A sequence of arches creates topsy-turvy openings and curvy doorways through the spaces of this art gallery in Beijing by design collective Penda (+ slideshow).
Vienna and Beijing firm Penda refurbished the Hongkung Art Gallery and Art Arcadion on the outskirts of the city, providing a new reception area where curved openings of different sizes guide visitors through to the existing exhibition rooms.
The curves begin at the building’s entrance and continue around the space to create arches of different sizes and alternating orientations.
“As a visual effect, we chose the arch as an inviting and welcoming gesture,” architect Chris Precht told Dezeen. “In combination with the counter-arch, it has the appearance of a continuous ribbon.”
The designers based the forms on the mountains and valleys depicted in typical Chinese landscape paintings, tying in with the artworks that comprise the gallery’s main exhibition.
“Multiple arches altering in size and orientation create a continuous, gentle curve, which becomes a sculptural interpretation of the landscape paintings that are exhibited in the gallery,” said Precht.
A new monolithic facade forms the building’s entrance. Inside, the arched openings frame an information desk, cloakroom and a staircase shielded behind translucent glass.
Ground floor galleries are located just beyond and focus on well-known Chinese artists, while the floor above caters for themed temporary exhibitions. A special exhibition hall is located in the basement and the mezzanine level is reserved for gallery employees.
Most spaces in the building have clean white walls, designed to allow visitors to focus on the artworks.
Photography is by Xia Zhi.
Here’s a project description from penda:
Hongkung Art Gallery / Art Arcadion
Located on the southern 3rd ring road in Beijing, the white exterior of the Hongkun Art Gallery works a sculptural focal point for the area.
Entering the gallery through an opening in the monolithic facade, the arch-like curves continue to the interior and gently merge into a clean white space for exhibiting the artworks.
The open areas in the gallery offer a wide space for themed exhibition, while the gently curved entrance part draws people into the space and guides them naturally further into the gallery.
The solid expression of the exterior continually merges with a carved out interior and increases the sculptural appearance of the gallery. Multiple arches altering in size and orientation create a continuous, gentle curve which becomes a sculptural interpretation of the landscape paintings, that are exhibited in the gallery.
Within the arches, the entrance sculpture inhabits an information desk, a coatroom and the main circulation staircase, which guides visitors to the basement with a special exhibition hall and employees to the office area located on the mezzanine level.
Project: HK Art Gallery Architects: penda Project location: Beijing, China
Design concept
Project area: 2000sqm on 2 floors Project started: End of October 2013 Gallery opened: beginning of December 2013
Italian architect Andrea Dragoni has extended a cemetery in an ancient Italian town by adding rows of monumental travertine walls with public plazas and artworks slotted in between (+ slideshow).
Andrea Dragoni was tasked with adding a new tract to the historic Gubbio necropolis, which is located just outside the town at the base of Mount Ingino in the Apennines.
The towering stone walls are laid out in sequence, intended by the architect to reflect the linear arrangement of the old town and its surrounding landscape.
“The contrast between void and solid resumes the rhythms found in the medieval town of Gubbio,” Dragoni told Dezeen. “The voids in this composition, as in many of my projects, play a central role. They become architecture with a strong poetic and spiritual reaction.”
Four equally sized courtyards are positioned at intervals between the walls. Italian artists Sauro Cardinali and Nicola Renzi created large site-specific artworks to occupy each one, plus large square skylights were added to frame views up to the sky.
“These spaces were inspired by James Turrell’s Skyspaces and are designed to be enjoyable public areas, independent from the cemetery, offering an opportunity to pause and reflect,” said the architect.
“The sky thus framed opens the mind to the reign of the invisible, allowing sight and thought to abandon Mother Earth’s gravity and acquire a more aerial and spiritual dimension,” he added.
Walls and floors are made from travertine – a form of limestone typically used in Italian architecture – and contrast with the brick structures of the original complex that can be spotted through one of the central corridors.
