Hasta La Ideas

New photos reveal the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Changsha Meixihu International Culture and Art Centre nearing completion in China.

Due for completion this year, the 115,000-square-metre cultural complex is located beside Meixi Lake in Changsha, the capital of the Hunan province.

It contains a theatre, contemporary art museum and a smaller multi-purpose venue, which Zaha Hadid Architects has placed in three sinuous, petal-shaped buildings.

“Embodying values of functionality, elegance and innovation, the Changsha Meixi Lake International Culture & Arts Centre aims to become the new cultural and civic node for the city of Changsha, and well as global cultural destination,” explained the studio when the project broke ground in 2013.

“Although these civic institutions are uniquely defined and separate, they supply each other in all respects within its setting with plazas offering visitors a tapestry-like sequence of urban ambiances that relate to the different institutions, inject the site with urban vitality.”

The photos reveal that the exterior of each building in the Changsha Meixihu International Culture and Art Centre has been completed, featuring the studio’s signature white, fluid facades, punctured by curving panes of glass.

They sit atop a giant, stepped plaza, forming pathways between them that Zaha Hadid Architects has aligned with routes to the surrounding area.

The complex’s centrepiece is The Grand Theatre, which will be the “largest performance venue in the city” and hold performances for up to 1,800 people.

It will be complete with “all the necessary front of house functions”, such as lobbies, cloakrooms, bars, restaurants, and VIP hospitality, as well as the rehearsal rooms and backstage facilities.

The Small Theatre is designed for flexibility. It can be adapted into a number of different configurations, with a maximum capacity of 500 seats.

It will also open out to a sunken courtyard lined with restaurants and shops.

The final building, The Museum, is positioned on the edge of Meixihu Road and will have a central atrium that separates to form three wings.

Zaha Hadid Architects has designed it “to engage the site’s unique location and surrounding views”, and on one side it will lead out to a plaza that forms an outdoor sculpture exhibition area.

As part of its development, the studio has also built two pedestrian bridges that provide access to Festival Island, a linear islet located in the Meixi Lake.

Founded in 1979 by the late Pritzker prize-winning Zaha Hadid, Zaha Hadid Architects is an international architecture and design studio. Its main office is located in Clerkenwell, London.

Following Hadid’s death in 2016, the studio is now led by Patrik Schumacher. In an exclusive interview earlier this year, Schumacher spoke to Dezeen about the impact her passing had on the studio, how it has grown, and its plans for the future.

Elsewhere in China, cities are experiencing rapid development, making it one of the most prolific countries for architecture in 2018.

So far in 2019, Mecanoo finished building its giant red cultural centre, Snøhetta has designed the Shanghai Grand Opera House and Revery Architecture completed an opera house covered in curved aluminium slats.

Photography is by GSVisuals.

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Swedish fintech company Doconomy has launched a credit card that tracks the carbon dioxide emissions of purchases, and caps the climate impact of users’ spending.

The DO Black credit card directly connects our consumption to the impact it has on the planet, in a bid to encourage us to actively reduce our carbon footprint each day.

Users can make their daily purchases with the DO card, tracking the carbon emissions associated with their spending via the DO app.

The app uses a calculation system called the Åland Index to measure the CO2 produced with every transaction, and allows users to put limits on the climate impact of their spending.

Those who sign up to DO will receive access to a free savings account that helps them understand their carbon footprint, learn about UN-certified climate compensation projects, and discover investment funds that have a positive impact on people and the planet.

The card itself is made of bio-sourced material and is printed with Air Ink – an ink made from recycled air pollution particles, namely the unburned carbon soot that comes out of car exhaust pipes, chimneys and generators.

According to the Paris Agreement, which was signed by the United Nations in November 2016, to avoid an irreversible climate crisis global emissions must be halved by 2030.

“While countries are working to address climate change through the Paris Agreement, it’s clear we need much more ambitious climate action, and we need it now; but, governments cannot solve climate change alone,” said UN Climate Change executive secretary Patricia Espinosa.

“Many companies are already taking steps to lower their emissions, and to create a more sustainable and resilient future,” Espinosa continued.

“People are also thinking about the environment in their daily lives, including making more informed decisions about what they buy,” she added. “That’s why we are pleased to welcome this initiative being undertaken by Doconomy.”

DO card owners will also be invited to compensate for their environmental impact by donating to or participating in projects that meet the criteria of United Nations certified green projects, which contribute to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

These projects are implemented in developing countries, and all contribute to global emission reduction, such as the Improved Cook Stove project in Malawi, which replaces traditional three-stone cooking fires with fuel-efficient cook stoves, and the construction of a wind farm in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.

Users will also be rewarded financially for being more environmentally friendly. DO owners can receive refunds – also known as “DO credits” – from connected stores based on the carbon impact of their purchases.

These refunds can then be directed to UN-certified carbon-offset projects, or invested in sustainable funds.

“We all need to come to terms with the urgency of the situation and rapidly move towards more responsible consumption,” said Doconomy CEO Nathalie Green. “With DO Black there are no more excuses.”

“Through our collaboration with the UN Climate Change Secretariat and Mastercard, DO will enable people to do their part to contribute to the carbon-reduction goals of 2030 and onwards,” added Green.

Doconomy is just one of many companies striving to reduce carbon emissions. Last month New York City mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to ban the construction of glass and steel skyscrapers, in a major bid to tackle the climate-change crisis.

The announcement was made not long after the passing of the city’s wider Climate Mobilization Act on 18 April, which comprises a series of bills to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate global warming

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Pale marble and black steel fixtures sit among the otherwise classic living spaces of this west London apartment, which has been overhauled by HASA Architects.

