From the architect. India has a glorious history of temple architecture. The desert state of Rajasthan, where the temple is located, has an equally diverse and refined heritage of buildings set in an unforgiving climatic zone. Given this legacy, to design a contemporary Hindu temple set in the sand dunes of Rajasthan has been an enormous challenge.
Lord Shiva, to whom this temple is dedicated, dwells in paradoxes and apparent dualities. In Hindu scriptures and mythology he manifests as both – the Preserver and the Destroyer. In unison with goddess Shakti, he transcends the duality of the masculine and feminine principle. Like other such perceived dualities, masculinity and femininity are often approached as a continuum rather than a binary in Indian philosophy and mythology. This symbolism needed to be translated into evocative spatial clues to deliver this project. The architecture of the temple combines the heavy materiality of the stone with the lightness of the form, where the solid looking stone exterior dissolves as the night dawns and transforms into a delicate lantern in the dunes. During the day, light filters into the sanctum of the temple. At night, light turns the temple inside-out, extending an invitation to those outside while rewarding those within. This gesture also subtly seeks to illuminate the need for inclusion in contemporary religious spaces, which still tend exclude based on old age biases of gender, class, caste or orientation.
The state of Rajasthan is known world over as the source of stone and stone craftsmanship. We sought to celebrate this heritage. The local Jaisalmer Yellow Sandstone was our choice of stone – its glowing surface reflects that golden desert sun that is strongly associated with Rajasthan. The yellow sandstone gives the temple an appearance of having risen from the surrounding sands. The pure compression structure is reveals through each course and component that forms the superstructure. The design – with its strong form, stark quality and play of light on warm stone – seeks to evoke visual and tactile senses of the worshiper. The stainless steel ‘shikhara’ or the peak atop the golden stone, catches the light during sunrise and sunset and also celebrates the legacy of the organization that commissioned this building. At different times of the day, from different directions, the temple is heavy and light, solid and translucent, valid and void, past and present.
The building is located on Puerto Vallarta’s “Malecón” (boardwalk); it is built above an existing commercial building, giving the project a great ocean view. The access to The Jazz Foundation is on Morelos Street (perpendicular to “Malecón”) through a large wooden door that leads to a staircase that is contained in a double-height space full of natural light coming through a glass dome.
The building façade is constructed with a concrete lattice that allows the flow of air and lets light in from the outside during the day, and works as a large light box at night. Openings are created in the façade to frame exterior views.
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The project is built with a light metal structure that holds the wooden roof, where the electrical and sound installations are visible, allowing the space to change and adapt to different events, performances and concerts.
The main space, with a capacity of up to a hundred seated guests, is conformed by three main elements: a large bar made with concrete and wood; a terrace whose access is through a large window that frames the ocean; and, in the middle, a stage which is made of wooden staves and can be seen from anywhere in the room.
From the architect. The project is situated in the city center of the town of Le Pré Saint-Gervais, in the periphery of Paris. The parcel is already filled with 2 existing buildings of the City Hall: an historical building where J. Jaurès delivered a speech in 1913, and an extension from the 1980’s decade. The project deals with the refurbishment of the two main buildings, the construction of an extension mainly to receive the archives, and the creation of a landscape area and 5 parking places.
The new extension is located at the West edge of the historical building. It is composed of 4 levels, situated at the same level as the existing floors. The archives, the relaxing room for the staff, one of the meeting room and a local garbage are on the lowest floor. At the ground floor, there are an extension of the council room and a planted terrace. Above, in the upper levels, there are offices. The entire program in the new building relies on 332 square meters SHON. A cladding of metallic panels overlays the new extension, contrasting with the traditional materials of the existing buildings mainly in stone or in masonry with a light colored coating.
