The site’s topography has a 20% slope, which means exactly 8 m difference between lowest and highest points. A 16 m square-shaped house was spotted in a single store above the inclined topography. In such a way that it results in two equal additional useful spaces: under and over it, like a yard in the shadow and another one in the sun, places to stay outdoor either in a rainy or a sunny day. Due to the slope, from any of the three levels we can always reach the ground at the same level, even on the roof we can cross a bridge and find the ground level again.
The house structure rests on four columns. The two waffles slabs — 50 cm high including all the beams that stand each 90 cm — were made by casting premixed concrete on plastic mold. Although the structure construction has been done on spot, its process is very industrialized.
Site Plan
Floor Plan
Floor Plan
The house’s roof has a 20 cm depth pool as a reflecting pool. The water was poured when the slab had just been cast avoiding cracks due to the heating during the cure process. Also by keeping the water we also avoid cricks from sudden variation of temperature. By this way the concrete become impermeable by itself, it means free from membrane and thermal insulation.
The external walls are made in concrete and they have only 5 cm of thickness. Then, to improve its thermal performance we had to protect them with a second layer, made with pre-cast panels out of pressed wood and cement.
The side windows were made with tempered glass without frameworks, they are like a guillotine balanced with a counterweight hidden between the panel and the wall of concrete.
Penn Station is finally getting its much-needed makeover. The transportation hub, the busiest train station in the country, has been the target of much ire and disdain ever since its Beaux-Arts predecessor, designed by McKim, Mead & White, was demolished in 1963, forcing the station to retreat into the dark, cramped passageways below Madison Square Garden. The ordeal lead critic and Yale University Professor Vincent Scully to memorably quip: “One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.”
But today, after years of scrapped schemes, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a fast-track plan that will give New York’s scuttling visitors and commuters some breathing room as early as 2020. Led by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the design calls for a new 255,000 square foot train hall and retail space in the James A. Farley Building, also known as the General Post Office, across 8th Avenue from Madison Square Garden and the current Penn Station entrance.
The building will contain 112,000 square feet of retail space and 558,000 square feet of office space, as well as new waiting areas for Amtrak and Long Island Railroad passengers. The plan also proposes renovating the deteriorating underground passageways and platforms that currently support nearly three times as many users as they were designed for.
Three years before Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of the world’s largest tourist resort, located on a beachfront property on the island of Rügen. The Nazis called it Prora.
Capable of holding more than 20,000 residents at a single time, Prora was meant to comfort the weary German worker who toiled away in a factory without respite. According to historian and tour guide Roger Moorhouse, it was also meant to serve as the carrot to the stick of the Gestapo—a pacifying gesture to get the German people on Hitler’s side.
But then World War II began, and Prora’s construction stalled—until now.
In 1936, Germany was still enmeshed in the concept of “people’s community,” or volksgemeinschaft, from World War I. It was a sense that Germans stood united, no matter what. While the Nazi police state was in development, the overarching German vision was a hopeful one, Moorhouse tells Business Insider. “And this is where something like Prora comes in.”
Over the next three years, more than 9,000 workers erected a 2.7-mile-long building out of brick and concrete. Its practicality was dwarfed by its grandness. Moorhouse calls it “megalomania in stone.”
“The photos cannot physically do it justice,” Moorhouse says. “It’s too big.” By all accounts, it would have been one of the most impressive structures in the world.
But as the Third Reich began its devastating march through Europe, workers returned to their factories and Prora fell by the wayside.
It became a shell of building, a failed Nazi dream left to decay for the next several decades, until 2013, when German real-estate company Metropole Marketing bought the rights to refurbish Prora and build it up as luxury summer homes and a full-time apartment complex.
The new homes will take up several of the structure’s eight blocks, split between the Prora Solitaire Home and Prora Solitaire Hotel Apartments and Spa.
Prora’s block of apartments opened earlier this summer. To buy one of the units, you’ll need to shell out between $400,000 and $725,000. It all depends on how much space you’ll need. Penthouse suites, like the one above, will run on the pricier end, while more modest units like the one below will be less expensive.
In all cases, the design aesthetic tends toward the modern. Regardless of size or cost, buildings all feature glass elevators, heated floors, and laundry facilities. And all beach-facing units will give residents sweeping views of the Baltic Sea.
While these amenities are certainly appealing, given the location’s history and its distance from Berlin — about three hours by car — Moorhouse has his doubts that people will want to spend time there.
From the architect. A plot of land sloping downward into the sea. A rugged atmosphere of native pines and acacias. The open sky and the see merging into the horizon. Such was the scenery from were Roland House’s project began.