“Travertine was used by the Etruscans for all the most important public buildings of the Renaissance,” said Dragoni. “It is a tribute to this tradition that I wanted to reinterpret the material to emphasise the gravity of the volumes of the cemetery and their strong abstraction.”
Photography is by Alessandra Chemollo, apart from where otherwise stated.
Read on for a project description from Andrea Dragoni:
Extension of Gubbio Cemetery
The enlargement of the Gubbio cemetery is the result of studies of a new model of public building. On the one hand, it has developed the latest phase of growth of the monumental cemetery in Gubbio, one of Italy’s most important medieval cities. On the other hand, it intends to redefine its meaning and centrality within the structure of the city.
The plan is in an urban structure consisting of linear stereometric blocks arranged in such a way as to reflect the rural layouts that characterise the surrounding landscape and the historic city.
This concept of urban settlement is emphasised by the inclusion of large square enclosures designed to be open spaces that provide the structure with spatial rhythm.
These spaces were inspired by James Turrell’s Skyspaces and are designed to be enjoyable public areas, independently from the cemetery, offering an opportunity to pause and reflect. These are cubic “squares of silence” having open ceilings that evoke windows open to the sky. The sky thus framed opens the mind to the reign of the invisible, allowing sight and thought to abandon Mother Earth’s gravity and acquire a more aerial and spiritual dimension.
Photograph by Massimo Marini
This relationship with the sky intends to define space that is also time, in such a way that you can find yourself again, a space that thrusts the horizon upwards like a metaphor of the boundaries of heaven, the last horizon of our life in a modern city.
At the same time, opening to the sky, it re-interprets Leon Battista Alberti’s window, a window that is like a threshold, imagined by the great Renaissance architect as the only architectural artifice able to “instil the peacefulness” evoked by the celestial void that, descending from above, takes us back to the imperturbable state of the soul without which overcoming the adversities of life is impossible.
The atmosphere of these “squares of silence” is made more suggestive by a series of permanent site-specific artistic installations that capture the changing effects of light and shadow from dawn to dusk. These installations were created by two important Italian artists (Sauro Cardinali and Nicola Renzi), with whom collaboration began during the initial stage of the project.
Photograph by Massimo Marini
This contribution, strongly linked with architecture, helps to define a new space for silence and meditation within the city.
William Richard Lethaby said that human beings cannot understand the world as a whole. They must first move away from it, and only after having achieved this detachment can they achieve understanding.
In this sense a building can be seen as a model of the world; it represents an order we cannot directly experience in the world, but at the same time it makes perceptible, within the limits of a building, that which exists in the world.
Photograph by Massimo Marini
Project: Andrea Dragoni, with Francesco Pes Collaborators: Andrea Moscetti Castellani, Giorgio Bettelli, Michela Donini, Raul Cambiotti, Antonio Ragnacci, Cristian Cretaro, Matteo Scoccia Client: Comune di Gubbio Site-specific art work: Sauro Cardinali, Nicola Renzi Structural design: Giuseppe Artegiani, Marco Bacchi Plants Design: Italprogetti (Moreno Dorillo, Elvisio Regni) Safety coordination: Claudio Pannacci Director of works: Francesco Pes, Paolo Bottegoni Maquette: Giuseppe Fioroni
Bright red walls contrast with vivid green lawns at this art and culture centre in Portugal by Lisbon architecture firm Future Architecture Thinking (+ slideshow).
Located in the town of Miranda do Corvo, Casa das Artes is made of three differently sized volumes that are painted red all over to help the building stand out as much as possible from its surroundings.
Asymmetric roof profiles were intended by Future Architecture Thinking to correspond with the angular rooftops of nearby houses, as well as with the irregular geometries of the distant Lousã Mountains.
“The proposal is based on a contemporary language that is structurally very strong through the continuity between the facades and the roof,” said the architects.
“The slopes of the roof look for identification with the city rooftops and the use of the strong colour is intended to create a building which is immediately recognisable by the public,” they added.
