© Wissam Chaaya

• Architects: Hashim Sarkis
• Location: Byblos, Lebanon
• Client: Municipality of Jbeil/Byblos
• Area: 752.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Wissam Chaaya

• Project Coordinator : Hashim Sarkis, Sandra Frem
• Landscape: Boulos Douaihy, Wissam Chaaya , Pablo Roquero, Rola Idris, Helena Briones, Carla Saad, Sama El Saket, Jonathan A. Scelsa, Cynthia Gunadi, Penn Ruderman, Chris Johnson, Alex Meca af, Nayla Al‐Akl
• Contractor: Roger Stephan, Jack Chahla (site engineer)
• Engineers: Isopak
• Site Area: 1667m2

© Wissam Chaaya

From the architect. Hashim Sarkis was awarded the commission of the new Byblos Town Hall a er an anonymous open compe teon. Byblos, one of the oldest continuously inhabited ci es in the world and a World Heritage Site, has been growing outside the historic city bounds to the point where most of the city’s population now lives in the city’s suburbs. Boasting a historic harbor, two crusader castles, several historic churches and mosques in addition to an extensive Phoenician, Hellenistic and Roman heritage, the city is the most visited tourist site in Lebanon.

Plan

In an effort to re‐center the city, the new town hall site was chosen at the interchange of the north south highway that separates the city from its eastern suburbs, in a public park and near a tourist informa on area. The building is broken down into three large blocks that span over the park, each housing a different component of the program, the gaps between them bringing light into the park and the buildings. The park as well as the ground floor of the complex are maintained open to the public. The three blocks are carried by the circula on cores to the east and a long wall to the west that acts as a noise barrier with the highway. To protect from noise and heat, the blocks are closed to the outside and clad with sand stone, the “official stone” of the city. The offices are open to the spaces between the blocks with the facades clad in aluminum louvers that turn horizontally to become pergolas over the park that weave between the blocks.

© Wissam Chaaya

Diagram

© Wissam Chaaya

A future urban design scheme will include a pedestrian bridge over the highway to connect between both sides of the park and between the older and newer parts of the city. Each of the three volumes contains a component of the program, namely offices for three en es sharing the building: the municipal departments, the municipal council offices, and an interactive museum for the . alphabet, that also provides a multi purpose hall for the town. The volumes are at once separated from each other and connected at the ground level. The glass‐enclosed ground floor level combines the common spaces of the program: entrances, informa on, city cashier, cafeteria and exhibition space. Technical programs and the police department are located within the constructed base, at the level of the park.

© Wissam Chaaya

Section

© Wissam Chaaya

The municipality is built out of reinforced concrete. Each volume’s structure consists of the core, two columns to the west embedded in the noise barrier and in the case of the two longer boxes, two additional columns. The spaces of the boxes are le open and clear for maximum flexibility. In order to avoid the unpredictable patterns of sandstone and to express the monolithic nature of the stone pieces, the stones were cut into thin strips of 7 cms wide and a variety of lengths. They were ten separated into four shades and then assembled on the façade following a pixelated pattern of yellow travertine. On the inner face of the lobby, a mural representing a geometric abstraction of the Phoenician alphabet introduces one of different forms of expression between art and calligraphy that the building’s architecture hosts.

© Wissam Chaaya

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© Shamanth Patil J.

• Architects: Khosla Associates
• Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001, India
• Principal Designers: Sandeep Khosla, Amaresh Anand
• Area: 16000.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Shamanth Patil J.

• Design Team: Sandeep Khosla, Amaresh Anand, Bijeta Bachaspati, Moiz Faizulla
• Civil Contractors: Hi Tech Constructions Pvt. Ltd.
• Structural Engineer: S & S Associates.

© Shamanth Patil J.

From the architect. The 16,000 sft site of the Krishnan house had several existing and mature trees and we envisioned a relatively low-slung architectural expression that would be interpretive of a vernacular aesthetic, while accommodating its green surroundings.

An architecture of sloped Mangalore tiled roofs and rough-cut Shira stone cladding contrasts with floors of rough and polished Kota and joinery of teak.

© Shamanth Patil J.

On entry, a series of vertical ribbed timber louvers provide a gentle divider between the threshold of the house and the garden beyond. Entry is either to the study on one side and the main living space on the other.

