From the architect. Located near Ulm, Germany, D10 is a single-storey one-family home built in an established residential area. A private driveway provides access to the house. Two parallel shear walls are a distinguishing feature of the building. Generously designed glazing serves to provide a spatial enclosure. Protected by an extensively projecting flat roof a generously sized patio encircling the house serves to unite the indoor space with the outdoor space. Access to the building is also gained via this patio.
The living areas are located on the ground floor, whilst the ancillary rooms are housed in the basement. The building is adjoined on the north side by a double-garage, which can be accessed directly from the basement. A stairway in the living room provides access inside the house.
The energy concept guarantees that all of the energy required to run the building is gained from regenerative sources. A geothermal energy system and a highly-efficient heat pump provide the energy required to produce warm water and meet heating and cooling needs. The entire surface of the roof is fitted with a photovoltaic system that generates more power on an annual average than the building consumes.
Foster + Partners has designed a mammoth, mixed-use complex on the Brooklyn waterfront in Red Hook, with 600,000 square feet (55,700 square meters) of offices and 23,000 square feet (2,100 square meters) of retail space and restaurants. Located on a former industrial site, the buildings will provide flexible open floor plans of up to 100,000 square feet (9,300 square meters). The facility is intended to build on a dramatic growth in technology companies in Brooklyn, creating an office environment that is open and collaborative, reflecting a style that is de rigueur in the tech-sector.
The four-story timber-framed buildings will have central courtyards and rooftop terraces, and being surrounded by water on three sides, the location will provide exceptional views of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. A public esplanade surrounding the project will provide the public access to a waterfront location, and will also connect the project to the adjacent Brooklyn Greenway.
“The design for this project takes advantage of its unique location in Red Hook, contributing to the wider regeneration of the area with new creative workspaces within a vibrant public realm,” says Nigel Dancey, Head of Studio at Foster + Partners. “Situated along the Brooklyn Greenway, the design pulls its natural surroundings into the site with a promenade, roof terraces and a green courtyard bisecting two low-rise building blocks. The design references the area’s industrial heritage, respecting the scale of the neighbourhood, while creating flexible, innovative workspaces that will support new collaborative ways of work.”
From the architect. Casa Linder is a 3,700 square foot single-family residence located in a well-established, but transitional East Dallas neighborhood. Informed by the owner’s fondness for reclaimed materials, and inspired by the historic architecture of the Texas Blackland Prairie homestead vernacular, Casa Linder embraces the architectural heritage of the earliest Dallas settlers by blending the simple forms and materials of the original prairie dwellings with contemporary planning and crisp detailing.
Floor Plan
The roof and exterior walls are clad in recycled, corrugated steel panels intended to patina to a rusty, weathered finish. At each of the south and north elevations, the walls are clad in reclaimed snow fencing planks. A gabion wall provides privacy to the pool area and gives texture to the composition of the front elevation. The interior finishes are modest, consistent, and neutral throughout
The organization of the plan is conceived as a series of individual “modules” linked together by a continuous hallway. This long, narrow configuration of spaces allows the building to stretch all the way from the front porch to the garage, an important convenience expressed in the owners’ program. Outdoor patios are integrated into the plan in order to separate building functions. At the southern front door entry the patio is created as an indentation in the front façade and provides a covered porch to welcome guests and to enjoy interaction with the neighborhood, another specific request noted in the project program. A second outdoor patio separates the living/dining/kitchen area from the kid’s/study/powder/utility area. This patio serves as an extension of the kitchen for outdoor grilling and provides convenient powder room access for the pool and other outdoor areas. A third outdoor patio separates the kid’s/study/powder/utility area from the master suite. As requested by the owner, this patio is given exclusively to the master bedroom and provides a private and secure outdoor space filled with natural light. Finally, an outdoor patio separates the master bathroom from the garage. Here again, deference is given to the master bathroom which has translucent glass at the north elevation providing natural light and privacy to the bathroom and dressing areas.
