ArchDaily

Architects: Leyk Wollenberg Architects
Location: Jean-Monnet-Straße 2, Berlin, Germany
Architect In Charge: Leyk Wollenberg Architects
Design Team: Dietmar Leyk, Petra Wollenberg with Inken Blum, Florian Spaelty, André Rossmann
Area: 320 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: diephotodesigner.de

The restaurant for the German headquarters of the French energy company Total, designed by lwa, has been completed. The new headquarters are sited at Europaplatz in Berlin, in the newly built Tour Total, close to Berlin main station.

The employee restaurant plays a key role during the daily life of the 600 Total employees. The understanding that the restaurant should be inextricably a part of everyday worklife establishes the starting point for this design. It represents the most important place for informal communication between all hierarchies of the company.

The design is based on a basic „room in room“ concept.  An L-shaped space of the restaurant, the frame, defines the dining area. In between frame and food counter a continuous white floor creates the neutral light background for the whole set of elements and provides a generous space for movement.  Both, dining area and food counter are crafted from oak wood stained in black. To accomplish a high grade of depth these surfaces are structured with a rhythm of vertical wooden strips. The light interior forms a strong contrast with the solid outer appearance. Partition screens create a forest of 750 champagne coloured anodized aluminium tubes with different diameters. They divide the large dining area into small private spheres. At the same time these screens act as filter to allow visual connections and create intimacy. Through its specific colour and its diverse light reflexions they evoke a unique sensuality and establish a warm atmosphere. The inner surface of the frame and its furniture are made of white glazed oak wood, which covers floor, walls and ceiling. All furnishing, tables and seating are designed as pure basic elements made from the same wood as the inner frame.

A variety of different dining situations offer areas for comfortable dining, spontaneous stopovers, espresso breaks, or even smaller conferences.

The drinking water well, a special element, which represents a traditional element in the companies’ rituals, has been integrated in the screen.

The lighting of the whole restaurant was designed in relation to its character as dining-living room for relaxation, to underline its fluid spatial arrangement, and to accentuate its sensitive materialization. The dining area is illuminated by a number of miniature energy saving LED-lights to create a large variety of different mood scenarios. Depending on the culinary experience or the kind of festivity the lighting changes in regards to a pre-programmed digitally controlled setting. All lights are integrated in such a way that not the light as object but the orchestration of light in space stands in the foreground.

Restaurant Tour Total / Leyk Wollenberg Architects originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 May 2013.

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The proposal by Moko Architects for the Diving and Indoor Skydiving Center restores a part of a house factory in ?era? which operated in the past,. They turn a building in a non-developed area with abandoned halls and warehouses into a recreation center open all year round in the old silos where bulk cement used to be stored in the past. The existing facility is a perfect base for this investment and will be the only place in Poland where people wishing to learn the skills of diving will have the opportunity to safely train at the depth of 25m under control. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The area for the investment is located about 12 km away from the center of Warsaw. Main facilities include wholesale warehouses of construction materials and other products. The ?era?ski channel flows through the entire area, which creates a unique municipal landscape. The collection of elements described above has a huge potential. The channel is a great water communication route between the City and the Zegrze Reservoir which provides the opportunity of doing water sports and staying active.

The remains of the factories, warehouses and silos may be attractive for investors interested in their modernization into lofts, offices, studios or erecting new buildings which will interline into the surrounding landscape. This area is also becoming a popular place for amateurs of extreme sports, artists or people who like exploring abandoned buildings.  The well located in one of the silos is connected to the “cave” of the other cylinder. This is an ideal place to train wreck diving. The diameter of the well is 7m.

Apart from the cave, the second silo will feature a technical area as well as an Indoor Skydiving Center. This place will make dreams about flying come true. In the “tube” where air will flow at high speeds, you will be able to safely train skydiving. The Diving and Indoor Skydiving Center will feature additional functions for people who will only visit the center for a few hours with their families as well as for organized groups coming for training sessions lasting a couple of days.

The ground floor will feature the entrance area with exhibition space, professional magazines reading area, external café open in the summer season as well as a workshop. Level 1 will house sports stores. Level 2 and 3 will feature offices and administration. Level 4 will feature a hostel for indoor skydivers while level 5 will house training rooms and changing rooms for skydivers as well as the entrance to the area where the practical training of indoor skydiving is conducted. Level 6 will house a hostel for divers, level 7 will feature training and presentation rooms for divers while on level 8 there will be changing rooms separate for women and men.

Architects: Moko Architects
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Team: MFRMGR, Marta Frejda, Micha? Gratkowski
Collaboration: Kacper Kuczy?ski, Tomasz Tymi?ski
Usable  Floor Area: 2280.8 m2
Status: Conceptual stage
Expected Completion: 2015

'BS25' Silos - Diving and Indoor Skydiving Center Proposal / Moko Architects originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 May 2013.

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In the early years of the New York City subway system, natural light played a dominant role in the illumination of subterranean spaces. The architecture emphasized a connection to the sky, often through skylights planted in the median of city avenues above — lenses in the concrete sidewalks.

