Photographer Khoo Guo Jie of Béton Brut has provided us with some new images of Zaha Hadid Architects’ Nanjing International Youth Culture Centre, now nearing completion along the Yangtze river in Hexi New Town, Nanjing’s new central business district.
Occupying a 5.2 hectare site, the complex contains 465,000 square meters of floor space, which includes a hotel, conference center, offices and underground parking, and is part of a larger masterplan by ZHA that will feature a pedestrian bridge linking the plaza with the other side of the river.
“The Culture and Conference Centre masterplan expresses the continuity, fluidity and connectivity between the urban environment of Hexi New Town, the agricultural farmland along the Yangtze river and the rural landscapes of Jiangxinzhou Island,” explain the architects.
The complex consists of two towers rising from a five-story, mixed-use podium. The taller of the towers rises 314 meters (68 floors) and contains a 5-star hotel and office floors, while the 255 meter, 59-story tower will house an additional hotel to accommodate visitors to the conference center below.
The Conference Centre contains a 2,100-seat conference hall, a 500-seat concert hall, a multifunction hall and a VIP area, expressed as individual volumes encircling a central courtyard on the ground level. At higher levels, the elements “merge into a singular whole” to allow pedestrian to traverse the building uninterrupted.
The complex is oriented on the site to create a gradual transition from “the vertical of the urban CBD to the horizontal topography of the river.” This transition is also expressed in the formal representation of the building: the fibre-concrete paneled podium borrows from the fluid language of the river, while the towers connect to the urban streetscape of the new CBD.
From the architect. Maitén House is a country holiday house located on the southern region of Chile near Puerto Octay city. On the shores of the Llanquihue Lake, overlooking the Puntiagudo, Osorno and Calbuco volcanoes
This plot of green pastures becomes narrower while descending towards the lake, bounded between two streams with impenetrable forests of Ulmos, with a beach at the lake shore.
The clients have a very big family, 8 children’s and 12 grandchildren’s, our proposal was to fragment the program into several smaller cabins, giving independence to the families of the sons or guests and then the Maitén House was conceived as a common space to shelter the guest of the cabins and with a master bedroom and 3 rooms for single children’s.
The position of the house in the first row to the lake left to common areas and cabins in a rear area, which is why it was designed taking all private areas towards the ends, leaving a double height with the common areas in the center giving a transparency to the back of the house. This connection to this “Back” is enhanced by burying the first floor, access, parking and services.
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Section
Materiality of local agricultural buildings present in the region , with solid skirting, wooden facades ajar ventilate and illuminate , metal roofs that eventually oxidized blend in with autumn woods and sunsets. Materials which in Maiten House are being reinterpreted to work in harmony with the landscape.
The Form of Form starts on the holiday that celebrates the implementation of the Portuguese Republic with exhibition openings, debates, book presentations and many other activities. The intensive programme of the opening week will give a sneak-peek into what will follow until 11 December. The Lisbon Architecture Triennale invites you to join this celebration of architecture and the city. Book on your calendar.
via Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa
Four main exhibitions
This edition’s programme articulates around exhibitions that focus on fundamental aspects of contemporary architecture, from authorship to construction, from the city to logistics.
The Form of Form, MAAT Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology Building Site, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The World in Our Eyes, Garagem Sul – Centro Cultural de Belém Sines: Seaside Logistics, Triennale’s HQ
Seven Satellites
In order to expand the debate and to amplify its resonance with the city, the Satellites unfold into exhibitions and events that allow to reconsider the geographic dimension of Lisbon and its landscape, from Trafaria to Amadora, including Paços do Concelho.
Ruins of the Apocalypse Limits of Landscape Letters to the Mayor Object- Project The Power of Experiment A Triangular History 2016 – Ennials
Associated Projects & Sidekicks
Twelve Associated Projects and a number of Sidekicks will expand the programme and explore the many dimensions of the city, its architecture and its relevance to the contemporary architectural culture.
