KAAN Architecten, in collaboration with VORM, have designed a new 11,000 square-meter Education and Study Center (OZC) for the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. The OZC will be used by approximately 2,500 students and educators on the campus. The goal is for the new facility to increase the quality of education at the university.
The design of the center mirrors the square and low form of other buildings on the campus. The OZC is nestled within the landscape, and provides ample views from within to observe the environment. The programmed study spaces are “enclosed in a green setting, as an opening in the woods.”
Along with designated study spaces, the center will also include fully equipped lecture rooms and a centrally located sunken auditorium. All of the interiors, including the corridors, are wide and tall so that the building never feels too crowded.
Construction will begin at the end of this year and is expected to be completed by the fall of 2017.
With this in mind we collaborated with the client to explore brief and site opportunities for a house that appears to reveal itself effortlessly, a series of spaces that feel meant to be.
The design concept resisted the addition of a second storey, utilising every part of the site to stitch a new single storey extension in between existing street facing bedrooms and the original garage at the rear. The need to house unique artwork combined with opportunities for memorable entry experiences, framed views and varied garden connections in the pursuit for joyful, practical and surprising spaces.
A new screened carport cradles and softens the proportions of the retained frontage and becomes integral to the arrival journey, leading to entry into an intimate courtyard at the centre of the house. This courtyard is continually re-experienced – a pivotal space between public, family and private areas.
East-west orientated galleries buffer kid’s areas from living zones, provide natural cross ventilation and welcome differing qualities of natural light during the day. The cross section of the house continually compresses and expands as it gently terraces down the site, level with the garden. Sustainable passive performance is optimised through zoning and orientation, solar power and a 20,000L watertank add to these measures.
Floor Plan
Views are deliberately framed – blade walls are embraced to house artwork, direct and refrain from specific outlooks and provide a sense of enclosure. Long sightlines are sparingly used to provide only glimpses beyond, maintaining the drama of experiencing each space upon arrival.
The little surprises – touches of brass, leather, steel and discovered gems of colour are both considered and cherished. The house is photographed as it is lived in – full of family “stuff” from daily life on display, not meant for hiding away. This gallery for living in has an abundant and experiential richness which cannot be fully described with drawings and photos alone
The Parliament of the United Kingdom has announced a series of renovations that will take place on Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben in London, starting in early 2017. During the renovation period, the tower and clock will be partially covered with scaffolding, which will be removed as the work progresses. Moreover, the clock mechanism will be stopped for several months, during which there will be no chiming or striking of the iconic bells.
The last significant conservation work on the Tower and Clock was completed in the mid 1980s and 1990s, and involved cleaning and repairing the stone, painting and gilding works, repairing the cast iron roof, and stabilizing the structure. Now, after many years without repairs, the clock mechanism is at risk of failure, and the building is at risk of long-term degradation.
Furthermore, the renovations will include improvements to health and fire safety, such as the installation of an elevator inside one of the Tower’s existing ventilation shafts to compliment the 334-step spiral staircase. Enhanced energy efficiency will additionally be created through modernized lighting of the tower face.
Overall, the 29-million-pound project seeks to preserve Charles Barry and Augustus Wellby Pugin’s original design as best as possible. A team of conservation architects is currently analyzing the original paint used to decorate the areas surrounding each clock dial, and once a clear picture of early color schemes has been built up, the stonework will be painted to reflect Pugin’s original design.
The work to the Tower and Clock is not a part of the larger, more controversial Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Program that is set to start in the 2020s.
Work on the Tower and Clock will begin in early 2017, and is expected to extend about three years. Learn more about the project here.
Since it opened to the public two months ago, Santiago Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub has been the subject of intense debate. Critics and the public alike have tried to answer whether the building, while undeniably unique and striking, was worth the $4 billion price tag that made it the world’s most expensive train station. Key to this question’s answer will be the way that the building settles into its role as a piece of the city’s fabric.
With construction work still surrounding the building – both on the site itself and at the nearby skyscrapers – photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu turned his camera lens onto the station to see how it has been absorbed into the life of the city, capturing the way the structure is revealed from unexpected vantage points and showing how its users react to the sublime internal space of the “oculus.”
