Aedas has unveiled the plans for its Chongqing Xinhua Bookstore Group Jiefangbei Book City mixed-use project, a complex of retail, residential, office, and hotel space with a Xinhua Bookstore at its core. Based on an ancient Chinese prose that states “knowledge brings wealth,” the project aims to integrate the concept of a book with the cultural elements of Chongqing to create an interactive commercial space.
Courtesy of Aedas
Inspired by the form of a rolled book scroll, the central building in the project appears to unfold through stepped terraces, “implying the spirit of wisdom and knowledge.” These stepped terraces furthermore reflect the landscape of Chongqing, which is called the “Mountain City.”
Courtesy of Aedas
Courtesy of Aedas
The complex will additionally feature three themed plazas: The inclined rooftop and cultural plaza at the podium become a new cultural destination for lifestyle and entertainment activities, while the sky cultural plaza enriches and extends the civic space of Jiefangbei Plaza to provide a refreshing and tranquil environment in this business center for users to relax and enjoy.
Courtesy of Aedas
Courtesy of Aedas
Expected completion of the complex is set for 2020.
Visiting Wortham Fellow at the Rice School of ArchitectureMichelle Chang has created A,B 1:2, a twisted “half house” installation in the university’s jury room. Built at a half scale, the project superimposes and bisects two simple cubes, playing with light and shade through skewed windows in order to demonstrate how architects and artists think about space, as well as how drawings and renderings translate into physical constructions.
I don’t want to get overly technical, says Chang. I just want people to see it and understand there’s something kind of weird going on in a couple of places and image what that does. A lot of my work is based in optics and perspectives, how changing certain assumptions of our representational conventions can lead to new ways of seeing. What’s interesting about doing these installations is they’re always so incredibly different from what I imagined them to be, working digitally.
With sunlight filtering through the high windows on three sides of the exhibit’s room, the interior character of the installation is expected to change throughout the day, influencing the interpreted locations of typical “bedroom” or “living room” spaces.
The spaces are defined more by the angular interior and play of light, rather than boundaries according to elements like walls, windows, or objects.
From the architect. The RTC’s new Mobility Training Center is designed to increase mobility among Southern Nevadans, especially senior residents and persons with disabilities, by equipping them with the skills and knowledge necessary to use public transportation throughout Clark County in Southern Nevada.
Floor Plan
This new facility consolidates transit mobility training and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Paratransit certification under one roof. The Mobility Training Center includes these key elements:
Mobility Training Facility The interior design of the 14,500 sq. ft. Mobility Training Facility includes two full-sized city buses situated on a fictitious exterior streetscape encompassing a transit shelter and stop, paved roads, curb cut outs, ADA-compliant ramps and sidewalk, and a functional assessment course with various surfaces and terrain obstacles.
The space also includes additional parking, direct front door access for city buses, a new bus stop, and an exterior dog relief area.
Courtesy of Gensler
Blindconnect’s Angela’s House This unique feature of the facility is a simulated, typical Las Vegas, two-bedroom, 1,200 sq. ft. residence. This fully equipped mock residence will be used by the vision impaired for learning critical living skills. Angela’s House is the only blindness skills training facility in Nevada.
Courtesy of Gensler
PRINCIPAL FEATURES Gensler designed the exterior of the facility to work in harmony with the existing maintenance facility and present a friendly desert-inspired aesthetic.
The architectural inspiration is derived from the mountains of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area that can be seen in the distance from the west side of the site. The dynamic red and orange color of the building’s cladding systems is symbolic of Red Rock. The protruding glazed volume to the northwest is in reference of the desert sky. Finally, the elongated entry volume wrapped with perforated panels in reference to the “canyon” concept is embedded into a mountain-scape.
Courtesy of Gensler
Color is used to enliven the large entry signage to the public entranceway and to welcome the mobility and visually impaired patrons into the building. The design team at Gensler introduced a lime-green feature wall to create a “spark” to energize the entry zone. The patterned perforations to the canopy create a 4d entry experience via the ever-shifting casting of light and shadow effects scattered throughout the area and the unseen light sensations felt within this space.
Courtesy of Gensler
The building serves as the new terminus for the RTC fixed bus route, Route 103 – Decatur. The project was designed with an onsite bus turn around loop drive, a separate bus turn off, and a bus stop which helps to free up roadway space on Hauck Street.
