Hasta La Ideas

Even though it’s supposed to be nearly 60 degrees here in Chicago today, we know it’s but a cruel tease the winter plays on us. So while we bask in this temporary warmth, we have also enjoyed thinking about a much sunnier, more comfortable season with the news of who has won PS1‘s annual Young Architects Program. You’ll recall that every year, since 2000, the MoMA offshoot has held a contest inviting up-and-coming architects or firms to submit ideas for what to do with the museum’s courtyard in the summer. This year’s winner is Interboro, a firm consisting of partners Tobias Armborst, Daniel D’Oca and Georgeen Theodore. Their winning concept is called “Holding Pattern” and plays off the original plans for the building itself, utilizing spaces that had been encroached upon the nearly 100-year old structure over its decades. Their plan involves a number of ropes strung above the courtyard, while also trying to invite the essence of the neighborhood in. Here’s a bit from their description of the plan:

“Holding Pattern” reveals this situation by stringing ropes from holes in MoMA PS1′s concrete wall to the parapet across the courtyard. In the same way that Hugh Ferris reveals the potential of New York City’s 1916 zoning code by drawing the theoretical building envelope, we reveal the very odd, idiosyncratic space of the courtyard and simultaneously create an inexpensive and column-free space for the activity below. From the ground, the experience is of a soaring hyperboloid surface.

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Photographer Fernando Guerra has sent us his images of a public passage and gallery in Vila do Conde, Portugal, designed by Portuguese architect Manuel Maia Gomes.

Called Galeria.Solar.S.Roque, the staircase and elevator lead between two old buildings to a square eight meters below.

The staircase is made of concrete with a red pigment and features a large window of brightly coloured glass panels.

Artworks are displayed behind glass-lined walls along the corridor and parts of the original sixteenth century building are left exposed.

Other projects by Manuel Maia Gomes on Dezeen »
More photography by Fernando Guerra on Dezeen »

More Portuguese architecture »

The following information is from the architects:

The project concerns the construction of a passage through two buildings leading to a square which lies eight meter below, leveled by one elevator, inside the staircase. The passage works like an exhibition space, for paints, sculpture and video arts.

Conducts directly to the “Galleria Solar”, gallery which is specialized in cinematic art video and shortcut films. There is also a city bookshop. The original building was constructed in the sixteenth century, being deeply transformed in the eighteenth century.

The refurbishment is done after the building was totally ruined. Being the passage a public space, which is opened from 8:00 am until 12:00pm, the art is protected by glass panels which are provided with natural heating and ventilation.

In the middle of the passage, we leaved some remains, testimony of the sixteenth century original building: a stone portico and some steps characteristic of this period. In the first floor and in the attic, the space is converted in one student residence with eighteen sleeping rooms, kitchens and living spaces. Here, the strategy of the project is different.

While in the ground floor, all the stone remain nude, without plaster and the floor are made of stone or cement, in the student residence, the space has been treated in terms of comfort: the floor was paved with wood and the walls are plastered and painted.

Being one temporary residence, the common spaces communicates with the gallery through transparencies, communicates also at the level of the attic with city monuments through windows placed specifically to guide the viewing angles.

The presence of the colored glass helps to make the transition between the historic manor house build in stone and the staircase constructed in pigmented concrete. Both materials went through unfinished treatments, evidencing the imperfection of the mankind.

The space with the colour glass iluminate the passage wich incorporates a space for art exhibitions, introducing a section of cinematic gallery inside.
By this way, people meet art when walking through the city public spaces, being directly confronted and surprised by the regular exhibitions of the gallery.

It combines the old with the new design, taking the atmosphere and ambience of gothic vitrals into contemporary architecture.
The way that the luminous color panel is seen at the entrance of the building, attracts people to come and see the bright colors: the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Gallery was designed taking into account the principles of reuse of construction materials. The granite, building material which predominates in the building complemented with pigmented concrete, used in the construction of stairs and lift box. This project exposed the enormous capacity for conversion of the granite material seen as natural and environmentally friendly.

The huge thermal inertia of the granite associated with its high density, permits this material to be used as heat accumulator during the summer, releasing the energy accumulated during the winter months, thereby avoiding the use of forced air-conditioning spaces. Our little contribution to the desirable sustainability.

See also:

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Visitor Center by Standardarchitecture	Educational Centre by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda	Sugamo Shinkin Bank by Emmanuelle Moureaux

Edward Hopper’s “Soir Bleu” (1914), on view through April 10 at the Whitney in the exhibition “Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time”

Now that the Whitney Museum of American Art has a better idea of its future, which involves the enviable combination of Renzo Piano and New York’s Meatpacking District, it can focus on a matter close to the hearts (and stomachs) of patrons: a cafe. Back in 2009, the museum tapped Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group—the culinary brain trust behind The Modern, MoMA’s pitch-perfect restaurant—to create and operate the new cafe, which will be located on the ground level, and the firm has just revealed its plans. The cafe, cheekily named “Untitled,” will offer “a contemporary take on the classic Manhattan coffee shop,” according to a press release issued yesterday. Expect “simple, comforting, and seasonal” dishes created by executive chef Chris Bradley, a veteran of Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern. Slated to open next month, Untitled will serve breakfast and lunch (with breakfast fare available all day). Dinner will be served only on Saturdays and Sundays. As for the design of the place, that’s still under wraps, but the Rockwell Group has been instructed to make the cafe harmonious with the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer-designed uptown home. We’ll take the buttermilk pancakes with a side of Brutalism.

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Jerusalem-based professor and industrial designer Ezri Tarazi keeps it close to home in his new show at the Paradigma Gallery in Tel Aviv. The exhibition, Kalab is Isreali army slang for “close to home.” The work is inspired by, “home objects made of battle souvenirs, such as vases made of bomb shells and ashtrays made of bullet shells,” that are often found in Isreali civilian spaces. “Media Force,” a shelving unit made of used ammunition boxes and “SoftReventment,” a sofa constructed of sandbags clearly reflect Tarazi’s intention.

The home becomes a “closed military zone” that in its comfort can diminish the natural defense mechanism. This exhibition raises the questions of security, anxiety, home and sense of security, at times when soldiers and civilians play equal part in the confrontation. This could be the confrontation with our enemies or the confrontation within us, between our primal behaviors and the tamed ones.

See more of Tarazi’s work and details after the jump.

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Divertente video diretto da Andre Maat & Superelectric per la canzone ‘Squeeze Me’ dei Kraak & Smaak.
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