© Julien Lanoo

• Architects: LAN Architecture
• Location: Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, France
• Area: 2260.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Julien Lanoo

• Structure: Batiserf Ingénierie
• Heq Consultant: Agence Franck Boutté
• Plumbing Consultant: LBE
• Administration: Michel Forgue
• Acoustics: Lamoureux
• Budget: €3,7M excl. VAT

© Julien Lanoo

From the architect. This project is the logical extension and contemporary version of the long architectural history of city halls. From the common houses of the Middle Ages to the birth of town halls (with the 1884 law on municipal freedoms) and up to recent times, the problem of the square is systematically tied to that of the city hall.

© Julien Lanoo

Despite this long history, architects have not developed a true typology, only an eclectic formulation of a certain number of elements: the square, the fountain, the city council hall which looks out onto the street via a small gallery called a “bretèche” or an “oriel,” a ground floor that leads to a large vestibule and serves as a hall, and so on.

© Julien Lanoo

Our proposal contains these elements. We believe that the unifying element is a sense of the contemporary, and for us, being contemporary means above all minimizing impacts, developing potential, and predicting the unforeseeable. This is why the building and the square become a single entity, and why the upper square (the roof of the PAE and CCAS) becomes a belvedere facing Blvd. Roger Dodin and rue André Malraux that leads intuitively to the marriage hall. Because of its horizontality, the building also reveals the hedge from rue André Malraux.

© Julien Lanoo

Lastly, when viewed from the route de Redon, it appears as a line that underlines and frames the entire complex. The future City Hall is the last element in the ZAC Morinais mixed-use area that opens out onto the city. With its two squares, it is readily identifiable from the heart of the Morinais area as it is from the route de Redon. The principle of its functionality is based on the clear visibility of its various services, the obvious location of the reception areas surrounding the naturally lit patios, and a spatial organization revolving around the central hall.

Section

The central hall on the ground floor contains the city’s public service offices, while the access from the upper square leads to the council and marriage hall; if necessary, this upper entrance can also serve as an entrance or exit for public officials. The Council Hall, located on the 1st floor, opens widely onto the western square. Its independent access helps manage traffic flows more easily, whether for a city council meeting or a marriage. When marriages are being performed, the couple and the guests will access the hall directly form the square, just as on days of city council meetings, thereby providing at once an indoor and outdoor reception area to participants. e general administration services are located on the upper floor. e o ces are all placed around the technical core. They respect a 1.35m framework, which will allow for adaptations to changes in the bureaucracy’s organization. e Mayor’s O ce is at the very western end of this floor, and extends to the outdoors with a loggia that overlooks the city hall main square.

© Julien Lanoo

The façades are de ned by their two layers, each one answering different needs and complementing the other perfectly. The first is a light and delicate skin of steel, which creates a sensation of visual penetration. is layer provides protection from the sun and it covers the second, “thicker” façade, which meets the building’s thermal performance needs. Within this structure, everything is about overlap, reading a distance, transparency, counter-light, and reflection. Everything is about light and character.

© Julien Lanoo

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© Cristiano Bianchi

• Architects: STUDIO RAMOPRIMO
• Location: Beijing, Beijing, China
• Design Team: arch.Marcella Campa, arch.Stefano Avesani
• General Contractor: Beijing Shengda Xin Building Deco Engineering Co. Ltd.
• Area: 60.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Cristiano Bianchi, Courtesy of RAMOPRIMO, Mengyan Wang

From the architect. The design starts from the use of the brick as central decorative element, which is also representing a connection between the Italian and Chinese cultures.

© Cristiano Bianchi

Decorative brick patterns on walls, as a direct result of the “Hutong Materials Catalogue” research that designers are carrying on the contemporary use of traditional building materials in Beijing. For the project, traditional grey bricks have been collected in the old Hutong districts, cut into slices, painted white and randomly embellished with different colors. 

© Cristiano Bianchi

For the winebar’s name and logo, the clients, a mixed Chinese and Italian couple, asked us to play with the idea of mouth (“bocca” in Italian) as element referring to both food and eroticism, and to use therefore a yellow resin floor. It was a challenge since “yellow” traditionally fights with the “idea” of wine. This suggestion became a pretext to play with some opposite elements: warm and natural versus young and pop, traditional bricks versus polished resin. Reclaimed wooden tables, along with the grey and black hues of customized furniture fabric, are helping mitigate the bright and otherwise shocking color of the floor.

