The Thompson Exhibition Building was designed for Mystic Seaport, Museum of America and the Sea, as a keynote building for the 19-acre riverfront campus. The project’s mission was to transform the north end of the Seaport to greatly enhance the quality of exhibition space and to offer a more robust year-round experience for visitors.
The building is located where the Seaport’s previous indoor-oriented exhibit spaces were concentrated, and forms the new Donald C. McGraw Gallery Quadrangle. This sociable greensward, with a panoramic view of the Mystic River, provides an appealing venue for activities ranging from outdoor concerts to impromptu picnics.
Site Plan
In addition to a 5,000-square- foot exhibition gallery with a high ceiling for displaying boats, the building features visitor reception and events space, a retail shop, a café and outdoor terraces overlooking the Mystic River. Energy-efficient components and geothermal heating and cooling are also incorporated in the design.
The flexible exhibition space features soaring ceilings and demountable walls to accommodate objects of varying size and installations of all types, from watercraft to priceless works of fine art and gallery-based educational programs. A riverfront gathering room graces the west side of the building and can be reconfigured for conferences, additional gallery space, or educational programs, adding to the new building’s versatility.
The Thompson Exhibition Building incorporates a wraparound deck that allows visitors to enjoy the riverside setting and serve as a covered overlook to the Quadrangle green.
Section
Section
Overall, the building stands for what we came to regard as “the geometry of the sea” – the spiral shape of sea life, the kinetic movement of ocean swells, the crash of waves on the shore, the billow of sails, and the faring of wooden hulls. Wood was the ideal material for these purposes because it can economically enclose a large clear-span space while forming complex organic geometries.
The intention overall was a wooden structured volume that would suggest a hull’s interior architecture. To support a long porch along the north edge of a new quadrangle, wooden columns and struts give the effect of sailing vessels’ masts and spars. Railing cables and turnbuckles provide detail around the deck to conjure ship’s rigging.
For the building’s structure, curved glued-laminated wood ribs were utilized to imply a sailing ship’s top timbers, the curving members that delineate a hull’s shape. Wood purlins between the ribs bring to mind planking that forms the skin of a hull. Douglas Fir was specified for the glued-laminated structural members as it was the species New England ship builders preferred after the Civil War once the western forests had been opened up.
Axonometric
The building’s overall form was also designed to recall natural phenomena, too, like a wind-driven wave crashing onto the shore. On its interior, the curled the structural ribs at either end inward all the way down to the floor to suggest the spiraling vertebrae of marine creatures.
Today China inaugurated the world’s highest bridge, opening the new crossing to traffic after the structure was completed in September, reports China Central Television (CCTV). Crossing the Nizhu river canyon at 565 meters above water level the Beipanjiang bridge spans 1,341 meters to connect the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou in the Southwest of the country. The 4-lane bridge is part of a network of new highways around Yunnan and Guizhou that allow access across rugged terrain that was previously largely inaccessible.
A rendering of the bridge showing its height above the Nizhu river. Image Image <a href='http://ift.tt/2iidaHx highestbridges.com</a>
Costing around 1 billion yuan (US$144 million), construction of the bridge began in 2013, and had to be carefully designed to deal with the extreme wind conditions caused by the Beipanjiang Valley. “Where to place the bridge piers was a problem,” explained Liu Bo, deputy chief engineer of CCCC Highway Consultants, to CCTV. “The gorge here is over 500 meters deep, so how are we going to design the structure of the bridge to deal with the strong wind field problem?”
For this project we had the opportunity to work on an irregularly shaped, 1,708 square meter plot, with 21 trees, in an exclusive golf club development in the north of the city of Merida.
In common with our previous projects, the challenge -which also constitutes one of our firm beliefs- was to respect the existing trees, as they are tenants which have more right to continue living there than the new habitants.
The house is fragmented in order to respect all the trees on the property. A white volume contains all the house’s services and is supported by the stone walls that frame the entrance. A main entrance –an open, gardened space- has two trees and creates a hallway before you reach the house itself. The circulation continues when entering the public space that consists of the living room, dining room and kitchen, which is also shaded by two other trees.
The house has three volumes and two intermediate patios which contain the existing trees. The first volume combines the entrance and top-floor services; the second includes the double-height public areas; and the third boasts the main living area and open-air swimming pool on the ground floor, while the bedrooms and terrace are located on the top floor.
