In collaboration with Kistefos Museum, photographer Frédéric Boudin has captured Jeppe Hein’s installation “Path of Silence,” now permanently located in Jevnaker near Oslo. The sculpture is inspired by the topography of the Kistefos Sculpture Park, creating a conversation between the installation and its site by adapting the park’s stepped slope and terraces to a freeform profile.
A labyrinth of mirrors encloses the sculpture’s three spaces of silence marked by contemplation, expressed through a series of high mirror steles to draw the eye toward the sky; nature, emphasized with a tree linking interior to exterior; and activity, which is underscored with a constantly evolving view resulting from walls of rushing water.
Overall, the pavilion is intended to encourage visitors to clear their minds and be present with the different kinds of silence from their surroundings. The water flow, for example, refers to silence by acting as a noise that causes all other sounds to fade. The experience of walking through the installation is therefore designed to promote inner silence alongside contemplation, introspection, and connection to nature.
From the architect. Sivas is located in the cold-dry climate region of Turkey, so its winter is strong and the city is under heavy snow in long periods. This parameter is foreground in the design decisions of Sivas Stadium. Energy efficiency is designed according to ecological design criteria, high passive air conditioning measures, active energy production systems, rainwater harvesting and gray water cycle.
Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects
Due to the fact that stadium is located in a cold climate zone, the building shell is designed to be compact and inward, and this makes a buffer zone for cold winds in the north side of the facade. Creating this kind space in the inner shell to provide thermal insulation with air. In the summer, reserve covers on the north side are opened, allowing for air transfer between the walls. If the north facade is not exposed to direct sunlight, this part will be colder than the other fronts, and on this side there will be low pressure points between the walls. This will result in a continuous and stable airflow in the wall, which will also reduce the energy used for building cooling actions in the summer.
South Elevation
Section
In genaral, eastern and western facades are exposed to solar radiation three times more heat than the south and north side facades. Because of this reason, window spaces were created in Sivas Arena on the east and west facades for allow to take solar heat. This approach is thought to significantly reduce building heating actions.
Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects
Floor Plan
Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects
Floor Plan
Courtesy of Bahadir Kul Architects
Stadium’s roof area, rainwater canal designed for falling rain and snow water. The collected water will be stored in the reserve area to be used in the environment water and wet spaces. This approach will significantly reduce the amount of building water consumption. Moreover, in the roof area, the solar panels will be positioned on the south side to receive the sun’s rays and will generate 798,000 W of energy per day. When it is assumed that a house consumes 5000 W of energy per day; the energy generated in the stadium corresponds to the energy that 160 houses spend. In this context, the building will reduce its energy costs to a minimum by producing its own energy.
The origin of Gothic architecture, a style which defined Europe in the later Middle Ages, can be traced to a single abbey church in the northern suburbs of Paris. The Basilique royale de Saint-Denis (Royal Basilica of Saint-Denis), constructed on the site of an abbey and reliquary established in Carolingian (800-888 CE) times, was partially rebuilt under the administration of Abbot Suger in the early 12th Century; these additions—utilizing a variety of structural and stylistic techniques developed in the construction of Romanesque churches in the preceding centuries—would set medieval architecture on a new course that would carry it through the rest of the epoch.