Other Lisbon
One of the Associated Projects consists in a set of free guided tours in Lisbon. The first one will happen on 8 October at Parque das Nações-Moscavide-Olivais Norte, conducted by Álvaro Domingues. The tours starts at 10.30am Bookings at: outralisboa@gmail.com / 92 713 62 91
Throughout the several weeks the Lisbon Triennale presents a vast programme of activities focussed on critical reflexion, debate and experimentation of architecture. These activities are directed to people of all ages and talents and rely on the collaboration of several specialists in the areas of architecture, art, literature and education.
Not every piece of architecture can be an economic and social success. But there is one dreaded term reserved for only the mot wasteful of projects: “white elephants.” The term comes from a story of the kings of Siam, now Thailand, who would reportedly gift sacred albino elephants to courtiers they didn’t like. Refusing the gift from the king would have been unacceptable, but being sacred, these animals were forbidden from work, leading the courtier to financial ruin—a fact the kings knew all too well.
Of course, in architecture the term “white elephant” is used frequently to disparage certain projects, and whether a project is deserving of such infamy is usually a matter of perspective. Often eyesores or reminders of poorly spent funds, these projects refuse to be forgotten despite few wanting to remember them. Dotted around the world and across history, they all have the same thing in common: although they may (or may not) have once looked good on paper, they probably should have just stayed on paper.
This 230,000 square meter, eight-story bus station opened in 1993 with “indoor micro-metropolis” aspirations. The architect, Ram Karmi, even went on to win the Israel Prize for architecture. But the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station came to contradict his success, given the derelict state of the megastructure. The thousands of stores struggled to find tenants, the innards of the concrete giant are a confusing maze of corridors, and its location in southern Tel Aviv was illogical for a bus terminal in the first place.
Today, entire sections of the structure are uninhabited or used only for illicit purposes; old shops and winding halls conceal sex workers, drug sellers, rave throwers and others who appreciate the winding darkness. – 99% Invisible
The third largest building in the world, the Palace of the Parliament has a floor area of 365,000 square meters and costs over US$6 million per year just to heat and light, a fact that is especially astonishing considering 70% of the building remains empty. The building was born from the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, with construction of the palace including the displacement of forty thousand people and the demolishing of churches, hospitals and religious buildings.
Construction involved 700 architects and 20,000 building workers doing three shifts a day, plus 5,000 army personnel, 1.5 million factory workers and an army of so-called volunteers. – CNN
The Olympic building that has perhaps caused the most detriment-per-capita, the 1976 stadium in Montreal has been fraught with problems from its conception through to today. Its complicated design and delays escalated the project’s cost to the point that the final Olympic debt of C$1.16 billion wasn’t paid off until 2006. Today, the stadium still lacks a permanent tenant and its roof remains structurally unsuitable.
Built in 1734 by Maharaja Jai Singh II, the outdoor Jantar Mantar Jaipur site consists of nineteen astronomical instruments made of stone, including the world’s largest sundial, with a with a 22.6-meter-high gnomon arm. The reason for the monumentality of the instruments was the Maharaja’s belief that the small-scale instruments used by Ptolemy rendered inaccurate results. However, the opposite was true, with their largeness making them easy to misalign, and the complex soon fell into disuse.
Partially opened in 2011, construction on the two final buildings of the Peter Eisenman-designed City of Culture of Galicia was finally halted in 2013 following under-performing visitor numbers and extremely high costs.
‘It was born in the Spain of excess and is opening during an economic collapse, as a sort of monument to the construction bubble,’ wrote one Spanish journalist; the British critic Oliver Wainwright called it ‘a bloated vanity project.’ – Architect Magazine
Smatterings of life—renovations and a slight increase in visitor traffic—keep New South China Mall afloat, though barely. The 2350 store-mall still remains largely vacant 11 years after its opening, largely due to its location in Dongguan, where most of the 10 million residents are financially poor migrant workers rather than the middle or upper class.