Even though the commissioner’s program called for a typical summer house that satisfied the usual needs, it also had some peculiarities. Both social and private areas had to be organized on a single floor, except for a single independent space: the main suite integrated with a room for working and reading, a bathroom, and its own exclusive terrace.
And that is how the house was built. Two bedrooms and an expansive yet unified living-dining-cooking area set on the ground floor while above, more independently, stands the master suite and the studio-library requested by the client.
A pure and solid exposed concrete prism, half buried into the sand dunes almost like a railway carriage abandoned in a desert, became a living artifact.
Ground Floor Plan
Floating above the street level, this volume produces a semi covered area that serves as a parking place. From this area, a two-story high narrow passage, fixed between to walls, directs towards the entrance, from where the space opens up into the house’s ample and luminous ground floor.
The facade at the front opens up to the surroundings. Rising from the natural terrain, the first floor protrudes the box and expands towards the outside. Encircled by the canopies of the pines and the acacias, it presents itself as a space for sensitive intimacy. Its terrace, however, surpasses the canopies and allows for views of the sea and the horizon.
Top Floor
The facade at the back, mostly blind, becomes the dune’s retaining wall where the volume penetrates the terrain, and lodges the service areas. At the same time, it hosts the vertical circulation that starts at the ground level and goes all the way up through the first floor drawing a single straight line.
The study of the proportions between the heights and the dimensions of the inner spaces, along with the decision to produce linear openings on the walls—thus avoiding full height windows—looked to emphasize the building’s horizontality and to lower the visual impact of the bar-like volume, in an attempt to achieve a respectful dialogue with the environment.
This spatiality inside allowed a centrifugal effect for the senses, directing the views through big glazed openings towards the outside into the natural surroundings. There was an attempt to conceive the house not as a complete object per se, but as a means to achieve enjoyment instead.
Section
Section
Most of the furniture was built in exposed concrete. The dining and the cooking areas are separated by a hanging partition, intersected by a horizontal pane that becomes a kitchen countertop and a dining table. While the partition gives the kitchen some privacy, the countertop and the table connect it with the living-dining area. These three elements were thought and built as a monolithic single object made out of concrete. This matter’s malleability allowed for it to be conceived as an autonomous piece, able to articulate the different spaces with its synthetic potentiality.
Passive solar control devices were used. On the one hand, the walls of the first floor fold when they reach the ceiling and become an overhanging that protects the inside from the effects of the sun. On the other, for the same reasons, the floor slab prolongs to float over the ground floor.
House Roland intended to reassure itself as an object in its own environment, to belong to the scenery as a part of it and, at the same time, to own it. It was our intention to make this work of architecture and Costa Esmeralda’s natural atmosphere to vibrate in harmony.
Designed to be constructed quickly, easily, and by unskilled laborers, the single occupant houses and bungalows can be stacked or arranged side-by-side, coming together to form a low-rise, high-density community. This arrangement accommodates 115 homes per hectare, which each include their own front doors and private external spaces.
The design is based on modular units made with 8 sheets of OSB and allows for prefabricated window and door openings, kitchen units, and storage solutions. The interiors are lined with lacquered OSB for a simple aesthetic that contrasts with the external cladding material.
Courtesy of MawsonKerr Architects
MawsonKerr understood that you can create a bespoke component from a sheet of OSB and a CNC machine and make that component interesting and useful, while performing several tasks at once, said judge Tim Lucas.
The architects aim for the construction of the prefabricated building components to become a community project, empowering individuals to gain control and pride in ownership of their homes. A panel system allows for customizability of both interior and exterior; meanwhile, the modular approach allows for an efficient use of space. The energy-efficient shell and low-rise design also bring natural light to all areas of the home, overall providing affordable and sustainable housing to promote a safe and vibrant community.
Winner of the 2010 Pritzker Prize and founder of SANAA (Sejima + Nishizawa and Associates), Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima talks to us about the importance of white in their designs, with the intention of bringing and diffusing natural light to all the spaces. Sejima also describes how their buildings are able to integrate and bring people together through open spaces that connect, in an almost extreme way, the interiors and exteriors.
Winner of the 2010 Pritzker Prize and founder of SANAA (Sejima + Nishizawa and Associates), Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima talks to us about the importance of white in their designs, with the intention of bringing and diffusing natural light to all the spaces. Sejima also describes how their buildings are able to integrate and bring people together through open spaces that connect, in an almost extreme way, the interiors and exteriors.
The project is the result of the Waiting for Revival Competition organised by the Transylvania Trust Fundation aiming to transform the spaces of the castle into workshop areas and one multifunctional hall.