In the two existing buildings, the exterior façades are preserved. The refurbishment of the existing City Hall is based on a reorganization of the various rooms and an optimization of the circulations inside the building, through the creation of a new staircase. The new organization of the spaces includes a large council room, the marriage room, the municipality room, numerous offices and meeting room, and amenities (storage, toilets, etc). About the circulations, the new staircase is located at the junction between the historical building and its first extension, which allows linking the buildings and answering the standard fire reglementation (not up to standard before the project). The existing joineries are filed and replaced by new double glazed windows in timber, identical to the previous ones in terms of shape, composition and material. The colorful stained glass from the existing building are filed too and then re-integrated between the two faces of the new double glazed windows.
This week, OMA has unveiled their latest project in London, Holland Green. Working alongside Allies & Morrison, the firm has created three new luxury residential buildings on a site of significant cultural importance: the former home of the Commonwealth Institute, designed by Sir Robert Matthew, one of the founding partners of RMJM. As a result, OMA and Allies & Morrison’s Holland Green project involved much more than just adding fuel to the fire of London’s booming luxury residential market—it also involved an extensive conversion to the original 1962 Commonwealth Institute exhibition hall, funded through the scheme’s profitable residential offering, to prepare the heritage building for its new tenants the Design Museum.
ArchDaily spoke with Reinier de Graaf, the partner in charge of the project at OMA, to discuss the development’s social aspirations, the challenges of the London context, and the story behind the project.
Rory Stott:How did the financing model—with luxury residential housing subsidizing needed renovations on a heritage building—come about? Who originally proposed it?
Reinier de Graaf: The building had been empty since 2002. There was a proposal to de-list the whole thing—of course the nature of the government attempt to de-list was to get rid of it so that the whole site could be redeveloped—that didn’t make it. However, it was also clear that in its current state the building would remain a ruin, so that wasn’t in anybody’s advantage.
When we came along it was interesting. The whole site was listed. The main exhibition hall was a Grade II* listed building, the service wing which intersected it was a Grade II* building as well, and the landscape around the building was a registered landscape designed by Sylvia Crowe. In the state in which we found it, it was a rather derelict car park, but nevertheless it had a heritage status as well. The whole site, and all buildings on it had a heritage status, and you couldn’t do anything.
The gamble the developer took was to say that we will keep part of the listed complex, namely the main exhibition hall with its particular roof, and we would demolish the service wing and the registered landscape. From the get go the whole idea was a combination of new buildings and the restoration of the old buildings, and that was always the financing model.
The details of that financing model changed during the course of the process. When we started there was no prospective user for the building, so to imagine new types of use was part of our commission. We made a number of scenarios for the building, imagined it as the headquarters of London’s Google operations, we imagined a Prada store in it, or a Prada exhibition at one point—a number of our existing clients as potential users. That was a lot of phantasmagoria, but while we were doing that, the word got out that we were working on it and the Design Museum came into play.
Now once a user was on board, it became a rather different ballgame. One can’t really call a building a refurbishment beyond a certain point, it really turned into a conversion. We had to do that because Avery Associates had done something earlier in the decade, a mild refurbishment but it was clear that a mild refurbishment simply wouldn’t bring the building back to life. Of course, interestingly, the best way to preserve a building is to give it a new use, an authentic new use—rather than simply maintaining it as a ruin.
Anyway, we went to work with the Design Museum and in the course of the process what started as a refurbishment became a conversion. It practically became designing a replica. Because with the exception of the roof and its supporting structure, practically every other element of the building has been made new: the building has new floors to accommodate a new layout with a bigger load-bearing capacity; the building has new facades to comply with contemporary technical and environmental standards; the facade has been opened, it used to be all block work and the only light in was from the top, now two of the facades allow light in as well. It’s essentially a completely different building that looks exactly like the old. And of course it became a replica with all these associated costs. The nature of the deal, whereby the cost for the preservation of a historic building—the whole financial picture changed in the course of the process. The London housing market did as well.
The principle was maintained and the way it was conceived from the start, although I think the associated sums changed in the course of the years.