Map of the Town of St. Denis by Félibien (1706). Image via pitt.edu
Saint Denis of Paris became established as the patron saint of the Frankish people (a group of people who occupied what is now known as France) by the 7th Century. In the 3rd Century, Denis, along with two companions, was sent to Paris by Pope Fabian as a missionary, and was subsequently martyred by the Roman Emperor Decius.[1] Legend holds that after his decapitation, Denis’ body carried his head to the site of the town and church that now bear his name. The village was well-established before the Frankish King Dagobert established an abbey there in the 7th Century, but generous gifts from both Royal patrons and droves of pilgrims greatly elevated its status in both the CatholicChurch and the Kingdom of France. Despite the abbey’s significance, however, it would not be altered in any meaningful way for half a millennium.[2]
In 1122 Suger became Abbot of Saint-Denis at a time when the abbey itself was badly in need of renovation. The wooden Basilica, having both been a symbol (and necropolis) of Merovingian, Carolingian, and Capetian French rulers and housing relics from the Passion itself, was too small to accommodate the crowds of pilgrims it drew during feasts and festivals.[3] Saint Denis himself had also recently been ordained as the official patron saint of France by King Louis VI, affording even greater emphasis on the abbey which bore his name. Unfortunately for Suger’s ambitions, he could not simply demolish the old church to make way for the new – it was widely believed to have been consecrated by Jesus Christ himself.[4]
Engraving of Funeral Procession of King Louis IX by Félibien (May 22, 1271). Image via pitt.edu
The first element of Saint-Denis to be rebuilt was the western façade. Two key imperatives drove this decision. Firstly, the façade was seen as the least sacred portion of the old basilica; its redesign and reconstruction could therefore be accomplished with a minimum of resistance. Despite its being the least “holy” part of the church, however, it was through the western façade and its doors that visitors would have to pass in order to enter the building. It therefore followed that this face of the building would be the first that most pilgrims would see – their first impression of the abbey, then, would be that of Suger’s comparatively contemporary addition.[5]
Work on the western façade commenced in 1135, proceeding under two different Master Masons in the following five years. A series of “trios” in the design referenced the Holy Trinity: three doors, three vertical strata, and several groups of triple arches form the lower portion of the façade. The division between this lower portion and the two towers that rose above was demarcated by crenellations. While crenellations were a defensive feature atypical for a religious structure, their inclusion here was more a symbolic reference to the New Jerusalem of the Book of Revelations than it was a practical fortification (Suger’s willingness to use it as such in case of an emergency notwithstanding).[6,7]
As was custom for French churches, a pair of towers flanked the central portal below. Although both were planned under Suger’s abbacy, only the southern tower was completed in his lifetime. Its taller northern counterpart, completed by one of his successors, did not fare well through history: it was rebuilt twice, due to lightning strikes in both 1219 and 1837. The latter of these efforts, led by architect François Debret, was handled so incompetently that the tower had to be completely dismantled in 1846. This deconstruction left Saint-Denis as it is today, with a single, southern tower – as it was during the time of Suger himself.[8]
When the new western façade was dedicated in June of 1140, attention turned to the far end of the church building. The façade, despite its updates, was essentially Romanesque and introduced no particular stylistic innovations; it was in the choir and chevet (eastern end) that the abbey church would begin to codify a new architectural style. This innovation resulted from Suger’s fascination with light as another reference to the New Jerusalem, which is vividly described as appearing to be built of glittering gems and gold that is clear as glass. It was this glowing architectural image which Suger strove to express in his abbey, a feat that he determined to accomplish through lavish use of stained glass.[9]
The need to allow for easy circulation of pilgrims, and Suger’s desire to dematerialize the heavy stone masonry with enormous stained glass windows, required a method of structural support that ran counter to the thick, heavy construction of Romanesque churches. The solution was to replace the deep walls that typically separated the small chapels at the church’s eastern end with slender columns – architectural features which, coincidentally, emulated similar columns in the 8th Century nave. Rib vaults forming pointed arches supported the ceiling, allowing for an unprecedented openness in the double ambulatory of the chevet that also permitted a virtually uninterrupted view of the stained glass that filled the majority of the wall space.[10]
It is important to note that the structural innovations employed in the chevet—the pointed arch, the flying buttress, and the vault rib—were not originally invented for Saint-Denis itself. These techniques, which offered greater structural integrity and adaptability, had been available to Romanesque architects who subtly employed one or the other in various buildings long before Suger. The significance of Saint-Denis, then, was not that its master builders pioneered these forms of construction; it was simply the first time that they were used together with the intention of creating a markedly different effect than that which prevailed in the abbey’s Romanesque contemporaries. In combining these pre-existing threads into a unified architectural logic, Suger and his architects built the earliest example of what would eventually become known as the (French) Gothic style of building.[11]