A chimney-like skylight stretches up beyond the roof, drawing evening sunlight from the west down to a covered terrace at the building’s entrance.
The largest of the three volumes accommodates the stage of a 300-seat auditorium, while seating extends back into a second block positioned behind.
This block also contains the auditorium foyer, which doubles up as a split-level gallery for temporary exhibitions, while an independent cafe is housed in the third and smallest block.
Read on for more information from Future Architecture Thinking:
Casa das Artes in Miranda do Corvo
The Casa das Artes (House of the Arts) in Miranda do Corvo expresses the meeting between two identities, rural and urban, in a landscape marked by the Lousã Mountains.
The building features a contemporary and volumetrically expressive language. The sloping roofs establish a dialogue with the geometry of the mountain landscape, in an analogy to the village rooftops. The dynamism achieved through the continuity between facades and roof is accented by a strong red colour, emphasising its design and highlighting the building through the surrounding landscaped area vegetation.
More than a building, the Casa das Artes pretends to be an iconic landmark, celebrating the place where people meet, where culture and art happens, a space capable of promoting and stimulating creative activity, increasing the population quality of life.
The project was conceived by creating versatile spaces, technically suitable for different kinds of events, in order to serve all segments of the population.
The deployment area was optimised to favour landscaped spaces, allowing the creation of an amphitheatre for outdoor events, integrated in a garden which is a public space for the village, with several spaces and inviting pathways for leisure.
The building consists of three volumes reflecting different sorts of use: the first one containing the stage areas, the second comprising the audience and foyer, and the third with a cafeteria and a future museum area, which constitute a visually independent volume.
The proposed diversity of accesses for the building attempts to emphasise the characterisation of this site as a public space, while allowing the public direct access of specific places, such as the museum area and cafeteria, independently, without passing through the auditorium.
The main entrance is through the foyer. This space may function as exhibition area which can be divided into two by a short flight of stairs. From here depart two paths to an auditorium for nearly 300 people, with a motorised orchestra pit and six technical levels, properly equipped for holding theatre performances, opera, concerts, conferences or lectures.
The cafeteria can operate independently from the rest of the building, or even serve as an entrance point providing access to the auditorium. This space has a covered terrace with a skylight oriented west, channelling sunset light into its interior. The terrace area gives access to a multimedia room. The facade of the museum area is facing the northern part of the garden where one of the main entries is located and the outdoor amphitheatre.
Client: Municipality of Miranda do Corvo Location: Miranda do Corvo, Portugal Area: 2.360 sqm
Architect: FAT – Future Architecture Thinking Project Team: Architect Miguel Correia, Architect Cláudia Campos, Architect Sérgio Catita, Architect Patrícia de Carvalho, Architect Miguel Cabral, Architect Margarida Magro, Architect Sara Gonçalves, Architect Telmo Maia, Architect Gabriel Santos, Architect Hilário Abril, Engineer José Pico, Landscape Architect Sara Távora Builder: TECNORÉM – Engenharia e Construções, S.A. Year: 2010/2013
Danish architects COBE and Transform have completed an aluminium-clad museum of maritime history in Norway with a zigzagging profile modelled on the shapes of local wooden buildings (+ slideshow).
Located south-west of Oslo in the harbourside town of Porsgrunn, the Maritime Museum and Exploratorium was designed by COBE and Transform to relate to the scale of its surroundings, which include a number of small wooden residences and warehouses.
Photograph by Rasmus Hjortshøj
The architects broke the volume of the building down into eleven blocks, with asymmetric roofs that pitch in different directions. Combined, these shapes give a zigzagging roofline to each elevation.
Photograph by Rasmus Hjortshøj
“We wanted to understand the area’s characteristics and then we wanted to strengthen it but at the same time create something new and contrasting,” said COBE founder and director Dan Stubbergaard. “The abrupt building structure of downscaled building volumes and the expressive roof profile are, for example, clear references to the area’s historic small wooden buildings, which all have their own particular roof profiles.”
