Hasta La Ideas

News: Portuguese brothers Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus have won a competition to design a new school of architecture in the Belgian city of Tournai, with plans for a complex featuring a house-shaped entrance void.

Lisbon-based Aires Mateus saw off competition from Belgian studio Robbrecht & Daem and French firm Lacaton & Vassal to win the commission to create a 7000-square-metre architecture faculty for 600 students at the Catholic University of Louvain.

Located within the city’s historic quarter, the project will involve renovating an eighteenth-century hospital to accommodate administrative services as well as converting two industrial buildings to create space for classrooms and a library.

The architects also plan to demolish some existing buildings, making room for a tree-lined courtyard and a new structure that will serve as the spine of the complex.

Weaving between the renovated blocks, the new building will link different departments and provide a distinctive entrance. According to the architects, it will make contact with the existing brick volumes in as few places as possible.

“The design evokes the existing iconography in the architectural heritage of Tournai,” said the architects.

“Its geometry causes various urban plazas and produces a large interior space which will house all academic activities, as well as establishing a close collaboration with the community,” they added.

Work is set to begin on the project later this year and students are expected to start occupying the facility in 2015.

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with a house-shaped entrance appeared first on Dezeen.

Thom Mayne’s Los Angeles firm Morphosis has completed a new Hollywood campus for arts school Emerson College where a rectangular frame surrounds a curvaceous cluster of classrooms (+ slideshow).

Situated in the heart of the entertainment industry on Sunset Boulevard, Emerson College Los Angeles will accommodate over 200 undergraduate students from the renowned creative arts and communication school based in Boston, Massachusetts.

The building’s frame-like outer volume accommodates ten storeys of student housing, while the curving central sections contain teaching facilities and staff administration, amidst a series of terraces and connecting bridges.

“The building is designed to expand the interactive, social aspect of education,” said Thom Mayne. “We focused on creating with the broader community in mind – both in terms of public space and sustainable design.”

The east and west-facing sides of the building feature glazed curtain walls and are screened by an intelligent shading system where horizontal fins angle open or closed to suit changes in light, temperature and the angle of the sun.

Rigging and audio-visual equipment are also incorporated into the facade’s metal framework, accommodating various outdoor performances and events.

“The entire building becomes a stage set for student films, screenings and industry events, with the Hollywood sign, the city of Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean in the distance providing added scenery,” said the design team.

Teaching areas and workspaces within the facility include video-editing suites, computer laboratories, a film screening room, sound mixing suites, and live performance spaces. There’s also a green wall at the north-west corner.

Photography is by Iwan Baan.

Here’s a design statement from Morphosis:

Emerson College Los Angeles

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Emerson is renowned for its communication and arts curriculum. Located in the heart of Hollywood, Emerson College Los Angeles (ELA) defines the college’s identity in the centre of the entertainment industry and the second largest city in the United States. The new facility establishes a permanent home on Sunset Boulevard for Emerson College’s existing undergraduate internship program that will extend the ELA experience to students studying in any of the seven disciplines that are offered through the School of Communication and the School of the Arts. Additionally, ELA will offer post-graduate, certificate, and professional study programs. The new facility will also host workshops, lectures, and other events to engage with alumni and the LA community.

Bringing student housing, instructional facilities, and administrative offices to one location, ELA condenses the diversity of a college campus into an urban site. Evoking the concentrated energy of East-Coast metropolitan centres in an iconic Los Angeles setting, a rich dialogue emerges between students’ educational background and their professional futures.

Fundamental to the Emerson Los Angeles experience, student living circumstances give structure to the overall building. Housing up to 217 students, the domestic zones frame a dynamic core dedicated to creativity, learning, and social interaction. Composed of two slender residential towers connected by a helistop, the 10-storey square frame encloses a central open volume to create a flexible outdoor “room”.

A sculpted form housing classrooms and administrative offices weaves through the void, defining multi-level terraces and active interstitial spaces that foster informal social activity and creative cross-pollination. Looking out onto the multi-level terrace, exterior corridors to student suites and common rooms are shaded by an undulating, textured metal scrim spanning the full height of the towers’ interior face.

Looking to the local context, the centre finds a provocative precedent in the interiority of Hollywood film studios, where outwardly regular facades house flexible, fantastical spaces within. With rigging for screens, media connections, sound, and lighting incorporated into the facade’s metal framework, this dynamic visual backdrop also serves as a flexible armature for outdoor performances. The entire building becomes a stage set for student films, screenings, and industry events, with the Hollywood sign, the city of Los Angeles, and the Pacific Ocean in the distance providing added scenery.