However, it proved extremely difficult to keep the skylights clean, and light eventually stopped passing through. Subway authorities moved toward an almost exclusive reliance on electric lighting. While this allowed for greater flexibility in station design, permitting construction at any location and depth, it also created a sense of disorientation and alienation for some passengers.

For the design of Lower Manhattan’s Fulton Center, Arup, in conjunction with design architect Grimshaw sought to reconnect the century-old subway system with the world above.

Read more about this “enlightening” subway station, after the break…

Central to this effort is an entry and retail pavilion containing an eight-story dome capped with a glass oculus. The dome’s interior surface is lined with a cable net whose nearly 1,000 anodized aluminum panels redirect sunlight into the subway system below.The cable net and cladding system was based on a concept by James Carpenter Design Associates.

The dome is located within a central atrium space, visible from the exterior of the transit center pavilion.The project is currently under construction.

The net itself is a form-found structure, meaning that it assumes a specific shape as a result of the forces applied to and within it. (Fabric roofs are another example of this type of structure.) Stretching between the oculus ring and the two floors below it, the net terminates one and a half stories above street level.

The net is 70ft tall at its peak, with an average diameter of 51ft, for a total area of 8,567ft2.

At the outset of the project, the architect provided guidelines as to what the overall shape should look like and how it should fit in relation to the space as a whole.As a form-found system, the net is designed to move throughout the day. We therefore worked to understand how factors such as air pressures, interior temperatures, and building movements would act upon it in order to predict the extent and range of the motion.

Our mechanical engineers used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to trace how air would flow throughout the space under both normal and emergency (i.e., fire) conditions.The CFD analysis for normal conditions showed that large air exhaust ducts would be required in the atrium due to the space’s size. These ducts (the two bright blue dots near the center of either side of the net) were positioned immediately behind the net, meaning that the cable net segments at this position would need to be able to withstand higher-than-normal air speeds.

The emergency conditions analysis showed that air from within the central atrium would pass through the perforated panels during a fire, imposing additional air pressure loads.

Based on these and additional studies, Arup developed 815 unique scenarios based on the possible permutations of air pressure, indoor temperature, and building movement within the Fulton Center dome.Each scenario produced a slightly different cable net shape. The net will assume these shapes over the course of its lifetime as the environmental conditions within the space change.

A flattened view of the structural model provides a clearer view of the strength of the forces acting upon each individual cable segment in one of these scenarios.

Throughout the design process, it was critical to keep in mind that although the net itself is a malleable, form-found structure, the panels themselves are rigid. If subjected to too much stress, they could buckle or break.

We therefore needed to ensure that the connections between the cable net and the panels could accommodate all predicated movements while holding all panels in the correct position so that they would not be strained. We studied panel motion in each of the 815 possible scenarios in order to confirm our design.

Once the form was established, Arup’s lighting designers performed a detailed analysis to ascertain the intensity and distribution of light, both electric and natural, that would filter into the transit system below.

We conducted lighting studies from multiple viewpoints to assess the uniformity of the electric lighting on the cable net.

Here, a rendering shows how electric lighting will filter through the cable net into the transit center during periods when there is no sunlight.

Once the design was complete, the construction team provided a mock-up of a small section at the contractor’s Westfield, Massachussetts office in order to confirm the configuration of the net as well as the method of fabrication and assembly. (The general contractor was Plaza Schiavone Joint Venture. Cable net installation was led by Enclos, with fabrication and material provided by Tripyramid Structures.)

The mock-up gave the entire project team an opportunity to examine the behavior of the complex, lightweight system and identify any opportunities to enhance the design in advance of final fabrication and installation. The test showed that the custom-designed connectors provided only the amount of restraint required for each panel, allowing for as much freedom of movement as possible. The mock-up clearly demonstrated the capacity of the cable net system to provide a connection to the sky through the use of natural light.

The Fulton Center will open to the public in summer 2014.

This article comes courtesy of Arup Connect, the online magazine of Arup in the Americas, each week exploring the people and ideas shaping the built environment throughout North and South America.

Reconnecting the Subway with the Sky originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 May 2013.

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In Chile, a very special project is being developed.

Eduardo Godoy, a design impresario who started his business in Chile in the 80′s, has always been an advocate for design and architecture in the country. In Chile, more than 40 schools of architecture have flooded the market, but the ever growing number of professionals has had a relatively small impact on Chilean cities. Seeing the almost infinite landscape of cookie cutter housing in the suburbs, Godoy asked himself: why not break this model into smaller pieces, each designed by a particular architect, each an opportunity for a young professional? With this in mind, and to foster the appreciation for architects, Eduardo and his team at Interdesign started a project called “Ochoalcubo” (Eight-Cubed). His original idea was to make 8 projects, with 8 buildings designed each by 8 architects, to create developments where the singularity of each piece was key, in order to demonstrate how the individuality of the architect could result in good architecture.

