Urban integration: Jumps of scale to understand the place The site is integrated into the multi-urban network of Paris, the Grande Couronne and major green spaces and infrastructure networks. The ZAC Clichy-Batignolles is perceived as a new landscape of connection, a wide-open urban door along the major territorial arches towards the historic city.
The site becomes an important urban platform, an exchange node inserted into the system of great Parisian relational spaces. It holds a role of transition between different scales, them being territorial, urban, environmental, social, cultural, and infrastructure standpoints. The ZAC thus acts as a device of resonance and multi-district transfer.
Site Plan
The ZAC Clichy-Batignolles and the Martin Luther King Park are based in a large relational space, an interface of connection lines and urban relationships: powerlines, flowlines, lines of connection and interaction. Echoing the adjacent buildings, the project inserts itself in a coherent and consistent elegance.
One of the fundamental characteristics of the project is the creation of an almost complete opening in the block, perpendicular to the Martin Luther King Park. This opening acts as a true extension of the park, prolonging it to the heart of the block and bringing it to the street and beyond, until the E9 lot.
Thus, nothing obstructs the view from the park to the lot and vice versa. The school group and other residences also benefit from the relatively clear views over the park. Furthermore, greater transparency has been sought at the ground level of the project, completing the idea of a maximal link from the park to the street.
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Elevation
Search for compactness and views
This opening constitutes as well, and more importantly, the integration of an environmental strategy. This provision implicates creating thicker buildings, as opposed to the hypothesis of a U disposition. The buildings thus created will be more dense and compact, significantly reducing energy loss. Moreover, due to this configuration no accommodation will be mono-oriented street side. They will therefore benefit from openings overlooking the park and sunny climate.
The two buildings comprising the residences are broken down into volumes of different heights, the tallest building’s height being 50 meters. These new created blocks are superimposed and offset from each other. The objective is to create dynamic movement over static volumetries, more rhythm than fixed objects. These movements and rhythms associated with the already rich architecture of the immediate context allow to create new “sounds of the city”. Furthermore, these offsets allow for more outdoor space and for the optimization of the city-planning rules, particularly the perspectives. The architectural strategy of this project is the result of a thorough reflection to avoid an IGH (high-rise building) classification of the building.
From the architect. An original and unsual project of approxamately 450 m2, such was the proposal of architects Carolina Sakuno and Fausto Cintra for this residence, belonging to a young family. The volumetry of straight and pure lines pleased the taste of the clients who were longing a comtemporary residence.
The house has two floors and prioritizes architectonics solutions such as large interspaces and swings that bring lightness to the project. Perpendicular to the volumetry of the house, is found a garage that accomodate 3 vehicules. The edification is located at the terrain’s highest spot, with its gap won by stairs, surrounded by a wonderful tropical landscape, up to the main door.
The lower floor potentializes the integration between the spaces. As soon as one enters the residence by its main door, central pivoting made by wood, is possible to see the Living Room and the Gourmet Kitchen. An amazing wood stand is located in the living with double function. At its front, TV, wine cellar, equipments and objects of decoration. At its end, opening shelves harbor the tableware, and when is closed resembles to be a beautiful panel. All of this space opens up, through large running doors which are masked inside the wall, all the way to the pool’s deck. The rear landscaping follows the same tropical lines of the residence front. The contrast stays for the great vertical garden which appears to ‘be born’ out of the pool.
The access stairs to the above storey is hidden behind a wall made of artesanal bricks. The wooden stairs, with withdrawn metallic skirting-board, gained illumination where it shows the path to be tread. The above floor houses the dorms, 4 suits at total. The children suits open up to the recreation area, by large ‘prawn’ doors of Muxarabi wood. The same resource was used in the couple’s room with a street and woods view to the front of the house. The bathroom has the same kind of door, which guarantees a beautiful view to the outdoors, when open. This resource assures ventilation and natural light in the indoors, yet it provides a outstanding quality of privacy. The guests room is inspired by the same idea of permeability/privacy, but now it was used a wall of Cobogós concrete made in front of the window, giving a distinct taste to the lateral edification forefront.
