Gandhi Ashram. Image © Charles Correa Associates

The second annual Z-Axis Conference, organised by the Charles Correa Foundation, will center on the notion of Buildings As Ideas. Held in the western Indian city of Goa at the Kala Academy, one of Correa’s later projects, the conference is a tribute to his memory and belief that “buildings are ideas that manifest and take form.” Jean Pierre Crousse, of Lima-based practice Barclay & Crousse, will open the conference with the keynote address; other international speakers include Camilo Rebelo, Ilze Wolff, Yung Ho Chang, Dick van Gameren and ArchDaily‘s James Taylor-Foster.

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

Conference Timetable. Image Courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation

You find out more about the conference, which will run between the 1st and 3rd September 2016, here. Public registration is online here.

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© Filip Dujardin

• Architects: ORG Permanent Modernity + C2O Architects
• Location: Asse, Belgium
• Area: 8100.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Filip Dujardin, Franki Construct

• Consultants: Grontmij NV (Structural, Mechanical), Venac (Acoustics)

© Filip Dujardin

The project is the result of a competition initiated in 2009 by the Town of Asse, Belgium for a regional fire station and a youth center. The site (a brownfield of formerly asphalt production industries) is located on the outer edge of the Town Center. Beyond the ring road the landscape is open, rural. A “land-form” concept was developed as a means to preserve existing landscape features and create a dialogue between the new buildings. The land form is scaled appropriately to the landscape and organizes the new buildings – a youth center and a fire station – into one common shape. As a singular and bounded entity, the form does not suggest sprawling growth in any direction, but rather offers a clear vision for future landscape, infrastructure and building decisions. 

Diagram

A subtle bend in the landform and building denotes the principal entrance to the site. A clear solution had to be found for addressing the public functions given the multiple buildings (where is the front door?). As opposed to a strip of buildings with a parking lot to serve as the main orienting device, a public plaza between the youth center and the fire station serves as a formal front. Custom pavements, markings, road obstacles, street furniture, lighting, local trees and plant species, and a smooth topographic contour break down the scale of this large universally accessible plane. 

© Filip Dujardin

© Filip Dujardin

The plaza acts as a ‘town square’, gathering and distributing the many building users: pedestrians, cyclists, cars, buses, emergency vehicles, and fire trucks. Both the fire officers and youth center have staged public events and festivals in the square. It is within the public plaza where a fundamental ideological basis for the project is confirmed. Upon entering the plaza: the site, form, and scale akin to a “Big-Box” setting are designed to create a civic environment. 

Plan

Plan

The Fire station has a solid, sober, and functional appearance and maintains a banality characteristic of Big Box typologies. Building voids in and around the programmatic spaces reveal the buildings economical and repetitive construction logic. However, through detailing precision, material joints, alignments, and finishes –any sense that this is a conventional building technology is disrupted. 

© Filip Dujardin

© Filip Dujardin

Within the building, a circulation corridor cuts through the programmatic spaces, extends vertically via a long continuous stairway, and follows the curve of the building. The upper levels, which house the private living and sleeping quarters of the fire officers, are formally distinguished. Four volumes, each with different functions (kitchen, dining, private rooms, gymnasium), roof slopes, and separated by roof gardens are supported and punctuated by red painted glue laminated beams.

© Filip Dujardin

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© Simone Bossi

• Architects: duearchitetti
• Location: 21100 Varese, Province of Varese, Italy
• Architect In Charge: duearchitetti
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Simone Bossi

© Simone Bossi

From the architect. The house is located in a scenically privileged position, high on a hillside in a residential settlement  in which a small church also is a part The dominant view and an excellent south-west exposure are a tangible presence in every  space of the house.

© Simone Bossi

We have been working on a project maintaining the originally thought out architectural  concept including two levels in order to adapt the design to the steep slope of the ground.

© Simone Bossi

The lower level presents a longitudinal and hypogean development integrated in the hillside as a natural stone terrace. Here you will find bedrooms, studio and fitness zone.  Centralness and individuality characterize, on the contrary, the upper level of the living area that, as a rock is resting on the structure and thus remains fixed, has become the principal entrance from the high-positioned street. On this level the outdoor spaces take a longitudinal trend; towards north the pool is going out from the section of the stone wall, on the opposite side a large terrace opens itself on the top of the garage.

Detail

The project challenge, which we have felt important from the beginning, has been how to succeed in managing, in the inside of the house, all of the outside nature, the many types of sky with different and strong weather conditions, without conflicting emotions.

© Simone Bossi

Observation and protection have become the objectives of the project.The will to involve all the outside beauty is coexisting with the opposite approach to create intimacy and concentration inside the house.
On one side you have large glass surfaces which as a segmented diaphragm opens the house to the scenic nature, on the other side wooden wings and functional elements that are carrying us into the organism of the house, tracing flowing and continuous passages along the glass surfaces for then to enter the semi-darkness of the inner spaces.

© Simone Bossi

The definition of the organism has also taken shape from the comprehension of the dynamics of two persons’ common life with different rhythms and characters: identify and understand each person’s liberty, the areas to divide and those to protect. This is transferred into a flowing, continuous space without interruptions. The borders are not defined, the spaces are changing following the rhythmic moments of the day. Big full-height sliding panels are modeling ideal rooms, creating fissures for company, light and curiosity like a dynamic play. We didn’t want it to be necessary to “close a door” in order to isolate a room.