Plan

The living space is a grand volume of 25ft with two slopes of the roof at differing heights separated by a clerestory window. Its verticality is emphasized by large floor-to-ceiling windows with sheer linen blinds that provide soft light in the mornings from the northeast. Large overhangs on the southwest protect against the harsh afternoon sun while horizontal timber louvers provide for natural cooling via a stack effect and act as sun breakers. The living areas open to a wooden deck that continues into a wrap around verandah overlooking a lush internal courtyard garden. Almost all the spaces on the ground and first level visually flow into it.

© Shamanth Patil J.

The central feature of the living space is a burnt orange spiral staircase sculpted out of a shell of mild steel and housing timber treads. The Large expanses of grey Kota are contrasted with a bright color palette of turquoise, violet, red and mustard. The bold Ikat patterned carpet provides a vibrant base on which pieces by Moroso, Minotti, Riva and Poliform sit alongside other furniture designed by Khosla Associates. The central cluster of Mori fabric pendant lamps were sourced from New York based design house Rich Brilliant Willing, complemented by other light fixtures by Tom Dixon and Isamu Noguchi. The butterfly sculpture on the wall is Sunil Gawde’s ‘Secret Garden’ and other paintings are by young Bangalore based contemporary artists Shivkumar and Suresh Kumar.

© Shamanth Patil J.

The spatial flow takes into consideration the family’s requirement of segregating public and private space. The ground floor has living, study, dining, puja, home theatre, 2 kitchens, and 2 guest rooms while the upper level has 3 bedrooms, a yoga and meditation space and a family room.

© Shamanth Patil J.

Section

© Shamanth Patil J.

On the garden side, the study and the living rooms flow into their respective verandahs that hug a large pebbled fishpond. An existing tree emerges from the water and is uniquely framed by the study,the living and foyer on three sides.

© Shamanth Patil J.

We were driven to create a contextually sensitive and sustainable design by maximizing local materials, using clay tiled roofs to keep the house cool, large overhangs to protect against sun and rain, and cross ventilation to keep the house breathing at all times. As firmly as our clients were rooted to their traditions , they were also global travellers equally open to an eclectic design aesthetic that is reflected in the house interiors.

© Shamanth Patil J.

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Aquatrium. Image via Arch Out Loud

Arch Out Loud has announced the winners of their New York City Aquarium and Public Waterfront Competition, which invited students and professionals alike to design “an intertwined public aquarium and park” on an underutilized riverfront property located on the East River in Queens. Participants were asked to “redefine the aquarium typology, examining its relationship to the urban context and the public domain.” 

The call for submissions was answered by 556 participants and 178 proposals from forty counties, and included ideas that pushed the physical boundaries of the site and responded to the idea of redefining the typical aquarium typology.

The jury, which included both practicing architects and educators, made their selections based on designs that challenged the relationship between the waterfront and the city, and analyzed how the combination of these two can bring people together and form a new type of aquarium. The winning proposals are simple, powerful designs with easily understandable core concepts and have the potential to become iconic sites.

3^rd Place – Merrior

Merrior. Image via Arch Out Loud

Rob Holmes, Laurel McSherry, Frederick Steiner, David Bayer | UNITED STATES

This project reimagines the aquarium of the twenty-first century to be a node within a much larger “hydrological and ecological network”; or an aquarium that doesn’t hold captive animals behind a glass, but rather becomes a series of encounters with different animals and their living habitats. This designed site is situated at the center of thirty diving bells across the metropolitan region. These bells, and their networks, allow for visitors to engage in a variety of ecologies — mobile bells designed around aquatic habitats, cadastral bells designed around the built environment, and datum bells based on bathymetry and sea-level rise.

The jurors commented on the project, saying: “Merrior questions what architecture and our built environment is. It questions taking animals away from their natural habitat, and therefore avoids the creation of spaces that try to recreate a ‘natural environment.’”

2nd Place – Vers La Mer

Vers La Mer. Image via Arch Out Loud

Dominik Sigg | Brooklyn, NYC, UNITED STATES

This design investigates “a maritime urbanism where the built fabric of the city shifts from traditional solid ground to a floating existence.” The name, literally means “towards the sea” and creates rectilinear volumes that float away from the riverfront and are anchored in the basin. The public spaces include a large, floating water garden.