The project started with 8 houses on the Chilean coast. Four designed by renowned local architects, and four by young, up and coming (at that time) architects, including names that resonate in the international architecture scene, such as Mathias Klotz, Sebastian Irarrazaval, Cecilia Puga and Smiljan Radic. The result was eight houses where the architects had total freedom, including the interior decoration and furniture. The project became a laboratory of architecture, and young architects and students flocked to these houses to learn directly from them. Then ochoalcubo understood its role in an educational aspect. In Chile, not many people have the opportunity to travel, an important part of an architect’s training. So what if Godoy could invite the architects that were advancing the profession, the ones whose work you have to visit at some point of your life, and have their works here in Chile, at the end of the World, for the local architects and, especially, students to visit and learn from.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A second stage for the project was then thought up, one which included a group of international architects, including Rick Joy, Guillaume Jullian, Kazuyo Sejima and Toyo Ito. From this stage, the White O house by Toyo Ito was the only one built so far.

And then something huge happened: an 8.8 earthquake shaked Chile, and together with a following tsunami, took many cities to the ground. A year later, a similar earthquake shocked Japan, and the tsunami caused tremendous devastation. Both countries were united by a common catastrophe, where architecture was key for the relief and rebuilding efforts.

Seeing how Japan faced this catastrophe, Eduardo felt that something could be done to reunite both cultures, and asked his friend Toyo Ito to help him reunite a group of 8 outstanding Japanese architects to join him on ochoalcubo, together with 8 Chilean architects to design the next stages of the project.

After an intense trip to Tokyo, Eduardo and Toyo-san were able to convince some of Japan’s (and the world’s) most innovative architects: Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa, Kengo Kuma, Junga Ishigami, Sou Fujimoto, Atelier Bow-Wow, Akihisa Hirata and Onishi + Hyakuda. In Chile, a mix of young and established practices also accepted the invitation: Izquierdo Lehmann, Cristian Undurraga, Guillermo Acuña, Alejandro Aravena, Felipe Assadi, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, HLPS  and Max Nuñez.

The idea was to design 8 + 8 houses in the Chilean coast, under a master plan designed by urbanist Roberto Moris. For this, the Japanese practices have been traveling to Chile, to visit a fantastic site overlooking the Pacific Ocean, close to Los Vilos, where the “8Quebradas” (Eight Cliffs) project will be located.

But the spirit of the project is to open architecture and give access to architects, so ochoalcubo has teamed with several architecture schools. Chilean students have had the chance not only to attend lectures by these Japanese architects, but also to participate in workshops led by them, even generating possibilities for the best students to do internships in Japan with these architects, having a once in a lifetime opportunity to expand their horizons. In this way,Eduardo’s dream of opening architecture and generating opportunities for young architects has come to reality, and paved the way for better architecture in Chile.

Ochoalcubo: Japan + Chile originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 May 2013.

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The IE Master in Architectural Management and Design presents the Online Master Classes series.

Introducing: “So you want to be famous?” with Peter Murray from Wordsearch Communications. Peter Murray discusses the way that throughout the ages architects have used media to promote ideas and projects, to increase their profile and, ultimately, win more work. The lessons of Palladio, Corbusier, Foster, Gehry and Koolhaas are highly relevant to today’s practitioners.

Date: June 13, 2013. 17:00 Madrid.
Speaker: Peter Murray, Wordsearch Communications and NLA Founder. Professor at IE Master in Architectural Management and Design.

To Register please click here.

Online Master Class: "So you want to be famous?" originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 May 2013.

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Architects: Frank Goerge
Location: Almere, The Netherlands
Architect In Charge: Frank Goerge, Hamburg
Structural Design : Carola Goerge, Hamburg
Area: 130 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Courtesy of Frank Goerge

Building Management: Bouwadvies Kreijns B.V., Nieuwegein
Contractor: Bolton Bouw B.V., Zegveld / Woerden

Project descriptiont

Clearing is a small detached house in a wooded setting in Almere, near Amsterdam. The location is an open space in the woods between the centre of Almere and the Markermeer.

The facade of clearing  is completely translucent.

Clearing  is one of the winning designs of an international competition for experimental housing titled De Eenvoud (simplicity). The competition has been organised by the Comité de Fantasie and the Architectuurcentrum CASLa in Almere.

The assignment of De Eenvoud

The brief called for a design for a detached house, in which the participant`s own desires and fantasies are effectively realized. Here, a detached house is understood as a condition for achieving simplicity, not as an expression of status. The new neighbourhood De Eenvoud provides the space for twelve unique houses which stand for a manifestation of human self-expression and the pluriformity of society.

The idea of clearing

The idea of clearing is the translation of the existing landscape setting of an open space in the wood into a smaler scale. With a strong relation to the evironment the house itself is an open spot in the wood. Living takes place in a room between the wood outside and a clearing in the centre.

The design of the plan is the result of the play of two lines. The continuous interaction between the interior and the exterior facade creates a simple foor plan which has no edges. The generated space is both continuous and also changing at every turn, a single open space or several interpenetrating spaces which are always different. The facades are completely translucent. So one can feel the wooden environment, the change of the daylight and the change in the weather inside.

In consideration of the topic of the architectural competition clearing is a very simple house. It consists only of a few elements: one floor, one open room, one type of facade, one slab of wood as a roof and only a few details for the construction.