Outside the mall, a giant Egyptian sphinx and a replica of the Arc de Triomphe were erected alongside fountains and canals complete with Venetian gondolas. It even boasted an indoor roller coaster. – CNN
The Ciudad Real Central Airport is a clear white elephant, having cost €1.1billion to build and closing after three years of operation. With its final flight having taken off in 2011, its feature on a 2013 episode of Top Gear is likely the most action seen in the airport’s recent history. The airport’s initial owner filed for bankruptcy with €300 million of debt, and the airport was finally sold this year for €56 million following a series of failed auctions, including one that saw a lone bid of a mere €10,000.
Naypyidaw became the capital city of Myanmar after a mysterious change from Yangon (also known as Rangoon). A warning from an astrologer is among the speculated reasons for the switch in 2006. Naypyidaw’s geographic size (it is six times the area of New York City), its 20-lane roads, and its giant but empty shopping malls, all emphasize its ghost-town status.
The city feels like an extreme test of the ‘if you build it, they will come’ theory. But so far, with the government already having moved at least one of its investment agencies back to Rangoon, it’s looking like a spectacular failure. – The Guardian
Perhaps the poster child of architectural white elephants, the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang holds a perpetually pushed back opening-soon date. At 105 empty storeys, it is the world’s tallest unoccupied building.
‘Today, nearly 30 years and an estimated $750 million later, this looming, gleaming, futurist-modernist arrowhead of a building is essentially a glorified telecommunications antenna.’ – The Daily Beast
Architect Santiago Calatrava has famously come under fire for his art complex in his native town, both for its crumbling roof just eight years after completion and for exceeding the original budget fourfold. Despite its tourist appeal and appearance in the movie Tomorrowland, locals remain indifferent to the monumental complex. In an alternate form of tourism, it is a key stop on a Valencia“wastefulness tour” that aims to show foreigners where their economic contributions are going. “they are interested to know where … is the money,” explained tour operator Miguel Angel Ferris Gil to NPR. “And we go to show you where there isn’t the money — at the public schools, at the hospitals.”
11. National Centre for Popular Music – Sheffield, UK
Following a RIBA competition won by Nigel Coates Architects, this £15 million project opened in March 1999. However, visitor numbers were not enough to sustain cashflow and it closed after just a little over a year. Sheffield Hallam University eventually gave hope to the building in 2003 by buying it for £1.85 million for use as a Student Union.
From the architect. The Municipality of Hoogezand-Sappemeer has been given a single, prominent, public building in which a theatre, an arts centre, a library and the town hall are accommodated. In the dynamic heart of this Dutch municipality citizens are served a wide palette of services, information, education, culture and recreation. Existing elements, such as the theatre auditorium, dating back to the 1980s, are re-used in the new development. The adjacent town hall, at the moment still in an outdated state, will ultimately undergo a complete transformation. In the meantime the existing premises and the new build function as a single entity. The connecting, central street forms a temporary solution to the gaps in the present infrastructure. Both in terms of use, as well as technological exploitation and urban design, the new central building has great advantages for Hoogezand-Sappemeer.
One of the issues that the municipality struggled with was whether to demolish the existing building or reuse it. De Zwarte Hond presented a plan of measures that focused on studying three reuse scenarios. Each scenario assumed a different reuse percentage: thirty, fifty or eighty percent. The scenarios were compared to establish the best ratio between building costs, operating costs, functionality and sustainability. And, in conjunction with the future users, a list of criteria was formulated to meet the needs of their future accommodation. This led to an informed choice for the scenario that assumed fifty per cent re-use, which was subsequently worked out in an integral redevelopment plan.
One of the interesting outcomes of the study was that the existing town hall – a design by Jan Brouwer – was more suitable for transformation into a modern working environment than was previously assumed. The introduction of a number of open recesses in the relatively deep building volume would create pleasant workplaces. By installing insulation, the existing building could be just as energy efficient as the new development.
