From the architect. Saengthai Rubber Headquarter is situated in the front of a half century factory compound on Poochaosamingprai Road, the historical industrial development area of Bangkok. The Headquarter will be the first move for their organization’s reengineering. It is the expressive gesture for their visionary business plan and also the portal gateway to district.
The requirement listed for 5 storey structure. Fully occupied as work space for main businesses and jointed companies. The given form initially started with the composition of two boxes wrapped with black concrete frame, then intersected to separately form spaces for each organization. The central area is where the vertical circulation is located. We lifted the rear box up to create the terrace for president office on the 4th floor. Then bended the front box to create the car drop off in front, and continue the form to the 5th floor to be the shrine hall.
From the center, it seems like a common concrete column structure with the flat slab concrete floor. The distribution of the load transfer to the façade. Where lattice pattern forms as a super truss made of steel section, bringing the weight all down to the ground. It is our first attempt to use the integration of structural frame, both concrete and steel. With the large reflecting pond, the structure seems to be floating. The triangle pattern from the façade has become the principle detail that applies throughout the project, from the glazed facade to further details including the lighting fixture and fence design.
Section
While exterior is painted in black, all of the interior element is painted in white, giving the clarity and futuristic appearance to the inhabitants. The interior space is an interplay of double height work floor and over hanging meeting room that has panoramic view to the north and south, giving the visual clarity and openness to working atmosphere. The bended floor becomes seating steps for casual meeting arousing the sharing culture.
The composition of two boxes, lifted and bended can also be interpreted as a metaphor to the core business as it express the major quality of the rubber, the elasticity.
Being together with the 50 years old Banyan and Bodhi tree, they are speaking of the heritage, they have been through while look toward the future with the fresh vision of new generation.
We are pleased to announce a new content partnership between ArchDaily and Moscow's Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in we will share a collection of critical essays, interviews and articles on urban events, studies in urbanism, and urban technologies taking place in Russia. ArchDaily Editors will be working closely with those of Strelka Magazine, which was launched in 2014, to translate and publish ideas and opinions from their expert team of local writers.
Sonia Elterman, Strelka Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, has said: "There is a growing interest in Russian cities and their architectural and urban development, and we write about the latest trends, technologies and projects emerging in Russia."
The Institute’s educational programme is conducted in English, alongside its first joint postgraduate MA programme Advanced Urban Design developed in partnership with the Graduate School of Urbanism at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. International experts regularly give lectures at the institute’s open yard in Moscow, and Strelka Magazine’s content is available both in Russian and in English.
About the Strelka Institute
Strelka was founded in 2009 to change the cultural and physical landscapes of Russian cities. The Institute promotes positive changes and creates new ideas and values through its educational activities, and provides brand new learning opportunities, while the city remains at the centre of the Institute’s research programme. The Institute was included in the list of 100 best institutions for architecture according to Domus.
From the architect. The building is fitted into the urban tissue of a mostly residential historic area. The plot is big enough to leave a gap between the other buildings. With a 300 m2 footprint, the house is also a bit smaller than the adjacent buildings. This gave us the chance to preserve most of the trees and create a large back-yard with a playground, parking, and a communal terrace shared by the residents. In the front, the building creates a recess in the building line for the main entrance.
The first floor level is not much higher than the pavement, which provides a voyeuristic perspective into the apartments and, we believe, contributes to the street by fading the border between private and public space.
Section
The building’s shape is inspired by the roofscapes of the neighbouring houses. The attics in the area all have a romantic sense to them, having historically been occupied by low-rent tenants and now being treated as more exclusive living spaces. We wanted to maximize the space on the top floor, and give it a strong spatial character with slanted ceilings and spaces up to 4 meters high. The owners of the third floor apartments were encouraged to build a mezzanine level, which some of them successfully did.
The building is viewable from all four sides and all facades are treated equally. We aimed to create a monolithic form wrapped in a skin of wooden strips. The wood strip skin is a historical element characteristic to 1930-s wooden Tallinn-type buildings dominating the area. The skin creates a decorative quality to the facade and also constitutes a barrier for balconies.
Plan
The detail level in the buildings architecture has been kept to a minimum to create a ’background for life’ and considering that a lot of artefacts will appear in the course of daily life.
The Available City exhibition at the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Courtesy David Schalliol
At the Chicago Architecture Biennale, David Brown’s project “The Available City” addressed the fact that Chicago currently owns 15,000 vacant lots, many of which have become “havens for illegal dumping, weeds, rodents and street crime.” In this article, originally published on Autodesk’s Line//Shape//Space publication, Jeff Link takes a look at Brown’s project, examining its unique approach to developing the empty lots and converting them into public space.
David Brown’s Chicago Architecture Biennial project, The Available City, responds to a striking fact: Chicago, in an exodus story echoed across the rust belt, owns 15,000 vacant lots.
The parcels, many of them on the South and West Sides, don’t generate tax revenue, but the city is obliged to maintain them. Outside the watch of homeowners, many are havens for illegal dumping, weeds, rodents, and street crime.
Chicago hasn’t exactly turned a blind eye, says Brown, associate director of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Architecture and the author of Noise Orders: Jazz, Improvisation, and Architecture. Through the Large Lot Program—a pilot that began in Chicago’s Englewood, East Garfield Park, and Austin neighborhoods—individuals and nonprofits that live on the same block as a city-owned vacant residential lot can buy select pieces of land for a dollar.
It’s a compelling idea, and through it and the related Adjacent Neighbors Land Acquisition Program, about 1,000 lots have been purchased in the past five years. But Brown says the city can do more; he suggests thinking of architecture and urban planning like jazz: a formal compositional structure inside of which experimentation can take place.
“I’ve had a long interest in improvisation: how improvisation is structured in music and how that sensibility can carry over and influence how we organize architecture and urban spaces,” he says.
