New York-based SHoP Architects has beaten Adjaye Associates and Snøhetta in a competition to design a centre for war veterans at Syracuse University (+ slideshow). (more…)
Planning and Landscape firm SLA Architects with Saunders Architecture have won an international competition to redesign Hans Tavsens Park and its surrounding area in the central Copenhagen borough of Nørrebro. The competition tasked architects with envisioning a park and streetscape that would benefit the hydrological, biological and social ecosystems of the neighborhood. The winning proposal, titled The Soul of Nørrebro, tackles the challenge by creating a system of drainage areas and an adaptable park designed to redirect runoff and contain and purify water during flood conditions.
Located on relatively flat land and along the water, Nørrebro is particularly susceptible to the effects of heavy rain. During particularly torrential rains, referred to as cloudbursts, flooding of major roads and basements is common. Excess water runs directly into Peblinge Lake, one of Copenhagen’s three distinct rectangular shaped lakes, pulling with it dirt or debris from the street.
To mitigate these issues, the 140 million DKK (20 million US Dollars) proposed design will use Hans Tavsens Park to act as a rainwater catchment basin capable to holding up to 18,000 cubic meters of water at a time. The rainwater will then be naturally filtered as it is slowly led into Peblinge Lake through planted drainage paths located along Korsgade, an existing street. The irrigation paths will provide a new identity and microclimate to the street, becoming a visible part of the cityscape.
The new park will feature courts and fields for a variety of sports that will serve as retention areas during flooding, a fountain, playground and pathways to the adjacent cemetery. As it travels toward the lake, the drainage basin will also pass by Blågaards School, where it will provide irrigation for gardens and playspaces tended to by school classes. Along Korsgade, the drainage ways will serve as a barrier between the road and sidewalk, emptying into a final biotope along the lake edge.
“Our solution is based on creating a robust city nature that both solves the specific problem of handling torrential rain to avoid flooding, while at the same time creating a new and coherent series of urban spaces that offer stronger social community, greener and more natural experiences and new, creative opportunities for all Copenhageners,” says Stig L. Andersson, partner and design director of SLA.
Construction is set to begin in 2019, with an expected completion date in 2022.
This residential building makes the most of a tiny space that enjoys a privileged location on a chamfered sidewalk street corner.
The public space takes the lead. The strong volumen of the building steps back on the corner to emphasize the main access.
The building consists in two prisms whose facades face both streets. Each prism hides several homes. These prisms join on the stairs of the building that can be seen from the outside through a hole that “walks” the facade vertically from top to bottom. This hole both gives light and air to the interior of the building.
The terraces of the facade unify the holes also maximize the entrance of natural light. They are lined inside with phenolic panels wood-coloured that deliver a sense of depth and warmth to the interiors. The lattice guarantees privacy also invigorates the elevation.
EU referendum: the EU referendum was “nothing like democracy” according to designer Nelly Ben Hayoun, who is urging fellow creatives to join a protest in central London tomorrow. (more…)
As part of ArchDaily’s coverage of the 2016 Venice Biennale, we are presenting a series of articles written by the curators of the exhibitions and installations on show.
The Venice Biennale of Architecture is an integral part of architectural culture. However, this year’s cycle “Reporting from the Front” is more unique, highlighting the capacity and potential of architecture’s role inside communities; “architecture makes the difference”, as 2016 Venice Biennale director Alejandro Aravena puts it.
The Egyptian pavilion commissioned and curated by Architect Ahmad Hilal with a team composed of Eslam Salem, Gabriele Secchi, Luca Borlenghi and Mostafa Salem, seeks to reveal various successful stories of architecture narrating the difficulties and challenges inside the Egyptian built environment. The works inside the pavilion reveal how architecture is actively creating change in communities. Nowhere are these confrontations more evident than in the urban context, and nowhere more so than in Egyptian cities.
The exhibition’s goal is to re-frame and position in a global forum what we think are examples of a successful architectural and urban conflict resolution where architects, through their work, were the mediators of change, this mediation took the form of built projects, or even research proposals & mappings that attempted to highlight existing problems.
The exhibition titled Reframing Back//Imperative Confrontations, responds directly to this year’s biennale theme “Reporting from the Front” by displaying architectural projects largely by grassroots initiatives, students and young architects. The works presented can be broken down into two large categories – mapping investigations and (built-up projects and experimental proposals). The mapping projects attempt to survey existing conditions with applied analytical lenses, evident in their representational outputs. As with recent mapping efforts in other contexts, here, representation is viewed as a tool to think and present new information. It also entails the same potential shortcomings of mapping exercises when data is poorly researched and could advance a skewed perspective, or completely misinform. The exhibition contains a various investigation about the Egyptian urban condition including sprawl, informal urbanism, desert vernacular architecture, coastal cities, and 19th– and 20th-century heritage buildings which have been all part of the parallel dynamics of growth in Egyptian context for the past half a century.
This pavilion is in no way a comprehensive survey of all initiatives and works that have been produced during the last period in Egypt. it is, however, an attempt to introduce to a large audience the work of those individuals and collectives, students and professionals, who over the course of the past decade, have been searching for new operating models in Egypt and engaging in architecture as a field of critical intellectual inquiry. The works presented here demonstrates the interest of a wide range of actors – government, universities, research centers, independent practitioners – in the Egyptian urban condition marking the occasion to bring forth all these perspectives and approaches in one space and to reflect on the nature of the knowledge produced in the past decade. It is at the same time an opportunity to evaluate its potential for action and transformation.
