The Great Wall of WA / Luigi Rosselli. Image © Edward Birch

This article is part of our new “Material Focus” series, which asks architects to elaborate on the thought process behind their material choices and sheds light on the steps required to get buildings actually built.

The Great Wall of WA, designed by the Australian firm Luigi Rosselli Architects, and selected as one of Archdaily’s Best Building of the Year 2016, provides a unique example of rammed earth construction. At 230 meters in length, the Great Wall of WA is the longest structure of its kind in Australia and possibly the South Hemisphere, according to its architects. Built in remote North Western Australia, the building is made from locally available materials whose thermal properties help it to endure a variable climate. We spoke with the architect Luigi Rosselli to learn more about his compelling choice of material and the determining role it played in his concept design.

The Great Wall of WA / Luigi Rosselli. Image © Edward Birch

What were the principal materials used in the project?

Rammed earth mainly, with some Cor-Ten steel and concrete.

The Great Wall of WA / Luigi Rosselli. Image © Edward Birch

In terms of materials, what were your biggest sources of inspiration and influence when selecting what the project would ultimately be made of?

The landscape featured in North Western Australia, with its iron ore rich soil, sand dunes and harsh environmental and climatic constraints, served as a great foil for the imagination when developing this project. The remote and isolated location of the site also required a practical solution of sourcing materials locally. The rammed earth wall construction is composed of iron rich, sandy clay that is a dominant feature of the site, and pebbles and gravel were quarried from the nearby river bed and bonded with water from the local bore hole. The concrete slab contains gravel and aggregates from the local river, which lend a reddish color to its polished surface. In this hot and harsh climate using rammed earth made perfect sense, as the clay component of the wall has hygroscopic characteristics, and airflow along the wall draws moisture from it through evaporation. This evaporative cooling reduces the temperature of the wall in the same way sweat cools the body.

The Great Wall of WA / Luigi Rosselli. Image © Edward Birch

Describe how material decisions factored into concept design.

The 230-meter long rammed earth wall meanders along the edge of a sand dune, like a natural cut in the topography, reflecting the environment it inhabits. The wall is stepped to organically follow the natural curve of the landscape, while at the same time providing a level of privacy to each of the enclosed twelve residences buried into the sand dune. The use of the rammed earth, as well as the underground nature of the buildings, was chosen to maintain the residences’ cool and constant temperature. Designed according to these thermal mass principles, the accommodations represent a new approach to remote North Western Australia architecture: it moves away from the sun baked, thin corrugated metal shelters, and cools architectural earth formations naturally.

The Great Wall of WA / Luigi Rosselli. Image © Edward Birch

What were the advantages that this material offered in the construction of the project?

With the 450 millimeter thick rammed earth facade, and the sand dune to the rear and forming the roofs, the residences have the best thermal mass available, which makes them naturally cool in the subtropical climate. Rammed earth is a quarried mix of clay, sand, gravel and does not need any processing or energy intensive production like bricks and cement. Since the material was sourced in close proximity to the site, the material has relatively little embodied energy content. The awning roof is a Cor-Ten steel cyclonic shade frame, mirrored by a concrete slab on the ground. The deep awning roof is designed to keep the sun out during the hottest part of the day and invite the inhabitant to go outside and enjoy the cool evening breeze.

The Great Wall of WA / Luigi Rosselli. Image © Edward Birch

Were there any challenges you faced because of your material selection?

The energy efficiency provisions in the current Building Code of Australia are based uniquely on the thermal conductivity of a material. Thermal mass and hygroscopic characteristics are not factored. We had to employ Floyd Energy consultants to use a more sophisticated evaluation and simulation program that confirmed the superiority of a high thermal mass rammed earth construction.

The Great Wall of WA / Luigi Rosselli. Image © Edward Birch

Did you consider any other possible materials for the project, and if so how would that have changed the design?

Not really. In this part of the world we needed thermal mass, so any other alternative would be involving either brick or concrete, both of which would have to be imported. In the case of rammed earth, 90% was sourced locally.

The Great Wall of WA / Luigi Rosselli. Image © Edward Birch

How did you research and select providers or contractors for the materials used in your project?

