“I always liked play as a form of learning; toys are often a prelude to serious ideas,” says Federico Babina about his latest series of illustrations, titled ARCHICARDS. “The game can also be a thought experiment. I’m interested in playing with architecture’s seriousness and illustration’s lightheartedness.”
Babina’s illustrations turn 12 of the architecture world’s most recognizable faces into card-game caricatures, accompanied by the designs and symbols that most characterize their design style. Whether it’s the dislocated planes of Mies van der Rohe (a Jack), Queen Zaha Hadid‘s jagged curves, or the modulor man that accompanies Le Corbusier – who is, of course, a king – Babina’s playing cards are loaded with design references. They might indeed have some educational value, but they are mostly, as Babina points out, for “serious fun.”
This is a chapel, or a small church, built in a particular house for particular people – the brotherhood of Instituto Missionário Pio Sociedade de São Paulo. The project brief is based on principles that don’t necessarily concur: it should be the central area for a house of many homes; a space for prayer and for communication; a place of intimacy as well as assembly.
The chapel, consecrated to Jesus Master, sits within Quinta Rainha dos Apóstolos, in Apelação, on the outskirts of Lisbon. This is a rural plot, overlooking a broad valley open to the river Tagus, where the Institute has been located since the 1970s. The existing complex includes a pair of long 4-storey blocks sitting on a ground-floor podium, originally used as a warehouse. This was the area chosen to locate the chapel, taking advantage of its central position in relation to the spaces where to live, to work, to welcome and to pray. The chapel therefore operates as the heart of the Institute, both physically and symbolically; it provides the link between members of the brotherhood and reaches the wider lay community through their publishing/ missionary activities.
The project reuses the existing building and aims to provide it with a new meaning; this is done through a process of austere and rigorous designing, which relies on the simplicity of volumes, natural lighting and inherent qualities of proposed materials. The concrete structure is retained, bare and imperfect but suitable nevertheless, and somehow up-lifted by the new context. The room is revealed as a whole and wide space, without artifice or excess: a backdrop for the liturgical fittings to enhance and impart with a sacred and theological sense.
Among those, the central altar stands out. This is built in solid timber, with no delineation of presbytery – a place for all, without hierarchies. In conjunction with the pulpit, this allows a wide range of layouts and different degrees of intimacy for liturgical celebrations: private celebrations with community brothers gathered around the altar with the garden behind (orientation north / south); regular celebrations with lay assembly (placed along the longitudinal axis with the celebrant facing west); and festive celebrations that fill the chapel (orientation north / south).
Section
The Cross is designed as an integral part of the celebrations and the building. It is physically connected to the concrete structure through an interlocking joint, but can be disengaged to be carried in procession, thus marking the beginning and the end of celebrations.
The internal space is strongly marked by two joinery elements, both with clear liturgical function: the sacristy to the west side, which includes the confessional booth open to the garden, and the partition wall to the south side, which frames the depictions of Jesus Way of the Cross. This wall does not enclose the chapel completely: it allows for the room to be perceived as a whole, through glimpses of the corridor behind it providing connection between the existing buildings.
The external space to the north replicates the volume of the chapel. More than a mere garden, this area is designed as an extension to the praying space. Part of the whole through geometry and materiality, it adds water and vegetation to the simplicity of the set. Public access to the chapel is granted from the south, identified by a timber door with an engraved cross and a bell, both designed in line with the general principles of the project.
The brief required depictions of particular devotions of this brotherhood to be included. These were considered from the start as part of the design, instead of later additions. Original art work was executed in situ by Bartolomeu de Gusmão, on walls and joinery surfaces, creating an intense and global relationship between the space and the religious community. Together, the space and the elements that populate the space convey a clear and critical message to its users – reinforcing the sense of belonging and sharing that imbued the original commission.
When ArchDaily published “Live on the Edge with OPA’s Casa Brutale” in July of last year, we expected it to be popular on our site, but few anticipated exactly how much attention the project would receive—enough to secure a position in the top 10 most read articles on the site in 2015. But what happened next was perhaps more astounding. By the end of the week, the project had been picked up by the gamut of non-architecture news outlets ranging from Slate to Yahoo to CNET to CNBC. For a few short days, it became difficult to traverse the wild expanses of the internet without a sighting of the project’s lead image, typically accompanied by a hyperbolic headline along the lines of “This Beautiful, Terrifying House is Literally Inside a Cliff.”