A huge cathedral with tall towers and a magnificent dome rises slowly in the municipality of Mejorada del Campo, 20 kilometers from Madrid. It seems like a common occurrence, but it is not. The building has been under construction for 50 years – brick by brick – by one man: Justo Gallego Martínez, farmer, ex-monk and a self-taught architect of 88 years of age.
Learn about his life’s work (literally) after the break.
Without any previous knowledge of architecture or any experience in the construction industry, Martínez has spent five decades collecting garbage and leftover building materials to build the 50 x 25-meter surface structure with a 60-meter high tower.
After working as a farmer and bullfighter, Martínez spent eight years in a Trappist monastery – the Cistercian convent in Santa María de Huerta – which he was forced to abandon when he was struck by tuberculosis in 1961. In honor of the Virgin Mary, he began the construction of a chapel that he describes as his great act of faith. The former monk says that if it wasn’t for his faith he would never have had the strength to try to build a cathedral.
Despite the skepticism of the inhabitants of the city, Don Justo – as the neighbors call him – has managed to progress the construction considerably without using even a crane, his only help was from some friendly workers. The process began without any kind of permission – because he was sure he would not get it – the plot of land is 4740 square meters inherited from his parents that today is worth more than one million euros.
The large columns of the structure are made from empty oil drums, while the lining of one of the domes is made of discarded food tubes. The arches are tires from trucks and buses, the rest of the building consists of woods and bricks collected from other demolished works. He has received gifts such as iron doors and glass cutouts to close the openings. Its design inspiration comes from St. Peter’s Basilica, with its huge central dome in sight, in addition to inspiration from European castles and churches.
Some years ago Martínez told the BBC: “When I see what I have created, I am overwhelmed and I thank the Lord. If I could live my life again, I would like to build this same cathedral but twice as big, because, to me, this is an act of faith.”
The church has never received permission to be build and although it may never be worshipable in it, the authorities have allowed it to go ahead as it has become a tourist attraction for the city. Recently, Martínez has received donations from German organizations and advertising sponsorship from the energy drink Aquarius, who paid him 40 thousand euros to tell his inspiring story, as well as organizing a campaign to raise funds through text messages.
The building has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Justo Gallego Martínez has been interviewed by the world’s largest television networks.
Technical Architects : María del Hierro, Luis García Cebadera
Sponsor : Ayuntamiento de San Martín de Valdeiglesias
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
La Coracera Castle, in San Martin de Valdeiglesias, was declared Historic Heritage Site by the Comunidad de Madrid. It was built in the mid-1400s by Don Alvaro de Luna, Constable of Castile and favorite of King John II. Today it is part private and part public property. In order to revitalize it, it was planned to transform it into a multiple use space, to hold exhibitions, lectures, chamber concerts and activities relevant to its potential use as a Museum of Wine of Madrid.
Site Plan
A basic project was developed with the aim to set the standards to follow in the future restoration, protecting its lands, the nearby surroundings and the areas that could spoil the views from the fortress. The final goal was to turn it into a prime touristic and cultural facility, beyond local and regional limits. A project of this scale, financed with public funds, required very distinctive phases.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
The keep is the outstanding volume of the castle, with a virtually square floor plan and three turrets on the east wall. The average width of the walls is more than 3 meters. Its height, from the ground to the upper terrace is around 20 meters.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
The previous state was the product of a renovation implemented 60 years ago. It had a ground floor transformed into a wine cellar, with an access through an entrance from the same period, before the first courtyard and on the south façade. This ground level had a solid brick barrel vault completely plastered.
Por razones defensivas, las entradas se fijaron en huecos elevados. El primero por el muro de poniente,
For defensive purposes, the entrances were in high positions. The first one was on the west wall and the access was through a removable ladder that could be withdrawn in times of danger. The second was on the northeast cube, at the first floor level, and it connected with the so-called “albarrana” tower through a drawbridge.
al que debía accederse mediante escalera desmontable, que permitiera su retirada en momentos de peligro. El segundo por el hueco situado en el cubo nordeste y nivel de planta primera, que mediante puente levadizo conecta con la llamada torre albarrana.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
The two noble floors are reached trough the stairs along the south flank. Halfway there is a small landing from which there is access to the “chemin de ronde” on one side and to the first floor on the other. On this level is what must have been the main hall, probably divided in several rooms. Following the stairs, through a flight of overhang steps of an uncertain date, we arrive to the upper room. This vaulted second floor, which combines medieval openings and more recent ones, had important water damages on the cracks along the curved surface. On this level there is a staircase inside the central turret that leads to the rooftop. The curved hall where it finished is one of the most atrocious interventions implemented in the 1940s, with poorly made mullioned windows along its perimeter, which had to be corrected with less picturesque proportions.