From the architect. This project explores the different possibilities and repercussions of developing a new space, which in this case is an architectural device that not only takes care of a need – a workshop for an architecture student – but also modifies the image of a space with little architectural interest: the roof of a service-bedroom.
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Designing a student’s workshop or work space, a typical assignment for a student of architecture that has taken on the form of cliché, represents an interesting challenge: how do you develop a simple project using devices that broaden the space, and allow for other uses such as sleep, dispensary for materials, and a place to hang out and work.
For this project, design decisions were restricted by the need to develop a blackboard interior, or a surface that could be etched on completely and would be made of formica slate, including the walls and furniture doors. Construction decisions were restricted by market standards and materials.
Plan
Working atop a fully operational house during the construction of the project made us use only the existing, flat roof to ensure no demolition works or other intervention in the house were needed. It also ensured interesting views from the workshop. Only one month of construction was allowed, so all decisions were associated with dry construction operations, considerably accelerating the process, along with working with modulations of structural plywood to minimize material loss and decrease the amount of work to be done onsite. The floor is made of metal and everything else of dry pinewood cut in large sections of a commercial standard.
Designed like a game of cubes, seen from the street, the crèche asserts is playful character by the stacking up and setting of volumes of different materials and colors. A subtle play between the building and gardens is used to divert the constraints of the town planning regulations for the benefit of the building. The program is developed like a walking path from the street to the heart of the block, punctuated by a succession of different gardens and living spaces for children. Thus, the crèche is composed of two elements: the landscape (outside space bringing in light, air, vegetation, water) and the building containing the program. These two elements overlap and interact to maintain a constant flow between the outside and the inside. The interiors and gardens are designed at the scale of the child: “what we, adults, perceive as blades of grass, children perceive as the forest floor canopey”.
-The situation and the context of the project: the neighborhood is primarily residential, it seemed important to create a building that is identifiable as a public building. But we also wanted to create a “cocoon” for children and do not exposed them on the street. That’s why we have made the choice to position all the technical premises and offices one the street side, that’s why the facade is relatively closed. We opened the building on the interior side and the garden.
-The functionality: Our first objective was to create a functional building, which is essential for a nursery where hygiene and safety aspects are quite stricts. Once the functionality was etablished, we could work on the aesthetic part of the building.
Plan
-The early childhood program: We worked on a playful aspect by assembling volumes and colors, while remaining relatively straightforward with materials and soft colors. So users can easily take ownership and add “life”to the building (children's drawings, colorful rugs and games etc …). On the other hand, it was essential for us to work on the light, the framing and the views that are essential tools for the awakening of children. The crèche should not simply be a “building” but an awakening tool and game for children.
For the building’s structure, we have made the choice to use prefabricated materials whether for the ground and the first floor. This reduces the construction time and nuisances for the neighborhood (noices, dust, etc…). On the ground floor, you can found the technique of “insulated double concrete walls” allowing to have concrete finishing inside and outside the building (because the insulator is located between the two skins of concrete).
Plan
The concrete was simply varnished to protect it. On the side of the garden, we have dressed up the front of a wooden trellis ( larch ). On the first floor, the structure is made with prefabricated wood panels. The timber finish (pine) is visible from the inside, the insulation is located on the outside. The wood siding is retified poplar. The windows are made with aluminum. The interior furniture is made with oak veneer.
From the architect. STUDIO LOFT is a delicate flat in downtown Budapest. Originally a studio of a well-known hungarian painter, this flat has all the right features to be a contemporary loft home. The huge central space which contains the kitchen and the living room is accompanied by two bedrooms with separate bathrooms each and a small, invisible storage space.
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Naturally, the visually most engaging part is the enormous window in the central space, which is almost 4 by 4 meters. The flat happens to be located on a corner of Budapest’s central park area, Városliget, which is currently being transformed into a multi-layered cultural and recreational park (the Liget Budapest project).
The interior design concept is based on using the existing industrial features and combine them with clear geometry, raw and honest materials, like iron, concrete and wood to create a smooth, airy, empty space. Then add some colorful furnitures and art pieces and finally, add some unique lighting solutions, to perfect the visual consistency.
From the architect. The site is engrossed by nature and aspect, therefore the design competes by being bold, sharp and textural. This boldness and form is also an expression of the clients and their family expanding out of their current holiday house, a caravan.