The brief required not to intervene onto the existing historical structure in order to carry out a full restoration at a later date. Consequently the design was conceived using a set of independent installations.
Plan
Section
The design aims to bring back spacial qualities belonging to the castle before it fell into disrepair. We functionalised the existing spaces for the Arts and Crafts Workshops and at the same time we tried to give the former ruin a sense of place. The collapsed vaults were recreated using a lighting installation consisting of a series of light bulbs hanged from the ceiling. We designed the smaller space of the main hall with intimacy in mind. The work area’s installations make the space functional for metal and carpentry workshops and at the same time illuminate the distinctive features of the space. All the pieces were built on site by local craftsmen and volunteer students during the two week long arts and crafts workshop held at the castle at the end of august 2016.
Aarhus School of Architecture, schmidt hammer lassen architects, VOLA, and Danish Arts Foundation proudly announce the fourth joint venture competition Drawing of the Year 2016. This year’s theme is Habitation.
Digital drawings
Technology has transformed how architects work — and how their work is perceived. Therefore Drawing of the Year 2016 will focus exclusively on sketches and drawings created using digital technology. The aim of the competition is to continuously explore new tendencies in architectural drawing and challenge the use of new techniques and mixed media.
This year’s competition examines the potential for developing architectural ideas through a digital format. How can digital drawing push the boundaries of our perception of Habitation? How can digital drawings express artistic skills? And how can digital technology contribute to the understanding of drawing as a craft?
Habitation
We invite bold, inspiring, and innovative proposals on how architects imagine, develop and contribute to new ways of perceiving habitation through drawing. On all scales and in all environments, from the smallest cabin to complex living facilities in rural outskirts, suburban environments, nature or in expanding megacities.
We accept drawings from students at architecture schools all over the world. The internationally acclaimed jury will award digitally produced drawings that inspire, communicate and engage in architecture in an artistic way. Drawings should reflect a media of production and dissemination of thoughts and dreams, and should invite the recipient to wonder, be moved or become involved in the discussion of architecture and habitation.
After the competition the drawings will be curated, printed and exhibited at Aarhus School of Architecture. A book containing a curated selection of the drawings will be published in 2017.
You also have the opportunity to submit a film showing how you made your drawing or any inspirational supplement to your drawing.
Download the information related to this competition here.
Among the dignitaries in attendance at the dedication ceremony of the Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP) in Puerto Rico was Roberto Sánchez Vilella. In his capacity as Governor of the island, he gave a tongue-in-cheek speech[1] directed at his political opponent and founder of the museum, Luis A. Ferré:
I feel that I have contributed, in my small way, to the building of this museum. Had I not defeated Luis Ferré in the election, he would not have had sufficient leisure time to devote to this cultural project.
It is certainly true that this new building, designed by Edward Durell Stone and inaugurated in 1965, would not have existed without Ferré’s singular vision and extraordinary generosity. Stone’s design for the museum earned him an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Award and, together with Ferré’s unwavering commitment to the success of the institution, produced what is now one of the most recognized and respected cultural landmarks in the Caribbean.
Prior to pursuing a political career, Ferré had amassed a small fortune through industrial enterprises. He spent much of his wealth on philanthropic ventures, of which the MAP was the most significant; as well as founding the museum, Ferré was initially its sole patron. The museum’s original collection comprised seventy-one artworks, all of which had been purchased by Ferré himself. At the time of the museum’s founding, his native city of Ponce was poorly connected to the capital city of San Juan, and thus did not benefit from international tourism. Ferré’s decision to open a major public art museum in his hometown was partly driven by a desire to provide a boost to tourism outside the capital and, ultimately, create a more even distribution of wealth across Puerto Rico.[2]
The museum was initially located in an old colonial house but the compact size of these premises was quickly outstripped by the scale of Ferré’s ambitious plans. His expansion of the collection, which included artworks donated by other charitable organizations, demanded a larger exhibition space. The American Modernist architect Edward Durell Stone, whose previous work included the original Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) building in New York City, was commissioned to design a dedicated building for the collection. Ferré’s vision for the museum extended to its architecture, and he laid out certain basic requirements for the design – namely that it should “express, with simple and sedate lines, the noble spirit of Ponce and, while being modern, should also be serenely classical.”[3]
By this stage of his career, Stone’s architectural style had evolved through several incarnations. His early designs of the 1930s were in the International Style, which he had studied while spending two years travelling in Europe. Subsequently, having found the style to be overly austere, his work began to display the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, whom Stone visited at Taliesin East in the 1940s.[4] By the late 1950s, Stone had developed a more independent architectural style, carving a distinctive architectural niche with his design for the U.S. Embassy Building in New Delhi.[5] Nevertheless, certain references to his earlier stylistic influences remain in his later work, as evidenced by his design for the MAP.
