Continuing in her firm’s tradition of blurring the lines between architecture, art and environment, Elizabeth Diller, founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is producing an opera for the High Line. Dubbed the “Mile Long Opera,” the production will be set along New York’s new favorite attraction, which was designed by DS+R with James Corner and Piet Oudolf and opened to the public in 2009.
Working with composer David Lang and sound designer Bruce Odland, Diller was reportedly partially inspired to produce the opera after learning about a Chelsea resident who used to put on one-woman cabarets on her fire escape. Called the Renegade Cabaret, the shows were held as a reaction to park patrons who were increasingly interrupting the privacy of her West 20th Street apartment.
Diller’s previous collaborations with Lang include DS+R’s “Musings on a Glass Box,” which was displayed within Jean Nouvel’s Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris in 2014.
The opera would not be Diller’s first foray into theatrical production – the architect has also collaborated with filmmaker Spike Jonze to help create the settings for his 2013 film “Her.”
“In college I’d had a fantasy of being a filmmaker. I’d taken film courses at Cooper Union and then somehow detoured into architecture,” Diller told Architect Magazine in 2014. “But the film bug never really left.”
Project The new winery offers an opportunity to reorganise and reconnect the system of open spaces with the built-up structures through the restoration of signing, associated modality and materiality that come form the world of agriculture.
The requalification project involves new spaces and new buildings dedicated to the winery but are developed integrating also the existing parts for the formation of a functionality and homogeneous image.
Plans
Section
The new building is located alongside the existing buildings to create a compact nucleus of the different work activities.
The office space is structured to be an representative image of the company, its sensibility and of the always organic production (this year it will celebrate 35 years of activity, certified organic and vegan for all types of wines produced).
In addition to the visible connections, grass surfaces have been designed to absorb the shared diversity forming a transitional environment between the parking area and the building, and daisies have been planted as a “selection” of flower traces between the vines.
A small wooden square gives continuity to the internal space of the outlet store, almost building a natural enlargement and characterized by a “pisoèra” tree typical the Treviso countryside. (Celtis australis, bagolaro).
Use of a natural material like wood blends best with the agricultural landscape, due to its coloration, regarding its “matricity”, for its capacity to age without deteriorating (the oxidation of wood in time contributes to the integration of the material into the context in which it is inserted.)
The filter / woven effect refers back to the finishing of barn facades composed and interweaved with bricks and/or vertical, holed wooden planks allowing for ventilation: a recurring characteristic in the traditional rustic structure of the Treviso countryside.
The work of restructuring will rely on this skin in order to wrap around the preexisting structure to the new intervention: along the north front the hight deformity and the material of the different warehouses in successive time will become absorbed by the resurfacing in the vertical wooden planks presenting a new facade both recomposed, reordered and harmonious.
In the space between the buildings and the new facade there is a visitor route located that from the outside allows you to follow the different stages of production: coming up from the vineyard arriving inside in the tasting rooms/meeting rooms in a constant relationship with portions of the historical (the villa) and productivelandscape (the vineyard).
Beechwood from the Cansiglio area has been utilized. The wood comes from the controlled forest of Cansiglio, a forest in which the beech tree is an endemic species destined to become a finished certified product connected to the territory, through which a selection process is carried out according to Veneto Agricultura (an official body with the task of forest management in the Veneto region), in a synergy between the Cansiglio Forest and Itlas Spa. It is a forest certified according to the PEFC scheme (Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification), that is, the principle of sustainable forest management, that guarantees the maintenance and the appropriate development of forest resources, protecting the biodiversity and ecosystem of the forest, preserving the different functions of the woods, other than the productive ones.
The choice is to promote the territory sensitizing it to its visitors towards a natural ecosystem, a forest heritage managed according to a naturalistic forest mandate, and following the criteria of the forest certification. This process encompasses within itself the precise environmental philosophy of the Cantina and of its natural products that shows also in the character of the material utilized. In particular, the wood utilized was cut in October 2015 and in part was cookfor external use and a part was laid with its natural finish (floors and furnishings).
From the architect. In a seemingly infinite territory and mostly occupied by pines and oaks, the implantation of the house marks a space and an intention. A space of pause, serenity and breathing, surrounded and protected by the green patch that filters the light and the eyesight, purifies the air and the soul and stimulates the corporal senses of who let himself be seduced by the elements of nature. An intention of materializing a perennial refuge that transforms and adapts itself to the site’s conditions and to the family that inhabits it.