Photograph by Rasmus Hjortshøj
“This interpretation of the area’s pitched roofs and small wooden building entities sets the final frame for a unique and characteristic contemporary building,” he added.
Aluminium shingles give a scaly surface to the outer walls and roof of the museum, and pick up reflections from the river that runs alongside.
Opening today, the museum’s exhibition galleries chart the town’s maritime history and tell the story of its dockyard industry.
A grand staircase leads visitors up to a large exhibition hall on the first floor, while smaller galleries and events rooms are housed on the ground floor.
Transform principal Lars Bendrup said he hopes that the building will help to revitalise the formerly industrial section of the town.
“Our general vision was to turn a backside into a frontside,” he said. “With the new museum, the town will now orientate itself towards the beautiful river that for much too long has been Porsgrunn’s industrial backside.”
Photography is by Adam Mørk, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here’s a project description from COBE and Transform:
Porsgrunn Maritime Museum and Exploratorium
Today is the grand opening of a new spectacular Maritime Museum and Exploratorium in the Norwegian town Porsgrunn. The building is designed by the Danish architects COBE and TRANSFORM, and has already, before the opening, become an architectural landmark of the town.
From backside to frontside
Porsgrunn Maritime Museum and Exploratorium is situated in the Norwegian town of Porsgrunn, 100 km south west of Oslo. The new museum will tell the story of the town’s dock yard industry and its maritime history, which has employed thousands of people from the whole region. In addition, the attractive location of the museum right on the riverside opens up an important process for the city concerning the future extensive urban renewal of the entire Porsgrunn Harbour area.
“Porsgrunn is an industrial town, which is reflected clearly in the museum’s surrounding context. It consists of small to medium sized industries in the shape of small characteristic wooden buildings. It was important to create a museum with a high level of sensitivity towards these surroundings, yet at the same time for the new Maritime Museum and Exploratorium to stand out as a spectacular contemporary building and become a landmark of Porsgrunn,” Lars Bendrup explains, owner of TRANSFORM, and continues: “Our general vision was to turn a backside into a frontside. With the new museum the town will now orientate itself towards the beautiful river, which for much too long has been Porsgrunn’s industrial backside.”
New meets old
The new Maritime Museum and Exploratorium is composed of eleven smaller square volumes, together amounting to almost 2,000 m2. Each volume has a different roof slant that assembled make up a varied roof structure. A characteristic aluminium facade, locally produced in Porsgrunn, not only holds the dynamic building structure together, but at the same time it reflects light and colours from the surrounding Norwegian mountain landscape.
Dan Stubbergaard, founder and creative director of COBE, elaborates: “It is a sensitive art adding new to old in a historic area. First of all we wanted to understand the area’s characteristics and then we wanted to strengthen it but at the same time create something new and contrasting. The abrupt building structure of downscaled building volumes and the expressive roof profile are for example clear references to the area’s historic small wooden buildings, which all have their own particular roof profiles. This interpretation of the area’s pitched roofs and small wooden building entities sets the final frame for a unique and characteristic contemporary building.”
He continues: “The goal was to create a house that not only understands and shows consideration for its surroundings, but also contributes with something radically new and different.”
Porsgrunn Maritime Museum and Exploratorium Porsgrunn, Norway Client: Telemark Museum Architects: COBE and TRANSFORM Engineers: Sweco Gross area: 2.000 m2 Construction period: 2011-2013 Total construction costs: 34 mio.
The new Museum Luthers Sterbehaus by Stuttgart architects Von M is a grey-brick extension to the house where Martin Luther died – but it turns out the Christian reformer “actually died in another building around the corner” (+ slideshow + photos by Zooey Braun).
The “death house” museum extends a late-Gothic house in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the town of Eisleben, Germany, that centres around the life of Luther, a key protagonist in the reform of Christianity in the sixteenth century.
