From the architect. Twenty-one plateaus and seven volumes tell the story of this house.
The aim of the project is to give a new and even identity to a house belonging to the same family for several generations. The original house formed by the aggregation of different interventions at different times, with different construction systems. Each of the rooms in the house describes a moment in life of this family story. Thus it was essential to maintain the structure, spaces, uses, garden and memories, presenting them in a new way.
The further layer built in the history of this place employs new volumes used for new parts of the program. In this way leisure areas are projected, containing always the scale of the building and are presented as a sort of aggregation of small parts, which draws courtyards and narrows areas, as the traditional Mediterranean architecture does.
The interior respects the intermediate levels system producing a large spatial heterogeneity in rooms with a wide variety of sizes and heights. The supporting structure of the original house is housed inside the furniture that has the same gray shade as the trunks of some of the species that inhabit the garden.
From the architect. Originally, the local government aimed to construct an observation tower at Straník, as the hill offers an exceptional view of Žilina – an 80 thousand industrial city in the Northwest Slovakia. Since the 1930’s the hill of Straník has been used for flying gliders. In a favorable weather, one can enjoy the view as well observe rogallos, paragliders and gliders taking off. Local authorities therefore initiated a workshop at the site, which brought together architects (2021 and LABAK), students of architecture and all stakeholders. The outcome of this gathering generated a consensus, that the idea of constructing a lookout tower at Straník should be reconsidered.
Axonometric
Obstacles Firstly, Straník itself makes a great viewpoint, because much of the hill’s crest is not forested. Moreover, eventually it came to light that the crest of the hill was a protected national heritage site – around 10th – 12th century B.C. a hill-fort had existed here. Although no complex archeological excavations and research have taken place here just yet, it is only a matter of time. And that further complicates any kind of intervention into the environment. So in the end the ambitions to develop Straník narrowed down to: how to make this place attractive for tourists, while taking into consideration claims made by heritage conservationists, paragliders as well as forestry, because the area is also used for logging timber.
Solution Instead of introducing new elements, 2021 and LABAK mapped the existing infrastructure – the pathway, provisional shelter and the bench and translated it into contemporary architectonic language.
The subtle footbridge aims to controllably manage movement of tourists, away from the flying, and at the same time provide an easy access to the top of the hill for visitors with limited mobility. The footbridge levitates above the terrain and the only physical contact is through ground screws. “Since we are located in an area of potential archeological excavations and an eventual need to present them to the public, the construction is reversible. So in case a need emerges, we can adjust the footbridge or move it,” says Peter Lényi, who is one of the authors of this project.
In the last stretch to the crest of the hill, the footbridge is discontinued in order to allow passage for the timber-logging logistics. Then it further continues to a shelter roof, from where visitors can observe the picturesque images of rogallos, paragliders and gliding planes taking off and flying above the landscape, while munching on a sausage from a near-by food stall. The pathway leads visitors to its end with a bench, where they can sit and enjoy the panoramic view of Small Fatra mountain range and national park, as well Žilina’s car factory.
From the architect. To improve the living quality of the campus, a new building is built with multi-functions as canteens for students and professors, lecture hall and exhibition hall for the campus, office and service hall for the Tsinghua Career Center and food storage for all the canteens at the center of the campus of Tsinghua University.
2. The terrain of the site should be in good use for easy accessibilities in all directions. The trees and vegetation should be preserved to keep the continuity and sustainability of the environment.
3. As a public building in campus, it should be a sustainable, low cost and low energy consumption building, which means that passive strategies, local materials and appropriate construction methods are essential.
4. Architecture represents the spirits of campus and will be passed down in future. The brickwork could be designed as artwork, just like painting or sculpture, which mixes art and wall together.
The site of project used to be a blind corner in the center of campus, with dead end road, chaotic traffic, mixed logistic and service route, unattended courtyard. All of these were mismatched with the location. The core idea of design is to repair the urban texture in the campus context, to improve the fluency of the site, to make it easy to get in for the public from all directions.
