© Garrett Rowland

• Architects: Gensler
• Location: Lawrence, KS, USA
• Area: 166000.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Garrett Rowland

• Design Team: David Broz, Brian Vitale, Todd Heiser, Meghan Webster, Lindsey Feola, John Natale, Geoffrey Diamond, Rachel Sears, Linda Chavez
• Architect Of Record: Gastinger Walker
• Architecture Of Record Project Team: Kevin Harden, Dan Nenonen, Kevin Wineinger.
• Landscape: Vireo
• Lighting Consultant: Yarnell & Associates

© Garrett Rowland

Incubation by Design 

In a marked shift from traditional academic design, the school’s interiors are more closely related to academic incubators, co-working spaces and start-up offices than they are to typical classrooms, student unions, libraries, or laboratories. The design offers students a glimpse of where they could go after they make the leap from campus to workplace. 

© Garrett Rowland

Louis Pasteur’s quote, “Chance favors the prepared mind,” served as inspiration to the design team. The team designed flexible interior spaces that offer cues to people using them, to motivate people to connect in new ways. The design engages students by inviting authorship and offering students choice and control over where and how they learn. 

Plan 1

Designers realized that students and faculty had to see each other while going about their daily routines to promote new kinds of interactions. To that end, Gensler designers crafted sight lines to connect spaces that were previously isolated: faculty workspaces and student classrooms. Staggered floors and openings further drive a sense of awareness and continued connectivity. 

© Garrett Rowland

Plan 2

© Garrett Rowland

Rock Chalk Red Roofs 

A signature feature of KU’s campus buildings are their iconic hitched red roofs. As a nod to the campus’ storied history, Capitol Federal Hall’s new auditorium features a “Red Green Roof.” Using a 60/40 mix of red to green sedum, the environmentally friendly surface compliments and visually connects with the red roofs across KU’s campus. 

© Garrett Rowland

Located at the heart of KU’s campus within sight of Allen Fieldhouse, home to KU’s legendary Jayhawks Basketball, Capitol Federal Hall aligns itself with high performing institutions and acts as a dynamic gateway for students, alumni, faculty and visitors alike. The building’s central location positions it to connect KU’s older campus on the north and east to its newer campus on the south and west. Capitol Federal Hall is intended to be a building for the entire campus, not just for those in the School of Business. 

© Garrett Rowland

Looking to mimic the hilly topography of the campus, the building’s “Social Steps” allow students to see and be seen, again encouraging the chance encounters that were at the core of the design of Capitol Federal Hall. Gensler collaborated with students from the School of Architecture, Design & Planning to design, manufacture, and install bench/work platforms on the steps. 

© Garrett Rowland

Alumni Integration 

Through donor embracement and mentor dependency, KU’s School of Business seeks to integrate its current students with alumni, recruiters, companies, and visitors. By creating an environment where professionals can feel comfortable, Capitol Federal Hall achieves the integration of these key stakeholders, encouraging alumni mentorship of current students. 

© Garrett Rowland

A sponsored Jumbotron located in the building’s central atrium allows the space to become customizable. 

© Garrett Rowland

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Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects

The new Hunters Point Community Library, designed by Steven Holl Architects, has topped out. Located along the East River in Long Island City, New York, the 22,000 square foot library will add a new community-devoted space to the waterfront, while serving as a new icon that can be seen from across the river in Manhattan.

Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects

The building’s exposed concrete structure has been painted with aluminum to give the entire building a subtle sparkle and set it apart from the backdrop of recently built residential towers. To reveal the circulation and interior of the library, the building volume has been carved away following a golden-section motif, and glazed to give visitors views out toward the city as the ascend a series of bookshelf-flanked stairways.

Model of the library. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects

“This remarkable building has caught the eyes of people on both sides of the East River,” said Queens Library President and CEO Dennis M. Walcott. “We owe it to them, our customers, the community and everyone who helped to bring the project to this point to mark how much progress we’ve made since we broke ground in May 2015.” 

Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects

“The building topping out clearly shows the curvilinear cuts and subtractions in its simple rectangular volume, revealing the internal circulation and indicating the most important elements of its program such as the Children’s Library on the east and west facades,” said Steven Holl. “The balance between the digital and the book is key to its inner spatial organization. This is a joyful day!”

Rendering of the library. Image Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects

Other consultants to the project include landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates; structural engineering firm Robert Silman & Associates; contractor Triton Structural, MEP engineer ICOR Associates and civil engineer Langan Engineering & Environmental Services.