The house does not begin in the physical limits of its walls, but rather at the outer limit of the green patch that surrounds it, assuming it as imaginary walls that make up a larger house, a habitat. This green patch, or better, this forest, is assumed as the intermediate and transition space between the outside (of what exists beyond itself) and the interior (housing).
The concrete volume construction sets up and gives shape to a boundary defined by employing courtyards that are outlined by the interior spaces of the house. It is the empty space trimmed and subtracted from the built volume. This design favours the organization and the hierarchy of the spaces inherent to the house, and also increases the contact perimeter with the forest, which promotes the creation of scenarios where the fusion of inhabitants and nature happens, where the visual, touching, hearing and olfactory experience is encouraged in a way to provide a sense of comfort and well-being to those who live there.
What makes a city different from a town? What is the distinction between these two seemingly similar collections of buildings and streets? Why can we trace towns back to the Stone Age, while the first city remains a mystery? Although a village and a city can be considered similar, the city has a unique and innovative element that makes it stand out: the citizens and civitas.
While villages were merely an efficient urban system for groups of people that live together, the foundation of a city entails the institution of a very concrete idea of society, of a commitment between individuals to organize the world based on shared criteria.
The civitas is precisely this idea of social order, the accumulation of traditions, laws, principles and beliefs that gave rise to the civil community. Urbs is the urban model especially dedicated to institutionalizing this idea of society. Be aware that we’re not talking about streets or houses here, but of the moment of the establishment, that is, of the foundation of the city. As Fustel de Coulanges would say, while the civitas is a time-honored inheritance accumulated over centuries, the urbs is founded in one day. Filling it with streets, houses, and shops as a consequence.
As Hermann Minkowski puts it in “Vers une cosmologie. Fragments philosophiques” (Paris, 1967, p.149), “in the beginning, the environment was a shifting ocean. It is evolution. The human personality detaches from that evolution and affirms itself because of that. The person does it what he can, that is, by modeling the environment in his image, according to both individual and general characteristics. “
In this sense, the city is not a housing complex but a cosmogonic device, which explains the origin of order -cosmos- in disorder -chaos-. The political institutions – polis – are guarantee the operation of this device and of the laws that it governs. Therefore, its existence affects the founding city form just as much as the civitas or the urbs. Aristotle already identified this circumstance in the 4th century BC and presented the act of founding a city as a practice that is bound and subject to the political regime. De Coulanges would probably propose a debate on whether the Polis is a later, more complex element, and not as essential.
With respect to fortified places, they aren’t equally suited for all regimes. The acropolis, for example, is useful to an oligarchical or monarchical regime; For democratic regimes an open plain is best, and neither of those for an aristocracy, but rather several fortifications – Aristotle, Politics, II, 8, 1.
Joseph Rykwert proposed in the 1960s that all these political and symbolic foundations share certain common elements. From the Euphrates Valley to Etruria, Greece, Rome, China, India, sub-Saharan Africa, Indigenous North America and Pre-Columbian Latin America, every foundation has represented a cosmic order and has possessed an institutional and religious center, key areas, a boundary, gates and a labyrinth. This article does not have illustrations, but the sketch I would’ve liked to have shown you is the same that you are already drawing in your head. Center, streets, boundary, gates and labyrinth. That’s it. Now the only difference between your mental picture and a true urban foundation is the unconditional acceptance that these elements build the order of the universe on earth.
Roman mosaic from the end of the Republic showing a fortified labyrinth. (1st century BC) Rykwert, Joseph. The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy, and The Ancient World Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1976. p. 166.
So far we’ve been talking about history, history in the sense that these rites and institutions feel like they’re far removed from the diffused and scattered metropolises that the majority of us live in today. If you are lucky enough to live in a small town, you are still connected to the net of networks, to the liquid marsh of data and vectors that govern the world. It seems that with the exception of some specific places like historical city centers in Europe or Bolivar Square(s) in the Americas, the contemporary city is more a system of aggregated elements than a cosmic gesture guaranteeing order. This is true, of course … only if you ignore the other half of today’s urban production: fictional cities.