The University of Manchester’s Mecanoo-designed engineering campus has received planning permission from the Manchester City Council, greenlighting the £350 million project. The Manchester Engineering Campus Development is part of the University’s campus masterplan, meant to bring together a multidisciplinary engineering and scientific community and to consolidate the University’s campus around Oxford Road. The project is one of the largest single construction projects ever undertaken by an institution of higher education in the United Kingdom. MEC Hall, the main building of Mecanoo’s development, is 195 meters long.
Courtesy of Mecanoo
“Integrating architecture, interior and landscape, we have designed a campus that will deliver a first-class teaching and research environment which will assist the University of Manchester’s ambition in becoming one of the top 25 research universities in the world,” says Francesco Veenstra, Partner at Mecanoo and Design Team Leader for this project. “MECD will have a strong identity that reflects Manchester’s past, present and future, as a city of pioneers, continued to be led by discovery.”
Courtesy of Mecanoo
Courtesy of Mecanoo
According to the architects, the design is meant to establish a sense of permeability between those using the building and the public, the development acting as a gateway between the existing campus and the surrounding city. The building’s materials choices of steel and brick are meant to present strong articulation of form and clear structure in the facade. Mecanoo likens the effect with an analogy: building as engine.
Courtesy of Mecanoo
The goal of the project is to establish a facility that will encourage research and teaching activities in a flexible environment, both ready for today and able to adapt to future changes. Some of the building’s key facilities are ground floor maker spaces, flexible labs, bespoke project areas, and interactive learning environments. The building’s vast size – 70,590 square meters (760,000 square feet) – which will accommodate the University’s four engineering schools and two research institutes from the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, will further develop the possibilities for cross-collaboration.
Courtesy of Mecanoo
Courtesy of Mecanoo
“This exciting new campus development is a once in a lifetime project that builds upon Manchester’s proud heritage of innovation and discovery across engineering and science that began with the establishment of the Manchester Mechanics’ Institute in 1824,” says Professor Martin Schröder, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University. “MECD brings Manchester Engineering into one building as a focus for interdisciplinary teaching and research. We will train the engineers of the future and discover and apply new knowledge to help industry and society to increase wealth and employment and to overcome global challenges of climate change, finite natural resources and changing world markets.”
Courtesy of Mecanoo
Current demolition work will make way for the new facility, which is scheduled for completion in 2020.
The present text relates to the project for the construction of the International Contemporary Sculpture Museum (MIEC) and rehabilitation of the Municipal Museum Abade Pedrosa (MMAP), that the Municipality of Santo Tirso intends to hold on the site that it owns.
Respecting and following the preliminary program delivered by the Municipality, the proposal is based on the construction of a new building to house the MIEC collection and renovation of the building where currently operates the MMAP. The connection between the two buildings is punctual and although functionally connects both, it allows to keep them independent in form and language. The aim is to access both museums by a common entrance through the new building. It is intended with this approach, create a unique customer service – atrium – with access to two museums that although they have different programs, they share some common areas.
MIEC – International Contemporary Sculpture Museum The site for the construction of the MIEC has an area of 2156.83 sqm and confronts: North, ‘Misericórdia of Santo Tirso’ (Agricultural Professional School Conde S. Bento) and Santo Tirso Municipality (Municipal Museum Abade Pedrosa) South, with Rua Unisco Godiniz ; West, with Rua Unisco Godiniz Street and square access to Municipal Museum Abade Pedrosa; East, ‘Misericórdia of Santo Tirso’ (Agricultural Professional School Conde S. Bento)
The design of the new museum took into account the exception site where it is located, as well as the definition and adaptation to the surrounding environment and the Monastery of São Bento, building in which currently operates the Municipal Museum Abade Pedrosa.
The Monastery of São Bento set from the beginning the premises of the volumes of the new Museum. The new building found the cornice of the lower limit of the Monastery as its maximum level, so as not to disturb or to overlap to this historic building, which will have to establish a physical relationship of continuity. This connection is made through an “arm” that starts in the main volume. For this connection take place, it was demolished an existing annex where, in our view, does not dignify the image of the Monastery.
The definition of volumetric proposal resulted from the intention of defining the square access to the new museum and also the old museum (Municipal Museum Abade Pedrosa). From this premise, the new museum MIEC develops parallel to the existing north wall, releasing the south area to the promenade that faces the street Unisco Godiniz.