Sections
The solution for the former wine cellar is remarkable. Now it is a sample and wine tasting room with independent access from the outside. A metal structure, that reminds of the old metal wine racks still present in some homes, was designed a separate piece of furniture, set apart from the walls, to allow a full view of the vaulted room. The ceiling was used for a small lecture hall, with an entrance from the “plaza de armas”.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
The stone structure is not covered when its quality and authenticity deserve it. It was cleaned and repointed with a finish similar to that of the exterior walls. A similar criterion was applied to the brick arches and vaults which, against some theories, were never un-plastered and even it they were, its state of superficial deterioration did not allow its recovery.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
Las fábricas pétreas, se dejan vistas, siempre que su calidad y autenticidad lo aconsejen, limpias y rejuntadas con acabado similar al de los paños exteriores. Los arcos y abovedados de ladrillo pasan por un criterio similar, definiendo un revoco para las dos bóvedas de cañón, que en contra de algunas teorías, debe decirse que nunca estuvieron vistas, y aunque así hubiese sido, su estado de deterioro superficial no permite la recuperación.
Los huecos exteriores se cerraron con perfilería de acero inoxidable, tratada al chorro de arena, siempre practicables y con sección de mínimo impacto que permita la completa percepción del hueco medieval. Las dos salas principales quedan directamente conectadas por escalera de caracol metálica con tablero continúo de madera curvada en barandilla. A todo esto se accede por una nueva escalera exterior de peldañeado metálico, envuelta en dos planos paralelos de chapón de acero corten.
Courtesy of Riaño+ arquitectos
The exterior openings were closed with stainless steel profile, sandblasted, always accessible and with a minimum impact section to allow the full perception of the medieval opening. The two main halls are directly connected by a spiral staircase with a solid curved wood frame as a banister. The access to this whole area is through a new exterior staircase with metal steps, wrapped in two parallel COR-TEN steel plates.
MINIMOD CATUÇABA is a primitive retreat with a contemporary reinterpretation, which more than an object aims to become an every-remote-landscape experience.
MINIMOD presents an alternative to traditional construction: based on prefab plug&play logics, it incorporates the benefits that a newly-born industry has to offer. Quiet but not shy, its unique-in-Brazil CLT Wood-Technology combines industrialized products`efficiency and new technologies` sustainability with the sensitivity of the natural material par excellence.
MINIMOD exploration started in 2009 and still goes on. It`s very first prototype was constructed in Porto Alegre and installed near a lake in the southern wild landscapes. Happily, since then, quite a lot of new places have been explored. Both projects here presented belong to a new MINIMOD generation which inquires the idyllic Fazenda Catuçaba.
Isometric
This old Fazenda is located in the east of São Paulo Estate surrounded by a chain of coastal mountains. With undulating landscapes and dense vegetation, its captivating views invites to be explored.
Catuçaba`s MINIMODs move away from the old central house and seek the perfect terrain for being introduced. On top of a hill, on the edge of a small pond, near a stream or on the bottom of a valley; each adapts to its new landscapes to empower them.
Both MINIMOD Catuçaba have been built in a factory in an industrial town near São Paulo metropolis. They were transported separated by modules for over 150km, before being installed on site with the help of crane trucks.
Geographically, this two MINIMOD Catuçaba first units are located in different places 1.000m away from each other. So they adopt different spatial configurations as a response for each situation.
The first one, is located in a strategic position on top of a hill, taking a cross disposition on plan. Thus, each space of the shelter looks at a different cardinal point permitting a circular experience of the surrounding nature: dawn, day, sunset and night.
The second one, it`s placed turning their backs to the road and opening itself to a small pond in the south of the fazenda, the retreat is hidden among the vegetation of the place. Using the same amount of modules that the cross, but organized in a linear way, it stays parallel to the hill slope which integrates through an expansion deck.
Rafael Araujo is a Venezuelan architect and illustrator who at the age of fifteen began to observe intelligent patterns in nature, giving rise to his interest in the golden ratio located in our natural environment.
More than 40 years later, the results of this hobby is a collection of beautiful illustrations of nature made entirely by hand, equipped with a pencil, a compass, a ruler and a protractor.
The artist’s illustrations give his ability to represent the mathematical brilliance of the natural world, inciting the reunion of humans with nature.
