From the architect. The project is located next to Thu Bon river, Dien Ban district, Quang Nam Province. This river has a huge interaction to local life on both side of it. Majority of the resident live depending on agriculture, besides with variety of traditional craft villages such as terra cotta, mat or silk.
This terra cotta workshop has its life follow the movement of this river. The Terra Cotta Studio is a working space of the eminent artist Le Duc Ha. The project is a cubed-shape building with the dimension of 7m x 7m x 7m. Surrounding the studio is a bamboo frame scaffold used for drying terra cotta products. It’s also designed with two big bench for resting, relaxing and having tea. At the same time, this scaffold also function as a fence to separate the studio with the whole space of workshop.
The exterior layer of the studio is made by clay solid brick, which reminds people about Vietnam traditional furnace. This area was also a part of Tra Kieu which was Champa Kingdom capital from 4th to 7th century, and the studio has a certain influence of Champa culture spirit.
The bricks were built interleaved creating holes which help the wind ventilating and air conditioning. This layer is not the wall preventing outside environment from inside the studio, so the artist can feel the wind, the cool from river and sound of nature in surrounding area. Meanwhile, it also creates a certain privacy for the artist.
Axonometric
The interior of the studio is the three-floors wood frame system creating many space with dimension of 60cm x 60cm, which is function as the shelves to put terra cotta works, hallway and stairs. The height of the frame is 7 meters. Follow the hallways, people can observe the workshop, river banks and the whole garden through windows.
The centre of the studio has 2 floors.In ground floor, there is a turning table that the artist works. The artist and his works can interact with the sunlight, from the sunrise to twilight. Here, people can find the conversation of the artist and his works; and himself with his shadow in the silence.
At the same time, people can feel and see the time passing terra cotta artworks by the movement of the sunlight.
Section
On the mezzanine, people can see many different space inside and outside the studio, as well as observe the artist working by the round void in the centre. This is also used for leaving stuffs of the workshop and the artist’s works in the flood which happens every year in this area.
The design team desires the studio will be a place containing, contemplating and spreading emotion of the artist with his both finished and unfinished artworks. The project is a destination to meet and share for people who love terra cotta and want to have the experience with the clay.
The first generation Hanok is a low density housing type built on a single floor. The whole house is made up of multiple buildings: the main building, a second bedroom building, and the guest bedroom building. A Hanok has two distinct void spaces: first, the yard opened to the sky is a passageway inviting nature and daecheong, the second void is a well ventilated space, which has character of both interior and exterior space. This kind of Hanok was recreated in an urban style by the house sellers in the 20th century. This is the first floor type Hanok 1.0
Ever since the period of rapid urbanization, many Korean households chose to move to apartments. The universal three bay apartments are known as Hanok 2.0. A roof was placed on the top of the existing Hanok plan, creating a new space called the ‘living room’. The only difference is that the outdoor yard is turned into an interior living room, and kept a similar composition to the old Hanok. The daecheong is replaced by a dining space. Three bay apartments are a successful transformation of the Hanok, suited to the high-rise structure.
Recently, many households are leaving apartments for detached houses. However, the single floor Hanok cannot withhold the density required for the contemporary life. The house was designed to maintain both high density space of two or more floor levels and also have a daecheong-like space, which can be a transition space between interior and the exterior. This house adopted ‘three types of void space’ in between the living room, master bedroom, guest bedroom, parent’s room, and the children’s room. This is the Hanok 3.0 version, which has adopted a multi-floor type, an open type, and a variable type.
Studio Symbiosis Architects is amidst the construction process for Punjab Kesari Headquarters, an 18,000 square meter office space in Delhi NCR, India.
Designed as a fusion of traditional Indian architecture and contemporary office space, the main objective of the project is “to reduce heat gain and optimize façade opening ratio, ensuing no artificial lighting is required on a typical day.”