The layout of the building parallel to North / East wall, resolves: The transition height between the base of both buildings in the confrontation with ‘Misericórdia of Santo Tirso’ building; Replacing the canceled connection between ‘Misericórdia of Santo Tirso’ and Street Unisco Godiniz: Creation of a fire emergency way from level -1 to public road; Introduction of natural light to the exhibition spaces on level -1.
The selected scheme for the building implantation takes on particular meaning in the functional organization of the museum. From the main entrance, facing the old museum, we access to the lobby that connects with the Municipal Museum Abade Pedrosa, with the reception and the vertical accesses. The pavement heights have continuity with the Monastery of São Bento.
The main floor is arranged after the atrium in the following order: The shop in direct contact with the atrium; The cafeteria and its services (Kitchen and sanitary); Administration (office, meeting room and toilets)
The documentation center that works as exhibition area and computer center. This division has an emergency exit to the main square, through the service entrance of the building.
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And the culmination of this journey is the building’s service entrance, where is the freight elevator which carries all the contents from street level to the storage and archive rooms that serves all the exhibition rooms in level -1.
The level -1 develops in the following way: The second multi-purpose exhibition area serves as area of temporary exhibitions and performing activities. This option has to do with the fact that in the level -1 , the contact with the outside is only possible on the North side. Thus this space was partitioned into three rooms open to the public, all served by natural light;
The study and recreation area ( also the educational services) between two exhibition rooms facing north with constant natural lighting; The public toilets in the south / west end; The technical area and archive that communicates with the ground floor through a freight elevator;
In the basement, detached from the area of implantation of the MIEC and east side of the chapel, is located technical room reserved for mechanical building installations. The option distancing and implementation of technical room below street level, is to try to minimize visual disturbance and noise produced by the machines next to the chapel and buildings of the museums.
Constructively the new museum consists of concrete walls coated inside with high density plasterboard (required in exhibition rooms); on the outside was used ETICS system with high density mineral wool, coated with reinforced flat plaster and painted white, such as the surrounding buildings. A granite paneling sets the base of the museum also visible in existing buildings.
The interior walls are made of high density gypsum with metal partitioning. The interior walls are protected, mostly by a marble panelling in the public areas, or a marble skirting in exhibition areas. In the technical or service areas walls are protected by a wooden paneling to the height of the lintel of the door.
The slabs are mixed of reinforced concrete on iron profiles. Apart from the technical and service areas where it was applied self-leveling flooring or granite, the material used in the floor is marble. All areas will be properly waterproofed and insulated. The waterproofed outdoor decks will be in Caverneira yellow granite. The window frames are made of wood with double glazing. The roof of the new museum (MIEC) visually exposed to the high levels of the city was subject to a surface treatment using ceramic tiles.
The Municipal Museum Abade Pedrosa is located in the former guesthouse of the Monastery of São bento, a building integrating the heritage complex called – Monastery of São Bento, still classified as a National Monument.
The building is located on the north side of the city of Santo Tirso, near the River Ave, and confronts: West, Abade Pedrosa square, that set the forecourt of the church and the convent building. South, the Street Unisco Godinis East, one access road to the cellar belonging to the current agricultural school
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The building has two floors, but only the top floor, at the level of the street Unisco Godinis, belongs to the Museum. Of rectangular plan and longitudinal development, it is organized to the west by a corridor which occupies the entire building length and to East by several rooms of different sizes and with specific links between them. The access to the rooms is carried out through the corridor several doors, sometimes more than one door for each room.
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The granite masonry building has walls plastered with mortar clay painted in white, keeping the apparent granite in structural elements of the building, frames, pillars, fenestrations, entablatures, etc.
The South Elevation has a very highlighted pediment where inscribes a monumental coat of Order of São Bento. Symmetrical to the existing window, in place of the current museum entrance door and framing the coat, there was another window. In 1842, in the course of adaptation works, resulted in the destruction of this window and the construction of a small addition on east side of the face, whose architectural features wrested the strict symmetry of the original composition.
The building’s roof consists of a gabled roof, ceramic tile, supported by a brown wooden structure. The proposed intervention in MMAP is based on two main principles: To preserve the architectural features of the existing building and replace the elements that return its original composition.
