“Between valleys and craters” (the name of the proposal) has sought since its first sketches to create a public space able to generate a continuous ground plane capable of saving the large difference in level that the work area presented (6.20 meters in the worst part). Usable by 100% of its surface and, thus recovering a residual space in the city that had juxtaposed a series of independent operations (parking, electric installation, huge ramp to upper housing block…)
Once the project was assigned, the architects did field work with the aim of collecting proposals and future users concerns for this project. Restaurateurs and other neighboring businesses proposed valuable approaches, above all, existing problems that had to be solved with the final proposal. Some solutions were relocated and greenery were added (at first, the whole proposal was a square defined by a concrete floor as the competition required). It also accomplishes the city councils demands, ensuring the safety of users and taking into account the economic maintenance for the future.
The project has been designed with a ground plane as a sculpted topography, getting with its formal solution, accessible routes to higher areas of the square avoiding ramps and handrails. To this purpose, a regulating plane has been designed to find the easiest solution in its geometry getting minimal slopes capable of fulfilling the standards of accessibility. This plan applies actions which will result in a zoning of the square as “craters” that organize activities and circulations. A visual connection is achieved between all parts of the whole, but allowing the particular development of each of the uses. These craters are materialized in many different ways depending on their use. Concrete floors for terrace areas (for existing businesses) with shrubbery in their slopes, rubber soils in the playground, grass or other one occupied by a stands-like installation.
Over the project, a pattern of 3×3 meters serves as a basis for organizing trees (Pyrus calleryana), streetlights and other urban furniture . This grid also defines the expansion joints that is part of the striped pattern of the concrete floor .
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has finally found a home. Following nearly a decade of searching, the museum’s board has announced that Los Angeles’ Exposition Park will serve as the site for the MAD Architects-designed building housing the life’s work and expansive art and media collection of one of history’s most celebrated filmmakers, George Lucas.
“While each location offers many unique and wonderful attributes, South Los Angeles’s Promise Zone best positions the museum to have the greatest impact on the broader community, fulfilling our goal of inspiring, engaging and educating a broad and diverse visitorship,” the museum board commented in a statement.
The museum will join several other cultural institutions located in the Exposition Park area, including Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the California Science Center, The University of Southern California main campus, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the main stadium of the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and the proposed site of the city’s bid for the 2024 Olympics.
The project will be self-funded by Lucas, who is expecting to spend over $1 billion on the building and programming.
More information on the selection can be found here.
“You see, the first goal in this place was to deliver something beautiful where such an ugliness was there before,” says Calatrava in the film. “To deliver something optimistic looking to the future where so much sadness and depression was there.”
via Nowness
via Nowness
Private View: Santiago Calatrava originally aired as a part of the DOCNYC film festival. Watch it above, or at Nowness.
Throughout the 60-year career of Álvaro Siza, his work has continuously defied categorization–having variously been described as “critical regionalism” and “poetic modernism,” with neither quite capturing the true essence of Siza’s intuitive architecture. In this interview, the latest in Vladimir Belogolovsky’s “City of Ideas” series, Siza discusses those attempts to categorize his work, his design approach and the role of beauty in his designs.
Vladimir Belogolovsky:Your student, Eduardo Souto de Moura said, “Siza’s houses are just like cats sleeping in the sun.”
Álvaro Siza: [Laughs.] Yes, he meant that my buildings assume the most natural postures on the site. There is also a reference in that to the human body.
VB:Do you think it is important or even possible for an architect to explain his or her work and process in a conversation such as we are having now?
AS: I think so. Maybe in the wrong way [Laughs.] I like explaining my work. When I am asked to present a lecture, I always choose to talk about one particular project because I like to explain how ideas come about.
VB:I have seen a number of your projects in Portugal and Spain, and just yesterday, I went to see your Restaurant Boa Nova here in Porto, which is a kind of project that is impossible to understand through photographs. It is not about an image, but something else, which does not translate into pictures. What do you think that is?
AS: Well, that is true for most buildings, not just mine. Photographs can’t convey space.
VB:Except that most buildings look better in photos and with your work, the opposite is true.
AS: There is such a thing as a sensation of understanding and feeling space. I had this realization when I first visited Fallingwater by Wright. First, there is a density of the atmosphere there; then the scale can never be accurately understood. Wright’s house is actually much smaller than what you would expect from just looking at photos. He reduced such dimensions as parapets or ceiling heights.