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To most eyes, alleys are—at best—liminal zones. Inhabiting the space between “here” and “there,” they exist but for the grace of their adjacencies.
At worst, they are dark, dank, and even dangerous—seen by city dwellers as dead space. However, to a visionary few, the negative space alleys occupy isn’t dead at all; it’s merely dormant, waiting for a rebirth into something functional and new.
In cities where real estate is scarce, expensive, or impractical, alleys are being reclaimed, revitalized, and repurposed for parks, businesses, art, bike transit, and even urban agriculture. All of these green alleys have the potential to create new enclaves that make communities safer, cleaner, and more prosperous.
Among those who appreciate alleys not only for what they are, but also for what they could become, is architect and urban designer Daniel Toole. While living in Seattle in 2008, he developed a mild obsession with these urban veins and arteries in between buildings.
“Every day I walked through alleys from where I lived in First Hill down to my office near Pike Place Market,” says Toole, who, after photographing the alleys on his daily commute, began looking for new ways to engage with them. That led him to a metalworking class where he fashioned trinkets like ashtrays and flower boxes that he used to accessorize his favorite alleys.
“It became quite a hobby,” says Toole, author of Tight Urbanism, a tome dedicated to globe-tripping alleyway architecture, funded by AIA Seattle’s 2010 Emerging Professional Travel Scholarship. “In Melbourne, especially, their laneways used to be very dangerous. Now they’re the best part of that city because the city has created incentives that encourage people to open businesses in them. They’re full of boutiques, restaurants, bars, and art galleries—all kinds of stuff. On one side of a building you’ll have a large department store, and around back in the alley there will be some guy doing pour-overs in a quaint little plywood-clad café. That dichotomy really inspired me.”
So much so that Toole continued traveling alleys around the world, then returned to Seattle and began organizing alley tours and events on behalf of the city. Recently, Toole was commissioned by a developer for his first alley architecture projects: two alleys that are being transformed into pedestrian ways in the Miami Design District, a former warehouse district redeveloped into a creative neighborhood celebrating art, architecture, fashion, and food.
“Once construction in the neighborhood settles down, people are going to find these hidden gems tucked behind the buildings,” says Toole, who plans to start his own design practice specializing in back-alley architecture. “I think it’s going to be very eye-opening for the rest of the country.”
Like Toole, others see the potential benefits of rescuing alleyways from dumpsters and disrepair—or outright destruction. Take architect and urban designer Dan Cheetham, principal of Austin, Texas, architecture firm fyoog. In 2013, he noticed that several of Austin’s historic alleys were being consumed and privatized by “mega-block” developments, which rely on internal infrastructure for utilities and servicing instead of the external alleys dating back to Austin’s original 1839 city plan.
In response, he led the design effort for 20ft Wide, a nonprofit initiative celebrating Austin’s alleys by temporarily turning one of them—Alley No. 111, located on Ninth Street between Congress Avenue and Brazos Street—into a public space for art and activities. During the five-day exhibition, the alley hosted everything from live music and candlelit dinners to yoga and yard games beneath his colorful sculpture highlighting the historic remnants of the alley.
“Turning an alley into a pop-up public space creates awareness and allows people to really appreciate these spaces and learn about the history of the city and its formation,” Cheetham says.
The city’s Downtown Commission took notice, issuing a report, “Activating Austin’s Downtown Alleys as Public Spaces,” and has since undertaken new projects (such as the Rainey Alley Case Study) to explore transforming alleys into viable community spaces and preserving Austin’s rich architectural past.
“Alleys offer a unique glimpse into the history of cities and buildings,” Cheetham says. “They reveal details of how buildings and urban spaces were built and used; their social, cultural, and economic history; and lessons about urbanity that are still relevant today.
“There are all these really old, interesting parts and pieces of buildings that you wouldn’t otherwise see, which gives you a window into the history of the city.”
