© DAC / Jakob Galtt

Bjarke Ingels has been named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the magazine’s annual list of groundbreakers in five categories: Pioneers, Titans, Artists, Leaders, and Icons. Other giants of the same field endorse the authority of each selected figure and, in Ingels case, former boss Rem Koolhaas offers poignant words of praise. “Bjarke is the first major architect who disconnected the profession completely from angst,” says Koolhaas. “He threw out the ballast and soared. With that, he is completely in tune with the thinkers of Silicon Valley, who want to make the world a better place without the existential hand-wringing that previous generations felt was crucial to earn utopianist credibility.” You can review the full profile and TIME’s complete list of people here.

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1. INTRODUCTION“The Obama Presidential Center will bring to life the vision and legacy of President Obama, including inspiring an ethic of citizenship, expanding opportunity in a global age, and promoting peace, justice, and dignity throughout the world.” (Source: Obama Foundation)

This competition challenges designers to create an exceptional presidential library for U.S. President Obama (OPL). We look for design proposals with wide reaching architectural interventions that deal with the challenging South Side of Chicago, and make a case for a sustainable urban and economic growth. There are currently two potential site locations – one on the east side and the other on the west side of the University of Chicago (see p1.jpg): The Washington Park site and Jackson Park site. You are asked to make a choice between the two sites. There were numerous alter-native site proposals, e.g. sites in New York, Hawaii, Chicago etc. The Obama Foundation has identified these two properties as the ones with the most potential, based on key assumptions, opportunities and limitations relative to their contexts.

This is a sponsored solicitation of visionary design approaches for the OPL, underwritten by Arcbazar, Builtworlds, GreenApple Campus, Forum8, and Autodesk, and seeks the expertise and creativity of the global design and planning community to bring a shared vision for the chosen site to life.

To move closer to a design solution that meets the needs of multiple stakeholders, e.g. the Obama Foundation, the City of Chicago, the University of Chicago, the citizens of the South Side of Chicago, we propose this “Design Competition” for designers all around the globe. The competition is intended to solicit design concepts for the OPL that are aesthetically pleasing, pedestrian-oriented, sensitive to neighborhood context, and attractive to the Obama Foundation and to the other stakeholders. The rough building program is provided below; however, each participant is welcome to change/adjust the program as needed based on their own research of opportunities, of comparable presidential libraries, or of customized needs and expectations of the Obama presidency itself.

2. PROGRAM“Seismic shifts in technology and communication should make the OPL the most connected, interactive Presidential Library in history. It will provide a global audience access to public records, information, and an expansive network of related knowledge and viewpoints.” (Source: RFP) Please review the Vision-Guidelines PDF document for more de-tails on the vision and guiding principles of the Obama Foundation.

Entrance Hall 7,900 sqfThe hall should be spacious and inviting, designed to draw people in from the main streets, and needs to be visually distinct from the surroundings. The entrance hall is where visitors first have contact with the OPL. The space and its functions must interact in order to create transparency and spark curiosity about what the center has to offer. The en-trance hall will serve as the central hub for public service functions. From here, visitors can access such functions as the information desk, admission counters, public toilets and the cloakroom.

Shop 2,750 sqfPlace it at an attractive and easily accessible position. There needs to be a separate back office area for staff and unpacking next to the shop. Access to storage without having to cross public spaces is desirable. The shop should be able to open/close independent of the center.

Back office 1,000 sqfIn close connection with entrance hall, back offices functions for security guards and guides, local storage for printed material, copying facilities, room for handling and counting, and emergency room.

Museum with Permanent and Temporary Exhibition Spaces 42,000sqfIt is important to design the exhibition facilities so they can be adapted to constant advances in exhibition technology. Available ceiling height should be at least 12’, with the ability to easily modify lighting and installations. Daylight is per-mitted but not required in the exhibition spaces. All exhibition spaces should have good transport connections to the loading area to facilitate receiving large exhibition items. Distribute local store rooms and equipment rooms throughout the exhibition area, while providing more significant storage needs closer to loading and logistics areas.

Public/Scholarly Library and Collections 6,800 sqfThe OPL library has to be easily accessible to visitors. The library is expected to have a wide target group and, in ad-dition to its book collection and other media, should also include study areas for concentrated reading.

