An urban house, but nevertheless cozy, warm but open to the surroundings, light but also full of shadows, with modern engineering and using natural materials. These were the first clear concepts agreed with the owners for their future home in the Jardins neighborhood of São Paulo.
To this end, we thought to occupy the plot with a single volume that ran parallel to one of its sides, with a view of the dense garden created in front of this prism. The living and dining room — with a double-height ceiling — was centered in this volume and also features an indoor garden throughout the circulating area. The bedrooms, on the first floor, occupy the two ends of the volume and communicate via a walkway that bisects the double-height living room.
Seeking the best angle for sunlight and the most privacy, the pool and terrace were located in the back of the grounds. Large roof eaves, slender structure, transparencies and wood and stone finishing sought to achieve the sensations idealized by the couple for their house.
Until July 3rd, you can experience the latest and last work of artist duo Christo and Jean-Claude. Called The Floating Piers, the floating dock extends over the water of Italy’s Lake Iseo.
The work consists of a three kilometer walkway wrapped in 100,000 square meters of yellow cloth, which is supported by a floating dock system composed of 220,000 high-density polyethylene cubes. These elements naturally undulate with the movement of the waves at Lake Iseo, which is located 100 kilometers east of Milan and 200 kilometers west of Venice. The floating yellow roads extend from the pedestrian streets of Sulzano, connecting the islands of San Paolo and Monte Isola.
The Floating Piers is the first large-scale work of Christo for more than a decade after making The Gates in 2005 with Jeanne-Claude, who passed away four years later. Due to the importance of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work and the inspiration they have given to many architects, we wanted to investigate the process of building this spectacular project, which makes the dream of walking on water a reality.
August 2014: At the textile manufacturer, Setex, 90,000 square meters of shimmering yellow fabric are produced. (Greven, Germany)
January 2016: At a factory in Fondotoce at Lago Maggiore, 200,000 high-density polyethylene cubes are manufactured over a period of eight months before delivery to the work site in Montecolino
January 2016: At the headquarters in Montecolino, construction workers assemble the piers, which are assembled in 100-meter-long segments and stored outside Montecolino on Lake Iseo
February 2016: Aerial view of the project’s building yard on the Montecolino peninsula and the parking area for the thirty 100 by 16 meter sections on Lake Iseo.
March 2016: A diver connects a rope made of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), covered with a polyester protective layer with a breaking load of 20 metric tons, to one of the anchors on the lakebed to keep the piers in place.
April 2016: Frames are attached underneath the cubes to the deadweight anchors on the lakebed with rope made of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), covered with a polyester protective layer and with a breaking load of 20 metric tons.
April 2016: Aerial view of the project’s building yard on the Montecolino peninsula and the parking area for the thirty 100 by 16 meter sections on Lake Iseo.
May 2016: The felt that will cover the cubes underneath the yellow fabric is transported from Montecolino to San Paolo island by Elimast Helicopter Service.
Junio 2016: From the evening of June 15 to the evening of June 17, teams unfurl 100,000 square meters of shimmering dahlia-yellow fabric on the piers and pedestrian streets in Sulzano and Peschiera Maraglio
London Festival of Architecture 2016:a soup servery, a rubbish bin-cum-play space and a flat-pack pop-up shop form part of an exhibition that explores how architecture can contribute to city communities (+ slideshow). (more…)
A proposal from George Batzios Architects for the Konaki Averof Cultural Center in Greece uses a cutting edge, sustainable approach to revive a deeply historical site. The design intertwines elements of architecture and agriculture to refit an existing structure with reference to the Thessalian plains on which it lies. The new architecture recreates the existing envelopes with straw cladding, regenerating the “golden environment” which defined the place in the late 19th century.
The structure is scattered among the ruins of buildings in the Thessalian plains, a vast site that once functioned as the granary of the Greek territory and beyond. Georges Batzios propose that the historical architecture cannot simply be reinterpreted as a copy, as the landscape has evolved to the extent that the original architecture is no longer functional. The urban life that existed there has become superseded by the growing urbanization of nearby Larissa, and the vibrancy of the existing structures has faded.
Courtesy of Georges Batzios Architects
The architects propose that the unique characteristics of Konaki Averof are invigorated by combining the qualities of the old with the capability of modern construction technology. The context and the addition relate dominantly through materiality, enabling the refitting of the building to revitalize “the site, not only the artifact.”
Courtesy of Georges Batzios Architects
The Thessalian land traditionally bore golden wheat crops, which is directly translated into the evolved building’s primary material: straw. The exposed straw is compressed and forms the entire outer skin of the building. This construction technique, developed in Northern Europe, is here used to this extent for the first time. The material’s insulation capabilities are able to reduce 95% of the building’s energy needs, creating a passive thermal environment. Visually, it presents a golden glow, reinstating the lost color and texture of the plains.