Rendering of Ivy Street, one of the "living alleys" in San Francisco, which features string lighting and in-pavement lighting. Image Courtesy of San Francisco Planning Department
Cultivating Community in California
In San Francisco, public spaces in alleys aren’t just pop-up; they’re permanent. Architect David Winslow, a project manager in the San Francisco Planning Department, is in charge of a $2 million program to create “Living Alleys” in the city’s Market and Octavia neighborhood. Its inspiration is the nearby Linden Alley, which was transformed in 2010 into a shared street for cars, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Just 100 feet long, it features a curb-free design that seamlessly blends street with sidewalk—adding leafy trees, patches of plantings, stone slabs that serve as benches, and a coffee shop inside what used to be an old garage.
“It’s a cherished space,” says Winslow, who worked on the alley when he was a private architect with an office above it. When he returns today, he says it feels like a shared front yard for the urban community around it. “What we’ve realized is that in most parts of the city, the value of the urban experience lies in the pedestrian realm. Because of their scale, alleys are a really special place where we can create uniquely pedestrianized environments.”
This small scale—which forces an intimate feeling and a slow pace—is a major reason architects and urban planners are attracted to alleys. “Alleys are like time capsules because businesses have never been back there,” Toole says.
Repurposing alleys comes with social, economic, and environmental incentives, too. “Alleys are a resource that has been entirely overlooked and stigmatized for the better part of a century,” Toole says. “Now they’re becoming hip, and I think that’s going to do excellent things for all aspects of our cities.”
Of course, where there are opportunities there also are challenges. Alleys can be fraught with strict zoning ordinances, buried utilities, public health and safety concerns (such as pests, garbage, crime, and traffic), space constraints, hydrology, environmental considerations like daylight and wind, emergency access and egress, and service continuity for garbage collection and deliveries.
“There’s also a challenge of perception,” Cheetham says. “People in the community may question the value of these spaces and wonder why you’re spending your time and money on alleys.”
But anyone who’s stumbled upon a hidden bar in Chicago, a secluded restaurant in Boston, a secret café in Amsterdam, or a back-alley boutique in Istanbul understands exactly why, according to Winslow: “It’s kind of magical when you wander into an urban environment, look down a narrow little street, and say, ‘Let’s check it out.’”
The Architectural Association on Bedford Square, London
Brett Steele, Director of London’s Architectural Association (AA) since 2005, has announced that he will become Dean of UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture in August 2017. Although American-born, Steele has since become a naturalized British citizen. He studied at the AA, the University of Oregon, and the San Francisco Art Institute respectively, before working as a Project Architect at Zaha Hadid Architects in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
We happen to live in a time when I don’t think schools—and I believe this very deeply—can pursue monolithic institutional views about what might be right or wrong in the world today.
As reported by the LA Times, Steele has said of his appointment: “I think we live in a time when the ability to assemble and invent audiences is as crucial to schools as all of the attention that most of them give to individual artists and performers and architects and designers. It’s in my view two sides of the same coin. There are a few very special places in the world where that’s built into the DNA and UCLA is simply one of those places.”
From the architect. The Hotel Hubertus is located in Valdaora, at the foot of the famous ski and hiking area Kronplatz in the Puster Valley at an altitude of about 1350 m. The family establishment was generously enhanced and enlarged with 16 new suites, a new kitchen with restaurants and “Stuben”, an entrance area with lobby, reception and wine cellar and a fitness and a relaxation room with panoramic terraces. The new 25 m long pool, functioning as a connector between old and new, underlines the essence of this comprehensive renovation and renewal project.