VB:I want to talk about your architecture as an approach. Kenneth Frampton said that you are a part of the “Critical regionalist” movement. And by “Critical regionalism” he understands “an approach to architecture that strives to counter the placelessness and lack of identity of the International Style,” and an approach that “also rejects the whimsical individualism and ornamentation of Postmodern architecture.” What do you think about being placed into this category, “Critical regionalism?” Do you agree? Because you also have a very strong individualistic character, so it is a mixture of things.
AS: Yes, I agree with being categorized as such. When critics talk about critical regionalism the word that is overlooked is critical. What Frampton meant, I think, was not that architecture should go in the direction of closing its global discourse, but that such discourse should encourage continuity of local cultural traditions, as opposed to celebrating the International Style, which was becoming placeless.
VB:And so you see your work as a continuation of the local traditions.
AS: Yes. But don’t forget that all traditions either change and transform or they die.
VB:You said, “Tradition is important when it contains moments of change.”
AS: Yes, tradition does not mean closure, immobility. Quite the opposite, the value of traditions is in being open to innovations. Tradition is not the opposite of innovation, it is complementary.Tradition comes from successive interchanges. Isolated cultures that try to preserve their traditions without being open to new ideas collapse. Every traditional culture is influenced by outside cultures. When I was growing up there were very few centers of global culture – Paris, London, New York, and the rest was a periphery. Portugal was in the periphery and it was closed until the 1974 revolution, after which the country was rediscovered. Frampton was one of the first critics who came here and he traveled to other parts of Europe, including Spain, Greece, and Scandinavian countries. It was the time when architects were interested in rediscovering non-mainstream architecture. In this context, he was perhaps the first critic who insisted on the importance of identity.
VB:You often say, “Nothing is invented. There is a past for everything.” You are not interested in making something entirely new, right? Your work is based on what was done before. Could you talk about your position?
AS: It is impossible to make something entirely new. Look at the Villa Savoye in Poissy by Le Corbusier. When you see it, the sensation is that it is entirely new. It is clearly new architecture for a new kind of man. But the reality is that nothing is new but modified or transformed. There were horizontal “slit windows” in ancient structures in pre-Columbian America or in Portuguese vernacular; there are pilotis in the old market of Venice; you can even find examples of open plan in ancient structures where there was just a roof and perimeter walls with no interior partitions. The new only comes from new combinations and materials, but nothing is completely new. We, architects are constantly being influenced by what is around us. For example, I remember when my Bonjour Tristesse social housing was being built in Berlin. I was in that neighborhood and I saw a building that I thought was under construction; it had a similar roof profile as mine. So I told my contractor – look I haven’t finished my building yet and it is already being copied. Then the contractor said, “If anyone is copying that’s you because that building is being demolished.” [Laughs.] And the truth is that I probably saw it before I did my design and it influenced me subconsciously.
VB:Kenneth Frampton said: “Like Aalto’s, all of Siza’s buildings are delicately laid into the topography of their sites. His approach is patently tactile and tectonic, rather than visual and graphic. Even his smallest buildings are topographically structured.” At the same time you said, “Even before I have complete knowledge, or good knowledge of every single problem, I begin sketching possible solutions with the little information I have. I feel I need to begin immediately with an idea – although then it can be completely changed.” Could you talk about your process of drawing and design?
AS: I start drawing from the very beginning. I don’t worry about analyzing the problem, the site conditions, or even the program. Because if I first do all the analysis there would be too much information and little architecture… So first, I sketch, sometimes before I go to the site. This is because I immediately start working and searching for an idea, even if I only have a photo of the place. And most of the time the first sketches are good for nothing. But I use them to construct an idea that comes out of many sketches. Gradually, with more information, a real thing emerges. I always work with collaborators who feed me with information. I work with models directly and at some point, there’s a cross between rigor that comes from precise information and complete freedom of my intuition, they meet.
VB:You said that a drawing establishes a dialogue with the mind. You called a drawing hand not just thinking but provocative.
AS: It often happens that in the very beginning of a project it is not clear how to develop it. In those moments, I try to distract myself. I take a break, do many sketches and drawings, and suddenly a spark comes. So there is a relationship between the hand and the mind. One complements the other. Aalto too spoke of this.