System 1-Sustainability
System 2-3D Street
System 3-Brick Wall & Activity
The section design takes the full advantage of the terrain of the site, creates a three-dimensional indoor street for the public, through ground floor on east and B1 floor on west. The north and south are also available as entrance. The entrance floor of the building on the one hand is functional and solid and on the other hand is a kind of cluster of open public space, which makes students possible to access and go across the building in all directions. Moreover, the entrance floor serves as shortcut and meeting places for students in the campus.
The old trees and landscape terrain in the site are preserved as much as possible. The project is built on the site of former canteen and former chaotic backyard, without occupation of the former open green space and vegetation in north and west of the site. To keep the sycamores on southeast corner alive and create more nature friendly outdoor space, the outline of the building was designed to keep at least 5 meters distance away from the trunks, and provide double-deck balcony, bay window and wooden cafe terrace for people.
Sustainable strategies, especially passive design strategies are adopted in the project to make the space more comfortable and reduce the cost and energy consumption in operation.
Natural Lighting & Ventilation
The building above ground is divided into two main functions: canteen and career center, which are operated independently. They are connected with a public atrium, which connects public spaces on different stories, like a traditional inner Chinese courtyard. On the top of the atrium there are seven egg-shaped skylights, which bring natural daylight to the atrium. Each of the skylights has a small window on the side frame wall above the roof, which could be opened as outlet vent for natural ventilation. The 3-story high atrium works like a stack and with all inlets and outlets open, there is a stack effect to accelerate the natural ventilation and prevent the whole space from being overheated and make the atrium more comfortable in summer. Obviously, it significantly reduces the maintain cost and energy consumption for artificial lighting and air-conditioning in operation phase.
The depth of the building is more than 40 meters, to improve the daylight and natural ventilation for the public space and offices, a roof garden with side windows is inserted to the 3rd floor. The glass curtain wall with grating, facing south, draw more sunlight to the atrium courtyard. The flat roof windows on the timber floor of the roof garden will bring natural light down to the lecture hall. Among which two raised boxes with side windows are used for low cost chimney to accelerate the natural ventilation for the hall. The roof garden can be used as open cafe or party for the campus.
The exterior brick wall is also designed with the idea of sustainability. In this project, the brick masonry walls are built not only as enclosure wall, they are also as sun-shading system and ventilation openings. The width of the gaps between bricks could gradually change from 30 mm to 100mm, to satisfy the required aperture ratio.
Bricks are constructed in more than 5 ways: in conventional way, in zigzag way, brick indented, brick overhung and brick sun-shading system. They bring various textures for exterior walls and meet different functional demands.
Tiled Wall Structure of Northwest Stair
Tiled Wall Structure
The brick for the sun-shading façade is using a kind of specially customized brick with two rectangular holes, every piece of which should be integrated with reinforced bar through the holes in vertical, and every 8 layers bricks will be integrated with stainless flat steel in horizontal. All the bars will be welded on the flat steel, and they will be integrated with the main structure to keep the brick sun-shading facade safe and stable. The rectangular holes are set to suit the gap between bricks, which could be changed according to the design, to meet the needs of sun- shading or ventilation, and to keep the wholeness of the brick façade.
The masonry wall, as handmade constructed wall, could be more than a mere functional element. Some brick walls are designed as pieces of art work, to emphasize the specificity of the space. Taking the wall under the east steel porch, next to the east entrance as an example, the overhung bricks are settled like a painting, the brick wall is embodied with the capitalized characters of GHUA as part of “TSINGHUA”, the name of the university.
From the architect. Siam Discovery is The Biggest Arena of Lifestyle Experiments packed with exhilarating experiences that say ‘come play with us’ to visitors. People can come in to experiment and discover what they like and what expresses their own identity best.
Without the constraints of a particular brand or school of design, products are brought together under a single universal concept that puts customers at the centre; everything at Siam Discovery is presented by visitor’s interest. From among a choice of more than 5,000 international and local brands of every price range, customers can conveniently choose, mix, match, try, and then try again so that their purchases are in line with their taste and needs.
Among the exciting debuts at Siam Discovery is a new Loft store with a design concept that is being utilised for the first time in the world and which is conceived by world-renowned designer Nendo and Loft Japan’s designers. Nike is opening its only concept store in Southeast Asia. Issey Miyake will open its first concept store outside of Japan. It is called the World of Issey Miyake and offers a full line of products including, for the first time in Thailand, Issey Miyake’s products for men.