Anticipated to achieve a LEED Gold rating, the new centre champions Emerson’s commitment to both sustainable design and community responsibility. Wrapping the building’s northwest corner, a green wall underscores the towers’ actively changing exterior skin. Connected to weather stations that track the local climate, temperature, and sun angle, the automated sunshade system opens and closes horizontal fins outside the high-performance glass curtain-wall to minimise heat gain while maximising daylight and views. Further green initiatives include the use of recycled and rapidly renewable building materials, installation of efficient fixtures to reduce water use by 40%, energy savings in heating and cooling through a passive valence system, and a building management and commissioning infrastructure to monitor and optimise efficiency of all systems.

The post Emerson College campus by Morphosis places
curvy classrooms within a hollow frame appeared first on Dezeen.

An orange staircase zigzags back and forth across the atrium of this science faculty building that Canadian firm Saucier + Perrotte Architectes has completed for a Quebec college (+ slideshow).

The angular staircase connects all six storeys of the Anne-Marie Edward Science Building, which was designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes at the heart of the John Abbott College campus near Montreal.

The building has a folded form that angles around an existing ginkgo tree. The main entrance is positioned inside the fold, while a diamond-shaped space at the rear accommodates the atrium and staircase.

The architects compare the staircase with the gingko, describing it as an “architectonic tree” that connects the departments of each floor, comprising physics, biology, chemistry, nursing, prehospital emergency care and biopharmaceuticals.

“The landscape flows into the foyer, becoming an interior topography, which transforms at the fulcrum of the building into a light-filled, vertical circulation space connecting the sciences,” they said.

The vibrant orange provides the only colour in an otherwise monochrome interior. Ground-floor seating areas are finished in the same colour, while a weathered steel facade at the northern end of the building echoes similar tones.

“The grand staircase and seating elements comprising the interior ‘tree’ weave these orange hues throughout the building, just as the weathered steel of the north facade and the ruddy masonry courtyard surfaces relate back to the historic campus tiles and brick,” said the architects.

Other facades are glazed with varying transparency, revealing the staircase to the rest of the campus whilst maintaining the privacy of the laboratories.

Here’s a more comprehensive description of the building from Saucier + Perrotte Architectes:

Anne-Marie Edward Science Building at John Abbott College

Located on a campus designed along Lac St-Louis in the first decade of the twentieth century, John Abbott College is home to more than 5000 post-secondary students, faculty and staff members. Its new Science Building, designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes, is a state-of-the-art facility intended to foster the interdisciplinary nature of science, collaborative study and experiments, and the need for formal and informal learning. Designed as a showcase for sustainability, the singular, iconic form promotes a variety of pedagogical approaches through flexible classrooms, laboratories, learning centres, and informal spaces where ideas can be exchanged and creative interaction can unfold.

The new building houses the College’s sciences – Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Nursing, Prehospital Emergency Care, (Paramedic), and Biopharmaceutical departments – positioning the sciences and health technologies at the heart of the John Abbott campus. Sited carefully to preserve the logic of the radial organisation that drove the initial campus planning, the new architecture becomes a node of activity on the campus.

The architecture stems from the landscape, taking cues from its context. On the site is a majestic gingko tree that was envisioned as a centrepiece for a beautiful, collegial, outdoor gathering space. The building’s form first extends from the campus centre, then folds to frame a public courtyard around this tree. The landscape flows into the foyer, becoming an interior topography, which transforms at the fulcrum of the building into a light-filled, vertical circulation space connecting the sciences. An architectonic tree, analogous to that of the adjacent gingko, this atrium space contains the grand staircase and branches that extend through the building as built-in way-finding elements and benches. The vertical link thus becomes a public interior garden, emphasising the connection between the natural environment and the type of learning that takes place within the building.

The permeable ground floor of the building permits the landscape and users to flow into and through it with ease. The project thereby functions as a hub and a passage to various parts of campus. The volume above frames views to the lake, landscape, and the town of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. Together with the labs and student spaces along the east and west facades, the learning centres situated along the south facade – directed toward the centre of campus – give students a feeling of inhabiting a virtual balcony overlooking the verdure and lake below.

The building is composed of a glass material palette – vividly reflecting the sky, landscape, and adjacent historic buildings – its angled surfaces giving new, unexpected perspectives toward various parts of the campus. Each of the long facades is predominantly composed of a single glass tone of opalescent white, light grey, or dark grey. The result is a subtle, perceptual play between the hues of the juxtaposed facades, especially as the sunlight changes throughout the day or depending where one is standing in relation to the building. The slight shifts in glass tones add to a heightened perception of the architecture; under varying lighting and shadow conditions, for instance, the facade contrasts may be accentuated or, conversely, take on a uniform tonal appearance that would be impossible if the surfaces had been the same hue.