By creating an unified, rhythmically alternating facade with native larch tree trunks noa* connects “old and new” in a consistent manner. The homogeneous appearance, following the natural topography of the area, creates the theatrical base for the design of the new, cantilevering pool, which thrones between the old and new accommodation wings, floating between heaven and earth…
The new pool, which imposingly rests in-between the two accommodation wings, seems like a floating rock, come to rest at the site, overlooking the valley. The hidden edges of the pool, kept in anthracite-coloured stone, abolish the gap between pool and landscape, creating the impression of the water flowing into nothing, disappearing between pool and landscape. The pool metaphorically reminds of a mountain lake, nestled into the astonishing mountainscape of the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Dolomites…
The highlight of the project is the new sky pool, floating like a natural rock over the new accommodation wing. Without any visible boarders, a width of 5 m, a length of 25 m and a depth of 1,30 m the over 17 m cantilevering pool can be seen as completely unique. The position of the pool, which floats 12 m above the ground, at its extreme edge, gives the swimmer the feeling of floating – weightlessly between heaven and earth. This impression is further reinforces by the glass front and a glazed window on the bottom of the pool.
Product Description. The hidden edges of the pool, kept in anthracite-coloured stone, abolish the gap between pool and landscape, creating the impression of the water flowing into nothing, disappearing between pool and landscape.
From the architect. Haiming, a village with almost 2000 inhabitants lies at the meeting of the rivers Inn and Salzach. The natural environment of both rivers, their valleys and meadows, characterise the landscape of the Niedergern. Rare bird species nest and breed in the nature reserve “Unterer Inn” and numerous beavers do their work. In the west of the village, behind the cow pastures and the forests, you can see the smoky chimneys of the nearby industrial area with its refineries and chemical plants. The design for a new club sports hall for SV Haiming also results from a similar ambivalence of “values”. Despite many built banalities the village centre is still intact. The urban setting of the new Sports Hall refers to this harmonious frame of reference. It follows the primacy of restraint and subordination. The play with banality actually is even the starting point of the design. Construction wise, but also on an architectural and formal level, the hall seems to be taken from the catalogue of local timber construction and precast factories.
It refers to the cheapest and ignoble means of joinery – to the galvanized gang nail plate and corresponding binder and wall systems. In the sense of a spatial framework – which it actually isn’t – the roof construction creates the image of a filigrees surplus of supporting elements. On the other hand the posts, bars and diagonals are appropriated as large wall graphics. The breaking of the rule, as in the case of fat, sculptural-formed concrete beam on the inside of the south wall and the merely suspended prefabricates columns on the outside, are just as important as the rules and their formalisms themselves.
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1st Floor Plan
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The direct catchy image of a structure vs. a sort of vagueness of what is truly load bearing and what is only an image of it. This ultimately results in a tension in contrasting pairs such as forced banality vs. a romantic scale on the outside and constructional pragmatism vs. “heroic” exaggerated construction on the inside.
Product Description. We wanted to fulfil the explicit wish to build the sports hall as cheap as possible. We tried to interpret this (restraining) fact as a design freedom. So with great pleasure but with extreme discipline at the same time we were searching for possibilities of undermining the standards of a common and usual sports halls. This is also the beauty, if the standard is not applicable, because then the building would be too expensive. Then one cannot fall back on it. If this had not been the case, the hall would probably look like many others. Therefore we have used a kind of transfer of technology by using a timber construction system that is usually not used for public buildings, but mainly for agriculture buildings or for discount stores such as Aldi or Lidl: the galvanized gang nail plate. This is the cheapest and ignoble means of joinery. And with their corresponding binder and wall systems we tried to create a kind of a spatial framework – which it actually isn´t – but the roof construction creates the image of a filigrees surplus of supporting elements. On the other hand the posts, bars and diagonals are appropriated as large wall graphics.
We wanted to create the “feeling” both of an ideal or even heroic space and of a very functional even relaxed space – just for doing sports. So we admit that we tried to create a kind of sacred space dealing only with structure and light on the one hand … But we also tried to avoid the consequences of such a space and atmosphere. So the user should of course not be irretated in practicing sports. The sports hall therefore is a very robust space. We try to achieve this by the staging (Inszenierung) of the selected structure and, in particular, by the north wall with its polycarbonate elements in front of the structure and the light incident filtered through it into the hall. And on the other hand, by using very robust materials and simple details, and also by a culture of the raw / simple.
