HKS Architects has been selected to design a new Major League Baseball stadium for the Texas Rangers, to be built in Arlington, Texas. As part of a new multipurpose sports and entertainment venue, the stadium will feature a retractable roof for climate control and shelter during the hot Texan summers.
“For us, the new Texas Rangers Ballpark development is very special. It carries its own rich identity based on a combination of tradition, heritage, character and ambition that will ultimately represent itself as the premier destination in North Texas,” explained HKS’ Bryan Trubey, executive vice president and principal designer on the project. “We are delighted to be part of this exciting new development that will impact not only the Texas Rangers and their fans, but the city of Arlington and the entire region for many years to come.”
The stadium will replace the existing Globe Life Park in Arlington, which opened in 1994 and on which HKS served as architect of record.
The new venue will be integrated into the surrounding Texas Live! Development, a mixed-use entertainment district containing dining, entertainment, hotel and convention center facilities.
Estimated costs for the project clock in at $1 billion, and will be funded via a 50-50 public-private partnership. Construction is expected to begin later this year, with an opening date set in time for the start of the 2020 Major League Baseball season.
From the architect. When Hines approached MGA with this exciting project they envisioned T3 as a unique model of new-office building; an opportunity to offer a modern interpretation of the robust character of historic wood, brick, stone, and steel buildings with the additional benefits of state of the art amenities, environmental performance, and technical capability.
The project is an investment in both the past and future of Minneapolis and in the Warehouse District’s rich history. The design objective for T3 was to build on the character of the past with a modern perspective. As businesses look to new competitive models for attracting staff, the goal for T3 was to provide a warm and inviting environment that would attract and retain employers and employees.
T3, which stands for ‘Timber, Technology, Transit’, offers 224,000 square feet of office and retail space. Over 3,600 cubic meters of exposed mass timber columns, beams, and floor slabs recall the heavy timber construction of the building’s predecessors. T3’s modern technological approach uses engineered wood components (chiefly glulam and nail laminated timber) for the roof, floors, columns and beams, and furniture. A significant amount of the lumber used to fabricate the NLT comes from trees killed by the mountain pine beetle. These modern materials bring the warmth and beauty of wood to the interior, and promote a healthy indoor environment for occupants.
As a result of its wood structure, T3 was erected at a speed exceeding conventional steel-framed or concrete buildings. In less than 10 weeks, 180,000 square feet of timber framing went up, averaging 30,000 square feet of floor area installed per week. It is also lighter than comparable steel or concrete structures, reducing the depth and extent of excavation and foundations. Additionally, the embodied carbon in the building’s wood structural system is lower than that found in conventional buildings found throughout most of downtown Minneapolis and the North Loop.
Structural Diagram
The building’s aesthetic success can also be attributed to the mass timber construction. Candice Nichol, MGA Associate and T3 Project Lead, says “the texture of the exposed NLT is quite beautiful. The small imperfections in the lumber and slight variation in color of the mountain pine beetle wood only add to the warmth and character of the new space.” Extensive exterior glazing at every level as well as views into the ground level social workspace with wood furniture, booths, and a feature stair, allow the public to experience the building.
The use of wood is celebrated throughout the building. “The entire timber structure of T3 was intentionally left exposed and illuminated with interior lighting directed up to the ceiling,” Nichol says. At night, “the illuminated wood will glow through the exterior openings.”
T3 is currently the largest completed mass timber building in the U.S. With changing building codes throughout North America, tall wood buildings will become more common. A pioneer in this building type, T3 has broken new ground and is perhaps a prototype for future commercial mass timber buildings.
Exploded Wall Section
Product Description. Nail-laminated assemblies have been used for more than a century, particularly in warehouses where solid, sturdy floors were required. It is now being recognized again as a valid alternative to concrete slab and steel in commercial and institutional buildings, and residential buildings in which it is often exposed to create a unique aesthetic.
Italian media have reported that Leonardo Benevolo, one of Italy’s foremost architects, critics, and historians, passed away yesterday at his home in Brescia following a long illness. Benevolo was an enormously influential figure in the field of architectural history who was continuously examining the problems and possibilities of our cities.
His writings—in particular the book History of Modern Architecture—have been widely circulated, translated and taught, and contribute to his legacy as one of the profession’s most distinguished architects and educators.