Provide the museum with necessary structures to regular operation, particularly with respect to issues arising from the approval of the Security Plan, the conditions for the reception of the public and exhibition conditions of the temporary and permanent exhibitions areas.
Functional organization in four key areas of the MMAP Museum: 1 – a first intermediate space between the two museums, with reception, toilets and access to the technical area 2 – a circulation corridor with a designated area for the media exposure and access to all rooms of the museum. 3 – an auditorium for 56 people with movable furniture in order to allow room flexibility. 4 – 7 showrooms, crossed by a route alternative to the corridor, with a glass showcase per room.
These showcases simultaneously serve as an exhibition box, as storage, as space required for access to technical areas and as a supporting element to the lighting of the rooms.
From the architect. MVRDV have opened the 133 Wai Yip Street in Hong Kong. An office transformation, with retail and restaurants, which strips an old industrial building down to its bare bones and uses only glass with stainless steel infill to build up the interior spaces. The 18.000m2 project, located on the Kwun Tong waterfront is part of a larger urban development scheme which aims to turn the post-industrial district of East Kowloon into Hong Kong’s new central business district (named CBD2). An entirely see-through office stands as an example to the goals of the project to give ultimate transparency within the workplace. The project was commissioned in 2013 by project developer GAW Capital and now stands as one of the flagship projects for the new business development, becoming the bridge between the neighbourhood’s industrial roots and it’s metropolitan future.
With floor area at a premium in Hong Kong MVRDV aimed to create an office space which offered maximum attractiveness and perceived spaciousness in order to provide as pleasant working environment as possible. The building is stripped down to its beautifully raw and butch primary structure, with all unnecessary trimmings being taken out. Infill was only then added to the building in the form of white paint, glass and stainless steel in order to maintain and highlight the purity of the bare structure. Old and new are easily distinguished, whilst the inner workings of the building are on display for all to see. But how to create an office environment that also brings with it the purity and simplicity of the building design? The answer, glass tables, shelves, floors, speakers, computers, walls – an entirely glass office, free from visible clutter. The model office stands as an example for tenants to install in their work spaces if they desire. “We are moving into a transparent society, businesses are becoming more open with the public, and people care more about what goes on behind closed doors. In that way, a clear workspace leaves nothing questionable, nothing hidden; it generates trust.” Tells MVRDV co-founder Winy Maas, “But also it is an opportunity for the building to become a reminder of the industrial history of the neighbourhood, monumentalised in a casing of glass.”
133 Wai Yip Street takes a new approach to development in Hong Kong, reusing the existing building and reinforcing the area’s original character rather than wiping the slate clean with solely new builds. The goal was to expose the inner workings of the building including the structure and installations, but not only this, to show the free-flow movement within the building, the inner-workings of the companies inside and the technical components which allow the office to function. Glass lifts in glass shafts reveal everyone’s movements up and down the building once they have been welcomed into the lobby with it’s large, specially designed, light sculpture; even the fire-stairs are encased in fire-resistant glass.
The lower floors reactivate the public domain through adding a different programme. The ground floor comprises of retail, whilst the two floors above this are reserved for restaurants. A rooftop space, as well as balconies on each floor, gives residents of the building access to the outside; ideal locations to appreciate the views out onto the waterfront. The former building closed itself off from the street behind with rendered and tiled concrete walls and tiny windows. In order to humanise the surrounding area and create a more approachable environment on all sides, the rear façade has been stripped back and replaced with glazing. Through doing this the communal areas and vertical circulation of the building are exposed, giving pedestrians an insight into the happenings of each office and the movement of those inside.
The previously dark and labyrinth-like insides have been completely stripped out to open up the programme and allow light to flow through the building. Communal areas, services and vertical circulation have been moved towards the rear of the building. The floor plan now allows for each floor to either be occupied by one tenant, or for them to be separated into as much as four separate work spaces through the addition of light, glazed infill.
Despite large amounts of glass elements, the building has a 17% lower annual energy consumption as well as a 15% lower peak electricity demand compared to average offices in Hong Kong. MVRDV began work on the project in April 2013 and have since worked in partnership with co-architects Arch-Innovativ.