Illustrations that seem to come from a technological team, are made entirely by hand, mixing mathematical perfection with the artistic performance of Araujo. Most of us observe a simple butterfly flutter, the artist visualizes a complex mathematical framework that regulates movements subtle flight.
Courtesy of Rafael Araujo
Through the application of growth patterns governed by golden ratio’s geometric formulas, the secrets of carefully detailed designs of natural spirals, sequences and proportions unfolds.
Courtesy of Rafael Araujo
Butterflies, sea shells, leaves, and snails, frame the lines of construction that stand out from this mathematical picture.
Through this meticulous work, which can take up to 100 hours to complete a single composition, we are able to observe the application of golden ratio that traces the pi number throughout our environment, repetitively, over and over again, with designs which clearly gravitate around this mathematical framework.
Courtesy of Rafael Araujo
Rafael Araujo has presented at CNN World, Wired Magazine, WWF, and exhibited at Stanford University and many other prestigious galleries.
Following our favorite Architecture Documentaries to Watch in 2015, our top 40 Architecture Docs to Watch in 2014, and our favourite 30 Architecture Docs to Watch in 2013, we’re looking ahead to 2017! Our latest round up presents a collection of the most critically acclaimed, popular and often under-represented films and documentaries that provoke, intrigue, inform and beguile. From biopics of Eero Saarinen, Frei Otto and Laurie Baker, to presentations of Chinese “palaces” and the architecture of Africa, Cambodia and India, these are our top picks.
Links to watch or pay-to-stream the documentaries presented have been provided where available. In some cases the films have been embedded in this article.
Building Africa: Architecture of a Continent / BBC
60 minutes (2005) / Narrated by David Adjaye
This BBC film, which originally aired in 2005, is a journey from the “eerily beautiful” mud buildings of Mali to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s experiment in Modernism in the State of Eritrea. Narrated by British architect David Adjaye, the film poetically untangles the cultural and imperial influences which have shaped African architecture over centuries of vernacular, colonial and post-independence architecture. From Rwanda to Ghana and South Africa, Building Africa has increasing relevance even over a decade since it was first shown.
Courtesy of BBC
Life is a Blow [A vida é um sopro] / Fabiano Maciel
2010 / Brazilian (English Subtitles)
This is the story of the great late Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer – his architecture, his passion for the opposite sex, his political turmoil and struggles, and his extraordinary biography. Filmed for almost a decade—from 1998 to 2007—Life is a Blow features appearances from the likes of José Saramago (Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature), Ferreira Gullar (a Brazilian poet, playwright, essayist and art critic) and Chico Buarque (a Brazilian singer-songwriter).
The Human Scale / Andreas Dalsgaard
77 minutes (2012) / English/Danish
This film sets out to “question our assumptions about Modernity” by exploring what happens when architects, urbanists and designers put people into the center of their equations. The Danish architect Jan Gehl has systematically studied human behavior in cities for four decades. Using his methods, thoughts and conclusions as a starting point the film takes the viewer to Melbourne, Dhaka, New York, Chongqing and Christchurch – all of which are now being inspired by Gehl’s work and by the progressive developments in Copenhagen as a result of it.
The Man Next Door [El hombre de al lado] / Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat
110 minutes (2010) / Spanish (English Subtitles)
Leonardo, the protagonist of The Man Next Door, is noted as “a distinguished and important industrial designer” who lives with his wife Ana, his daughter Lola, and their maid Elba. The house they live in is the only villa that Le Corbusier built in the Americas – in La Plata, Argentina. One morning, the film outlines, the routine tranquility of Leonardo’s house is interrupted by the loud noise generated by construction work beginning next door. A neighbor, Víctor, has decided to build an illegal window between the two homes – a decision which begins to obsess Leonardo until, one day, “a fortuitous event presents a controversial solution to the problem.”
Block by Block: The Men Who Built India’s Tallest Building / Landmarc Films
23 minutes (2013) / English
This is a short documentary film about the life of a unique team of Indian construction workers who are building the nation’s tallest building: the Palais Royale in Mumbai. It asks what happens to construction workers when they migrate from other parts of the country to the major metropoli. How are they housed? What are their living conditions? How do they work together as a team? According to Landmarc Films, “the objective is to make others realize the grave atrocities and unfair [and] inhumane treatment of the people who build our homes so humbly, providing them with a benchmark to follow.”