We had already worked with rammed earth constructions in Sydney, so the knowledge has been evolved in house for some time with projects like Kirribilli House. Our providers and contractors were sourced locally from WA: the builder was Jaxon Construction, the rammed earth contractor was Murchison Stabilised Earth Pty Ltd, the structural consultant was Pritchard Francis, and the environmental consultant was Floyd Energy.

http://ift.tt/2908eAL

© Onnis Luque

• Architects: MATERIA
• Location: Mexico City, Mexico City, Mexico
• Architects In Charge: Gustavo Carmona, Lisa Beltrán
• Area: 590.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Onnis Luque

• Design Team: Karla Uribe, Hugo Blancas

© Onnis Luque

From the architect. Casa U is located in the suburbs of Mexico City in a very steep and hilly site overlooking the Valley of Mexico. The pronounced slope generated a sitting that emphasizes the intimate relationship between the spaces of the house with the site´s topography.

© Onnis Luque

The parti questioned the typical sequence of a house, having its access in its roof to then descend into the private and social spaces of the house. A large number of trees served for tracing, framing the house and giving it more privacy.

© Onnis Luque

The exterior facade is sober and simple, hiding the house beyond and making evident the relationship between slope and horizon. After an entry portal, a bridge extends the transition from the street and becomes an observatory. By stepping away from the slope, the house reduces its footing and frees up the most of green surface.

© Onnis Luque

The stair becomes the core of the project, acting as the material axis and a threshold of light. It distributes to all levels and spaces making use of landings with framed views, bringing the landscape into the interior at different scales. The steps are strategically longer in some sections to slow down the person and allow for amore conscious act of transitioning between levels. 

Section

The top level holds the garage and access vestibule, being the next level down occupied by two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a master bedroom with private bathroom, a terrace and a studio, followed by the living room, dining and kitchen floor, and lastly a semi-buried level with a playroom and access to the lower garden.

© Onnis Luque

The materiality responds to the function of the spaces. The highest volumes containing the bedrooms reach the clarity of the sky. The social level, the one with access to the gardens is expressed with a heavier nature using black stone rhythmically divided by small ridges that provide a continuous play of light and shadow mimicking the volcanic local stone. This two make the volume look embedded into the soil. Finally, an in between concrete is used for all of the volumes that contain service spaces.

© Onnis Luque

http://ift.tt/29c3vBC

© Victor Delaqua

Edward James, one of the most eccentric and interesting twentieth-century collectors of surrealist art, arrived in Xilitla, Mexico at the end of the 1940’s. The British writer was captivated by the splendor of the landscape of “Las Pozas” (The Wells), where he created a fantastic home, which includes a unique sculptural space unlike any other in the world.

Surrealism, whose sources of creation are found in dreams and the subconscious, in theory, could never be used to build things in real life. Edward James – described by Salvador Dalí as “crazier than all the Surrealists together” – designed a sculpture garden that defies any architectural label and allows a glimpse of something new, moving between fantasy and reality.

Columns with capitals that look like giant flowers, gothic arches, dramatic gates, pavilions with undetermined levels and spiral staircases that end abruptly in mid-air, as if they were an invitation to the horizon. In short, Edward James made concrete flourish along the lush flora and fauna of Xilitla, making surrealist architecture possible.

Learn more below.

© Julia Faveri

The Sculpture Garden

“Las Pozas” (The Wells) is a collection of concrete architectural structures and fantastic routes that make up a sculpture garden. A river with waterfalls runs through the garden and it is surrounded by jungle in a vast terrain. Its design was conceived by Edward James and Plutarco Gastélum in Xilitla, Mexico.

© Herbert Loureiro

As the story goes, when they were exploring the Huasteca Potosina, a cloud of butterflies surrounded James and Gastélum while they were bathing in the river. The British writer interpreted this event as a magical sign. So, between 1947 and 1949, he began the construction of his version of the “Garden of Eden”.

© Victor Delaqua

During the first few decades, James focused his attention on horticulture. However, in 1962 a blizzard destroyed his collection of orchids. He then decided to build a perpetual garden and began to build concrete structures that resembled floral elements.

© Julia Faveri

Since then, the sculpture garden has been converted into a source of creation and work for the locals. The entire construction of Las Pozas took about 150 people, including carpenters, bricklayers, and gardeners.

© Julia Faveri

In 1984 Edward James died during a trip to northern Italy and in 1991 the doors of “Las Pozas” were opened to tourists.