Literature, theater, film and video games are arts plagued by cities. From the Old Testament to A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-), works of fiction are often developed in urban contexts, cities that by their very nature do not possess the Deleuzian complexity of modern cities. Each of the cities in the work of George R. R. Martin represents a political position and a specific way of facing the world. It’s not a coincidence that it’s one of those “books with a map”, a genre that could be considered founded by Utopia in 1516.
The opening credits of the series of HBO Game of Thrones (GoT) are a great success in this sense. In the absence of a physical cartography like the one accompanying the book, GoT’s opens with the map itself, the land. Through an abstract and stylized infographic, the spectator goes through the main cities of each episode one by one.
King’s Landing sits on a cliff crowned by the great royal palace, the lower you live on it, the lower you are on the social ladder: a tribute to Aristotle. The center of Winterfell is outside the stronghold and is shaped like a tree, as it is a city that honors the ancient gods. The Wall is not the “city wall” but the “city gate”, one that decides what’s within the social order and what is left out, the “wild”. Pentos is a city “on the other side” and its existence is based on its confrontation with King’s Landing. It is the opposite shore, the refuge of the “other” personified by the last vestiges of the house Targaryen and its allies the Dothrakis.
All these cities are urbs characterized to house singular civitas, imagined but linked to our own history. Their foundational elements are powerful, basic but revealing. Their forms institutionalize very clear political orders that the viewer can read from the very first scene. The classic practice of founding cities as messages of order survives today in these fictional cities. For many centuries to come, Rome lives on.
A trench was dug down to the solid rock, fruits of the earth were thrown into the bottom of it, and with them earth fetched from the neighbouring soil. The trench was filled up with mould, and on the top was set an altar, and a fire was duly lit, on a new hearth. Ovidio, Fasti, IV, 819.
Fifteen years ago, when I worked on the design of a high-performance museum, the concept was considered so unusual that the media questioned the very idea. The US Green Building Council (USGBC) had only very recently introduced its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, so much of the public wasn’t familiar with the concept. Over the following decade, it became more and more popular in every building type, including museums. A watershed year was 2008. The Water + Life Museums in Hemet, CA, became the first LEED Platinum museum, quickly followed by the California Academy of Science, which has been called “the world’s greenest museum.” The same year, the Grand Rapids Art Museum became the first LEED-certified art museum. By 2016, International Museum Day could highlight ten LEED-certified museums in the US alone.
But the bar isn’t very high, unfortunately. Last year, the Smithsonian completed its renovation of the Renwick Gallery, but it’s not clear from public records when or if LEED certification will be completed—although reportedly the building systems originally were designed to be very efficient. Earlier this year, the Smithsonian also reopened the historic Arts & Industries Building after a 12-year closure and an extensive renovation, but it didn’t pursue LEED, I’m told. The National Gallery also reopened the iconic East Building after a three-year refurbishment. No LEED. The Newseum opened in 2008. No LEED. Washington is said to be “in a class of its own when it comes to high quality museums,” but an article last year highlighting “must-see green museums” around the world included none in DC. What’s the problem?
At the time it opened, the Newseum’s director told the press that it didn’t get LEED certification “for reasons of cost.” This is a common misperception. In a 2008 survey of over 700 construction professionals, 80% cited “higher first costs” as the biggest obstacle to green building. Yet, even a dozen years ago the average surcharge for LEED projects was only 2%, and the additional investment typically yielded operational savings worth ten times that much, according to a widely cited report back then. By 2007, studies showed that LEED need not cost more at all, and now green building actually can cost less than conventional construction. The LEED-Platinum 1225 Connecticut Avenue, here in DC, cost about 5% below market rate construction in 2009 and sold for the highest price per square foot ever paid for an office building in the city.