Courtesy of Georges Batzios Architects
The main area of the building contains two levels; the ground floor, which houses the functionality of the building, and the attic, which becomes the “social playground.” The two are rationalized in completely different ways, the first a clear segregation of programmatic elements and the latter a public open space, able to be used freely.
Courtesy of Georges Batzios Architects
The proposition was developed as a response to the Konaki Averof Cultural Center Competition, in which Georges Batzios received second place.
From the architect. This children’s area is linked to the new world headquarters of Japan Tobacco International in Geneva. Located between two imposing buildings, the headquarters of JTI and WMO, the nursery school is envisaged as an ‘inhabited landscape’. The building is based on a regular frame and alternating arches in offset bands which are spread out across the whole site and form the body of the building which is covered by a vegetated roof. This structural principle generates either sheltered spaces when the arch is convex, or open spaces which serve as an interior playground when it is concave. The Origami nursery school derives its specific nature from the way in which it varies a repetitive geometrical principle. There is a mixture of structural materials, the mullions, transoms and uprights being in metal and the horizontal caissons in wood.
Its architectural design can be described as the theatrical staging of the landscape aspect of the building. The entrance is created by lowering the core layer giving access to the centre of the site. On entering one discovers play areas in relation with outside amenities and intersecting views between the different sections.
Nguyen’s house is a residential project designed by 7A architecture studio in 2015. It is located in Dak Lak Province, Vietnam. Nguyen’s House by 7A architecture studio: “NsH (Nguyen’s House) was built in a new residential area in Buon Ma Thuot city. Owners of the house were young parents living with their two kids, desiring a simple, warm and spacious house with plenty of light, and cost savings in construction…
Once dubbed a “flying saucer,” the Parish (Church) of the Holy Sacrifice is a Modernist expression which embodies the complex colonial history of the Philippines. Located on a university campus in Quezon City (formerly the capital of the nation, now a part of the Metro Manila National Capital Region), the domed concrete church was the product of Filipino architect Leandro Locsin, and of three other national artists who contributed to the building’s interior.[1] Locsin’s design, which combines elements of traditional Filipino architecture with postwar International aesthetics, is a potent symbol of a newly-independent nation following centuries of imperial control.
The Republic of the Philippines was one of the many governments to rise from the ashes of the Second World War. The new country’s independence on July 4, 1946, saw the Filipino people liberated from imperial control for the first time since Spain took control of the archipelago in the late 16th Century. The colony passed from Spain to the United States in 1898 as a result of the Paris Treaty that ended the Spanish-American war. Plans to transition the colony to independence were delayed by the outbreak of the war and subsequent Japanese invasion in 1941. At the war’s end, the Philippines was finally given its long-awaited freedom, but at enormous cost: its capital, Manila, had been almost totally destroyed during Japan’s retreat from the islands.[2]
Courtesy of Wikimedia user Ramon FVelasquez
One of the most prominent architectural losses caused by the conflict were the country’s many Catholic churches. Catholicism had reigned supreme on the islands since the arrival of conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565; the missionaries attending him, along with their brethren to follow, erected hundreds of Baroque, Neo-Gothic, and Rococo churches throughout the Spanish imperial era. These structures, which typically dominated the central squares of colonial communities and served as fortifications for the Japanese, became primary targets toward the end of the occupation. When the time came to rebuild, the process was carried out by a new wave of architects trained or influenced by the United States – among them, Leandro Locsin.[3]
Locsin studied at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila between 1947 and 1953. The prevailing trend in Filipino architectural practice at the time was to emulate the Modernist architecture of the West, an attitude which stemmed from the impression that such buildings represented order, progress and sophistication. More traditional architecture, especially indigenous design, was popularly seen as unsophisticated. Although Locsin worked in the Modernist style, he was noted as being one of the only contemporary designers to capture a “distinct Philippine look” in his designs.[4]
Courtesy of Wikimedia user Ramon FVelasquez
Shortly after Locsin’s graduation from the UST, he was commissioned by Frederic Ossorio to design a school chapel for the Victorias Milling Corporation. Once the design was underway, however, Ossorio was called away to the United States, and the project ultimately fell through. In 1954, Locsin met Father John Delaney, who was seeking an architect to design a chapel for the University of the Philippines campus at Diliman. With permission from Ossorio, Locsin adapted his previous design for the university.[5]