On the other hand clearing creates complexity and multiplicity: an unpredictable space, a facade that can be modified from transparent ortranslucent to opaque and manifold relationships between inside and outside.

Clearing Almere / Frank Goerge originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 May 2013.

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The proposal for the Château of Chillon Restaurant & Boutique by Mauro Turin Architectes takes into account the cultural significance of the historical national monument and uses century-old construction along with various updated methodologies. Their aspiration is to add, in a notion of continuity, a new layer of history about the site and the Castle. Therefore, the building is designed in the image of its ambitions, in the expectation in what can be called the expansion of the Castle. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The castle of Chillon (1150), become mythical thanks to Lord Byron poem ‘The prisoner of Chillon’. The project is an enlarged design in the sense of its own mind. In the understanding of the notion of fortress and protected area; but even from the understanding of its conception from closed areas around open patios.

The closed spaces found their place under the historic road and are developed in the way to be, in the meantime, places of activity and passageways, some connectors between the garden downstairs and the historic road upstairs. At the bottom, they open straight to the historical garden and to the lake. A first space of restaurant activity suggested in direct relationship to them, allows that garden find out a new meaning of life and a dynamic, non-existent actually.

At the top, they are seeking for the extension with the historic road. The proposed relation with this access, with its staircase and its sloping lawn followed by closed spaces characterized from the shop and the second space of catering sector, is an invitation to the discovery to the strollers. The second space of the restaurant activity tries to crowning the willing to produce, with our proposal, a phenomenological experience connected to the space and the time.

Stripping the retaining wall of the historic road, the spatial-temporal experience of the Restaurant & Boutiquethat we offer – magnified by this ancient wall revealed and pierced, that opens to the gap and closed to the walls of the Castle – is indispensable to the time-space experience of the Castle itself. Bolstered by this, we aspire to link inseparably our building to the Castle and therefore to the historic site.

Architects: Mauro Turin Architectes
Location: Château de Chillon, Lake Geneva, Veytaux, Switzerland
Competition Result: Mention/5th place
Year: 2013

Château of Chillon Restaurant & Boutique Competition Entry / Mauro Turin Architectes originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 May 2013.

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Architects: rrmr arquitectos
Location: Asia, Peru
Architects In Charge: Roberto Riofrío Navarro, Micaela Rodrigo Graña
Area: 255 sqm
Year: 2009
Photographs: Elsa Ramírez

Collaborators: Giuliana Soto, Claudia Pastor, Beatriz Pero, Mayte Leon
Structures: Ing. Jose Antonio Chávez Ángeles
Electrical: Ing. Jaime Alca Yánez
Plumbing:  Ing. Jorge  Gamboa Sanchez
Construction:  Alfredo Uccelli

The house intends to break with the housing prototype built in the surroundings, it seeks to differentiate itself by adopting two levels that avoids a reading as a static block and achieves, by contrast, a fluid horizontality. This allows us to play with the scale of the project through orthogonal planes that define the levels of the house. On the lateral facade predominates a suspended wall that runs the entire length of the lot, that contrasts with the lower broken plinth.

This facade, like the rear facade, is closed to the surroundings to give privacy to the social and intimate areas of the house, avoiding views from the neighbors. Emphasizing this intention, the most striking opening is located solely on the terrace of the front facade that allows a more direct relationship with the environment.

To take advantage of the views, the living room, dining room, kitchen, terrace, pool, and main bedroom are located on the second level. Secondary bedrooms, living room, and service are located on the first level, where there is also an access courtyard that distributes into a hall directed to the stairs, to achieve a more direct connection between the two levels.

El Golf D17 Beach House / rrmr arquitectos originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 May 2013.

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Taking place at the Virserums Art Museum June 26-27, Wood Summit Smaland is an international conference that will focus on sustainability and wood architecture. Featuring renowned guest speakers such as Jim Taggart, Sadie Morgan, Stefan Behnisch and TYIN Tegnestue, winner of Architecture of Necessity 2010, the winners of Architecture of Necessity 2013 will be announced. For more information, please visit here.

Wood Summit Smaland Conference originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 May 2013.

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Architects: Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects
Location: Nara, Japan
Area: 698.06 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Yasutaka Yoshimura

Client: Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten
Structural Engineer: Mitsuda Structural Consultants
General Contractor: Shibutani

This project is for an addition to the former premises of a company that we had built a new building for 2 years ago.

With almost no changes to the original, the addition is structurally separated, with the washroom, kitchen, entrance and stairs and main circulation of the building now provided by the addition. In order to preserve the amount of parking and stay within the building footprint limitation, the building has a shallow plan of 2x20m allowing for the conversion to be completed within the allowable budget and time frame. This is architecture of the ‘facade’.

Nakagawa Office Extension / Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 15 May 2013.

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Architects: Cavagnaro Rojo Arquitectos
Location: Colico, IX Región, Chile
Architects In Charge: Carlos Cavagnaro, Daniel Rojo
Area: 45 sqm
Year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Cavagnaro Rojo Arquitectos

Construction: Don Chalva
Structures: Cavagnaro-Rojo
Materiality: Pine wood
Budget: 9 UF per sqm

The assignment consists of developing a workshop for an artist, along with a bedroom and a bathroom.

