© Pedro Pegenaute

• Architects: Arquitecturia
• Location: Carrer de Girona, 25600 Balaguer, Lleida, España
• Architects In Charge: Josep Camps, Olga Felip
• Area: 3874.23 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Pedro Pegenaute

• Structure: GMKgrup
• Consultant: JG&Asociados SA
• Quantity Surveyor (Project Phase): Planas Casadevall
• Quantity Surveyor (Construction): Alfons Pastor
• Constructor: Acciona SA
• Client: Departament de Justicia de la Generalitat de Catalunya
• Design Year: 2006

© Pedro Pegenaute

Balaguer Courthouse is located at the old Quarter of the city. Balaguer is characterised by the brown-red chromatic of the geology –stone and earth- and a structure of extremely narrow and steep streets. The irregular morphology of the old quarter is well adapted to the rugged topography.

© Pedro Pegenaute

There is a balance between the strict and thigh requirements of the brief and the irregular and complex reality of the site. Inside, a regular structure organises the internal spaces and program. Outside, the alignments, porches and urban traces shape the volume. In-between inside and outside, in-between program/type and site, there is a thick space of transition that deals with privacy, intimacy and modulates natural light.

Diagrams

Materiality is explored to achieve a permeable architecture. From basic units, an assembly system is established that configures a new element. Industrialized elements are applied hand- craftily. The facade may seem very opaque from the distance outside, but when one gets closer inside, it becomes permeable. On the daylight, the facade is heavy and mute and at night comes it becomes lighter and permeable. Materiality is live and variable as it changes and responds to its context conditions.

© Pedro Pegenaute

El vestíbulo y el espacio aporchado de acceso configuran la fachada de la plaza y enlazan el nuevo equipamiento público con la estructura urbana del casco antiguo de Balaguer.

© Pedro Pegenaute

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© Shen Qiang

• Architects: Wanjing studio
• Location: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
• Design Team: Hu Zhile, Zheng Jie
• Client: MISA
• Construct Team: Huang Yaoqing
• Area: 600.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Shen Qiang

© Shen Qiang

From the architect. The project is a high-level personal studio of an artificial intelligence company, located in a hollow old factory building. Its design is to be in the moment work and living in a single unified environment will be the city’s abandoned space into a multi-dimensional interesting living space.

© Shen Qiang

Owners demand is very easy. The design of a wood workshop with a temporary residence. It can support a large dog, and you can park Ural (a motorcycle)

© Shen Qiang

© Shen Qiang

The original space between the two plants and the space is a shipping channel, the top left the original lightweight steel roof. The original structure of the house, space, use, does not fit existing design requirements. How to reshape the form of space in a new living experience is critical to the overall design.

© Shen Qiang

Designers insert a box-shaped space divided into three functional space in the original application for the second floor of the fixed-level high school , and in the space into the two courtyards.

Designers want to create such a rich experience of residential space. There is no good environment around this building from the outside. But into the interior will find it , because there are very bright atrium and another internal courtyard occupied the entire one-third area. It provides a contact with nature, and reveals all aspects of nature, is the center of work and life, but also a device replaces the disappearing light, wind, rain and other natural objects in the modern city . Sky light infiltrates into yard, casting a deep shadow on the wall and yard.

© Shen Qiang

Indoor space outdoor, natural through the  Light Court was introduced into the interior, the new form of life has also assumed a serious side. “In this case, the design that contact with the natural life is more important than convenience.”

© Shen Qiang

The first floor

The main function of the first floor for the wood workshop, the entire space without any partition space, the structure of the column and the concrete directly constitute the main visual elements of space. Through a huge automatic sliding door, Ural can be directly into the internal space, and for the wooden work area provides a flexible workspace. 

© Shen Qiang

The second floor

The second floor is the reception room and open kitchen and living room.Living room, reception room and open kitchen different functional areas here are organic combination .The first floor staircase and the second floor opening walkway will be connected to the two functional space. The external area of the reception area can be moved open, connecting the indoor atrium and outdoor view of the landscape.

© Shen Qiang

Bedroom door opened, through an inner courtyard, into the most intimate living space, in a small space with more rich empty experience.

The third floor

Leave extra space on the third floor to provide more possibilities for use of the light, from the redesigned planking into the interior space, showing a rich light and shadow.