But despite the enormous traction, with seemingly impossible features like a clifftop, glass-bottomed swimming pool, the project still seemed to be destined for “paper architecture” status. Yet fast forward to today and the house has (incredibly) found a willing client, and is about to break ground on construction. How did this happen, and what takes architecture from viral sensation to real-life construction project?
Courtesy of OPA
Casa Brutale was conceptualized as an inverted Casa Malaparte, a tribute to Brutalism carved from the edge of a cliff; in the words of its designers, “an unclad statement on the simplicity and harmony of contemporary architecture.” According to OPA founding partner Laertis-Antonios Ando Vassiliou, the goal of Casa Brutale from its inception was to become a viral phenomenon:
“The whole project was designed for almost 4 months (March to July 2015) in order to “break the internet”. We wanted to create a sensation in every possible way and through this project to actually showcase our platform as this project describes fully our aesthetics and design philosophy.”
Courtesy of OPA
The term “break the internet” was famously made popular as the caption to a Paper Magazine cover featuring a voluptuously photoshopped Kim Kardashian which, not unlike Casa Brutale’s moneyshot image, features seemingly impossible structure and a physics-defying water feature. And break the internet it did—within two weeks, Casa Brutale had been featured on an array of news sites, inspiring comments more polarized than those on design blogs, including quotes such as “far more impressive than Falling Water.”
At this point, OPA recognized that taking the project from screen to cliff would require some significant engineering talent, and the firm contacted the Arup headquarters in London to see if they would be willing to consult on the house’s construction. Intrigued by the media attention and the bold scheme, Arup Amsterdam agreed to work with OPA on all the engineering required to put a house literally into a cliff, including Structural, MEP, Building Physics and Geotechnical services.
Courtesy of OPA
By August, OPA had even been contacted by an independent film studio that collaborates with a major global documentary channel, who asked to film the construction of Casa Brutale if and when they found a serious client. Since the project’s publication, OPA had received multiple emails “from developers, trust funds, potential clients and some scams that were all interested in realizing the project. We followed-up with all of them,” explains Ando Vassiliou. In the end they didn’t need to wait long—“one email read more serious and ambitious”—and by the end of October, their client had flown to Amsterdam to meet with OPA and decide on the site: the edge of a mountain in Lebanon at an elevation of over 1600 meters.
Courtesy of OPA
Truth be told, without the project’s viral reaction, Casa Brutale would likely never have seen the light of day; OPA had originally contacted several developers in Greece and was told that “they only collaborate with famous architects.” It was then that OPA chose to publish online, something Ando Vassiliou recognizes and advocates for other architects to take advantage of:
“Since we’ve succeeded so far, we would definitely encourage our colleagues to follow the same path: dream big, design big, publish big. We’ve been through some tough unemployment periods and we know for sure that the job safari is not the most creative task. By chasing the viral idea at least you sharpen your skills and strengthen your portfolio with interesting projects.”
Casa Brutale’s success has led to many new opportunities for OPA. They received invitations to two invited competitions, including a win for their design of the European Commission pavilion at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, and are currently working on additional projects in Lebanon, Tokyo and South Africa. They’ve also released images for the latest in their cliffside series, Lux Aeterna, a church whose front profile takes the shape of a cross. Time will tell if the building receives a similar treatment to Casa Brutale, or if the market for cliffside structures has, at least for the time being, reached saturation.
Renderings of Lux Aeterna, the cliffside church which is OPA's follow-up to Casa Brutale. Image Courtesy of OPA
What is the takeaway from all of this? Clients and laypersons may hold more power over architecture than ever before. Viral architecture is not about the architect, it’s first and foremost about the clients, who seem to have recognized architecture’s mass potential as a marketing tool. This can manifest as promotional material for an event or institution, like the aforementioned Mobile World Congress 2016, or as a piece of swagger on the belt of the ultra-rich patron.
Everyone wants to be the one to go viral. With apps like Snapchat allowing people to post videos of their homes for anyone to see, the MTV Cribs experience is no longer reserved for pop culture celebrities (even as Cribs itself is being resurrected on Snapchat). It’s increasingly clear that the internet is “where the magic happens.” You can debate whether this is an affront to the artistic integrity of architecture, but for the aspiring firm looking to stand out from the crowd, there’s no better path to success than through the love of the people.