Restaurant and Café 9,250 sqfRestaurantThe restaurant needs to accommodate approximately 175 seated guests. It is important that the restaurant’s location in the building both corresponds to the high quality of the range of food to be served, is commercially attractive and is well-thought out from a logistical point of view. The restaurant should be able to be opened or closed independently of the center’s other operations.

CaféA café with a more basic menu will be designed for about 100 seated guests. The café will also be used in connection with program activities related to exhibitions and this should be factored into the design. The café should also include a bar that can function as an evening venue, making the center an exciting place to visit and use until late at night. The bar is to provide direct access from the street but also connect to the central areas of the center. The café/bistro should provide a social platform for regular visitors to the center as well as an attractive environment for the visiting tourists or families.

KitchenThe restaurant and café will share a kitchen, elevator and logistical functions.

Lobby CaféA semipublic, flexible, lobby café area capable of handling 300 guests should be located in or next to the lobby of the conference area.

Public Programming Facilities 9,550 sqfThe public programming facilities consists of two small, two medium and one large meeting, storage, and workshops.

Education Facilities 3,700 sqfThe educational facilities include classrooms, studio spaces, eating area, research rooms, and storage.

Auditorium/Oval Office 5,500 sqfThe auditorium should be designed as a distinguished space, primarily for orientations, projections, speeches but also to some extent for smaller events. It should be able to accommodate up to 500 seated guests.

Foundation and administrative offices 7,500 sqfModern open office space, quite rooms, restings rooms, meeting rooms, archival offices and meeting rooms.

Private and classified archives 13,900 sqfAudio Visual lab, research and storage spaces, Document processing and storage spaces, Paint/ Storage, Cleaning and server rooms.

Private Residence 1,200 sqfLoading, logistics, Storage 5,500 sqfParking/Utilities 43,000 sqf

3. SITE DESCRIPTION AND SCOPEWashington Park is a 372-acre park between Cottage Grove Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive, (originally known as “Grand Boulevard”) located at 5531 S. Martin Luther King Dr. in the Washington Park community area on the South Side of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. It was named for President George Washington in 1880. Washington Park is the largest of four Chicago Park District parks named after persons surnamed Washington (the others are Dinah Washington Park, Harold Washington Park and Washington Square Park, Chicago). This park was the pro-posed site of the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic swimming venue for Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Washington Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 20, 2004.

Jackson Park is a 500-acre park on Chicago’s South Side, located at 6401 South Stony Island Avenue in the Woodlawn community area. It extends into the South Shore and Hyde Park community areas, bordering Lake Michigan and several South Side neighborhoods. Named for President Andrew Jackson. (Source: Wikipedia)

See attached CAD drawing for the property borderlines of the two sites.

4. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONSDesigns shall:a. be solely the result of the design effort of the designer; andb. be unique original and not infringe upon any copyright or the rights of any person.

5. SELECTIONAll submitted design proposals shall be evaluated by a team of 3-5 renowned architects on June, 16, 2016 in Chicago. Also the public should vote on project submissions and given the opportunity to provide comment on proposed de-signs. All designs shall be evaluated based on the criteria described below:

– Sensitivity of scale, massing, and design elements to neighborhood context – 40%- Wider Urban Design of South side Chicago – 20%- Quality of publicly-accessible open space and other amenities provided for in the use program and design – 20%- Impact of design on neighborhood multimodal circulation system – 20%

6. AWARDThe total award should be $10,000 in total and be distributed as such:a. 1st Prize: $4,200b. 2nd Prize: $2,100c. 3rd Prize: $700d. Voters’ Choice Award: $3,000e. GreenApple Campus Student Awardf. Autodesk BIM Award

7. SITE VISITLocal design teams are encouraged to visit the site.

8. SCHEDULEFebruary 9, 2016 Launch of CompetitionMay 10, 2016 Deadline for Design SubmissionsJune 16, 2016 Evaluation and Prize Ceremony in Chicago