Courtesy of RAMOPRIMO

Mouths also became a graphic decoration on custom-made rice wallpaper inside the bar and on the façade. Designers added some personal touch to the space by painting themselves a large stencil art work on canvas and two discs with acrylic colors. 

Courtesy of RAMOPRIMO

The bar counter is a long sculptural box made of white Corian, floating on the yellow resin and running through the whole space as a backbone. It connects visually the kitchen to the other parts of the bar: wine tasting corner; main dining area; lounge area on elevated platform that is extending outside becoming a yellow colored public bench on the street. 

Axometric

These three parts reflect the request from clients to have a flexible space throughout the day: a breakfast bar in the morning, a cozy place for lunch, and a fine wine bar in the evening. 

© Cristiano Bianchi

Concrete ceiling, walls and existing building pipes have been cleaned and kept exposed to underline a sense of urbanity and re-appropriation. The new insertions are clearly demarcated by using black iron plates, which create zig-zag shaped shelves to display wine bottles, and bend to form a staircase bringing to the private office room above the kitchen.  

Courtesy of RAMOPRIMO

To strengthen the vibrant atmosphere of the space, two large geometric custom-made chandeliers evoke the surprise and festivity feeling of the town festivals in south of Italy. At night, when dimmed low, they turn the ceiling into a romantic sky dotted with stars, while during the day they introduce a sense of spatial tension by imposing their geometric and contemporary presence. 

© Cristiano Bianchi

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Courtesy of The Open Workshop

The Architectural League of New York has announced the winners of its thirty-fifth annual Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers. First launched in 1981 and selected by a committee of former recipients and League Program Director Anne Rieselbach, the Architectural League Prize is one of the most prestigious awards given to young architects, who are recognized for their talent and forward-thinking ideas. This year’s theme for the competition, “(im)permanence”, asks how time plays a role in architectural style, means of assembly, and its relationship to program which ultimately alters expectations of architecture in an “impermanent environment.”

Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy, DESIGN EARTH, Cambridge, MA and Ann Arbor, MI

Courtesy of DESIGN EARTH

DESIGN EARTH’s work “engages the geographic to open up to a range of aesthetic and political concerns for architecture and urbanism.” This summer, the firm will participate in the Venice Biennale of Architecture in Kuwait’s pavilion.

Juan Alfonso Garduño Jardó, G3 Arquitectos, Querétaro, Mexico

Courtesy of G3 Arquitectos

G3 has embarked on an ongoing investigation which “seeks to encourage citizen participation in citymaking by inverting the existing neoliberal model for another one based in the reactivation of the collective realm.” G3 creates designs, of programatic spaces and pavilions constructed in underutilized areas across Querétaro that are approved by the respective communities.

Neyran Turan and Mete Sonmez, NEMESTUDIO, San Francisco, CA

Courtesy of NEMESTUDIO

NEMESTUDIO engages in work ranging from installations, to buildings, and landscapes. Its “speculations draw upon the capacity of architecture to define a new relational aesthetic, one that is invested in questions of form and representation while being extremely rigorous about architecture’s relationship to the city, the environment, and geography.”

Neeraj Bhatia, The Open Workshop, Francisco, CA

Courtesy of The Open Workshop

Founded in 2011, this studio is dedicated to “reconciling and empowering the role of architecture within the transforming, evolving, fluctuating, and indeterminate conditions of the city, its public sphere, and its ecological context through reevaluation of Umberto Eco’s concept of The Open Work.“

Hubert Pelletier and Yves de Fontenay, Pelletier de Fontenay, Montreal, Canada

Courtesy of Pelletier de Fontenay

The Montreal-based studio is “specifically interested in the relationship between the abstract concepts of architecture and their material incarnations.” Recently, Pelletier de Fontenay, in collaboration with Kuehn Malvezzi and Jodoin Lamarre Pratte, was named one of the winning teams in the international competition to design educational buildings for the ”Espace pour la Vie” museum campus in Montreal and their design is expected to be completed in 2017.

Yasmin Vobis and Aaron Forrest, Ultramoderne, Providence, RI

Courtesy of Ultramoderne

The office, which was founded in 2013, is “committed to creating architecture and public spaces that are at once modern, playful, and generous.” In 2015, Ultramoderne realized Chicago Horizon, the BP Prize winner in the Chicago Lakefront Kiosk Competition, designed for the Chicago Architecture Biennial. 

