“The building is a naked structure; everything you see is at the same time carrying, so structural, and space-making, so spaces defining and containing,” Herzog tells Dezeen.
“There is no inside/outside, there is nothing that is masked, so everything you get is doing all you expect from architecture. In that sense it’s a very honest or very archaic architecture.”
Veranda – photograph by Iwan Baan
Herzog & de Meuron‘s Pérez Art Museum Miami opened to the public last week in downtown Miami and accommodates 3000 square-metres of galleries within a three-storey complex with a huge elevated veranda.
A car park is on show beneath the building, while a single roof shelters both indoor and outdoor spaces.
View from the veranda. Copyright Dezeen.
“Typologically you could say that this is a building built on stilts,” says the architect. “Layers end with a trellis-like roof and start with a platform which is also kind of a trellis, under which you can park your car and that also is open to the elements. Literally everything is visible, is part of the whole.”
Exhibition galleries – photograph by Iwan Baan
The architect describes how galleries were designed to open out to the veranda so that “landscape would walk inside the building”.
“We wanted to do buildings that are transparent or permeable, so that inside/outside would not be a strict barrier,” he explains.
Exhibition galleries – photograph by Iwan Baan
Exhibition galleries occupy the two lower floors of the museum and were organised to encourage a fluid transition between spaces.
“The special concept of the museum is this kind of sequence of spaces, which are more fluid,” says Herzog. “It’s a new kind of museum typology, which we believe was right to do here.”
Auditorium staircase. Copyright Dezeen.
The building also features an auditorium that doubles up as a connecting staircase.
Auditorium staircase. Copyright Dezeen.
“The auditorium staircase is an attempt to do more than just an auditorium – that would be a space that is closed and only used when there is a performance or conference – but to introduce it so that you have a grand stair leading people up to the main gallery floor,” says the architect.
He continues: “By means of curtains it can be subdivided, so it gives more opportunities to the curators and directors, and the people here.”
Jacques Herzog and Dezeen’s Marcus Fairs in a bay window. Copyright: Dezeen
Bay windows puncture the walls of the first-floor galleries and contain benches that visitors can use to take a break from exhibitions.
“This is to give the windows more than just the role of being a hole in the facade,” adds Herzog. “This again is a transitional element between inside and outside, inviting people to rest, sit and warm up a little bit.”
Voici en exclusivité le dernier clip du rappeur Kaaris, illustrant le morceau Or Noir. Réalisée par le duo Lionel Hirlé et Greg Ohrel, cette vidéo imagine avec talent et esthétisme comment un jeune enfant de banlieue tombe progressivement dans la délinquance au rythme de croisements de bras, signe significatif du rappeur du 93.
London designer and researcher Shamees Aden is developing a concept for running shoes that would be 3D-printed from synthetic biological material and could repair themselves overnight.
Photograph by Sam J Bond
Shamees Aden‘s Protocells trainer would be 3D-printed to the exact size of the user’s foot from a material that would fit like a second skin. It would react to pressure and movement created when running, puffing up to provide extra cushioning where required.
Aden developed the project in collaboration with Dr Martin Hanczyc, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark who specialises in protocell technology. Protocells are very basic molecules that are not themselves alive, but can be combined to create living organisms.
By mixing different types of these non-living molecules, scientists are attempting to produce artificial living systems that can be programmed with different behaviours, such as responsiveness to pressure, light and heat.
“The cells have the capability to inflate and deflate and to respond to pressure,” Aden told Dezeen at the Wearable Futures conference in London. “As you’re running on different grounds and textures it’s able to inflate or deflate depending on the pressure you put onto it and could help support you as a runner.”
After a run, the protocells in the material would lose their energy and the shoes would be placed in a jar filled with protocell liquid, which would keep the living organisms healthy. The liquid could also be dyed any colour, causing the shoes to take on that colour as the cells rejuvenate.
“You would take the trainers home and you would have to care for it as if it was a plant, making sure it has the natural resources needed to rejuvenate the cells,” said the designer.
Aden added that her footwear project was intended to help a broader range of people comprehend the potential of protocell technology, and claimed the speculative results could become reality by 2050.
The project is being presented at Wearable Futures, an event focusing on innovations in wearable technologies taking place in London from 10-11 December.
Photography is by the designer unless otherwise stated.
This month sees another fine set of reissues from Penguin – GK Chesterton’s Father Brown series, designed in-house by Matthew Young with a nod to the influential work of Romek Marber…
In 2010, Young was chosen as one of CR’s graduates to watch and since then he has been working away as a book cover designer for Penguin and an animator. His latest project was to produce the covers for a new set of five editions of GK Chesteron’s Father Brown crime novels.