The novelty of Brown’s approach is that it considers vacant city and privately owned lots, typically 25 by 125 feet, in two- to five-lot sets, up to 13 stories tall. The reclassified property boundaries—an area equal to Chicago’s Loop in size—offer room for affordable housing, outdoor recreation, commercial development, and accessible collective public space. As part of the Biennial’s exhibition, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, nine firms were commissioned to interpret these rules in architectural models displayed at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Francisco Gonzalez-Pulido is the chief of design and president at JAHN. His design—“KTC 234” (Knowledge Trading Center), created in partnership with the German architect and structural engineer Werner Sobek—envisions a 24-hour global classroom made up of learning cells that facilitate knowledge trading.
The exhibition's KTC 234 design. Courtesy Francisco Gonzalez-Pulido (JAHN). Image
Using the fully allowable 13 stories, Gonzalez-Pulido’s 125-square-foot cube is a decidedly non-image-conscious building inspired as much by Spanish surrealism as by modular, prefabricated forms of the 1970s. “We’re too focused on image and profit these days, and I find that sad, putting people in the smallest room possible and charging them the biggest fees to live there,” Gonzalez-Pulido says. “This is a place where you can reinforce the idea of knowledge in society.”
Imagined for development in a commercial district along the Chicago River and accessible by boat, bike, or foot, the high-performance building of resins and composites includes mother cells that generate energy and walls that get thinner and lighter at increasing heights. The nonhierarchical form mirrors its democratic function. Musicians, cooks, and app developers—or whoever wants to come by and trade expertise—can teach informal classes and earn knowledge credits to exchange for their own learning.
“A lot of this came out of the way I experience my day: wishing I was sitting somewhere learning something or listening to something, rather than surfing the Internet,” Gonzalez-Pulido says. “My goal was to design a building that is incredibly democratic.”
For Ania Jaworska, an independent architect and visiting assistant professor at the University of Illinois, the desire to unite people in a welcome atmosphere of free idea exchange is equally apparent. Her open-air pavilion borrows the pitched-roof typology of a home. Bounded by Grecian-style columns, an extruded plaza includes a long community table and conversation-pit space. The space provides room for a variety of functions, from block parties to barbeques. “I was really thinking about the basic need of people to gather around the fire and discuss ideas in an open-ended and serious way,” she says.
Ania Jaworska design. Courtesy David Schalliol
Meanwhile, a topographical, multistrata design by architects Juan Gabriel Moreno, Miriam Neet, Dan Spore, Katie LaCourt, and Ted Jamiefield of JGMA reimagines a void within Humboldt Park in Chicago’s West Side. The park reflects the demographics of the rapidly gentrifying Latino neighborhood; it’s the site of a bird-friendly lagoon, soccer fields, food trucks, and the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture.
“It’s a cool place to be all of a sudden,” says Moreno, president and founder of JGMA. “Hipsters are moving in, and now people want to live in the area.”
Targeting a 24-block area anchored by Norwegian American Hospital, JGMA’s vision integrates a constructed landscape of pools, vegetable gardens, and hills, extending the park south to W. Augusta Boulevard and east to N. California Avenue. A wellness-centered stratum connects park space to the hospital and surrounding community. That the space was not included in the original park framework of William Le Baron Jenney and Jens Jensen is an ironic twist on the idea of wellness and community.
JGMA model. Courtesy David Schalliol
“Everything we want to do has to do with keeping people out of the hospital—rethinking nutrition and physical fitness, looking at programs for how we grow food, and providing places for swimming,” Moreno says.
Offering a more minimalist approach is Krueck + Sexton Architects’ “Chicago Boogie Woogie,” a novel take on microhousing. Architects Tom Jacobs, Mircea Eni, Sean Myung Shin Kim, Elias Logan, Don Semple, and Lindsey Telford connect five city lots to create a mixed-use residential space with the massing oriented toward the street. With the front setbacks reduced, the design preserves a rear courtyard. Inside, the design carves out shared social spaces, such as a game room and a formal dining room, which all occupants can access. Adult dormitories offer sleeping quarters for individuals of varied incomes.
The exhibition display placard reads simply, “When you own a unit here, you own a bed, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, a café, a restaurant, a florist, a barbershop, a workshop, a library. You own everything. Even an orchard.” It’s a fitting description for a collective space of shared ownership.
In theory, all of that sounds great. But will any of these ideas come to fruition? To ignite the imagination of city officials and encourage investment in vacant land and impoverished neighborhoods, these proposals ultimately need to arouse interest from private stakeholders, foundations, and community groups. That begins, Brown says, with rule changes in city leasing and easement structures that would allow resident groups, businesses, and wards to function as collective development entities, unburdened by traditional zoning classifications.
Within two years, Brown says he’d like to see a freestanding, landscaped-based surface example as part of a city exposition that could motivate such jurisdictional rethinking. And there are other signs these responses may be more than just ideas on paper.
“I think we’re getting interesting reactions from clients,” says Gonzalez-Pulido. “When we start talking to them and they see the presentation posters, they think of potential applications, like a client developing employee housing in Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. They ask, ‘Is it possible? Can we use another old loft building as the site of a rehearsal space for musicians?’ Maybe.”
Location: Miami’s Design District, Florida, United States
Client: MDDA (Miami Design District Associates) David Gester, David Holtzman, Craig Robins
Executive Architect: SB Architects
Project Year: 2015
Photographs: Courtesy of Aranda Lasch
Lighting: Speirs + Major
Structural: CHM Structural Engineers
Facade Fabricators: GFRC Cladding Systems
Street Landscape: Island Planning Corporation
General Contractor: Coastal Construction
Courtesy of Aranda Lasch
Art Deco is the inspiration for this commercial building in Miami. Located in the city's new Design District, the building houses Tom Ford, Lanvin, and Omega stores. Miami’s historic architecture is defined by the Art Deco movement from the 1920s to the 1940s where bold geometric motifs shape the city’s landmarks. Inspired by the pleated Art Deco patterns found in its architecture and fashion, the building is given a texture that seeks to revisit the exuberance and ornament of Miami’s golden era.
Diagram
The concrete facade is created from a tiling of large-scale Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) panels. The pleated ripple of the facade fans out above the street creating recessed coffers for the stores. Each store is treated independently within their coffer. Lighting integrated into the panel joints creates a scattered pattern of light across the facade. This pattern subtly fluctuates through several programmed sequences at night.