Built on Narrow Land / Malachi Conolly
64 minutes (2013) / English
Built on Narrow Land captures a particular moment in Cape Cod when “the spirit of European Modern architecture inspired a group of bohemian designers (professionals and amateurs both) to build houses that married principles of the Bauhaus to the centuries-old local architecture of seaside New England.” In 1959 however, with the establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore, the future of these houses were unexpectedly put at risk. This film “documents an period in the history of Modern Architecture through the lens of one of the most beautiful places in the world.”
Within Formal Cities / Abe Drechsler, Brian Gaudio
2016 / English
Within Formal Cities is a film about the role of design in addressing the global housing crisis – no small ambition. “By 2050,” the directors argue, “one fourth of the global population will live in informal settlements. Many people,” they continue, “will lack adequate housing and infrastructure.” Five South American cities serve as studies: Lima, Santiago, São Paulo, Rio De Janeiro, and Bogotá. Here the filmmakers visited projects and interviewed over thirty designers, government officials, and residents in order to put together the most complete of picture of where things are, and where things are headed, to date.
Uncommon Sense: The Life and Architecture of Laurie Baker / Vineet Radhakrishnan
Forthcoming Release / English
Laurence Wilfred Baker (known as Laurie Baker) was a renowned British-born Indian architect and humanitarian. Alongside that, he was also an accomplished cartoonist, artist and innovative designer. Among other professions, he was also an architect. He once said: I think I am subconsciously often strongly influenced by nature, and much of nature’s ‘structural work’ is not straight or square. A tall reed of grass in a windy, wild terrain is a long cylinder or a hollow tube; tree trunks and stems of plants that carry fruit and leaves are usually cylindrical and not square. Curves are there to take stresses and strains and to stand up to all sorts of external forces. On top if it all, they look good and beautiful and are infinitely more elegant than straight lines of steel and concrete.” You can follow updates about the film’s forthcoming release, here.
The Man Who Built Cambodia / Christopher Rompre
Forthcoming Release / English
This is a film exploring the life and work of Vann Molyvann, an architect whose projects “came to represent a new identity for a country emerging from independence, and whose incredible story encompasses Cambodia’s turbulent journey as a modern nation.” In Cambodia’s post-independence period, Molyvann was at the center of a building renaissance, and developed a distinctive architectural style—known as New Khmer Architecture—that, according to the film, “completely changed the face of Cambodia.” Narrated by Matt Dillon, the film studies Molyvann’s “lifelong engagement with the identity of the Khmer people, and his attempt to create a unique architectural style that gives modern expression to that identity.”
The Land of Many Palaces [宫殿之城] / Adam James Smith, Song Ting
60 Minutes (2016) / English
In Ordos, China, thousands of farmers are being relocated into a new city under a government plan to modernize the region. The Land of Many Palaces follows a government official whose job is to convince these farmers that their lives will be better off in the city, and a farmer in one of the last remaining villages in the region who is pressured to move. The film “explores a process that will take shape on an enormous scale across China, since the central government announced plans to relocate 250,000,000 farmers to cities across the nation over the next twenty years.” You can stream the film, here.
Frei Otto: Spanning the Future / Simon K. Chiu, Michael Paglia, Joshua V. Hassel
2015 / English
Frei Otto: Spanning the Future is a documentary about the life and work of German architect and engineer Frei Otto – 2015 Laureate of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture. He “laid the foundation for contemporary lightweight architecture,” and his ideas remain fascinating today – decades after he first revealed them. still awe inspiring decades after he revealed them. In one of the final interviews given before his death, Otto explains how “coming of age in the years surrounding the Second World War influenced his work in tensile architecture.” The film, in its own words, “takes architecture fans on a journey through a history of architecture that inspires the world of tomorrow.”
The Destruction of Memory / Tim Slade
2016 / English
This is a film about “the war against culture, and the battle to save it.” Over the past century cultural destruction has wrought catastrophic results across the globe – and these have been increasing in frequency. “In Syria and Iraq, the ‘cradle of civilization’,” for example, “millennia of culture are being destroyed. The push to protect, salvage and rebuild has moved in step with the destruction.” Based on a book of the same name by Robert Bevan, The Destruction of Memory “tells the whole story—looking not just at the ongoing actions of Daesh (ISIS) and at other contemporary situations—revealing the decisions of the past that allowed the issue to remain hidden in the shadows for so many years.” Find out more, here.