Perhaps more than any other architectural historian in our time, Benevolo has made a determined effort to place developments in design and planning in their proper social and political settings.
Benevolo’s prolific career as an educator occurred alongside projects that he also designed and built, including the new headquarters of the Bologna Fair (realized with Thomas Jura Longo and Carlo Pomegranates), the master plan of Ascoli Piceno, the masterplan of the historic center of Bologna and the master plan of Monza (1993-97).
Italian newspaper Corriere Della Serrawrote that Benevolo joined Giulio Carlo Argan, Bruno Zevi and Manfredo Tafuri in the scholarly task of defining and historicizing modern architecture in Italy and beyond. His final publication, Il tracollo della urbanistica italiana, published by Laterza, was released in 2012.
A lot of architects love LEGO—but few may be aware of the LEGO Ideas platform, which allows LEGO fans to submit their own ideas for future sets, and if they gather enough support, be considered for production as a real LEGO product. Here we’ve created a selection of our favorite architectural proposals from the platform; though some have already expired due to a lack of votes, many others included here are still open for voting to become a real set if you so desire. If on the other hand, you feel that our list is lacking a particularly LEGO-worthy building, this could be your time to shine; design your own set and gather support! One day soon, thousands of LEGO enthusiasts could be puzzling over your little architectural gem.
Without a Mies van der Rohe building, this list would feel incomplete—and what better building to include than the Barcelona Pavilion? His simple, modern style is translated into LEGO without losing its essence.
As an iconic part of architectural history, the Bauhaus building must be included on our list of favorites. The model, although simplified, is strikingly similar to the real building, as can be seen on the designer’s images of the set “on site.”
Not modeled after an existing building, box N seeks instead to create a true “LEGO building,” using the existing standard bricks to study and analyze the architectural model. Through simple “addition and subtraction,” the architect behind its design creates spaces and voids, openings and skylights.
Even if this design is not the most complicated set on this list, it is most certainly one of the most complete; the LEGO model proposes fully realized plans of all 8 floors of the famous Japanese castle. Because of this, the set is designed in a modular fashion, allowing LEGO fans to review each floor with ease.
This is a set that acts as a method for form finding, instead of a mere aesthetic or fun activity. Following the current trend of morphing architecture, this set is aiming to create a quicker, easier alternative to 3D modeling software.
“The Heart of New York City” is depicted in a beautifully LEGO-detailed model, including the interiors, passed through by hundreds of thousands of people each day. This model strikes a pretty much perfect balance between architecture and LEGO.
Designed by Alexander Thomson, the original villa is now a tourist attraction in Glasgow, Scotland. The model is proposed as an architectural, white set after the style of many LEGO architecture sets, despite the sandy stone facade of the real building.
Despite being what the designer himself calls a “micro-scaled model” of one of Budapest’s landmarks, this LEGO set contains an incredible amount of detail. It collected more supportive comments on LEGO Ideas than usual, but sadly not enough votes to realize its design.
Whereas most of these sets were created for fun, this one was taken on with a greater goal in mind: to immortalize a building in danger of demolition through a simple LEGO set. Focusing mainly on capturing the building’s unique form, it’s a simple, relatively small set.
If this proposal had been realized, it would be the largest LEGO set in existence, with 80,000 bricks. Due to its already enormous size, this set does not delve into the interiors of the building—but after finally completing the facade, you’d probably be very thankful for that.
This minimalist model contains only the facade of the building, just adding a darker box behind it to serve as a background for the white bricks. By sticking to just a few existing pieces, the model keeps an authentic LEGO appearance but still manages to quite accurately replicate the Palace of Italian Civilization.
Given that it’s an architectural classic, of course somebody proposed a PantheonLEGO set. However, like many of the classics, this one hasn’t made it to the review stage either.
Located in Seoul, Sungnyemun is one of the largest castle gates in Korea and, as seen in the incredibly complex model, also one of the most beautiful. It already exists as a smaller LEGO set, but this one is attempting to tackle all the intricate details that make the building so majestic.
Seeking to perfectly emulate the original “Renaissance jewel,” this model is based on the building’s original architectural plans, including some interiors of the building, while still keeping it on a relatively small scale.
Representing the newest building on the list, this set is built almost entirely out of transparent LEGO plates and roof tiles, yet still manages to look incredibly sleek. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to garner the votes needed to be reviewed by LEGO.