9. SUBMISSION GUIDELINESi. Participation in design competition should consist of the following:A. Registration to competition at http://www.arcbazar.com websiteB. Brief description of concept (recommended limit of 250 words)C. Deliverables:(1) Larger Urban Plan, 1:1000 (1) Siteplan, 1:400 (1) Site Section, 1:400 (x) Plan views, 1:200(2) Section, 1:200(4) Elevation, 1:200(3) Perspective/Axonometric Views: a. (1) exterior free perspective/axonometric views that best describe your design b. (2) interior free perspective/axonometric views that best describe your design D. Top submissions will be notified and will be required to submit a 3D model (*.3ds, *.fbx, *.dae, *.obj, or *.dxf ) of the library within its property lines – property lines should be included for registration purposes within larger model. Forum8 will provide Project VR technology to integrate the 3D models of Top submissions, and allow users to evaluate project through their UC-win/Road software. (You can download trial version at: http://ift.tt/1o8iL4V)E. Each participating top designer or team, will be asked to upload a video (max.90sec) describing in person/team their design approach. These will be also used by users to understand the design project in more detail. F. Top designers will be asked to be available online (through video conferencing) during award ceremony in Chicago on June 16th, 2016. Exact time will be given to top designers.

ii. All submissions should be uploaded on http://www.arcbazar.com website. Submitted images shall not identify names of individuals, firms or organizations.

10. SPONSORS+ Arcbazar Labs supports cutting-edge design research into crowdsourcing and collective design intelligence to improve built environments all around the world.+ BuiltWorlds.com is a collaborative network that fosters a smarter built environment and a better approach to creating and maintaining it. Its mission is to push the $5 trillion built industry forward.+ GreenApple Campus is an educational not-for-profit organization that runs creative, challenging STEM, Innovation and Entrepreneurial programs for kids.+ Forum8 Ltd., is a cutting-edge high-tech firm in Japan that develops interactive and web-based real-time 3D simulation and modeling technology. + Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, and entertainment industries.

11. NOTIFICATIONAward recipients shall receive prizes on June 16, 2016. The selected designs shall be posted on Arcbazar’s website (www.arcbazar.com). All Designers shall receive direct notification.

12. QUESTIONSPhone inquiries shall not be returned. All questions will be answered on the project WALL. E-mails regarding questions that can be answered by reviewing this solicitation shall not receive a response. The sponsors shall periodically post relevant questions and answers on the project wall at http://www.arcbazar.com.

PrecedentsPlease check Precedents PDF document to have a summary on all earlier presidential libraries.

Project HistoryPlease check http://ift.tt/1FaS44o

Title: Call for Submissions: Obama Presidential Center

Type: Competition Announcement (Built Projects & Masterplans)

Website: http://ift.tt/1o8iMpw

Organizers: Arcbazar Labs, Builtworlds.com, GreenApple Campus, Forum8, Autodesk

Registration Deadline: 10/05/2016 23:30

Submission Deadline: 10/05/2016 23:30

Venue: South Side, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois

Price: Free

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© Federico Cairoli

Architects: TDA

Location: Luque, Paraguay

Project Architects: Sergio Fanego, Larissa Rojas, Miguel Duarte

Area: 180.0 m2

Project Year: 2010

Photography: Federico Cairoli

Collaborators: Alberto Martinez, Silvio Vazquez, Gizella Alvarenga, Hugo Lopez, Antonio Noguera, Alfonzo Avalos

Client: Familia D.R.

Structural Design: TDA + Enrique Granada

Structural Qnalysis: Enrique Granada

Construction: Enrique Granada+ tda

Construction Year: 2008 – 2010

© Federico Cairoli

From the architect. A young couple and the birth of their first born child trust us to propose their home. Economy and practicality are the basic concepts. South America, Paraguay.  

Here the architecture is subjected to the shade conditions ( 35 degrees celsius in the summer), to the use of the prevailing wind (north-east), and the protection of the raw winters with nearly polar winds (south). These elements give us the keys to rethink a better space for the integral development of the human beings.

© Federico Cairoli

The lack of economic resources is often the tool that drives us to reformulate solutions to problems that with a bigger budget we could not even imagine. This is the condition of our actions from here day by day. Aware of this situation almost revealing in itself, we think a house that is no longer an instrument of ego, we actually draw in a sacred chest where they will keep their laughs, cries, desires, dreams and aspirations of an even better future.