VB:Your work is very intuitive. You said, “I don’t work within any theoretical framework nor do I offer a key as to how you should understand my work.” Your work is intuitive but also very particular and you have a very controlled repertoire. For example, most of your buildings are white, some have red brick. They are solid-looking, faceted or with curved profiles and convex and concave facades. Do you intentionally discipline yourself or is it about developing your particular and recognizable language?
AS: I don’t think I have a unified language. I worked in Portugal and Spain, in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, China… These are very different circumstances. Building techniques are different. Materials are different. Climatic conditions are different. Histories and cultures are different. The atmospheres are different. My decisions are based on what I observe and absorb. When I worked on the art museum in Santiago de Compostela, I did not want to use local granite (gris); I wanted to use white material in the interior. I chose Greek marble because at the time it was cheaper. I also wanted to use the same marble on the facades but that provoked opposition from the locals. I wanted the museum to be white for two reasons – to distinguish its civic importance and also because in the past, the whole city was painted white. Throughout history, Santiago was white. Only in recent times, stucco was removed to reveal stone and granite. So every building is a response to specific circumstance and I don’t have a strict theory. Of course, I do have a theory, otherwise how could I have a practice? But this theory does not limit my work.
VB:You once said, “Beauty does not interest me.” Yet, your work is very beautiful. What is the main intention then?
AS: Did I really say that?
VB:Do you think you were misquoted?
AS: I could only say that if I was drunk. [Laughs.] Of course, I am interested in beauty. Beauty is the peak of functionality! If something is beautiful, it is functional. I don’t separate beauty and functionality. Beauty is the key functionality for architects… I wonder how I could say that beauty was not of interest to me… Perhaps someone provoked me by saying that I am an aestheticist. I am not that. But a search for beauty should be the number one preoccupation of any architect.
VB:Nowadays many younger generation architects pride themselves on the fact that they don’t personally initiate projects with a sketch. They developed a team approach with multiple contributions. But I read that you like to design your projects alone sitting in a cafe. What do you think about the collaborative approach to architecture?
AS: This is partially true but it was years ago. I no longer draw in cafes. I used to do that to get out of the ambiance of my studio. This used to happen on daily basis. A coffee house in Porto was an institution. You could see students studying in cafes or meetings would take place there. Now coffee is something that you drink quickly and move on; it is no longer an authentic experience. I even saw a sign at one café that said, “No studying.” But I have another reason for not going to cafes. After certain projects, here in Portugal I became known, so when people see me they come to say hello and when they see that I am drawing they ask if I could draw something for them. So I had to resist. [Laughs.] Now I do sketches in the studio because my collaborators don’t demand sketches from me. [Laughs.]
VB:Nevertheless, you start projects with sketches and for a while, you stay one on one with the project, right?
AS: Yes, but at the same time I involve my team from the very beginning. Engineers, for example, start right away. What I don’t like now is when younger architects start working on projects immediately on the computer. This does not give them a chance to start the project freely with free thinking and freehand drawings. Fresh ideas come from thinking and drawing, not from the computer. Sketching is important for thinking.
VB:You also said, “I am a functionalist.” Then you added that “the form, spaces, and atmosphere don’t arise from solving functions. Every architect is forced to provide answers to functional problems. But architecture with a capital A begins when a project obtains freedom, free of all constraints, able to take flight and develop in other directions.” What does that mean for you – architecture with a capital A?
AS: Very difficult… Architecture is a service. When a client asks for something architects have an ethical responsibility to deliver a project that responds to a particular set of objectives as rigorously as possible. But we should still remember that architecture should remain free. Architecture should strive to become another thing, not just be a solution for pragmatics. As an architect, I don’t just want to be preoccupied with solving problems. There are other issues at stake. The real issue is to keep a good balance. Functionality should never suffer, but architecture should be much more than that and achieving beauty is the top priority of any architecture.
VB:“Architects do not invent anything, they just transform reality” is one of your favorite expressions. Kenneth Frampton said that this aphorism of yours should be engraved at the entrance of every architecture school. He also said that many of our leading architects can’t accept this idea even as a joke.
AS: Bad for them because this is true. [Laughs.]
VB:There is a very strong belief among leading architects in this notion that “here is my work” and “there is everyone else.”
AS: Well I would agree with that. My architecture is also different. But at the same time I know that I am not an inventor. I am the transformer. That’s all.
VB:You said, “Rationality is not enough. I want to go around the problem.”
AS: [Laughs.]