The jury for the award consisted of Mimi Hoang, Paul Lewis, and Anu Mathur, along with committee members Jason Austin, Gerald Bodziak, and Rychiee Espinosa. The winners, as a part of their prize, will exhibit their work at the Pasrons School of Design and present lectures.

Practice descriptions have been culled from the Architectural League, to learn more about the competition and its winners visit the organization’s website here.

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Courtesy of Blaze Makoid Architecture

• Architects: Blaze Makoid Architecture
• Location: California, USA
• Area: 6379.0 ft2
• Photographs: Courtesy of Blaze Makoid Architecture

• Builder: Jim Morrison Construction
• Interior Design: John Giacomazzi

Courtesy of Blaze Makoid Architecture

From the architect. Martis Camp is a 2,200 acre multigenerational ski and golf club located between historic Truckee, California, and Lake Tahoe. Over 600 one to five acre single family lots are planned with small groups of lots being released at a time. This 6,000 square foot development project is sited on an acre of steeply sloping, wooded terrain, with phenomenal views of the Carson mountain range to the north and west. The placement and footprint of the house preserves the natural site features through minimal grading and tree removal.

Courtesy of Blaze Makoid Architecture

Accessed from the lower part of the site, the house is a simple ‘L’, with the two wings linked by the double height glazed entry and stair hall, located at the intersection of the two geometries. A stone plinth mediates the steep pitch of the site creating both a cloistered parking court as well as a base on which the two story house rests. High stone retaining walls along the high point of the site combine with a dramatically cantilevered roof to provide extensive, sheltered outdoor patio space that includes outdoor cooking, dining and living areas. These program elements surround the open plan great room that contains living, dining, and kitchen. The den to the northwest projects out beyond the stone base, creating a secluded, glazed refuge and serves as a balance to the roof projection on the opposite side of the house.

Courtesy of Blaze Makoid Architecture

Plan

Courtesy of Blaze Makoid Architecture

Black stained cedar siding allows for the house to blend with the landscape during the summer and fall, and pose as a dramatic counterpoint to the snow cover through the winter months.

Courtesy of Blaze Makoid Architecture

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Yad Vashem, Har Hazikaron, Jerusalem, 2005. Image Courtesy of Timothy Hursley

Moshe Safdie will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 National Design Awards of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. The museum states, “The Lifetime Achievement Award is given in recognition of a distinguished individual who has made a profound and long-term contribution to the contemporary practice of design.” Safdie and his fellow recipients will be honored at the 17th annual National Design Awards gala in New York in October.

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors recipients in a range of design disciplines, but has previously been won by architects, including James Wines of SITE in 2013 and Michael Graves last year. In describing Safdie’s merits for receiving this year’s Award, the museum said:

Over a celebrated 50-year career, he has continued to explore the essential principles of socially responsible design with a distinct visual language. His humanistic philosophy on architecture and urbanism focuses on the design of the public realm and the essence of place. Beginning with his architectural thesis at McGill University in 1964 and his first built project, the seminal Habitat ’67 in Montréal, Canada, a national Heritage site, Safdie’s catalogue of work and contributions to the dialogue on sustainable urbanism are unsurpassed in contemporary practice. Safdie has been widely recognized for his enduring influence on the built environment and was recently awarded the 2015 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. Global Citizen: The Architecture of Moshe Safdie surveys the evolution of his creative process and design philosophy, and is currently on view at the Boston Society of Architects through May 22.

 

Safdie’s projects can be found across the globe, and span a wide range of typologies, including airports, museums, performing arts, libraries, housing, mixed use and master plans for entire cities. Many projects have become revered regional and national landmarks, including Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem; United States Institute of Peace Headquarters, Washington, D.C.; Khalsa Heritage Memorial Complex, the national museum of the Sikh people in India; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas; and Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort, Singapore. He continues to inspire through new high density mixed-use and urban housing with current and recent projects around the world, including Singapore; Chongqing, China; Cartagena, Colombia; Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.