The Glass Office is, for now, MVRDV’s last project in an ongoing exploration into the alternative uses of glass in architecture. Previous projects include: the Markthal, with 40 x 40 metre windows; glass farm, with printed glass as a monument to local history; Crystal Houses in which a historical façade was constructed out of Venetian glass bricks; and the Infinity Kitchen at this year’s Architecture Biennale in Venice, that offered a provokingly anti-cyclic vision to the theme “reporting from the front”, in which the celebration of food plays a vital role.
ArchDaily is continuing our partnership with The Architectural Review, bringing you short introductions to the themes of the magazine’s monthly editions. In this introduction to the May 2016 issue on Indian architecture, Editor Christine Murray highlights just some of the challenges facing the world’s second most populous country, arguing for a more respected architecture profession that will be well-equipped to solve those problems.
When I think of Indian architecture, visions of Chandigarh dance in my head. India has long been a country in which to build out dreams. But with a legacy of outsourcing design to the West, for too long it has been subject to the long-arm imposition of utopian ideas.
From Lutyens to Le Corbusier, rarely have these idealistic foreign interventions made adequate provision for the nation’s rapid urbanization and vast numbers of urban poor.
Courtesy of The Architectural Review
The masterplan for Delhi as a new capital city, inspired by England’s garden city movement and led by New York architect and planner Albert Mayer, was supposed to be free of slums and poverty – in fact half of the 18 million residents now live in informal settlements.
India’s incredible growth story over the past twenty years sees it vying with China to be the fastest growing major economy in the world. Proof that economic growth does not ensure prosperity for all: just 40 per cent of the country’s population has access to sanitation facilities, including pit latrines. The government of India has failed to invest in infrastructure and social housing, leaving private developers to do its work, and badly. The cities are choked, sprawling, besmirched with freshly grown orchards of mediocre constructions.
But amid the rampant building, the impulse to import architectural styles has persisted to detrimental effect. In this edition, Mumbai architect Sanjay Puri voices his outrage at cities falling victim to an international blandness that is undermining the diverse sense of place and sustainability. This impulse is not only harming the architectural fabric, but the profession itself. With 423 architecture schools, as A Srivathsan points out, the local profession is a thriving, globally networked community, but opportunities to create good buildings are not as lucrative and plentiful as they should be.
Courtesy of The Architectural Review
A further aggravating factor is the second-class treatment of local architects compared with international firms in India. The Guardianrecently reported on revelations that international staff in the humanitarian and development sectors are paid nine times more than their Indian colleagues for the same job in the same office. The study went on to describe the effect socio-economic lines so fiercely drawn can have. It has been suggested by Srivathsan that this vast disparity in pay may also be true in architecture. I must echo Srivathsan’s call for fairer relations – India has more to offer than call centers and back-of-house.
From a London vantage point, our idea of an Indian architecture is permeated with the Modernist language of Kahn and company. But the complex architectural roots of the projects featured in this edition are more nuanced and varied. At times there is the lingering specter of the International Style, but more often there is a break with this dubious lineage in favor of regional traditions blended with a fresh outlook.
Courtesy of The Architectural Review
In this time of rapid growth and urban poverty, local talent must be fostered and nourished with commissions, and empowered to develop solutions to the many pressing issues, not least housing and infrastructure. To create longevity and a thriving culture beyond the boom, the government must invest in its cities – and its architects too.
From the architect. North Face was designed as a protection wall from cold winds. It was built reusing granite masonry from a house in ruins. In the inner facade of North Face wall grows a humid landscape of climbing plants, ficus and palms trees. A south oriented solar chimney illuminates the interior landscape from above.
The program is developed between the inner landscape of north face wall and the exterior landscape formed by liquidambars and cedars. The house volume is fragmented to enhance diagonal views of the exterior landscape.
The project is opened to south orientation and protected to west one, trying to minimize energy consumption. Eaves and deciduous trees allows optimal sun protection. Inner landscape works as a greenhouse during winter enhancing cross ventilation in summer. The building envelope is formed by multiple isolation layers preventing any cold bridging. An 80 cms pipe with a total length of 300m is buried along site, working as a Canadian pipe system that allows pre-conditioned air.