Courtesy of Aranda Lasch
The project is part of the ongoing redevelopment of Miami’s Design District. Over the past few years, the Miami Design District Associates (MDDA) has transformed the neighborhood into a vibrant center for art, culture and retail. Within this context, this building acknowledges the city’s rich historical past while shaping the future of the Design District as a dynamic pedestrian culture.
A stone’s throw from charming Venice, is the island of Poveglia, a peaceful uninhabited land skimmed by the languishing waters of Venetian Lagoon. Once commercial crossroads and cultural melting pot, since 14th century Poveglia has gradually been abandoned by its inhabitants hosting first a leper hospital and then a geriatric hospital. Today, only a thick vegetation and some ruins live on the island featuring as a perfect setting for the grimmest tales and fantastic rumors.
Almost consigned to oblivion, Poveglia may arise from its ashes becoming a focal point in cultural international life. YAC has launched an architectural competition aiming at urban renewal of this island by transforming it into an excellent university campus. The idea is to create a multi-function facility for sevecral suggestive academic, leisure, sport and cultural activities open to students, citizens and tourists gathering in Venice and its surroundings.
How to transform a desert island into a spearheading study and research center? Which architecture should be integrated in one of the most delightful locations in the Venetian Lagoon in order to create an international campus to equal the value of one of the most stunning cities in the world?
On these questions, YAC, with the support of RIAM, lays the foundations for University Island inviting all the designers to feel completely fascinated by the magnificence of one of the most breathtaking places of the Venetian Lagoon. YAC thanks all the architects who will take part in this challenge.
Jury:
An outstanding international jury will evaluate the projects submitted :
- Pierluigi Cervellati (Chief Architect of Studio Cervellati)
- Francesca Graziani (Real estate office)
Prizes:
There is a total amount of 20. 000 € in cash prizes for the winner proposals:
1° prize: 10.000 €
2° prize: 4.000 €
3° prize: 2.000 €
4 gold mentions: 1.000 € each.
In addition, there will be 10 honorable mentions and 30 finalists awarded, like the winners listed above, with a one-year subscription to Casabella magazine and with the publication of their projects on YAC’s website and main architectural magazines and websites.
Calendar:
- 21st March 2016 – start
- 8th June 2016 at 12:00 GMT – registration deadline
- 15th June 2016 at 12:00 GMT – material submission deadline
The Danish Building & Property Agency with the Aarhus School of Architecture have announced the three winning teams of the open competition to design the NEW AARCH project. These designs include new buildings for the Aarhus School of Architecture and the development of the surrounding area in Aarhus known as Godsbanearealerne.
The call for ideas received 235 proposals from 47 countries. The three winners are: Erik Giudice Architects (Sweden/France); Brian Vargo, Jonas Nielsen & Mathias Palle (Denmark); and Atelier Lorentzen Langkilde (Denmark).
Courtesy of Erik Giudice Architect
The winning submissions were chosen by the jury based on their connection with the site’s context, access to outdoor spaces, and on their ability for the Aarhus School of Architecture to have adequate space for robotic experiments and other workshop facilities. Torben Nielsen, Rector of Aarhus School of Architecture and jury member stated, "We have chosen three winning entries that all give the school the necessary space to persistently engage in a high-profile dialogue with the outside world about what architecture actually is. The three proposals are open, in the best sense of the word, rather than inward-looking. They point us towards being an open architecture laboratory - or a factory of architecture - that will benefit not only the school, but also the city and the industry -perhaps even on the international level."
Courtesy of Brian Vargo, Jonas Nielsen & Mathias Palle
The winning entries show potential for development, which will be further processed by The Danish Building & Property Agency, Aarhus School of Architecture, user groups, and NORD Architects to refine the framework of the final project. These designs will be used to inspire the following project competition. The winners of the open competition will be invited to compete with three pre-qualified teams including BIG, Lacaton & Vassal, and SANAA. The project competition will begin in the late summer of 2016.
Team Members: Andrés Acosta, León Carpman, Federico Locco
Engineering Consultant: Str. Engr. Gustavo Bordachar
Courtesy of Matías Imbern
From the architect. The project is structured to frame the park by using two distinct pieces, the house, located on the front, and the pool, located in the back of the lot. According to this, both pieces designed to occupy the entire width of the lot within the edificatory limits. The width, 17m., is replicated to the back of the lot, obtaining a square of 17x17, into which the proposal is organized.
Courtesy of Matías Imbern
The house is set on two floors of great contrast. The first floor contains the intimate spaces, with a stronger image that gives an architectural, climatic and structural response by using concrete as the dominant materiality of the project. The ground floor accommodates the social spaces, organized through a grid system that allows visual and light permeability. Glass and white plaster act as a socket which 'elevates' concrete from the ground, increasing its presence, emphasized by the cantilevers at both ends. Finally, a central double-height links both floors while fragments the functional program, determining the coexistence of three quasi-autonomous houses: the Social House, the Parents House and the Kids House.
1st Floor Plan
Courtesy of Matías Imbern
2nd Floor Plan
The horizontal porosity of housing that links the front of the lot with the park, is enhanced with the introduction of seven skylights enabling the entry of daylight in specific sectors of greater intimacy and/or lower sunlight. In turn, a small patio separates the kitchen from the living-room, but emphasizes the visual continuity of the ground floor. In this sector, the concrete structure is raised by small section metal columns that are hidden by the aluminum window frames, enabling the spatial merging among kitchen, living-room, gallery and park.
Courtesy of Matías Imbern
Section DD
Courtesy of Matías Imbern
The MCHAP.emerge prize is awarded biennially by the College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). As winner, PRODUCTORA will be given the opportunity to lead a research studio in 2017 related to 'rethinking metropolis' along with $25,000 of funding.
PRODUCTORA was a finalist among practices from Canada, the United States, Chile and Paraguay. The decision was made by Jury President Stan Allen, architect and former Dean of Princeton University’s School of Architecture (New York); Florencia Rodriguez, editorial director of Piedra, Papel y Tijera publishers (Buenos Aires); Ila Berman, Professor of Architecture, University of Waterloo (Waterloo); Jean Pierre Crousse of Barclay & Crousse (Lima), and Dean Wiel Arets (Chicago).