Regardless, the fact that so few museums in DC are exemplars of sustainability makes the NMAAHC all the more remarkable. Its systems include “low-impact” materials, a nearly 100-kW solar array to produce energy on site, and efficient infrastructure connected to surrounding buildings to avoid redundancy. But the most impressive aspects of the building are how the basic design gestures conserve resources and enhance the visitor experience. The bronze-color metal tracery enveloping the façade is carefully calibrated to avoid undue heat gain while bathing the interior in soft light and allowing views in every direction. This lowers energy needs while improving occupant comfort (although the decision not to extend the screening to the ground floor results in occasionally heavy glare and uncomfortable temperatures when the sun is low, as I experienced one morning this winter). The latticework has another appeal that has been overlooked by reviewers and possibly by the designers themselves. As I documented in my book, The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design (2012), research shows that people generally crave the image of irregular tree-like patterns mimicking natural fractals—so much so that the pattern can lower stress by as much as 60 percent, just by being in our field of vision. The Japanese practice of forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku)—spending time immersed in wooded settings—can lower blood pressure, heart rate, and concentrations of stress hormones. Could the interior of the NMAAHC, like an artificial forest, have a similar effect?
This research relates to the biophilia hypothesis, which suggests that people have an innate desire to connect with nature and other forms of life. An associated idea is the theory of “prospect/refuge,” which suggests that we seek out places that help us feel sheltered while allowing an uninterrupted view of our surroundings. A veranda or porch is a commonplace example. The main entrance to the NMAAHC is designed to act as a gigantic porch, inspired by traditions in African and African American vernacular building, as I pointed out in an earlier article. The prospect/refuge effect of this space is about as palpable as any I’ve ever witnessed. Additionally, the deep shade combined with a reflecting pool creates a cool microclimate intended to provide more comfort during the hot, humid summer months.
Washington has been called the “epicenter of green building,” not just because the USGBC is located here. A decade ago, DC became the first major American city to require green building certifications for both public and private new construction. Annually for several years, the District has built the most LEED-certified square footage per capita of any state or district—nearly five times the next best location. My research for the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE), published earlier this year, found that DC also has the largest number per capita of projects that have won a COTE Top Ten Award, considered the premier program celebrating sustainable design. So the city boasts an impressive track record for green. With the NMAAHC now, we have significantly raised the bar for museums in the city, and Washington could be well on its way to establishing itself as the national leader in sustainable design by any measure.
Courtesy of Feng Xue, Helen Chan, and Oscar Reyes (FOH)
A team composed of Feng Xue, Helen Chan, and Oscar Reyes (FOH) has won Director’s Choice Award in the AC-CA competition to design a contemporary footbridge in Dublin, Ireland. Entitled The Catalyst, the team’s proposal aims to become “a dynamic link which stimulates diverse urban activities and facilitates a spectacular cityscape.”
Designed around the idea of enhancing the surrounding Dockland neighborhood and Dublin as a whole, The Catalyst acts as both a physical link, as well as a new vantage point, encouraging passers-by to pause and reflect on the city.
Courtesy of Feng Xue, Helen Chan, and Oscar Reyes (FOH)
Courtesy of Feng Xue, Helen Chan, and Oscar Reyes (FOH)
Courtesy of Feng Xue, Helen Chan, and Oscar Reyes (FOH)
The organic, curved form of the bridge is a response to significant buildings in the area, such as the Harp Bridge and Convention Center (CCD). Similarly, the design utilizes a symmetrical approach, in order to resonate with the local Georgian heritage architecture.
Courtesy of Feng Xue, Helen Chan, and Oscar Reyes (FOH)
Courtesy of Feng Xue, Helen Chan, and Oscar Reyes (FOH)
With a pivotal structure driven by a cylindrical motor, the bridge can move for passing boats and larger ships, as well as cultural activities like the Dublin Marine Festival. Moreover, the bridge itself can accommodate film and performances in its amphitheater.
Courtesy of Feng Xue, Helen Chan, and Oscar Reyes (FOH)
Functionally, the new bridge is a meeting place, a viewing platform for visitors, a worker’s break-out area, a lover’s dating spot, a shortcut for pedestrians and cyclists, and an amphitheater for buskers, said the design team. Despite the vast functional possibilities, our bridge proposal respects and realizes the rich historical context of Dublin by creating a space that looks back at its urban context. Our response to the enhancement of Dublin is to create a place that acts as a catalyst to activate and exhibit the transformation of the city. The bridge is a book to the stories of Dublin to be discovered.