Home decoration brands like Hay, Tom Dixon and Kartell will open their first and only concept stores in Thailand. Artist’s Design Products from world-class artists like Yayoi Kusama and Lisa Larson will have their first and only stores in Thailand. And, Adidas will open its largest concept store in Thailand and with an interactive store concept.
From the architect. Through the Artisan House project, Morphogenesis looks to revive and re-establish a patronage for traditional Indian artisanal skills. India is symbolized by the diversity of its art and culture, yet with the changing paradigm there is a great need to conserve these symbols that are under a growing threat of neglect. Craft, emergent from skill and handed-down traditions is inherent in Indian culture, and is strongly representative of the global understanding of luxury today- that of the hand-made, bespoke, one that speaks of its provenance. Additionally, luxury in this project is expressed through the dexterity and beauty of spatial configurations, lending the space an experiential quality through the incorporation of craft, material, method and design.
The design exploits the terrain on which the project is located, to create two different levels that are instrumental in segregating functions. A large house intended to include a large extended family at times of celebration and festivity, the private spaces are placed in the earth-banked lower level, and the more public areas are designated to the upper level. In keeping with traditional Indian schema, the private living is organized around a central courtyard which contains a temple, imparting a spiritual omnipresence. A strong graphic language of striation is the organizing principle of the design, to retain scale within this very large volume. These bands translate into a series of vertical surfaces, with a different story unveiling in each volume subtended between two surfaces. What is unique about this house is that it’s hard to call anything a room when looking at the planning and philosophy behind the spaces. The house evokes luxury in its play with materiality and detail. There is stone craft in one zone, metal craft in another, textiles in the next. The strategy of banding allows for the use of distinct crafts and over 50 materials without impacting the architectural sensibility or destroying the cohesive narrative.
The striated planes notionally extend themselves beyond the edges of the built form, into the landscape and planting. So one could well be within a very stone crafted zone that extends out into a rock garden which then leads into another zone with a sculpture relief on the wall, with further leads into a water garden. There are multiple sequential exposures and experiences for the senses, so in a way there is also a luxury of experiences that this project affords. The experience created is akin to unfolding of space after space in a museum.
In nutshell, this project accommodates a traditional Indian family, traditional living principles and traditional craft and materials, but at the same time it was conceived as an extremely contemporary and modern house. This house represents luxury that is redefined: the luxury of handcraft, luxury in terms of freedom with experimentation which the client allowed, and finally, the luxury of different experiences.
From the architect. A stand of silver birches marks the place. Their trunks are white heat, tempered by pools of black. Everything here is light and shade. Taking cue from their slender friends, black downpipes score the white walls of the house, disappearing into the canopy above.
Approaching the threshold, the visitor is welcomed by pockets of shade nestled among protective brick walls. A large pivot window and a large pivot door throw themselves wide open, exposing the full throat of the house to the garden.
Plan
Section
Inside and out, the roof rests like a canopy. Sky and foliage are ever-present. Light filters in from all sides marking the passage of a day, while overhead, triangles beget triangles, folding and multiplying against the sky like barely tethered kites.
This house renovation stretches diagonally across the junction of its L-shaped backyard, unifying the two arms of the garden with a single gesture. Fin-walls project from the new living spaces, creating pockets of shade and shelter at the thresholds of outdoor living.
Internally, the geometry of the external canopy is drawn inside, bleeding the boundary between indoor and outdoor areas. This gesture also affords the opportunity to ‘flip’ open the rooftop, inviting shards of morning light into the living areas. Through the course of the day, sunlight penetrates the house from multiple angles, subtly marking the passage of time.
In the backyard a garage/studio building emulates the angular gesture of its sibling, though tips its hat in deference. Beneath its generous brim, a private garden provides a place of reflection for the studio space within.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Competitions has announced a shortlist of 5 teams in the competition for the Upper Orwell Crossings Project in Ipswich, England. The project brief consists of 3 new bridges spanning the Upper Orwell River that will enable the redevelopment and regeneration of several districts of Ipswich, as well as relieve congestion and improve connectivity for multiple forms of transportation.