Tomorrow (05/04/2016), the "Pritzker Laureates' Conversation"—titled Challenges Ahead for the Built Environment—will be broadcast live at 6.30pm ET. It will provide a rare opportunity to hear Aravena in conversation with previous Pritzker Prize Laureates, including Richard Meier, Glenn Murcutt, Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, Christian de Portzamparc, Richard Rogers, and Wang Shu. The conversation will be moderated by Cathleen McGuigan.
The ceremonies can also be watched directly on the UN Channel here.
From the architect. The project was a rest house which includes the social areas and master bedroom on the ground floor overlooking the sea, four bedrooms to accommodate a family in each, and service areas.
A huge fig tree, a palm tree and visual openings to the sea were the conditioning for the house.
Bottom Plan
The palm serves to confine a courtyard entrance where vegetation dialogues with the apparent structure, they welcome and announce what will be the theme of the whole house: a grid of columns and beams like an skeleton that modulate, order, delimit and qualify the different spaces.
The main enclosure conforms a palapa that houses open living and dining room, adjoining a pool that serves the auction house, which dilutes its border with the ocean horizon is located.
Section
The palapa is complemented on one side by a patio deck on the axis marked by the fig tree, which is followed by another backyard that introduces light and vegetation to the family room area. The bedroom is located at the beginning of the same axis, and through the sequence of courtyards, you also enjoy the scenery without losing your privacy.
A semi-open staircase leads to the four bedrooms upstairs modulated under the same order and thatched by two palapas, which generate a double height housing the bath with a timber closure on which a loft is enabled.
Top Plan
The house can live as closed or open as you want, allowing you to enjoy the sea breeze and vegetation that seeks to introduce the jungle immediate context by a rich variety of species.
The main problem in this project was fit the extensive program to the reduced area, only 62 square meters.
Three areas have been differentiated by its uses; a first area with the reception and toilets , the second with the facilities, warehousing, diagnostic and office and a third one with two cabinets. The proposal was to divide the three areas in a very simple way, two trapezoids, that can separate or put together, contain the area of facilities and prioritize the rest of the space. Create an open space with few divisions and an easy understanding of all of the functions was the objective.
Plan
The main part of the project is where the cabinets are, and for this reason they are located in the area of the windows outside, into the street.
The materials used play a very important role for the composition , depending on areas and function, one or another were used , these are mostly aluminium and pine wood.
The center piece was made in aluminium in order to transmit cleanliness and asepsis sense that a dental clinic must have, a large metallic volume that forms the different rooms of the clinic.
Diagram
The main room was completed with a continuous turquoise green pavement associated with corporate image.
On the other hand the pine wood helps to complete the other rooms, mainly the reception and waiting room , making a cozy and pleasant areas.
French architect David Tajchman has envisioned a new skyscraper for Tel Aviv, Israel. The conceptual project, "Gran Mediterraneo" offers a mix of programs including apartments, a hotel, an automated car park, public charging station, farming and public gardens, co-working spaces, spas and more - all "wrapped in mirrored glass" and white concrete.
"Innovative also with its topological geometry giving a spiral effect to the high-rise, the Gran Mediterraneo breaks with the global and usual stacking of horizontal slabs wrapped with mirrored glass, aiming to renew Tel Aviv skyline with a 'Unesco proclaimed white city' specific vertical architecture. To be built with white concrete, using the latest construction and digital technologies, the curvy high-rise is filled with mediterranean and dead sea natures," describes Tajchman.
From the architect. The Trinity Hill Youth Accommodation and Training Facility has been developed by Housing Tasmania to provide safe and secure long term housing, on-site support, and training and education opportunities for youth who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, on low income, or living with a significant and permanent disability.
The project provides 46 independent 1 bedroom units including 8 suitable for young people living with a significant and permanent disability, a caretakers house, support staff offices, communal spaces, training rooms and kitchen.
The development centres around the heritage listed Trinity Hill State School (c1885) which has been re-purposed to create a community hub with recreational and training facilities. Limited but sensitive conservation works have been undertaken within the school building where the original main classroom configuration has been restored.
The project site fronts onto Elizabeth Street and rises over 10m through to Church Street. Strategically placed elevated walkway links provide universal access right through the site.
The old school building divides the site into two parts which differ in character and level of sensitivity. The Church Street side has a quieter, residential character. Elizabeth Street is harder edged, more dynamic and noisier with main street activity, commerce and traffic.
The design resolution concentrates all but 8 of the residential units to the Elizabeth Street side where a higher density can sit more comfortably. All units face north to maximise sun and outlook.
Site Sections
Consideration has been given to place and context. The new building envelopes are subservient to the old State School, enhancing its pre-eminence, and the Elizabeth Street frontage has, in homage to the heritage townhouse adjacent, been articulated to reference its form and scale.
Precast concrete has been used extensively, for both economy and robustness. However, other elements such as coloured sun shades and wall tiles, angled wall planes and timber screening have been introduced to enliven the building and counter any ‘institutional’ feel by engendering a quirky sense of play and fun. This extends to the unit interiors where use of colour and shelving crates help create a less formal environment attuned to the younger occupants.
From the architect. In The Quran, there was a sentence describing Allah“He created the skies with the light, without pillars you see it”. The architect also tried to integrate this thought-provoking Islamic philosophy into this unique mosque, hoping the sacred light to be the soul of the mosque.
Courtesy of Ibrahim Ma
Light of Allah Mosque lies in Xingping City of Shanxing Province, attached to Xingping Mosque, which was planned to be a Female Mosque for Muslim females to pray and worship. At the same time this was a project with great capital restrictions, RMB350thousand meaning an extraordinary challenge to the designing. The designer kept considering how to give full play to the designing with the poor investment. The entrusting party demanded that the hall of praying and worshiping shouldn’t be over 50sqm, which couldn’t allow the church to release the size vertically because generally religious building needs to be towery to create the atmosphere.