VB:I want to finish our conversation with another one of your phrases, “A good architect works slowly.”
AS: Computers made it possible to design and build architecture much quicker. But thinking still takes as much time. Architecture is about a debate and provocation; that can’t happen without thinking. Computers can enhance thinking, but architecture is a slow art.
Belogolovsky’s column, City of Ideas, introduces ArchDaily’s readers to his latest and ongoing conversations with the most innovative architects from around the world. These intimate discussions are a part of the curator’s upcoming exhibition with the same title which premiered at the University of Sydney in June 2016. The City of Ideas exhibition will travel to venues around the world to explore ever-evolving content and design.
Most visitors to the Galapagos Islands point their cameras towards the exotic animals and away from the local people. They direct their full attention to the natural landscape, as if to intentionally deny the existence of the urban space of the city, since the presence of any form of architecture would seem in logical conflict with the islands’ identity as a protected wildlife reserve.
The architecture of the Galapagos is both a conceptual and physical contradiction. Like a Piranesian joke, the San Cristobal typology of the proto-ruin falls somewhere on a spectrum between construction and dismantlement. With their “permanently unfinished” construction state seemingly in flux, it is unclear whether many of these buildings display a common optimism for vertical expansion or are instead symptoms of a process of urban decay.
The unique shapes of these pseudo-informal constructions are the product of a tax loophole found in many South American and even Southern European countries that allows residents and landlords to defer property taxes on buildings in the process of construction. (Another contributing factor to this practice is their residents’ existence in a liminal state of poverty.) The result is a strange, unintentional aesthetic of the purposefully incomplete that has a tendency to dominate many lower income neighborhoods. An especially large concentration of these building types can be found in the capital of the Galapagos, San Cristobal.
In leaving open the possibility of future construction, these semi-shelters invite the casual observer to imagine divergent possibilities for the completed construction that reflect an imagined future direction for the Galapagos Islands as a whole. Will the roofs of these homes become the penthouses of the wealthy Ecuadorians seeking a vacation home on the islands, high rise hotel towers to house the increasing flood of international tourists, or aviaries for accommodating the world-famous Galapagos finches, so as to integrate these birds into the matrix of human development?
Mapping the urban area of Puerto Baquerzio Moreno allows us to quantify the percentage of inhabitants that are actively taking advantage of this tax loophole. 1,800 buildings can be counted in Puerto Baquerzio Moreno from satellite photos. 1,253 buildings were surveyed from the ground in total: of those 960 appear to be mostly completed, 207 appear to be in a state of incomplete habitation, and 86 are apparently currently in construction. From that data, 76.5% are “completed,” 16.5% are “incomplete,” and 7% are “under construction.”
The somewhat larger and more developed Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz suggests one possible path in which Puerto Baquerzio Moreno may develop. The survey of site statistics shows 2,925 buildings in the main city: of those 2,633 appear to be mostly completed, 233 appear to be in a state of incomplete habitation, and 59 are apparently currently in construction. From that data, 90% are “completed,” 8% are “incomplete,” and 2% are “under construction.”
Joseph Kennedy is a Fulbright grantee conducting research and teaching at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. He graduated with a B. Arch from Cornell University in 2015.
Based in the old Knorr Braking Systems factory, Friedrichshain – a protected historical site, is one of three of the online retailer Zalando’s locations in Berlin, employing around 2000 people. Bruzkus Batek architects have designed and conceptualised a multi-use “fashion hub” at the site, including a modern, fully featured canteen and terrace onto the interior courtyard.
The space-efficient design of the wooden framed seating units with OSB surfaces, blends inviting warmth with the austere, industrial design of the host building in a truly exciting way. Up to 300 Personnel gather daily in this canteen to enjoy a selection of meals, or simply coffee. Outside of break time, the space is used for informal meetings and associated activities.
Out on the terrace, two adjoining huts and a large area of wooden decking, with a bright yellow “garden hut” nestled in the courtyard, provide a great space for sunny weather eating and is the ideal space for parties and functions.
The Hub itself is a central event space of approx. 650 square metres, serving as an incubator for creative projects, and an event space. Showboxes – freestanding cubes made of either aluminium, copper, tiling or layered plastic sheeting – provide a space for the dynamic presentation of new fashion collections. The materially varied, precise construction of these cubes stands in contrast to the open, industrial atmosphere of the surrounding building, where the framework and substructures remain visible. Multi-use exhibition platforms and a catwalk are also provided, constructed from OSB.