© Victor Delaqua

“Las Pozas” and Its Lessons for Architects

Over the years, the sculptures gradually merged into a kind of random city, with harmony created by its structures and dialogue with its natural surroundings. Along its paths are hands and heads made of concrete, stone snakes, a bathtub in the shape of an eye – where James used to bathe in the pupil, surrounded by carp in “the white of the eye” – all with a tone of ruins, of something unfinished, taken by the jungle adding some mystery.

© Julia Faveri

Walking through the Sculpture Garden is like exploring an undiscovered city. It’s almost as if its labyrinth paths fuel the desire to discover different corners and details. Upon entering, the architectural sculptures appear at different levels and views; it’s the place where you go to see and be seen.

© Victor Delaqua

In “Las Pozas” the viewer creates a new type of contact with the constructed work, the landscape, and all the other visitors. In a fantastic space like this, everyone seems to feel the same ambiance and all their thoughts stay within this environment. They are no longer bystanders concerned about day-to-day problems, everyone starts to live in the moment and reflect on each step taken. 

© Victor Delaqua

In the first manifesto of the surrealist movement, André Breton defined it as: “… a dictated thought with the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt of any aesthetic or moral concern.” This idea is present in the architecture and in all creation behind “Las Pozas,” its buildings are built contrary to what we have learned in architecture school — they don’t offer a learning experience, but rather propose a discovery experience.

Clearly, these fantastic works could not be replicated in our ordinary cities, but they certainly present a new way of looking at the reality of architecture we produce every day. It is through new perspectives that we can imagine new ways of living.

© Herbert Loureiro

For more information about “Las Pozas”, click here.

http://ift.tt/293GGO9

Courtesy of Galerie Patrick Seguin

In 2015, Galerie Patrick Seguin disassembled and restored Jean Prouvé’s “Maxéville Design Office,” a 10×12 meter demountable house, which until that point had only been assembled once since its conception in 1948. The building withstood a colorful history in an industrial site, and presents a rare early example of successful prefabrication. The concept — and specifically, Prouvé’s work — has gained popularity again in recent years, and Galerie Patrick Seguin presented the historic office to the public again as part of Design Miami/ Basel 2016.

Courtesy of Galerie Patrick Seguin

The building was originally designed in response to The Ministry of Reconstruction’s New House Competition in 1947, which sought innovative prefabricated houses for the post-war market. Created as the prototype, the design never reached mass fabrication, and the structure was relocated to the Maxéville site. The building’s axial frame allows quick and crude assembly by as little as three people. Inside, the building presents an open, fluid space, which holds possibilities of alteration and addition through a series of interchangeable partitions and standardized facing panels. 

Courtesy of Galerie Patrick Seguin

Once surrounded by highly active industrial buildings, the Design Office eventually became the last standing structure on the Maxéville site. Its position, opposite the now demolished office of Prouvé, allowed the designer to oversee the assembly of prototypes before their production. Later, the original facade was hidden beneath cladding, and the structure played host to a restaurant, a plumber’s office, and in its twilight years, a swinger’s club called Le Bounty.

Courtesy of Galerie Patrick Seguin

It was from this original site that Galerie Patrick Seguin disassembled and removed the Design Office in 2015, adding the building to its world-leading collection of Prouvé’s demountable houses. The DesignMiami/Basel and Art Basel Miami have become steady platforms for the Galerie’s showcases, as they displayed another of Prouvre’s Demountable Houses in 2015, and a presented a live assembly in 2014. Along with their physical collection, Galerie Patrick Seguin also publish a line of monographic books to accompany each exhibition. 

News via Galerie Patrick Seguin

http://ift.tt/2929ZOw

© David Frutos

• Architects: Isaac Peral Codina
• Location: 03669 La Romana, Alicante, Spain
• Technical Architect: Pascual Moya Orozco
• Collaborators: Yago Sancho Maestre, Luis Carreira Antón
• Area: 2100.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2012
• Photographs: David Frutos

• Developer: Magdalena Davó Beltrá
• Builder: Jose Miguel Carmona Paíno S.L.

© David Frutos

Experience
The local field contains oxides that stain the red landscape. The building has been built with local stone, such as Marble Rojo Alicante, blending in well with the surroundings. The block, marble and scarlet, welcomes you inside, austere but comfortable, and offers a sensorial experience of water and light.

