Other Participants : 25 local high school students from Namwon
From the architect. The project is subtitled Nam-1-gwang-1-ru (“南1光1루”, pronounced Namwongwanghallu), as an amalgamation of Namwon (location) and Gwanghallu (a nearby 17th century Nugak, an elevated open-air house typology, registered as national heritage).
The pavilion is a participatory project, installed through public workshops incorporating various ideas. Similar to a Nugak, it is primarily a place to take a break, while suggesting a different perspective of looking (or not looking) at the city. The roof is open to the stars and the winds, and the walls become a temporary exhibition space for public artwork. The pavilion can be split into four units, and they can be configured in various ways to adapt to the vibrant and diverse culture of Yegaram Street.
Namwon Pavilion Workshop The workshop was scheduled for three weeks, composed of Dankook University’s project team and 25 local high school students from Namwon. Each week, we tested out various scenarios, with everyone participating in the design and build process with hopes that this pavilion would become a place to tell their personal experiences. Since its installation, it had been used as an exhibition booth for the 2015 Chunhyang Festival, as well as the backdrop for many street performances on Yegaram. It had also received an Award of Excellence for the 2015 National Public Design Awards, particularly for its integration of education and public participation in its design.
This housing project for family of four adults. Family need four private rooms and small shared space (living, ding and kitchen), because they are different time zone of life. However, I think do not want to plan such as closed each private rooms. I think put the gradations to the distance of the private rooms. So, I created this housing It’s like “minimum apartments”.
For that purpose, It needs to be shared “space elements” such as Engawa and Loft. (Engawa is traditional open shared space in japan, It’s like balcony). There are floor of different heights across the inside and outside of the private rooms. And, It’s Important to be able to control the relationship look/seen visual for the gradations. So, many windows lined as somewhere in the city landscape.
Main wood materials that are used in this house, It is “Nishikawa-zai”. Nishikawa-zai means material that carried in the river from the west of the Edo (old Tokyo). This area is famous as a producer of good material nearest from Edo. Hanno city to be built of this house, there are center of Nishikawa area.
Main Design Team Architects: Milagros Pesantez, María Samaniego, Mario Cueva, Cristina Bueno,Santiago Espinoza, Omar Chamorro, Julio Burbano, Juan Pablo Freire, Andrés Calderón, Andrés Velasteguí, Nicolás López, Cristhian Puebla
Structural Engineering: Ing. Cesar Izurieta, Ing. Franklin Quisalema
Mechanical Engineering: Ing. René Acosta
Electrical And Electronic Engineering: Ing. Marco Ortiz
Hydraulic Engineering: Ing. Guillermo Cruz, Ing. Gonzalo Suquillo
Promotion And Construction: Consejo Nacional de la Judicatura
During the emergency process for commissioning new Courthouses, as part of the restructuring of the Judicial System defined by the National Government of Ecuador, the consulting company Hospiplan is invited to participate in the design of new buildings that would ¨guarantee all citizens an opportune, efficient and quality access to justice¨. This emergency commissioning implied the radical reduction of time allocated for the development of the projects, and a necessary reorganization of the processes normally followed.
Based on previous experiences, Hospiplan calls arquitectura x to lead a team capable of producing 20 projects in 21 days, located in the 3 geographic regions of the country, with a total of 45 days to develop all details, specifications, engineering designs and budgets. arquitectura x proposes a strategy to design 1 generic project with 20 variables, instead of 20 specific projects.
In the end, 18 Courthouses were designed since 2 plots were deemed inviable, and to date 5 have been built. Because of the nature of the emergency commissioning, each building was constructed by individual contractors without any involvement of the design team during the building process.
This building is one of the specific results and should be considered as part of a system, developed in the following way.
Systematization of the Design and Construction Process.
The design of these Courthouses is seen as an opportunity to emphasise the need to optimize all constructions processes for public buildings in Ecuador, by implementing a planning model based, on one hand on modular building components, standardization of production processes, light prefabrication and dry assembly methods, and on the other, on the systematisation of the design methodology, in order to produce a generic model flexible enough to be modified and adapted depending on the specific contexts and needs of each case.
