Après Homage to the Lost Spaces, l’artiste Mike Hewson revient avec de nouvelles illusions d’optiques géantes d’une grande qualité. Réalisées après un tremblement de terre à Christchurch en Nouvelle-Zélande pour camoufler les travaux, ces oeuvres magnifiques sont à découvrir dans la suite.
News: the Cardboard Cathedral designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban opens to the public today in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The building was designed by Shigeru Ban as a temporary replacement for the city’s former Anglican cathedral, which was destroyed by the earthquake that struck the city in February 2011. With an expected lifespan of around 50 years, it will serve the community until a more permanent cathedral can be constructed.
The building features a triangular profile constructed from 98 equally sized cardboard tubes. These surround a coloured glass window made from tessellating triangles, decorated with images from the original cathedral’s rose window.
The main hall has the capacity to accommodate up to 700 people for events and concerts, plus eight steel shipping containers house chapels and storage areas below.
The cathedral had initially been scheduled to open in February, but was subject to a series of construction delays. The first service will now be held on Sunday 11 August.
The reconstruction of the permanent cathedral building has been a controversial topic in recent months, after critics rejected two contemporary designs and called for the building to be restored to its original gothic appearance. The selected design has yet to be announced.
Shigeru Ban has used cardboard on a number of pavilions and structures in recent years, particularly on disaster relief projects. Other examples include a temporary gallery in Moscow with cardboard columns and a cardboard pavilion at the IE School of Architecture and Design in Madrid.
Dezeen interviewed Shigeru Ban back in 2009, when he explained that he considers “green design” to be just a fashion, but that he is most interested in “using materials without wasting”.
See more architecture by Shigeru Ban »
See more cardboard architecture and design »
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in Christchurch appeared first on Dezeen.
News: architects and critics have called for the earthquake-damaged Christchurch Cathedral in New Zealand to be restored to its original gothic appearance after rejecting two contemporary proposals as “bizarre” and “architecturally illiterate”.
Writing for the New Zealand news website The Press, British architecture critic Kieran Long said the proposals by New Zealand firm Warren & Mahoney, which were unveiled by Anglican leaders last week, offered “a fairly mediocre architectural choice.”
If pressed to choose between the three options – a full restoration, a traditional redesign or an entirely new building – Long said he advocated the complete rebuilding of British architect George Gilbert Scott’s gothic revival cathedral, which was constructed in the second half of the nineteenth century and suffered major structural damage during Christchurch’s 2011 earthquake.
Above: traditional redesign proposal
Top: new building proposal
“It is the only piece of architecture of these three that will have enduring meaning. It would speak of continuity, which is surely something valuable in a city like Christchurch today,” said Long, who was recently named senior curator of contemporary architecture at the V&A museum in London.
The traditional redesign proposed was “architecturally illiterate”, he noted. “The hexagonal facade treatment is bizarre and at odds with the ornamental logic of the gothic – the pattern and the rose window jar horribly.”
He also criticised the contemporary timber and glass proposal as “too generic to be interesting”, adding: “Its clumsy modern gothic is a kind of euphemistic architectural language that wants to appear rooted in history but in fact doesn’t take it very seriously.”
Above: original restoration proposal
Ellis Woodman, architecture critic for the Telegraph in London, also called for a straightforward restoration, dismissing the two alternatives as “painfully voguish”, while Australian architecture critic Elizabeth Farrelly agreed that the “depth and mystery” of the original gothic cathedral should be preserved.
Professor Paul Walker from the University of Melbourne and Australian architectural writer Justine Clark added to the debate by saying reconstruction should be “given serious consideration”, but called on Anglican leaders to think more carefully about their options.
An online poll conducted by The Press found that, as of this morning, 30.6 per cent back the restoration option, 24.2 per cent are for the traditional redesign and 39.6 per cent approve of the contemporary proposal, while 5.6 per cent of voters say they want something else.
Above: photo by Searlo
Christchurch’s mayor Bob Parker backed the contemporary option, saying it “points us to where we need to be thinking as a city” while its lower costs and shorter estimated completion time also worked in its favour.
“I love the idea of something new. I think it’s about looking forward rather than looking back, and this design helps with that,” he said.
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has meanwhile designed a transitional cathedral for the city made from an A-shaped frame of cardboard tubes, which is due to be completed this spring.
Above: Shigeru Ban’s cardboard cathedral, photo by Shigeru Ban Architects
Earlier this year we featured a spiralling titanium-clad church completed in northern Norway and a proposal for a chapel in Miami shaped like a flowing gown – see all churches on Dezeen.
Images are by Warren & Mahoney except where stated.
The post Critics reject “clumsy” proposals for
earthquake-hit Christchurch cathedral appeared first on Dezeen.
A group of disused grain silos near Christchurch in New Zealand are being fitted out as motel rooms.
New Zealand studio F3 Design came up with the concept of reusing the industrial structures, which were used to store feed for farm animals.
Once complete, the Silo Stay motel will provide eight two-bedroom suites, one family unit and a manager’s room.
Each suite will be two storeys high and will have a glazed roof, as well as a kitchen and living room.
A wood pellet boiler inside a separate silo will heat all of the rooms.
F3 Design propose that grain silos could also be reused in cities as offices or information centres.
Another strange hotel room recently featured on Dezeen is the Sleepbox, where airport passengers can take a short nap – see all our stories about hotels here.
Here’s a project description from F3 Design:
Silo Stay Little River
Traditionally grain silos are found in the country filled with feed, surrounded by a distinct waft of, er, farm animals; however ‘Silo Stay’ based in Little River, Banks Peninsula is going against the grain. In this instance, proprietary grain silos are being used as individual motel units as part of an innovative, eco- friendly and affordable accommodation complex.
Silo Stay Little River has eight single units each sleeping two people, an accessible/family unit and a managers unit which will be erected to complete this exciting project. Visionary and founder of this project, Stuart Wright-Stow and his design team, F3 Design, are passionate about environmental sustainability so have designed an energy unit which houses a gravity fed wood pellet boiler to heat the complex. This sits within its own custom designed silo with glazed panels so you can see the energy in the making.
Each two storey unit is 8.7 metres high. The peak has a glazed lid allowing a glimpse of the night sky while relaxing in bed. Upstairs houses a queen sized bed and ensuite while downstairs has a kitchen and living area.
Silo Stay Little River is an exciting project that opens avenues for further ventures . The vision and ingenuity of this design is its versatility of uses in areas which are not necessarily accommodation complexes. These individual units or the larger family complex can be used in a myriad of situations and locations. For example, these units can easily become inner city offices, batches for secluded hideaways, home and office situations, sleep-outs, information centres, accommodation facilities for conference centres, or anything else that requires a compact vessel to accommodate the many needs of both the commercial and domestic sectors.
Along with the grain silo accommodation fit-out and configuration, F3 Design and Stuart have developed drawings for inner city office complexes. If there is a vision for the Silo Units, F3 Design will work with the client to create an exciting outcome to suit anyone’s needs.
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| Farmhouse by Catrina Stewart | Oogst 1 Solo by Tjep. | Transformations by Tjep. |
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