The jury stated that the overall concept of the aquarium is very poetic, and added: “There’s tension within the idea that the buildings are floating on the water, yet their program demands that they also be filled with water. They seem more like boats than buildings…It’s an urban park over water that let you and others be the facade of the project as visitors participate in moments of wonder.”

1st Place – NYC Aquatrium

Aquatrium. Image via Arch Out Loud

Piero Lissoni, Miguel Casal Ribiero, Mattia Susani, and Joao Silva | Milan, ITALY

The first place design creates a dynamic system that allows for multiple ways to experience the riverfront. The proposal includes an excavation of the existing site, which will become a large water basin. The basin includes a submerged island that can be accessed only by a designed pathway. A new beachfront serves two functions, by both covering a parking area and forming a new public space that includes a new boardwalk. This boardwalk “surrounds the basin and becomes a floating ring connecting the two waterfronts” and encompasses the sliding roof which will protect the biomes within.

The jurors commented on the first place project, saying: “The Building concept is intriguing and alluring; it plays with subtleties rather than with huge or hulking impact that contrasts and plays against the density and grain of NYC in a very poetic manner. The multiple level sectional design is also good and allows for beautifully depicted sensations in the presentation that will encourage a very immersive phenomenological experience.”

Find out more details about the other winners and honorable mentions, here.

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"Through China with a Camera … With … illustrations". Image Courtesy of The British Library

The British Library has continued to release images from its digitized collection, now bordering over one million images on public image-sharing platform Flickr, reports Quartz.  Since 2013, the institution’s “Mechanical Curator” has been randomly selecting images or other pages from over 65,000 public-domain books from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

"Homes of our Forefathers in Boston, Old England, and Boston, New England. From original drawings by E. Whitefield". Image Courtesy of The British Library

The treasure trove includes “maps, drawings, illustrations, handwritten letters, diagrams, cartoons, comics, posters and decorative scrolls,” writes Quartz. As the images are curated randomly — and due to the extreme volume — the public has been called upon to help categorize the collection.  To date, the collection has had over 267 million views and over 400,000 tags have been added. 

"John L. Stoddard's Lectures [on his travels]. Illustrated … with views of the worlds famous places and people, etc". Image Courtesy of The British Library

For architects and architecture students, the “Architecture” album has a wealth of material, including nearly 2,000 images, while the “Castle” album contains close to 200. Countless other images of foliage and people are also easily re-imagined as a collage for more experimental styles of representation.

Below we’ve rounded-up some of our favorite architecturally-relevant images. 

"Old and New London, etc". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"Az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia irásban és képben. Rudolf trónörökös főherczeg Ő … fensége kezdeményezéséből és közremunkálásával. (Die deutsche Ausgabe redigirt … J. von Weilen, die ungarische M. Jókai.) Hung", "Appendix. Topography and Travels". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"John L. Stoddard's Lectures [on his travels]. Illustrated … with views of the worlds famous places and people, etc". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"King's Handbook of New York City. An outline history and description of the American metropolis. With … illustrations, etc. (Second edition.)". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"Three Vassar Girls on the Rhine. A holiday trip … Illustrated, etc". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"Old & New London. By W. Thornbury and Edward Walford. Illustrated". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"Strassburg und seine Bauten. Herausgegeben vom Architekten- und Ingenieur-Verein für Elsass-Lothringen. Mit 655 Abbildungen in Text, etc". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"La Terra, trattato popolare di geografia universale per G. Marinelli ed altri scienziati italiani, etc. [With illustrations and maps.]". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"[Paris historique et monumental depuis son origine jusqu'en 1851 … illustré d'un grand nombre de vignettes et de deux plans. Par B. R[enault?].]". Image Courtesy of The British Library

See the full collection here. And learn more about the British Library’s initiative in the full story on Quartz.