Spotlight: Moshe Safdie
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© Sebastián Crespo

• Architects: Arquitectura x, Espinoza Carvajal, Colectivo Arquitectura
• Location: Ambato, Ecuador
• Architect In Charge: Adrián Moreno Núñez, José Miguel Mantilla Salgado, Kenny Espinoza Carvajal
• Area: 3760.23 m2
• Project Year: 2014
• Photography: Sebastián Crespo

• Collaborator Architect: Milagros Pesantez, María Samaniego, Mario Cueva, Cristina Bueno, Santiago Espinoza, Omar Chamorro, Julio Burbano, Juan Pablo Freire, Andrés CalderónAndrés Velasteguí, Cristhian Puebla
• Structural Eng : Ing. Cesar Izurieta, Ing. Franklin Quisalema
• Mechanical Eng : Ing. René Acosta
• Electrical Eng : Ing. Marco Ortiz
• Hidro Sanaterian Eng : Ing. Guillermo Cruz, Ing. Gonzalo Suquillo
• Promotor And Construction: Consejo Nacional de la Judicatura
• Exterior Area: 5,304.21 m2

© Sebastián Crespo

Capability to Respond

During the emergency process for commissioning new Courthouses, as part of the restructuring of the Judicial System defined by the National Government of Ecuador, the consulting company Hospiplan is invited to participate in the design of new buildings that would ¨guarantee all citizens an opportune, efficient and quality access to justice¨. This emergency commissioning implied the radical reduction of time allocated for the development of the projects, and a necessary reorganization of the processes normally followed.       

© Sebastián Crespo

Based on previous experiences, Hospiplan calls arquitectura x to lead a team capable of producing 20 projects in 21 days, located in the 3 geographic regions of the country, with a total of 45 days to develop all details, specifications, engineering designs and budgets. arquitectura x proposes a strategy to design 1 generic project with 20 variables, instead of 20 specific projects, and conforms a team with Colectivo Arquitectura and Espinoza Carvajal in architecture, Cesar Izurieta leading the structural engineering team, and all the rest of the engineering designs in charge of Hospiplan. 

© Sebastián Crespo

In the end, 18 Courthouses were designed since 2 plots were deemed inviable, and to date 5 have been built. Because of the nature of the emergency commissioning, each building was constructed by individual contractors without any involvement of the design team during the building process.   

This building is one of the specific results and should be considered as part of a system, developed in the following way. 

© Sebastián Crespo

Systematization of the design process leading to the systematization of the construction process.  

The design of these Courthouses is seen as an opportunity to emphasise the need to optimize all constructions processes for public buildings in Ecuador, by implementing a planning model based, on one hand on modular building components, standardization of production processes, light prefabrication and dry assembly methods, and on the other, on the systematisation of the design methodology, in order to produce a generic model flexible enough to be modified and adapted depending on the specific contexts and needs of each case. 

© Sebastián Crespo

The 20 programs are thus systematized according to the strict functional correlations given by the operational needs, generating programmatic modules following logic of use, be it public, semi-public, or private use, and determined dimensionally by the structural-spatial building module selected to optimize construction. The functional dynamics of these programmatic modules are also based on the double circulation system determined by the operating requirements of the courthouses, and on the vertical distribution logic of the spaces, prioritizing public use on the ground floor while concentrating private use on the upper floors.

© Sebastián Crespo

This way a series of matrices for the subsystems of the project are generated, allowing for simultaneous evaluation and decision making for the 20 cases at once, based on worst case scenarios, that is, always making decisions for one project and applying them to the other nineteen.                 

© Sebastián Crespo

General layout and Public Space  

The layout of the buildings on the site responds to one basic principle:

Public Building = Public Space

© Sebastián Crespo

The buildings´ general layout respond to their context, always generating public spaces shaded by trees in the form of plazas, small squares, broadening of sidewalks, and/or gardens and green parklets. For this purpose, the buildings incorporate open portals that define the edges of these public spaces and act as transitional space between the public interior and public exterior and corresponding streetscape. These public portals are also the architectural elements that allow the adaptation and integration of the buildings to the existing urban context, or rather become an urban ¨place making¨ model in the case of buildings located in areas intended as new centralities for their towns.

Plan 1

Structural – Spatial Grid

The structural system is in essence a steel grid, with a square, 6.30 metre module, that acts as the dimensional base for the building. A rational, repetitive and invariable structural system is intentionally sought with the double premise of achieving the most efficient use of materials, and a time effective execution during the construction process. In contrast to other more common structural principles based on diaphragms or slabs, the linear grid allows for the most flexible solutions for distribution, spatial organization, transformation, or expansion of the building. 

© Sebastián Crespo

The 6.30 meter module between axes corresponds to the dimensions of the two basic elements that form the grid: 6.00 meter long IPN beams and 0.30 x 0.30 metre square columns; this modular dimension of the grid minimizes material waste and optimizes sectioning of standard steel members. 