Young says that initially the design approach had two potentially routes: one was to incorporate Magritte paintings into the workl, while the other was a more graphic approach with “a healthy dose of inspiration from Romek Marber’s iconic covers for Penguin in the 1960s”.
“Chesterton’s Father Brown stories have always, in my opinion, been packaged somewhat unfairly,” says Young. “There’s always so much emphasis on the fact that he’s a priest, it’s all dog-collars and bibles – and it makes the books look very old-fashioned, safe, twee, and a bit boring, when in fact they’re full of wit and suspense and character.
“And yes he’s a priest, and yes that’s why he makes such an unlikely (but brilliant) detective, but there’s so much more to these stories that often doesn’t get represented.”
Two Father Brown covers design by Romek Marber
When Young researched the series, he says that two particularly covers jumped out – The Innocence of Father Brown and The Incredulity of Father Brown (above), both designed by Romek Marber for Penguin in the early 60s.
“They’re the only covers I’ve seen that really suggest some of the mystery and the suspense of these stories,” Young says, “and they do so in such a striking way, with a reduced colour palette and bold symbolic illustrations.”
“There’s a great quote from Marber – talking about designing these books – of how Father Brown ‘gets straight to the nub of the case and always gets his man’. And that’s what we wanted to communicate with these new editions.
“There’s always a fine line when taking inspiration from a classic cover design like this – you want to pay a respectful nod to Penguin’s history, and to Romek’s iconic designs, but as a designer you also want to put your own mark on things, and to re-invent these covers for today’s audience.”
Two of the new covers actually re-work original elements from Marber’s designs. The Innocence of Father Brown features the coiling thread from the original cover and The Wisdom of Father Brown makes use of the Marber figure casting a long shadow.
“Taking these two visual elements as my main starting point, I worked all the covers up using the same basic principles,” says Young. “Each cover must only use two colours, feature a figure that represents Father Brown, and use simple, bold, graphic shapes and patterns to symbolise a chase, a journey, a mystery.”
“On each cover Father Brown is deliberately isolated to give the sense that he is an outsider; it’s him against the odds, following an unlikely trail and methodically piecing the clues together. And I didn’t want to dictate exactly what Father Brown looks like – I’d rather this was left open to the reader’s interpretation, so the figures are almost silhouettes, with just enough detail to give him some form, to maybe suggest his build or his shabby robes, but without giving too much away.”
The grid for the typography derives from a by-product of a bigger project to re-design the Penguin Popular Classics, Young explains. “That project never saw the light of day,” he says, “but some small aspects of the designs do live on in these new covers.”
The finished books are each printed in just two colours – one Pantone plus black – on a cream uncoated paper stock. As with the new ‘restored’ edition of A Clockwork Orange, which Barnbrook recently designed, the Chesterton books are in ‘A-format’, the same size as the original Penguin paperbacks.
“Hopefully the books have a certain Penguin charm about them,” Young adds, “whilst also being attractive little objects in their own right.”
Art director: Jim Stoddart. The Father Brown series will be available from Penguin Classics from January 2 next year; £6.99 each. Matthew Young’s book cover work is at mymymy.co.uk.
Afin de faire la promotion du bracelet NikeFuel en France, la marque à la virgule a réalisé cette belle vidéo en exclusivité sur Fubiz. Proposant des images de jeunes dans Paris cumulant les activités à l’image du compteur qui monte, cette création réussie nous rappelle que dans la ville lumière, il n’y a jamais de temps mort.
Who can forget Perceptive Pixel’s big-ass multitouch display, which caused such a stir at AU 2011? We were secretly hoping the company would be purchased by Autodesk and turned to the task of cranking out high-end rendering stations, but alas, that wasn’t in the cards; Microsoft scooped them up last year and essentially turned the product into corporate-meeting whiteboards, absent SketchBook Pro or other rendering apps.
But that doesn’t mean big monitors with proprietary software and killer apps are dead for designers. Coming to the rescue is Montreal-based Smart Use Softwares, Inc., whose soon-to-launch S-55 Smart Table was this year’s Exhibition Hall showstopper; the device was so mobbed we had to come back after hours to get a private demonstration. What we’re looking at, folks, is essentially magic blueprints:
My watch is mine, and if you try peeking into it, you probably won’t be able to read the time. However if I wear the Followatch, you will be able to see the time correctly, with the dial facing towards you! Followatch always stands upright because it rotates freely thanks to the center of gravity. Awesome idea for sharing time!