Floor Plan
Central street
The integration of town hall, library, theatre and arts centre allows for lower operating costs and more efficient use of the number of square metres due to the double use of spaces. The architectural challenge was: how to ensure that the four different functions conveyed an overall impact that reflected their programme and the public objective? In addition to this, the interior should facilitate exchange between the four users.
The solution for both problems was to a large extent found in the central street. This connects the various functions and forms part of them. Giving the public spaces a flexible layout meant that, throughout the day, users can easily switch between intimate and larger-scale spaces. At the same time, the street functions as the building’s focal point. The great height, the overhang and the façade pattern create a distinctive location for the various functions.
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Culture and administration in two phases
The new development is being implemented in two phases. The first phase, just completed, comprises the central street and all the cultural functions. In phase two, to be carried out in the longer term, the town hall will also undergo transformation and the library will be given a definitive location. In the intervening period the central street has been given a temporary function that has as much usage quality as possible and is constructed from chipboard, a hard-wearing but affordable material forming a good contrast with the permanent structure in natural stone and glass. The temporary infill is also proving valuable as a source of inspiration and a way of testing a design while it is in use. The broad, tribune-like stairs at the entrance, for example, are much appreciated by the users, but they were not in the original design for the central street.
In terms of urban development the Cultural and Municipal Complex has brought many changes to Hoogezand-Sappemeer. Grouping the town hall, the library, the arts centre and the theatre in a single, prominent, public building has improved the quality of facilities and urban planning in the town centre. It has created a focal point of which the existing environment and, most notably, the adjacent De Hooge Meeren shopping centre, can take advantage. The representative theatre can confidently compete with the other theatres in the region.
Simply put, metamaterials are materials that behave according to their structure, rather than their base material composition. By manipulating their internal microstructures, metamaterials can exhibit properties that would not otherwise be found in a naturally occurring material.
To date, the term has mostly been used to refer to materials which can manipulate electromagnetic waves with an unnatural refractive index. But recently, a different way of looking at metamaterials has been studied by a team at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), who suggest that “so far, metamaterials were understood as materials – we want to think of them as machines.” A series of objects created by HPI that perform mechanical functions through their metamaterial configuration demonstrate this concept of “metamaterial mechanisms.”
For example, a metamaterial door latch is able to transform rotary handle movement into linear hatch motion, all within a singular object. It is the definition of the small-scale structure within the object that allows it to produce the desired macroscopic movement. These functional objects have no separate parts to assemble, and those made by HPI were simply made from laser-cut rubber foam. With such technology, as well as 3D printing, the fabrication of such objects could easily become more common.
Architecturally, the proposed uses of metamaterials have largely focused on those that are engineered to manipulate electromagnetic waves, which it has been suggested could be used in cloaking devices to protect military buildings from radar detection. Other possible uses of metamaterials in buildings have also included seismic and acoustic protection, also through wave manipulation.
With metamaterial mechanisms however, their architectural implications could extend beyond such specific technical applications. Laser cutting a working door handle not only solves a range of mechanical problems within a single object, it also expresses a total integration between the structure and the mechanical function of a material. What arises is a philosophy of harmonic efficiency within a material itself, which stands as a unique approach towards fabrication and reducing excess material use in the building industry.
Little Architect is a program at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. Created in 2013, the program is focused on teaching architecture to primary school age children, obtaining amazing results with more than 2,400 children from different backgrounds receiving architectural lessons. They are especially focused on running their program in low-income areas and state schools in London.
“Our responsibility as architects is not just to design but also to bring architecture to society and to create an awareness about urban issues and contemporary architecture within the people who inhabit it,” says Dolores Victoria Ruiz Garrido, author and director of the program.
What is Little Architect?
Little Architect is an education program teaching architecture and the urban environment in primary schools, both in and outside London, led by the Architectural Association School of Architecture. They teach schoolchildren aged 4 to 11 how to observe, understand and enjoy architecture, and to become active citizens in what they hope will be a more sustainable future.