© Federico Cairoli

A horizontal concrete plane of 16mx5m. (80square meters) marks the covered gallery, grill, social welfare, also the place for automobiles, a total connection with the ground.

Minimum possible land occupation 4 pairs of pillars of 0.27m by 0.80 m ( 0.216 square meters of surface each) maximum floor space optimization 420 minus 1.728= 418.272 m2 of free surface area 99.58% of free ground.

Two suspended blocks of 11m2 each, contains the staircase and the services. these are at +0.80 meters from the ground level.

© Federico Cairoli

Cross Section

© Federico Cairoli

These slabs, suspended by metal clampings, are lined with a wall of ceramic pieces commonly used in roofs, cut and arranged in horizontal form building a hollow section, that in addition of providing thermal and acoustic insulation establishes a scaling tool in which is impossible to detect the coating material. The suspended volume hosts the house; it levitates at +2.80m. from the ground level. glass tubes connects it to the counters (ladder and bathrooms).

These blocks protects it from the cold southerly winds in winter and provides privacy. blind in their east and west elevations, this box opens entirely from north to south. the winds sweep the 16m window and provide natural lighting for 12 hours a day.

Entrance and Facilities

Family Room and Bedrooms

Terrace

A longitudinal run counter establishes the scale of the house, becoming a work desk, kitchen desk and desktop.

An external staircase splits the house and turns it onto the terrace. A place to visit with friends, especially at night. a wooden deck, built with formwork plates used in the construction process, gives the place a relationship with the environment. Also provides a powerful sun filter over the roof, which gives a pleasant comfort feeling within the volume without the need of artificial conditioning.

Dominating the views the house duplicates its scale, allowing them to establish new limits.

© Federico Cairoli

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The Atlanta Central Library by Marcel Breuer, currently slated for replacement.. Image via Docomomo

Like many Brutalist buildings in America, the Central Library in Atlanta by Marcel Breuer is facing demolition, reports The Architect’s Newspaper. Completed in 1980 with a 300-seat theater, restaurant and 1 million books, the building exemplifies Breuer’s sensibilities, with its brush-hammered concrete panels and Bauhaus-inspired forms. However, over the years the building has fallen into disrepair, with its theater closing in the mid-1990s, and the restaurant closing a few years later. In 2002, the city spent $5 million on restoration. Even so, in 2008, voters approved a $275 million bond referendum, which included a proposal to replace the library by Breuer with another. Despite protests from preservationists, the building’s future is uncertain, with voters clearly calling for a new library building.

Learn more about the building and the threats it faces in the full article here.

News via The Architect’s Newspaper

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via RIBA Competitions

Dublin-based Grafton Architects, who last year were awarded the Jane Drew Prize, have seen off competition from the likes of Herzog & de Meuron and David Chipperfield Architects to win the contest to design the London School of Economics’ (LSE) £100 million ($144 million) Paul Marshall Building. The new center will house the academic departments of Accounting, Finance and Management and research centres, including the Marshall Institute, with teaching facilities as well as new multipurpose sports and arts facilities. Grafton Architects are reportedly “absolutely delighted to be given this opportunity to build in this unique location in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, across from the wonderful Sir John Soane’s Museum, for a visionary client such as LSE.”

Professor Craig Calhoun, Director and President of LSE, chaired the jury panel which made the final decision after presentations from the six shortlisted teams. He commented that Grafton’s “creative design is formal but also fun, and I have no doubt will further enhance LSE’s status as a university with an estate that matches its global academic reputation.”

Director of Estates and jury panel member Julian Robinson believes that “Grafton’s design has the potential to provide LSE with a distinctive and seminal piece of university architecture, which expresses the values and aspirations of the School. Combining modernity and tradition we felt it would enhance Lincoln’s inn Fields and connect well with the rest of LSE. It’s an inspiring design and I look forward to working with Grafton and their team to deliver it.”

According to RIBA Competitions, the jury panel was eight strong including Jane Duncan, President of the RIBA, and Paul Marshall. Paul Marshall is a major benefactor of LSE, having recently contributed £30m—the School’s largest private philanthropic donation—for the creation of the Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship and towards the redevelopment of 44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which was purchased by LSE in 2013 from Cancer Research UK.