Designers: Jaehoon Yu, Jin hyck Kim, Hwa jeong Yeo, Eun seng Jeun & Pyeong Deung Lee
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Watch This Ways was originally posted on Yanko Design)
Yet another reminder that print isn’t dead: Minneapolis’ recently launched Greenroom Magazine. Given the Twin Cities’ long history of underground hip-hop, electronic and house music, Greenroom is shedding light on…
L’artiste brésilien Lucas Chimello Simões dont nous avons déjà pu parler s’amuse à déstructurer et recomposer avec talent des portraits ou des photographies en dizaines de couches découpées et déplacées. Un rendu surprenant et visuellement éblouissant à découvrir en images dans la suite.
Paris architects Lacaton & Vassal have designed a translucent structure to house an international art collection that is a mirror image of the adjoining former shipbuilding workshop (+ slideshow).
Lacaton & Vassal won a competition organised by FRAC (France’s regional contemporary art fund) to transform the derelict workshop in the port area of Dunkirk into a new home for the archives and exhibition spaces of the Nord-Pas de Calais region.
Instead of overhauling the existing workshop, which was built in 1949 and is known as halle AP2, the architects chose to conduct minor renovations and leave it empty so it can be used to host events, exhibitions and house large-scale artworks. In addition, they proposed constructing an extension of identical dimensions alongside it.
“The halle AP2 is a singular and symbolic object. Its internal volume is immense, bright, impressive: its potential for uses is exceptional,” explained the architects. “The new building juxtaposes delicately without competing nor fading. The duplication is the attentive response to the identity of the halle.”
The new structure extends from the side of the renovated warehouse and provides an additional 9,357 square metres of floor space alongside the 1,953 square metres of usable space inside halle AP2.
A translucent skin of corrugated polycarbonate covers most of the new structure’s exterior and surrounds a solid concrete core in which a collection of over 1,500 artworks are stored in protective conditions.
“Under a light and bioclimatic envelope, a prefabricated and efficient structure determines free, flexible and evolutionary platforms, with few constraints, fit to the needs of the program,” said the architects. “The transparency of the skin allows to see the background vision of the opaque volume of the artworks reserves.”
Artworks are delivered to a loading bay and transit areas on the ground floor and then transferred using a lift at the centre of the building to archives on three further storeys. The ground floor also houses a reception and cafeteria that looks into the halle AP2, and the first of several exhibition spaces spread throughout the building.
Above the cafeteria, an internal street fills the void between the old and new structures, and there are plans to connect this space to an elevated walkway that would traverse the canal that currently separates the port from the adjacent beach. Exhibition halls, education facilities, administration and event spaces are accessed using lifts at the front of the building.
On top of the concrete core is an open event space that sits beneath the gabled steel framework, which is fitted with clear EFTE pillows to allow a view of the port and the nearby town.
FRAC (Regional Contemporary Artwork Collection) of the North region
The FRAC houses regionally assembled public collections of contemporary art.
These collections are conserved, archived and presented to the public through on site exhibitions and by loans to both galleries and museums.
The North region FRAC is located on the site of Dunkerque port in an old boat warehouse called Halle AP2. The halle AP2 is a singular and symbolic object.
Its internal volume is immense, bright, impressive. Its potential for uses is exceptional.
To achieve this concept, the project creates a double of the halle, of the same dimension, attached to the existing building, on the side which faces the sea, and which contains the program of the FRAC.
Under a light and bioclimatic envelope, a prefabricated and efficient structure determines free, flexible and evolutionary platforms, with few constraints, fit to the needs of the program.
The public footbridge (previously planned along the facade) which crosses the building becomes a covered street entering the halle and the internal facade of the FRAC.
The halle AP2 will remain a completely available space, which can work either with the FRAC, in extension of its activities, (exceptional temporary exhibitions, creation of large scale works, particular handlings) or independently to welcome public events (concert, fairs, shows, circus, sport) and which enriches the possibilities of the area.
The functioning of each of the buildings is separated, or combined. The architecture of the halle and its current quality make sufficient minimal, targeted and limited interventions.
Thanks to the optimisation of the project, the budget allows the realisation of the FRAC and the setting up of conditions and equipment for public use of the halle AP2.
The project so creates an ambitious public resource, of flexible capacity, which allows work at several scales from everyday exhibitions to large-scale artistic events, of regional but also european and international resonance, which consolidates the redevelopment of the port of Dunkerque.
Site : Dunkerque, France Date : competition 2009, design 2010,completiion scheduled in 2012 – 2013 Client : Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque Architects : Anne Lacaton & Jean Philippe Vassal with Florian de Pous, chief project, Camille Gravellier, Yuko Ohashi, Juan Azcona and for the competition, Sandrine Puech, David Pradel, Simon Durand Engineers : Secotrap, structure, mechanical systems, CESMA, metal structure, Vincent Pourtau Program : artwork reserves, exhibition rooms, education Area : 11 129 m2 net : – 9 157 m2 new building – 1 972 m2 existing halle Cost :12 M Euros net (2011)
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