© David Frutos

The soft light from inside only broke with the light entering through the many cracks in the coating carved marble. There is an attractive interior space, which only communicates with the outside through strategically located grooves that discovers you the landscape.

© David Frutos

The concrete ceiling, finished with the texture of the wooden forms, reflects the water sparkle, opens through skylights. In this way the lighting is overhead, which when mixed with water vapor surrounds you in a nice weightless environment.

© David Frutos

Plan

© David Frutos

Living the Spa Sunsets is a vibrant experience. The light is transformed from a natural light cascading down the skylights with orange warm colors. Entering through the cracks in hundreds of lighting lines that reinforce the red light of the stone, until you can feel gradually the artificial lighting designed to introduce a fun and relaxing environment. The Sunrise reverses the process.

© David Frutos

Materials
All used construction materials are natural (stone, iron and wood), and they are typical for the area, reinterpreting a vernacular architecture and a lyrical form, where predominates the light treatment to  perceive the space. This makes a very modern architecture, fed by the building tradition of the area.

© David Frutos

Innovation
In addition to its innovative design of the facilities, unlike any other Spa, in its facilities there is a saving energy system that uses the bioclimatic techniques which have made the building a sustainable and economical installation.

© David Frutos

All lighting system in the SPA is natural.  Artificial lighting is necessary only during the night. Inside we use the perimeter skylights. The natural lighting in all spaces is solved by the glass wall facade, whose light will filter through the lattice. The lattice prevents the sunlight to enter straight into de interior space, then, in warm months, cooling is not required. The spaces have cross ventilation to provide dehumidification and hydrothermal comfort.

© David Frutos

The energy from the solar panels heats the water in the pool and in the indoor spa. The marble stone is an excellent receptive material that keeps the space warm in winter for many hours, even overnight.
All materials used are local, minimizing transportation costs and manufacturing. Therefore the ecological impact of the building is very small.

© David Frutos

http://ift.tt/294r4c6

© F.L.C. / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2016

Voyage Le Corbusier, by Jacob Brillhart, collects for the first time a compendium of sketchbook drawings and watercolors of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret—a young student who would go onto become the singularly influential modernist architect, Le Corbusier. Between 1907 and 1911, he traveled throughout Europe and the Mediterranean carrying an array of drawing supplies and documenting all that he saw: classical ruins, details of interiors, vibrant landscapes, and the people and objects that populated them. 

Le Corbusier was a deeply radical progressive architect, a futurist who was equally and fundamentally rooted in history and tradition. He was intensely curious, constantly traveling, drawing, painting, and writing, all in the pursuit of becoming a better designer. As a result, he found intellectual ways to connect his historical foundations with what he learned from his contemporaries. He grew from drawing nature to copying fourteenth-century Italian painting to leading the Purist movement that greatly influenced French painting and architecture in the early 1920s. All the while, he was making connections between nature, art, culture, and architecture that eventually gave him a foundation for thinking about design. 

© F.L.C. / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2016

To learn from Le Corbusier’s creative search and to see how he evolved as an architect, one must understand where he started. He never attended a university or enrolled formally in an architecture school. His architectural training was mostly self-imposed and was heavily influenced by the teachings of his secondary-school tutor Charles L’Eplattenier, who taught him the fundamentals of drawing and the decorative arts at the Ecole d’art in his hometown of La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland. Upon Jeanneret’s graduation from secondary school in 1907, L’Eplattenier encouraged him to leave behind the rural landscapes and broaden his world view by making a formal drawing tour through northern Italy. This pedagogy of learning to draw and learning through experience was likely influenced by the long tradition of the Grand Tour, a rite of passage for European aristocrats. Travel was considered necessary to expand one’s mind and understanding of the world. Architects, writers, and painters seized upon the idea, taking a standard itinerary across Europe to view monuments, antiquities, paintings, picturesque landscapes, and ancient cities.

© F.L.C. / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2016

The experience ignited in Jeanneret an enormous desire to see and understand other cultures and places through the architecture and urban space that shaped them. In Italy, he expressed his first real interest in the built environment, primarily studying architectural details and building components. Shortly after his return, he set off again, for Vienna, Paris, and Germany, becoming increasingly interested in cityscapes and urban design. Periodically he returned home to recharge and reconnect with L’Eplattenier. 