Courtesy of Gensler
The new training center is intended for public access and use, so it is important that the training center be recognizable to the public and be differentiated from the existing non-public RTC maintenance facility adjacent to it. The building’s fenestration located in the upper northeast corner, serves as a beacon or lantern at night and is clearly visible from the I-215 freeway.
At just 1,310 feet (400 meters) across at its widest point, Fire Island, a barrier island to the south of Long Island in New York, may not seem like an ideal place to host a community. Nonetheless, the island is home to a number of small villages, whose seclusion and proximity to the ocean make them popular getaway locations. With its beach atmosphere (the community is only accessible by ferry) and its growing reputation from the 1960s onward as a safe space for the gay community, Fire Island Pines is one such popular summer destination. As the village grew in the post-war years, the care-free recreational lifestyle encouraged by Fire Island Pines’ setting was an ideal proving ground for many of the ideals of mid-century modernist house design, with architects such as the prolific Horace Gifford—who designed 40 homes in Fire Island Pines alone—answering the call.
Sadly though, after a steep population decline in recent decades, many of the modernist homes in Fire Island Pines are now at risk, with owners unaware of the historical and architectural significance of their properties. In response to this, Christopher Rawlins, a principle at Rawlins Design and author of the book Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction, has created Pines Modern, a website dedicated to cataloging and disseminating information on the architectural heritage of Fire Island Pines.
Pines Modern catalogs 45 buildings in the small community, with each documented through photographs (both contemporary and from when the building was in its prime) drawings, and a short description available in both textual and audio formats. In the words of Chris Rawlins, the website “is a call to action that aims to unlock our history, rethink our priorities, and honor the homeowners who have maintained the integrity of their vintage properties.”
Check out all of Fire Island Pines’ impressive architectural heritage at Pines Modern here.
A team comprised of Chinese architects Hang Guo and Shanshan Li have used the history of theatre and circus to drive their proposal for a new Moscow Circus School. The design, dubbed Dome and Circus, was developed for the recent Architectural Competition Concours d’Architecture (AC-CA) competition, which encouraged participants to consider the ways in which their design could generate discussion about the relationship between architecture and culture.
Dome and Circus respond to this criteria by reinterpreting ancient theatrical spaces, such as the Pantheon or ancient Greek outdoor theatres, into a contemporary cultural arena. The “theme and prototype” of the project became the dome, and it is deployed across the project in “multiple and continuous” ways.
Courtesy of Hang Guo and Shanshan Li
By interlacing the once separate domes, a sequence of spaces was created with blurred boundaries to one another. Above the domes lies a space described by the competition team as resembling “undulating waves,” accommodating a vibrant mix of public program.
Courtesy of Hang Guo and Shanshan Li
The roof plane is based upon the continuous Greek outdoor theatre and references the Moscow Hermitage Garden, a popular cultural destination nearby. The spaces between each of the demarcated programmatic zones are filled “rhythmically” with spheres, which have the dual function of public space and structure.
Courtesy of Hang Guo and Shanshan Li
The architects said in their design statement: When the sun goes down, the light projects shadow through the hole of the roof, indicating the coming of night. The hustle and bustle began to play at the circus. This is the miracle show time of the Moscow Circus School.
Courtesy of Hang Guo and Shanshan Li
Dome and Circus was awarded an honorable mention. For more information, including all of the published award winners, head over to the competition website.
From the architect. This building meets the increasing educational demand of the city of Vitoria, in a neighborhood that concentrates the biggest extension of collective dwelling during these last years, and where most of the childhood population live.
The plot is surrounded by a group of large size towers, in a green area crossed by the Zarauna creek. The building is planned as a low rise construction that tries to oxygenate the area and work as an inner courtyard.
After evaluation of the functionality of the programme, the topography, the orientation, the surroundings and the roadways around the plot, an L shape building was proposed, opened towards the sunniest orientations and most protected from the usual winds, so that the playground could be placed on the most favourable position.
Plan 0
The building, with a capacity for 693 pupils, houses the classrooms for the stages of primary school (6 to 12 years) and pre-school education (2 to 5 years), each of the levels being on each side of the L shape.
Both parts have been configured as two intersected prisms, defining the common spaces, complementary uses, and the main entrance to the school in their merging area.
The gable roofs respond to the surrounding, leaning themselves towards the playground, offering their most urban façade towards the outside and the human scale to the inside.