Diagram
At last the designer decided to use the round structure which can create bigger space experience with the most tensioned structure. Such a structure means a belt of sky lighted windows attaching to the round structure at the top, allowing the daylight to stream in and form a round halo, enriching the details and the space. In the dim hall, the Muslims lifted up their heads and attracted by the sacred halo weakening the solid concrete in people’s eyes, feeling talking to Allah. Such a building experience shows the lingering charm that people are praying with looking into the light and the light is poured on people’s face. Also the light is moved languidly with the time, so the Muslims can feel the different space experience for 5 special hours during one-day worship. Just like I want to tell people the power and the existence of Allah with light, the people’s spirits and souls are baptized by the pure light I used too. Besides the sky light, the walls are drilled with the square holes of different sizes to ensure the light to stream in during the morning, noon and afternoon. The square holes are installed with the glass of different colors, so the interior space will be decorated with the different color spots.
Courtesy of Ibrahim Ma
There should be one wall toward Kaaba of Mecca, for the Muslims to worship in every Mosque. The designer still chose the concrete to pour one concrete wall of 7meter high without any decorations, which meant facing the wall equaled to facing the direction of Mecca. The windows are drilled behind the wall to let the light in, the natural warm light could be felt shedding from the behind of the wall because no light source could be seen when facing the walls, which created the sacred feeling that the wall should have with the simple sky light. I also made the fresh concrete square surface-hollowed stars & moon pattern fixed on the concrete wall, making the natural light to permeate out. At last, the Akhoond of the Mosque was entrusted to copy down the Quran scripture on the gray concrete with the golden paint. Against the sky light, the plain scripture with the looming light, makes the Muslims fall into pondering, ponder the time, ponder the transition, ponder the life and ponder the words from Allah.
Elevation
Courtesy of Ibrahim Ma
Plan
The whole Mosque is still white because the white represents pure and distinguishes the building from the local environment well, which is as pure as ceramics with the perfect surface. This is a religious architecture with the designing of hoping people to break away from the disordered life and environment and come to completely a pure world, which is the meaning for its existence, purifying everything. At the same time, the white could let people talk to the past and imagine the future without limit. The surrounding environment makes the white more pure and the white makes the environment more clear and bright.
From the architect. The location is Tatsuno-shi, Hyogo prefecture. Built in a corner of a residential area, the gallery can be used to hold workshops or as a rental space.
The clients request was a modest building but a space that can offer various ways to spend time.
There are houses and an old apartment around the site, not exactly ideal scenery for the project. So we first set a parking zone in the front for several cars and designed so the back of the gallery would face the apartment.
Further, each area is rotated 45 degrees to keep more distance away from the houses across the street, and green was planted in the alcove, or hollow space, between the partitioned areas.
Dividing the room makes the building look compact, and you can visualise its continuity at a glance. The explicit layout, which is reflected in the building shape, allows anyone to easily find where and what is taking place.
Khedbrahma is a small town in Sabarkantha, Gujarat. There is a confluence of three small rivers here. This confluence of river is known as Harnav. The Khedbrahma Municipality decided to develop a public park for the town on one of the edge of river Harnav. This public park site on the river edge was initially used as a dump yard. The park was envisioned as a recreational open space for the people to enjoy, seat and relax.
River Harnav is a non-perennial river and water can only be enjoyed during the rainy season. The design focused on creating recreational leisure spaces that would offer variety, continuity and establish multiple connections with the water (seasonal) and the surroundings. Pedestrian, linear pathways parallel to the river edge are designed to enjoy the walk along the edge. These pathways gently move up and down taking inspiration from the water movement.
Ground Plan
Sections
Plan Flow
The experiences and engagement with the surroundings keeps on changing as one moves through these linear continuous pathways. This pathways moving up and down establishes new programmatic connections. At some places it’s a walk along the edge, while it gets converted to a low height seating when it moves down. As the pathway moves up again, it becomes a bridge along the lily pond while the same pathway flattens to form a pause for the cafeteria. The linear continuous movement is enjoyed by creating variety of experiences for the visitors. This varied experience provides an opportunity for the children and people under all age group to enjoy the river edge. There are seats and plantation to provide greenery and shade along the edge. The place gives the feeling of constant movement with a leisurely walk similar to the water movement in the river.
The slope for each of these pathways is meticulously designed to channelize the water movement from one pathway to another and then into the river. Each of the pathways meets at the landing that allows the visitor to change the movement course and also provides a run off of the water movement.
Consultants: EGIS (structure and MEP), EPPAG (facade), AVLS (acoustic), AADT (safety), Socotec (control), Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost (design of the main central hall), Didier Gomez (decoration of services areas)
From the architect. The Pont de Sèvres Towers, renamed Citylights following a complete restructuring, were built in 1975 by architects Badani and Roux-Dorlut. Bearing witness to the era’s architectural modernity, they stood high and dense in the midst of a barren urban territory. The restructuring turned this sense of “isolation” into an asset, on a socio-economic as well as an urban level. The project we conducted is a renovation, re-structuring and an unveiling of the towers’ self-evident resources.
The site is now very well connected to the public transport system, with a métro stop right outside the building, and the Grand Paris network, whose stations are now all connected to the Pont de Sèvres Towers, placing them at the heart of the city. The towers are therefore an integral part of Paris’s recent expansion towards Grand Paris. In addition to their strong territorial impact, these elements have transformed the buildings’ morphology and mutation.
While the towers were originally cut off from their environment, they are now entirely and organically linked to it, through a grid of pedestrian routes connecting them to the new Trapèze district. There, the wasteland of the former Renault factories has now been replaced by office and residential buildings, both new and refurbished.
We conceived a range of spaces in order to open the project to the outside: a large plaza in front of the towers, passageways on the sides, and gardens. The project is now physically anchored in the city. The 53,000 square feet space that was created on the ground level connects the towers to their environment and roots them into the urban space of the city. With the reception areas, walkways and communal spaces, we are offering a new type of work environment, fit for today’s world.
The decision to rehabilitate large architectural projects such as this one is based on a contemporary logic steeped in efficiency and reality. These projects possess undeniable design and geometrical qualities. The hexagonal floor plan, for instance, with its central core serving floors of offices, offers 360° views of Paris and its Western suburbs. All of the work spaces receive direct daylight, and the open offices are narrow so that no more than twelve people are ever visible from any given point. The architecture of the buildings is denser than it would be, had they been conceived nowadays. Our goal with this project therefore consisted in unveiling these assets.