From the architect. The new building of the Natural History Museum St. Gallen carries on the existing ensemble of public buildings and facilities surrounding the church St. Maria Neudorf and the botanic garden on the eastern limits of the city centre. Through the urban setting and the use of mostly lithic materials the building acts as a visual and representative landmark towards the street and the church complex. At the same time the new museum respects the strong presence of the church’s silhouette. The visible structure of the roof refers to the functional, modest expression of the existing architectures in the botanic garden.
The three-storey building occupies the parcel almost entirely. A new open-air exhibition space is defined and becomes an important part of the promenade between church, museum and botanic garden. Four precisely set incisions in the corners of the building volume interlock it with its surrounding. According to each specific situation they host several different functions – such as a quiet terrace for the café, a representative forecourt towards the street and a discreet delivery in the back.
The museum premises are organised as an open sequence of spaces, beginning with the connection of the foyer facing the street and the secondary entrance hall towards the garden. The visitor follows the tour of the museum across two shifting floors, past the temporary exhibition, into the “relief room”. With its impressive height, its specific character and the connection to the gallery above, it reminds of classical exhibition spaces from the 19th century. The space constitutes the heart of the two exhibition storeys and offers great possibilities to exhibit large objects. The second exhibition storey provides a vast unsupported skylight-lit hall, allowing a lot of flexibility for diverse exhibition concepts. Quiet lounges and educational spaces, such as the library and the youth lab are arranged around the core zones, inviting to individual studies and contemplation in a pleasant, private atmosphere.
Idea Lithuanian architecture studio NEBRAU main task was to create minimal architecture with clear lines and simple volumes, using long-live and natural materials, creating natural and minimal landscape surrounding where people can relax from their daily life routine.
Site plan
Integration to the environment The place of the house in the quarter: square-shaped land plot which continues the row of houses. The area contains a mix of large, contemporary homes and older dwellings dating to the 1970s and 1990s.
Courtesy of Laurynas Avyzius
The Function The building is convenient to use and functional. The young family house is very comfortable by its planning functionality. House is one storey. The main entrance is in the middle of the house, where free-time zone (living room with kitchen) is separated from sleeping zone (bedrooms).
Courtesy of Laurynas Avyzius
The Architecture Family residence is located in Lithuania, Kaunas city. House volumes are different height for it’s inside functionality and exterior dynamic. The finish is a solid concrete tiles on walls, which gives horizontal shadow structure for the house. Architectural volumes of the house are separated with a vertical larch wood planks, which left naturally to get grey. Dark colors and natural material merges into the surrounding. Lithuania is in the weather zone, where temperature is from -35C till +35C. House insulation should be well prepared for all seasons and comfortable living. Energetical class of the house is A. Heating – geothermal, Windows – wood frame with aluminum outside.
Floor plan
Courtesy of Laurynas Avyzius
The Interior The interior was created as a warm, cosy atmosphere. Natural and reliable decoration materials shall be used such as natural wood look floor tiles of the greater part of the areas, guest room, kitchen, as well as kitchen. We love natural oak mass furniture, which used for table tops in the kitchen.
Construction Management: KASWURM IMMOBILIEN & WOHNBAU GMBH
Courtesy of FADD Architects
This rooftop extension gave us the possibility to create 3 apartments with different size, 190/170/90mq, and 2 terraces with swimming pool. The interior of this penthouses, in one of most attractive district of Vienna, combine classic and modern design, respecting the artistic value of the historical context. For this project, we were responsible of the creative direction and interior project manager, working with local artisans to design bespoke furnitures.
Courtesy of FADD Architects
The main goal was to reach a sophisticated design, for a luxury real estate market, and to give the simple touch of the “made in Italy”. For that reason we went for brands like Varenna Poliform for the kitchen and Gloster for the outdoor furniture; this gave a distinct Italian flavour to the whole scheme. White walls and chevron oak parquet, minimal lines for the furnitures, wood and concrete materials for the fireplace, have helped us to create the right atmosphere. The terrace with teak floor, outdoor kitchen and pool, give the final touch for take the best of spring and summer.
Courtesy of FADD Architects
We also worked with an Italian greenhouse and used Atelier Vierkant for the vases, to create what a terrace should never miss: the green.
Product Description:
The grey oak wood panels we used for the the kitchen facade were also used for the doors of the bespoke fireplace and to hide the door of the staircase (see top 13). This solution combine with a unique design the living and the kitchen area and integrate them into one open space.
Sig Nordal 