The windows facing onto the vibrant Neue Bahnhof Strasse are equipped with individual, boutique-like showcases behind each one. Individual doors give access and they are used to show a selection of fashion displays, reflecting the company’s currently sold lines to this busy, upmarket Berlin street. Inside the room they also form an interesting design feature.
Stark, bright neon lighting lights the main space, creating the character of a gallery, while individual exhibits and points of interest have their own, subtle light design as an offset and accent.
As a young architect, there are crucial moments and decisions that begin to define your professional career. What type of architecture do I relate to? Who or what inspires me to create and design? Where do I form my architectural references and context? Should I stay or should I look for a professional experience abroad? At this point, most of us have dreamed of living and working in New York, Chicago, San Francisco… but we often have no clue where to start and immigration bureaucracy seems so obscure, expensive and complicated that we easily get discouraged and give up on our American Dream.
Courtesy of Architect US
After many tries of looking for a career opportunity in the U.S., I can affirm that the easiest and fastest way to get a job and live your American Dream is through Architect-US – Esteban Becerril, Trainee at SOM.
The most common way Internationals make it to the States is through enrollment in a graduate or post-graduate school. However, not everyone can afford the academic track and thus University doesn’t seem to be a realistic way forward either. In addition to this, the global issues affecting the architectural profession and the proliferation of a new model of networked international practice, lead us to think the industry is in real need of platforms that encourage global dialogues and promote cross-pollination while breaking down the immigration barriers.
You can’t be a global practitioner without transfusion experiences between different cultures. Architect-US is great because it simplifies the process – Kenneth Drucker, Design Principal, HOK New York.
Aiming to reduce these hurdles, Architect-US Career Training Program the First Exchange Program specialized in international Architects and Engineers interested in working in the United States- facilitates the liaison between rising global architectural talents and U.S. based firms, sponsoring the J-1 Visa of participants as part of the U.S. Government’s Exchange J-1 Visitor Program. In 2016, Architect-US placed and sponsored the J-1 Visa of participants from 11 different nationalities -Argentina, France, England, Spain, Brazil, Canada, China…- making the American Dream of over 50 participants come true.
I remember last year I was kind of lost and desperate to find a good job. And then I heard about Architect-US and I decided to apply for their Job + J-1 Visa Program. They arranged me interviews with several firms and in a few months I was starting at HOK, living my American Dream in the city that never sleeps! – Claudia Conde, Intern at HOK.
The goal of Architect-US’s outreach is to change the culture of opportunities, advocating for talent and excellence, while reinforcing the value of personal determination and sacrifice. In other words, Architect-US is conceived as a win-win Program: participants get the opportunity to live a unique professional experience and to gain entry into one of the most competitive markets of the world, by covering their J-1 visa expenses; on the other hand, US firms get access to international talent at zero cost by offering participants waged internships or trainings. Architect-US Program is a virtually free service to employers -they pay no program, visa or placement fees-, while connecting and strengthening ties with young professionals eager to learn from American techniques and methodologies, who hail from Europe, South America, Asia, Canada and Australia. It frees the hosts from visa costs and paperwork and facilitates a speedy bureaucratic process (4-6 weeks).
I had tried many times with other visas but when I started the J-1 visa process with Architect-US, I always had their team by my side, reassuring me. Now I can go on with my life in a happy and fulfilling way, knowing that I won’t have to worry about a visa for a long, long time! – Sibilla Morsiani, Trainee at Restoration Hardware.
In this sense the Program provides the J-1 Visa sponsorship to top-notch architecture students and young professionals, aged 18-35, for them to have the opportunity of pursuing an internship or professional training for up to 18 months in the U.S.; accepting only paid positions that will ensure anyone can afford participating regardless of their economic means. Some of the most prestigious U.S. based companies – such as SOM, OMA, HOK, Grimshaw, IBI Group and FR-EE among others- already trust Architect-US Professional Career Training Program, having brought a variety of cross-cultural benefits to their workplace and standing up for diversity inclusion.
Courtesy of Architect US
One interesting focus of the Architect-US Program is that it helps firms find the right people, both students and professionals – Gustavo Rodríguez, FXFowle Design Principal.