With this in mind, the design centers on an animated façade, which features a variation of opening ratios based on orientation, and that same time it reflects Indian culture, through its resemblance to the traditional “Jali” screen pattern. In a press release the architect explains:
A hexagonal pattern was used as a base and through iterative process various porosity patterns were generated from it to create different light conditions. This resulted in a variable opacity condition in the facade that had a dual purpose of creating performative architecture and also created variable openings on the facade in various orientations generating a design for the facade that is animating and has an inherent meaning. This resulting pattern morphs from 81% opacity on the north facade to 27% opacity on the south facade, with an intermediate opacity of 54% on East and 62% on west facade respectively.
Through this façade, a Lux level of 500 is achieved on each floor plate at a workstation height, as well as a daylight factor of two over 80% of the floor plate. This optimized natural lighting plays a major role in the sustainability of the project.
Since the design looks at no artificial lighting it makes the user feel closer to nature by allowing office workers to use natural light. Furthermore, sustainability features of the project include cross ventilation and a reduction of heat gain.
Neuman Hayner Architects, in collaboration with Gal Karni, has unveiled the plans for a new music and dance school in Mevaseret Zion, Israel.
Five lines defining four strips, a frame of a story, a foundation for the creation… fertile ground for learning, a space for work, a stage for talent, a platform for infinite opportunities.
Courtesy of Neuman Hayner Architects
Courtesy of Neuman Hayner Architects
The design of the project is based on the musical concept of the staff—the five horizontal lines in sheet music that define musical pitch. Combined with the idea of creating an open and airy space, this staff-derived shape creates clearly divided wings, each of which allows for a diversity of activities, according to the changing needs of the school.
Courtesy of Neuman Hayner Architects
Courtesy of Neuman Hayner Architects
Furthermore, each of the spaces in the project has a varying degree of intimacy, thereby creating a mix of more public or private spaces and facilitating a unified mixed use.
Courtesy of Neuman Hayner Architects
The conservatory will additionally feature strong considerations of acoustic demands, energy efficiency, and light.
The site, a meadow dotted with magnificent oaks, gently slopes down to a spring fed pond creating an unusually lush landscape. The design creates a compound that frames the verdant oak meadow and pond within the larger landscape. The owners requested that the house be designed for indoor/outdoor summer living. They wanted guests to have easy access to the pool and pond beyond.
The program is broken into three buildings, a 2950 sq. ft. main residence and 840 sq. ft. guest house and an 1100 sq. ft. carport with storage space and vegetable garden behind. Each independent structure quietly responds to the site specific conditions that shape the overall experience.
Plan
A thin floating roof reaches across the primary outdoor living space to frame the entry and create a dramatic threshold from the car court to the pond beyond. The bedrooms, kitchen and support spaces are housed under a living roof that visually links the house to the surrounding landscape.
The pool house extends the outdoor living with generous shade trellises and includes a playroom, changing room and guestroom as well as space for the solar hot water and pool equipment. A fire pit and small dock further extend the outdoor living experience to the pond’s edge.
The project was designed to be a net-zero home. Passive cooling strategies, including a cool roof, living roof, heavy insulation, operable windows and large overhangs, allow the house to remain comfortable without the use of air conditioning. Photovoltaic powered electric heat pumps provide hot water for in-slab radiant heat and solar hot water panels provide hot water for the pool.
Architecture and Urban Planning firm group8asia has won third prize in the Seoul Metropolitan Government competition for the design of Nodeul Island with its sustainable project Seoul Green Dot.
Nodeul Dream Island leads with the idea of Neverland in mind, and isdesigned as “a utopia where nature and serenity are abundant.” Here, it is hoped that environmental economy, and socially sustainable practices can be utilized to create a space to transform the dense urban fabric.
Courtesy of group8asia
The island is designed using a phased development process, so that its independent cells “will propagate with cultural, ecological, and cohesive principles, creating its own infrastructure and footprint.” This gives Green Dot an unique opportunity for adaptable architecture to take over on the island.