The six shortlisted practices included:

AL_A, London

David Chipperfield Architects, London

Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Penoyre & Prasad, New York & London

Grafton Architects, Dublin, Ireland

Herzog & de Meuron, Basel, Switzerland & London

Niall McLaughlin Architects + Scott Brownrigg, London

LSE Reveals 6 Schemes for its Paul Marshall Building

Jane Drew Prize Jointly Awarded to Grafton Co-Founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara

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Zhang Ke is the founder and partner of standardarchitecture, an architecture firm based in China. Still relatively new, the firm has roughly 40 staff members, half of which are from China. Despite their status as a fledgling office, standardarchitecture has already completed a varied range of projects, including urban interventions in the iconic hutongs of Beijing and tourism infrastructure in the Nepal region. In 2015, Zhang Ke and his firm were the focus of an exhibition at the AEDES Gallery in Berlin, titled “Contemplating Basics.” In this interview, Zhang Ke talks about the importance of learning at different schools, as well as his own beliefs about the duty of an architect, the importance of context and his desire to tell stories in architecture.

View some of standardarchitecture’s projects, here. 

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© Csaba Mester

Architects: Architekten Wannenmacher + Möller

Location: Bielefeld, Germany

Project Year: 2010

Photographs: Csaba Mester

© Csaba Mester

From the architect. The former factory building was converted to an inner-city living space in 2000. At total of 51 living units with various layouts were created in this listed former industrial area. One of the most spectacular was the tower apartment on the intersection of two streets, which extended over three floors and changed hands in 2008.

© Csaba Mester

Because the requirement for additional living space could only be partly satisfied by changes to the layout the idea was formed to add a further level to the tower. The architectural style of the new level purposely stands out from the existing building.

Section

 The transparent glass and aluminium structure creates a clear contrast to the punctured façade of the historical brick architecture. A small shadow gap separates the additional storey from the existing building. The repetition of existing colours does, however, refer back to the older building and facilitate integration into the complex as a whole.

© Csaba Mester

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© Christian Richters

Although Zaha Hadid began her remarkable architectural career in the late 1970s, it would not be until the 1990s that her work would lift out her drawings and paintings  to be realized in physical form. The Vitra Fire Station, designed for the factory complex of the same name in Weil-am-Rhein, Germany, was the among the first of Hadid’s design projects to be built. The building’s obliquely intersecting concrete planes, which serve to shape and define the street running through the complex, represent the earliest attempt to translate Hadid’s fantastical, powerful conceptual drawings into a functional architectural space.

Painting (Zaha Hadid). Image © Zaha Hadid Architects

Model. Image © Zaha Hadid Architects

The Vitra Campus is a vast complex comprising factories, showrooms, and the Vitra Design Museum. Since the original factory’s destruction by a fire in 1981, Vitra has commissioned replacement structures by renowned architects from around the world: buildings by Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Alvaro Siza, and several other notable designers all stand within the same estate. After a bolt of lightning caused a fire that burned more than half the factory campus in a single night, Vitra was determined to prevent a similar disaster from destroying its new campus.[1,2]

Hadid was initially tasked only to design the fire station itself. The project, however, would eventually expand to include boundary walls, an exercise space, and a bicycle shed. These elements were to sit along a bend in the main road running through the Vitra Campus. The street—and by extension, the new fire station—was designed to act as a linear landscaped zone, one that would reference the layout of the surrounding farmland.[3]

Model. Image © Zaha Hadid Architects

It was the road, as well as the factory sheds surrounding the site, that would inform the rationale of Hadid’s proposal. As envisaged by Hadid, the Vitra Fire Station would do more than simply exist as an object in space. Rather, she used the building to define and structure the street on which it faces. It would also serve to shield the campus from its incongruously traditional, vernacular neighbors.[4]

These design intentions resulted in a long, narrow structure that stretched the program along the edge of the street. The building itself is composed of a series of linear concrete walls and roof elements, with the program fitted into the interstitial spaces between them. The walls, which appear as pure planar forms from the outside, are punctured, tilted, or folded in order to meet internal requirements for circulation and other activities.[5]