With their prism-like shapes, the buildings are very efficient when it comes to capturing light. Just like with optical instruments, the traditional opposition between the north and south faces of the buildings no longer applies. Sunlight shines throughout the buildings and reflects on the crystallized facades so that all offices can benefit from it, whichever face of the building they are on. This urban complex forms a prow at the entrance of the city of Boulogne, which can be seen from the highway down the hill of Meudon.
The rehabilitation process of the Pont de Sèvres Towers, while respecting their historic value, allowed for a thoroughly new structure, in line with current norms and new sustainable development performances.
The name Citylights, chosen by the project management, is a perfect description of the gleaming “bracelets” of the buildings, whose lighting will be specially conceived to make them shine bright in the night sky. Light gleams on every level of the towers, in the work spaces, dining areas, auditorium and on the campus which opens out to the city below. Citylights is a luminous tower, a beacon into the city in which it is now anchored.
Location: Korte Voorhout 8, 2511 EK Den Haag, Netherlands
Architect In Charge: Kees Kaan, Vincent Panhuysen, Dikkie Scipio
Design Team: Allard Assies, Luca Baialardo, Christophe Banderier, Bas Barendse, Dennis Bruijn, Timo Cardol, Sebastian van Damme, Marten Dashorst, Luuk Dietz, Willemijn van Donselaar, Paolo Faleschini, Raluca Firicel, Michael Geensen, Cristina Gonzalo Cuairán, Joost Harteveld, Walter Hoogerwerf, Michiel van der Horst, Marlon Jonkers, Jan Teunis ten Kate, Marco Lanna, Giuseppe Mazzaglia, Ana Rivero Esteban, Joeri Spijkers, Koen van Tienen, Noëmi Vos
From the architect. The Supreme Court of the Netherlands has been designed by KAAN Architecten as the entry of an international Public Private Competition (Publiek Private Samenwerking - PPS) won in 2012 by Poort van Den Haag, the consortium made up of BAM PPP B.V., PGGM, BAM Bouw en Techniek B.V., ISS Nederland B.V. and KAAN Architecten.
The building, which measures 18.000 m2 and houses a staff of 350, is located in the elegantly historic city center of The Hague. It is situated along the Korte Voorhout, a royal route connecting several institutional buildings to the Parliament building, and adjacent to Malieveld park; in this location the new design, with the measured vibrancy of its facades, interacts with the trees across the street announcing the city gateway.
The main entrance is flagged by six bronze statues of legal scholars seated on pedestals, with a single pane of glass subtly marking the transition from the street to the interior. The transparency of the building signifies both accessibility to the public as well as the soundness and clarity of judgment.
The entrance hall (where the courtrooms and the press room are located) forms the public area; it has double height ceilings that span the full length of the building. The floors and walls are of a light grey limestone that exudes a velvety texture. The large and small courtrooms, which hold 400 and 80 visitors respectively, are distinguished by brown-veined translucent alabaster walls. In the middle of the entrance hall, in between the two courtrooms, hangs the artwork “Hoge Raad” by Dutch painter Helen Verhoeven. It was commissioned specially for the Supreme Court.
The upper floors accommodate offices, a library with study places, a restaurant, and council and meeting chambers. Daylight permeates the building through several skylights, forming the core of the distinct domains of the Council (Raad) and Procurator General Office (Parket). The two departments are identified by the use of different materials: a vertically striped Marmara Equator marble in the Council, and an organic Skyline marble in the Procurator General Office area. At the circumference of the openings each floor has pantries with coffee machines, seating, and bookcases.
The light, the sightlines throughout the space, and the open perspective inspire social interaction, encourage the exchange of ideas and opinions, and allows for informal gatherings.
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Three sides of the building are exposed to sun over the course of a day. These facades are climate controlled through the use of a spacious cavity in the glass casings: glass boxes that not only keep out the heat and cold, but also the sound of traffic outside. Nonetheless, the windows can be opened if desired, while the sun blinds and light filters can also be individually regulated. This controlled double protection produces a layered facade, flat and yet canted, a subtle nuance that adds even more elegance to the whole.
A total of 150 eighteenth and nineteenth century listed wooden buildings remain under protection in Moscow today. Modern city dwellers see only remnants of pre-revolution Moscow, which stayed almost entirely wooden until the early seventeenth century. This is one of the reasons why the Museum of Architecture and Kuchkovo Pole publishing house have joined forces to release a two volume set named Wooden Russia: A Glance Back From the 21st Century.
The first volume contains stories of expeditions and research projects studying the early period of Russian architecture, reports from open-air museums and articles on religious and traditional architecture practices. The second book focuses on neo-Russian architectural style, club architecture, Soviet intelligentsia dachas, and modern park buildings. Shchusev State Museum of Architecture researchers Zoya Zolotnitskaya and Lyudmila Saigina—experts on eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century architecture—agreed to share the stories of ten wooden buildings which managed to survive in the centre of Moscow to this day.
Ostankino Palace
Location: 15 1st Ostankinskaya Str. Years Built: 1792-1798 Architects: Francesco Camporesi, Karl Blank, Pavel Argunov, Alexey Mironov, Grigory Dikushin and others
The first volume of Wooden Russiacontains an image of the Panorama of Moscow, an early eighteenth century print by Pieter Pickaert. The Panorama shows that at that time the entire city, with the exception of the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod, was clearly built out of wood. Although frequent fires were ravaging the urban areas, wooden architecture traditions persisted for a long time.
Wooden houses, cheaper and faster in construction than stone and widely believed to be more comfortable, were favoured in Russia. Semi-finished log cabins were offered for purchase at markets (one log market was located on a territory currently occupied by Trubnaya Square). On purchase, the log structures could be immediately disassembled, adjusted and transported to the site, where the carpenters put together the house in a very short time.