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© OMA – Albert Vecerka

• Architects: OMA
• Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 10028, United States
• Partner In Charge: Shohei Shigematsu
• Client: The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Area: 18300.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Albert Vecerka, Brett Beyer, Naho Kubota

• Associate In Charge: Scott Abrahams
• Team: Wesley Ho, Nicholas Solakian, Sergio Zapata, Daniel Rauchwerger, Lawrence Siu, Darby Foreman, Matthew Haseltine, Christine Noblejas
• Engineering: Arup
• Lighting: Dot Dash
• Media: 3 Legged Dog

© OMA – Albert Vecerka

From the architect. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute spring 2016 exhibition, Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, on view from May 5 through August 14, explores how designers are reconciling the handmade and the machine-made in the creation of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear. Manus x Machina features over 170 garments, diverse in their designers, techniques and details. The exhibition is presented in the Robert Lehman Wing, a double-height, octagonal addition on the museum’s central axis constructed in 1975. In order to preserve access to the permanent galleries, the exhibition space is located in the Lehman Wing’s central atrium and corridors. The space posed a number of unique environmental challenges for The Costume Institute’s show: excessive daylighting unconducive to textile exhibition, split levels, a corridor condition lacking dedicated display walls and an eclectic material palette.

© OMA – Brett Beyer

Axonometric

© OMA – Albert Vecerka

A white, translucent volume was inserted into the existing brick and stone corridors of the Lehman Wing, softening its hard geometries. Echoing the sectional relationship of a central clerestory and perimeter naves, the resulting ghost cathedral resonates with the classical language of the adjacent Medieval Art gallery. A raised platform built across the double height atrium provides continuous circulation and a 2,300 square foot central gallery– an unprecedented intervention in the Lehman Wing. Upon arrival, this domed clerestory orients visitor’s with a 2014 Chanel wedding dress by Karl Lagerfeld that embodies the exhibition’s theme. Details of the 20-foot train’s baroque pattern are projected on the dome’s black out scrim, recalling the Sistine Chapel. Four chapel-style pochés provide an area to focus on case studies.

© OMA – Brett Beyer

Exhibition designer Shohei Shigematsu commented, “The diverse range of garments required a neutral, integrated environment to focus on the pairings of manual and mechanical processes. An armature of scaffolding wrapped with a translucent fabric introduces a unique temporality within a historic institution.”

© OMA – Brett Beyer

Lower Level Plan

© OMA – Albert Vecerka

As a high-performance theatrical scrim, the perforated membrane material of the ghost cathedral offers the tensile flexibility required for the dome geometries as well as varying degrees of transparency. When lit from the front, the scrim appears opaque enough to function as a projection backdrop for garment details. Lit from behind, the scrim appears transparent, exposing a sense of the Lehman Wing’s existing material palette and language. The unexpected spatial depth of the scrim allows for visual connections to the wedding dress from all quadrants of the Lehman Wing, while also revealing silhouettes of the temporary scaffolding framework housed within. In the lower level, scrim enfilades provide a permeable divider for each technique. As an integrated system for lighting, signage and projection, the scrim seamlessly serves multiple curation needs that would otherwise rely on overpowering media screens. 

© OMA – Brett Beyer

Upper Level Plan

© OMA – Albert Vecerka

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© Edmund Sumner

From a shortlist of 68 buildings, 36 London projects have been awarded the 2016 RIBA London Awards for architectural excellence, the city’s most prestigious design honor. The winners include a home for ravens, a Japanese-inspired London terrace home and a historical restoration. All of these designs will be further considered for the RIBA National Awards, to be announced in July. The winners of the national award will then create a shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize – the highest award for architecture in the UK.

61 Oxford Street / Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

© Timothy Soar

8 St James’s Square / Eric Parry Architects

© Dirk Lindner

Alphabeta / Studio RHE

© Hufton and Crow

ARK All Saints Academy and Highshore School / Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

Corner House / DSDHA

© Christopher Rudquist

Covert House / DSDHA

© Christopher Rudquist

Curzon Bloomsbury / Takero Shimazaki Architects & Unick Architects

© Helene Binet

Ely Court, South Kilburn / Alison Brooks Architects & Hester Architects

© Paul Riddle

Gagosian Gallery, Mayfair / TateHindle, Caruso St John & BDP

© Philip Vile

Garden House / Hayhurst and Co.