Second Nature: A DocumentaryFilm About Janne Saario / Yves Marchon
18 Minutes (2010) / English
Second Nature is a 20 minute-long documentary film on budding Finnish landscape architect and skateboarder Janne Saario. It provides “a glimpse of Saario’s thoughts and dreams, which float between design, art and skateboarding.” Through this lens, it also reveals “the important concurrence of post-industrial areas, sustainable concepts and natural environments, and unfolds the demanding obligation, towards today’s generation and those to come, to create positive and inspiring local communities.”
Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future / Peter Rosen
70 Minutes (2016) / English
“A renewed interest is emerging in mid-20th Century architects and artists, who exploded the comfortable constraints of the past to create a robust and daring Modernist America.” Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future examines the life of an architectural giant who, in the words of Peter Rosen, “envisioned the future.” He also died young, aged only 51, leaving behind a body of pioneering work that still informs and inspires architects and designers to this day.
The Complete Living Architectures Collection / Bêka and Lemoine
10 Films / English
Renowned architectural filmmakers Bêka and Lemoine have, over the course of the Living Architectures project, developed films about and in collaboration with the likes of the Barbican in London, the Fondazione Prada, La Biennale di Venezia, Frank Gehry, Bjarke Ingels, the City of Bordeaux, the Arc en Rêve centre d’architecture, and more. Their goal in this has always been to “democratize the highbrow language of architectural criticism. […] Free speech on the topic of architecture,” Bêka has said, “is not the exclusive property of experts.” This year they have released two DVD box-sets of their entire œuvre,which was acquired by New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2016. Find out more, here.
While a little dated in format, Alvar Aalto: Technology and Nature is particularly interesting to watch in a time period almost ‘beyond’ mechanisation. Filmed in Finland, Italy, Germany and the USA, this documentary analyses Alvar Aalto’s “uniquely successful resolution of the demands and possibilities created by new technology and construction materials with the need to make his buildings sympathetic both to their users and to their natural surroundings.” You can stream the film, here.
After receiving his education at the Repin Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in St. Petersburg, Sergei Tchoban moved to Germany at the age of 30. He now runs parallel practices in both Berlin and Moscow, after becoming managing partner of nps tchoban voss in 2003 and co-founding SPEECH with Sergey Kuznetsov in 2006. In 2009, the Tchoban Foundation was formed in Berlin to celebrate the lost art of drawing through exhibitions and publications. The Foundation’s Museum for Architectural Drawing was built in Berlin in 2013 to Tchoban’s design. In this latest interview for his “City of Ideas” series, Vladimir Belogolovsky spoke to Tchoban during their recent meeting in Paris about architectural identities, inspirations, the architect’s fanatical passion for drawing, and such intangibles as beauty.
Vladimir Belogolovsky:How would you define the main objectives of your architecture and what are your goals?
Sergei Tchoban: In my passion for architecture, I am guided primarily by cities and urban mise-en-scène situations that I enjoy most, and the ones that I really like, I immediately try to capture on paper. More so, my drawings typically are finished compositions, unlike quick sketches that most architects do on their trips. I have a very straightforward attitude toward architecture. I always ask one simple question – would I want to draw one of my own projects or my colleagues’ projects? This criterion may be frivolous, but, in fact, it is quite rigorous. In my projects, I try to go beyond the boundaries of the accustomed Modernist minimalism, which is based on producing a particular perfection of the architectural detail, but does not quite reach that atmospheric environment, which we admire in our favorite cities.
VB:What are those cities that you refer to as your favorite?
ST: I think many of us will name Paris, Venice, Rome, or St. Petersburg, my hometown.
VB:All of these cities are historical. Is there a hidden message in your choices?
ST: Well, I also like London and Milan where contemporaneity plays an important and contrasting role in its dialogue with historical fabric. There are numerous theories about Modernist and contemporary architecture, but we rarely reflect on what role this architecture may play in the totality of a historical city. In its most acute manifestations, contemporary architecture tends to contrast greatly with its surroundings – either by having a complex geometry or assuming an ascetic character. In my opinion, however, there should not be that much of this strong contrast. That’s why I prefer contemporary architecture that features richness of details. I am also concerned about how new architecture is built in young cities without historical layers. Can we create an organic composition or orchestra, so to speak, by relying only on uncompromisingly modern architecture? What I am saying is that we may come up with an orchestra made up of just instruments of a particular range, such as percussion. But I see architecture as something more varied. To achieve this diversity it is important to pay attention to surfaces and details.
VB:In one of your interviews, you said, “I would set the following main goal before contemporary architects: without literally imitating artistic techniques of the past there should be a real desire to achieve the level of complexity, which was characteristic to historical architecture and yet the gains of Modernism should not be lost.” Why do you think new architecture is less complex than historical architecture?