It’s not easy to decipher the LEGO model’s construction from the provided renderings, but in spite of this, the proposed set looks like a grand one to accomplish.
Though this is probably the most minimalistic set on our list, its simplicity is exactly what got it here in the first place—especially because it’s an Aaltobuilding. Despite the lack of detail, this model captures the architecture exactly the way LEGO should.
Another set inspired by Italian architecture, the Villa Rotonda’s geometric plan seems like a good design to test through LEGO. Due to the small size of the LEGO model, details such as windows are sacrificed, but if you don’t have enough time to spare on the large, complex sets, it’s an ideal model to complete in a short amount of time, using few pieces.
Now that we’ve seen what can be done, perhaps you won’t be afraid to realize your dream of creating your own, real LEGO set. Who knows? Yours could be on our next list of LEGO favorites.
Entitled “Architecture for the Search for Knowledge,” the lecture is named for Ábalos’ mantra by the same words, which is an aphorism written by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Throughout the event, Ábalos delved into various mixed-use typologies, each of which is in some way related to the basic typology of the medieval monastery.
Highlights of the lecture include:
10:30 – 14:45 Ábalos introduces the theme of the relationship between education, research, and professional practice, as well as the overall typology of mixed-use projects, through the example of the medieval monastery.
14:45 – 17:30 Ábalos delves into the architectural typology of the medieval monastery, noting their “open ecosystems,” varying “circles of privacy,” and mixed uses.
17:30 – 22:20 Ábalos explains his dedication to the study of mixed-use projects in modernist and contemporary architecture, as well as subsystems of skyscrapers.
22:20 – 31:00 The namesake aphorism of the lecture is explored, in addition to its and Nietzsche’s relationship to monasteries. The background is additionally given on the basic elements of monasteries.
31:00 – 38:45 Ábalos discusses the history and evolution of the monastery, as well as the typical use of stone in monasteries.
38:45 – 46:05 After giving background on the monastery typology, Ábalos explores various monastic lifestyles, and how they affected their respective architectures, as well as how monasteries created the monastery palace typology.
46:05 – 53:40 Ábalos compares the two “monastery circles” of the revolutionary period, based on contributions from Thomas Jefferson and Charles Fourier, and their work in universities and phalansteries, respectively.
53:40 – 1:00:30 Ábalos shifts to more modern interpretations of the monastery typology, namely those of the 20th century in Europe and America.
1:00:30 – 1:04:10 Ábalos recounts his time as a professor and chair at the GSD, noting his teachings concerning mixed-use projects and various aspects of thermodynamics, and closes the lecture by tying together each of the various mixed-use typologies he has discussed.
1:05:10 – 1:29:00 Ábalos answers questions concerning the lecture.
From the architect. Kultuurikatel is a former power plant, located in Tallinn between the Old Town and the sea. The project focuses on simple principles of spatial organization to meet the needs of creative users. The key of the project is openness.
Diagram
Original complex was built in the 19th century with various additions in the 20th century. Buildings are listed as heritage monuments and are owned by the city of Tallinn. After renovation it has different halls for performing and rehearsal, club spaces, studios, offices, integrated with a continuous common space enabling all kinds of possibilities.
The project focuses on simple principles of spatial organization to meet the needs of creative users. The tight budget is a challenge – any intervention has to be precise and to the point. The key of the project is openness – it should enable later additions and unplanned developments. To integrate external impulses, workshops and users‘ input has been used. Communication with various parties was an essential part of the project. The design concept developed alongside the concept of the Cauldron itself. The project is built in stages, many spaces will be equipped with the barest minimum and to be finished by the user.
Diagram
Construction
It is renovation project and materials are used according to the initial architecture. Replacements and new additions are done in a sensitive way and surfaces are left unpolished as it was in original state (exposed concrete, steel, brick).
This episode of Monocle 24’sOn Design podcast, which briefly surveys the state of Indian architecture and suggests a blueprint for a 21st Century vernacular, was written and recorded by ArchDaily’s European Editor at Large,James Taylor-Foster.
In the first half of 2016 an exhibition was opened in Mumbai. The State of Architecture, as it was known, sought to put contemporary Indian building in the spotlight in order to map trends post-independence and, more importantly, provoke a conversation both historical and in relation to where things are heading.