© Killian O'Sullivan

Godson Street / Edgley Design & Spaced Out Architecture Studio (SOAS)

© Jack Hobhouse

Graveney School Sixth Form Block / Urban Projects Bureau

© Killian O'Sullivan

Greenwich Gateway Pavilions / Marks Barfield Architects

© Timothy Soar

Greenwich Housing / Bell Phillips Architects

© Edmund Sumner

House of Trace / Tsuruta Architects

© Tim Crocker

Kingston Ancient Market Place and Stalls / Tonkin Liu

© Anthony Hurren

Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute / Allies and Morrison & PM Devereux

© St†le Eriksen

Merchant Square Footbridge / Knight Architects

© Edmund Sumner

Modern Mews / Coffey Architects

© Timothy Soar

Modern Side Extension / Coffey Architects

© Timothy Soar

Newport Street Gallery / Caruso St John Architects

© Helene Binet

Ravens Enclosure, HM Tower of London / Llowarch Llowarch Architects

© Edmund Sumner

RCA Battersea / Haworth Tompkins

© Philip Vile

Regent High School / Walters & Cohen Architects

© Dennis Gilber

Royal Road / Panter Hudspith Architects

© Morley von Sternberg

Sir John Soane’s Museum / Julian Harrap Architects

© Gareth Gardner

The Bath House Children’s Community Centre / Lipton Plant Architects

© David Vintiner

The Plimsoll Building / David Morley Architects & Weedon Architects

© John Sturrock

The Royal Hospital Chelsea, Long Wards / Peregrine Bryant Architecture and Building Conservation

© June Buck

Thornsett Road / Allies and Morrison

© St†le Eriksen

Tin House / Henning Stummel Architects

© Luke Caulfield

Trafalgar Place – Elephant and Castle / dRMM Architects

© Alex de Rijke

Turnmill / Piercy&Company

© Al Crow

Vaudeville Court / Levitt Bernstein

© Tim Crocker

Waddesdon Bequest Gallery / Stanton Williams & Purcell

© Hufton and Crow

Wilton’s Music Hall / Tim Ronalds Architects

© Helene Binet

Find more information on the 2016 RIBA London Awards and the winning projects, here.

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Built in 1966, St. Peter’s Seminary is hidden away in a forest 20 miles outside Glasgow. Image Courtesy of Courtesy Tom Kidd / Almay via Metropolis Magazine

Gillespie, Kidd & Coia’s celebrated St Peter’s Seminary—once voted Scotland’s best modern building—has for too long been a victim of fate, left to decay after it was abandoned just 20 years after its completion. Fortunately, plans are well underway to restore the building. This article, originally published by Metropolis Magazine as “Ruin Revived,” explains how even in its ruined state, the dramatic brutalist structure is already showing its value as a cultural destination.

Modernist architecture, it used to be said, was inadequate because the machined materials of modern buildings wouldn’t lend themselves well to picturesque ruination. What, minus the taut skins of glass and plaster, could these stark, boxlike carcasses possibly communicate to future generations?

St. Peter’s Seminary in Cardross, Scotland, is a forceful rejoinder to that jibe. Built in 1966 and abandoned 20 years later, the seminary has settled into a state of pleasing decrepitude. Glass and plaster are long gone. The concrete remains largely intact but stained, spalled, and spoiled. Entire roofs and staircases have caved in. The only fresh signs of life are the aprons of graffiti draped all over the “interiors.” Yet, the sense of the place lingers, its noble forms still remarkably assertive—jutting forth from the dense surrounding forest—and optimistic.

The seminary (seen here in its original state, was abandoned and left to rot in the 1980s. Image Courtesy of Glasgow School of Art via Metropolis Magazine

In recent years, the heritage-protected site has been marked for redevelopment, with one highly publicized scheme calling for the erection of luxury housing grouped around the seminary’s concrete husk. It fell through in 2011, but another, more unconventional proposal forged a few years before—to partially restore the main building and convert it into an arts and education center—recently secured the funding for its implementation. “Standard regeneration wouldn’t work here,” says Angus Farquhar, creative director of Glasgow-based public arts group NVA, which will stabilize the structure and maintain sections as ruins. “We’re going to open the space to the public so that they’re able to see the bones of the building. It’s about building up a sense of ownership for the public.”

© Alan McAteer

In late March, over a ten-day period, some 8,000 visitors were given the chance to experience the dilapidated compound up close, albeit by night and with the structures transfigured by light and sound. Led by glowing walking sticks, the visitors ambled through bramble and forest, damp ground underfoot, and pushed up a hill toward a concrete rampart—the Brutalist muzzle of the erstwhile classroom block and reverberant crackles of sound, akin to musique concrète, signaling the way. They then met with the broad curving wall of the ear-shaped side chapel and, upon entering, shuffled up the long ramp that winds its way to the triple-height chapel, where priests once held mass. The space staggers in both directions: Above, the former residential floors terminate, midair, in a ziggurat formation, while the platform below drops down into a shallow chancel.