© Christian Richters

The planes which form the walls and roof are formed from exposed, cast in-situ concrete. Hadid specified that the visual purity of these elements was to be strictly maintained; roof cladding and edging, which would have distracted from the otherwise crisp edges of the concrete, was avoided. This conspicuous visual simplification was carried through in every aspect of the building, from the frameless glazing down to the lighting treatment in the interiors; the very lines of light that permeate the fire station are logical and straightforward.[6]

By insistenting on aesthetic simplicity, Hadid intended to highlight the highly conceptual nature of the design. Excessive detail would detract from the abstraction of the building’s prismatic concrete volumes, reducing the impact of the concept itself.[7] The result is a highly sculptural building, and one which resembles the paintings for which Zaha Hadid was already well-known by the time she was commissioned. Her paintings, while considered beautiful enough to be exhibited in art museums, were widely considered too avant-garde to be translated into physical architecture; it is unsurprising, then, that one of her first major projects to make that step would hew so closely to its conceptual roots.[8]

© Christian Richters

The building, as in her paintings, carry a powerful sensation of movement. The impression of the building changes dramatically as one moves past it – the walls, which are visually impenetrable from oblique angles, suddenly afford a view to the inside of the garage as one approaches a perpendicular angle. Lines inscribed in the pavement reflect the movement of the building’s intended occupants: tracks curve out of the garage meant to house fire engines, while other paths hint at the choreographed exercises of the firemen. Even the walls of the building seem poised to slide past each other; in the case of the garage, two large panels actually do.[9]

The resulting impression is that of “frozen movement.”[10] It is a fitting architectural mood for a fire station, which must remain on constant alert; the design reflects that tension, as well as the potential to burst into action at any given moment.[11] With as much effort as Hadid put in to represent the nature of a fire station, it is ironic that her design saw no real service in that role – instead, it is now used an exhibition and special event space.[12,13]

© Helene Binet

Although the Vitra Fire Station would ultimately come to serve a different function than it was originally designed, it nonetheless represents a significant milestone in the career of Zaha Hadid. In realizing her proposal, the Iraqi-born British architect proved that she was capable of moving past her reputation as a “paper architect” to create architectural space that was as functional as it was radical.[14] Though Hadid would spend the next twenty three years producing revolutionary architecture, her Vitra Fire Station remains one of her most notable projects – one that stands out even in Vitra’s assemblage of exceptional architectural projects.

Painting (Zaha Hadid). Image © Zaha Hadid Architects

Model. Image © Zaha Hadid Architects

References

[1] Koivu, Anniina. “Happy Birthday Fire Station.” Vitra, June 11, 2013. [access][2] “Vitra Campus.” Vitra Design Museum. Accessed April 11, 2016. [access][3] Noever, Peter, ed. Zaha Hadid Architektur. Vienna: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2003. p144.[4] Jodidio, Philip. Zaha Hadid: Hadid: Complete Works 1979-2009. Köln: Taschen, 2009. p119.[5] Noever, p145.[6] “Vitra Fire Station.” Zaha Hadid Architects. Accessed April 12, 2016. [access][7] Noever, p146.[8] Zukowsky, John. “Dame Zaha Hadid.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed April 11, 2016 [access][9] Noever, p145-146.[10] Noever, p146.[11] “Vitra Fire Station.”[12] Jodidio, p119.[13] “Vitra Campus.”[14] Zukowsky.

Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects

Location: Charles-Eames-Straße 2, 79576, Germany

Architects In Charge: Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher

Project Architect: Patrik Schumacher

Client: Vitra International AG

Design Team: Simon Koumjian, Edgar Gonzalez, Kar Wha Ho, Voon Yee-Wong, Craig Kiner, Cristina Verissimo, Maria Rossi, Daniel R. Oakley, Nicola Cousins, David Gomersall, Olaf Weishaupt

Local Architect: Roland Mayer

Area: 852.0 sqm

Project Year: 1993

Photographs: Christian Richters, Helene Binet, Zaha Hadid Architects

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© Stefano Graziani

Architects: Christ & Gantenbein

Location: Basel, Switzerland

Area: 8079.0 sqm

Project Year: 2016

Photographs: Stefano Graziani, Walter Mair

Construction Manager: FS Architekten GmbH

Structural Engineer: ZPF Ingenieure AG

Building Services Engineer: Stokar + Partner AG

Project Consortium: ARGE Generalplaner KME Basel,Christ & Gantenbein AG / Peter Stocker AG

Owner: Municipality of the City of Basel

Client: Construction and Transport Department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, Städtebau & Architektur,Hochbauamt.