During his travels, the sketchbook emerged as Jeanneret’s premier tool for recording and learning, and drawing became for him an essential and necessary medium of architectural training. Between 1902 and 1911 he produced hundreds of drawings, exploring a wide range of subject matter as well as means and methods of recording. With each trip he gained a broader view. As his interests shifted and expanded, so did his process of documenting what he saw. To his repertoire of perspective drawings of landscapes, beautifully detailed in watercolor, he added analytical sketches that captured the core of spatial forms and became a means of shorthand visual note taking. All the while, he frequently returned to old and familiar subjects to study them through different lenses in order to “see.” 

© F.L.C. / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2016

Giuliano Gresleri, architectural historian and author of Les Voyages d’Allemagne: Carnets and Voyage d’Orient: Carnets (which include reproductions of Jeanneret’s notebooks during his travels to Germany and the East), said, “What distinguished Jeanneret’s journey from those of his contemporaries at the Ecole and from the tradition of the Grand Tour was precisely his awareness of ‘being able to begin again.’ Time and again, this notion stands out in the pages of his notebooks. The notes, the sketches, and the measurements were never ends in themselves, nor were they a part of the culture of the journey. They ceased being a diary and became design.” 

In 1911 Jeanneret completed the capstone of his informal education, a second drawing tour that Corbusier eventually coined his “Journey to the East” (actually the title of a book of essays and letters that he wrote during his travels there, published in 1966). By this time, he was interested in understanding more than just the monuments: he looked at the architecture and everyday culture. He had mastered the art of drawing through the daily practice of observing and recording what he saw. Through this rigorous exercise of learning to see, he had developed a vast tool kit of subject matter, means of authorship, drawing conventions (artistic and architectural), and media. More important, through drawing he came to understand the persistencies in architecture—color, form, light, shadow, structure, composition, mass, surface, context, proportion, and materials. As he reached Greece (halfway through his Journey to the East), Jeanneret not only proclaimed that he would become an architect but was working toward a theoretical position about design around which he could live and work.

© F.L.C. / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2016

L’Eplattenier was not the only influence on Le Corbusier’s views of architectural theory and culture. In Paris he worked for the French architect Auguste Perret, who taught him to appreciate proportion, geometry, scale, harmony, and the classical language of architecture. In Germany, he met William Ritter, who would become another of Jeanneret’s mentors and closest confidants. A music and art critic, intellectual, writer, and painter, Ritter exposed Jeanneret to new ideas in the art and architecture worlds. Indirectly Ritter led him to architect Peter Behrens (for whom he would work for several months in Germany), encouraged Jeanneret to experience the beauty of peasant life while traveling abroad, and inspired him to write. Jeanneret and Ritter corresponded through many letters, and Ritter constantly challenged Jeanneret to look beyond the comforts of La Chaux-de-Fonds and the more conservative views of L’Eplattenier.  

© F.L.C. / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2016

While traveling to Germany, Jeanneret also discovered buildings by Theodor Fischer, a Munich-based architect and professor of urban planning. Jeanneret greatly admired his work and was also impressed by Fischer’s aristocratic lifestyle. Though Fischer could not hire Jeanneret, he exposed him further to urban planning and reinforced the importance of geometric proportion in architectural design. In Germany Jeanneret also made friends with fellow painter August Klipstein. Thanks to their friendship, Jeanneret ultimately decided not to stay and work in Germany, but rather joined Klipstein as he traveled East. Their lively discussions on the road further allowed Jeanneret to flesh out his developing architectural ideals. 

© F.L.C. / ADAGP, Paris / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 2016

In the end, however, travel drawing was Jeanneret’s education and his rite of passage. Embodied in his sketchbooks is an incredibly comprehensive means of visual exploration and discovery. Though he never had a formal architectural education, his intense curiosity to understand the world through drawing and painting and writing is what made him such a dynamic architect, one from whom we can still learn today. The lessons he learned formed the basis of his general outlook and provided content for his later seminal text, Vers une Architecture. They also prepared him to become Le Corbusier.