At Hinterland, as the event was called, this depression was filled with water, which reflected the flashing red, blue, yellow, and green lights and rippled when tread upon by spooky hooded figures presiding over the scene. Prerecorded choral music enhanced the darkly cinematic atmosphere. “It’s sort of walking through a [Stanley] Kubrick movie, but better,” Farquhar enthused at the time of the installation. “You’re not seeing a performance—it’s all about the building. It’s the building playing itself.”

In its decrepit state, the site has attracted architects, bored youths, and graffiti artists. Image © Alan McAteer

St. Peter’s was designed by architects Andy MacMillan and Isi Metzstein of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, a venerable Scottish firm seasoned in Modernist churches (several of which have, unfortunately, been demolished). Built to house 102 priests, it began its decline nearly as soon as it opened. The conciliatory reforms of Vatican II, which directed that priests be trained in their communities and not in isolation, threw the seminary’s purpose into question. Despite operational costs and some design defects, it clung on until the 1980s, when it briefly served as a drug rehabilitation center and then was vacated altogether.

Architects have ventured in pilgrimage to the Modernist masterpiece ever since. MacMillan and Metzstein lifted heavily from the postwar volumes of L’Oeuvre Complete, Le Corbusier’s self-produced monographic series, pilfering shapes from the chapel at Ronchamp and La Tourette convent. The Maisons Jaouls, too, provided unlikely inspiration, that project’s network of tight vaults reworked at St. Peter’s with great imagination. The floating Breuer-esque ark of the classroom block, however, appears as a non sequitur—a jarring, if not unwelcome, intrusion into this reliquary of Corbusian form.

In late March, Glasgow-based public arts group NVA staged a light-and-sound show to illustrate the site’s potential. Image © Alastair Smith

Visitors didn’t need prior knowledge of Le Corbusier, nor of the handful of secondary architectural references embedded in the seminary’s design, to probe the mystery of Hinterland. The well-attended happening, which kicked off the yearlong Festival of Architecture, is a placeholder of sorts and powerfully suggests just how the site might eventually be used for exhibitions, installations, and performances. “NVA’s project has really captured the public’s imagination,” says Neil Baxter, secretary of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and a festival organizer. “They have taken this high Modernist architectural model and turned it into one of the most successful cultural events ever organized in our country.”

The organization recently received funding to convert the seminary into an arts and education center. Parts of the structure will remain as a ruin. Image © Alastair Smith

For Farquhar, the fulsome public support of Hinterland, coupled with the awarding of the funds needed to continue the project, comes as a relief, if not “emotional fireworks.” Plenty of work lies ahead, with the last stages of clear-up due to begin and the restoration (by Avanti Architects) following thereafter. Just as crucial is an upcoming public assembly to establish the principles of the center. “It will be an agora, a setting in which free people can debate,” Farquhar intimates. “Fifty years ago when they built this place, they were optimistic about the future, but now the world’s become tougher. I want to use this place to celebrate human values but also to have a debate—a good rammy.”

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© Leonardo Finotti

• Architects: Triptyque
• Location: Rio De Janeiro, RJ – Brasil
• Partners: Greg Bousquet, Carolina Bueno, Guillaume Sibaud, Olivier Raffaelli
• General Manager: Luiz Trindade
• Project Manager: Marcea Sampaio, Paula Megiolaro, Vinicius Capella
• Area: 4728.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Leonardo Finotti

• Team: Danilo Vicentini, Juliana Becker, Renan Bussi (arquitetos), Francine Ouriques (estagiária)
• Client: NATEKKO
• Landscape: Bia Abreu

© Leonardo Finotti

Triptyque, a Franco-Brazilian architecture agency dedicated to sustainable design, conceived in Rio de Janeiro the first commercial building based on the positive energy concepts in Brazil. This unique project combines daring design with sustainable development innovative technologies.

© Leonardo Finotti

RB12 contributes to the urban revitalization of downtown Rio de Janeiro, project called Porto Maravilha representing 5 million m2 processed to improve living conditions of inhabitants and the protection’s heritage.