In certain circulation zones, the building skin gradually changes from translucent to transparent, allowing the building to be perceived as continuously changing – even dematerialising – within the campus. Programmatic functions (offices, learning centres and laboratories) are given clear expression as they come into contact with the building skin so that those outside can readily identify the functions showcasing the sciences. The north and south facades of the pristine glazed form appear suddenly sliced or truncated, given over to the elements, and weathered so as to evoke the colours and textures found throughout the college. The grand staircase and seating elements comprising the interior “tree” also weave these orange hues throughout the building, just as the weathered steel of the north facade and the ruddy masonry courtyard surfaces relate back to the historic campus tiles and brick. Through its dialectic with the existing architecture, the new project is both contemporary in form and harmonious with the historic campus.

Main floor levels contain individual departments to preserve continuity between professors, classrooms and laboratories for each science, favouring work, study and quiet contemplation. The central atrium space allows easy access to other levels, fostering connection, communication, and sense of community between disciplines. Movement converges at this central node of the building, which becomes an active zone throughout the day, allowing for spontaneous exchange of ideas. Exhibitions and activities take place in the foyer, permitting students and visitors to derive benefits and inspiration from cross-disciplinary ideas.

The building has been conceived with the welfare of its occupants in mind (it is currently targeting LEED Gold certification). The first priority was to provide an environment that supports active and engaged learners and nourishes enthusiasm for life-long learning. To contribute to the healthiest environment possible, important factors such as indoor air quality and levels of noise are controlled. Natural light and natural ventilation play a vital role in the life of the building, being present throughout. Furthermore, as the building privileges views outward, occupants will remain in contact with the exterior campus landscape. The central atrium space allows natural air circulation as well as the exhausting of air at the roof level. Operable and user controlled office windows also promote a healthful environment. The building takes advantage of geothermal energy – one of its signature features – to provide heating and cooling for the building, thereby reducing energy consumption, and therefore cost, over the long term.

The post Grand orange staircase ascends through
science faculty by Saucier + Perrotte appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese practice k/o design studio has designed a bulbous silver building that adjoins a red-tiled rectilinear tower at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Kawasaki (+ slideshow).

The freeform building, called Silver Mountain, houses new rehearsal halls, while the Red Cliff tower contains offices, a faculty lounge and student lounge.

“Free 3D form Silver Mountain and rectangular Red Cliff are designed depending on functional needs to be devoted for rehearsal hall and office, and located at the pivotal point of traffic of the campus, but intended to show the powerful outline of form and contrast of silver and red,” said architect Kunihide Oshinomi of k/o design studio.

A glass canopy spans the gap between the two buildings, which provides one of three pedestrian routes to the rest of the site.

The exterior of the Silver Mountain is clad in stainless steel plates in a pattern developed using 3D surface analysis to determine the most efficient combination of standard rectilinear tiles and irregular panels used to fill the gaps.

Inside the building, the curved walls create a smooth-sided cave-like foyer which leads to a rehearsal room contained in a central concrete core.

Further rehearsals rooms are located in the basement and on the first floor and feature undulating concrete walls that improve the rooms’ acoustic properties.

A faculty lounge on the ground floor of the Red Cliff building contains boxy armchairs and a separate meeting room, and adjoins a lounge area for students. The upper four floors contain offices.

Photography is by Nacasa & Partners / Atsushi Nakamichi.

The following information is from the architects:

Silver mountain and Red cliff

First of all I wanted to avoid to be included into the category of architecture called as a ＊fragmentation or poetry dominant in Japanese cool design trend.

Therefore I intended to look back to the basic principles of architecture, which are form, space and material or colour.

Free 3D form Silver mountain and rectangular Red cliff are designed depending on functional needs to be devoted for rehearsal hall ＆ office, and located at the pivotal point of traffic of the campus, but intended to show the powerful outline of form and contrast of silver and red.

Silver mountain is carefully cladded with stainless steel plate based on precise computer simulation to maximise use of regular size plate. Red cliff is furnished as a random graphic patch-work of 3 different red colours of mosaic tiles.

Interior of Silver mountain is a purely exposure of back side of 3D free form and resulted to create spaces used for a lobby or foyer of each halls like a dramatic cave.

Rehearsal halls interior are also back side of 3D free form but flanked with exposed concrete waved wall for avoiding echo. First floor studio wall show interesting traces of the hitting pattern with this flanked wave wall and 3D free form.

Glass roofed space between mountain and cliff called as a Valley roofed with Cloud of glass is a main pedestrian root for this campus.