The 20 programs are thus systematized according to the strict functional correlations given by the operational needs, generating programmatic modules following logic of use, be it public, semi-public, or private use, and determined dimensionally by the structural-spatial building module selected to optimize construction. The functional dynamics of these programmatic modules are also based on the double circulation system determined by the operating requirements of the courthouses, and on the vertical distribution logic of the spaces, prioritizing public use on the ground floor while concentrating private use on the upper floors.
Plan 0
This way a series of matrices for the subsystems of the project are generated, allowing for simultaneous evaluation and decision making for the 20 cases at once, based on worst case scenarios, that is, always making decisions for one project and applying them to the other nineteen.
The layout of the buildings on the site responds to one basic principle:
Public building = Public space
The buildings´ general layout respond to their context, always generating public spaces shaded by trees in the form of plazas, small squares, broadening of sidewalks, and/or gardens and green parklets. For this purpose, the buildings incorporate open portals that act as transitional space between the public interior and public exterior. These portals are also the architectural elements that allow the buildings to become an urban ¨place making¨ model in the case of areas intended as new centralities for their towns.
The structural system is in essence a steel grid, with a square, 6.30 metre module, that acts as the dimensional base for the building. A rational, repetitive and invariable structural system is intentionally sought with the double premise of achieving the most efficient use of materials, and a time effective execution during the construction process. In contrast to other more common structural principles based on diaphragms or slabs, the linear grid allows for the most flexible solutions for distribution, spatial organization, transformation, or expansion of the building.
The 6.30 metre module between axes corresponds to the dimensions of the two basic elements that form the grid: 6.00 metre long IPN beams and 0.30 x 0.30 metre square columns; this modular dimension of the grid minimizes material waste and optimizes sectioning of standard steel members.
Diagram
Distribution and Circulation Systems
The circulation scheme responds to the particular needs defined by the operational system of the courthouses, with all-access public areas located to the front and on the lower and ground floors, characterized by the portals and double or triple height halls. These public areas are distributed occupying most of the ground floor and the frontal spaces of the first and/or second floors, oriented to the public space outside.
Vertical circulation in the public spaces is solved with an open staircase and elevator placed in the centre of the building; private vertical circulation is contained in one or more cores that access all levels of the building, but are always separated from the open public circulations.
Section
Section
Scale, Materiality and Adaptation
The Courtrooms are the primary spaces in the buildings, the places where hearings are held to impart justice, spaces located in a predominant area of the first or second floors above the interior public space, clearly identifiable as volumes clad in natural wood.
The spatial scheme responds to an open plan principle, spaces are defined with a light prefabricated constructive system of modular fibrocement boards, used for interior walls, floors, ceilings and facades. This system allows for total flexibility of the buildings so they can adjust to new programmatic conditions, modifications, expansions, renovations, and the possibility of dismounting and recycling of parts and materials. Modular, prefab dry assembly systems also allow the efficient construction of these buildings in relatively isolated places.
The buildings relate to their context primarily through the portals, acting as a primary protection and adaptation system, while the less public facades are by nature less open. When necessary, both the portals and the other facades incorporate secondary systems that protect the buildings from the incidence of direct solar radiation and rain, whilst admitting as much natural light as possible. It is here that specific materials for each region or case are employed, such as perforated galvanized steel screens.
Architectural photographer Mirna Pavlovic has an obsession with abandoned places. For her, their appeal lies in their ability to exist on a different temporal plane from the rest of reality – both impossibly ancient and frozen in the present.
“They are never truly dead, yet never really alive,” Pavolic explains. “Precariously treading along the border between life and death, decay and growth, the seen and the unseen, the past and the present, abandoned places confusingly encompass both at the same time, thus leaving the ordinary passer-by overwhelmed with both attraction and revulsion.”
For her latest series, Dulcis Domus, Pavolic trekked over fences and past “no trespassing” signs to capture the once-glorious villas, palaces and castles of Europe that have now been left to decay, slowly returning to the Earth that existed before them. Through photography, Pavolic attempts to highlight social issues through an aestheticised approach, allowing viewers to “see with fresh eyes what lies beneath those spots that we pass by on the street.”