Beyond an educational training service, Architect-US Career Training Program promote opportunities to provide international young professionals with the chance of having a first approach to the American Building Industry while raising public awareness of the benefits of hosting international talent. In 2016, Architect-US hosted an International Competition for the Design and Construction of the program’s booth at the American Institute of Architects 2016 National Convention, held between May 19-21st in Philadelphia, PA.
The competition counted with an international panel of industry leaders including Nuno Ravara (Herzog&de Meuron Associate), Ivan Shunkov (President of Harvard Architectural & Urban Society Alumni), Alex Alaimo (AIA National Associates Committee Director at Large), Salvador Pérez Arroyo (Honorary Professor of the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL), Blanca Lleó (Vice Dean of Madrid Polytechnic School of Architecture External and International Relations) y Patricia Garcia Chimeno (Architect-US CEO and U.S. Director of Operations). Out of the 60 registered entries, three awards were given based on self-supporting structural solution, material usage optimization, design ingenuity and ease of assembly. The 1st prize was won by Rebecca Lou Zhenyuan -a young talented architect working at Arup Hong Kong at the time- who not only saw her first design built in the most prestigious U.S. Architecture event of the year but also found her dream job at Kieran Timberlake, where she is currently pursuing the Architect-US J-1 Training Program.
Courtesy of Architect US
The endorsement of Architect-US means everything in the selection process with the host company, transmitting responsibility and feasibility. Definitely, what makes the difference – Lorena Galvao, Intern at IBI Group.
Internationals, Architects & Engineers, interested in participating in the Architect-US Program should register at their website. Furthermore, Architect-US The Blog serves as a forum for the exchange of international architects experiences, ideas and resources, addressing global challenges and bringing those in the architecture community closer together. More information about the outreach is available on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube .
Title: Architect-US: How to Work in the U.S. and Not Die in The Process
From the architect. The first wooden church built in London since the Great Fire of 1666 has been built for the Belarusian diaspora community in the UK, and is dedicated to the memory of victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The chapel sits surrounded by 13 statutorily protected trees in the grounds of Marian House, a community and cultural centre for the UK Belarusian community in north London. Its design offers a mixture of traditional and contemporary elements and, like many rural churches in Belarus, the chapel will offer a gentle presence among the trees of its garden setting.
The chapel was designed by Spheron Architects, an emerging London-based architecture practice, following painstaking research into Belarus’s wooden church tradition. Spheron Architects Tszwai So spent time in rural Belarus, recording and sketching traditional churches there.
Ground Floor
The after-effects of the nuclear reactor explosion were felt particularly severely in Belarus, where 70% of the fallout fell, forcing many thousands of people to leave their homes and resettle around the world, including in the UK. The domed spire and timber shingle roof are common features of hundreds of traditional churches in Belarus and will offer familiarity, comfort and memories to London’s Belarusian community, many of whom moved to the UK following the Chernobyl disaster, while others have displaced by subsequent political and economic upheaval in their homeland.
A series of contemporary twists have been introduced to the basic traditional form, such as the undulating timber frill of the flank walls which enlivens the exterior. Natural light enters through low-level and concealed clerestory windows running the length of the chapel, and through tall frosted windows on the front elevation. At night, soft light from within allows the chapel to gently glow. Inside the chapel will be decorated with a series of historic icons set into a timber screen separating the nave from the altar area in the apse.
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The chapel has been funded by the Holy See, and replaces the Belarusian Catholic Mission’s makeshift place of worship inside the existing community centre. Accommodating up to 40 people, the new chapel serves not only as an important spiritual focus for the Belarusian community, but also as a lasting memorial to the victims of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Product Description. Belarusian Memorial Church has been designed to serve as a reminder of the traumatic loss of a great number of rural settlements in Belarus and Ukraine after the Chernobyl Disaster, since many villages with their wooden architectural heritage were razed to the ground. The materials palette was restricted to wood and glass, and very small areas of lead. Soft wood was chosen instead of Oak, a prevalent choice in the UK, in order to reflect the Wooden Church Heritage of Belarus.
The principal structural frame was made from Douglas Fir and prefabricated off site. It went up in just a few days, infilled with pine CLT panels manufactured in Spain. The timber floor is made up of 35mm thick T&G Douglas Fir boards and the entrance doors and handles are also made from Douglas Fir with infill glazing.