As the budget was very limited and the distance to the site made a regular monitoring difficult during construction, we proposed a very simple volume, with local materials and easy construction, that takes advantage of the resources and building traditions of the place.

The lot, with a considerable slope, raises two necessary orientations to consider: one can see the lake to the south, and the mountains to the east.

Thus, the volume opens towards both views, particularly to the south, as the workshop requires a more uniform light.

Colico Workshop / Cavagnaro Rojo Arquitectos originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

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ARJM, in collaboration with SUM, recently won the competition for their project, “Square de l’Accueil” (Welcoming Square), which includes a public square of 10,000 m2, 53 flats, a school, commercial spaces and underground parking. Located in a neighborhood at a strategic entry point towards Evere, one of Brussels communes, the project itself includes all the components of the city at a smaller scale.  More images and architects’ description after the break.

The project is the missing ‘puzzle piece’ to the realization of the current site as an animated liveable space. The project proposes to address the increasing diversity and density of a Brussels neighborhood by re-thinking the interplay and the transition between public and private spaces. This is achieved, first, through landscaping which is manifested by a green (vegetation) and a blue (water) thread running through the public place, the commercial spaces on the ground floor of the proposed building and the housing units.

The livability of the site is assured through a network of ‘communities of interest’:  the larger community, the neighborhood, is progressively broken down into smaller bundles of individuals and households polarized towards shared spaces, firmly located within the site at large.  This proposed layout presents a viable tool to manage the density and the diversity of the urban context of the site, characteristic of Brussels today.

The project uses the current site and its uses as the starting point, taking into account the historical evolution of the neighborhood. This approach contributes to the realization of the site’s full potential, thereby ensuring its longevity and usability in the urban landscape.

Architect: ARJM (Abdelmajid Boulaioun)
Location: Square de l’Accueil, Brussels, Belgium
Contractor: Commune de Evere
Urbanism: SUM
Structure: GREISCH
Building Services: JZH
Visualizations: QUICKIT
Program: public square + housing complex + school facilities + underground parking
Public Square Area: 10,000 sqm
Building Area: 7,000 sqm
Status: Competition winner
Competition Year: 2012

Square de l'Accueil Winning Proposal / ARJM originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

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Architects: Tidy Arquitectos
Location: Melipilla, Chile
Architects In Charge: Ian Tidy, Albert Tidy, Cecilia Aldunate
Area: 3,593 sqm
Year: 2007
Photographs: Marcelo Cáceres

Structures:  Claudio Hinojosa
Technical Inspection:  COZ
Plumbing:  Kenneth Page
Electrical:  Ana María Carrasco
Construction:  Roessan
Materiality:  Reinforced coated concrete, steel lattices

San Sebastian School in Melipilla is a private institution with fiscal support founded in 1997, and consists of pre-school, primary and secondary.

Currently, its facilities do not represent the level of academic excellence that the institution holds according to indicators from the Ministry of Education. Adding to the precariousness of its infrastructure, there is the problem of the dispersion of venues, as the sports facilities, pre-school, primary, and secondary are physically separated.

The project for the new school facilities is located in an area of 7881 square meters in the east end of the city, which will unify all levels from pre-kinder to secondary school in a building of 3593.65 square meters distributed on two levels. The school will be located in an area consisting of two lots, which will be allocated to classrooms, library, cafeteria, workshops, administrative area, courtyards and parking lot.

The sports area and locker rooms will be located on the adjacent lot. The program complements the school’s needs, but is not subject to municipal approval.

The school is laid out on a regular corridor 7,17 meters wide that extends in a zigzag on the ground. All north and east orientations are protected by circulations at both heights, while the south and east views provide direct light to the classrooms.

The structure is based on reinforced concrete load-bearing walls and slabs, coated and painted. The north and west enclosure is based on a vertical steel lattice that protects the semi-exterior enclosures from direct sunlight. The views from the classrooms are framed by windows that display the central valley landscape. The apparent irregularity of the windows is achieved by alternating three different sizes of windows, that display a playful expression that identifies with the character of the school.

San Sebastián School / Tidy Arquitectos originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

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Architects: Rodrigo Eterovic
Location: Puerto Varas, X Región de Los Lagos, Chile
Contractor: Rodrigo Eterovic, José Vargas
Structural Engineer: Drago Eterovic Martic
Area: 220 sqm
Year: 2011
Photographs: Courtesy of Rodrigo Eterovic

The assignment was to design a secondary house of rest, with future projections of transforming itself in a permanent home. Located on the edge of Lake Llanquihue, facing the imposing Osorno volcano and on a gentle slope of land, this house is designed with simple lines, where one of the requirements was to maintain respect for the local architecture, both in its material and its morphology and function. This is how the simple construction of the inverted roof originated, similar to the dairy barns in the X region of Chile.