Floorplan by Félibien (1700) – note: not current. Image via pitt.edu
The completion of the western and eastern ends of the abbey church left only the Carolingian nave to be rebuilt. Unfortunately for his grand project, Suger was forced to turn his attention to matters of state when King Louis VII, who had departed to join the Second Crusade, appointed him to serve as the Regent of France. With Suger’s focus elsewhere, construction on Saint-Denis slowed to a crawl, and only the foundations of the new nave were completed when the abbot died in 1151. For eighty years, the abbey church remained an awkward, eclectic hybrid of architectural styles. Work resumed on the nave in 1231, a project that included reconstruction of the upper works of the choir in order to ensure a relatively unified aesthetic. The nave, as completed in 1281, was as innovative as the chevet that preceded it: its massive windows and slender masonry typified the RayonnantGothic style, again establishing Saint-Denis as the example to follow for sacred spaces across Europe.[12.13]
Very little of the abbey church changed after the 13th Century. Its accessory structures were rebuilt between 1701 and 1781, but the church itself was allowed to remain much as it had been since 1281. As a Catholic abbey, Saint-Denis was unfortunately a victim of the French Revolution’s rebellion against the church: its lead roofing was stripped away, its royal tombs desecrated, and its innovative sanctuary put to ignominious use as grain storage. The former abbey’s salvation came at the hands of Napoléon Bonaparte, who appointed François Debret to restore the church to its former glory for service as his family mausoleum. Debret, who worked more as a decorator than an historian, did not restore the church so much as create a general air of medievalism. His failures at structural restoration, which led to the aforementioned dismantling of the north tower, led to his resignation and replacement with Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, who did everything he could to replace Debret’s work with the more accurate reconstruction that exists today.[14]
Today, the Basilica of Saint-Denis is recognized as the very first example of Gothic art and architecture. Returned to the CatholicChurch, it was officially granted the status of ‘cathedral’ in 1966. It is also the world’s largest museum of medieval and Renaissance statuary, home to over 70 pieces of funerary sculpture from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries.[15] Its northern tower may be gone, but its imaginative Gothic interiors continue to be admired by visitors who, in entering Saint-Denis, step into a turning point in architectural history itself.
References
[1] Brown, Elizabeth A. R., and Claude Sauvageot. Saint-Denis: La Basilique. Saint-Léger-Vauban: Zodiaque, 2001. p42. [2] Jordan, William C. A Tale of Two Monasteries: Westminster and Saint-Denis in the Thirteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. [3] Calkins, Robert G. Medieval Architecture in Western Europe: From A.D. 300 to 1500. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. p172-173. [4] Ayers, Andrew. The Architecture of Paris: An Architectural Guide. Stuttgart: Edition Axel Menges, 2004. p288-289. [5] Brown and Sauvageot, p79. [6] Leniaud, Jean-Michel, and Philippe Plagnieux. La Basilique Saint-Denis. Paris: Éditions Du Patrimoine, 2012. p40-43. [7] Brown and Sauvageot, p82-83. [8] Brown and Sauvageot, p82. [9] Kostof, Spiro. A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. p330-331. [10] Calkins, p173-177. [11] Kostof, p332-333. [12] Calkins, p177. [13] Ayers, p289. [14] Ayers, p289. [15] “Basilique Cathédrale De Saint-Denis.” Centre Des Monuments Nationaux. Accessed October 04, 2016. [access].
Location: 1 Rue de la Légion d’Honneur, 93200 Saint-Denis, France
We were asked by our client, diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), to adapt his house with an eye on the future. After meeting with the ergotherapist, we knew we had no time to spare considering the aggressive nature of the condition.
Refuge II is a temporary project. The existing concrete carport was chosen for the project because of the limitation in adaptability of the existing house. Of course, a barrier-free floor plan was a major concern, but what came to me as being even more important was mental accessibility. There is no hope to heal. There is a need for a universal hope, helping each other, involvement, engagement, friendship beyond limits. How can we make architecture with this? Why not building with friends and family? With materials everybody knows from their childhood. Straw and sand referring to the playground, the smell, the memory…
More than a 100 friends and family contributed in constructing Refuge II. With tutoring from/and more complicated jobs done by professionals like the sustainable heating and ventilation (with heat recuperation) system or the domotics to manage the doors, curtains, lighting,… controllable by the client. While building, coffee, tea, food, beer and wine, were served to celebrate life.
Everyone being involved recognized him/herself in Refuge II. They were part of it, it created a mental accessibility. The focus changed from sickness and death to hope and future.
Floor plan
Winter
Everything will be taken away. 83% of the project (straw and loam) will be spread out over the landscape as fertilisation. Technical equipment (sponsored) will be returned. Glass, metal, wood,… will be recycled. Parallel to this attitude, and above all there is a human investment. The ritual. The cycle of life.
The project is located at the heart of a city block in a school playground. The new volume extends an existing school building up the slope of the passageway that leads onto the site, and settles itself onto the playground’s sloping surface.