© Leonardo Finotti

Located in Rio Branco Avenue, within the business and economic center of Rio de Janeiro, RB12 embodied an innovative new concept of sustainable development based on energy production, thus following the global trend of green-refurbishment which consists in adapting and upgrading old buildings in order to align them with sustainable development criteria. The technical device set up for the first time, allows an optimal management of the water consumption, optimize the natural light and so offers an upper wellbeing to real estate buildings.

© Leonardo Finotti

RB12 has a bioclimatic façade, which consists in a set of windows that plays with light like a diamond. It is the first commercial building in Brazil that uses photovoltaic panels for its own electricity production. RB12 anticipates the Brazilian law change which currently not allow the power auto-production apart from the solar panels, indeed the building already provides the places for the future fuel cells that will transform the gas street into electricity.

© Leonardo Finotti

© Leonardo Finotti

© Leonardo Finotti

The suspended gardens on the terraces allow the optimization of the cooling and the thermal control of the interior areas.

© Leonardo Finotti

All these architectural high-end technologies enable the reduction of energy consumption but also increase savings for owners. 

Sun Exposure

Natekko, the French market leader in sustainable construction, is the creator of this new concept of office building. MMC Investimentos is responsible for the project management.

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Courtesy of rouby hemmerlé architectes

• Architects: rouby hemmerlé architectes
• Location: 67170 Donnenheim, France
• Area: 2412.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Courtesy of rouby hemmerlé architectes

Courtesy of rouby hemmerlé architectes

From the architect. Rouby Hemmerlé architects think about a high quality architecture, they are looking for sobriety, sincerity and reliability.
Everyday, the school building must be healthy and pleasant place with generous and luminous interiors spaces.

Courtesy of rouby hemmerlé architectes

The establishment of this project meets two major intentions:

-The building emerges in the landscape; it’s identifiable in an intercommunal scale.

-Suggest an intermediate scale, a transition between big public equipment and little houses of the village. This place is dedicated to childhood, with more privacy, variety and sweetness.

Courtesy of rouby hemmerlé architectes

There are other guidelines like: the large visibility on a great landscape, looking for a bioclimatic implantation, flow management, access control, identification and separation of course, protection of noise and visual pollution.

Courtesy of rouby hemmerlé architectes

Floor Plan

Courtesy of rouby hemmerlé architectes

The internal distribution is organized around a common hall of distribution, a real place to live, that play the role of a lung. In the South, there is the nursery school, extracurricular equipment, multivalent room, library, administrative local.

Courtesy of rouby hemmerlé architectes

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© Ricardo Santos

• Architects: Estudio ODS
• Location: 8800 Tavira, Portugal
• Architect In Charge: Estudio ODS
• Area: 185.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2012
• Photographs: Ricardo Santos

© Ricardo Santos

From the architect. Town house refurbishment in Tavira, Portugal.

In an consolidated urban context of Tavira inner city an narrow lot with peculiar limits holds a old house with two floors and a roof attic. Over time the lot has changed its limits and new constructions were had blocking the natural light and ventilation. The house is located between two streets; the main access is made in the north side and a secondary access is made by the south throw a especially narrow corridor.

© Ricardo Santos

The depth of the lot suggest us a courtyard in the middle that allows natural light and ventilation to come inside. The courtyard works as the new center of the house in which an exterior three level promenade is initiated.

© Ricardo Santos

Axonometric

© Ricardo Santos

The exterior stair works has a connection element of the three levels promenade; starting in the ground floor courtyard which offers light and ventilation to the living room and the kitchen; following to the next level terrace to a raised water tank; the last level terrace offers a unique view cityscape view of Tavira and a roof attic.

© Ricardo Santos

The program is separated by levels: ground floor holds the social areas; entrance room; living room; kitchen and wc; the first floor holds the private areas with the two bedrooms and a bathroom. The roof attic a extra space is offered with direct relation with the terrace.

© Ricardo Santos

The materials used seek for the simplicity found in Algarve’s vernacular architecture; in the ground floor the hydraulic mosaics cover all the interior spaces; the first floor solid wood for private areas and outside areas a grey polished concrete covers all the areas.

A red door spots the house in both elevations.

© Ricardo Santos

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