ano

As a result, the house consists of two parts. One is “horizontal tube” penetrating from park side to the other side. The part is open to the public. The other is the rest of the volume, just like an ants’ nest, which is, in contrast, totally private space living with skylights.

© Daici Ano

A couple, occupants of the house, had just a few requests. They want to have a café and to maximize the potential of the plot. Now they enjoy moving up and down between the two parts depending on their feeling etc. Rooms and functions are not one-to-one correspondence in the house.

© Daici Ano

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