The building is accessed from the street by passing through a porte-cochère that opens onto a passageway. From here the southernmost end of the building can be seen in all its verticality. This stretched volume signals the presence of the dance centre. The building’s pale facade of hand-made brick fits well with the creams and beiges of the neighbouring buildings. Rather than breaking with the context, the building fits into the existing stone-coloured environment, at the same time underlining its own presence with its eye-catching volumes and natural materials.
Surrounding homes look over the steeply pitched roofscape with its glazed white tiles, a dancing sculpture of changing colours as sunlight plays across the undulating dance studio roofs.
As you walk up the passageway, large windows give views into the heart of the building’s organisation; horizontal and vertical circulation spaces provide generous reception areas and spaces for meeting people, waiting and relaxing between classes. These uses are visible from outside, comings and goings are theatricalised, different activities meet and a relationship with the town is developed. The ambiance inside is hushed. Soft lighting is tinted by oiled oak and the clay-rendered walls. On the ceiling a piece by artist Marie Maillard evokes nature, the sun, the movements of dance and the hum of music. These circulation spaces contrast with the white, light-filled practice rooms. On the ground floor overlooking the playground, two openings are provided into each music room. A large square window frames views of planting at the rear of the site. Its high level sill screens views in from the playground and separates the view from the bustle. A small opening for ventilation hidden behind brick screens allows for manual adjustments to the temperature in the room.
The dance studios on the first floor have wide windows that come down to the floor, overlooking the playground. Large glazed skylights for ventilation bring in extra diffuse light and highlight the asymmetric ceiling that is particularly suitable for use in a dance studio
From the architect. Located in the southernmost part of Tokushima Prefecture, the town overlooking the majestic Pacific Ocean. To clear a site of about 110 square meters, husband and wife, of residential dwelling is a family of four of two children plan. As you can see, clear concept to the big box made of roof and wall, in extremely simple that in a residential packed a small box as needed.
Passed a structure with beams and walls, to form the building of the box-like with no pillar warehouse, private room, rather than the required space as water around like a house on the wall and columns, separated by a box. By doing this, the upper space of each private room becomes a loft-like, as a playground for children who dressed, also books a lot of your owner-like archive, also to something elimination of storage shortage of things more often parenting generation play a role buy.
Floor Plan
The interior is he drew the intention of your owner-like, Kiyoshi of the top class among the houses that have been designed until now. The beams rest part number that has been burned, mortar of Doma followed from Entorasu, partition “box” is structural plywood as it is of the form, the wall is not the filling was painted putty, find the seam of the plate it is clearly state . Material who hide without showing covered with a cloth or tile usually is, this in the house claiming to show proudly the figure, a personality no other.
However, rather than to go unchecked it, tighten with the discipline of design, was sublimated in housing that also combines a kind of elegance, yet seemingly rough.
From the architect. The project is located in one industrial zone of Shenzhen, China; the former architectural space was in chaos and disorder when the Owner took it over after being ended with the run-down industrial workshop and warehouse. The operating team of the project hoped to turn the space into a complex that includes dining, coffee, musical activity and Tarot zones; further, the designing and construction would last two months only.
The estimated cost of the project is relatively low, in fact the project can be designed and constructed with very little difficulty. Therefore, optimization of materials and the processes will be the subject of focus throughout the entire project. As-cast finish concrete shall be utilized as the main material in view of its economy, convenient construction process, and duration. Construction of all spaces shall be implemented sequentially in an attractive tonal gradation when the unified material atmosphere is available. On this basis, the arc steel pipe customization shall be the important element in the space, and the column structure dividing the space shall be formed by the round pipes in bundles; and their integration shall also be the greatest highlight of this project.
Courtesy of Feel Design
Plan
Courtesy of Feel Design
The concept of environmental protection shall be integrated into the project with the upmost imperative due to the design and understanding of the material and the process; therefore, all materials can be recycled, the pollution to the site can be reduced and the duration of the project can be mitigated by using this method of customized installation. Besides, the energy-saving factor shall be considered fully in terms of application of light of the project, and the light effect which is warm and has rich levels shall fit positioning of the project well.
Courtesy of Feel Design
Inspiration
After embarking on the project, the design team started with the mysterious color that emanated from the thematic concept of the project and they expect to draw inspiration from buildings on a spiritual level. The design team checked and visited a large number of Gothic architectures, and felt a sense of power and connection with God in the tall and straight spatial structure. They then transplanted it in the project as a salute to traditional buildings in a contemporary form of structure.