How to Create Viral Architecture
Courtesy of OPA
So for architects looking to garner a little self-promotion of their own, where does one begin? Let’s take a look at our case study. What was it exactly that made Casa Brutale into a viral phenomenon? The answer lies in how people use the internet: as viral memes travel from webpages to Pinterest boards to Instagram feeds, a complex project is boiled down into a single image. And with so much other content available, that lead image is often the only chance to grab a viewer’s attention. Looking closer at that image, you find 5 clear reasons why Casa Brutale may have succeed where others have failed:
1. Bold, Simple Concept
In the fast-paced world of internet browsing, there is a whole lot of competing information and little time for nuance. To stand out from the crowd, a project must look radically different and be easily understandable. This phenomenon can be seen in the diagrammatic architecture of firms like BIG, where every project comes with a predetermined icon and nickname. Casa Brutale is clear about its concept (house in a cliffside) and doesn’t distract from it with other imagery.
2. Fantastical, yet unspecific site
Casa Brutale can only be located on a cliffside—but apart from that, where are we in the world? Ask 10 different people where this might be located, and you’ll likely get 10 different answers in return. This allows people to envision the house within their own constructed environment, whether it’s grounded in fantasy or reality. Case in point, the original design proposal mentions a site in Greece, but the final building will be located in Lebanon.
3. Visual and Sensory Contrast
One of Casa Brutale’s key features is its rooftop pool surrounded by nothing but a dry wasteland environment. This trick entices both visually—the pop of blue in a sea of brown—and sensually, quenching the viewers’ sudden thirst. Plus, nearly everyone dreams of someday having their own private pool.
4. Don’t be afraid to court controversy
Whether or not this house can truly be classified as Brutalist, it is without a doubt presented in a cold, calculated style. It comes as little surprise that many authors have noted its resemblance to a Bond lair. And while this certainly adds to the house’s sense of cool, it has also triggered many negative reactions among commenters on news sites—and as anyone who has read a comment board knows, people are more likely to click on an article to leave their dissenting opinion than a positive one.
5. Trust your gut
What’s popular is constantly changing, and the differences between a viral hit and a flop are often subtle. Projects that go viral seem to tap into the public spirit in a unique way, whether it’s through use of a new material or a recently-possible engineering feat. To go viral, a project must show that it’s learning from and responding to what’s popular.
It remains to be seen whether or not placing power over what gets built into the hands of non-architecturally-educated internet users is good for architecture, but as architecture evolves to keep up with the trends of the day, architects must use every tool available to them to make themselves seen. Casa Brutale is one example of a conceptual project that found success through its wild intentions. The only question now is: what will go viral next?
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is the legacy of circus entrepreneur and art collector John Ringling and his wife, Mable. The Museum—which features both a permanent collection and temporary exhibition galleries—sits on a historic sixty-six acre estate that also includes the Venetian-Gothic Cà d’Zan mansion, the winter-residence of John and Mable Ringling, the Tibbals Learning Center, the John M. McKay Visitors Pavilion (housing the Historic Asolo Theater), the Johnson/Blalock Education/Conservation Building and The Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing. Believed to be originally envisioned as one of the most comprehensive art museums in the world, the Museum was ahead of its time in assembling a significant collection of Asian Art. Now governed by Florida State University, the Museum establishes the Ringling Estate as one of the largest museum-university complexes in the United States.
The Asian Art Study Center is an addition and ‘gut renovation’ and to the West Wing galleries on the southwest corner of the Museum complex. The renovation converts approximately 18,000 square-feet of existing gallery space from temporary exhibition space to permanent galleries for the museum’s growing Asian collection. A 7,500 square-foot addition houses new gallery space and a multi-purpose lecture hall. The Asian Art Study Center also includes innovative study/storage space and seminar rooms for scholars, researchers and students.
The addition’s façade is composed of deep-green, glazed terra cotta tiles that address the client’s requirement of a new monumental entrance. The façade relates to the natural environment of the Museum’s extensive landscape, and its color and chiseled profile are reminiscent of the Cà d’Zan mansion’s ceramic detailing. Machado Silvetti collaborated closely with Boston Valley Terra Cotta to develop the color, form and installation technique for the panels. The over 3,000 tiles provide a high performance, visually striking building envelope that redefines the functionality of the surrounding site by activating the existing courtyard and by addressing circulation and infrastructure needs of the site.
Twelve years after Santiago Calatrava revealed his design for the World Trade Center Oculus, the PATH station finally opened to the public in March. Although not officially confirmed by the Port Authority, the total cost of the Oculus is estimated to be nearly four billion dollars – almost double the original budget. The Real Deal has broken down the big-ticket costs that went into the making of the Oculus.
The design of the structure, building underneath the subway line, and Hurricane Sandy, among other reasons, all contributed to the extreme increase in the budget. The overall architectural design cost alone totaled roughly 405 million dollars, the skylight, which will open once a year on September 11, cost 32 million dollars, and the construction costs swallowed almost one billion dollars.