Until recently the house was believed to be the place of Luther’s death, so Von M was commissioned to restore the house to its sixteenth-century appearance as part of a larger project to convert the site into a museum dedicated to the life of the man and the history of the reformation.
“Today we know it isn’t the building where Martin Luther died; it was a mistake and he actually died in another building around the corner that doesn’t exist any more,” Von M’s Dennis Mueller told Dezeen.
“As it was the building for thinking of Martin Luther, it is still seen as the Luther Sterbehaus [Luther’s Death House],” he added. “We still see the old building as not only a space for exhibitions, but as one of the most important parts of the exhibition. It’s an exhibit itself.”
The two-storey extension is located behind the old house and is constructed from pale grey bricks that were cut using jets of water to create an uneven texture.
“The colour of the bricks was especially chosen for the project so that the facade chimes together with the materials of the old building,” said Mueller.
The main entrance can be found at the rear of the site, leading visitors through to exhibition galleries and events rooms with exposed concrete walls and ceilings.
A ramped corridor slopes down to meet the slightly lower level of the old house, which has been completely restored.
The museum adds a rear extension to the historic building thought to have been Martin Luther’s “death house” – photograph by Dennis Mueller
Here’s some extra information from Von M:
Museum Luthers Sterbehaus
The building which is one of the UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites was extensively renovated and extended by a new building into a museum complex showing a permanent exhibition as well as exhibitions presenting diverse and specific aspects and topics.
The basic principle for the restoration of the building were the historically documented reconstructions by Friedrich August Ritter in 1868 and Friedrich Wanderer in 1894.
The relocation of the main entrance and all other important functional rooms into the new building made it possible to largely preserve the existing basic structure of the old building.
Because of its clear cubature and structure, the new building that is connected to the existing one expresses itself in a self-conscious and contemporary speech, still it subordinates itself under the existing and its environment conditioned by the materiality of its facade as well as the differentiation of the single parts of the building in dimension and height.
Because of the mutual integration of the new and the existing building a significant and impressing round tour through the museum rooms has been developed – a tour that confronts the visitor with a diversity of aspects and themes of the permanent exhibition “Luthers letzter Weg”.
News: Danish firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen has won a competition to design a theatre and cultural centre in Hjørring, Denmark, with plans for a series of buildings clad in Corten steel (+ slideshow).
The development will be made up of several rectilinear blocks, with walls of Corten steel and glass intended to fit in with the brick and plaster facades that typify the town’s architecture.
“We have designed a project where the architectural and functional concept has five main themes: integration in the city, openness, functionality, flexibility and materiality,” said architect John Foldbjerg Lassen, who is one of the founding partners of Schmidt Hammer Lassen.
“We have designed a significant building which relates to its function in a pragmatic way,” he added. “It invites both active use and quiet breaks. It is a building that radiates its cultural meaning – it dares to be different, without stealing the focus from the existing qualities in the city.”
The architects propose an open-plan layout that will allow corridors to be repurposed as backstage facilities.
“The open plan ensures a high level of flexibility in the building, and only your imagination sets the limit for where and how the theatre productions can take place,” said architect Rasmus Kierkegaard.
“Actors and staff are visible to the visitors in the building, and the building will appear vibrant even with only a few persons present,” he added.
Here’s some more information from Schmidt Hammer Lassen:
Schmidt Hammer Lassen architects wins competition for Vendsyssel Theatre and Experience Centre
As part of a team, schmidt hammer lassen architects has won the competition to design Vendsyssel Theatre and Experience Centre in Hjørring, Denmark. With this 4,200 square metre building, Hjørring gains a vibrant cultural hub in which to feature the city’s various cultural activities. The winning design was submitted by a team including schmidt hammer lassen architects, Arkitektfirmaet Finn Østergaard, Brix & Kamp, ALECTIA, Gade & Mortensen Akustik, AIX Arkitekter, Filippa Berglund scenography, and LIW Planning.