This excerpt from Voyage Le Corbusier: Drawing on the Road by Jacob Brillhart, © 2016 by Jacob Brillhart, has been presented with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

An extract of this new book, which “is at once a critical introduction to Jeanneret’s budding practice and a richly detailed visual travelogue,” is presented here with a selection of 

http://ift.tt/294gExa

© Andre Morin

• Architects: Dominique Perrault Architecte
• Location: Palace of Versailles, Place d’Armes, 78000 Versailles, France
• Area: 32300.0 ft2
• Photographs: Andre Morin, Courtesy of Dominique ADAGP, Christian Milet, Model, Patrick Tourneboeuf

• Artistic Direction, Chandeliers And Furniture Design: Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost Design
• Civil Engineering: Khephren Ingénierie S.A.
• Mep: INEX SAS Ingénierie
• Acoustics And Lighting: Jean-Paul Lamoureux
• Security / Ada: AADT / Folacci
• Ergonmist: Thomas Vallette FCBA
• Economist: RPO

© Andre Morin

The re-development of the pavilion dufour and the old Wing creates two new public spaces in the château de versailles. the old administrative offices have now made way for a new reception area between the cour royale (royal courtyard) and the cour des princes (princes’ courtyard), as well as a large staircase leading to the gardens. visitors to the palace are invited to follow a loop, just like in most of the world’s greatest museums.

© Andre Morin

The feeling of “narrowness” has now disappeared: by digging a trench under the buildings and the cour des princes, the redevelopment opens up new spaces on the ground level and creates larger volumes on the garden level.

Section

The new reception area, entirely dedicated to enhancing visitor experience, starts in the Galerie des lustres (chandeliers Gallery) on the ground floor of the old Wing. this high-ceilinged space, which opens on to the cour royale and the cour des princes, is the first room visitors see as they make their way into the palace. the versailles they discover – draped in metal, elegant and modern – echoes the stone and woodwork of the historic buildings.

© Christian Milet

The gallery allows immediate access to the cour royale, where the visit begins. before they exit, visitors follow a lower path on the garden level, underneath the cour des princes, which takes them to a string of new rooms including a bookstore in refurbished tanks, restrooms, a checkroom and a cloakroom.

© Christian Milet

The main attraction on this level is the natural light brought into the new space by a gold-colored glass corridor. acting like a large prism, the glass panels reveal the facades of the old Wing and the wide marble staircase which connects the inside to the outside, and the château to its gardens.

Section

The loop begins and ends with the reception area and the marble staircase alongside its golden prism: The two new spaces are thus connected like the clasp on a necklace.

© Patrick Tourneboeuf

the pavilion dufour and the old Wing are revived on their upper levels as well as their foundations. on the se- cond floor, a new restaurant and adjoining tea rooms in gold and listed wood paneling, now welcome visitors. finally, the third floor now hosts a new auditorium, covered in wood sheathing like an upside-down boat hull and surrounded with period rooms on either side.

© Model

This redevelopment evidences the intrinsic qualities of classical architecture: under the guise of stillness and sym- metry, everything remains the same and yet everything changes. historical heritage is entirely preserved, while allowing for new contemporary usages that remain to be invented. the pavilion dufour and the old Wing of the palace are part of a whole, and yet they also exist as an independent area, separate from the rest of the château. by working “under the skin” of the buildings, the redevelopment offers a functional, sustainable and efficient solution while preserving the larger layout of the palace and the outline of its wings.

© Andre Morin

Throughout each era in its long history, the château de versailles has acted as a showcase for modern talents. With the pavilion dufour, the old Wing and the perrault staircase, the château remains faithful to its heritage.

Courtesy of Dominique ADAGP

http://ift.tt/296MgzK

© Quang Dam

• Architects: AD+studio
• Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh 70000, Vietnam
• Design Team: ÂuÝNhiên, Nguyễn Hữu Thể Trang, NguyễnThịThuNgọc, NguyễnNgọcDiệuKhuê, VõĐìnhHuỳnh, VõTrườngGiang
• Area: 300.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Quang Dam

• Contruction: ĐinhĐứcAnhVũ
• Model: Võ Trường Giang
• Visualization: Nguyễn Hữu Hiếu, Nguyễn Ngọc Hoài Phương

© Quang Dam

From the architect. The building site can be reached from 2 different directions: one from a 3 meter-wide lane that can only be used by motorbikes and another is from a 5 meter-wide lane. The site is landlocked by many closely placed buildings: the front of the 5m lane has the 4 storeys (15 meters high) townhouses and the back of this site adjacent with 7.5 meters high 2 storeys house. As a result, it forms the site with a distinctive zigzag shape, with “the Knots” effect in the middle.