Courtesy of Little Architect
Their in-school workshops are delivered in partnership with the class teacher and have been embedded into the UK national curriculum. The team is helping children achieve their learning targets through architecture and art, while the program provides the opportunity for children to think and communicate about buildings and cities through drawings. These drawings are used as a communication tool.
“We encourage children to create new, futuristic urban environments and to pay attention to the amazing world around them,” says Ruiz Garrido. “We want to trigger a new relationship with contemporary architecture and its local surroundings, encouraging children to care for but also to be critical of the cities we all inhabit.
The workshops last for a minimum of two hours. Architecture is an ideal tool for integrating STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Maths) into any school topic, allowing Little Architect to create strong links with History, Science, Geography and Literacy. One of their main objectives is to foster creativity. The team has developed a timeline-based methodology where they are also incorporating cartoons, movies, and books relating to children’s popular culture.
“For most of our children, in an overpopulated and expensive urban environment like London, it will be nearly impossible to afford a ‘lovely house with a garden and a garage,’ which is hardly even a reasonable sustainable model to foster. We have to change their expectations or at least give them other valuable options. It is serious stuff! If we don’t improve the way architecture is being perceived by children today, and if we don’t talk to them positively about vertical architecture, communal areas and communities, shared spaces, urban walkability, etc, we are betraying them by setting them up for a future of disappointment and unfulfilled dreams,” says Ruiz Garrido, highlighting this issue as one of the main aspects of the program.
“The way we design our cities is changing for the better. The participatory model, the community voice and a fluid dialogue between citizens and politicians is highly demanded. Today, it is more necessary than ever that we are educated from a young age in architecture and sustainable living. If we want better cities, we need committed, empowered and informed citizens acting together for our future.”
Courtesy of Little Architect
Below are a series of case studies discussing the various ways that Little Architect’s objectives have been incorporated into the school curriculum, with descriptions provided by Little Architect.
Case Studies
Netley Primary School / 17th September 2015
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, Number 11: “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” Two Year 5 (1 Session Each) LA Teacher: Dolores Victoria Ruiz & Sylvie Taher School Teacher: Rosie Chapleo & Khalida Walid
Little Architect designed double-sided A3 postcards for the students to draw and send to the Mayor of London, suggesting future projects for their local area. The main idea was to empower young children to have a sense of ownership over their future city and to teach how architecture can have a positive impact on the environment and on people’s happiness.
Courtesy of Little Architect
Objectives
The main objective is to encourage students to engage with both the design and management of their city.
To teach how architecture can have a positive impact on the environment
To teach how architecture can contribute to the production of energy
To show how the existing city can be maintained and improved in a sustainable and inventive manner: extensions, rehabilitation etc.
Courtesy of Little Architect
Encouraging the Young Voice
Part of the aim of this workshop was to encourage students to trust their own views about the city. As such we had a discussion in which we asked students to tell us what they did and did not like about the current city. One young boy said that he never felt that he could talk about his own views, and he felt encouraged to hear that his opinion did matter. In many instances the team asked students to explain their views, asking why they did or did not like something. This helped them to become more articulate about their views.
Courtesy of Little Architect
Results
Once the students had finished their drawings, the team asked them each to write a description of their project and to explain to the Mayor of London why their proposal would be a useful addition to the city explaining how it relates to sustainability in general and the UN Sustainability Goal 11 in particular. The results were spectacular as students really gained an opportunity to create thoughtful and beautiful drawings.
Christopher Hatton / 15th March 2016
Little Red Riding Hood in your Local Area Year 2 (1 Session) LA Teacher: Dolores Victoria Ruiz & Patrick Morris School Teacher: Sophie Klimt
The main objective of this workshop was to engage children with their local area through their Literacy topic: Little Red Riding Hood. The team included as part of the lesson’s material, images of themselves and their classmates, as well as images of Little Red Riding Hood. The students then had to work together to create a collage. Many students based their collages and their stories around their own very personal engagement with the area.