New plaza view (60 and 25-storey towers by PTW Architects, 35-storey by Collins and Turner). Image Courtesy of PTW Architects
Peddle Thorp and Walker Architects (PTW), in association with Collins and Turner and McGregor Coxall, has revealed their winning proposal in the competition to transform Parramatta’s former Cumberland Newspaper site. Selected by an independent design jury, the mixed-use scheme features three towers, each incorporating residential, commercial, retail and public spaces. The towers line the south and western edges of a new urban plaza, which opens up to a public reserve on the banks of the Parramatta River.
One of the key elements of the proposal is the maximization of the views afforded from its central position, with the Sydney CBD rising to the east, and the Blue Mountains beyond the Parramatta River to the north. Yet this focus on connectivity is not exclusively visual, passageways encourage pedestrians to walk across the plaza to the riverfront, explain the architects in a press release.
New North-South laneway (PTW Architects and Collins and Turner). Image Courtesy of PTW Architects
Situated at the gateway to Sydney’s second largest central business district, the new scheme had to respect several adjacent heritage sites, while delivering a programmatically dense collection of buildings. The proposal includes 964 residential apartments, which are distributed across a 60- story tower and two smaller buildings of 25 and 35 stories. The design was driven by the desire for the buildings to be recognised as both a collective as well as individual entities.
Solar access, shading and view acted as catalysts for the orientation of the masses and the articulation of the facades, with extra sensitivity taken to not overshadow or detract from the existing historical context.
Aerial view (60 and 25-storey towers by PTW Architects, 35-storey by Collins and Turner). Image Courtesy of PTW Architects
In accordance with these principles, the tallest tower shifts in orientation in its uppermost portion, creating visual interest in the Parramatta skyline.
A cohesive material palette of masonry brick and metals unify the three towers, with architects Collins and Turner describing their medium-height building as “designed to appear from a distance as a 3-dimensional collage of woven multi-toned metallic tapestries.” The facades have an added dynamism through the colored modulation of shading devices, allowing the buildings to glisten in the sun.
“Our vision for the public domain allows the tallest residential tower to energise the new plaza directly, with the two taller towers responding to one another and the skyspace between the two creating an exciting silhouette,” said PTW Director, Siobhan McInerney, in a press release.
This is not just another house. Those alleys were well known to us. Not that much…we used to run endlessly over there, always waiting for someone to invite us to dinner. It was always too early to end the day. And that was the house of Aunt Amelia. Built by only one man, that used to show us a smile of pride and some benevolence, the perfect stereotomy of the stone cladding. To us, that has so much to learn and fancy about building. This was not just another house.
And yet, find out that at the bottom of the bottom of the alley, there was that land that did not fail to astonish. And the fig tree? And the church? Just there, so close! For the first time a peek beyond the alley. And that was a revelation.
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And it was there, that we had the demanding task of enlarging the house. That house, built in time and with time. That house with terraces, outbuildings, stairs…, all connected…, workrooms, concrete sinks. All in a tiny space. It was an alley inside the alley, over the gradation of the exterior spaces.
And each one of the spaces had its own autonomy, always adjusting to a domestic scale, for which contributes, undoubtedly, the presence of gabled roofs and fragmentary volumetric composition.
Just keep going. Everything seems so natural. One more house, another volume, two more rooms. The vertex facing the church cut it – we want to look at her; on the backside of the house a fig tree imposes the limit and invites the pool. The connection to the pre-existing constructions it would be of course through terraces. This piece it is autonomous, with one floor and flat roof, witch trough a more organic design also resolve the connection between the house and the new garage area and the covered outdoor space, delimiting the lot. At South, dematerialized up its presence through the large mirror window in which the green garden is reflected.
The interior is quite simple: almost only a kitchen with a nice dining area, controlling the ceiling height, the volume of the room is suspended on the roof pitch, wich is accessible via a terrace or a staircase in black iron, is a scenic presence to counteract the clear tones of the interior. The dark color of the outside complemented by the use of flat tile, is another chapter in the history of the house, made of grey and white volumes, that at the same is looking for some abstraction in volumetric addition, balancing the composition.
Sig Nordal 