The interior design was conceived based on a central axis, which joins the common areas of the house with the sector of bedrooms. In this hall, the importance was given both to its dimensions as well as its luminosity, creating a natural light shaft in the slope of the roof. Orientation and thermal insulation were important themes in order to maintain the desired warmth, as well as the overall brightness of the house, making the most of the daylight hours.

Another relevant requirement was the need for exterior roofing due to the long rainy seasons. The house is framed by a large terrace flying over concrete beams in view, which face the north, the lake and the volcano; and on the south side, in the same volume of the “barn”, the parking area and access.

The interior finish generates a very warm atmosphere, thanks to the prevailing native wood (Ulmo floor, Mañío interior trim), and the structure in sight (Canelo, Mañío). Similarly, the spatiality of the common room integrates the kitchen, living room, and the dining room within a large deck with exposed beams, which appreciates the total height of the volume.

The result was a house designed honestly with its environment, with a very warm, simple interior atmosphere, adapting perfectly with its environment and climate.

Los Riscos House / Rodrigo Eterovic originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

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Architects: Ekain Jiménez Valencia + Patxi Lapetra Iriarte
Location: Navarra, Spain
Area: 300 sqm
Year: 2010
Photographs: Berta Buzunariz, Ekain Jiménez Valencia

Construction: Fco. Javier Vivar Tomé
Client: Ayuntamiento del Valle de Allín
Construction Company: Excavaciones Fermín Osés, SL
Budget: 282.119€

The project originates from a compact and defined volume that brings together the entire program in two levels of 150 square meters each. The main objective is to organize the program optimizing its functionality without design concessions that hinder the clarity of uses. The ground floor covers the most public uses of the program (administration and public service area, offices, multipurpose room and restrooms). On the first floor are the plenary hall and archive, as well as restrooms.

The elements that define the interior space are exclusively limited to meet the requirements of functionality and comfort, avoiding any unfortunate idiosyncratic actions, based on the “law of least effort”.

Similarly, the exterior is intended to be a reflection of that fact, placing value on the representativeness of the building, avoiding activities beyond the strictly necessary: the container is thought of as a small concrete box, whose striated texture gives the building a certain domestic character. The number of openings has been reduced to a minimum, leading to the opposition of wall/opening in each of the facades.

Thus, what is a simple and abstract volume at first, becomes an inhabited object through the combination of openings and the striated treatment.

On the main facade, this condition of “representative opening” acquires a certain entity: the public access is combined with the balcony that represents local power in a single opening, thereby focusing the idea of “public power” of this type of buildings. Also, the apparent symmetry of the balcony and the access is subtly dislocated, avoiding a centrality that would lead to excessively redundant readings.

It is therefore a town hall that arises from a strong and defined volume, but whose composition gradually reduces rigidities without reaching an excessive domesticity, whose small size helps its reading, and where the dislocation of symmetry gives the building some ambiguity which removes us from the idea of unique power.

The presence of the health center also affects the design of the proposal, in terms of its location on the plot. The orientation of the health center is respected above all, so that the town hall becomes part of the whole. The access to the town hall is marked by the alignments of the health center, so that there is a frontal approach to the building from the outside. Both buildings form a new place with clearly civic characteristics, regardless of the size of the project. And this new place, this plot, serves not only as a basis for these buildings, but also as a new small public area for the citizens.

Allín Valley Town Hall / Ekain Jiménez Valencia + Patxi Lapetra Iriarte originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

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The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Housing and Custom Residential Knowledge Community, in conjunction with the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), have recognized three recipients of the 2013 AIA/HUD Secretary Awards. The categories of the program include (1) Excellence in Affordable Housing Design (2) Creating Community Connection Award (no recipient selected this year) (3) Community-Informed Design Award and (4) Housing Accessibility – Alan J. Rothman Award. These awards demonstrate that design matters, and the recipient projects offer examples of important developments in the housing industry.

“These developments prove that you can push the boundaries of design while still creating something very special that folks can actually afford,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “These projects took innovative visions from the drawing board and made them a part of how we live today.”

Category One: Excellence in Affordable Housing Design Award:

Via Verde – The Green Way; Bronx, New York / Dattner Architects and Grimshaw Architects

This project has become the new model for public housing in New York City. The project was carefully crafted to accommodate the scale of the existing neighborhood and adjacent housing while adding both housing and green space to a brownfield site in the South Bronx. Landscaped green roofs and a central courtyard create 40,000 square feet of open space. Residents can grow their own fruits and vegetables as well as enjoy the evergreen grove and fruit orchard. In addition, photovoltaic panels are integrated into the south-facing areas of the project, providing enough energy to power all common areas and exterior lighting. Rainwater is collected on-site and recycled for irrigation of the gardens throughout the year. In support of the Department of Health’s Fit City initiative to promote physical fitness, stairs are located near elevators and are designed as colorful interior spaces with natural light and ventilation. The project is on track to receive LEED® Gold certification.