Continue reading to see a selection of photographs from the series – hover over the images to see where each villa is located.
“As public space becomes privatized and the restriction of movement in urban environments increases, there is an overwhelming encouragement to avert the gaze.” Pavlovic explains. “The world is structured to guide us, with traffic lights, road crossings, paths and fences, designated areas for play, work, death. Crossing the border of imposed restrictions means to purposefully go against ingrained beliefs, to breach a loose social contract held together by a fear of punishment and a comfortable status quo.”
“In the end, the acts of transgression and trespassing into abandoned spaces become equally as incongruous in nature as the spaces being explored. Wandering off the path, like the abandonments, becomes in itself an act that is both invisible and increasingly present. Both suppressed and flourishing. It becomes a desperate cry against the discouragement to see and experience, a cry for freedom in a world where everything is prescribed, regulated and expected.”
“The homeless, the drug addict, the metal thief, the graffiti vagabond – these become our sisters and brothers in a self-imposed exile. To find a new home, we claim the ones that were once called by that name, reappropriating not only the structure itself but their own personal histories as well. In an almost carnevalesque manner, they become sites of our own search for context, meaning and definition. These homes become grotesquely revitalized, but remain within their own reality. In turn, we become vehicles of disparity, embodying and assimilating the otherness and the radical alterity offered by abandonments.”
From the architect. Bordeaux, Chartrons’ area. On the street front, a limestone building. On the back lot, a silk screen printing workshop. The order was to renovate and raise the two storey building, creating two dwellings and one shared ground between the workshop and the housing.
The building’s groundfloor is divided in two main parts : the common space / private access and the garage / public access to the workshop. In the courtyard, a single stairway serves the upper floors of both dwellings and printshop. For an intuitive sharing, a subtle variation of the ground material delineates the nominated areas. Freed from the interior circulation, everyone benefits of extra spaces. In the metal growth, the flat expands on two floors, making good use of an attic space relieved of traditional woodframe.
The extension, composed of a wooden structure and zinc scales, relies on the existing stonework. Locally, zinc scales were used to protect the west gablewall. The material create a bridge between the historic context and the contemporary extension, used to create a continuous skin from the street to the courtyard. As if something precious was embedded in a raw stone, the small addition reflects the surroundings, producing a moving spectrum of colours day and night.
DETAIL Magazine has announced the winners of the DETAIL Prize 2016. This year, the jury selected five projects from a pool of 337 projects from 42 different countries by looking for “realizations in which the overall design concept and the detailing were brought together in a coherent way.” The winners were noted for being “future-oriented, innovative and pioneering projects from different disciplines that have outstanding architectural and technical qualities.”
This is the seventh edition of the biennial award, which aims to “strengthen architecture in public debate, strengthen the role of architects in public, and strengthen networking among architects, industrialists, developers and politicians.”
This year’s jury consisted of Peter Ippolito (Ippolito Fleitz Group), Gilles Retsin (Gilles Retsin Architecture), Mike Schlaich (schlaich bergermann partner), Enrique Sobejano (Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos) and Daniel Lischer (alp architektur lischer partner ag).
Voting for the DETAIL Reader’s Prize is now open. Until 14 October 2016, you can vote online for your favorite selection out of 13 projects nominated by the jury.
Winning projects will be presented and displayed alongside other works from the winning firms at the DETAIL Symposium in the Magazin der Heeresbäckerei event venue in Berlin on Friday, 11 November 2016.
A large volume of white extended walls that recreates the trees on the lot preserving family privacy that connects with portions of forest … lots of heaven…lots of wáter.
The lot is located in a gated neighborhood near the central area of the city of Córdoba and it showed great contrasts … .an irregular exposing corner lot that challenged us to preserve home life … .an ancient dense forest of native trees occupied half of the land, opposite to a plain stripped of vegetation.
Floor Plan
Floor Plan
The challenge and exploration of the work aimed to amalgamate the light of the land with the programmatic needs of housing … the forest, its shadow, its intimacy … and the plain, its light, its expansion as a vacuum to overturn in architecture. A serene family life of four members with an active social life. Thus, the skin is the element that condenses this dialectic as a contact membrane between the inside and the outside, assuming the responsibility to face different requirements as a whole.