During the city manor construction boom in the second half of the eighteenth century rich stone houses continued to stand side by side with wooden buildings. Hoping to fall in line with the dominating classicism style, the owners of wooden houses tried to keep up appearances by imitating stone. The wooden columns were battened, plastered, painted and decorated with plasterwork. In Moscow, Kuskovo and Ostankino, two surviving eighteenth century palaces once owned by the extremely wealthy Sheremetev family, feature this technique. The Kuskovo Palace was build for the purpose of hosting receptions and providing entertaining to the guests of Sheremetev’s summer residence, while Ostanikino, according to the original intentions of an avid theatre enthusiast Nikolai Sheremetev, was meant to become a palace of arts. The middle section of the Ostankino Palace featuring three symmetrical porticos running along the main façade is made entirely out of wood.
An unaware person will hardly doubt that the palace is solid stone. Unfortunately, the limited service life of Ostankino wooden structures made the restoration process extremely difficult. The restorers used to joke that wallpaper was the only thing that kept the Ostankino Palace from falling apart.
Muravyov-Apostols’ Mansion
Location: 23 Staraya Basmannaya Str. Years Built: 1790-1804 Architects: unknown
Muravyov-Apostols’ mansion is a rare example of an old wooden building undergoing very successful restoration. In 1804 the mansion original owner, prominent Russian diplomat Ivan Muravyov-Apostol, ordered reconstruction of a small one-storey building sitting upon a stone podklet (uninhabited basement floor made of stone – Strelka). That was when the main mansion façade with a six-column Corinthian order portico stemming from a high arcade gained its solemn appearance. One of the corners facing the adjacent lane is distinguished by a domed semi-rotunda, formerly an open terrace. In line with classicism traditions, the building façade features large plaster bas-reliefs depicting mythological scenes. The house is plastered to resemble stone: the lower part of the façade is rusticated.
The house went through a lot of hardships in the late twentieth century. The wooden framework was completely run-down. In the 1990s the building housed the Decembrists Museum, an affiliate of the State Historical Museum. However, large-scale restoration was not carried out until the early 2000s, when Swiss banker Christopher Muravyov-Apostol, a distant relative of the Muravyov-Apostols, decided to pursue a noble task and fund wholesale house restoration. A team of experienced carpenters worked with dry wood delivered directly from Kostroma Region, cautiously replacing rotten logs row by row. The old vaulted stone podklet also underwent meticulous restoration. The interior work deserves special recognition: the original layout and architectural décor of the enfilade were preserved, as well as the antique fireplaces and genuine plaster bas-reliefs decorating the doorways. The restoration team even recovered fragments of the original wallpaper. Today the manor, rented to Christopher Muravyov-Apostol, is a home to the Muravyov-Apostol House Museum.
Sytin’s House
Location: 5 Sytinsky Lane Years Built: 1806 Architects: unknown
The Great Moscow Fire of 1812 destroyed three fourths of the city, with wooden mansions suffering the most. Sytin’s house was among those few wooden structures which managed to survive the fire and keep its pre-1812 appearance to this day. The house, originally owned by Izmailovsky Regiment Corporal Andrei Sytin, is very small – “nine axle wide”, as the saying went. The centerpiece of the classical façade features a four-column portico crowned by a triangular pediment. The Sytin manor has never been plastered: the paint was applied directly to the battened wooden logs.
Moscow classicism-era manors, even small ones like Sytin’s House, had enfilades of high-ceilinged halls, which usually ran alongside the main façade of the building. Bedrooms were customarily placed on entresols facing the inner yard. Façade plaster bas-reliefs, plainly too heavy for the small house, were installed after the 1812 fire. During the Empire style period bas-reliefs like these were offered for sale at specialised workshops.
The Moscow climate does not favour the combination of wood and plaster which distinguishes many older wooden buildings in the city. In the 1980s communal apartment tenants occupying the manor were rehoused and the building underwent restoration. Even so, today the Sytin House is in poor condition once again, with the manor’s décor partially missing. The building is currently rented to commercial organisations.
Shteingel’s (Lopatin’s) House
Location: 15 Gagarinsky Lane Years Built: 1816 Architects: unknown
In 1813 the Commission for Moscow Buildings was established in the city. The commission was a special administrative body created to help deal with the consequences of the 1812 fire. Any house construction initiated in Moscow had to be first approved by the commission. Its members pursued a goal of introducing a single style for all newly-built Moscow manors. All new mansions had to face the street with their main façade, and the façade design plans had to be met with the commission’s approval. The façade’s architecture style, its exterior décor and paintwork had to be selected in advance. Future owners could choose to speed up design and construction process by picking one of the standard options from the design albums. Although repetitive classical patterns and details were typical for the Moscow Empire style, diversity of post-1812 manors styles was impressive.
Shteingel’s House is one of those mansions which managed to keep its individuality. The house composition is centred around a stepped attic and a four-column portico. The columns are joined by arches decorated with griffin bas-reliefs in the tradition exclusive to Moscow.
The mansion was built in 1816 by Vladimir Shteingel, an 1812 War veteran, a retired colonel and—according to masonic symbols portrayed inside the house—a freemason, who lived in the house until 1825. Shteingel got involved in the Decembrist movement, accused and exiled, and did not return to the house ever since.
In the 1830s the house was occupied by Ivan Turgenev’s uncle, and after that by Generalissimo Suvorov’s grandson Alexander Suvorov. Later on, in the 1860s, the house was a home of Russian philosopher and psychologist Lev Lopatin and his family. The Lopatins were a prominent family: ‘Lopatin Wednesdays’ hosted by the family were visited by Tolstoy, Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Pisemsky, Fet and other notable guests. During the Soviet period one of the rooms inside the mansion was occupied by famous Moscow bibliophile, collector and genealogy expert Yury Shmarov. Today the house still contains a genuine early eighteenth century fireplace and a secret doorway behind a mirror, which allegedly led to an underground passage with an exit on the opposite end of the street.
The building has been restored and currently houses the Architecture Department of the Russian Academy of Arts.