© Shen Qiang

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Courtesy of WOHA

• Architects: WOHA
• Location: 85 Dawson Rd, Singapore 141085
• Team: Richard Hassell, Wong Mun Summ, Chan Ee Mun, Pearl Chee Siew Choo, Dharmaraj Subramaniam, Ho Soo Ying, Lim Yin Chao, Ranjit Wagh, Sabrina Foong, Daniel Fung Khai Meng, Tan Yi Qing, Nixon Sicat, Kwong Lay Lay, Sivakumar Balaiyan, Dennis P. Formalejo, Lau Wan Nie, Wan Pow Chween
• Area: 29392.0 m2
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Courtesy of WOHA

• Civil & Structural Engr: BECA Carter Hollings & Ferner (S. E. Asia) Pte Ltd
• Mechanical & Electrical Engr: Davis Langdon KPK (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
• Quantity Surveyors: ICN Design International
• Landscape Consultant: BECA Carter Hollings & Ferner (S. E. Asia) Pte Ltd
• Greenmark Consultant: LBW Consultants LLP
• Main Contractor: Hor Kew Private Limited
• Brickwork & Finishes: LBD Engineering Pte Ltd
• Ceilings: Kok Onn Construction Pte Ltd
• Clothes Racks: Prefab Technology 3 Pte Ltd
• Electrical & Fire: United Engineering P/L
• Household Shelter: Prefab Technology 3 P/L
• Ironmongery: Tiki International Enterprises
• Landscape: Prince’s Landscape & Construction P/L
• Metalworks: Prefab Technology 3 P/L
• Plumbing: Ideal Plumbling P/L
• Refuse Handling Equipment: STSE Engineering Services P/L
• Client: Housing & Development Board

Courtesy of WOHA

From the architect. The project, located in a high-rise area of mixed private and public housing, demonstrates that high density can be high amenity. Community living, variety and sustainability are central themes. The project is ungated; all common areas are fully open to the public.

Courtesy of WOHA

The central innovation is the public, external, shared spaces interwoven through the cluster of towers from the ground to the roof. Each home is part of a Sky Village comprising 80 homes sharing a sheltered community garden terrace. They are designed to foster interaction and be part of daily life. Every resident passes through, or looks over, this space on the way from the lift to apartment and can greet their fellow villagers, see children playing, and residents chatting.

Courtesy of WOHA

Other community areas include a plaza located along a public linear park flanked by supermarket, coffee shop and retail spaces, and a childcare facility. Community living rooms – large double-volume verandah spaces – at ground level provided with seating areas overlooking a park. Pavilions for weddings and funerals, play and fitness areas, courts and lawns are bordered by a 150m long bioswale. The rooftop public skypark, open 24 hours, incorporates a 400m jogging track under pavilions capped by a photovoltaic array.

Site Plan

The design offers residents 3 plan variations for each size of unit. Flexible Layouts are based on column-free, beam-free apartment spaces, thereby eliminating waste and making allowance for diverse family sizes, various lifestyles (e.g. home office/loft-living) and future flexibility.

Courtesy of WOHA

 The history of the site is celebrated in the artwork project. A local artist has documented the changing character of the neighbourhood, and the art has been cast into the precast walls. The building design also includes blue glass elements that recall the old Hokkien dialect “Lam Po Lay”, which means blue glass district – the older generation public housing in the area had blue windows. Magnificent old rain trees were retained and incorporated into the landscaping.

Awarded a Platinum Greenmark rating – Singapore’s highest and the first for public housing –  the project adopts robust passive design strategies including naturally lit and ventilated lobbies, staircases, access corridors. All apartments are naturally ventilated and due to the open, airy design, a substantial proportion of units have not installed air-conditioning. Photovoltaics on the roof power the common facilities. The design is fully precast and prefabricated, reducing waste and errors on site. The design creates variety through the re-arrangement of the modules, through colour, light and shade.

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© Nam-Sun Lee

• Architects: ArchiWorkshop
• Location: Ojeong-gu, Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• Design Team: Hee Jun Sim, Su Jeong Park
• Area: 218.0 m2
• Photographs: Nam-Sun Lee

• Contractor: ArchiWorkshop (SpaceTong)
• Building Height: 9m
• Construction Method: Reinforced Concrete
• Roof Finish Material: Zinc
• Exterior Wall Finish : Red brick tile, Starco-flex (white)
• Window : PVC triple window (49mm)

© Nam-Sun Lee

From the architect. In Bucheon, a suburb of Seoul, there is an area called GgaChiWool. This area, which is also known as a residential housing complex, has been continuously expanding. When first visited the site, housing development was already over, and new houses were almost filling the complex. The low-rise houses, the quiet footpaths, and roads to the private gardens brought great attraction of the site. However, most of the houses already built were houses that did not deviate much from the general category of multi-family houses. 

© Nam-Sun Lee

Dwelling one, two, three.