Detail
With the exception of the floor boards and entrance doors, which are finished in a clear lacquer, the entire interior is of natural unfinished wood
The internal area is approximately 69sqm and is level throughout with the exception of the raised altar, which is 200mm above finished floor level and only accessible to the clergy. The altar is divided by the iconostasis, which is again formed of Douglas Fir posts with infill CLT panels, occasionally broken by the Royal Doors, made from Douglas Fir
600mm high fixed thermally broken frameless glazing units run at low level along within the nave with clerestory glazing running around the perimeter of the chapel with further glazing units in the tower. All double glazed units are 28mm thick made up of two panes of toughened glass with clear outer pane consisting of low-e soft coat (cavity face) and inner pane Pilkington Optifloat Opal
The warm roof and cupola are clad in Canadian cedar shingles with the cupola housing a bell donated by Chevetogne Abbey, Belgium. Above that is a ventilation stack made up of oak grilles with insect mesh internally. The dome is a timber frame structure clad entirely in lead. This is topped off with a metal cross, anchored within the dome.
Building Contractor Rs&Partner: Immobiliengesellschaft mbH, Düsseldorf (Germany)
Building Owner : Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V., branch office Germany
Project Staff: Stefan Fuchs (Projektleiter), Guido Becker, André Pannenbäcker, Jörn Brambrink, Ralf Tielke, Kilian Kresing, Rainer M. Kresing, Nicolas Oevermann, Heinrich Nelling
Landscape Architecture: RMP Stephan Lenzen Landschaftsarchitekten, Bonn (Germany)
Framework: IBS GmbH & Co. KG, Bochum (Germany)
Building Services: Planungsgemeinschaft Haustechnik, Düsseldorf (Germany)
The architectural conception of the new construction of the head office of Mitsubishi Electric Europe is based on the target of connecting different departments both horizontally and vertically across a total of six floor levels.
The building with its great variety of types of use including office space, conference rooms, workshops and a show room is grouped around a class-clad connecting hallway. Thanks to its transparent appearance, which contrasts with the otherwise massive parts of the building, it sends out an appealing and welcoming flair that can already be noticed from a distance.
The manifold occupation with flexible furniture, product exhibitions and small meeting rooms makes the connecting hallway a central venue for both the 750 employees of the company and for any visitors, thus facilitating intercommunion and sociability and creating a sense of well-being. Its effect as a recognition feature of the building is intensified and kept up through the vegetated courtyards annexed. Across these courtyards, the floor-to-ceiling windows establish visual connections to each workplace at each spot of the building. In this way, an open and lively spatial feeling, which conveys a sense of coherence and identity, is created within the flexibly designable working environments and office landscapes, with sufficient natural light being provided.
In addition to the product exhibitions, the building equipment and appliances are made visible in a purposeful manner. The uncovered ceiling installations and air conditioning systems present themselves self-confidently as further developments and innovations of the company. That way, the building does not only constitute a meeting point and a place of communication, but it also develops further to turn into an aggregate, identity-generating Mitsubishi world.
The building, which was designed and realized by the architecture firm kresigns, received the Platinum Award as the highest level possible of LEED (“Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design”) certifications.
Conventionally speaking, retreat homes are conceptualized as villas in the park with a focus on maximizing the visual access of the interiors to the surrounding natural vista through transparent exterior thresholds of a solid volume.
[In]Exterior is a family house located in a retreat village in the periphery of City of Isfahan. The suburban context of the project offers no substantial natural view or meaningful topographic variation. Hence, the spatial organization of the project is fundamentally transformed to introduce two connected semi-courtyards. Instead of looking outward at a non existing natural vista or impressive view, the project is shifting its visual focus to the inner yards, arriving at maximum transparency of the architectural thresholds where the interior spaces meet the interiorized yards.
Section
The redefinition of inside/outside relation is also deriving the material condition of the architectural surfaces. The commonalities of surface material and texture, both in interior and exterior voids, allow for certain level of ambiguity in differentiating the interior and exterior condition from a perceptual point of view.
The spatial uncertainty in identifying the borderline between in and out is further established through the introduction of sliding walls that transforms the interior yards of the project to semi-open gardens.
Meanwhile, the introduction of the yards within the heart of the spatial organization of the house, allows for performative division of the house between the categorically different functions with private and public nature.
Product Description: For the facade of the building we decided to go for a white modular material to emphasize on the abstractness of the platonic forms of the project. Hence, the white industrially produced bricks of Namachin Esfahan were chosen.
Sig Nordal 