Palibin’s House
Location: 21 Burdenko Str. Years Built: 1818, rebuilt in 1847 Architects: unknown
The manor was owned by collegiate councilor and drawing office director Palibin and was built following the 1812 fires in place of a burnt building. Unlike faux stone Shteingel’s House, Palibin’s House was painted directly over its battened wood exterior. Although the house is only five windows wide, its decoration works are remarkable: several avant-corps (part projecting out from the main façade of a building – Strelka) make the façade utterly expressive. It is lavishly decorated with meander patterns and reliefs, including ornaments depicting Medusa Gorgon, winged horses and lit torches.
Palibin’s House is a classic example of a mezzanine house – a supported added floor embellished with a semicircular window and decorative plasterwork. Luckily, during the Soviet period the house ended up in good hands: the building accommodated one of departments of a restoration workshop. Therefore the house has been thoroughly studied and remains in good condition: the façade kept its original appearance, and rarest fragments of genuine hand-painted Empire style wallpaper were discovered and preserved in the restored chambers.
Vasily Pushkin Museum
Location: 36 Staraya Basmannaya Str. Years built: 1819 Architects: unknown
In the period between 1822 and 1830 this house was occupied by Alexander Pushkin’s uncle, Vasily Pushkin, a renowned poet of the early nineteenth century, the author of the early Karamzin literary movement manifestos and a prominent member of Arzamas literary society. The manor was built in 1819 by Pelageya Ketcher, the wife of a naturalized Swede and surgical tools manufacturer Christopher Ketcher. The wooden house atop stone basement features one of standard façade designs offered by the Commission for Moscow Buildings. The one-story building with entresols was entered from the yard side; its adjacent territory included an orchard and several outbuildings.
During the Soviet era the house underwent repeated restoration. The latest restoration project returned the house to its original appearance. The building currently houses the Vasily Pushkin House Museum, an affiliate of the Alexander Pushkin State Museum.
Ivan Turgenev’s House
Location: 37 Ostozhenka Str. Years Built: 1819 Architects: unknown
In 1840-1850 the house, which at that time was occupied by Ivan Turgenev’s mother, was the primary scene to events later depicted in Turgenev’s short story Mumu. The Empire style house, a typical example of post-1812 fire mass development, was built in 1819 and featured a six-column portico, enfilades and seven front windows. The outer columns are paired, representing a typical element of the Classical style.
Following the 1917 events, the living space was redistributed and the house layout was altered to fit communal apartments. The tenants were rehoused already in 1976, and the building was granted to a sports organisation. Large-scale restoration of the building commenced in 2015. According to plans, after the restoration is completed the manor will be turned into the Turgenev House Museum, its adjacent territory will be revamped and Ivan Turgenev’s room will be made open to visitors.
Pogodin’s Izba
Location: 12a Pogodinskaya Str. Years Built: 1856 Architects: Nikolai Nikitin
Nikolai Nikitin is a representative of the Moscow architectural school of the second half of the nineteenth century. During the Eclectic period, which gained popularity after the Classicism era, Nikitin remained an avid practitioner of the national architectural style. Pastiche was a common tool employed by Eclectic period architects of both Europe and Russia.
Nikitin, together with Russian Slavophile and historian Mikhail Pogodin, were the first to introduce a Russian national style, previously exclusively used in the construction of churches, in urban architecture. Pogodin’s Izba became the first experience of using Russian national style in the design of a city building. The small two-storey house delicately imitates countryside izbas, copying their festive shutters, carved strips installed below the projecting roof slopes and other decorative elements. However, traditional izba features of Pogodin’s Izba are hardly applicative: the make-believe izba was built to accommodate the needs of a scientist and serve as a place of his meetings with renowned writers, historians and public figures. In the late 1970s-1980s the izba housed The Tale of Igor's Campaign Museum administrated by Igor Kobzev. Today a construction company office resides in the house.
Porokhovshchikov’s House
Location: 36 Starokonyushenny Lane Years Built: 1872 Architects: Andrei Gun, wood carving by Igor Kolpakov
The house of Russian entrepreneur Alexander Porokhovshchikov remains one of the few surviving monuments to the wooden architecture of the last third of the nineteenth century. The house project was recognised at the 1873 World Expo in Vienna as the best application of the national architecture elements in house design.
Despite the Classicist symmetry of the façade composition, the architectural and decorative features of the log building are deliberately exaggerated. At the same time the carved frames, cornices and strips decorating the roofline resemble Russian traditional patterns.
Although Porokhovshchikov was of noble birth, he engaged in industry and trade endeavours. Pursuing plans to build revenue houses, the entrepreneur invited Austrian architect August Weber to Moscow, who later constructed Slavyanskiy Bazar building on Nikolskaya Street with its famous Russian national style hall. Under Mayor Luzhkov, Porokhovshchikov’s house was returned to a private owner.
Vasnetsov House Museum
Location: 13 Vasnetsov Lane Years Built: 1893 Architects: Vasily Bashkirov, Viktov Vasnetsov
The house where Russian painter Viktor Vasnetsov lived from 1894 through 1926, as well as a church and wooden houses in Savva Mamontov-owned Abramtsevo Estate which he helped build, were the precursors of neo-Russian architectural style of the early 20th century. Instead of focussing on the national architecture of the seventeenth century, Vasnetsov and his fellow painters turned their attention towards the architecture of old Novgorod and Pskov. Deliberate transformation of architectural forms and their free interpretation spawned visual associations with earlier prototypes, shaping the epic, fairytale like image of the modern creations.
This associative line is also notable in Vasnetsov’s own house project. As imposed fire prevention measures no longer allowed wooden construction in the city, Vastnetsov instead opted to rebuild and implement certain adjustments to the existing stone building. The house was augmented with a wooden tower crowned with the barrel roof, a traditional element of Russian church architecture. The tower, where Vasnetsov placed his workshop, also adopted elements of svetelka, a small bright room traditionally located in the top part of Russian terems. Vasnetsov also designed the workshop décor, furbishing the tower with wooden furniture and implementing the concept of artfully stylish, yet meaningful room interior. The concept was distinguished by high degree of theatricality, polychromic intensity and applicability of decorative elements – all characteristic features of the new style. Vasnetsov workshop became a part of the museum opened in the house in 1953.
This article originally appeared on Strelka Magazine and has been shared exclusively with ArchDaily readers. Find out more about the magazine, which publishes in both English and Russian, here.
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