Oct 02
Oct 02
Dezeen Space: Ariane Prin brings her pencil factory to Dezeen Platform at Dezeen Space today.
Prin graduated from the Royal College of Art this summer and Dezeen published a story on her project back in July.
The pencils are made using waste material generated by the current students in college workshops, which is then re-used on site to produce drawing materials for future students.
Each day, for 30 days, a different designer will use a one metre by one metre space to exhibit their work at Dezeen Space. See the full lineup for Dezeen Platform here.
There’s more about Dezeen Space here and more about the London Design festival here.
Dezeen Space
17 September – 16 October
Monday-Saturday 11am-7pm
Sunday 11am-5pm
54 Rivington Street,
London EC2A 3QNr
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| Today at Dezeen Platform: Sivan Royz | Today at Dezeen Platform: Julian Hakes | Today at Dezeen Platform: Jólan van der Wiel |
Oct 02
A glistening aluminium canopy undulates above the heads of waiting passengers at a bus station in Slough, England.
Designed by London architects Bblur, the curved structure also provides a sheltered route for pedestrians walking between the adjacent railway station and the town centre.
The 130 metre-long canopy folds down at one end to wrap a glazed two-storey building that accommodates bus driver facilities, a cafe, a newsagent, toilets, a waiting room and a ticket office.
The bus station is part of a masterplan for the area and will eventually be surrounded by five new office towers of between eight and fourteen stories.
Preceding this bus station on Dezeen, we also recently published a metro station with a hovering UFO-like roof – see our earlier story here.
Photography is by Hufton + Crow.
Here’s some more text from Bblur:
Slough Bus Station
Bblur architecture is delighted to have completed the new Bus Station for Slough. The scheme, won in limited competition, is the first element of Slough Borough Council’s vision for the wider regeneration of the centre of Slough, known as ’The Heart of Slough’ with which the Council is seeking to change the perception of Slough and provide It’s young,multi cultural population with a high quality urban environment.
Click above for larger image.
The project has been led by Matthew Bedward founding partner of bblur, “We took the opportunity to significantly improve pedestrian permeability between the train station and the town centre. Our client tasked us to create a memorable front door for Slough. The form of the building derives from the idea of different wavelengths of light inspired by Astronomer Royal, William Herschel’s discovery of infra-red waves in 1800 while a resident of Slough.”
Click above for larger image.
The bus station site is north of Wellington Street (A4) and opposite the listed mainline railway station on Brunel Way. The site was occupied by a derelict office building, an outdated bus station and a large multi storey car park, which created a significant urban barrier between the rail station and town centre.
Click above for larger image.
The bus station scheme has two distinct functions. The primary function is to create a transport interchange with the rail station providing new, safe, efficient and enjoyable public transport facilities.
The second function improves the pedestrian permeability and legibility of the urban realm by creating a new north-south covered public route from the rail station through to the centre of Slough.
Click above for larger image.
The scheme consists of a 130m canopy and pedestrian walkway anchored at its northern end with a 660m2 accommodation building which looks out onto the rail station. This building provides flexible space over two levels. The ground floor has a public cafe and waiting area, newsagent, bus operator facilities, information and a ticket office. The first floor contains the staff canteen, toilets and bus operator’s administration offices.
Click above for larger image.
The building is clad in aluminium shingles creating a softly textured metallic surface which constantly changes character with the varying light conditions.
When the Heart of Slough master plan is complete the bus station will be surrounded by five 8 to 14 storey office buildings. The Bus Station is an urban object with the design considered from all aspects, passengers underneath and office workers viewing from above. Its sculptural form and the design of the hard landscaping will provide a counterpoint to the rectilinear corporate architecture. It will create an identifiable place within Slough that is a celebration of public transport and is a memorable first and last impression of Slough.
The associated public realm and infrastructure works are currently on site and due for completion early in 2012
Click above for larger image.
Project Design Team:
Client: Slough Borough Council
Architect: bblur architecture – Matthew Bedward, Daniel Bérubé,
Clayton Blackman, Mike Dempsey, John Fookes, Hayley Jordan, Matthew Kennedy, Andrew Leckenby, Antonio Martins Jeff Mcfadyen ,Cristina Rodriguez, Matthew Scammels.