ST: Historical architecture is more complex in terms of its surfaces. Buildings are perceived from different perspectives. From afar, they are recognized as silhouettes and forms. From history, we know cupolas, spires, minarets, and other prominent features that assumed special roles in the structure of a city. But a city is not just a panorama. Any city is whatever opens up from the level of a pedestrian who perceives it from their own height. From this perspective, the city is experienced on the level of details, and it is historical architecture that is much more saturated with details and has more complex surfaces than contemporary architecture offers. This complexity is not translated well into our times. That’s why we often get disappointed, when we come closer to a contemporary building, which by means of its form may be quite complex. The skin of such building is not as interesting as its form might have suggested and promised from a distance. Of course, there are exceptions, but if we are talking about mass, contextual architecture, then it loses to historical examples as far as its attention to details.
Furthermore, when we discuss such details we also should not forget about different climate conditions. Cities in the south can afford to have more minimalist buildings than in the north. I, for the most part, work in northern cities where a dim light and frequent rain or snow don’t go well with the minimalist approach.
People miss the detailed language, complexity of materials, and rich texture of buildings from the past. And if we examine the latest tendencies we will see that architects have been paying more attention to these issues lately. There are many new buildings which use textured brick laid in complex patterns. There has been an ongoing investigation in this direction. And today we see fewer examples of openly ascetic Modernism integrated into historical surroundings. Architects are trying to bring more artistry and plasticity into contextual architecture with the use of layered materials and complex patterns.
VB:To give some reference, which architects from any historical period do you admire most and could you name some of their buildings that you particularly enjoy?
ST: I love spending time in Vienna where I enjoy visiting buildings by Otto Wagner. I love the duality of Adolf Loos’ famous Ornament and Crime manifesto despite the fact that he used marble’s natural pattern as ornament. His architecture teaches me one thing – there can be no buildings without details. You can’t deny that our eye demands complexity. We look at a tree and take pleasure in observing its leaves – that is a fact.
VB:You were educated in Russia and spent most of your professional life in Germany. Now that you’ve been practicing in both circumstances for many years do you see significant differences in how architecture is done in these countries?
ST: In Russia, there is less preoccupation with self-expression and search for a unique individualistic path.
VB:Do you think there is a strong preoccupation with self-expression in Germany?
ST: Sure. You can always distinguish German projects from non-German. Just as we can easily distinguish Italian Baroque from French, right?
VB:When one looks at your projects what often stands out are such features as deep, battened up cantilevers, and a striving to be elevated high up. Where do you derive your inspirations for this imagery?
ST: My work is divided into two distinctly different groups – contextual with buildings that fit naturally into their surroundings and landmarks, which can be much higher, go over their neighbors, even crisscross with them. Such buildings are situated in a more complex dialogue with their environment. It is this theme of juxtaposing different layers – historical and geometric – that is the most urgent in architecture.
ST: They emerge out of my drawings. I travel a lot and I spend a lot of time drawing. I am interested in traditional mise-en-scène situations in historical cities, details of individual buildings, and contrasts occurring when historical and contemporary layers overlap. These drawings come naturally into my projects. For me a city is like a play in a theater and my buildings perform different roles. There are ordinary buildings and extraordinary ones that perform leading roles. Architects should also know well how to design ordinary buildings. There must be a hierarchy of roles. Not all roles should be leading.
ST: In my opinion a drawing should be a key to the understanding of architecture – what is there to like or dislike, where do architects’ ideas come from, how do these ideas make it to paper, and what is important in this process. The Museum is a collaborative project with my former partner at SPEECH, Sergey Kuznetsov who is now the chief architect of Moscow. The museum mainly invites other collections from museums and foundations where architectural graphics is buried in archives and is rarely put on display. So far, we presented original drawings by Piranesi from Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, drawings from the Albertina in Vienna, the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and now we are working on another exhibition with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. We also exhibited personal shows of such architects as Peter Cook, Lebbeus Woods, and Alexander Brodsky. We present architecture drawn on paper in all its forms. I am a passionate draftsman and I believe that an architectural drawing is an autonomous work of art.
VB:You initiated and curated numerous exhibitions and twice presented Russia in Architecture Biennales in Venice. What do you like about playing a role of a curator? What can an architect learn from being a curator?