The library is scheduled to open in Summer 2017. 

News via Steven Holl Architects.

Breaking Ground: Steven Holl Architects Celebrates 8 Projects Currently Under Construction
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© Federico Cairoli

• Architect: Pedro Livni, Karin Bia
• Location: Libertad, 11300 Montevideo, Uruguay
• Architect In Charge: Adirah Mautner
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Federico Cairoli

• Structural Calculation: Ingeniero Alberto Catañy
• Visualisations: Victoria Martin
• Model: Federico Lapeyre

© Federico Cairoli

From the architect. Starting with the aforementioned demands and the conviction of designing an urban house, two ideas relative to the spatial organization prevailed above the rest.

The first consisted of appealing to the horizontal dimension: this was materialized through the configuration of the living spaces in an open plan set at street level. In this manner it established a link and an uninterrupted prolongation of the interiority and domestic uses onto the exterior spaces. Continuity only mediated and protected from the street noise by green spaces. This was achieved with the application of diverse mobile walls which with their hiding and different configurations enable the spatial performance.  

© Federico Cairoli

Plan 2

© Federico Cairoli

The second idea, and as a counterpoint to the previous one, was to introduce the vertical dimension: for this a rotative center was defined, occupied by the stairs and the double height hallway, which organizes the floor plan distributing the different rooms around itself. Likewise, this center allows the access of direct natural lighting to all of the common areas of the house and establishes a very intense relation between the ground floor of communal use and the first floor reserved to the private spaces. 

Finally, from a material standpoint the monomateriality of reinforced concrete is resorted to for slabs and vertical surfaces in contrast to the application of the warmer wood for the pavements and mobile dividing elements.

© Federico Cairoli

Section

© Federico Cairoli

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The government of Lithuania announced today the 3 winning architecture firms of a competition to design a new National Science and Innovation Center, to be known colloquially as “Science Island,” in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania. The competition, organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants, saw entries from 144 teams, making it the largest design content ever held in Lithuania.

Nestled in the heart of the UNESCO designated and celebrated university city, Kaunas, the science center will be located on a 13,000 square meter (140,000 square foot) site on Nemunas Island in the Neman River, adjacent to the Žalgiris Arena and within short walking distance to Kaunas’ historic Centras district. The new €25M complex will “celebrate recent achievements in science and global technologies with the aim of inspiring visitors to expand their knowledge and support innovation,” and will focus on research on the environment and ecosystems.

Continue reading to see the winners.

SMAR Architecture Studio (Australia and Spain)

© Malcolm Reading Consultants/SMAR Architecture Studio

© Malcolm Reading Consultants/SMAR Architecture Studio

SimpsonHaugh and Partners (UK)

© Malcolm Reading Consultants/SimpsonHaugh and Partners

© Malcolm Reading Consultants/SimpsonHaugh and Partners

Donghua Chen Studio (China)

© Malcolm Reading Consultants/Donghua Chen Studio

© Malcolm Reading Consultants/Donghua Chen Studio

The three winning teams will now undergo a Negotiated Procedure without Publication of a Contract Notice with Kaunas City Municipality, who will select one of the designed to be realized through to completion on site. Each of the 3 winners will receive an honorarium of €15,000.

In addition, five honorable mentions were also awarded to the following practices:

• • Amid.cero9 / Elsewhere (Spain)
• • Mark Foster Gage Architects (USA)
• • Salon (Turkey)
• • UAB Architektų biuras G. Natkevičius ir partneriai (Lithuania)
• • Wolfgang Tschapeller ZTGmbH (Austria)

The competition jury which met in Kaunas over the preceding two days included Audrius Ambrasas, Director, Audrius Ambrasas Architects; Jonas Audėjaitis, Dean of Vilnus Academy of Arts’ Kaunas Faculty, and Member of Kaunas City Council; Paul Baker, Director, WilkinsonEyre; Sumit Paul-Choudhury, Editor-in-chief, New Scientist; Povilas Mačiulis, Vice Mayor, Kaunas City Municipality; Rainer Mahlamäki, Professor and Founder, Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects; Rolandas Maskoliūnas, Chief Press Officer, Lithuanian Academy of Sciences; and Christos Passas, Associate Director, Zaha Hadid Architects. The Jury was chaired by Malcolm Reading.

Construction on the Science Island project will begin in 2017, with an opening date anticipated in early 2018.

The three winning designs will be showcased on the competition website during the month of October. For more information, visit the website, here.