From the architect. The challenge in this project was the transformation from a dull, outdated office block to an inspiring and energizing meeting place, based on the ideas of our client, Brand Loyalty, a worldwide player in retail loyalty. The client had a distinguished view on the looks of an office; a professional but homely feel, combined with transparency and as many open areas as possible. Everything with a ‘hospitality’ feel to it.
The office also functions as a meeting point and knowledge centre where employees from all over the world can update their skills. Thanks to a fully equipped auditorium and training rooms now seminars, workshops and training can be done in-house.
During the transition the whole building is stripped and big atria are made to get more light into the heart of the building. In the main atrium, close to the entrance, a sculptural spiral staircase is designed. This eyecatcher, together with the submerged pool in the floor of the central lobby, immediately defines the special space you are entering. The atmosphere of the entrance area is designed after a hotel lobby, open and welcoming.
The structural cores of the building were originally finished with gravel concrete. To fit in with the new warm and natural look and feel they are clad with dark, grooved wood. Thin enough to steam and bend around the round corners of the cores. This new finish really stands out in contrast with the natural stone floor on the ground floor and the white stucco walls and open staircase.
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The restaurant on the ground floor is designed like a modern restaurant you find in the city. It has an open kitchen that serves a small menu every day where the employees can choose from. Around the kitchen there are several different areas you can eat and meet. They differ in type and form of seating and atmosphere, so everyone can find his or her favourite spot.
On the other side of the entrance lobby a coffee bar / after work bar is designed. The walls here are finished in dark brown leather, that combined with the custom wooden furniture and elegant lighting creates a warm, comfortable atmosphere. Making this also a perfect meeting place during the day.
Designing the actual office floors was a challenge. How to make an office that should not resemble an office? To create a warm, but at the same time still professional, look-and-feel we designed a lot of the furniture ourselves. The pantries, the build-in sideboards, but also all workplaces, finished in elms wood. Being able to do so gave us the opportunity to refine the overall design en atmosphere into the smallest details.
1st Floor Plan
Now the office is in use our mission seems to be accomplished. The office really is an inspiring meeting place you wish you would never have to leave!
Product Description. An important element of interior design, that is easily overlooked, is lighting. In this project the lighting also needed to be sophisticated, modern, but still blend in with the overall atmosphere of hospitality and warmth. The Nimbus lighting appliances we used in the design really do this. They fit in, but at the same time also add a new dimension to the design. The Office Air lights are even integrated into the desks to create an environment where the lighting really part of the overall design and a natural element in the room.
Lead Architects: Kengo Kuma & Associates / Javier Villar Ruiz (Partner in charge) with: Nicola Maniero, Rita Topa, Marc Moukarzel, Jaeyung Joo, Cristina Gimenez
From the architect. The new campus for Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) is named Artlab, which consists of three programs – an Arts & Science Pavilion, a Technology & Information Gallery, and the Montreux Jazz Café. The three boxes are tucked under a grand pitched roof that stretches as long as 235m. Between each box, we designed an aperture area that generates two axes. The two lines help to marshal the ow of people and reorganize all the buildings in the campus.
There is a Japanese saying, “living under one roof,” which means various and different individuals get together and team up, and Artlab is exactly the architectural translation of this expression.
For the structure and the exterior, we used timbers that are commonly found in Switzerland, in order to create space with local warmth. The wooden pillars are sandwiched with steel plates on both sides so that the space can be equally gentle and transparent. The roofing is in stone, which is based on the method applied in ordinary Swiss houses. The roof transfigures like origami according to the function underneath, and creates faces responding to light and shadow.
Project description The project site is a vast lawn, a void in the middle of the EPFL campus. It disconnects the North side of the campus (where the Esplanade plaza, social heart of the campus, and the tram station are) from the students’ residential area in the South. Also it separates the dense West part of the campus from the currently evolving East side that is articulated around the Learning Center which, despite its impressive presence, has not been able to organize and cohere its surroundings, until now, residual and dysfunctional.