Project Manager; Fitton Associates
Structure & M&E Engineer: Buro Happold
Landscape: SpaceHub
Quantity Surveyor: Gardiner & Theobald
Planning Consultant: Deloitte Drivers Jonas
See also:
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| Tram Stop in Alicante by Subarquitectura | Thiais Bus Centre by ECDM architects | Viamala Raststätte Thusis by Iseppi/Kurath |
Oct 01
Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid Architects wins RIBA Stirling Prize
Posted in: Stirling Prize, Stirling Prize winners
Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid Architects has won this year’s RIBA Stirling Prize for the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year.
The prize was awarded at a ceremony held this evening at Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham.
The building was one of six shortlisted entries – more about each one here.
See also:
RIBA Stirling Prize winner 2010 »
All our stories about Zaha Hadid »
All photographs here are copyright Luke Hayes.
Here is some more information from the RIBA
Evelyn Grace Academy in London by Zaha Hadid Architects wins the RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 for the best building of the year
The Evelyn Grace Academy, a cutting-edge new secondary school in Brixton, south London by Zaha Hadid Architects has won the prestigious £20,000 RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 for the best new European building built or designed in the United Kingdom. This is the second year running that Zaha Hadid Architects have won the RIBA Stirling Prize; last year they won the award for their MAXXI Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome; this year they have put the practice’s formidable reputation to great use by breaking new ground in school design. Now in its 16th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is presented in association with The Architects Journal and Kingspan Benchmark
The presentation of the UK’s premier architectural award took place at a special ceremony this evening (Saturday 1 October) at the RIBA Stirling Prize-winning (2001) Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, and will be televised tomorrow (Sunday 2 October 2011) on BBC TWO’s The Culture Show at 5pm.
A highly stylized zig-zag of steel and glass, the Evelyn Grace Academy is squeezed on to the tightest of urban sites (1.4 hectares – the average secondary school is 8/9 hectares). The architects received a complex brief: four schools under a single academy umbrella with the need to express both independence and unity. The architects were strongly encouraged by the client to ‘think outside the box’. With such a small space and with sport being one of the Academy’s ‘special subjects’ (each Academy school has one), the architects needed to be highly inventive. They succeeded, for instance by cleverly inserting a 100m running track into the heart of the site taking pupils right up to the front door. By dramatically celebrating the school’s specialism, the RIBA Stirling Prize judges noted ‘this is a design that literally makes kids run to get into school in the morning’.
The Evelyn Grace Academy is the first school to win the RIBA Stirling Prize, with seven schools shortlisted in previous years. It is the first time that Zaha Hadid Architects have designed a school and their first large-scale project in the UK. Previously they designed a Maggie’s Centre in Scotland and more recently they have completed the Riverside Museum in Glasgow and the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics.
Speaking tonight, RIBA President Angela Brady, Chair of the judges, said:
“The Evelyn Grace Academy is an exceptional example of what can be achieved when we invest carefully in a well-designed new school building. The result – a highly imaginative, exciting Academy that shows the students, staff and local residents that they are valued – is what every school should and could be. The unique design, expertly inserted into an extremely tight site, celebrates the school’s sports specialism throughout its fabric, with drama and views of student participation at every contortion and turn. Evelyn Grace Academy is a very worthy winner of architecture’s most prestigious award and I am delighted to present Zaha Hadid Architects with this accolade.”
The Evelyn Grace Academy is run by ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) Academy organisation, a charity set up by Arpad “Arki” Busson, the hedge-fund multimillionaire. ARK aims to offer exceptional opportunities to local children in inner cities with the aim of helping to close the achievement gap between children from disadvantaged and more affluent backgrounds.
Peter Walker, Principal of the Evelyn Grace Academy said:
“This visually stunning building makes a powerful statement to our students every day they attend school. As a new academy setting the highest expectations for all students, it is fitting that we have such an aspirational environment. The internal structure of the building supports the innovative nature of Evelyn Grace Academy’s small school system exceptionally well.”