The young couple came to our office and shared their dream of living in the suburbs, not in Seoul. They were married and had two children, living together with their parents. After long consideration, the three generations decided to live together under one roof. One of the great advantage of living in residential house is that there is a garden. Young couples expressed their desire to use both the ground floor garden and the terrace area with the rooftop space. The total floor area is 220m2, and the area that can be used by couples is not so. Nevertheless, we have begun to think about the space in which a generation can use three floors. The reason is that it was expected that the space beyond the space divided by the floor could come out.

© Nam-Sun Lee

1st Floor Plan

© Nam-Sun Lee

1st, 2nd and 3rd floor roof terrace

The young couple’s parents wanted to use the ground floor and wanted to have an access for their children to visit their grandparents’ home inside the house. There is a private hidden access, where the children could visit the grandparents without going outside the house. It is a place where the privacy of each other is protected but at the same time the children can freely go through.

© Nam-Sun Lee

2nd Floor Plan

© Nam-Sun Lee

Selection of external materials

The outside materials of the surrounding houses were stone or brick. Considering the simple taste of the owner, the white stucco-flex was used to form the basic mass and the front elevation, which faces the road is cladded with red brick tiles. The brick tiles were used only at one side so that the common material form into a unique facade. The joint color was similar to the brick color, which gives an impression of ‘ Dansaekhwa (monochrome)’ of Korea. Red Square House has the identity of the house through this elevation.

© Nam-Sun Lee

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© Patrick Reynolds

• Architects: Irving Smith Architects
• Location: Lyttelton 8082, New Zealand
• Architect In Charge: Jeremy Smith
• Area: 182.0 m2
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Patrick Reynolds

© Patrick Reynolds

A house after the Christchurch quakes. One creative home comes down, another goes up, the new silhouetting the old, reminding, resettling, providing lineage.

© Patrick Reynolds

© Patrick Reynolds

Where the former villa sat square and inward, the new layers out across the southern view, shaping to the silhouette for light, and framing a greater appreciation of the everyday. 

Floor Plans

Timber traces the silhouette of the old house, providing warmth, and privacy by opening and closing the view, finding sun and shelter on a south facing shadowed and exposed site, and layering ways in and out amongst its close neighbours. That the house is hard to recognise from afar, but remains open to its close community, is testament to the notion of resettling with surrounding context, ideas we exhibited at the 2015 Prague International Architecture Festival entitled Soft Architecture : Soft Context. House with Villa Silhouette is finished as a moment in time, yet looks to its neighbours for future re-finishing. It is soft and participates with a landscape that continues to shift both physically and as a community.

© Patrick Reynolds

To its artists owners’, the house provides an affordable continuation in lieu of their much loved but earthquake destroyed villa; a place of craft, creativity, and lineage through the earthquakes. Post quake, they find renewed interest in small things: hanging a pot plant, drying a wetsuit, making tracks for the cat to walk on, an interest in 1970’s aesthetics… Frames are left to provide opportunity for future play, adaption, new endeavours, change. Post-quake time has become more continuous.

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Life goes on, remaining (like Lyttleton) modest, informal, busy, and full of the same eclectic furniture and stories as before… but resettled and ready for more.

© Patrick Reynolds

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© 2016 Allan Toft

An “alternative Christmas tree” designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) has been erected in the courtyard of the Utzon Center, coinciding with SOM’s current exhibition, ‘Sky’s the Limit’. Located on the waterfront in Aalborg, Denmark, the Utzon Center was the last project to be designed by the center’s namesake, renowned Danish architect Jørn Utzon.

The temporary sculpture was designed through a collaborative process between SOM and lighting designer Steensen Varming, and is constructed using modules from Peter Lassen’s GRID system. Inverting the spatial quality of a traditional Christmas Tree, the sculpture provides a space for gathering and reflection.

© 2016 Allan Toft

Using  1,000 square GRID elements, the “tree” reaches a height of 7 meters (23 feet), and features an array of color-changing lights, illuminating the courtyard in a wash of color.

“Stepping into the middle of a Christmas tree and getting that different and, in some ways, mind-bending experience of space and design, is not something you can experience elsewhere in Denmark,” says Lasse Andersson, creative director at Utzon Center.

© 2016 Allan Toft

© 2016 Allan Toft

‘Sky’s the Limit’, an exhibition covering SOM’s history of skyscraper design, will be on display from December 1st to January 15th, while the “Christmas tree” will remain in place until the end of January.

News via SOM, Utzon Center.