Courtesy of group8asia
Courtesy of group8asia
Courtesy of group8asia
This way “there is no forced development, but rather development that is community-led and that has social significance. As the cells grow and form clusters, the activities, recycling, energy production, urban farming, and connections become stronger.
From the architect. Airport Pavilion is part of a series of 12 urban pavilions we designed for Hyundai, comprising a showroom and an exhibition area. Three themes guided the process: for the city, the building as an installation; for the architecture, the program flexibility; and for the construction, a reproducible pattern of technology. This pattern is, indeed, the series’ unifying element, transforming a technical problem into a language element. More specifically, a transparent volume assembled from the junction of steel profiles and frameless glass. A reduction, so to speak, where a large volume consists of few materials.
For the Airport Pavilion, we worked with two overlapping boxes: one in glass, which contained the exhibition area, and the other as a kind of second skin which acts as a brise-soleil at the same time, thereby enabling the required transparency for the functioning of the showroom. This skin is defined by a system of elevated walkways which, at the same time, define the facade’s dynamic lines, as well as set a promenade from which the interior can be contemplated.
The building is located on a major expressway access to Congonhas Airport, Sao Paulo, and the possibility that it would only be seen at speed led us into thinking of creating it as a linear floating on the landscape. An installation, so to say, which, seen from the public space, forces the architecture to go beyond its function and presents itself to the city as a unique building.
Detail
The internal area is composed by a main empty space and a secondary one connected by an entrance hall. Involving them a walkway – facade elevated at variable heights from the ground holds a system of vertical metal sheets distributed along with variable spacing betwen them, based on a mathematical model, on its surface. These sheets act as a brise-soleil, as well as protecting the walkway from the road’s space.
The project consists of a linear body 72.00m long, 22.30m wide, and 10m high. It is supported by 350mm x 350mm square tubular section steel columns, spaced along the axes varying between 4.80m and 9.60m, recessed 3.70m in relation to the front facade and 1.50m in relation to the rear facade. W530 x 85 laminated steel beams surmount both openings, creating the required support for the light metallic sandwich panel roof by keeping it suspended, as well as and the support for the second skin defined by the front walkway and the rear facade.
Plan 1
Plan 2
The front walkway is anchored to the roof structure by 100mm x 200mm square tubular steel profiles with 4.80m spacing between the axes. A 300 x 200mm rectangular tubular beam creates the support for the walkaway`s floor which is made from a perforated steel sheet.
Pavilions are part of an architectural culture of works that are distinguished by the space volume they hold and not necessarily by the program they harbour. They are works made for no one as they are intended to withstand their use and change with time. This flexibility bestows upon architecture the responsibility to survive by other means if it makes sense, but their part in history cannot be determined.
What do Frederic Chopin, Alexander Calder and Montana’s Bear Tooth Mountains have in common? A long summer day at Tippet Rise Art Center seeks to make the connections audible, visible, tangible.
Founded by philanthropists and artists Cathy and Peter Halstead and inaugurated in June 2016, Tippet Rise began as—and largely remains—a working ranch. It sprawls across 11,500 acres of rolling hills and alluvial mesas of southwestern. To the west rise the snowy heights of the Bear Tooth Mountains. Off to the east, hills give way to golden prairies that stretch out to the horizon.
Into this privileged landscape, the Halsteads and team have strategically inserted massive outdoor sculptures by Alexander Calder, Mark di Suvero, Stephen Talasnik, plus three specially commissioned works by the Spanish architectural firm Ensamble Studio. And hidden in a small depression near the entrance of the massive ranch, the LEED Platinum-certified Olivier Barn serves as both base camp for visitors and a state-of-the-art concert hall.
Alban Bassuet, director of Tippet Rise and renowned acoustician formerly with Arup, led the architectural and acoustical design team. Other members include Wyoming architect Laura Viklund of Gunnstock Timber Framing, Arup Engineering, and landscape architects Oehme, van Sweden & Associates (OvS).