RS:You wrote two texts about the project, one in 2009 and one in 2016, just recently. How was the local context of Kensington, and the context of London and even wider changed in the last 7 years?
RdG: Asking me about the London context is soliciting a very long answer. But I’ll try to be brief. My first ever job was in London, I lived in London in the 80s and the early 90s. I have a history with London, within OMA, that goes back as early as 2004 or 2003 I believe. And in my more recent experience as well, it’s a different London than I remember, the London I first went to. But even in the course of this project, the context has changed quite a lot.
Clearly this is a difficult project. A vast amount of people in Kensington and Chelsea would have liked to see nothing happen. They were quite happy to keep the park, they were quite happy to keep the ruin in the park—a lot of people in that borough had a lot of time to mingle and pay a lot of attention to the project, so it was by no means an easy project. I think it won by the narrowest possible majority of votes in the council to get planning permission. But strangely, 8 years on, the whole mood around the project has changed immensely. People now see that we’ve been quite respectful towards the old building, that the old building is coming to life, everybody is very excited about the Design Museum opening and a lot of its fierce opponents from years ago have now developed into staunch advocates of the project.
In a way, that is indicative for me of the planning context in London. As a European, you are used to working in a context where the rules are set from the outset. But in England the whole planning system is a form of negotiation. It’s based on negotiation with the private sector, where there are public authorities who have largely relinquished the initiative of development to private parties, such as was the case here, since it was a developer that brings a monument back to life. But in doing that, you get a very different process. The rules aren’t as clear from the outset. You go in and you design your way out of a problem; you negotiate the boundaries that you can cross. You build a bit more development but then you have to give something back for the council. You do residential blocks but then you have to restore a monument. Designing a project in England is as much a form of campaigning as it is a form of architecture.
If I personally think anything is great about this project, I think that that whole process has been conducted masterfully, like a game of chess that went on for 8 years with a good result.
RS: The new residential buildings fit, certainly in terms of their orientation and scale—they very much mesh with the existing building. But in terms of design language they are very different. Would you mind telling us about the idea behind that design language?
RdG: The buildings were meant to be neutral, orthogonal, rectangular, 90-degree corners only. And they were like that deliberately so that they would offer a contrast to the curvature of the roof. I always say they are the “graph paper” against which the amplitude of the curve registers. They’re deliberately designed as a setting for the old building. This is an ensemble of four buildings, one of which is old, is the largest and is the main piece. And the other three are setting and set pieces at the same time. That is the game we play. The language was designed to highlight the curvature of the roof. But the orientation of the cubes conformed to the orientation of the old building, so the old building would become part of the ensemble.
The scale of each new building varies because they are three cubes, all of a different size and it actually varies according to its position in the city so that, in terms of scale, it responds to the immediate surroundings—like the higher 60s Park Close buildings, the middle one is the mansion blocks in the front and the smallest building is clearly the building on the park.
RS:In the text you wrote most recently, at the beginning of it you allude to the rising price of living in London and the housing crisis that is happening there. While this is not a criticism of what you’ve done with the cultural building that is there, the residential buildings that you’ve included don’t focus on affordable housing.
RdG: Well, they are affordable to people with a lot of money (laughs). I can be blatantly clear about that. There was an affordable component in the beginning, but the complexity of the restoration of the monument was such that that quickly became the trade-off. That became the deal, and the amount of money that has gone into that in a way is larger than any profit concession would have been had we been forced to do affordable buildings. That was negotiated again with the council; the buildings had to be luxury development in order to pay for the restoration. That was simply part of the financial picture.
But having said that, I do think it’s interesting that for once, a luxury residential project serves a purpose beyond profit alone. And in a very directly visible way, on the site itself—not on some remote side of the borough—on the site itself there is evidence of what these profits have been spent on, and it’s something for everybody. I must say that I’ve written quite a lot in articles about London’s property market—not necessarily always favorable. But the fact that we managed to do the two things here, and for me the project is really residential and what the residential enabled in terms of cultural building and preservation. As a whole it makes the project, and also makes it interesting to me as a project. Without that cultural component, my conscience would probably trouble me a little bit more.