News via Malcolm Reading Consultants.

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© José Javier Cullen

• Architects: José Manuel Sanz Arquitectos , Irene Brea
• Location: Madrid, Spain
• Architect In Charge: José Manuel Sanz
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: José Javier Cullen

• Project Team: Irene Brea Martínez, Leticia Llansó García, Luisa Santamaría Gallardo
• Technical Project Manager: Irene Brea Martínez, Leticia Llansó García, Jaime Sanz de Haro, Javier Vila Navarro
• Site Manager: Juan Antonio Santuy
• Contractor: Olprim. Grupo Olmar
• Client: Madrid-Destino, Ayuntamiento de Madrid.

© José Javier Cullen

From the architect. The tourist information devices are situated in different strategic places along the city:

Plaza del Callao, Paseo de Recoletos, Museo del Prado, Museo Nacional Reina Sofía  and in Paseo de la Castellana avenue, close to Santiago Bernabeu´s stadium.

Locations

Designed as special pieces in the urban city structure, these five small pavilions are situated within some of the most cultural and commercial city areas. Offering information, as well as different touristic products (ticketing, etc ), the pieces have been created  using the last available technology.

© José Javier Cullen

Pretending to be recognizable pieces, the devices are as well adaptable to different urban situations.

© José Javier Cullen

Floor Plan

© José Javier Cullen

Each one has three different attention points where the services are offered. Parting from this point, these necessities generate the possibility of making three different spaces according to the different functions needed. Thus, the pavilion is configured as a clover ground floor which, in fact, is the one that offers the biggest possible perimeter. At the same time, the division of the roof geometry in two different planes makes an indispensable shadow area created for the raining and hot days.

© José Javier Cullen

To the end of including the pieces within the visual city structure, the pieces have been thought following principles of transparency and visual lightness. From the interior, the workers can feel they are, in fact, in an exterior space and, therefore visually included in the city.

Section

Structure

The object is prefabricated, mounted and assembled in a short period of time, being its structure an ensemble of metallic tubes and screwed structural profiles. All the rest constructive elements are either fixed directly to this main structure, or to different substructures arising out of the main one. The support on the ground it is made through adjustable elements which permit the object adaptation to different places. The rain water is collected in the roof, driven through an interior object´s tube and finally directly dewatered to the street.  

© José Javier Cullen

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© Lucas K Doolan

Designed in 2006, and under construction since 2009, Toyo Ito & Associates much anticipated Taichung Metropolitan Opera House has finally officially opened. The design is notable for its cavernous, curved and folded interior forms, which produce a dramatic and complex section that is neatly resolved into a rectilinear exterior form. Taiwan-based photographer Lucas K Doolan visited the new Opera House to study its impressive internal spaces and its presence in the surrounding urban environment.

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

© Lucas K Doolan

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© Nelson Kon

• Architects: SPBR Arquitetos
• Location: Ubatuba, SP, Brazil
• Architect In Charge: Angelo Bucci
• Area: 350.4 sqm
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Nelson Kon

• Project Team: Tatiana Ozzetti, Nilton Suenaga, Ciro Miguel, Juliana Braga, Fernanda Cavallaro, Victor Próspero,
• Structural Engineer: Marcelo José Bianco, Ricardo Bozza (Inner Engenharia)
• Plumbing / Electrical: JPD
• Landscape Architect: Raul Pereira
• General Contractor: José Bernardino E. de Sousa

© Nelson Kon

From the architect. Two main goals have led the design process: [1] not touch the ground; [2] to create an outside platform where topography, with 50% of slope, has provided any flat piece of land.

© Nelson Kon

This weekend house itself was arranged in one main square prism: 10m by 10m and 6m high.

© Nelson Kon

This volume was placed properly detached from the street, where the ground level was deep enough to accommodate two enclosed floors and an open space underneath.

Section

Its rooftop provides that outside platform as a belvedere welcoming people to the house. Downstairs we first reach the bedrooms level and below it the living room and kitchen. Underneath, attached to the ground level, the portion sheltered by the house was taken as a veranda.

© Nelson Kon

This main volume was complemented with two satellites, two small side volumes: the first one plays as the extension of both street and rooftop providing a platform for parking are and custodian house bellow it; the second one is an extension of the veranda to make the swimming pool and a mechanical space at the bottom.

Floor Plan

Floor Plan

Floor Plan

From this lower level veranda a winding track through the garden provides access to the beach.