Objectives
The main objectives of this workshop were:
Know your local area
Foster creative thinking
Encourage discussion and teamwork by working in groups
Encourage a sense of playful by including Little Red Riding Hood in the urban brief.
Foster Observation
Courtesy of Little Architect
Talking about Urban Evolution
The team started by showing a Key Note presentation about the local area and had it had changed from the past through to the present. In this presentation, we showed a variety of images which related to everything from urban artifacts to buildings and infrastructure. It is important for us to convey to students that the city is a constantly changing place, and as such as citizens of the city, they are able to change it for the better.
Learning through Games
The images were ordered in such a way that the same area was shown several times, from the past through to the present. We then asked students to “spot the difference.” Students were very engaged in this game and noted numerous things which had changed, such as the way buildings are inhabited, the amount of traffic on the streets, and even the change in shops and shop signage.
Courtesy of Little Architect
Conclusions
The children were very excited to see that pictures of them had been printed out to be used in the collage and they used all the provided images. Many students based their collages and their stories around their own very personal engagement with the area and chose very familiar buildings to create their collage.
Betty Layward. Year 5. Active Planet
Learning about the Planets of the Solar System. December 2016 Year 5 students (2 sessions) LA Teachers: Dolores Victoria Ruiz, Natasha Sandmeier School teachers: Victoria Wiley, A. Reynolds
Courtesy of Little Architect
The presentation was structured in eight parts in order to coincide with each of the eight planets in the solar system. In each of the sections, the team showed the relationship of the planet to the sun and the earth, and then went into the details of its environment. Given that the environments are so incredibly different, we then started to propose different types of structures, which would be suitable for each of the planets. For example, gaseous planets might need floating structures; where planets further from the sun might need a form of architecture, which can deal with the cold.
For each of these planets and their corresponding environments, the team found examples of existing architecture to inspire the students. As we went through the presentation we always tried to highlight the point that it is very important that architecture responds to its environment. The children learned about sustainable architecture at the same time they were learning about planets and climate.
Visionary, cutting-edge, pure: these are the values that currently characterize Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. (“Automobili Lamborghini”). Since 1963 this company does not create cars but four-wheeled dreams, design and Engineering masterpieces that reached every continent and became legendary in the world because of their visionary and pioneering features. An international legend with an Italian heart. A legend that, starting from 2018, will be enriched by a further exciting chapter.
Made in Italy and known as the “Urus” project, the third model of the House of the Bull will soon be leading the market as the new Made in Italy luxury icon: a supersport car among the SUVs. In order to celebrate this event, along with a new enlargement of its base, Automobili Lamborghini intends to innovate the places of the legend inviting all the designers to imagine two monumental landmarks at the entrance of its historic plants.
How to reflect the character and the values of one of the most renowned and valued brand of the international scenario in an architectonic installation? How to architecturally interpret the DNA of one of the most representative brands of the automotive history?
This is the challenge of Lamborghini Road Monument, the competition of Automobili Lamborghini to build two architectonic landmarks aimed at marking the entrances of Sant’Agata Bolognese and its plant. Two landmarks to celebrate the legend and sculpt in matter the history of speed, power and innovation.
Aimed at creating an internationally known intervention, Lamborghini Road Monument will soon mark contemporary architecture significantly. Moreover, it will give the opportunity to value the talent of the designers working for the House of the Bull, which is one of the most prestigious and renowned brands in the world.
1° PRIZE : 12.000 € + CONSTRUCTION + 1 year subscription CASABELLA
2° PRIZE: 4.000 € + 1 year subscription CASABELLA
3° PRIZE: 2.000 € + 1 year subscription CASABELLA
2 HONORABLE MENTIONS “GOLD” :1.000 € + 1 year subscription CASABELLA each
10 HONORABLE MENTIONS: 1 year subscription CASABELLA
30 FINALISTS: 1 year subscription CASABELLA
All the awarded proposals will be transmitted to architectural magazines and websites and will be hosted in international exhibitions. All the finalist proposals will be published on YAC’s website.