Category Three: Community-Informed Design Award:

Community Learning Center; Leominster, Massachusetts / Abacus Architects + Planners

This 2,000-square-foot facility, built on the edge of a public housing development, was only possible through the efforts and contributions of students, teachers, residents, alumni, builders, and suppliers, all coordinated and overseen by the architecture firm. The local housing authority received a grant to cover half the cost of the facility and made arrangements with the nearby vocational/technical high school to provide the labor and drafting. The architects helped participants develop the building program, ensured that the project met the exacting standards of the funder, and worked with the teenage crew to bring design sketches into reality. The building is clad in multicolored fiber-cement panels with articulated aluminum joints. South-facing windows at the front entry provide passive solar heating in the winter, and deep overhangs and deciduous trees provide summer shade. Particleboard partitions composed of recycled content, mark individual study areas. Light floods in from all sides, and sliding doors with glazed perforations provide acoustical privacy for story telling or conferences.

Category Four: Housing Accessibility – Alan J. Rothman Award:

New Accessible Passive Solar Housing; Stoneham, Massachusetts / Abacus Architects + Planners

This project, for a small public housing authority, responded to a need to provide affordable accessible housing that could be used as a model for future development. In addition, the project had to embody the spirit of universal design principles by meeting high standards for energy efficiency and passive solar heating. Every element of the buildings as well as the site was designed to meet ADA and state accessibility requirements. The sloping topography of the site was carefully graded to ensure all the inclines were below five percent and to avoid the ramps and double railings that often make accessible buildings seem cut off from the surrounding landscape. South-facing windows bring in the low winter sun, and deciduous trees and broad overhangs provide summer shade. Artificial lighting is never needed during the day, and blue sky and green trees are visible in every direction. High-density foam insulation, high-performance windows, and radiant heating in the concrete floors keep the apartments comfortable and minimize energy usage.

2013 AIA/HUD Secretary Awards Jury: 

• Kathleen Dorgan, AIA, Chair, Dorgan Architecture & Planning 
• Luis Borray, Assoc. AIA, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
• Elizabeth A. Cocke, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
• John Isch, AIA, RWA Architects, Inc.
• R. Thomas Jones, AIA, California Polytechnic State University
• Stephen Sharpe, Hon. AIA
• Charles L. Travis, AIA, The Housing Studio, P.A.

New via the AIA

AIA/HUD Secretary Awards Recognize Three Outstanding Housing Projects originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

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Architects: Herreros Arquitectos
Location: Arganda del Rey, Spain
Area: 3,300 sqm
Photographs: José Hevia

Collaborators: Angela Ruiz, Ramón Bermúdez,Ricardo Robustini, Verónica Meléndez, Joanna Socha,Jorge Montalván
Client: Hispasat
Director: Juan Herreros
Project Manager: Diego Barajas
Interiors: Paola Simone, HA
Facade: Jens Richter, HA
Structures: Eduardo Barrón
Building Services: Intecsa
Facade Consultant: Andrés Rojo, Entorno
Technical Architect: Arturo Bressel
Cost: 2,285,000 €

The project for the new headquarters of Hispasat results from the entire remodeling of an existing building, which only keeps its structure. This property, built in the late seventies, has the distinction of being circular in plan and originally having some enclosures completely away from any sustainable criteria.

The assignment involves deploying an interior contemporary office concept, under the guidelines of maximum comfort based on the choice of materials and color ranges, the pursuit of transparency and visibility, and furnishings coherent with the architecture. In this regard, 60×60 technical floor modules, 120x120cm suspended acoustic metal ceilings, 120cm aluminum partitions with colored glass, closets and cabinets of 30, 60, and 90cm, etc, make up a complete system of equations that meets all individual cases without having to resort to special or specific solutions. The effect is a continuous space in which the ceilings and floors are perceived continuously, by laying out transparent stripes on enclosures where they touch the horizontal planes, while the opacity and translucency of the intermediate stripe ensures sufficient privacy and concentration for people at their workstations.

But undoubtedly, the most special element of the project is its facade. Conceived with the triple objective of giving a new image to the company, to control solar radiation, and to refine the views and offer added value in terms of safety and maintenance. We briefly explain these statements:

-The image of the company, dedicated to the management of artificial satellites, has been understood as a challenge that has focused our efforts on getting a delicate and evanescent figuration, clearly reminiscent of space, in which a skin of aluminum plates lacquered in three similar tones produces a variable vibration as the building is stimulated by weather conditions, natural light, clouds, sunsets, etc. From the outside, the building appears as a mysterious and sensitive construction that appears in the landscape and is measured chromatically with it. At night, artificial lighting outside and the light that filters through the triangular lattice accentuates the plastic effect of an installation in permanent dialogue with nature.

From the inside, the perception through the lattice creates a reinterpretation of the landscape that is manipulated by the geometric pattern, which allows us to manipulate the views towards places less graceful in terms of landscape. The effect from the workplace is a facade that filters light and produces a quiet and intimate reading by offering two levels of perception, that of the interior surface of the facade – the lattice – and that of the landscape that is visible through. Furthermore, the extension of the lattice a considerable height over the eaves of the building, ensures an undisturbed view of the roof machinery, plus re-proportioning the volume in a more balanced silhouette that floats suspended, separated from the floor by a shadow-gray plinth.