From the point of view of functionality, it has been sought for the most appropriate location for each of the uses, so that the connections among them could be clear and effective, reducing the circulation spaces; but respecting and discriminating the requirements and specific flows of each usage.
It has been used a precast construction solution, standardized and with regular geometries, avoiding façade developments larger than necessary, to reduce the perimeter of the building. The concept design follows the principles mentioned before, but keeping always in mind the volumes, composition, and proportion of the facades and interior spaces, conditioning the constructive solutions and material choosing.
In the playground, three sport courts have been projected (one of them covered). They have been adapted to the topography defining three different platforms; the first one, at ground floor level, and the other two, with a difference of 1m height. They are placed close to the gym, with a direct and covered access with exterior ramps.
During the design of the building bioclimatic strategies have been considered, such as orientation and protection of the classrooms from the sunlight, the design of installation systems and air circulation conditions, the choosing of the construction solutions and their isolating conditions, the supplying distances of each material etc. The standardization has supposed a reduction on the costs and working schedules. It has also been a challenge to propose construction systems with minimum maintenance.
The design of the interiors has been specially careful with accessibility and adaptation to the users, also while studying the chromatical compositions and signalization, in order to favor functionality and provide clear circulations.
Just as the competition to design the official Obama Presidential Library in Chicago was heating up, Arcbazar orchestrated a simultaneous, open-call for ideas competition asking “What sort of Presidential Library would the people design?.” Raynaldo Theodore Design Studio (RTDS) responded with a proposal that focuses on Obama’s peaceful and inclusive spirit to create a place of welcome and community. Dubbed The V-House, their design is comprised of a series of indoor/outdoor sequences which reference Obama’s life and significant points in its Chicago context.
Courtesy of Raynaldo Theodore Design Studio
Given the choice between Jackson Park and Washington Park, RTDS chose to situate their building in the latter and used the existing landscape to drive the formal expression of the building. As much green space as possible was preserved, giving value to the existing parkland. The building rises upwards as an extension of the ground plane, on which the jury commented: “The design was part of the landscape but reach[es] for the sky.”
Courtesy of Raynaldo Theodore Design Studio
The building mass was sculpted by pulling key points of the city inwards, eventually resulting in a “V” shape. The hit and miss pattern of the brick facade allows it to double as a continuous planter box, bringing views and nature indoors. The program inside arranged in terrace form, so it is possible for each program to have access to the garden terrace outside.
Courtesy of Raynaldo Theodore Design Studio
The Library and Center takes visitors on a journey through the key stages of Obama’s life, from Hawaii, Jakarta, Kenya, and Chicago, and at each intersection of the building a key element of Chicago is referenced. When you reach the top of the building, you can see the silhouette of Chicago from a distance.
Courtesy of Raynaldo Theodore Design Studio
RTDS said in a press release: We called this proposal the V-House which can be interpreted as peace and victory brought by Obama during his tenure as president. We intended the 14th Presidential Library act not only as a museum but also a second home where people could meet and interact, have a cup of coffee, or do jog at the weekend. V-House will represent a new home where differences are no longer an issue and everyone lives in harmony.
The competition was run by Boston-based Arcbazar and its partners BuiltWorlds, CannonDesign, AIA Chicago, Dwell on Design, GreenApple Campus, Autodesk and Forum8 in response to the official competition. Both the Arcbazar competition, in which RTDS placed third, and the official competition which was eventually won by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien elicited a range of exciting potential projects, proving the ongoing relevance of architectural competitions.
From the architect. At the 5th floor of the new skyscraper ‘De Rotterdam’, Fokkema & Partners designed a new office for an international trade company. The interior celebrates the scale and character of the building, but above all it identifies with the characteristics of the company, where ‘bold’ and ‘corporate’ meet.
The company is a global commodity service and solutions provider for agricultural markets, founded in Rotterdam in 1920, and moved into the office in November 2015. Important was to create a characterful workplace were every department would feel at ease and employees would be encouraged to collaborate.
Embedded in, and around the massive building core the meeting spaces are situated. The core was also opened up in the middle, to link both sides of the enormous floor of 50 x 100 m, to get the daylight from one side to the other and to make a visible connection. This area acts as an adventurous living room with enormous bales to sit on, a self-service coffee bar and has its wall cladded with ‘hangzakken’ or hammocks. The interior of each room in and around the core has been made grain yellow. Due to the special attention payed to lighting, these reflect a warm glow, which forms a rich backdrop to the workstations. With simple means like fiber glass wallpaper, different types of jute, accents of brass and use of special plasters, the of ce was cost efficient to obtain a unique atmosphere. Variations in texture add layers and human scale.