Read more about the big-ticket fees of the decade long construction, here.
In spite of architectural inhomogeneity, gradual restructuring and devastation of original historical forms, the atmosphere of the community, especially in the central area is predominantly traditional – rectangular buildings with pitched roofs dominate the built environment. Regardless of the fact that the site is located on the boundary between historical and modern housing, the intention was to follow the architectural principles of former traditional built environment, as advised in the local zoning regulations.
Plan 1
The house of simple traditional shape, similar to the former building in height and size, fits appropriately within its environment. The main living area, situated on the ground floor in the center of the house is open to the height of the rooftop. Large glazed wall opens the central space to the garden. At the same time, light penetrates the interior via longitudinal window in full length of the opposite wall. The living space is defined by transverse walls dividing the space from the adjacent rooms on the ground level and the attic. Full width glazing of the living space creates the illusion of two detached buildings. This illusion is supported by interior windows of the level rooms open to the living space. This principle aims to create the atmosphere of a „living hall“ and relieve the sense of confined space. Whilst opening to the exterior, the atmosphere of being sheltered in between two houses, on a roofed courtyard prevails. The attic dwelling units, situated each on the other side of the house, connected via bridge are hereby intentionally separated.
Courtesy of Atelier K2
The northern part of the living space is characterized by contemporary fireplace and a bookcase, behind which stairs to the upper level rise to the center of the bridge.
The bridge, designed as a timber glue-laminated beam (U shape), does not burden the perception of the space, bearing simple appearance of a large solid piece of timber.
Courtesy of Atelier K2
With perpendicular relation to the house in the direction to the garden, a garden pavillion is situated. Part of the pavillion is an outside seating sheltered by the roof, the other half (with a basement beneath) serves as a storeroom for garden equipment and furniture.
From the architect. The design for the Cultural Park Castellum Hoge Woerd is based on an architectural and landscape interpretation of an ancient Roman Castellum (fort), and represents an important – and unique – cultural heritage site in the Netherlands. It includes a theatre, restaurant, museum, environmental/sustainability centre, courtyard for events, and an outdoor area used for community programs.
The Lower Germanic Limes, once the border of the Roman Empire, is an archaeological line that stretches along the Rhine between Finxbach in Rhineland-Palatinate and the mouth of the Old Rhine at Katwijk. The Lower Germanic Limes are part of the European Limes: an elongated collection of archaeological sites running from the Antonine Wall in Scotland to the Black Sea in Romania, which once formed a single coherent military system. The Limes are also known as the largest archaeological monument of Europe.
The Castellum is built right on top of the contours of the remains of a Roman fortress. These are protected and viewed as an archaeological monument, and by defining them with a new building, the public can gain insight into life at the border of the Roman Empire – the ‘Limes’ – in the Netherlands.
While archaeological sites elsewhere in the Netherlands usually remain hidden beneath the surface, here the site is stimulating, engaging and tangible for the public. The Castellum also contributes to the identity of the Leidsche Rijn, the largest residential construction site in the Netherlands since 2006.
The complex has two defining elements: the ‘walls’ that follow the contour of the old fortress and the pavilion that breaks this defensive line.
The fort was built on an archaeological monument, right where 2000 years ago there was a Castellum. The ground has substantial differences in height: Hoge Woerd means “a natural drake”. However, the floor is on a single level. The ‘walls’ are 5.5 meters wide, and can be used for different activities. The height of the walls ranges from 4.5 to 6 meters. The facades are made out of wood, just like an ancient fort but with a contemporary system, consisting of a clear grid of steel frames with wooden slats. This system is applied both on the inside and outside. There are four entrance gates with a height of 10 meters.
Deviation from a traditional Castellum can be found in the added pavilion building. The reason for this addition lies in the desire to find a space for the Meern 1, a completely intact two thousand year old Roman ship, found and excavated during the development of the Leidsche Rijn. The pavilion is also the best solution to provide a modern auditorium for 250 visitors. The pavilion building cuts through the walls of the Castellum and it represents the only element that crosses the fort and provides a view to the courtyard. The facades of the pavilion consist of patterned aluminium panels, making reference to the history of the place.
Ground Floor
Inside the pavilion, functions are combined. The foyer of the theatre merges with the restaurant and provides an exhibition space for the Roman ship. The ship lies on top of glass sheets and around it people can read about its history.