India, of course, is a unique and complex place of inequalities, overcrowding, issues of sanitation—to name a few—which give Indian architects more to think about than simply changing skylines. A nation of 29 states that stretch from the Himalayan peaks to the coastline of the Indian Ocean, it has magnificently diverse range of cultures, languages and architectural styles. Yet, as India experiences the processes of rapid urbanisation in its largest metropoli—such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and beyond—an odd phenomenon is arising. You could say that the “wrong” sort of architecture is being built – and discourse about the reality of Indian architecture today is, on the whole, lacking.
So what do I mean by the “wrong” sort of architecture? In the words of Rahul Mehrotra, a practising architect and Professor of Urban Design and Planning at Harvard, “architects [in India] are pandering to Capital in unprecedented ways – creating what we could call the ‘Architecture of Impatient Capital’.” In other words, as money flows into certain people’s pockets it is manifested, foe example, in shiny glass towers – all built in the blink of an eye.
Vast air-conditioned skyscrapers, while representing only half the story, are both absurd and inefficient in the sorts of diverse sub-tropical climates that India enjoys. When Le Corbusier designed the government compound at Chandigarh, the capital of the northern territories of Haryana and Punjab in the early 1960s, he understood the importance of designing specifically for the city’s sun-soaked summers. A European import simply wouldn’t do.
One of modern India’s giants was the late Charles Correa. He had a finely tuned sensibility that found its aesthetic home in the lyrical qualities of light and shade. It was the quiet progressiveness of the Gandhi Ahsram, completed in 1963, that put his ideas on the map: an interconnected collection of modular huts—on the site of Mahatma Gandhi’s home—that together create a meandering pathway, and a memorial to his legacy. These huts provide shelter from the sun as necessary but are also open to the skies and, most importantly, the breeze. It is one of the truest example of what contemporary Indian architecture could and should be, if only progress would allow.
Across the border in Bangladesh (in Dhaka), these ideas are being practised today. Marina Tabassum, who won an Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016 for a mosque in Dhaka, also recognises the power of contemporary vernacularism. Built on a sliver of land donated by her grandmother and with funds raised by the local community, the building is both simple and elegant. Perforated brick walls speckle the prayer room with light, and also allow the building to breathe. It is, in other words, a perfect fit for its home.
India can be the testing ground for raising the quality of life in the built environment for the many – but it must galvanise together in order to really make a difference.
From the architect. The site, situated on the Essex/Suffolk borders within the landscape immortalised by Constable was originally the home farm of the nearby estate, destroyed by fire in the 1950s. It consists of a collection of farm buildings forming a courtyard. The centrepiece of the site with views over the rural landscape is a large barn of cathedral-like proportions.
Cruciform in plan with a collection of smaller spaces surrounding it, the arrangement sought to provide shelter for different farming activities under a single roof. The barn complex is the legacy of the model farm movement.
The clients purchased the buildings in dilapidated condition. Having sold their own property in nearby Colchester they decided to reside in a caravan on the site during the build. David had worked on a previous project and was the natural choice of architect.
Floor Plan
The barn is a Listed structure and the contemporary refurbishment required lengthy agreements with the local planning authorities.
A large component of the renovations consisted of the refurbishment of the roof. Roofing slates and timber materials were salvaged from the other agricultural structures on the site that were too decayed to be usefully renovated. In order to allow the existing structure to be viewed internally but still conform to modern standards of thermal performance, the roof is a ‘warm roof construction’ meaning that all of the insulation is located on the exterior of the roof above a new timber deck.
Sections
The external walls were insulated with sheep’s wool and clad with larch timber, which has been left to weather naturally. The original openings have been simply fenestrated with glazing set back from the external wall line. Oversized bespoke glazed sliding doors fill the hipped gable porches, allowing views from the courtyard towards open fields. Two three- metre square roof lights allow day light deep into the interior of the eight-metre tall central spaces.
It was decided early on during the design process to keep the spaces as open plan as possible. Where necessary partitions and screens are designed as over scaled freestanding furniture. Constructed from birch faced plywood sheets, they organise the spaces, providing privacy for bathrooms and sleeping areas.
A reminder of the barn’s agricultural past, lighting is operated using existing switch boxes and concealed within the existing structure, existing metal grilles and new joinery.