Section

Distribution and Circulation Systems

The circulation scheme responds to the particular needs defined by the operational system of the courthouses, with all-access public areas located to the front and on the lower and ground floors, characterized by the portals and double or triple height halls. These public areas are distributed occupying most of the ground floor and the frontal spaces of the first and/or second floors, oriented to the public space outside. 

Vertical circulation in the public spaces is solved with an open staircase and elevator placed in the centre of the building; private vertical circulation is contained in one or more cores that access all levels of the building, but are always separated from the open public circulations.        

Section

Scale, Materiality and Adaptation  

The Courtrooms are the primary spaces in the buildings, the places where hearings are held to impart justice, spaces located in a predominant area of the first or second floors above the interior public space within the double/triple height halls, they are clearly identifiable as volumes clad in natural wood. 

© Sebastián Crespo

The spatial scheme responds to an open plan principle, spaces are defined with a light prefabricated constructive system of modular fibrocement boards, used for interior walls, floors, ceilings and facades. This system allows for total flexibility of the buildings so they can adjust to new programmatic conditions, modifications, expansions, renovations, and the possibility of dismounting and recycling of parts and materials. Modular, prefab dry assembly systems also allow the efficient construction of these buildings in relatively isolated places. 

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Courtesy of We Like Today

We Like Today has released its bid-winning plan for a mixed-use leisure destination on the Brighton and Hove seafront, endorsed by the City Council. Wanting to reviving this part of the English coast as a destination for recreation and swimming, the proposal includes a 50 meter open air heated pool, lifeguard facilities, changing facilities, cafes and restaurants, yoga and exercise studios, indoor training facilities, therapy rooms, a boardwalk allowing disabled access to the beach, retail spaces, pop-up shops, conference facilities, and offices.

Courtesy of We Like Today

According to Rich Brett, creative director and principal of We Like Today, “I am interested in using design and architecture to make a difference and wanted people to feel pride of place for an area that used to be at the heart of Brighton and Hove’s leisure industries. Brighton shares a special relativity with the sea, yet at present, there is little integration between the two. The idea for Sea Lanes was to build an active and immersive destination, open up a dialogue with the sea and the local community, and revitalise Madeira Drive and this area of the city.”

Courtesy of We Like Today

Intent on a designing a property “in Brighton, for Brighton,” the shapes and iconography of the many small pavilions of Sea Lanes are meant to celebrate the characteristics of the city. In the words of the architects, “the scheme celebrates the idiosyncrasies, intimacy, variety and attitude of [Brighton].” The project is being developed with several local companies, including Copsemill Properties, SwimTrek, and Swimmergy.

Courtesy of We Like Today

Brighton’s reputation as a health resort dates back to the 1730s when British physician Dr Richard Russell proclaimed the therapeutic benefits of its seawater. Although supported by the Council, funding for this project is being achieved through private investment.

• Architects: We Like Today
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Courtesy of We Like Today

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© ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

• Architects: ICD-ITKE University of Stuttgart
• Location: Keplerstraße 11, 70174 Stuttgart, Germany
• Area: 85.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

• Project Team: Prof. Achim Menges (ICD Institute for Computational Design), Prof. Jan Knippers (ITKE Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design)
• Scientific Development: Simon Bechert, Oliver David Krieg, Tobias Schwinn, Daniel Sonntag
• Concept Development, System Development, Fabrication & Construction: Martin Alvarez, Jan Brütting, Sean Campbell, Mariia Chumak, Hojoong Chung, Joshua Few, Eliane Herter, Rebecca Jaroszewski, Ting-Chun Kao, Dongil Kim, Kuan-Ting Lai, Seojoo Lee, Riccardo Manitta, Erik Martinez, Artyom Maxim, Masih Imani Nia, Andres Obregon, Luigi Olivieri, Thu Nguyen Phuoc, Giuseppe Pultrone, Jasmin Sadegh, Jenny Shen, Michael Sveiven, Julian Wengzinek, and Alexander Wolkow, with the support of Long Nguyen, Michael Preisack and Lauren Vasey
• Collaborators: Prof. Oliver Betz (Departement of Evolutionary Biology of Invertebrates), Prof. James Nebelsick (Departement of Palaeontology of Invertebrates), University of Tuebingen
• Shell Area: 105 sqm
• Number Of Segments: 151
• Dimensions: 11.5 x 9.5 m

© ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

From the architect. The Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) of the University of Stuttgart have completed a new research pavilion demonstrating robotic textile fabrication techniques for segmented timber shells. The pavilion is the first of its kind to employ industrial sewing of wood elements on an architectural scale. It is part of a successful series of research pavilions which showcase the potential of computational design, simulation and fabrication processes in architecture. The project was designed and realized by students and researchers within a multi-disciplinary team of architects, engineers, biologists, and palaeontologists. 

© ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

Biomimetic Investigation into Shell Structures

The development of the ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion 2015-16 is characterised by a twofold bottom-up design strategy based on the biomimetic investigation of natural segmented plate structures and novel robotic fabrication methods for sewing thin layers of plywood. The project commenced with the analysis of the constructional morphology of sand dollars. At the same time, a fabrication technique was developed that enables the production of elastically bent, double-layered segments made from custom-laminated, robotically sewn beech plywood. Introducing textile connection methods in timber construction enables extremely lightweight and performative segmented timber shells.

Process. Image © ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

Previous studies on sea urchins by the research partners already led to the transfer of constructional principles and the development of new construction methods for timber plate shells. In this project, natural segmented shell structures were further analysed in an interdisciplinary cooperation between architects and engineers from Stuttgart University and biologists from Tubingen University in order to reveal additional relevant aspects. Within the taxonomic phylum of Echinodermata two species of the class Echinoidea (sea urchin) and the order Clypeasteroida (sand dollar) were identified as particularly promising for the transfer of morphological principles as well as procedural principles of growth for an integrative design process.

© ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

Together with the University of Tübingen, pictures and SEM scans (scanning electron microscopy) were performed on several species in order to understand the intricate internal structures of sea urchins and sand dollars. It was concluded that the performance of these segmented lightweight structures relies not only on the arrangement of its individual calcite plates, but also on the geometric morphology of a double layered system and the differentiation within the material. Most importantly however, the calcite plates of some sea urchin species are connected through fibrous elements in addition to the finger joints, and it can be hypothesized that this multi-material connection plays an important role in maintaining the integrity of the sea urchin’s shell during growth and exposure to external forces.

© ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

Employing the Material and Structural Logic of Wood

Based on both the biological principles as well as the material characteristics, the material system was developed as a double-layered structure similar to the secondary growth in sand dollars. The building elements consist of extremely thin wood strips. Instrumentalising the anisotropy of wood, these strips are custom-laminated so that the grain direction and thickness corresponds with the differentiated stiffness required to form parts with varying radii. Thus, the initially planar strips can be elastically bent to find the specific shape pre-programmed into their laminate. In this deformed state, the elements are locked in shape by robotic sewing. In this way, 151 geometrically different elements could be produced, which result in a stiff doubly curved shell structure when assembled.

Process. Image © ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

As bending moments in the plywood strips due to external loads should generally be avoided, the joints between segments are designed for transferring in-plane normal and shear forces only. While the latter led to finger joints at the element edges, the former resulted in the distinctive articulation of laced connections that transfer the tensile forces between segments, which play a role similar as the fibrous connections between the sea urchins plates.

© ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

Robotic Sewing for Segmented Timber Shells

Timber exhibits excellent mechanical behaviour and high potentials for textile and multi-material joints outside the scope of conventional timber connections. Especially for thin layers of plywood, multiple continuous connections are generally preferable to larger singular ones. However, glued connections generally require either large presses or complex formwork to maintain the pressure necessary for lamination.

Process. Image © ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

This project explores robotic sewing to not only join the individually bent plywood strips that form a segment, but also to prevent potential delamination. An industrial robot is employed for both assisting during the assembly and bending of the strips that make up one elements, and then locking the pre- assembled segment in shape by sewing them with a stationary industrial sewing machine. During fabrication the robot first moves the segment through the sewing machine so that the strips are connected. Then it guides the segment trough along its edge to secure the laminate and to attach the PVC covered polyester fibre membrane that form the lace connection between segments. The robot and the sewing machine are integrated and controlled through a custom software. This ensures that there is no lateral movement during needle penetration. 

Process. Image © ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

A Demonstrator on the Intersection of Architecture, Engineering and Biology

The pavilion consists of 151 segments that were prefabricated by robotic sewing. Each of them is made out of three individually laminated beech plywood strips. Ranging between 0.5 and 1.5 m in diameter, their specific shapes and material make-up are programmed to fit local structural and geometrical requirements. The textile connections developed for this project allow overcoming the need for any metal fasteners. The entire structure weighs 780 Kg while covering an area of 85 m2 and spanning 9.3 meters. With a resulting material thickness / span ratio of 1/1000 on average, the building has a structural weight of only 7.85 Kg/m2.

© ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

The overall design responds to site-specific conditions on the university campus. It establishes a semi- exterior space that integrates the ground topography as a seating landscape and opens towards the adjacent public square. At the same time it demonstrates the morphologic adaptability of the developed system by generating more complex spatial arrangements than a simple shell structure. The research pavilion shows how the computational synthesis of biological principles and the complex reciprocities between material, form and robotic fabrication can lead to innovative timber construction methods. This multidisciplinary research approach does not only lead to performative and material efficient lightweight structure, it also explores novel spatial qualities and expands the tectonic possibilities of wood architecture. 

© ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart

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© Jon McNeal

Shoehorned into the narrow space behind Mario Botta’s 1995 building, the Snøhetta-designed new wing of the SFMOMA was forced to go where few museums have gone before: up. Rising 10 stories into the San Francisco skyline, the new building nearly triples the amount of existing gallery space and adds a new entrance into what is now one of the world’s largest buildings dedicated to modern art. As the museum is set to reopen to the public May 14th, the critics’ takes are rolling in. Did the restrictive site inspire a unique design solution or limit the creative possibilities of the project? Read on to find out.

© Henrik Kam

“The pair do not make a particularly happy marriage. Indeed, after visiting the conjoined complex, it makes you wonder why one was deferentially kept at the expense of the other, while being considerably lobotomised in the process.” – Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian

The first box on most critics’ checklists was to compare and contrast the new and old sections of the building. Wainwright was especially critical of Snøhetta’s decision to remove the existing monumental staircase located under the oculus of the Botta building while replacing it with “an open wooden stair, angled off-centre and rising in a jaunty dog-leg… like erecting an Ikea flat-pack in a temple.”

But the extension’s treatment of its predecessor is not Wainwright’s only objection with the new structure; he also found the innovative fibre-reinforced panels cladding the building’s exterior to ready tacky, and the interior details continuing the “Ikea flatpack sensibility.”

“Clad in undulating panels of white fibre-reinforced polymer, which are intended to recall both fog and the rippling water in the bay, the building has an inescapable flimsiness, as if it has been carved from polystyrene like the architectural models on display inside… Compared to the carefully detailed brickwork and banded granite blocks of the Botta building next door, the whole thing feels a bit cheap, in both material quality and architectural thinking.”

© Henrik Kam

“Should the museum simply have knocked down the older building and started from scratch on a prominent and roomy site? My trip to San Francisco has left me thinking it probably should have.” – Christopher Hawthorne, LA Times

Hawthorne also took issue with the way the new and old buildings interact, again citing the destruction of the monumental staircase, but instead of blaming the expansion, he targets the original Botta building as the culprit, suggesting the museum would have been best served by giving Snøhetta a tabula rasa:

“SFMOMA has killed its 1995 building to save it, or saved it to kill it. Take your pick. It’s a strategy that might make sense if the Botta were layered or complex enough as a work of architecture to survive this kind of dismantling. But it’s not.”

© Jason Chinn (Flickr: jasonchinn)

As its own building, Hawthorne admires Snøhetta’s architectural moves, describing them as “deft,” though he worries that by tucking itself into an alleyway and obstructing views of its own facade by its bulging in key locations, the building is a little too apologetic in its deference to the existing building and neighboring centers of commerce:

“The really striking quality of that moment of aggression toward the Botta building is that is seems altogether out of character with the rest of the addition. In almost every other way the Snøhetta design is handsome, carefully intelligent, self-effacing and agreeable.”

In the end, Hawthorne laments that Snøhetta was given so little room and so many restrictions to work with, suggesting that downtown San Francisco is in need of a contemporary building with some personality:

“What San Francisco needs at the moment is a full-on and unapologetic expression of contemporary architecture and culture, granted both the space and the institutional permission to make its own statement, to be surprising, challenging, occasionally irrational and maybe even downright weird.”

© Henrik Kam

“Welcome to the new museum experience—casual, transparent and diverting.” – Julie Iovine, Wall Street Journal

Iovine sees the SFMOMA expansion as a reflection of the current trend of openness and interaction in museum design; the building is meant for the public as much as the art. She also sees the connection between old and new not as fratricide, but as creating a “one-two punch” for the city’s skyline:

“There was considerable hoopla over the removal of Botta’s monumentally boxy stairway that stacked up to a mesmerizing circular skylight. But, in fact, it was always too narrow for everyday public use. Its replacement is a less intrusive, more generous staircase that inscribes a square as it rises in deference to Botta’s love of primary forms.”