The Global Arts Affairs Foundation (GAA), in collaboration with PLANE—SITE, is releasing a series of video interviews with architects to be shown as part of the TIME SPACE EXISTENCE Exhibition at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. At the start of Denise Scott Brown‘s interview, the architect declares,”I’ve fought to make buildings useful and beautiful, and in that order.” In her segment, Scott Brown elaborates on the need for architects to consult multiple precedents to be most effective, the view that photography has become a sub-discipline of architecture, and her position as a role model for young female architects. For her complete perspective, watch Scott Brown’s interview, and read on for a complete list of the other interviewees.
Denise Scott Brown (USA) calls upon young architects to grasp the present moment
The videos, each approximately five minutes, mix theoretical and philosophical concerns with personal trajectories of the architects, yielding discussions on where architecture has been and where it is going. According to the organizers, the interviews as a whole “[are meant to] offer a discursive response to Alejandro Aravena’s theme for the 2016 Architecture Biennale, Reporting from the Front.”
The project will be on view at the Palazzo Bembo and Palazzo Mora from May 28, 2016 through November 27, 2016. The interviews which have been released thus-far are available for viewing here and on the PLANE—SITE’s Vimeo channel.
Interview descriptions have been culled from the The Global Arts Affairs Foundation.
From the architect. The project is part of the construction of the new ANDINA SA beverages bottling plant, which was built between 2012 and 2015. The project was lead by Sabbagh Arquitectos and we were invited design one of the buildings considered in the Master plan, the Building of Logistics, Sales and Expedition Canopy (E Body).
Located close to the southern access to the plant, the E Body is a support building for the logistics operation, becoming the first filter, for the trucks entering or leaving the plant to be inspected.
The building consists of a two storey high continuous bar, structured by reinforced concrete slabs and rigid frames. On top of this, a continuous metallic roof with independent geometry is laid out. It wraps around the concrete structure at the same time it projects over the street consolidating the Expedition Canopy. Under this envelope other double height spaces are also generated, such as the entrance plaza and areas more functional to the operation – like the first floor logistics area – through which is possible to ventilate the spaces in a natural fashion.
1st Floor Plan
The two-storey building contains the bank offices and the management area for the securities collected by the carriers from different parts of Santiago city. It also houses the operations and sales administrative areas, which are located on the second floor.
The Expedition Canopy, sited across the whole width of the access path, covers 9 lanes and serves to accommodate the control operation of the loads carried by trucks entering and leaving the plant. This operation is supported by three office modules and every lane has a metal platform to facilitate the inspection process.
The siting defined in the Master plan, considered a narrow strip of land which determined building’s orientation to be east-west. The project responds to this condition by proposing metal screens with varying degrees of openness depending on their orientation and the function of the space behind. To the east, because of the proximity to the street, a higher degree of opacity was proposed, to protect the operation that takes place in the Expedition Canopy. On the west, where the main building program develops, a micro-perforated metal screen was proposed; it has two different types of aperture, which control the direct radiation and allows the visual relationship with the surroundings of the industrial complex.
Seattle-based architecture and design firm NBBJ has formed a new business partnership with startup Visual Vocal to develop an innovative virtual reality (VR) productivity platform. Using this new tool, distributed project stakeholders will be able to immerse themselves into unbuilt environments and provide instantaneous feedback.
As opposed to traditional methods of communication such as email, a new VR platform, combined with mobile and cloud-based communications, could help expedite and facilitate the sharing of designs with clients, in a way that has “the potential to transform workflows within the field of architecture and beyond,” state NBBJ in a press release.