Location: Kanagawa prefecture, Japan
Project: Silver mountain& Red Cliff Senzoku Gakuen College of Music
Design: k/o design studio / Kunihide Oshinomi + KAJIMA DESIGN
Photo: Nacasa & Partners / Atsushi Nakamichi
Site area: 65,744,08 square metres
Building are: 1,437,59 square metres
Total floor area: 5,084,00 square metres
Structure: reinforced concrete construction
Construction period: 2012.04 – 2013.08

The post Silver dome constructed
at a Japanese music college appeared first on Dezeen.

A slatted timber concert hall bulges through the glass atrium walls of this performing arts college in Cardiff by London studio BFLS.

Above: photograph is by Joe Clark

The 450-seat timber auditorium occupies one of three new blocks at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, which adjoin an existing building on the park-side site.

Above: photograph is by Joe Clark

A triple-height atrium and exhibition hall connects the separate blocks under a single metal roof.

A bridge across the foyer links the recital hall with a 180-seat theatre in a curved stone-clad block opposite.

Above: photograph is by Joe Clark

The third new block, which abuts the existing college building, houses a café and bar on the ground floor and a movement studio above.

Above: photograph is by BFLS

BFLS are best-known for designing the Strata tower in south London, which last year was awarded as the ugliest building in the UK – see our earlier Dezeen Wire here.

Above: photograph is by BFLS

Photography is by Nick Guttridge, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from BFLS:

Transformed Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama opens its doors to students

The newly completed Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff – Wales’ national music and drama conservatoire – opens to a new intake of students this month.

Above: photograph is by Joe Clark

Won in international competition in 2007, the scheme comprises an acoustically excellent 450‐seat chamber recital hall (the ‘Dora Stoutzker Hall’), a 180‐ seat theatre (the ‘Richard Burton Theatre’), four rehearsal studios, an exhibition gallery (the ‘Linbury Gallery’) as well as generous foyer areas, a terrace overlooking Bute Park and a new Café Bar.

The £22.5m project is funded by a grant from the Welsh Government, loan finance and £4m of philanthropic donations. The scheme has been designed to be BREEAM ‘excellent’.

The new buildings are situated within the Grade I listed Bute Park. Directly across the road from the new building is Cathays Park, the civic centre of Cardiff, consisting of a number of important listed buildings.

As Jason Flanagan, Project Director explains: ‘Our approach was two‐fold, to design the internal performance spaces from the ‘inside out’, looking at their acoustic and theatrical functionality as major drivers, whilst in parallel designing from the ‘outside in’, thinking about the civic presence of the building in its urban context.’

Above: photograph is by Joe Clark

Hilary Boulding, RWCMD Principal, adds: ‘These new facilities have completely transformed the College. They have inspired our staff and students, and provided us with the very best facilities in which to train our talented young artists and arts practitioners.

Above: photograph is by Joe Clark

Furthermore, the new development is rapidly becoming a major new landmark in Wales’ capital city, attracting new audiences to the College and in doing so, helping to significantly raise our profile.’

The design focuses on the core needs of the College community, namely an acoustically impressive sequence of performance and learning spaces which will encourage and inspire the College’s students.

Above: photograph is by Joe Clark

The client was very specific from the outset that the new buildings should act as a catalyst for positive cultural change and help foster greater artistic collaboration across the institution.

Above: photograph is by Joe Clark

Although the building appears to be a single structure it is in fact three separate new buildings and a renovated existing structure. Each performance space has been conceived separately, the individual components of the building united under a single floating roof, its height determined by the theatre fly‐tower.

The drama building forms a new façade on North Road while the chamber recital hall, clad with a timber screen consisting of light‐coloured cedar wood slats, sits amongst the park’s mature trees. Finishes of stone and timber create a sequence of warm and tactile interior spaces.

Above: photograph is by Joe Clark

The new entrance to the college opens out onto Bute Park and a treble‐height arcade forms a new spine between the new and old accommodation, linking the constituent elements, functioning as exhibition space for a range of creative and artistic output.

The Gallery also acts as the ‘lungs’ for the scheme, creating a natural stack effect which ventilates the public spaces.

Project details
Area: 4,400 m2
Status: Completed 2011
Value: £22.5 million

Above: photograph is by Joe Clark

Team
Client: Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama
BFLS team: Jason Flanagan, Paul Bavister, Jason Sandy, Anne Heucke, Kibwe Tavares, Armando Elias
Acoustic Engineer: Arup Acoustics
Structural & Services Engineer: Mott MacDonald
Lighting Consultant: Equation Lighting
Theatre Consultant: Theatre Projects Consultants
Cost Consultant: Davis Langdon

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See also:

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High School #9 by Coop Himmelb(l)au	Tour des Arts by Forma 6	New World Centre by Frank Gehry