Through an open call, many works have been selected to be exhibited from, among others, the MAS Urban Design of ETH Zürich, School of Design of University of Pennsylvania, Mittelmeerland of AA School of Architecture, Lund University, and MSA architecture department. In addition to Baladilab, Cairobserver, CLUSTER, Community Design Collaborative, GUC Architecture Department, (IN)formal Pattern Language, MADA Architecture Studio, Studio Meem, Takween, Traslochi Emotivi, and Œcumene Studio.
Graduate shows 2016: Bartlett graduate Joanne Chen has designed a factory that includes leisure and education facilities, based on the Socialist ideals set out by designer and activist William Morris in the late 19th century. (more…)
The creation of two dividable public areas was the foundation of planning this family apartment in central Tel Aviv. The apartment was extended and lengthened, with a large space connecting between the existing and new spaces creating a new large public area in the apartment. The apartment size is 165sqm.
On the street side of the apartment there is a large lounge that is connected to other public functions; the kitchen, terrace, dining and a reading area. An additional family room acts as a children’s area including a library and work space. This area forms a junction leading to all children’s bedrooms.
A long corridor which connects the two lounges is left exposed on the one side with exposed bricks and on the other with the original concrete of the building. The corridor functions as an axis between all bedrooms and washrooms.
Down the hall, a large wooden door with hidden hinges and acoustic system, allows separation between the two parts of the house, so that the two lounges can be used in parallel without interfering with one another.
All carpentry was custom designed and made to fit the requirements of the family and hidden within many storage areas customized specifically according to their use. The black wood cladding in the living room conceals the media system which continues around the corner as a large storage unit for the entrance. The yellow wooden bench facing the street serves as a library for the family’s record collection. The kitchens service unit dividing between the kitchen and the dining space, on one side holds a pantry and many appliances, while on the other side acts as a shelving unit.
Various flooring types, ceiling shelves, painted walls and different materials, allow the division of the public areas according to need without blocking views with a wall or divider. Delicate profiles such as black iron and aluminum separate between materials allowing them to exist side by side harmoniously.
Light fixtures line the length of the corridor emphasizing the movement through the apartment and changes in color and finishing materials of the fixtures produce a rich and varying pace.
To maximize light in private spaces transparent facades were used such as steel doors combined with glass, partitions with upper windows and painting with a glossy finish.
Dezeen promotion: annual conference What Design Can Do is launching its first talks programme about the relationship between design and music (+ slideshow). (more…)
Graduate shows 2016: Royal College of Art graduate Wan Tseng has designed erotic devices that provide a subtle, sensation-focused alternative to traditional sex toys (+ slideshow). (more…)
Sydney-based architecture and urban design firm Stewart Hollenstein have unveiled a scheme to transform the North Bund (lower Hongkou) region of Shanghai. Centered around a 2.7 kilometer stretch of Changzhi Road parallel to the Huangpu River waterfront, the project proposes the creation of a new “People’s Avenue,” reclaiming the street for pedestrian use and providing a framework for the development of the district and the city at large. The plan calls for the design of a new market hall, city library, theater, community center and two museums, helping to establish a new “Cultural Spine” for Hongkou.
Central to the design is the redevelopment of the existing avenue. While current plans call for a widening of the street to accommodate a 10-lane highway, Stewart Hollenstein proposes instead that the road be gradually phased into a multi-modal artery, giving priority to pedestrian occupation. The new avenue will be lined with a continuous active edge featuring shops and restaurants to connect a series of larger public spaces, establishing a new identity for the streetscape and promoting a cleaner, healthier city.
“The vision for the ‘People’s Avenue’ is one that starts at the scale of the citizen and uses this viewpoint to transform the entire North Bund,” says Stewart Hollenstein Director Matthias Hollenstein. “The ‘People’s Avenue’ forms the backbone to a public domain network designed to be generous, vibrant and integrated with the existing heritage fabric and future cultural and commercial developments.”
Stewart Hollenstein’s scheme flips the typical pattern of construction in Shanghai by establishing public areas first, then framing the space with development. At the artery’s western end, existing buildings are razed to make room for a covered marketplace; at the eastern end, Shanghai’s Jewish Quarter is revitalized with the addition of a new community center and children’s museum. In between, public plazas are created in front of a new theater and art gallery and along the Hongkou Canal.
“With the development of many sites in the study area already underway, our proposal presents a new strategy where development and a well-defined public realm support one another,” explains Stewart Hollenstein Director Felicity Stewart. “This is not a pattern we are currently seeing in Hongkou District where development has little relationship with the street and is designed on a block by block basis rather than supporting street life.”
The design proposal will be presented by Felicity Stewart and Matthias Hollenstein at the China Australian Urban Forum on June 29th 2016 in Shanghai. The forum was envisioned as an opportunity for experts from China and Australia to discuss potential futures for Shanghai with the purpose of addressing issues such as liveability, sustainability, infrastructure and preservation.
