In the autumn of 2014, Piotr Bednarski, a Warsaw-based architectural photographer, visited the municipality of Novi Beograd (New Belgrade), a planned city built in 1948 which constitutes one of BelgradeSerbia’s 17 municipalities. There, he quickly fell in love with the gritty Communist-era architecture of the area. He writes:
In Warsaw, where I’m from, most of the residential buildings from the Communist era [have been] turned into kitschy, colorful blocks… Seeing the dense, raw and, desolate modernist architecture, and rediscovering the atmosphere of my childhood made me fall in love with Novi’s neighborhood. I saw people from different social backgrounds living peacefully in one place.
Since that initial trip, Piotr has made multiple return visits to capture the city in a variety of thought-provoking ways, showing long span views of the city, the streetscape, and even the view from inside people’s apartments. He believes that there is much to uncover in Novi Beograd, and that his story with New Belgrade is not yet finished.
From the architect. From the existing plot, there was a sunny playground with two paved grounds and several playground equipments. The project had the main goal of qualifying the playground, by offering a significant area of shade, so essential to the permanence of both children and parents in the park during summer months.
The shading structure is developed in the longitudinal direction of the square and is composed by 8 gantries, in which between it is fixed a micro-perforated screen. The colors used, white and terracotta, are the predominant colors of the landmark buildings of the
London-based Studio Bark has revealed its plans for Black Barn, an environmentally conscious family home in Dallinghoo, Suffolk.
Based on an interpretation of local black agricultural barns, the 300-square-meter house will be clad in charred timber, an ancient Japanese form of natural preservation as a way to enhance the longevity and beauty of wood.
Courtesy of Studio Bark
The design is a modern yet sensitive interpretation of the humble black agricultural barns that have scattered the East Anglian countryside for centuries said the architect.
Courtesy of Studio Bark
As a completely self-sustaining structure, Black Barn will feature a variety of environmentally conscious features, such as a solar array, bio-diesel generator with heat recovery system, battery storage, on-site sewage treatment, and water sourced via borehole.
Courtesy of Studio Bark
In order to take advantage of solar heat gain, the structure incorporates a large gable end to the south and tapered roof to the north, which will minimize heat loss, as well as circulate fresh air through high-level openings in the gable.
Courtesy of Studio Bark
Courtesy of Studio Bark
Black Barn will additionally reduce its carbon footprint by utilizing locally sourced timber, aggregate, and flint, and will minimize food miles by planting a domestic orchard of local tree species and vegetables.
Courtesy of Studio Bark
Furthermore, the building aims to have as little impact as possible on its surroundings, and thus it is designed as a floating sculptural form to look as if it was hovering over the wild grass meadow.
From the architect. At the onset of this project, when we asked the clients what type of house they were interested in, they replied “a simple house, like a lifeguard tower”.
We designed a one story house spread across a corner lot. Two layers of exposed concrete comprise floor and ceiling with white stucco walls enveloping the house. Sliding the upper plane forward allowed for light penetration at the core of the house as well as air circulation. Between the two layers lies a rectangular tube, separating while connecting inside form out. This unique space houses an entry corridor and art studio.
Floor Plan
The house is divided in a non traditional manner. In place of public vs. private spaces we divided the house by daily functions. Daytime space: kitchen, living room, porch and garden. Nighttime space: children’s bedrooms surrounding a family space, family bath, master bedroom and studio.
From the architect. In the final days of the BSF program and with a vastly reduced budget, this project brings transformational change to the school by delivering two new buildings and outdoor spaces, whilst renovating the existing library and classrooms.
Isometric
A key requirement for the project was to create a new identity for the school; transforming its image into a welcoming, dynamic learning environment and raising the school’s profile within the borough. The new buildings improve the school’s civic presence and inclusiveness with adult evening classes, community groups and a Saturday morning school using the library and other buildings.