The three bridges include:
Crossing A
A new road crossing to the south of the Wet Dock Island, which would connect the east and west banks. This crossing would be for all road users, including cyclists and pedestrians.
Crossing B
A new road crossing of the New Cut, which would connect the west bank to the Wet Dock Island. This crossing would be for all road users, including cyclists and pedestrians.
Crossing C
An improved crossing over the Prince Philip Lock, which would connect the east bank to the Wet Dock Island. This crossing would be for cyclists and pedestrians only.
After a pre-qualification phase that attracted a range of submissions from firms of varying sizes, the evaluation panel selected the following shortlisted teams:
Adamson Associates (Toronto) with William Matthews Associates and Ney & Partners
Wilkinson Eyre (London) with FHECOR and EADON Consulting
The finalists were selected based on “experience of collaborating on major infrastructure projects, working within a multi-disciplinary team environment, and designing projects of architectural distinction with a complexity, scale and/or budget similar to that required on the Upper Orwell Crossings scheme.”
The five teams will present their designs to the Judging Panel (Chaired by Sir Michael Hopkins CBE) in mid-December 2016, with a winner to be announced in early 2017. The winning team will work with an existing project team led by WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, who will provide structural and civil engineering consulting for the project.
Zorgvlied Crematorion, situated in the historical Zorgvlied Cemetery in Amsterdam, opened last spring. The word Crematorion is composed of the words cremate and Orion (constellation), and represents a new approach to cremation allowing mourners to accompany the remains of their beloved ones as far as possible towards the cremation furnace. GROUP A has designed the innovative structure in such a way it facilitates this new approach.
A Fitting Way of Leave-taking The Crematorion is a stand-alone building, housing a cremation furnace and processing room, separate from the usual auditorium. The structure is designed to focus the minds on the ritual of leave-taking. It is designed to evoke personal involvement, allowing each participant to shape it and give it meaning in his or her own particular way. The farewell ceremony may be held in the auditorium of Zorgvlied or elsewhere – even at home. After this ceremony, the relatives accompany the remains of their dear deceased loved one through the beautiful grounds of Zorgvlied to the Crematorion. The next of kin get to choose whether they want to leave the casket in the special forecourt, or whether they want to enter it into the furnace themselves. The furnaces opening is connected directly to the outside. Also, unlike a regular service at a crematorium, all invitees can be present at the moment the casket enters the furnace. It allows differing cultures the opportunity of taking leave in their own way, employing the rituals they consider most appropriate.
Ritual in Architecture and Environment The 16-metre high Crematorion is carefully embedded in the leafy surroundings of the cemetery and the vegetation on both sides of the path continues rising along the walls of the exterior. The Crematorion has a base made of stone and a light, tent-like superstructure over it, ending into a glass covered opening. The contrasting materials symbolise the tension between the heaviness of the earth and the insubstantiality of the heavenly and spiritual. The opening in the top is oriented to the sun and the rotation in the tent-structure stems from the difference between the incidence of sunlight and the direction of the site. Daylight comes from above into the forecourt, where it illuminates the glass mosaic wall. This wall also separates the forecourt from the technical area of the Crematorion.
Plan
Section
The Final Journey The distinctive pavilion is a friendly and recognizable building, with its subtle hints of something higher than the earthly sphere. In GROUP A’s design, the routing through the historic Cemetery – the journey of the deceased and the next of kin, from the auditorium to the Crematorion – plays an important role. The verticality of the design reinforces the idea of the spirit of the departed, rising to the imaginary stars. It helps to turn this final journey into a meaningful ritual.
“This national museum helps to tell a richer and fuller story of who we are,” said Obama. “It helps us better understand the lives, yes, of the president but also the slave, the industrialist but also the porter, the keeper of the status quo but also the activist seeking to overthrow that status quo.”
Also speaking at the opening event were former President George W. Bush, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Smithsonian Secretary David Skorton, Rep. John Lewis and Lonnie G. Bunch III, as well as prominent figures such as Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith.