ST: I love curating exhibitions. For example, now I am designing a space for a very special exhibition of over 40 works from the Vatican, including such masterpieces as by Rafael, Caravaggio, and Perugino. We are working on this show together with the architect from Moscow, Agniya Sterligova. I am interested in creating closed spaces, which let you be immersed in a unique atmosphere.
VB:Could I say that these exhibitions for you are a sort of laboratory where you derive ideas for your architectural projects?
ST: The opposite is true. Some of my unrealized dreams in architecture emerged in my exhibition projects. For example, I always loved drawing spherical and helispherical spaces. I finally realized this idea of a pantheon built as a dome in my exhibition project for the Russian Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012. In that project, I fused fantasies of such architects as Ledoux and Boullée, and realized a dream project of a person entering an ideal space, a sphere.
VB:I have known you for a long time and read many of your texts and interviews. Would you agree that one word that you use more often than others is beauty?
ST: I agree.
VB:Yet, it is also true that this term, “beauty,” is hardly used by architects nowadays and it is also avoided by most artists.
ST: There is a difference. We are free not to look at paintings, but we cannot avoid looking at architecture; architecture should be beautiful. I associate beauty with such notions as tension, complexity, contradiction – all of these characteristics. Moreover, such a definition as contrasting harmony also impresses me a lot, since the harmony of contradictions and not only similarities could be nowadays considered as beauty. All of this is part of the search for an attractive artistic gesture.
VB:Drawing is one of your main passions. What do you think about when you draw?
ST: I’m always thinking and talking about the combination and contrast, as well as the coexistence of different elements of the environment. I’m asking myself how to transmit it into graphics. This is endlessly fascinating and I am very passionate about drawing.
Belogolovsky’s column, City of Ideas, introduces ArchDaily’s readers to his latest and ongoing conversations with the most innovative architects from around the world. These intimate discussions are a part of the curator’s upcoming exhibition with the same title which premiered at the University of Sydney in June 2016. The City of Ideas exhibition will travel to venues around the world to explore ever-evolving content and design.
From the architect. Throughout human history, the expression genius loci has been given different meanings, reflecting man’s need to understand something beyond the physical presence and morphology of places.
The plot of land where Oak House School’s new building has been erected was laden with scenic meaning and the community’s own values. One of this project’s fundamental aims has been to listen to that meaning and conserve those values.
Division into two volumes meets the need to expose as much of the façade as possible to natural light and ventilation. The positioning of these volumes gives southward facing exposure to the largest possible area of the vertical surface. Their location conserves the original villa’s leisure area: the French garden.
Axonometric
The final form results from a dialogue between these strategies: Two material levels separated by a transparent strip. Above it, two suspended natural wood pavilions interact with and frame the original villa’s tower. Below it, a system of white concrete walls sunk into the land domesticates the topography, shapes the plot’s inner circulation and houses a small pre-university campus in the old French garden.
From an architectural point of view, this project’s solution arises from the dialectics between the upper and lower levels. In the semi-buried layer, the enveloping system is “monolithic”, in that it is formed by a single layer of material. In the aerial layer, the enveloping system is a multi-layered ventilated façade of dry-jointed wood. One is massive, the other light.
Section
The monolithic layer, where a single material sustains, insulates, clads and contains the facilities, follows the way we have built for centuries: Greek temples, Florentine palaces, Gothic cathedrals and traditional adobe houses. In the design stage we requested CEMEX the possibility of creating a tailor-made concrete with specific levels of heat transfer and resistance for a white-finish concrete on both sides. It had to be very thick (45cm) to achieve the required comfort, given that, despite significant improvements in heat transfer, it was impossible to reach our specifications using conventional levels of thickness.
The aerial level, on the other hand, has been devised using the opposite construction system: a dry-joint ventilated façade. Here, the envelope is made with different overlapping layers, each of which plays a specific role, and which as a whole meet all the required specifications. Special mention should be made of the acetylated wood cladding “Accoya Wood”. This treatment modifies the organic structure of the wood, removing its hygroscopic properties, making it possible to leave the wood in a natural state, without varnish or woodstain.
From an environmental perspective: The project incorporates precise passive measures, which result in a lower demand for energy: Its semi-buried position and vegetation cover stabilise the interior temperature against the changes in the exterior climate. Exposure to light from the south captures the energy needed in winter, and the circulation spaces and shading systems protect the building from direct sunlight, eliminating the need for air conditioning in summer.
Active measures are also incorporated, which translate into an efficient use of solar energy: The main source of energy is found at the site itself. The cooling and heating system gets its energy from the subsoil, via a geothermal energy system.
Sig Nordal 