Courtesy of NBBJ
“NBBJ’s decision to launch Visual Vocal is representative of our ongoing mission to find more informative and inspiring ways to engage clients in the design process. This partnership will radically shift the way design feedback is sourced and integrated into projects, and the speed at which it can be done,” said NBBJ Managing Partner Steve McConnell, FAIA, in a press release. “As a result, we can more broadly and deeply engage project stakeholders than we could have dreamed in the past. Whether for clients or the general public, virtual reality will deepen design discourse and bring together communities in new and exciting ways,”
View across, using the VR Productivity Platform. Image Courtesy of NBBJ
While several firms within the design industry have explored VR platforms, this partnership marks the first instance of “an established design firm incubating a VR startup inside its own offices and developing new tools to improve decision-making and remove waste from the design process.”
Downward view, using the VR Productivity Platform. Image Courtesy of NBBJ
“Visual Vocal is building a platform for distributed conversation, collaboration, and decision-making through the power of immersive computing technologies,” said Visual Vocal Co-Founder John SanGiovanni. “For the past year, we have worked closely with NBBJ’s technical, creative, and project leadership to understand the complexities of distributed collaboration. Together, we have forged a new VR framework aimed at making 3D decision-making more accessible, enjoyable, and efficient.”
Visual Vocal will launch the beta version of its platform as an NBBJ exclusive later in 2016, and NBBJ will pilot the software on design projects for healthcare, corporate, and urban planning clients.
The concept of the project is developed crafting a circulation “vortex” that carefully erodes the interior volume creating a series of patios and triple height zones that articulate the inner spaces defining the dynamic and elegant composition of the project.
Unlike traditional organization principles defined by walls, doors and corridors, the circulation in Vortex remains organic and visually continuous connecting interior and exterior spaces through curved walls and organic openings that are linked via a playful stair that dramatically crosses over the eroded inner spaces.
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The circulation vortex is expressed on the exterior via distinct volumes that are softly interlocked by a continuous glass strip. These volumes are accentuated by their different materiality and construction system.
The lower volume is formed by a series of organic flowing fair-faced concrete walls that seem to challenge gravity to choreograph the division of the living areas, kitchen, dinning room and the master bedroom while providing the base support for the house.
The upper volume is made of a lightweight composite that is supported by a steel frame that reduces the need for visible columns where a studio space is located with direct access to a more private elevated open terrace on the second floor.
Diagram
The façade that links directly to the elevated terrace is developed with elegant horizontal slits allowing direct views out while at the same time providing more privacy from the street below.
Two-guest bedroom with a shared bathroom are located on a volume that appears to float above the second floor providing amazing unobstructed views towards the beautiful landscape surrounding the city of Queretaro.
The seemingly opaque and heavy appearance of the volume from the exterior is contrasted with the luminous and dynamic openness of the interior spaces.
The project responds to strict local planning regulations by reinterpreting them to result into a contemporary, exciting and innovative space for living.
From the architect. Located in the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, 2.5 hours northeast of San Francisco, this 5 bedroom ski cabin was designed for 3 generations to enjoy simultaneously.
The essential diagram is straightforward: take the alpine chalet building type andlift it onto a concrete plinth to protect it from the snow. Located at an elevation of 6,800 feet (2,000 meters), the building needs to withstand extreme snowfall that can exceed 800 inches (20 meters). The residence’s positioning on-site, however, is more nuanced. Influenced by prevailing wind-drift direction and other climatic factors, the orientation shields the building from the street and directs views to a private stream and forest beyond. Living spaces are arranged along the open, south-facing facade to maximize solar exposure. The shaded northern face contains utility rooms where small punched windows draw in indirect northern light but minimize heatloss.
Tar-treated wood siding recedes among the tree trunks of this wooded site, and at dusk the interior finished with minimally treated fir glows warm through the windows.
In terms of memorialization, being selected to represent your country as the face of a banknote is one of the highest honors you can achieve. Even if electronic transfer seems to be the way of the future, cash remains the reliable standard for exchange of goods and services, so being pasted to the front of a bill guarantees people will see your face on a near-daily basis, ensuring your legacy carries on.