A solid black box expands out of the ground from nothing into a duality of aspect and function, picking up more materials as it expands toward French Island and Western Port Bay. The top storey acts as a self-sufficient lookout for when it is in use by a single couple, while downstairs acts as a family extension, with focus placed on play around the pool, spa, barbeque deck and cinema. Upstairs is decadent in its finishes and complex plan while downstairs is laid out and finished more simplistically; there is a play off between warm rustic materials and contemporary decadence.
The design aims to be bunkered down and of the site, then grow, expand and lift from it. The views, planning setbacks, site orientation, prevailing winds and land fall all promoted an Easterly aspect; so we acted accordingly. We then went about making the most of the less than ideal solar orientation of the house by exposing the slab to the North, blocking the Westerly winds and sun, limiting openings to the South/street and controlling the morning sun.
The site specifics and clients brief presented a challenge for environmental design but we prevailed by including the following initiatives in the design.
Exposed slab to collect solar energy with 15-20% recycled fly ash
Highly durable decking material of recycled plastic and timber
Highly insulated and durable double-glazed UPVC windows
High grade timber cladding that will grey gracefully
Solar heated pool
Highly-insulated walls, floor and ceiling
Minimal southern and western glazing
Optimized cross ventilation
The design has a highly efficient layout and a more complex aesthetic than the inhabitants might have expected. In both ways the design breaks from their current conventions and provides a new way of being. The clients constantly say they can’t wait to get back to the house; what more could a designer want?
From the architect. Built as part of New York City’s Design Excellence program within both the Department of Parks and Recreation and the DDC, the Ocean Breeze Indoor Athletic Facility sits within a new 110-acre park being developed as a part of former Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC initiative, whose primary goal was to bring large scale regional parks to every borough. Located on Staten Island’s Eastern Shore, the building overlooks the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, lower Manhattan, and the Freedom Tower.
Now in the final stage of construction, Ocean Breeze has been open for track events since November 2015. Raised above one of the few remaining areas of native upland coastal grasslands on the island, Ocean Breeze’s minimal interior footprint – largely comprised of an open-air parking area – enhances both views and the potential for natural ventilation, while protecting the building from storm surges and rising tides.
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By far the most state-of-the-art track facility in the region, the fieldhouse program includes a 200m hydraulically banked track that can convert from six banked lanes during competition events, to eight flat lanes to accommodate large practice sessions. Meeting USATF, NCAA, and IAFF competition standards, the track boasts seating for 2,500 people, concessions, meeting rooms, restrooms and service areas, as well as a fitness center serving neighboring communities.
The project integrates green building principles through the use of daylight harvesting, photo-sensor informed lighting controls, on-site storm water management, recycled materials, and a “cool” roof which has spare structural capacity for future photovoltaic technology. All mechanical systems utilize high efficiency equipment, which is monitored and controlled through a networked building management system.
Plastique Fantastique‘s pneumatic structures were originally conceived in 1999 through necessity: “The fact that we used plastic was just due to the fact that we had no money,” explains the firm’s founder Marco Canevacci. “So, plastic was just the cheapest material we could imagine, and you can join parts very easily and you can create very simple architectures. By using a hot air blower, those architectures become warm places to stay.” By using warm air to inflate the structures, their office became a landscape of heated pods in an otherwise cold space. However, through their continued experiments over almost two decades, Plastique Fantastique’s pneumatic interventions have now come to make the case for an ephemeral, temporary, and whimsical architecture. Their work now continues a lineage started by the experimental utopian group Haus-Rucker-Co, whose own pneumatic structures of the 1960s were disposable, free-wheeling creations which both literally and metaphorically played with the boundaries of a world they saw as staid, rigid, and dull.
Last year, Plastique Fantastique was invited to the 180 Creative Camp held by Canal 180 in Abrantes, Portugal, where their giant, inhabitable Strawberry Ice Cream Cone took over a public place to provide a unique and fun spatial experience. To mark this event, Canal 180 produced a short film highlighting some key recent projects by the firm and documenting the construction of their latest work. Watch the video above, and read on to see more images of the installation in Abrantes.
Sig Nordal 