All workplaces are placed in an open setting, as close to the façade as possible. The remarkable construction is left visible between the acoustic ceiling islands. To bring diversity to the work area, glass boxes for meetings and open podia are placed in between the workstations. Curtains are added to give a warm and soft touch to the design, to optimize the acoustics of the rooms and provide more privacy when needed.
Along the public atrium near the entrance we made a restaurant with an elongated bar in the center where employees of different departments can work and meet each other and guests
can be welcomed. The designers at Fokkema & Partners introduced a special lighting solution to express the stamina of the agricultural business and the warmth of the restaurant at the same time. A cloud of 61 ‘zaklampen’ made out of jute identifies with the characteristics of the old harbor dock location and lights up the heart of the office.
Photographs: Courtesy of SYRA_Schoyerer Architekten
Courtesy of SYRA_Schoyerer Architekten
Through a bypass channel of 3 m diameter and a flow rate up to 22.000 l/sec. (statistic 20 year flood water) the surface water of the complete city area can be drained off into the river Rhine. At a 5 year Rhine flood level two pumps transport the city surface water into the river Rhine. One of the biggest flood prevention lifting shields worldwide (7,20 m high and 3,70 wide) protects the inner city of Mainz from a statistically 200 years Rhine flood, from a backwater into the local sewer system. With the total height of 8,50 meters, the visible part of the building is just the “tip of the iceberg”, the bottom edge of the pit is 16 m under the surface. The orientation of the pumping station is directed to the flow of the river Rhine, its volume expresses the huge amount of water which must be transported into the river in case of emergency.
Plan 1
Plan 2
Company and technical buildings are technical infrastructure of a city and are usually errected with the minimum of attention to design and architecture, largely being considered pragmatic buildings that have to be economical efficient in terms of construction costs. These irrelevant shapes are therefore often the basis for neglect and vandalism which results in continuous renovation costs, such buildings rarely achieve display any architectural quality. With this in mind the client decided to adopt an alternative approach developing the Rhine promenade of the new city quarter “Zollhafen” with the intent of contributing to the urban environment. There is no typology for pumping stations, however it was important to the architects to design a building which displays the workings of a pumping station to its environment.
Courtesy of SYRA_Schoyerer Architekten
Courtesy of SYRA_Schoyerer Architekten
The window and seamless building, in terms of an “architecture parlante” (C.N. Ledoux 1736- 1806), is a pure and heavy monolith, resting on a vein of water regulating the stream. The surface of the charcoal grey concrete cube with folded sides and eaves edges has a, from stone masons, textured hand hammered finish over its entire surface. Through the 30 mm deep rawness of the surface, nothing reminds on the conventional build-up process. The folded sides produce light and shaded edges and the rawness of the surface increases the interaction of sidelight, full covered illumination and shadows.
The Ulugöl Otomotiv Office Building, located on one of the thoroughfares of the region in Ataşehir, which has become one of the most important life and finance centers of the Anatolian side, was approached as integrating a functional, genuine and qualified architectural design, a dynamic block construct, and a frontal identity that will stick in the minds in this region which hosts many iconized new generation real estate projects.
Drawing
The main design decisions of the project were shaped to act as a vision of a sustainable, rational and ordered structure, and reconstructing the standard office typology through analyzing the physical data of the environment in the city. In this way it was aimed to ensure the versatility of the front by means of flexible blocks, creating looseness and compactness relationships by considering a static construct, and providing a synergy between green terraces, office functions, and social interactions among the employees with collective spaces. Furthermore, thinking that they are integral parts of daily life, the green spaces were integrated into the work places and the transparency of the workplace environment was enhanced.
For the purpose of enriching the front with material diversity, red composite panels were used on the interior faces of the terraces, and stone design ceramics on the windowless walls of the building. On the office front, negative effects of the sun were minimized through mesh sun shade panels and vertical elements. Ground floor of the western front of the Ulugöl Otomotiv Office Building, which consists of 5 basement floors, a ground floor and 10 normal floors with its 14,600 sqm construction field, was allocated as an exhibition hall and its eastern front as office entrances and a parking lot. Connection to the parking garages was enabled through car elevators.
Sig Nordal 