The original school site was dominated by an eight-storey tower with the rest of the school arranged in poor quality single storey structures. The new masterplan creates a robust ‘campus’ structure of buildings and different scaled outdoor spaces, integrating the retained and refurbished buildings with the new ones. The current areas of outdoor play are maintained but further expansion of the school facilities through densification can be accommodated.
Ground Floor
One of the ambitions is to improve learning and community provision as well as enhancing the local streetscape. The two new buildings, a new teaching block and a sports hall are at key locations on the school boundary. New entrances and generous glazing of the activity studios and classrooms brings much needed school activity to the surrounding streets, Trafalgar Gardens and the Ocean Estate. This also improves the safety of the surrounding streets by providing passive surveillance and brings new and accessible amenities to local people the first time.
The reception, art and technology building creates a new main entrance that opens up school life to the community whilst reducing the impact of the tower. A triple height communal stair, a new sheltered courtyard and an IT pavilion are part of a diagonal sequence of spaces used to create strong visual connections across the school campus and to emphasise the extent of improvements and the school’s ICT specialism to the wider community.
The sports hall has been designed to be accessible to the local community from Trafalgar Park. It supports the school’s sporting success with Sports England compliant amenities, 4-court gym, activity studio, and multi-gym. In order to maintain the existing areas of outdoor play an additional rooftop multi-use games area has been provided, transforming the sports curriculum.
The broad open stair of the reception, art and technology building is complemented by break-out spaces at each level. The partition walls between classrooms are non-structural, enabling maximum future flexibility and accommodating further variety in learning strategies. The structural solution also includes a rooftop beam that screens the plant room from view while freeing up the lower levels from additional structure in the deep span of the building.
The sensitive setting with adjacent conservation area is complimented by a contemporary architectural approach that mediates between the surrounding context and reduces the negative impact of the existing austere school environment. The buildings communicate with the outdoor space via large openings, capturing views of the adjacent farm, conservation area and vicarage as well as the City of London. Their appearance is also a response to the need to cover large buildings within the very limited budget constraints by bringing a soft, textured surface of light and shadow, and a new consistency to the school campus.
The key challenge for Stepney Green was to maintain the delivery of the school curriculum with the BSF budget cuts and the tight construction sequencing. The cuts meant that there is no extraneous space in the new buildings yet they still meet the educational brief for transformational change. The compact form of the buildings meant that they could be erected whilst existing buildings were still in use.
As a result the project came in on budget and 20 weeks early. Innovation on site included using plywood protection to allow refurbishment to proceed before demolition was complete and using metal shuttering to build the concrete frame without scaffolding which made huge inroads on the tight programme.
Situated on an extremely narrow site with eucalyptus trees along its southern & eastern edge, our design of the Faculties of Psychology & Economics building reflects several key considerations; our commitment to “green” architecture, our desire to create clear and dynamic relationships between architecture and its surrounding and our commitment to effectively and harmoniously incorporate within our buildings carefully defined functions.
In the case of this project Professor Uriel Reichman, the President of IDC, delivered an ambitious program that included numerous classrooms that would need to fulfill the specific needs of the Faculty of Psychology, as well as, seminar rooms, computer labs, brain study labs, and rooms dedicated to experimentation, observation and research and effective monitoring.
Section
Our response was to design an elongated building that responds to the specific dimensions and limitations of the site. We introduced a transparent northern façade that would be able to exploit the benefits of the northern light while establishing a visual relationship with the campus. Thus, whether students enter or leave their classes, whether they choose to form discussion groups or study on their own within the common parts of the faculty or beyond, they are simultaneously a part of the building and its surroundings. Rather than conveying institutional mass, our aim was to project the building’s accessibility. We slightly raised the ground floor in order to enhance the “lightness” of the building, by underlining its delicate relationship to the ground and the surrounding eucalyptus trees.
In complete contrast to the building’s northern aspect, the southern façade is typified by its solidity and the incorporation of long narrow windows that introduce sunlight into the building with minimal thermal consequences. The pattern of long horizontal openings is extended both to the roof and to the sidewalk; creating a sensation as if the transparent northern façade has been raped in a protective skin.