Zaha Hadid said:
“It is very significant that our first project in London is the Evelyn Grace. Schools are among the first examples of architecture that everyone experiences and have a profound impact on all children as they grow up. I am delighted that the Evelyn Grace Academy has been so well received by all its students and staff.”
Evelyn Grace Academy was chosen from the following outstanding shortlisted entries:
- An Gaelaras, Derry by O’Donnell and Tuomey
- The Angel Building, London by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM)
- Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany by David Chipperfield Architects
- Olympic Velodrome London 2012 by Hopkins Architects, supported by the Olympic Delivery Authority
- Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres, Stratford by Bennetts Associates
RIBA President Angela Brady announced the winner, editor of The Architects’ Journal, Christine Murray, awarded the £20,000 cheque and Peter Santo, Head of Benchmark presented the certificate to architects Patrik Schumacher and Lars Teichman, and school principal Peter Walker.
The 2011 RIBA Stirling Prize judges were RIBA President and Chair of the judges, Angela Brady; Sir Peter Cook – architect and academic, formerly of Royal Gold Medal winning Archigram; Hanif Kara – engineer, Adams Kara Taylor; Dan Pearson – landscape designer and RIBA Honorary Fellow and Alison Brooks – architect and winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2008 with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Maccreanor Lavington for the Accordia housing scheme.
The winners of the RIBA Lubetkin Prize and two special awards were also announced this evening:
- The Met, a sixty-six storey residential skyscraper in Bangkok, Thailand by WOHA architects won the prestigious RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the most outstanding work of international architecture outside the EU by a member of the RIBA.
- St. Patrick’s School Library and Music Room in north-west London by Coffey Architects won the RIBA’s 2011 Stephen Lawrence Prize. Set up in memory of Stephen Lawrence who was setting out on the road to becoming an architect when he was murdered in 1993 and funded by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation, the prize rewards the best examples of projects that have a construction budget of less than £1 million and is intended to encourage fresh talent working with smaller budgets.
- The Royal Shakespeare Company won the 2011 RIBA Client of the Year supported by the Bloxham Charitable Trust. The award recognizes the role good clients play in the delivery of fine architecture.
See also:
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| Zaha Hadid wins Stirling Prize | Rogers Stirk Harbour+ Partners wins Stirling Prize | Accordia wins Stirling Prize |
Oct 01
A Better World By Design: Day One
Posted in: Uncategorized
We began the A Better World by Design conference at RISD/Brown with a tour of John Jacobson’s mixed-use development, 28 Wolcott Street. Jacobson argued that society needs to “address what we have [in order] to reduce energies,” as opposed to continuing to build new architectural projects. Truly sustainable or net-zero buildings should focus on the large steps to reducing energy usage, such as insulation and building envelope, as opposed to the “sexy green” of green roofs and other mostly-aesthetic elements.
Jacobson compared the current assortment of buildings in Providence to “Hummers” and far away from even the minimums of building code. Instead, the future of architecture should seek to produce buildings that are “restorative and heal the environment” as opposed to merely limiting energy consumption.
Our next stop was the Steelyard, an adaptive reuse space for artisans and fabricators, and well as maker-fairs and other events. The development took over a neighborhood once littered with “condoms and needles,” turning it into a haven for nearly extinct fabrication skills and knowledge.
Unfortunately, teleconferenced keynote speaker Wolfgang Feist’s lecture on his Passive House twenty years in the making was uninspiring, but follow-up speaker Elizabeth Johansen of Design That Matters (DtM) helped to jump-start the conference back on track. Johansen illuminated the audience with four key points about designing for second- or third-world countries, using DtM’s current Project Firefly (newborn jaundice prevention via photo-therapy) as the example in her talk “The Product Butterfly Effect” about using simple products to create systemic effects.
1. “Don’t Design for Everyone” – Johansen suggested focusing on a very specific user group, as opposed to trying to satisfy the needs of all users. For example, Project Firefly targets otherwise healthy newborns who are at risk of jaundice.