© Simone Bossi

A further control of the project has been the attention to the dynamics of the natural borders of light and shadow which are drawn on the floor at the different moments of the day. The concrete floor of the upper level emphasizes and highlights the contrast between light and darkness; the borders in the afternoon seem sharp and precise. On the contrary,  the wooden floor of the lower level absorbs and mitigates the differences; the shadow tones are softer, the atmosphere more relaxing.

© Simone Bossi

Outside near the windows of the living room the pool water is reflecting the variability of the sky. Inside, within a short distance, the fire of a brazier placed on the floor creates heat and gives company in the cold winter days.

© Simone Bossi

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© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

• Architects: Itten+Brechbühl
• Location: Chemin du Genévrier 20, 1806 Saint-Légier-La Chiésaz, Switzerland
• Area: 11657.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

• Site Operator: RIMC Suisse Hotels & Resorts, Zürich
• Project Manager: Petra Stump-Lys
• Principal Collaborators: Philippe Béchet, Niels Ruppel, Patrick Burgy
• General Contractor: HRS Real Estate SA, St-Sulpice
• Civil Engineer: TBM Ingénieurs SA, Vevey
• Hvac: Pierre Chuard Ingénieurs Conseils SA,
• Electrical Engineer: PAB Sàrl, Corserey
• Sanitary Engineer: Fluides Concept SA, Romanel-sur-Lausanne
• Landscape Architect: In Situ SA, Montreux
• Artist: Charles Morgan
• Owner: Arco Real Estate Properties SA, Vevey

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

From the architect. Designed by the architectural practice of IttenBrechbühl and constructed by the main contractor HRS, Modern Times Hotel enjoys a perfect location amongst the hills above the town of Vevey. It sits adjacent to the motorway for easy access by car, only a stones-throw from the new Charlie Chaplin Museum with the mountains, the heart of Vevey itself, and the famous UNESCO World Heritage site of the Lavaux vineyards closeby. Thanks to its highly visible location, the buildings seems to welcome its visitors with open arms just after they leave the main road. Modern Times Hotel has become a new gateway to the region and is emblematic of Charlie Chaplin’s presence in Vevey.

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

At the very heart of nature

The hotel is located between the main roads to the north and the quiet residential quarter of the town to the south which is still under development. By way of its position, lying parallel to the hillside, the building itself both defines and serves to protect the whole of the buildable area of the site.

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Site Plan

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

The building is perfectly embedded into the naturally sloping topography of the site taking full advantage of its relief and surrounded by a large landscaped garden. At the heart of this park one may walk amongst the colours of the Mediterranean and come across a small pond adjacent to the main terrace on the Southern aspect of the hotel. Protected by a canopy, the terrace offers great views to the mountainside of the “Rochers de Naye”.

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

A dynamic facade

The building stretches along the length of the site but its façade has been designed as a rhythm of elements broken by only two folds which announce the main entrance to the hotel and the location of the restaurant. Ribbons of metal that run all around the building otherwise highlight its horizontality. Panels of warmly coloured vertical glazing– brown, bronze, and grey – give the building an elegant, yet calm, character. The northern façade of the hotel reads as a sequence of planes which change in their appearance according ones particular viewpoint and also with the changing natural light.

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

A sequence of surroundings

The ground floor is a unique and open space featuring the main reception, restaurant, lounge bar, and conference facilities. The different activities function independently of the main hotel and allow it to have a life all through the year. The decor of the different spaces are distinguished by their own particular atmosphere: In the reception area, a large kinetic sculpture commissioned from the artist Charles Morgan and inspired by Chaplin’s  lm “Modern Times” adds metallic touches to a colour palette which is predominantly black and white; in the conference rooms, an elegant floor of solid oak; fresh and lively colours of purples, oranges, and blues give the lounge bar the feeling of a New York speakeasy; the restaurant features Versailles parquet flooring and its atmosphere is more intimate with large lamps illuminating a softer palette of beige and grey punctuated by blues and greens.

© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

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© Le Anh Duc

• Architects: Landmak Architecture
• Location: Hòa Lạc, Thạch Thất, Hà Nội, Vietnam
• Architect In Charge: Ta Tien Vinh, Truong Tuan Chung
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Le Anh Duc

• Design Team: Le Minh Hoang, Ngo Hung, Tran Viet Phu, Nguyen Thao, Vu Nam Son, Pham Dinh Hanh, Dang Viet Anh

© Le Anh Duc

From the architect. This house is built on a bad land shape which is separated from the narrowest part of a large land. It has ugly shape and is most cramped. In suburban, people often build houses on very large land plots, therefore, the small area (in comparison with the land in this area) is paid less attention to build a house.

© Le Anh Duc

It is almost abandoned until a young man buys it at cheap price. He is my relative and he would like me to design it. We face the situation that the land is located far from center and local construction workers are not professional and illegible with architectural drawings.

Section

Section

It is really hard for us to develop a special concept with much details when implementing. We have considered the designed solutions so much and finally we choose a very practical and minimalist concept. A skin is made of brick with hollow to create the void in the most tapering angle in front of the land, it is used for planting trees to provide privacy to the interior, separates from road but still enables good ventilation and lighting for the living room and the front façade. At the back of land, in the most tapering edge, a void is created and we make a concrete panel which is hung 70cm above ground with the cupboard below and the garden above. This design enables the light, ventilation, and creates depth for kitchen and dining room (originally it is very narrow area).

© Le Anh Duc

The remaining spaces are bedrooms, stair, roof, toilets which are designed minimally and practically to maximize space utilization and minimize construction cost.
The house is complete with the joy of the host and create new exciting atmosphere to residents walking across the road in front of the house.

© Le Anh Duc

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