The Monuments Commission have established clear criteria regarding building on such valuable archaeological ground. One of these provides that the ground can be compressed by approximately 10 cm. To achieve this at the Castellum, a 2 meters deep sand layer was used to compress and prepare the under-ground. One meter was then removed, and the remaining one-meter embankment was used for the foundation strips and for the piping. This is to prevent damage to the archaeological substrate. Almost the entire complex is built on sand, without a pile foundation with the exception of the theatre on the first floor of the pavilion. Here four clusters of foundation piles are used, thus giving the pavilion a hybrid foundation.
Sketch
At the entrance side of the Castellum there is an informal square where the location of the old bathhouse is marked with grass and cortex steel. The fort is surrounded by ditches, and grass slopes in the landscape indicate place where the Old Rhine used to flow.
The courtyard is an open grass field. The ancient Roman roads run like a cross through the terrain and extend through the gates. Visitors are free to interpret and use the inside space, which provides a safe atmosphere, a lawn surrounded by a six meter high wooden fort.
On the east side of the building, there is an open field for community activities. There are many different gardens with different purposes. To facilitate those activities: a stall, a storage, a apiary and a greenhouse. These buildings form an ensemblein terms of materials and playful positioning in the country, and represent an added value to the Castellum complex.
Section
Section
SKETS, in addition to conducting the architectural work, was also responsible for the design of the interior and acted as a supervisor in the design of the museum exhibition. The building is designed by bringing together a number of different perspectives, where the cooperation between the various disciplines is essential. The architects played a directing and guiding role in ensuring this.
The project was completed in late 2015 and is the final phase of the transformation of industrial units to studio spaces in South London for a sculptor and artist Sir Anish Kapoor. The project provided 3 new studio spaces. The artist works with differing media and processes and required flexible spaces for the unique processes to make work within self contained environments.
The brief asked for 7.5 meter high volumes with a roof structure having the load capacity to suspend a 3 metric tonne hanging load at any one point. The new spaces are naturally lit through diffuse glazed roof lights and 4 meter high clerestory pro led glazing onto the east facing street elevation.
The 1950’s pro led clerestory glazing maintained the architecture of the discrete and the ordinary. Large works have direct loading possibilities from the street.
Plan
Studio V The free spanning mezzanine provides a differing scale of studio space within a higher volume. Walls are a mix of self coloured in fill brick panels, smooth plastering or retained surfaces with the history of the artists interventions marked on the surfaces. The steel roof frame at 7.5 meter above floor level allows point suspension loads of 3 metric tonnes on any beam, significant loads from larger artworks can be spread over the complete roof system. The construction of the roof relied on normal industrial pro led insulated roof sheeting.
Studio VII The workspaces are flexible, used to layout and test exhibitions and fabricate works. Spaces maintain the atmosphere of a work place with a palette of materials and details from industrial architecture. Studio workspace with direct access to the street for loading of works. New space under mezzanine used as testing space for artwork replicating typical gallery environment.
The architecture was created for my client Linda Starkman, a horse women, and is named after the site known as Fox Hollow. She had owned the property for 25 years before building her home.
Completed in 2015 the home took 5 years to design and construct with major overhangs cantilevering out 25′ to 75′. Concrete is used for the roof in order to control wind loads of up to 85 mph. The structure is steel post and beam with steel I beams 27 inches high, weighting 227 pounds per lineal foot.
Plan
The square footage of the house is 4,357 square feet and is woven amongst 3 ancient multi-trunked oak trees. The location of the house is a tree covered knoll which is part of a 320 acre site where warmblood horses are raised and feed is grown. The location is on the west side of Paso Robles, California.
From the architect. Based on the original “noodle rack” concept, Lukstudio has created a layered experience at the Longxiaobao flagship restaurant in Beijing where dining areas are shaped by multiple steel frames and wires.
The journey begins with a composed foyer where two windows frame the views into the kitchen on the left and the dining space beyond. Walking pass the main door finished with rusted steel and copper plate, one is presented with three volumes. Though a consistent palette of exposed cement wall, rusted-metal frame, wooden tables and display boxes has been applied; three different dining ambiences are created. The first rack has a canteen style with 3 rows of long tables and serves well the busy white collars. The second rack is equipped with banquette seating and tasteful china decorations; it entertains those who take time to savor their meal. In the third rack that embodies the double-height stairwell, one special table gets to enjoy closely the visual anchor of the restaurant: the signature “noodle” pendant.
1st Floor Plan
Walking up the stairs within two frame layers in the atrium, one arrives on the private dining level. The area explores further the potential of steel wires. “Noodles” are hung in an overlapping manner to define a dining volume. These see-through screen dividers exude an ethereal beauty that is unique for the noodle shop.
Sig Nordal 