We decided to consider the work in a stereotomic way, thereby we established and reinforced a concrete boundary between public and private. Pure white ceramic block masonry volumes lightly suspended soil barely were thought to connect the inner and outer spaces according to the demands of interior activities. As subtle counterpoint to the white walls, rusty sheets of iron act as a filter in these turning points, mobile panels that regulate access, lighting, privacy, from the full opacity to the transparency of the perforated surfaces.
The green landscape and the folds of the topography that we had built complete the proposal to set up a private space that reviews the patio paradigm. The requirement of considering the water as part of the family activities throughout the year brought about a large water mirror that connects the social spaces of the house and extends to the barbecue. In summer it enjoys the outdoors in the sun meanwhile the house offers shelter in winter with the help of solar and heating systems.
The culmination of the work relied on local construction systems and reinforced concrete masonry. The strategy aimed to differentiate private to social places, a smaller spatial scale and the presence of the walls capture visuals; and a more permeable social space characterized by large beams that support the roof and the wall of the main façade, hanging over and diluting the limits, large aluminum frames open the space to the family yard.
The proposal optimizes the relationship between the geometry of the lot, its landscape, the programmatic requirements of housing and our spatial intentions. Most private housing sectors directly link with the forest in the zero plane …they have direct contact with the tree and on the terrace. On a larger scale, social spaces are connected to the empty open place… the reference of the tree is at the distance …it is sculptural.
When it comes to expensive artforms, architecture undoubtedly tops the list (even if the artistic merits of some of the absolute priciest buildings are sometimes dubious). But what may not be so obvious is that many of architecture’s iconic works have been completed on budgets not so dissimilar to the work of another artistic industry: filmmaking. Each with their own set of merits, works from both categories have transcended time, confirming that (in most cases) they have more than returned on their initial investment.
To illustrate this point, we’ve complied a list of buildings from eras past, paired with movies of similar budgets completed in the same calendar year. Which buildings or movies have contributed the most based on their initial costs?
1939
Johnson Wax image via wikimedia user Jack Boucher under public domain. Wizard of Oz image via wikimedia user MGM under public domain.
Overall budgets for buildings can be difficult to measure – numbers are based on total cost of construction. Movie budgets have been found at The Numbers. Buildings not listed in US dollars have been converted using the FXTOP Historical Exchange Rates Calculator.
The Boulder Retreat is located adjacent to a ski resort in Wyoming. The owners’ program called for a modest but expandable residential program to be interpreted in an architectural language that is abstract rather than literal in referencing the ubiquitous “western log cabin”.
The site’s limited buildable area and the clients’ desire for minimal impact on the landscape required a small footprint for the building. This constraint, together with specifications of the owners’ program, pushed the living areas of the house onto an upper floor and into the canopy of trees, creating an upside-down version of a traditional house diagram. Steep slopes, dense tree cover, and an enormous boulder are all site influences central to the design solution. The primal, geologic character of the boulder had a profound impact on the building form.
Have you ever thought of designing a house that is 8-foot cubed? It’s unlikely, unless you’ve been involved in Dallas CASA’s event “Parade of Playhouses.” For 25 years, the association has asked architects, designers and builders to conceive, construct, and donate playhouses to raise funds for abused and neglected children. Each year, the playhouses are displayed in Northpark Mall – Dallas’ main “cultural centre” – where people can buy $5 raffle tickets to win one of the playhouses exhibited.
Architect Bob Borson conceived his first two playhouses for Dallas CASA in 2009, before starting his popular blog Life of an Architect and subsequently launching “The Life of An Architect Design Competition.” The idea came in 2010 when a great number of architects suffered from the economic crisis. As Borson explains: “I could have a playhouse design competition open to other architects so that they could remain connected to the architectural profession.” This also required Borson to raise money and find builders to construct the designs. “I have always covered all the expenses so that the competition would remain free to enter – the playhouses were for charity and it seemed like the right thing to do,” reflected Borson.