Courtesy of Feel Design
Meanwhile, after deliberating the spiritual strength of the project and taking into account the fact that the site will be a consumption space, the design team decided not to design it entirely in accordance with a religious space. On the contrary, the design team selected many interesting contemporary art works to introduce a fashionable and relaxing environment to temper the space, and then accompanied it with multi-faceted lighting giving the space a graceful and interesting Yuppie look. The serious and facetious atmosphere of the space made the project one of the favorite spaces by contemporary artists on the block where the project is situated.
Courtesy of Feel Design
The circular-tube design evolved from Gothic architecture and is regrouped and alternated in the space, thus deducing Gothic drama. The climax of such drama is nothing more than a white floating cloud in the coffee house. Time seems stop at the moment when you sit under the cloud and smell the coffee.
From the architect. The project’s principal design decisions were driven very much by the location of the house on an Island disconnected from mainland Australia by road and not serviced by any public utilities or Council amenities. The site sits on a ridgeline looking out across Philip Island to Bass Strait and back across bucolic, pastoral landscapes to the French Island National Park.
This leads to views in almost all directions which we were keen to capture but also to an intense exposure to the winds and driving rain coming in off the Strait. Our solution was to design a simple square form courtyard house which would provide a sheltered outdoor space while also maximizing daylight and natural ventilation into a house that was going to need to be self-sustaining in terms of power.
This worked well with the prefabricated nature of the build, enabling an easy module breakup, and allowed us to route circulation around the courtyard while living and bedrooms were given the opportunity to look out to sea. A family project, the house needed to accommodate aging grandparents while also allowing friends and extended family to stay over when occasionally marooned by bad weather.
From the architect. The Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation is devoted to introducing design innovation at the center of university life, preparing students to address some of society’s most pressing challenges. The project is a team-based, project-centric educational space and a compelling symbol to the region of the University’s commitment to sustainable innovation.
Built and operated by the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, the Jacobs Institute fosters interdisciplinary engagement across the University, welcoming undergraduate students from other departments, inventors, tinkerers and over thirty student clubs to an environment of creativity, collaboration and innovation.
The tiny corner site, formerly a volleyball court, lies at the northern edge of campus within a diverse context. Two 4-story engineering buildings border the site on the west and south while an existing two-level basement underlies nearly a third of the site. A variety of residential buildings line the street to the north.
Diagram
The compact building makes efficient use of its tight urban site, cantilevering over the existing basement while retaining a south-facing solar court. Large, flexible design studios are bordered by project rooms, instructor’s offices and fabrication equipment rooms with a variety of rapid prototyping tools. Transparency and overlooks reveal the hum of creative activity within. The south wall opens to the sun for optimal daylighting and passive solar benefit, connecting to the adjacent Wozniak Terrace and the campus beyond.
At the exterior, the building presents a new threshold to the UC campus – a “beacon of innovation” that communicates the values of the Institute and the University. Glassy stairs project outward, glowing after dark to welcome visitors from the campus to the south. A cantilevered photovoltaic array ascends to the north, expressing the ecological values of the Institute to the University and the public. The array provides 58% of the building’s energy, reducing total building energy by 90%.
The designs of the Zaha Hadid-created statuettes to be handed out at this year’s BRIT Awards have been unveiled. One of Hadid’s final commissions before her death this March, the design consists of a family of 5 interrelated trophies take the form of abstracted female figures representing diversity. One of those family members, meant to represent Britannia, the female personification of Great Britain, will be awarded to musicians for their victories in the BRIT Awards ceremony this February.
Following Hadid’s passing, the project was carried out by Zaha Hadid Design Director Maha Kutay and the BRIT Awards’ Niamh Byrne, who set to follow through on the late architect’s’ vision.
“Zaha was truly excited to be doing this,” remarked Kutay at the concept unveiling last month. “Her vision was, being an architect, to focus our efforts more on the 3D element, as the statue had previously been used as a canvas for artists to paint on for the last few years. Our design expresses Zaha’s unwavering belief in progress and optimism for the future and a break from the norm. The biggest challenge was to create something different within certain guidelines, yet achieving a result recognisable to the public. You have to respect the existing to create something new.”
“We are delighted with the finished statues,” said Brit Awards chairman Jason Iley. “Like Zaha, they are innovative and original and have gone well beyond our expectations to create something special that will progress the award into the future.”
Previous designers of BRIT Awards statuettes have included artists Artists Damien Hirst and Sir Peter Blake.
Sig Nordal 