Resonance of the Land
From carbon footprint to visual impact, one key principle informs the design of the built environment: intrude as little as possible on the natural environment, while intensifying visitors’ connection to it.
Tippet Rise occupies a landscape that, as you move through it, is in a constant state of flux. The infinity of the plains to the east appear and disappear as you move over a rise in the land. From most vantage points, the snowcapped Bear Tooth Mountains remain a pretty but unimposing line of white and blue at the horizon. But as you near the top of a hill, they can soar suddenly and sublimely. When you head down into one of the gold-green folds in the land, they disappear altogether.
“We had looked at so many places, but the first time I drove into Tippet Rise and saw the landscape unfold, I knew instantly this was the place,” says Cathy Halstead.
To minimize impact, buildings are warmed and cooled entirely by geothermal systems and lit by solar power. Rolling hills keep parking lots hidden until you are practically upon them. The modestly sited Oliver Barn looks at first glance just like that: a barn. And from the barn’s terrace, Inverted Portal, a specially commissioned work by Ensamble Studio, appears to be a pair of boulders deposited by some ancient glacier on a distant hilltop.
Even while treading lightly, the artists, architects and designers of Tippet Rise deliberately play with the land’s seemingly endless variability. Like the high peaks and distant plains, the buildings and sculpture—and even the roads that join them—appear and disappear and reappear as you move across the corrugated land. As a result, the built environment reveals itself to the eye very much the way, over the course of a single piece of music, a composer introduces, deconstructs, and reprises a musical theme.
Just as sculpture and architecture are designed to provoke surprisingly intimate connections with a vast terrain, the simplicity and small scale of the Olivier Barn’s music hall is designed to enfold listeners in the vastness of the musical encounter.
“When you first enter the building, you are immediately surrounded by the warmth and beauty that come from a wood barn,” says architect Laura Viklund.
Bassuet explains that the hall’s dimensions are inspired by intimate and enveloping spaces like the room in Esterházy Palace where Joseph Haydn composed and performed chamber music. England’s Snape Maltings Concert Hall, a favorite of the Halsteads, was also a key model. Like Snape Malting, the Olivier Barn is constructed with a pitched ceiling and sound-diffusing timber framing that give the sense not that the music is being projecting from the stage, but that the audience is literally sitting inside the music.
“Because smaller halls are shorter than a great hall (typically double their size), they allow for stronger and shorter reflections from the rear which reinforce the sensation of envelopment,” explains Bassuet. ” With fewer seats, they can have a long reverberation, and overall their acoustics are intimate, clear, reverberant, loud, enveloping, and rich.”
However, for Bassuet the listening experience extends beyond the science of acoustics to encompass the totality of the listener’s sense impressions. That is why, for instance, he and his team opted for limited palette of warm-toned natural materials. They actually make the music ‘sound’ more beautiful in our minds, says Bassuet.
To add another dimension to that pleasure, the design team also placed a large, west-facing picture window behind the performance area. The window frames a rising set of grassy hills that end in dark blue peaks and, above them, an azure strip of sky. As the music unfolds, winds ruffle the silent grasses, shadows on the distant mountains shift gradually, and cows grazing on the hillsides down into the scene with pastoral slowness.
“During a performance, time and space, the rhythms of land and music and built environment, all merge into single, extraordinary experience,” says Sarah Bird, Tippet Rise’s creative director.
A 15-minute drive from Olivier Barn, a strange structure suddenly appears around a bend in the road. Called Domo, it is a massive work by Spain’s Ensamble Studio. But what is it exactly? A strange extrusion of the land itself? Ruins of some sort? The site of ancient rituals?
In fact, it is a structure that tests the limits between landscape and sculpture, sculpture and architecture.
“In looking at what has shaped our approach to land, music, and art on the geologic upthrust plateau of Tippet Rise, Cathy and I realized that the land was too vast, too timeless, for conventional structures or art forms,” writes Peter Halstead.