Stone designed a rectangular building of two stories to house the museum. The first floor contains a lobby and seven rectilinear galleries, while the second floor houses seven hexagonal galleries encircled by a terrace. The two floors are linked by an elegant double staircase located in the lobby, which acts as an architectural centerpiece for the building. Additionally, two gardens to the north and east of the building were designed by Stone’s son, Edward Durell Stone Jr. (a third garden was added in 1991). The heavy roof, which forms deep eaves over the balcony, and the low horizontal composition of the building appear to reference Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie houses. The choice of materials, however, is closer to the International Style; the marble aggregate with which the building is clad recalls the formal purity of European Modernism.
The use of natural lighting is characteristic of Stone’s work, and he became adept at using textured surfaces to fragment sunlight as it fell on and into his buildings. At the MAP, a geometric pattern of recessed triangles makes up the hung ceiling, which is punctured by skylights in the center of each upper-story gallery. The double staircase aside, these skylights are perhaps the building’s most visually arresting architectural features. Hexagonal in shape, the skylights diffuse the harsh Caribbean sun to softly light the interior spaces and artworks. The sunlight even reaches the lower floor, as it streams down the double staircase and the circular light-wells installed in two of the upper galleries. Further natural lighting is provided by narrow windows at each corner of the upper galleries, ensuring the rooms are evenly lit.
The various components of the museum are unified by Stone’s harmonious design. The hexagonal skylights, for instance, echo the hexagonal plan of the galleries themselves. The tessellated pattern of the ceiling is mirrored on the floor of the upper galleries, where the triangles are delineated in bronze. Elsewhere, the molding pattern found on the cornice of the roof is repeated on the openings of the stairwell and lightwells. Both the floor and ceiling patterns continue from the galleries to the outdoor terrace, creating a sense of spatial continuity which blurs the boundary between interior and exterior. The corner windows of the galleries were originally operable, allowing a tropical breeze to flow around the galleries and drawing the surrounding environment further into the building.
Not only did Stone’s design respond to the local climate, it also paid homage to local vernacular architecture, differentiating this project from the architect’s work in America. While San Juan was dominated by Spanish Revival architecture as a result of its colonial history, in Ponce a unique style of architecture had developed, known as Ponce Creole. Borrowing and blending design elements from multiple sources, Ponce Creole is characterized by the use of Neoclassical columns, Art Deco detailing, and the long balconies of French Creole – the style’s namesake. These features can all be found at the MAP, where the monumental balcony stretches the length of the building and a row of slender columns support the overhanging roof. Symmetrical Art Deco patterns, meanwhile, are formed by the exterior grills of the upper gallery windows and by the cornice moldings.
With regard to Ferré’s goal of attracting international tourists to Ponce, the MAP has been a resounding success; in 2011 the museum welcomed over seventy thousand visitors, of which almost nine thousand were tourists from overseas.[6] Due to the growing popularity of the museum, in 2010 a large-scale extension was added and Stone’s original building, which had weathered over the years, was carefully restored. The ever-expanding collection of the museum now comprises 4,500 works, with Pre-Raphaelite, Renaissance and Spanish Golden Age paintings presented alongside the work of Puerto Rican artists.
The diversity of the museum’s collection is reflected in the character of its architecture; though Stone’s design shows international influences, it remains rooted in the visual culture and heritage of its locality. By referencing traditional Ponceñan architecture and incorporating the Caribbean climate into the building, Stone created a design specific to its context and unique within his body of work.
Photography of this project has been shared by Mary Ann Sullivan’s Digital Imaging Project (Bluffton University), which contains a growing archive of more than 24,000 images of sculpture and architecture.
References [1] Ash, Agnes. “New Art Museum Attracts Tourists to Ponce”. New York Times, Jan 23, 1966, p. 358 [2] Ibid. [3] “Edificio Edward Durell Stone”. Museo de Arte de Ponce. Translation author’s own. Accessed 12 July, 2016. [access] [4] James, Elizabeth A. “Arkansas Listings in the National Register of Historic Places: Edward Durrell Stone Buildings”. The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, 66:1, 2007. p.61 [5] Ibid. James. p.63 [6] “Informe Annual 2011-2012”. Museo de Arte de Ponce. Accessed 12 July, 2016. [access]
Sig Nordal 