HASA Architects has made a host of subtle new interventions to the ground-floor apartment situated in the affluent neighbourhood of Mayfair.

“We responded positively to the limitations of the listed building, taking cues from the fabric and layout to inform and enrich the design,” explained Charlotte Harris and Mark Stevens, who head up the practice.

“Careful attention was paid to the distances and junctions between the historic and contemporary layers to ensure old and new quietly co-exist and complement each other both visually and programmatically.”

The apartment is set inside a five-storey Georgian terrace, where the client has lived on the second floor since the late 1990s. They decided to purchase the apartment below when it became available in 2015, and later approached HASA Architects to transform it into a liveable space that could be sold or let out.

Rather than make dramatic alterations to the apartment’s historic framework, the practice instead decided to use partitions, sliding doors and freestanding joinery to delineate different living spaces in the home.

Original ornate moulding that runs along the ceiling, doorways, and window frames has been restored, and all walls have simply been freshened up with a coat of white paint.

A beam of white American oakwood has then been suspended across the main living space to form a mezzanine, which accommodates a master bedroom. Each side of the room is flanked by white concertina doors that can be drawn across to provide privacy to inhabitants.

The mezzanine level appears to be supported by an asymmetric panel of steel, which actually serves as a balustrade to the apartment’s original staircase.

A breakfast island in the adjacent kitchen made from Veiny Arabescato marble has tall storage cupboards with handleless doors have been created to neatly conceal cooking appliances.

The architecture studio ensured that these were set away from the surrounding walls to allow any existing architectural details to “remain uninterrupted”.

A dressing room and extra bathroom have also been created at ground level, accessed via a concealed door. The space is centred by a huge open shelving unit crafted from sycamore wood where inhabitants can keep clothes or accessories.

“The colour and material palette are purposefully pared-down to create a harmonious and soothing environment that focuses on space and light to bring the property to life,” added the practice.

HASA Architects was founded by Harris and Stevens in 2015. The practice’s Mayfair apartment isn’t the only London dwelling to boast a pared-back aesthetic – earlier this year Proctor and Shaw designed a flat in Marylebone to feature a simple timber partition wall and natural-tone surfaces.

Photography is by Simone Bossi.

Project credits:

Architect: HASA Architects
Structural engineer: Entuitive
Contractor: M Berry
Joinery: Emerson Living
Approved inspector: Cook Brown

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Steel beams crisscross through the centre of Repoussoir, a house extension that Con Form Architects has completed in London.

The London studio was tasked with bringing more light into the Victorian family house. To do this, the architects renovated and extended the ground floor, creating a large open-plan space opening out to the garden.

The project sees some of the old external and interior walls removed, underneath an existing outrigger. An anthracite-grey steel structure was then introduced to support the new open layout.

Bi-fold glass doors and glazed roof sections ensure that plenty of daylight can enter into the building.

Con Form Architects partner and cofounder Eoin O’Leary said they were keen to avoid creating anything as weighty as the loft extension added to the property in 2010. Their aim was to create something as lightweight as possible.

“The basic structural principles are similar in every extension of this type,” he told Dezeen.

“Steelwork is required to support the existing building and the new extension. Typically these box frame steelwork arrangements are concealed within walls floors and ceilings which can lead to unnecessary construction that can inhibit light, connection, openness and budget,” he continued.

“In this instance we sought to avoid unnecessary building fabric and highlight the impressive steelwork that often goes uncelebrated.”

Beneath the steel beams, dark stripes run across the flooring of the extension to create the impression of shadows. These lines extend out from the living areas into the garden.

It was this that led the architects to name the project Repoussoir, referencing the technique used in two dimensional works of art, in which a framing object guides the eye to the centre.

“In the project, rather than there being a specific focal point as would be present in a painting, the intention is that the space beyond is what the anthracite frames are drawing the eye towards,” said O’Leary.

The stark steelwork helps with the aim of blurring the boundary between inside and outside. O’Leary described it as “a common factor that is omnipresent, visually connecting all spaces together”.

Materials are consistent both inside the building and beyond, to further blend these areas together.

A wall of London stock brick continues to the garden, while the fir flooring inside the building matches the washed colour and dimensions of the paving tiles on the patio.

The new open-plan space functions as large living space, with the kitchen relocated to the front of the property, framed by an existing bay window.

Unlike the compartmentalised rooms of the old layout, the new arrangement allow the family to easily entertain guests all year round.

“A change in level from front to back, along with differing ceiling heights beneath the outrigger, roof lights and historical ceiling heights at the front, introduce a variety of zones and light conditions across this open-plan arrangement,” said O’Leary.

An additional set of sliding glazed doors on the other side of the patio enclose an extra room, which the owners plan to use for cycling practice.

Lighting fixtures are slotted into recesses in the brickwork in the ceiling, helping to subtly add extra brightness to the north-facing living space.

There are also linear LED strips integrated linear along the perimeter of the flooring, both inside and out, creating uplighting on the walls in the evenings.

Extensions to Victorian terraces are common in London. Recent examples include a tower-like extension by Dominic McKenzie Architects, Nimtim Architects’ playful cork-walled extension and a contemporary take on the Victorian-terraced style by Al-Jawad Pike.

Photography is by Simone Bossi.

Project credits:

Architect: con | form architects
Structural engineer: Elliott Wood Partnership
Building control: Head Projects
Party wall surveyor: Alexander Elliott Ltd
Flooring: Dinesen
Tiling supplier: Solus Ceramics

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