Calendar
29/08/2016 “standard” registration – start
02/10/2016 (h 11.59 p.m. GMT) “standard” registration – end
Embedded in the mellow, undulating landscape of Southern Styria sits Haus T, right on top of a hill, where it naturally blends in with the surrounding vineyards. Due to materiality and formal restraint, it forms a whole with the countryside as it stands confidently on the edge, gable facing the valley.
Site Plan
Elevation
The small vintner’s house, which used to be the wine press house until early in the 20th century, served as starting point for the single-family detached home. The historical vaulted cellar is made of stone and more than 400 years old. Therefore, it is the oldest part of the house, which was remodelled in the 1960’s and had been uninhabited in the last few years. The building-owners, two winegrowers, decided to make the old vintner’s house their retirement home, as the nearby vineyard has been their professional and private centre of life for so many years now.
According to form and function, the new building is divided into two building structures: A rectangular cube with a pitched roof was built above the vaulted cellar – a homage to the former building, that stood in same alignment and similar cubature on the gently descending northern slope. The monolithic construction of coloured isolation concrete, the structure of the rough sawn wooden plank formwork as well as the sparse square openings provide the building with an introverted character. This is why the gallery as well as sleeping and wet areas are located inwardly as places of retreat. The brown colour tone and the haptic texture of the concrete walls convey comfort. Only well-chosen sections of the 360°-panorama are uncovered by several windows with broad wooden frames.
On the eastern side of the building lies an orthogonally adjoining, planar and elongated building structure, which incorporates the living room, the cooking and dining area, as well as a garage. This ceiling-high glazed part of the detached house with an overhanging flat roof made of displayed solid timber, enables the surrounding scenery to diffuse into the building. This way, there is no apparent dividing line between inside and outside, so that nature and building seamlessly merge into one another.
When entering the house through the northern entrance, one looks straight through the anteroom into the living room, that can be separated from the cooking and dining area with a piece of furniture and can furthermore be used as guestroom. A service zone with a small bathroom, lavatory and storage room divide the living quarters from the garage. All interior walls are designed as furniture walls made out of darkened ash wood and comprise wardrobe, kitchen, shelves and sliding doors. Thus, the entire living area can either be viewed as one room or it can be separated into two sections by the furniture walls.
Via the open kitchen and the dining area one reaches the intersection of the two building structures. A split level leads to the old wine cellar and the installations room or upstairs to the gallery. The smooth transition from kitchen to living area and gallery is separated from the bedroom by the bathroom and a walk-in closet, both of which have been set up as boxes in the gable space.
The simple materiality of the interior is congruent with the exterior appearance of the building. Apart from fair-faced concrete and timber, individual elements like the gentle pillars and the banisters are made of black steel. The flush-mounted windows inside of the wall, the plank flooring and the staircase are crafted out of oak wood. Roof, windowsills and garage door are made of copper, that changes its brownish grey colour over time and either creates a contrast to or a homogenous scene with the surrounding landscape depending on the season.
From the architect. To provide the urban monumentality required of a judicial institution and the serenity necessary to handle delicate cases that affect people’s lives, the new Béziers Court is seen as stacks of three layers of rock. At each level, steps and patios locate between these quarry blocks. The stepped masses encourage daylight to enter, creating internal landscapes, like an oasis.
The transparency of the foyers gives glimpses of the shady central patio garden, planted with tree ferns, that accesses and links the public waiting areas and courtrooms.
Built-in furniture within public areas and office furniture have been designed to ensure comfort and to fit in perfectly with the volumes of the reception and work areas.
Monochrome, through its irregularities the sandblasted and hammered concrete gives a rustic material strength and thickness. A symbol of justice, the parvis is here an antechamber, the sheltered outside institution; open to urban life it soothes, protects and welcomes.
Sig Nordal 