Polished concrete flooring flows throughout with 10mm floor joints aligning with the spatial demarcation. A biomass boiler is assisted by a mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system that recirculates warm air stacking in the taller spaces.
Landscaping and planting reflects the internal spaces and is kept simple with wildflower planting and brick paving salvaged from the existing barn complex.
From the architect. KAAN Architecten has moved to a new office, marking a page-turn for the expanding architectural practice. The new location is in the heart of Rotterdam, situated along the Maas river, just a few meters from the iconic Erasmus bridge and the firm’s award- winning project Education Center at Erasmus Medical Center University. The project has transformed 1.400 sqm of the former premises of De Nederlandsche Bank into KAAN’s new open-space headquarters, which encompasses more than 80 workspaces.
Floor Plan
KAAN’s new De Bank office is housed in the piano nobile of a quintessential historical building originally designed by Prof. Henri Timo Zwiers in 1950-1955, on the grounds of a former synagogue, which was destroyed during the WWII bombings. The brick façade on Boompjes Street stands out against the river skyline and is characterized by an entrance hall enriched by the mosaic of Dutch artist Louis van Roode, who decorated several public spaces in Rotterdam during the post-war period.
“The notion of sharing of knowledge is at the core of the division of spaces and the interior design of the new office. This rough space has the special gift of an industrial yet monumental aesthetic, a beauty that we decided to exalt through a solid balance between two simple materials wood and concrete.”
The building’s striking character and its wide, bright spaces offered the perfect base for KAAN Architecten to design their new office. The beating heart of the project is an extensive working area dedicated to architects. This space is blessed by intense daylight on both sides and offers a unique view of the surrounding water-front. The rectangular floor plan, with its clear proportions, is designed to effectively connect working, meeting and leisure spaces through several long monumental corridors and passages, enhancing fluid interactions between employees, visitors and partners.
Spatial rhythm is generated by the finely restored industrial concrete structure. The rough essence of the material is balanced by a counterpoint of elegant dark walnut wood, which constitutes the main component of the interiors. The harmonious interaction between the warm comfort of the wood and the pre-existing concrete structure, envelopes the atmosphere in a graceful yet monumental feeling. KAAN Architecten has successfully designed a new working space that genuinely represents the philosophy of the office: functionalism with added value. Raw and refined at once, the project revitalizes and reveals the inherent beauty of a building that has, for many years been sleeping while its city dreams.
Rowzan residence is a private residential building in 7 story consists of a private triplex unit upon two individual flats .The site is located in Zaferanieh neighborhood, in northern part of Tehran on a steep slope which varies up to 16 meters from south to north which ensures scenic overlooks toward the city skyline. So it was a main purpose in design process to take advantage of this spectacular view, but in the north and east sides there is a camp with student rush, thus minimum opening was preferred to have more privacy and quietness.
The project is organized in three parts which settle on the slope gradually. The southern part is the yard and spiral car ramp which connects the street to the parking floor in two height upper. The middle part includes parking area and the twin flats and the northern part devoted to lobbies of the residence , both public and private, and the triplex unit with direct access to the northern alley.Here architects designed a perforated concrete shell safeguarding the inhabitant’s privacy from the overlooking neighbors .It acts as a second skin protects the inner transparent mass which has been set back and let it have large windows with maximum possible light. This creates a unique calm in-between place which keeps you far away from the city next to that ,where water pond duplicates light by reflection and the bamboos, potted in oval-shape container ,add life and beauty to the space.This shell continues in the east side, becomes the single skin of the envelope which channels limited light and sight in ,but in the south with sweeping views of the city, it has been cut off to have maximum openness.
These eyelets and scratches have been inspired by functions behind. In north ,there are enclosures in each floor which oriented them towards a closed-shape and in the east, with open space and spiral staircases, the perforation orientation shaped in a more dynamic way .Diversified depths and length of them not only enhances the dynamism and vitality of the facade, but also boosts the lighting features and the overnight beauty of the building.
Courtesy of Ali Daghigh
In the traditional Persian architecture, when privacy and introversion was one of the most significant features, windows have fundamental role in forming the appearance and identifying the architectural characteristics of residential buildings. However, with the progression of time , there is a lack of variety and characteristics for windows and they have lost their historical position. In this project architects tried to revitalize this historical role with an attempt to avoid monotony and boredom in the repetition of these apertures.
Sig Nordal 