From the architect. To construct a traditional and simple Chinese home signifies the abandonment of dramatic design language but represent the simple word in the manner highlighting “no subject”, “weak comparison” and “against distinctness”.
New Plan
The suites covers an area of 50㎡with two bays and including five rooms, respectively, the kitchen, the toilet, the dining room and the living room concurrently, the baby room and the bedroom. In the course of design, the separation wall between the baby room and the living room was taken off, leaving a larger space for dining, study and living concurrently; instead, the curtain could be used as division of study space and living space, and the living space could also be used as baby’s room in the future.
The wall, commonly shared by the living room and the bedroom remains blank to weaken its sense of core. The wall on the opposite to the center is covered by bookshelf, which can be integrated together with the dining table, work desk and sofa so as to form a huge furniture wall.
The bookshelf is designed by multiple modules. They’ve formed larger and smaller grids while the original order is broken by the work desk, the sofa, the air conditioner and the beam. Finally, some cabinet doors are embedded at random for the sake of collection of some articles; such doors, when opened, are vivid as windows on the building elevation.
As to the wooden doors on the white wall and to the beam bottom height, the dwellings’ “local” practice was adopted. When the wall was not leveled, the elm frame was embedded around the door hole and fixed with the rough wall, then the door frame and the wall were sealed by cement mortar and leveling putty, etc. Finally, the door and the door frame were linked with metal hinge.
The lamps at home, basically of the same structure, were made manually by making use of the abandoned timbers.
Axonometric
In order to depict infiniteness from skimpiness, the color shall be simple and natural; besides, the materials shall be mostly intimate to people, such as wood, bamboo, fiber and cotton which can arouse the people’s the most original sense of intimacy.
As to the woods, the wood wax oil is adopted to recover its original color and quality. When the oil is completely absorbed by the woods, the wood grain can be represented like Chinese ink painting.
From the architect. Leading Brisbane architecture firm Shane Thompson Architects has designed the new Elements of Byron resort on the beaches of Byron Bay, Australia.
Central Facilities Plan
The project is respectful of its unique and special site set on 50 acres, with almost two kilometres of beach frontage.
The design pays homage to the resort’s landscape, including the critically-endangered littoral rainforest, natural lakes, ponds and diverse wildlife.
Courtesy of Elements of Byron
Shane Thompson Architects’ design of the central facilities and accommodation (94 villas) is inspired by local naturally-occuring forms – sand dunes, native trees, ocean and lakes.
Courtesy of Elements of Byron
The leisure and conference facilities are housed under three separate pavilions, which represent the sand dunes bounding the resort. The signature curved shape of these central facilities is an organic form, which unifies the resort and links it to its iconic surroundings.
Typical Studio Cabin
Colour schemes, patterns, textures and finishes were drawn from traditional and rural activities, creating a powerful connection to the landscape, site, and environmental and cultural sensitivities of the area.
Courtesy of Elements of Byron
An infinity lagoon pool weaves through the resort, alongside a communal fire pit and sun beds, encouraging water play.
The resort is an exemplar of sustainable design, with a minimal 10% building footprint. Shane Thompson Architects proposed the reestablishment of the original dunal and wallum landscape to minimise future maintenance and irrigation demands.
Currently on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art, Award-winning African architect Diébédo Francis Kéré has created Colorscape, a installation made from steel and brightly-colored fiber, to accompany his first solo show in the United States. The exhibition is titled The Architecture of Francis Kéré: Building with Community, and features of a retrospective of the architect’s career that includes material artifacts, tools and scale-models created for stand-out projects in both Africa and Europe.
Francis Kéré was raised in the rural village of Gando, Burkina Faso, where architecture is designed through a transparent process involving the entire community. Kéré had carried those community-driven traditions into his work throughout the world, employing local knowledge and materials to give his buildings a sense of place.