© Quang Dam

The design solution is to divide the house into 3 blocks with different height levels to accommodate different building functions. These blocks are then connected by courtyard acting as transition space; bringing lights and natural ventilation throughout the site. The courtyard space is the design solution to “the Knots” part of the site and performed as flexible space to provide light, shade, air, privacy, and shelter.

Sketch

There are corridors stretches across 3 blocks at different levels which not only allow better circulation throughout building but also capturing lights reflected through changing shade of the materials during the different times of day.

© Quang Dam

The folded-roof system wrapped all space blocks together to define as one unity. The “angular geometry” roof system designed with different changing height levels corresponds to roof-scape and blends itself with the surrounding buildings. When it is seen from 5meter wide road, the unequal height of the house in comparison with other houses on the wider lane can be seen as the main viewpoint in the context.The louver system extends from roof to building facades in combination of folded roof pattern create an aesthetic connection of both external and interior spaces; also performs as comfortable shading system all year around.

© Quang Dam

http://ift.tt/292BJ8c

© John Gollings

• Architects: Denton Corker Marshall
• Location: Jl. Patra Kuningan X No.1, Kuningan Tim., Kecamatan Setiabudi, Kota Jakarta Selatan, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta, Indonesia
• Client: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Contractor: Leighton Total Joint Operations (Joint Venture)
• Area: 46400.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: John Gollings

• Engineer: Aurecon
• Internal And External Signage: Emery Studio
• Building Surveyor: PLP Building Surveyors
• Foodservice: Foodservice Consultants Australi
• Quantity Surveyor : WT Partnership
• Dda Consultant: Before Compliance
• Landscape Architect: Denton Corker Marshall
• Site Area: 40500 sqm

© John Gollings

From the architect. Architecture
The architectural design of the new Australian Embassy compound in Jakarta offers a multiplicity of expressions, drawing together into a unified and cohesive whole, to represent the cultural diversity of Australia.
The complex comprises Chancery, Head of Mission (HOM) Residence, 32 staff accommodation units, and medical and recreational facilities. Each component has a distinct character consistent with its function.

© John Gollings

The Chancery is physically and conceptually the dominant building on the site and is based on the idea of a series of 12 cubic volumes or ‘billets’ rising out of the landscape. This immediately establishes an ‘unconventional’ presence which marks the Chancery as a special place. It evokes connotations of powerful Australian landform images such as Uluru and Kata Tjuta, without making direct reference in any way. Each of the billets is clad in a different metal – zinc, copper, brass, steel, aluminium – metals all mined in Australia thus, reflecting Australia’s natural resources and mineral wealth. Each metal surface is debossed, creating a subtle variation of panel type, to give further enrichment to the surface. The change in each block serves to give further complexity and variety to the simple and elegant forms. The form of the Chancery is uncomplicated, direct but at the same time powerful and memorable. It is unequivocal and confident. It doesn’t look superficially ‘Australia’ but relies on a more subtle reading of the Australian character.

© John Gollings

The HOM Residence sits in its own landscaped precinct and strikes a distinctively different note to that of the Chancery. Here, the aim is to evoke a much more personal and intimate character. The entry forecourt is defined by a flowering canopy of creepers conveying a sense of relaxed formality. The gesture is grand, the effect welcoming. A two storey building, the HOM Residence is composed of a series of interlocking blocks which articulate the facades with patterns of light and shade.

© John Gollings

The staff residences are stepped in and out to provide identity and articulation to the frontages; each home is clearly identifiable. The wide landscaped space between the rows is closed at either end by the Recreation Centre and the foliage screening beside the HOM Residence. This creates a fully enclosed, secure and private space for the exclusive use of the residents.

Plan

The outdoor recreational facilities are located to the south and west for ease of access and servicing. Earth berms and screen planting provide protection around the perimeter.
Housing the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and 13 other government departments and agencies, the new Australian Embassy in Jakarta successfully addresses the key considerations of national expression, security and operational functionality, in a scheme that is bold yet elegant, innovative yet practical and expressive yet dignified.