© Nelson Kon

In a way this house could be described as spread along the steep path from the street to the beach.

© Nelson Kon

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Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

During the 2015 school year, fourth-year students of the Ceip Praza de Barcelos primary school in Galicia (Spain) had the opportunity to take an introductory architecture course during school hours, thanks to the initiative of a local project called “Arquitectura Para Niños” or “Architecture for Children”.

Society today is under information overload, children need to learn to locate and filter it through and develop their own content, explains the initiative team led by Ana Barreiro, Marta Guirado and Africa Martinez.

Session 1. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

The project’s success is also due to students, teachers, and parents who have been very receptive to this innovative idea and are now struggling to extend the educational project. Through hands-on experience, children are able to observe and reflect on architectural content and learn about Natural Sciences, Geography, Mathematics, Art Education and English all at the same time.

The project was selected for the EducaBarrié scholarly program from 2014 to 2015 and it was with the support of the Barrié Foundation that this new model of education in the public school in Galicia was made possible.

The program was developed under a methodology of active learning where children learn through activities designed to explore specific content more deeply. Within seven units, children explore the characteristics of materials, make observations about space and discover the areas where they live.

Through guided play and learning through discovery, the children learn critical thinking and become more aware of their environment.

 

Session 1: Shelter. Animal and human behavior

Session 1. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

Building a shelter: starting from a set of bars and nodes children work together in building a shelter to understand structural systems.

Session 2: Housing. Territorial and social factors.

Session 2. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

Construction of a model: Each child builds a model of an imaginary house from a cardboard box using colored paper, markers, scissors and glue.

Session 3: Anthropometry. Measure and proportion

Session 3. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

Staking a standard room, starting from a standard room plan drawn on graph paper, each child recreates a room at a 1:1 scale using colored tape.

Measurements of everyday objects: each child receives a tape measure to take measurements of the chair and desk that they use every day.

Planning out your room: each child draws the floor of his room on a grid of 30 x 30 cm. They need to place the major aspects of their bedroom (doors, windows, furniture) and record their dimensions.

 

Session 4: Scale and basic architectural vocabulary 

Session 4. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

The scale game: With different sized objects each child draws a stick figure person  to demonstrate the appropriate size.

Architecture for kids: Each student writes an essay using some words from an assigned vocabulary list (at least 6 of the 30 words). It is a story with an architectural theme titled “My favorite house”.

Session 5: Tools of the architect: Models and plans

Session 5. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

Fieldwork: This time, the children go from plans to the real word because  task is to identify objects on plans in reality and then correct the plans to include objects that didn’t appear on their sheets. 

Session 6: Immediate surroundings. Observations

Session 6. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

A group brainstorming session on an up to date model of the Plaza de Barcelos made at 1: 100 scale, where each student makes a list of advantages and disadvantages of the space […] After this activity the students move on to a related exercise where, over the course of two weeks, they work individually on a new proposal for the space.

Session 7: Immediate surroundings. Action

Session 7. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

All of the individual proposals made by students to transform the environment are collected, the most commonly repeated aspects are combined, attempting to solve the problems of the square and also those of the school, producing a final proposal made by different contributions of the children.

The students explain how their proposals have been integrated into a common project and a debate in expressing their views on the outcome, plus doubts and clarifications takes place.

Learn more about this project here.

Session 7. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

Session 7. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

Session 7. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

Session 7. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

Session 7. Image Courtesy of Taller Abierto

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© Ana Rodríguez

Located on Montjuic hill in Barcelona and designed by the rationalist style architect Josep Lluis Sert, ​​the Fundació Joan Miró (Joan Miró Foundation) is a unique space imagined by Miró with a dream of bringing art to the entire world.

The construction of this museum in 1975 was a major event in Barcelona because at the time there was a lack of cultural infrastructure in the city. Now 40 years have passed and the Foundation’s spaces host the work of Joan Miró as well as temporary exhibitions of emerging artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. 

© Ana Rodríguez

The Foundation is the perfect match between the unique works of Miró and the building designed by Sert. The relationship between their work is evident despite the formal differences that seem obvious due to their different professions. Great friends who shared the same interest in the Catalan folk arts, bringing a human side to their works. Their pieces showcased similar recurring themes such as balance, space, color, light, substance and love of nature. 

Josep Lluís Sert was the first internationally renowned Spanish architect and founder of GATPAC in 1929 (Grup d’Arquitectes i Tècnics per the Progrés de l’Architecture Contemporània). He was strongly influenced by the ideologies adopted by Wright, Groupuis, Mies Van Der Rohe and Le Corbusier, which led to the rationalism and avant-garde architecture in his works. 