The exhibition dives deeper into this construction process, displaying a curated selection of photos and models from his firm’s projects including the Camper pop-up shop, the Gando school library and the Sensing Spaces Pavilion, along with three interactive films featuring clips from Kéré’s childhood and the construction of his most recent project, the Schorge Secondary School.
The dynamic Colorscape serves as the centerpiece of the display; inspired by Philadelphia’s long tradition of textile-work and weaving, it serves as an example of how using a simple material in an innovative way can captivate and unite a community. The installation uses a locally-sourced lightweight cord to wrap around prefabricated steel geometries, resulting in a gentle draped effect.
When placed in close proximity within the museum’s Perelman atrium space, the colors begin to blur and vibrate as you move around them. Extending from Kéré’s community-driven design philosophy, Colorscape’s simple construction required no tools or skilled techniques, allowing local children to participate in its assembly.
Conceptually, the installation takes inspiration from the contrasting city plan geometries of the African village and the American city. Overlaying the organic plan of Gando with the rigid grid of Philadelphia, Kéré shows that despite the two cities’ obvious differences, underneath you can find many similarities in how the societies use architecture to provide a gradient of social spaces ranging from the individual and private to the collective and public.
Part of the Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art’s Creative Africa series, which highlights the themes of cultural and community found in historic and contemporary African art and architecture, The Architecture of Francis Kéré: Building with Community will be on display until September 25th.
Production / Project Management: Jack Schlecter, Jamie Montgomery, James Bassett-Cann (PMA)
Curators: Kathryn B. Hiesinger, Colin Fanning (PMA)
Audio/Video: Stephen Keever (PMA)
Collaborators: University of Pennsylvania Undergraduate Architecture students (sounds)
Fabricators: Philadelphia Museum of Art (cord assembly and structure), Moorland Studios (metal fabrication)
Volunteers: PMA staff and volunteers, Young Friends of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Executive Board and event committee, and Museum visitors
Supplier: Gladding Braid
Sponsors: The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Arlin and Neysa Adams Endowment Fund, The Kathleen C. And John J. F. Sherrerd Fund for Exhibitions, Osagie and Losengelmosogie
From the architect. Royal House Recording represents a new approach to inspiring the creativity of today’s recording artists. It functions as a small campus with an array of amenities and private courtyards that help artists break from the generic confines of a typical studio. This adaptive re-use project is situated along Delemere Avenue in Royal Oak’s primary industrial corridor, providing the privacy and flexibility required for its users. Built from the remains of an old manufacturing warehouse, Royal House Recording intends to help bring back the status of Greater Detroit’s legendary past in the music industry.
This fully equipped studio accommodates every need of its artists for intense recording sessions. It is supplemented with a kitchen, lounge, exercise room, basketball court and outdoor patio. These amenities allow the artists to work with an uninterrupted creative flow. The campus is entirely enclosed with a perimeter wall creating a private environment for the high profile artists.
The building’s exteriors take cues from the original industrial aesthetic yet is accented by a glass entry, custom steel doors, and a large glass and steel bi-folding hanger door. Free-standing red cedar screen walls provide warmth and contrast while lush trees and shrubs soften the courtyard landscapes. A pierced brick privacy wall serves to shield the entrance of the secondary office and storage building from the street and creates yet another private courtyard.
The interior of the project carefully blends industrial elements with custom stained cedar walls and a theatrical “Hollywood glam” selection of finishes. Much of the interior was built as separate structures within the original warehouse as the existing building had a limited structural capacity. These new structural frames and beams were left exposed to identify with the original architectural character. Luxurious finishes and nuanced details coexist harmoniously with concrete block and raw steel to create an environment that stimulates the senses and encourages creativity. With construction starting in May of 2014 and finishing in August of 2015, Royal House Recording has been fully booked ever since with a lot of talent entering its doors. Their success continues to grow more and more and has seen a lot of support from the music community of Greater Detroit.
Sig Nordal 