© Walter Mair

From the architect. The Kunstmuseum Basel’s new building redefines a prominent location in the heart of the Basel. As a place for the exhibition and preservation of art as well as events, it embodies both a new departure and continuity.

The new and enlarged museum consists of two buildings that together form a unified presence in the urban space. They are in direct communication with each other across the street that runs between them. The new building’s roof line is level with that of the existing structure, so it meets its counterpart on an equal footing; its entrance looks out toward the main building’s arcades, which conversely enjoy an excellent view of its striking façade. The new building’s distinctive inverted corner is a symbolic response to the old Kunstmuseum’s no less distinctive projecting corner. At the same time, the indented façade is a gesture of welcome, an invitation. It frames the intersection, effectively turning it into its own forecourt.

© Stefano Graziani

Each  floor of the new building has two exhibition tracts connected vertically by the monumental central staircase. Together with the foyer zones, the staircase describes a free and expressive  figure in space illuminated from above by a large round skylight. By contrast, the gallery suites as such are structured by right angles. The rooms vary widely in size, ranging from cabinet to large hall. On average, the galleries in the new building are a good deal larger and hence more  flexible than those in the old building, while still hewing to classical expectations of what museum spaces should be like: serene and restrained, agreeably proportioned, and made of timeless materials. These are spaces that allow art to take center stage.

Section AA

Section BB

The rooms have a powerful physical presence. The elements that define them are clearly articulated components; assembled, they generate a tectonics that maximizes the architectural effect of the whole. The galleries feature an industrial parquet floor made of oak strips glued directly onto the screed and grouted with wood cement. The supporting wall made of concrete with gray rendering is similarly explicit, as is evident in the door and window reveals. Visibly fronting it, but set back at the edges, is the solid, ten-centimeter- thick plasterboard wall that serves as both substrate and backdrop for the paintings. As exposed structural elements, the prefabricated, sandblasted concrete ribs that span the galleries visualize the load-bearing relationship between walls and ceiling. Not only do they lend the ceiling its own specific structure, they also give direction to the space underneath.

© Stefano Graziani

In the foyer, the marble flooring and galvanized steel wall cladding come together in an aesthetic whole that is expressive of both difference and harmony at once. The unusual combination of two materials with radically different connotations generates the distinctive and unmistakable character of our building, in which contemporary technology is used to implement the timeless laws of architecture.

© Stefano Graziani

The actual connection between the main and new buildings beneath the road is not so much an underpass as an ensemble of large open spaces leading into a generous hall that is foyer, gallery, stage, experimental space, auditorium, and function room rolled into one. Here starts the central staircase of the new building, which echoes motifs of that in the main building: gray, veined Bardiglio marble from Carrara on the floor and rough scraped plaster in a cooler shade of gray on the walls.

© Stefano Graziani

The façades are gray brick walls that exude the timeless and archaic air of an ancient ruin. They were designed to be self-supporting and monolithic, and their emphatic horizontality, with elongated bricks that are just four centimeters high, heightens their presence. The striking pattern of shadows cast by the alternately projecting and receding layers of brick amplifies this impression. Like the main building’s façades, those of the new building hint at classical architecture’s standard tripartite order of base, middle, and capital. This order is visualized through the brickwork’s different shades of gray as well as a frieze executed as a delicate relief.

© Stefano Graziani

The frieze, in its archetypal form, has always been part of the traditional architectural canon, but in the form it takes here it represents something quite new: sunk into the grooves of the frieze blocks are strips of LEDs that illuminate the hollows between the bricks, shedding an indirect light into the surrounding urban space. The result is a visually stimulating effect as the archaic-looking masonry begins to shine or, at a lower power setting, to glow.