2. “Think Big and Act Small” – Products at a purely commercial level, said Johansen, can actually have a large effect on innovation at the social level. For example, the washing machine was designed as a time saver, but ended up being key in the feminist movement in terms of allowing women to spend less time at home doing chores.
3. “Mind the Gap” – Designers need to be mindful of the entire timeline of product use and aim to eliminate waste of time or leverage such situations. For example, a new-born is often left either all-night in feeding with their mother or in photo-therapy all-night. Design That Matters created a desktop therapy device for use next to a mother.
4. “Affordable, Not Cheap” – While working with Vietnamese doctors, Johansen was presented with a Catch-22: doctors trust complicated-looking equipment, so they would want to use it in their hospitals, yet they think it is too complicated to use. Simple-looking equipment doesn’t get used. Johansen mentioned an American doctor who said, “Even in the US when we tell parents their child has a potentially life threatening condition and all we’re going to do is shine a light on it, there’s disbelief.” There is a fine line to walk between sophisticated technology and simple technology, each of which turns away users in their own unique ways.
Oct 01
French studio Explorations Architecture have completed a social housing block beside one of the narrowest streets in Paris.
The five-storey building provides eighteen apartments in a rundown neighbourhood in the centre of the city.
Timber box-frame windows are staggered across a white stucco exterior to maximise natural light into each flat.
Timber-lined balconies occupy recesses in the facade and overlook a shared courtyard.
This is the second building by Explorations Architecture recently featured on Dezeen – see our earlier story about a sports hall with a curving timber roof that sags in the middle here.
Photography is by Michel Denancé.
Here’s a few more words from the architects:
‘Passage de la Brie’ Housing by Explorations Architecture
Explorations architecture has just completed a high density social housing project in the ‘Passage de la brie’ in downtown historic Paris (19ème arrondissement).
The Passage de la brie is one of the narrowest street in Paris (only 4m across).
In 2005, Explorations won the competition to redevelop what had become a real slum in the middle of the City. It took 6 years to complete due to complex planning and construction issues.
The scheme is a contemporary variation on the “immeuble parisien de faubourg” with its white stucco and timber windows. The windows seem randomly arranged in order to maximize views and lighting.
Click above for larger image
Design team: Explorations architecture + Integrale 4 engineers
Click above for larger image
Client: City of Paris (Siemp)
Click above for larger image
Brief: 18 apartments
Net Area: 2000 m²
Cost: 3m €
Timeframe: 2005-2011
See also:
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| Maison Leguay by Moussafir Architectes | Apartment building by Znamení Čtyř | Housing and gallery by [BP] Architectures |
Oct 01
Core77 Photo Gallery: The Impossible Project Factory Tour
Posted in: Uncategorized
Photography by Lia Sáile for Core77
Take a look behind-the-scenes at the The Impossible Project Factory located in Enschede, a small industrial city in the far east of The Netherlands. In 2008 Impossible brokered a last-minute deal with Polaroid to purchase all the machines and equipment used to make instant integral film just before they were scrapped, and set up shop in Building Noord (North) of the former-Polaroid plant.
For those not familiar with the back story, getting the new film to market was not without it’s difficulties, it was nearly impossible as Polaroid closed the chemical plant that produced their secret colored dyes almost two years earlier in anticipation of shuttering their analog business. In fact they only started dismantling the factories once all the reserves had been used up. The real challenge for the Impossible team — aside from figuring out how to modernize production — was finding a partner that could produce the chemicals necessary to make the magic of instant film work.
In March 2010, the first Impossible film — PX100 and PX600 — made it’s debut, much to the relief of analog photography enthusiasts who had been stockpiling expired film in case they could never shoot their vintage Polaroid cameras again. Today the film range offered has expanded considerably with various monochromatic shades and colored blends available but the Impossible team are still hard at work perfecting the PX integral film formula. There are plans to resurrect the popular 8×10 format using the last intact production machine which was shipped from the US in late 2009, and they have started designing their own camera which will no doubt take strong cues from the iconic SX-70.
To keep our factory tour authentic, the first three quarters were shot on Impossible film and if you want to learn more about how the film is made, check out this great video from the Science Channel we posted a few months ago.
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