Exploded Axonometric
The given vast project site allowed us to locate and configure the pavilions in many ways. Finally we decided to gather the three required pavilions into one very thin and long building that, as a purposeful trace in the territory, thus transforming the site from being a dysfunctional void into a new public space within the campus.
-The porches provided between the pavilions uni ed under the roof are connected one to the main street coming from the West side where main public parking areas are located, and the other to the new tree promenade from the East. Therefore, the porches will provide permeability through the building attracting and connecting these West and East sides of the campus.
By transforming the site into a place where students, professors and visitors will comfortably pass by every day enjoying the new activities that will take place under this roof, we are con dent that this whole area will become an essential spot within the campus that will bring a more social and cultural dimension to the EPFL.
Structure In order to frame and protect the view of the lake from the existing Esplanade plaza, the building remains very thin in its northern end, about 5m, and its sections widens up to 16m on its southern end. To solve structurally such an exaggerated slender building that always changes in width, we developed a new kind of structure solution combining wood and steel. Changing the proportion of the wood/steel composition allowed to have all the 57 structure portals (that are all different in span) to have the exact same section throughout the building, making the whole envelope of the project modular and able to be prefabricated.
Façade The building’s eaves provide shelter for those walking along the piazza between the Esplanade, heart of the campus, and the student housing in the South. Due to those eaves protecting the upper side of the façade, its wooden cladding would age in a heterogeneous way throughout the surface; therefore the wood was pre-aged in order to achieve a stable presence during its life span. Local larch was chosen for the façade as it has good endurance based on local practice. The light gray tone of the pre-aged wood cladding, together with the dark grey slate roofing, give a rather quiet and subtle presence to the building, despite its remarkable length. These cold grayish tones dialogue with those of other buildings surrounding the piazza and as well with the generally overcast weather of Lausanne. It is only when one gets closer to the building, receiving shelter by its roof, that we discover the warmth of its vast wooden ceiling.
From the architect. Overlapping House is located in Nakhonratchasima, Thailand, close to Khao Yai National Park, the 3rd largest park in Thailand with 300 kilo square meters. The area is famous for tropical seasonal forests and grasslands. This 1,351 sqm. vacation house is designed to be a weekend getaway for the house owner, Yuwalee Leenutapong and her family. It consists of 8 bedrooms, common area of living-dining-pantry, an onsen, and big balconies and outdoor terraces including the rooftop that overlooks the beautiful mountains.
Inspired from the contour at the hillside site, the architect from Vaslab Architecture designs the floor levels and the mass-form of the house to overlap each other creating a number of different recreational spaces throughout the house. As the house sits on the top of the hill, the architect takes the design advantage to have its front façade facing north to see the best of the panoramic mountain views, which makes all the 8 bedrooms and the ground floor common space sharing the same views. The house main axis runs along the site contour in east-west direction and it gets also the good natural ventilation from the southwest. As seen from the exterior, one can see the two deviated masses interlock and overlap with each other. The overlapping characteristic of these 1st and 2nd levels creates a number of different shaded and sunny areas that are used for recreational spaces including the front all-day shaded terrace that can look out to see the mountain lines and the BBQ terrace that sits on the lower level.
The house structure is post-beam reinforced concrete system with the mat foundation for the footing as the house is located on the rock mountain. The exterior finishes are bare-concrete and local mountain stones, designed to be harmonious with the site context. Teak wood is used to soften the masculine façade and it also continues outside-in to the interior spaces.
Not only that the deviated axis defines the exterior house form, the interior space and its functions are also defined by this deviated axis. For all the rooms and spaces are not in the symmetrical shapes, as seen in other general houses, that makes the function arrangement of the spaces quite challenging and more interesting. For the house interior, PHTAA Living Design, takes this challenging point and then designs the open-plan for the first floor common area where all the divided functional spaces are all connected in the big living space with no walls but each has its own boundary.
Product Description.The use of grey skim coat over the cast-in-place concrete and brick walls helps smoothing the exterior and interior finishes. It is also durable and sustainable for the weather in Nakhon Ratchasima.
Sig Nordal 