Utzon Center. Image © Flickr user wenhan21. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

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© Derek Hayn

• Architects: Centerbrook Architects & Planners
• Location: Farmington, CT, United States
• Area: 189000.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2014
• Photographs: Derek Hayn, Robert Benson

• Contractor: Whiting-Turner Construction
• Owner's Program Manager: Gilbane Building Company
• Laboratory: Jacobs Consultancy
• Mep Planning: Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting
• Mep Implementation: BVH
• Civil: Vanasse Hangen Brustlin
• Geotechnical: Haley & Aldrich
• Vibration/Acoustics: Jaffe Holden
• Landscape: Stephen Stimson Associates
• Lighting: Atelier Ten

© Derek Hayn

From the architect. The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine was designed to be sophisticated enough to entice internationally acclaimed scientists, bold enough to symbolize the state of Connecticut’s commitment to advanced research, yet practical enough for an economic nonprofit organization serious about its mission.

© Robert Benson

Centerbrook Architects & Planners in collaboration with Tsoi/Kobus & Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts, designed the $135 million research facility. A nonprofit research institution based in Maine and with facilities in California as well, JAX has a staff of 1,400 professionals nationwide and is a designated National Cancer Institute research center.

1st Floor Plan

2nd Floor Plan

Opened in 2014, the 189,000-square-foot JAX building is set on a 17-acre site adjacent to the UConn Health campus. It houses state-of-the-art laboratories where more than 300 biomedical researchers, technicians and support staff will probe the human genome for new treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and other daunting diseases.

© Robert Benson

The building includes 17 “wet” biology labs and another 17 “dry” computational science labs, along with scientific service areas. The labs are clustered in large open suites to encourage collaboration among scientists and technicians, and to enable spaces to be reconfigured quickly and easily as research programs grow or evolve.

© Robert Benson

At the building’s entrance, visitors walk into a light-filled, double-story vaulted reception area leading to: a 200-seat auditorium, two large conference/seminar rooms and a 200-seat dining area that opens into an outdoor courtyard. On the second floor are core service labs, a data center, offices, conference rooms, an employee fitness center and an informal seating area referred to as the “pub” for casual networking and formal pre-conference gatherings. Research labs and faculty offices will predominate on the third and fourth floors.

© Robert Benson

Product Description. The building consists of a structural steel frame faced with Canadian limestone, glass, and 14,000 square feet of Rheinzink 1.0 mm prePatina Blue Gray Zinc panels fabricated by MetalTech-USA. The zinc panels were selected because they age well and become more beautiful as the building ages. The Blue Gray hue of the zinc was specified as it complemented the limestone, which has blue veining. It also subtly blended with the champagne and pewter colors of the aluminum curtain wall frame.

© Robert Benson

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Courtesy of Related-Oxford

Foster + Partners’ designs for the latest tower to be located within New York’s Hudson Yards megaproject have been revealed. Named 50 Hudson Yards, the building will rise 985 feet (300 meters) into the sky in becoming New York City’s fourth largest commercial office tower with 2.9 million gross square feet and the new home of leading investment firm BlackRock.

50 Hudson Yards with 30 Hudson Yards and the No. 7 Subway. Image Courtesy of Related-Oxford

The 58-story building will be located at the northwest corner of 33rd Street and 10th Avenue, with entry points will be accessible on all four sides of the building. Directly adjacent to Hudson Yards’ new subway concourse, the building will also provide onsite bike storage, allowing for an easy commute via multiple modes of transportation.

50 Hudson Yards and 10th Avenue. Image Courtesy of Related-Oxford

The LEED-Gold rated tower will take the form of three stacked blocks of commercial space offering private sky lobbies, outdoor terraces and valet and drop off through a private porte-cochère. Clad in white stone, each block will be separated by the dark band of fully glazed floors offering access to the roof terraces. On the east and west elevations, the facades are broken into four-story glass boxes framed by white stone, while on the north and south elevations, the building’s verticality is accentuated. At the tower’s peak, a “halo” will glow at night, giving the building a distinguishable presence of the city skyline.

Courtesy of Related-Oxford

The building interiors will feature large, column-free floorplates spanning a minimum of 50,000 square feet, becoming one of just a few West Manhattan buildings to accommodate 500-plus people per floor. This freedom of space will allow for a variety of arrangements capable of meeting the needs of both large enterprise tenants and smaller companies and organizations.

Hudson Yards Aerial View. Image Courtesy of Related-Oxford

“50 Hudson Yards is a key part of a larger vision that integrates places to live and work within a dense, walkable urban neighborhood,” said Norman Foster. “Covering a full city block, the building is highly permeable at ground level, allowing it to engage fully with its urban location. Designed for a sustainable future, the building makes an important contribution to the regeneration of the far west side of Manhattan.”