© John Gollings

© John Gollings

Interior Architecture
The Embassy’s interior spaces were designed to complement the exterior form of the buildings and to convey a sense of Australia while also responding to the Indonesian setting.
Extensive use of white walls and pale floor and ceiling finishes, help to maximize the limited amount of daylight available through the relatively small windows required for security.

© John Gollings

© John Gollings

The bright and airy spaces are punctuated with Australian timbers which provide focal points for key areas. Tasmanian Oak timber panelling has been acoustically perforated with graphical images of the Bungle Bungle ranges in the Purnululu Theatre and the Twelve Apostles in the Staff Canteen. While these are both well-known and easily recognizable Australian icons, the intention is for them to read more as a graphical, rather than a direct representation.

© John Gollings

The Chancery Lobby and Head of Mission Reception areas also reflect a sense of Australia through the use of Eucalyptus Burl Veneer. The Veneer was created from a row of gum trees that had grown adjacent to and later around, a barbed wire fence on a Queensland property, causing the ‘Burl’ to form. This growth was removed from the trees and sliced to form the unique Veneer used for walls and custom made furniture.

© John Gollings

ESD Features
A significant number of ESD initiatives have been adopted to provide a compound with outstanding sustainability credentials, reducing the environmental footprint of the Embassy.

© John Gollings

These include:
A façade design which focuses on creating a large thermal mass, providing thermal insulation to the building. By utilizing the blast resistant façade and providing insulation, the effect of external loads on the building are minimized.

© John Gollings

Implementing a simple window heat sink method which means some of the incoming solar heat will be extracted from the building. The system then exhausts air from around the window area, reducing the solar impact and the effect of external loads.
Fitting venetian blinds to help disperse natural light and reduce the need for artificial lighting.
Using highly energy efficient luminaries where additional lighting is required.
Installing photovoltaic cells throughout the building’s roofs, to assist in daylight harvesting.

© John Gollings

Reducing energy use through solar hot water heating for domestic hot water.
Installing green roofs to assist with storm water retention and to increase the life of the roof membrane.
Collecting rainwater from the roofs and harvesting it for use in toilet flushing and make up water for swimming pools.

© John Gollings

Landscaping / Tree Relocation
Extensive landscaping was carried out during construction including the relocation of four mature Banyan Trees. The relocation is the biggest of its kind ever undertaken and has been recognised by the Indonesian Guinness Book of Records, receiving a Museum Rekor Indonesia (MURI) Award.

© John Gollings

Diagram

http://ift.tt/293B6Ow

Courtesy of ArchUnion

• Architects: ArchUnion
• Location: Jungong Road, Wuwei Creative industry Park, Yangpu District, Shanghai, China
• Architect In Charge: Philip F. Yuan
• Design Team: Chao Yan，Liu Zhuoqi, Kong Xiangping, Chen Xiaoming
• Area: 272.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Courtesy of ArchUnion

• Client/Owner: Tu Juan
• Consultants: structure：Sheng Junchao
• Site Dimension: 136㎡
• Landscape Area: 58㎡

Courtesy of ArchUnion

From the architect. The Ceramic house project is a retrospective attempt which tracing back to architectural fundamental authenticity. We wish to integrate the new house with the site by the truthful simplest design methodology, which makes the house in connection with the site as an authentic way of being, rather than making judgments only through aesthetic visual aspects.

Courtesy of ArchUnion

In the existing site, there are some old buildings and one big tree which as irreplaceable site features. Rather than remove and replace them with a brand-new object, or build a fake reality nostalgic context. We take the old as the inseparable elements along with the new building. Their existence represents the reemergence of site memory.

Courtesy of ArchUnion

The new building slightly attach on the old façade through the reasonable structure layout and circumspect construction detail design. Mottled worn walls and simply plain materials such as brick and wood, they naturally coexist and integrate with each other ideally. The old wall represents the signing of timing, which becomes the unduplicated characteristic feature of the site.

Section

Courtesy of ArchUnion

Section

The big tree becomes the shading for the south balcony which prevent directly sight explosion from the road, and provide the diversity light and shadow on the facade in different seasons. As a place for ceramic artists’ exhibition, communication and working, slightly rough texture material such as concrete and brick make a delightful contrast with refined ceramic art works. The humble authentic architecture itself becomes the background of the art works.

Courtesy of ArchUnion

http://ift.tt/294ki8t