© Iwan Baan

Iovine also notes the addition’s tendency to hide itself from view, but suggests that it allows the building to feel “not vast and intimidating, but inviting and easy to navigate.”

“With attendance numbers expected to exceed 1.2 million a year, circulation—the art of moving people around—takes on real significance. Snøhetta handles this problem artfully, endowing unexpected moments with an appealing sense of craftsmanship and materiality.”

Most important to Iovine is that the museum is able to get as many people through the galleries as possible while maintaining a unique architectural experience, and in that regard, she deems it a rousing success.

“Snøhetta’s expansion has imagined new ways to experience art in a world filled with museumgoers on the move.”

© Henrik Kam

“Snøhetta’s addition is pure San Francisco, quirks and all.” – Josephine Minutillo, Architectural Record

Minutillo notes the lack of true precedent for a museum as tall as the SFMOMA extension’s 200 feet, and admires the new building’s willingness to have its own identity while still respecting Botta’s original:

“Rather than adjoining a quiet box, as minimalist David Chipperfield did at Cass Gilbert’s classical St. Louis Art Museum, Snøhetta designed an addition that asserts itself as a work of architecture in its own right, while showing the appropriate amount of deference to Botta’s aggressive pile.”

Minutillo also lauds the innovative facade system, but worries that in a fast-developing downtown district, its most interesting face may soon be completely obscured by its surroundings:

“The greatest achievement of the project is the way it is rooted within place, with its grand white facade of silicate crystals from Monterey Bay embedded in its panels’ surfaces catching the city’s dramatically changing light. It is one more voice in the cacophony of singular buildings, its own predecessor not the least of these.”

SFMOMA Expansion / Snøhetta

See the project description and drawings on ArchDaily

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© Shai Gil

• Architects: MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects
• Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
• Client : Branksome Hall
• Area: 72000.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Shai Gil

• Architect Team : David Miller, Viktors Jaunkalns, Robert Allen, Andrew Filarski, Ted Watson, Olga Pushkar, Jeremy Campbell, Siri Ursin, Jason Wah, Tarisha Dolyniuk, Timothy Belanger, Kai Hotson, Luis Arredondo, Aida Vatany, Jedidiah Gordon-Moran, Andrew Ng, Tamira Sawatsky, Razmig Titizian
• Structural: Blackwell Engineering
• Mechanical + Electrical: Smith + Andersen
• Civil: MGM Consulting
• Heritage: ERA Architects
• Landscape: PMA Landscape Architects
• Interiors: MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects (MJMA)
• Kitchen: Cini-Little International Inc.
• Construction Manager: Gillam Group

© Shai Gil

Branksome Hall was established as an independent all girls school in the residential South Rosedale Heritage Conservation District in the urban heart of the City of Toronto, Canada — now a leading International Baccalaureate (IB) World School. The campus is set within a large 13-acre property characterized by lush, wooded ravine edges and open green spaces. The city’s extension of Mount Pleasant Road divided the campus into two sides and the students cross via a pedestrian bridge.

© Shai Gil

Section

© Shai Gil

The new Athletic and Wellness Centre serves as the campus-wide meeting and gathering space with places to watch sport and provides informal studying spaces. It is a 2-storey, with green roof, building that includes an aquatic centre with teaching and training pools, gymnasium, fitness centre, yoga and dance studios, dining hall, servery, kitchen, open courtyards, ravine terraces, and administration and support spaces. The challenge was to fit the large volumes onto the building footprint and the requirements of competition volleyball in the gymnasium, with a 12m height restriction in the Rosedale residential neighbourhood. The aquatic hall is set one level lower with the gymnasium floating above. A series of transparent walkways with interconnected ground and second floors encourage students to pass by and see athletics – inspiring involvement in the athletic community. Large program spaces are balanced with intimate social interaction learning spaces with visual connections to nature and the ravine.

© Shai Gil

© Shai Gil

The new facility complements and provides a direct connection to its heritage and natural surroundings with a natural palette of materials, finishes, and textiles; with transparent views and abundant natural light permeating deep into program spaces and student commons. The subdued natural palette of concrete, light wood, masonry, stone and glass establishes an appropriate neutral backdrop to the colourful school uniforms, team jerseys and student life. Exterior glazing allow visibility to the life within, showcasing the Branksome Hall functions and creating an open and inviting public identity.

© Shai Gil

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