Hudson Yards Masterplan. Image Courtesy of Related-Oxford

“50 Hudson Yards is envisaged as a vertical campus in the heart of Manhattan that is eminently readable at city scale with three distinct blocks stacked one above the other,” added Nigel Dancey, Head of Studio for Foster + Partners. “Crafted from a simple palette of white stone and glass, the building’s primary structure has been pushed to the edges to create large-span flexible floorplates. It aspires to define the workplace of the future, bringing to the fore the practice’s values of innovation and creativity by producing a positive work environment that seeks to fulfill the needs and expectations of a demanding workforce.”

Hudson Yards Aerial View. Image Courtesy of Related-Oxford

The project is being developed by Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group. Construction of 50 Hudson Yards will begin in 2017, with an expected opening date in 2022.

News via Related-Oxford.

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© Joe Fletcher

• Architects: Malcolm Davis Architecture
• Location: Sea Ranch, CA 95480, United States
• Architect In Charge: Malcolm Davis
• Area: 2690.0 m2
• Project Year: 2006
• Photographs: Joe Fletcher

• Landscape Architect: Lutsko Associates
• Contractor: Phil Simon, Simon Construction.

© Joe Fletcher

From the architect. A well-read, well-traveled couple commissioned this house as a counterpoint to their small apartment in a San Francisco high rise. Their house was to hold their books and collection of artifacts from around the world.  The program called for “his and hers” offices at opposite ends of the house, encouraging focus but allowing for interaction around the central kitchen.  They wanted a place to read and write in the reflective and inspiring coastal setting.

© Joe Fletcher

Sited on a highly exposed ocean meadow lot, the challenge was to provide privacy and sheltered outdoor space while maximizing the sense of openness and capturing the southerly views.  The sheltered courtyard separates the main living spaces from the two-story volume of more private uses. The massing of the two simple sheds creates a focal point while blocking the coastal wind and views from the house of the immediate neighbor. A connector joins the volumes with small portal windows at the driveway in contrast to the all glass exposure at the garden and blocks the coastal winds while allowing one to enjoy private ocean views.

© Joe Fletcher

Floor Plan

© Joe Fletcher

The plan is open and informal with the kitchen, dining room, and living room in one space.  The interiors are warm and calm with generous windows framing views of the ocean and the forested ridge.   The material palette is drawn from these views.  The polished concrete floors are sown with local beach sand. The fir used throughout was locally harvested.  Indoor and outdoor connections are emphasized by the continuous use of stone from the front walk through the house and out to the central courtyard. Being in the main living space is to be “in the meadow” able to observe the birds and native plants close at hand.

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Courtesy of Sinembargo.com

Over the past ten years the development of intelligent construction models, closely tied to energy efficiency, has introduced new materials that have one or more properties modified, in a controlled and partial way, by external stimuli such as radiation, temperature, pH, humidity, wind, and other environmental factors. 

As a response to new construction models, Dr. José Carlos Rubio Ávalos of the UMSNH of Morelia, has developed a cement with the capacity to absorb and irradiate light energy, in order to provide greater functionality and versatility to concrete in regards to energy efficiency. 

The new smart material developed by Rubio Ávalos was released on October 20, 2015, in an official press release by the Agencia Informativa Conacyt. The researcher claimed that the applications are very broad, and those which stand out most are for the architectural market: facades, swimming pools, bathrooms, kitchens, parking lots, etc. It would also be useful in road safety and road signs, in the energy sector, such as oil platforms, and anywhere you want to illuminate or mark spaces that don’t have access to electricity since it doesn’t require an electrical distribution system and is recharged only with light. The durability of light-emitting cement is estimated to be greater than 100 years thanks to its inorganic nature, and its material components are easily recyclable. 

Courtesy of Cybersis.com

According to the same statement, the essential feature of this new material is obtained by a process of polycondensation of raw materials (silica, river sand, industrial waste, alkali, and water). This process, the researcher said, is performed at room temperature and doesn’t require high energy consumption. The pollution produced in manufacturing is low compared to other types of cement such as Portland or synthetic plastics. 

We want light to penetrate the material up to a certain level. In the case of conventional cement, Portland, doesn’t have that capability because when the light reaches its surface it can’t penetrate it,  Ávalos explained.

Courtesy of El Excelsior

Charging the material using natural or artificial light, it hopes to offer new light and thermal functions to the most used construction element in the world in order to reduce the energy consumption generated by current light and thermal systems. 

In addition to its distribution in Mexico, it is expected that investors from Chile, Spain, Argentina and Brazil will commercialize the material for its use in roads and other urban spaces in 2016.

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