© Stefano Graziani

Thus, while the new building does indeed speak the same language as its counterpart, the story it tells is a different and novel one. We understand it as neither a repetition nor a copy of the main building, but rather as an emphatically contemporary, forward-looking building capable of accommodating completely new forms of art and the engagement with it.

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© Torben Eskerod

Architects: C.F. Møller

Location: Odense, Denmark

Architect In Charge: C.F. Møller

Area: 13700.0 sqm

Project Year: 2015

Photographs: Torben Eskerod, Kirstine Mengel

Engineer: Niras

Landscape Architect: C.F. Møller Landscape

Client: The A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation

© Torben Eskerod

From the architect. The design of the new student housing for the University of Southern Denmark in Odense is based on a strong community spirit. The 250 student residences are located in three interconnected 15-storey buildings. This means that the residence has no front or back, but appears attractive from a 360-degree perspective. The building’s distinctive shape will make it easily recognizable on the campus, and clearly advertises its distinct residential content.

Ground Floor

Diagram

The project constitutes a link between the 1966 linear university campus and the new Cortex Park, a Research and Knowledge Park designed by C.F. Møller in 2009 as a more irregular and dense urban cluster. The university’s clear structure is also an inspiration for the student residence: with its layout centred on common spaces on all floors, the new building reinterprets the existing university’s manageable and human-scaled campus laid out around common environments – a sort of vertical campus.

© Torben Eskerod

The site’s terrain slopes gently towards an elongated wetland to the south and the residential building becomes part of the science park structure, with the three towers forming a clear landmark on the development’s eastern end. The three towers are rotated relative to each other, inscribing them in faceted angles of the science park, while the direction of the front plaza uniting the towers refers to the linear modernism of the university campus.

© Torben Eskerod

The dorm rooms are located on the outer faces of the three towers, where they all enjoy views of the countryside without overlooking neighbouring rooms, due to the building’s turns and twists. Each room has a private balcony, which both helps make the homes attractive, but also has an environmental function: The shading internal balconies help manage solar gain, contributing to significant energy savings.

© Torben Eskerod

Dorm_ Room Plan

© Torben Eskerod

Moving inwards from the private rooms towards the communal kitchen in the centre, areas gradually become more and more collective: A shared living room acts as a social meeting place for the small cluster of seven rooms, which all residences are grouped in, and as a transition to the fully communal spaces. The kitchens at the centre of each floor are shared by all, and feature generous glazed facades that ensure light and views in three directions.

© Torben Eskerod

12th Floor Plan

© Torben Eskerod

The common areas are not only present on the residential floors: The Campus Hall also features a ground floor café as well as group rooms, study areas and party spaces on the top floors, with roof terraces on several levels enjoying a magnificent view of the city and university. The shared areas are carefully graded from small and intimate communities to larger rooms for big occasions, to establish a balance between the common and the need for privacy.

© Torben Eskerod

The Campus Hall is a low-energy construction made from quality materials that meets the strict Danish codes for low-energy class 2020 and gives priority to public transport and cycling – a bike for each resident is provided. The building’s overall energy concept is based on the optimization of passive design parameters such as shape, orientation, adaptation to climatic conditions, daylighting, ceiling heights and structural thermal mass, as well as a highly insulated and airtight building envelope, use of natural cross-ventilation, and extensive heat recovery from exhaust air, waste water and showers.

© Torben Eskerod

The three towers are constructed of bespoke, warm-toned greyish bricks, with slightly pronounced joints. The curtain walling also appears in warm tones, in a mixture of hardwood profiles and tombac panels. Despite its unique height, the student housing blends organically into the surrounding protected forest landscape, with its own park and small lake.

© Torben Eskerod

The surrounding landscape is designed in accordance with principles of sustainable use of resources, where soil balance, precipitation and wildlife habitats are considered in a recreational hierarchy of managed areas and wild nature. A series of precisely defined plots constitute activity areas and multifunctional garden spaces with features such as volleyball courts and sitting steps. They are distributed in proximity of the building, interspersed by nature with wetlands and reeds, and linked by a network of paths, which allow the rest of the Science Park and the University to experience the residence’s lush garden.

© Torben Eskerod

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