Sert’s building is a work that subtly blends ratios based on the Modulor with an architectural language present in the Mediterranean culture. 

SE & SW Facade/elevation

Its volumetric composition enriches the space, internally providing a dynamic of levels and thus creating spacious, double height rooms with great qualities of indirect natural lighting. Additionally, it offers outdoor patios, connecting elements between rooms providing transparency to the entire space.

Ground floor / First Lever

The idea of ​​movement and spatial continuity are key elements in the building. There is flexibility between spaces, both in the different showrooms as well as between outdoor spaces, whether it be the gardens, patios or terraces. 

Sert chose a solution strongly inspired by the works of Le Corbusier, distributing the exhibition rooms around a central courtyard. 

© Ana Rodríguez

This allows for a spiral path and a circulation in which there is no need to go through the same showroom twice, in addition to connecting the different levels of the museum and offering visitors the chance to admire Miró’s works from different angles. 

The Miró Foundation reveals a unique spatial richness through its proportions, flexibility and overhead lighting of internal spaces. 

© Ana Rodríguez

A  solution that is bold, functional, rational and Mediterranean; features that make this building remain relevant today.

© Ana Rodríguez

• Architects: Josep Lluís Sert
• Location: Parc de Montjuïc, Barcelona, Barcelona, España
• Area: 24000.0 m2 (25,8334 sq ft)
• Project Year: 1975
• Photos: Ana Rodríguez

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© Bartosz Makowski

• Architects: atelier7architektura
• Location: Wilcza 72, Warszawa, Poland
• Area: 220.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2010
• Photographs: Bartosz Makowski

• Interior Design: atelier7architektura gnich sp.z o.o.
• Lighting Design: Arkadiusz Raczyński
• Facilities: Pamb Jadwiga Gąsiorek
• Air Conditioning: JG-JG s.c.Jerzy Galas
• Structure: atelier7architektura gnich sp.z o.o.
• Construction Designer: Cyba-Jacek Cybulski
• Audio And Video: electrides Mariusz Pol

© Bartosz Makowski

The project involved the revitalization and expansion of the quarter building at Wilcza Street 72 in Warsaw, Poland and conducting dialogue between the old and the new tissue housing. It was important to giving a second life of the building, which was witnessed Polish history and supplementing it with elements of contemporary architectural matter, according to the rules applicable thoughts conservation.

© Bartosz Makowski

The building is situated in Warsaw Street Wilcza surrounded by pre-war buildings. Adjacent to the five-star hotel Rialto and a complex of buildings of Warsaw University of Technology. Besides special surrounding the building has retained on the facade holes after shelling in the war covered the glass and highlighted as a trace of history.

© Bartosz Makowski

The building complements the dense fabric of downtown Warsaw and enriches the frontage of the existing building, which not only survived World War II, but it was also a witness to historical events.

Section

Section

In his classic style facade of the building raises the prestige of frontage and introduces architectural detail, which previously did not have a house. Light plaster and woodwork introduces a feeling of freshness. Summit of the front facade hides terrace apartment on the top floor. Simple in form of dormers in the roof bring French chic, and the ground floor encased in stone emphasizes the importance of town-sites, which enliven the space, inviting passers-by to your interior. Each of the apartments in the building have a balcony. Cured courtyard contains a small number of fixed elements due to its universal character. This is the place to integrate the inhabitants of the organization of various events. The building outside of the apartments have a private place all kinds of services: in the annexe is an architectural office in the ground floor facing the street hairdresser, pharmacy, in the space of housing: notary, dentist, lawyer, interior architect. A surprising feature is the two cantilever wooden blocks in the yard. One of them is the outbuilding architectural office, and the other two-storey apartment. An important element of the interior staircase is a glass lift and exposed brick.

© Bartosz Makowski

These buildings remember the hard times of the war and it is why investor and architect wanted to emphasize the memorie by leaving traces of bullet holes on the front elevation, protected by glass and illuminated at night. The respect with which the investor came to the painful times in our history has been recognized in a number of articles devoted to building Wilcza 72. After 6 years of completion of the facility is still appreciated and collecting numerous accolades from users, guests and media, proving that the future is timeless architecture, which does not go blindly on the trendy styles, and adapts to the context and positively affects the prestige of the area.

© Bartosz Makowski

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