In some countries, the names of the faces even become slang terms for the bills themselves. While “counting Le Corbusiers” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, a select few architects have still been lucky enough to have been featured on such banknotes in recent history. Read on to find out who the 15 architects immortalized in currency are and what they’re worth.
An architect that needs no introduction, Le Corbusier was a preeminent pioneer of the Modernist movement. Works in his home country of Switzerland include the Heidi Weber Museum, also known as Centre Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier’s portrait is featured on the 10 Swiss Francs banknote, pictured with his distinctive spectacles.
Alexander Tamanian (Armenia)
via currencymuseum.net (public domain)
A neoclassical architect prominent in the early 20th century, Tamanian is known for his Armenian Opera Theater and work throughout the capital city of Yerevan. He is featured on the 500 Dram banknote.
Kemaleddin was Turkey’s leading architect in the late Ottoman period, blending traditional Ottoman styles with European sensibility. The reverse side of the current 20-lira banknote depicts Kemaleddin together with one of his major works, Gazi University in Ankara.
A leader of the Art Nouveau movement in the UK, Mackintosh was known for buildings such as the Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art. He can been seen on the £100 denomination, in circulation since 2009.
The chief architect for the Ottoman Empire under the rule of sultans Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II, and Murad III in the 16th century, Sinan designed many of Turkey’s notable mosques and baths. Sinan’s portrait was depicted on the backside of the Turkish 10,000 lira banknotes from 1982 to 1995.
Otto Wagner (Austria)
via worldbanknotescoins.com (public domain)
Wagner was an Austrian Secessionist architect whose important works include the Austrian Postal Savings Bank in Vienna. The 500 Shilling note featuring his likeness was printed from 1986 to 1997.
Victor Horta (Belgium)
Seen on the Belgian 2000 Franc note from 1994 to 2001, architect Victor Horta is most famed for his biomorphic details at Hotel Tassel, which he completed in 1894 and is often recognized as the first instance of Art Nouveau in architecture.
Perhaps the most influential Nordic architect, important works by Modernist Alvar Aalto include the Viipuri Library and Säynätsalo Town Hall. His face graced the Finnish 50 mark note from 1986-2002.
Most widely known for the tower that bears his name, Eiffel was an acclaimed architect and engineer, designing many bridges and buildings in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was featured on the 200 Franc note from 1996 to 2002.
Balthasar Neumann (Germany)
via Coinsbanknotesworld (public domain)
18th Century Baroque architect Neumann was featured on the German 50 mark note from 1991-2002 alongside one of his greatest achievements, the impressively lavish Würzburg Residence.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italy)
via leftovercurrency.com (public domain)
Arguably the greatest of all the Baroque artists, Bernini’s sculptures and buildings can still be seen today throughout Italy, notably in his colonnade design for St. Peter’s Square. Bernini adorned the 50,000 lira note from 1985–2002.
Francesco Borromini (Switzerland)
via worldbanknotescoins.com (public domain)
Rival to Bernini, Borromini designed some of Rome’s most dramatic churches, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza. He was featured on the Swiss 100 franc note from 1976–2000, though not without some controversy, as his hometown of Ticino, while now Swiss territory, was considered part of Italy during Borromini’s lifetime.
Jože Plečnik (Slovenia)
From 1992 to 2007 Secessionist architect Plečnik’s portrait could be seen on the 500 tolar note, recognizing his contributions to the architecture of Ljubljana, including the iconic Triple Bridge.
One of the most acclaimed English architects in history, Wren is remembered most fondly for his design of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Wren could be seen on the 50 pound note from 1981 to 1996.
Though he is obviously more fondly remembered as a founding father of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson was also a noted architect, employing neo-palladian ideals in designing the campus of the University of Virginia and in his homestead, Monticello. Jefferson can be found today on the front of the rarely-used 2 dollar bill.
Sig Nordal 