-From the point of view of environmental performance, the lattice offers three different densities of openings, sweeping the solar spectrum into three sectors with different solar radiations. The fact that the lattice is one meter separate from the building produces a shaded and ventilated chamber effect, that ensures the reduction of heat loss and gain. Virtual visors supplied by the metal grills for maintenance add another layer of protection to the glass.

-Safety and maintenance are based on the layout of a series of metal grill catwalks that use the cantilever structures, necessary for the assembly of the lattice. These catwalks allow for: the maintenance of the curtain wall from outside without non-business operators requiring access to the building; their use as emergency and evacuation routes; they ensure the monitoring of the lattice and all its structural elements to prevent oxidation processes or deterioration, as well as replacement work, etc.

Corporate Office Building for Hispasat Technology Center / Herreros Arquitectos originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

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Architects: Baena Casamor Arquitectes
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Area: 1,144 sqm
Year: 2008
Photographs: Carles Climent

Collaborators: Isabel Fors, arquitecta tácnica; Taller d’Enginyeria Ambiental SL, Instalaciones; Jordi Granada, arquitecto, Estructuras
Client: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, Distrito Horta Guinardó
Construction: AND SA de Serveis
Cost: 1.438.932 €

The main objective is to achieve a comfortable building for the elderly, a space in which users are comfortable, a place with which they can identify. For this reason, we chose known building materials and finishes, warm and comfortable materials, such as ceramic and wood, and in general, a domestic architectural image.

The shape of the building in plan is carefully adapted to the space available in one of the parterres of the Prince of Girona Gardens. The building is designed closely related to the park. A volume part of the language, of the materials and operation of the park. In fact, we often think of the building as a pavilion in the park, a viewpoint from which users can visually dominate the surrounding activity in the park and on the street.

The ground floor is permeable, one can go through the building through the lobby. In fact, the building is also a new gateway between the street and the park. One of the squares of the park, now paved with wood, will have a new access through the building.

The exposed ceramic roof descends through the minor facades to the ground, and gives the volume an image of a great portal.

The main facades, with glass windows and a wooden lattice, seek a certain kinship with the wooden floors and the urban furniture of the park.

Home for the Elderly / BCQ Arquitectes originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

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Stephanuskirche, translated to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Stephen, was designed by Alvar Aalto and completed in 1968.  It is located in Wolfsburg, Germany, the same town that Aalto’s Wolfsburg Cultural Center was built. Stephanuskirche is among the prominent architectural testimonies of International Modernism in Germany.

Stephanuskirche is considered a modern religious building and is a return to the late work of Aalto’s functionalism of the 1930s. It is located on a slight hill in the middle of the urban life of Wolfsburg. The side of the building that faces the shopping center has a facade clad in Carrara marble and is completely windowless, having a symbolic meaning as it opposes the bustle of the mall beyond it.

On the east side, a freestanding bell tower rests on whitewashed concrete columns.  Aalto originally planned for twelve columns, but only nine were constructed. The back is composed of various sized cubes that are asymmetrically staggered up the hill. These cubes make up the community center and include offices, a library, club room, kitchen, and common rooms. Stephanuskirche does not compete with the high-rises in terms of size, but it is still a distinct urban landmark due to its façade treatment.

The simple white-painted interior contains 250 individual wooden chairs and can hold up to 600 visitors. The high ceiling is covered in unique round, wooden sound reflectors. The altar made of Carrara marble rests at the north end of the trapezoidal plan.

Aalto has a great history of designing religious architecture.  He has designed 37 religious structures, 22 churches, 4 designs for cemeteries and chapels, and even a mosque. Stephanuskirche reveals Aalto’s skills in church design and has characteristics of his globally recognized standardization of international modernism.

Architect: Alvar Aalto
Location: Wolfsburg, Germany
Year: 1968
Photographs: Courtesy of Samuel Ludwig

AD Classics: Stephanuskirche / Alvar Aalto originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

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Architects: Gaeta Springall Arquitectos – Julio Gaeta – Luby Springall
Location: Ciudad de México, México
Area: 2100.0 m2
Year: 2005
Photography: Cortesia de Gaeta Springall Arquitectos

Collaborators: Gabriel Fernández, Samuel Limas, Emmanuel Calderón, Julián Campos, Mariano Cardín, Abel Blancas
Structural Design: Ing. Héctor Margain
Management And Construction: Javier Ramírez Mingram

A project for four houses is designed on a unique lot that forms a steep ravine.

The project is designed from two towers containing two houses each. The access to both is from the level zero, ascending or descending to the houses. A progression through the building shows the integration with the landscape, and the houses appear floating or below the access road.

The project intends for the houses to barely touch the ground, hence the structural design which has only four metal columns in each tower that achieve the effect of “floating houses” in the landscape.

The ground floor is completely free, adding to the integration with the natural landscape and achieving a very special accessibility to the building and to the houses.

In terms of language, we used pure forms and envelopes with a very limited material palette; the facades open to the best views and the openings to the secondary views are controlled.

4 LCC Houses / Gaeta Springall Arquitectos originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 14 May 2013.

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