Delaney’s primary directive for the project was that the chapel should reflect the spirit of the youths who would worship there. Noting that the students tended to sing the Mass in unison, Locsin drafted a circular plan that dissolved the traditional boundary between the congregation and choir.[6] This egalitarian sensibility was further enforced by the placement of the altar at the center of the chapel; a symbolic gesture that, while in line with Delaney’s wishes, was found ill-suited to traditionally linear Catholic rites. There was no single, defined entry point, with several entrances distributed evenly around the perimeter of the chapel. The space was sheltered by a concrete dome, supported by reinforced columns and a ring beam; the apparent lightness of this structure earned the Parish its nickname, “the flying saucer.”[7]
Courtesy of Wikimedia user Ramon FVelasquez
The decentralized, open nature of the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice forced Locsin to use vertical dimensions and light to define independent spaces. The low ceiling forming the rim of the chapel promotes movement from the exterior to the interior of the space, humbling visitors as they enter into a place of worship. The transition from the glaring tropical daylight of the Philippines to a shaded concrete passage further emphasizes the sense of movement toward a different, sacred, environment. Once one passes through the peripheral ring, the ceiling rises toward the apex of the dome, which is brightly lit by clerestory windows at the dome’s base – a gesture that simultaneously unifies the worship space and differentiates it from the surrounding passage, all without the use of boundary walls.[8]
Locsin’s chapel initially appears to eschew Filipino tradition entirely, favoring the contemporary design sensibilities of the Western nations that had, until just nine years earlier, been a controlling architectural vocabulary in the Philippines for centuries. The concrete shell dome was, at the time, a new development in Asia – a form without precedent in regional architectural tradition. However, while colonial churches in the Philippines were noted for massive, bottom-heavy walls to withstand frequent earthquakes, the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice’s shell is characterized by visible lightness; at its summit, the dome is only ten centimeters thick. This suspended lightness hints not at Spanish or American influences, but at a traditional Filipino forebear: the bahay kubo (“cube house”).[9]
Example of a typical "bahay kubo". ImageCourtesy of Flickr user Neil Bryan Sietereales
The bahay kubo, the traditional indigenous home built in the Philippines, comprises a single-room house built of bamboo with a steep thatched roof, set atop stilts. The elevation and permeable walls keep the bahay kubo ventilated, cool, and dry – highly desirable qualities in the tropics.[10] The elevation of the house gives it the appearance of suspension in midair, a quality Locsin mimicked for the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice’s dome.[11]
Courtesy of Wikimedia user Ramon FVelasquez
The Parish of the Holy Sacrifice was formally inaugurated on December 20, 1955, with a midnight candlelight procession. Almost immediately, the chapel became a popular center for the faithful in Metro Manila, a status it retains to this day.[12] It is also an enduring symbol of what Locsin himself referred to as a “hybrid culture;” while many Filipino architects continue to emulate the aesthetics of contemporary American architecture, Locsin’s “flying saucer” remains one of the few prominent examples of distinctly Filipino Modernist design.[13,14]
References
[1] “The University” (PDF). University of the PhilippinesDiliman. Retrieved 3 May 2014. [access] p8. [2]Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. “Philippines”, accessed June 22, 2016, [access] [3] Rodell, Paul A. Culture and Customs of the Philippines. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. p82-85. [4] Paredes-Santillan, Caryn. “A Study on Bipolarity in the Architecture of Leandro V. Locsin.” Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering JJABE 8, no. 1 (2009): 1-8. p3-4. [5] “The University.” p8. [6] De Ayala, Fernando Zóbel. “The Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice at the University of the Philippines.” Philippine Studies 5, no. 1 (1957): 1-8. [access]. p2-7. [7] Paredes-Santillan, Caryn. “Approaching The Sacred: A Study Of The Spatial Manifestations Of Liminality In The Churches Of Leandro V. Locsin.” Accessed June 22, 2016. [access]. p4-7. [8] Paredes-Santillan, “Approaching the Sacred.” p8-9. [9] Ogura, Nobuyuki, David Leonides T. Yap, and Kenichi Tanoue. “Modern Architecture in the Philippines and the Quest for Filipino Style.” Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering JJABE 1, no. 2 (November 2002): 233-38. p237. [10] Hila, Ma Corazon A. Arkitektura: An Essay on Philippine Ethnic Architecture. Manila: Sentrong Pangkultura Ng Pilipinas, 1992. p11. [11] Ogura et al, p237. [12] De Ayala, p8. [13] Paredes-Santillan, “A Study on Bipolarity in the Architecture of Leandro V. Locsin.” p8. [14] Ogura et al, p238.
Wooden slats and bleachers provide the multi-faceted volume of this waterfront sauna by Avanto Architects, allowing visitors to climb the roof for a better view of the sea or to lounge in the sun (+ slideshow). (more…)