Designed by David Adjaye as the leader of the Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup (FAB) team, the 400,000 square foot building is the first national museum dedicated to the history and culture of African Americans, and includes exhibition space for the display of more than 3,000 artifacts.
Check out the video above to see the Dedication Ceremony in its entirety, and watch the video below for a timelapse of the building’s construction.
From the architect. An order is received and according to the evaluation of the initiative it offers limited financial benefits, but simultaneously has excellent conditions to start a creative process, represented in a bet that assumes the premise: “the possibility of generating a project that is a CREATION and not a replica of something already imagined.”
The proposal comes as a result of the relationships and conflicts between three basic components: the natural, anthropic and metaphorical; each component is approached from a key variable for its morphological interpretation (formal – spatial):
Model
In this way the dialogic triad is obtained: LAND – PLANT – ROOF Addressing the analysis of joints and contradictions present and possibles between these three components, leads to find a complex interlocutor to establish simple relationships (above – below, outside – inside and solid – transparency, among others), from the previous EXPLORATIONS made about THE GRID, allow assuming the project as a testing laboratory of concepts and relationships.
Taking lessons: “Para no contradecir la realidad, el arquitecto debería atenerse a los hechos arquitectónicos que a partir de ella se puedan formular” (Pérez, Aravena y Quintanilla, 2007:15). Based on this reflection it asks for an assessment of reality in search of the purposes to which must answer the triad. FIRST: Addressing the pedestrian and vehicular accessibility in relation to the adjacent street to 45°. SECOND: To form a permeable frontal plane to the breezes coming down from the Venezuelan Andes to clean the warm meadows and the reed fields. THIRD: Floating perpendicularly the parking integrating to the house exoskeleton, as opposed to the prevailing separate proposal. FOURTH: Structuring the central yard of 6 * 6 meters, which serves as a flow collector in both directions. FIFTH: An opening of 12.00 meters that allows integrating kitchen – bar – dining room – living room in a unit space conditioned for the furniture. SIXTH: Solving generic variables as:
Three grids that cross each other, the first one forming the LAND as a stepped floor, situating the house in downward cascade, allowing expand the section from the entrace to the interior; the next one forms the PLANT, a sequence of horizontal planes sized in relation to the housing program, working to compression and supporting the ROOF falling from above in a grid of inverted beams.
Section
Concept
Section
[program]
…domestic skeleton-…
A set consisting of roof – study – patio – parking – hangs from above by subjecting the inverted beams working simultaneously as hanging beams, two groups of load-bearing planes that fit with the program by way of partition walls, the first one groups rooms and the study on the northeast side integrating the intimate area of the house, while on the southwest side, kitchen, laundry area and guest bedroom, make up the structural corbel what affixed to the floor gives balance to the imposing cantilever. On the floor, under an opening of 12 meters in a continuous space, the furniture is placed demarcating living room – dining room – bar, while the accordion unfolds delimiting the outside terrace facing the pool.
Floor Plan
[materiality]
…exposed concrete skeleton …
A exposed concrete skeleton defines the materiality of the house, which is subtly added three materials: MURO-CEL in black concrete redefines its use forming the permeable vertical plane in a openwork way. Urapo and pardillo wood treated with natural wax bee impose their presence marking the space whit its horizontal grains, and the glass communicates that supports and not that is supported, desmaterialize with multiple reflections.
The oblique beam receives breezes from the northeast and send them giving natural aceleration, toward the permeable frontal plane that as a filter allows its path and simultaneously controls solar radiation of the access corridor, while the horizontal planes float laterally supporting this strategy and minimize the east – west sunlight.
On the southwest side as an accordion, urapo wood partitions allow the passage of the evening breezes and filter the afternoon sun giving a magical atmosphere of shadows and reflections. The system is complemented by a central yard formed by hanging beams that work as a flows collector and link the house with the outside.
… “As family members that project-planning-in-the-making” (Smithson & Smithson, 2001:30) We have learned from the master to put together things that Mies had; simple self-imposed rules show a clear intention to achieve the maximum benefit of a standard shuttering; to join two planes requires dilate, the inability to use paints and this way the “gray work”… is “white work”.
Sig Nordal 