Dallas Casa's Parade of Playhouses 2016. Image Courtesy of The Life of an Architect
For the first two years, Borson organised the competition as part of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and simultaneously started spreading the word on The Life of an Architect. Since the website allowed for a greater outreach, in 2012 Borson decided to give people anywhere in the world the chance to design playhouses for the charity. In line with the project’s expansion, the jury went from selecting two winning playhouses in 2010 to five in 2016.
“Lantern” Playhouse, Bob Borson (2014). Image Courtesy of The Life of an Architect
For those who want to get involved, the guidelines are fairly simple. The only requirements relate to size, but that doesn’t mean the competition is easy: effective playhouse design is deceptively complex. To determine the winning entries, the jury asks a number of questions: “Does it need to be an enclosed structure? What function would it serve over time? How would it age? Would people want this in their yard? Would a kid actually want this? How could we build this within the budget constraints and still keep the concept intact? Is it dangerous?”
“Birdhouse” Playhouse, Bob Borson (2013). Image Courtesy of The Life of an Architect
Given that contractors donate money and time to build these playhouses, the designs shouldn’t be overly burdensome. But purpose remains essential. Children’s interests change, and so the design must be useful beyond the first few weeks of excitement when the playhouse makes it to the winner’s backyard.
“Reading Room” Playhouse, Tyler Murph (2015). Image Courtesy of The Life of an Architect
Accordingly, Borson’s own designs included a “Lantern Playhouse” to illuminate a garden at night, an “Outdoor Movie Theater” to screen films either inside or outside, and a “Birdhouse” that could be reused as a working place, a storage shed or a deck. In 2015, competition-winner Tyler Murph similarly gave his design a lasting purpose; “the Reading Room” acts as a small-scale library, featuring a nice lookout as well as some bookshelves for storage.
“Lookout” Playhouse, Zach George and Taylor Proctor (2016). Image Courtesy of The Life of an Architect
“Continuous Window” Playhouse, Toda Junya (2016) . Image Courtesy of The Life of an Architect
This year’s winning projects “Lookout” and “Continous Window” also combine elegant design and possible pragmatic use with playfulness – a criteria that designers surprisingly often forget. As Borson says, “too often architects and designers new to the process think that they should design a playhouse that is shape- and form-driven with the idea that the child who ultimately uses this playhouse will assign their own idea of what a playhouse should be… but kids don’t work that way. If they see some amazing architectural shape or playhouse that looks like a monkey house, they’ll go for the monkey house every time.”
“Fun Guard Beach House” Playhouse, Susann Stein (2015). Image Courtesy of The Life of an Architect
Designs with more evocative shapes are thus often rewarded. For instance, 2015 winning designs “Ellie the Elephant” and “Fun Guard Beach House” reinterpreted elements of childhood imagery to create environments for play. In fact, colorful and fun-shaped exteriors open opportunities for gathering, learning and exercising. Good examples include from 2016 include the cylindrical “Love and Peace,” the sloped-roof “Basecamp” with its climbing-wall, and the yellow playhouse “Say Cheese!” with its circular openings and indoor tree to “instill values about nature.”
“Ellie the Elephant” Playhouse, Andres Moreno (2015). Image Courtesy of The Life of an Architect
This design strategy of allowing more creative and original playhouse shapes helps to maintain interest in Dallas CASA’s project each year. Yet such a cheerful palette of playhouses could probably not exist with a jury of grownups alone – which is why Borson consults “age specific playability experts and generational style docents” to select the final entries.
“Say Cheese!” Playhouse, Manuel Millán (2016). Image Courtesy of The Life of an Architect
Borson’s design competition show that “architects have a skill set that lends itself to charity.” More than just conceiving a fun playhouse, this project is about giving time to help children in need, with all funds raised from the raffle going to Dallas CASA. If you are interested in designing a playhouse for charity or want to learn more about Bob Borson’s action within the Dallas community, check out his blog The Life of an Architect. The raffle ticket-winners have just been announced and playhouses should make it to their new homes soon, meaning more photos and interviews from this year’s winners to come.
Sig Nordal 