Literally, Domo is formed from the landscape. It is largely constructed from earth extracted from Tippet Rise, then shaped to echo its geomorphic forms. Ensamble’s Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa describe Domo and their other two works at Tippet Rise—Beartooth Portal and Inverted Portal—as “structures of landscape that are born from it and give it order, transforming energy into inhabitable space.”
As you move around and through Domo’s constantly changing forms, you discover definitive signs of a human hand, including the polished surface and a cantilevered overhang. The overhang looks at first like a natural formation, but on second thought it seems to defy physics—another sign that you are encountering art rather than nature.
However, the overhang is also a complex piece of design that turns the massive sculpture into a work of architecture: that is, a very unusual band shell. The overhang protects performers from the elements. It is also engineered to project music with impressive range and strength across the surrounding land.
It all sounds like the kind of rarefied place that a lucky few access by private airstrip. The reality is quite the opposite. The weekend I attended, a majority of the guests hailed from the surrounding ranchlands. In the words of Sarah Bird, the Halsteads were very clear they wanted to “lop off the fancy” that too often stands in the way of high art and the public.
The gated entrance of Tippet Rise looks like that of any other ranch in the area, except perhaps for the subtly minimalist font of the signage. The main music hall is not decked out with eye-catching fins, swoops or glittering metallic skin. And the pricing is also anything but highfalutin. Concert tickets cost US$10. And for another US$10, visitors can load up at the buffet-style barbecue and join their fellows at communal picnic tables.
In other words, an evening at Tippet Rise costs about the same as a movie and dinner at McDonalds. Except that the Tippet Rise menu includes brisket in a sauce of local huckleberries, ribs infused with cherry marinade, a superior pinot noir and, on one of the evenings I attended, every single one of Chopin’s études played in order and at a single go—a feat of mindboggling complexity.
This season’s performances are already sold out, but it is possible to tour the land and visit the sculptures Friday-Sunday 10am-6pm. Visitor numbers are limited. Make reservations at tippetrise.org.
From the architect. The brief for the Project was to develop the Novitiate within Osorno’s Barefoot Carmelite Monastery, which was requested to harbour the novice’s bedrooms, their classroom, an oratory and ateliers.
The Project was approached from the indoor, which was its main concern. The experience of the different activities was taken into account: studying, praying, working or sleeping. This was all translated in a homogenous lighting design that could favour a radiant environment.
This was defined with the dome; its indirect aerial light suffuses the sky and walls generating a luminous space, a place where the construction is given by the edges of light. By being interrupted, it also allows to have a bigger space for the sisters to gather under the same roof, no matter the activity in which they are. The oratory, which acts as an intermediary between the multiple naves, follows the same lightening principles, and recognizes the passing of the hours through the division between the walls.
The outside geometry is a reflection of the inside. The colour relates to the already existing building. Lastly, the materiality was decided upon by considering the inclemency of the weather, so it endures in time and the maintenance stays at a low level.
Studio Libeskind has won an international competition for the design of a mixed-use tower and complex in the heart of Vilnius, Lithuania. The 20,000 square meter building will feature offices, a luxury hotel, restaurants and public amenities and will be located at the intersection of the White Bridge, the Neris River and Old Town.
Courtesy of Studio Libeskind
“The idea for the Downtown Tower-K18B is to create a 21st-century landmark for the city, while integrating the surrounding context to complement the urban fabric of the historic city,” said architect Daniel Libeskind. “The design will create a vibrant mixed-use complex that will invigorate and enliven the development of the neighborhood.”
The jagged tower takes inspiration from the light, sky and surrounding environment, and will rise out of a 6-story podium of spaces connected by a glass-enveloped galleria containing a restaurant, bar and retail in addition to the lobbies for the hotel and office towers.
The competition was organized by the Vilnius Municipality, Lithuanian Union of Architects and Lords LB Asset Management. Studio Libeskind is also currently designing the Vilnius Modern Art Centre as well as a sports and wellness centre, Vilnius Beacon.
Sig Nordal 