The architectural ambition for the new Theatre and Experience Centre has been to create a building which blends into the surrounding environment while standing out as a new, vibrant organism in the city.
The Theatre and Experience Centre consists of a complex of buildings – a city within the city. Its characteristic corten steel façade, with its warm rusty red colours, corresponds well with the area’s existing plaster and brick façades; thereby creating an aesthetic whole between the city, the front plaza and the theatre building. A vibrant building with a glimpse of the backstage.
Inside, an open plan solution ensures visual and physical connections across the building. The boundaries between publicly accessible areas and the more traditional theatre functions are blurred. In the building layout special attention has been paid to making sure that all functions can operate optimally. At the same time many areas can be joined and the circulation areas can be used as backstage facilities.
Completion of Vendsyssel Theatre and Experience Centre is expected in 2016.
Architects: schmidt hammer lassen architects and Arkitektfirmaet Finn Østergaard A/S Client: Municipality of Hjørring, Realdania Area: 4,200m² Construction cost: €16.5 million excl. VAT Competition: 2013, 1st prize in restricted competition Full-service consultant: schmidt hammer lassen architects Engineer: Brix & Kamp A/S and ALECTIA A/S Landscape architect: LIW Planning Aps Other consultants: Gade & Mortensen Akustik A/S, AIX Arkitekter AB, Filippa Berglund, scenograf, arkitekt maa
Thatching covers both the walls and roof of this wildlife museum and research centre in Beautour, France (+ slideshow).
Designed by French studio Guinée*Potin Architectes, the Centre Beautour is located in the former grounds of biologist Georges Durand (1886-1964), who spent his career studying the birds, insects, plants and mammals that he found during travels across France, Africa and the Pyrenees.
The architects have renovated the existing three-storey house and extended it by adding a single-storey structure with a thatched exterior. They also developed a landscape strategy for the grounds, intended to create a diverse local ecosystem.
“The project is neither a theme park, nor an ornamental garden,” they explained. “This really is a site-specific project, inspired by the local biodiversity, the topography and the other qualities that are proper to Beautour.”
Thatching made from reeds was chosen for the exterior of the new building, as a reference to a traditional construction technique in the Vendée region.
“The choice of thatched skin allows a contrast with Durand’s mansion,” architect Hervé Potin told Dezeen. “The building grows organically, embracing the mansion and spreading out to the site without overthrowing the natural order.”
The building is raised off the ground on wooden pillars, reducing its impact on the landscape and allowing space underneath for a shallow pond.
“Making the building rise up the ground allows the biodiversity to stay in place,” said the architect. “The project slowly lifts up to unveil the pond hosting frogs and herons.”
A wooden ramp leads visitors into both the new and old parts of the complex. While the old house accommodates research laboratories and events spaces, the new wing contains permanent and temporary exhibition spaces.
A prefabricated timber frame gives the building its structure and is left exposed inside, including within a triple-height lobby that offers seating areas for visitors.
Here’s a project description from Guinée*Potin Architectes:
Museum & Biodiversity Centre
Main idea of Beautour centre is to glorify the historical Georges Durand’s mansion (a Vendean naturalist, 1886 – 1964) who got important collections. Man of rights, he quickly developed a passion for natural sciences. For 70 years, he collected plants and insects from all over Europe, with the help of his friends and fellow scientists. This is how he has been able to collect nearly 5,000 birds, 150,000 butterflies and insects, and numerous herbariums. Thus almost all 4,500 species of the french flora are hereby represented.
Context
The project aims to develop educational and scientific supports themed on biodiversity, as well as a management strategy and evolution prospectives for the whole area. Beyond the thematic gardens, composting, and using rainwater for watering, that are some obvious actions, the project aims to help new forms of biodiversity to regenerate this site, abandoned for 30 years.
Some plots of land have reached a state of «climax», and the global intervention presents two alternatives : either an integral preservation, either a minimal intervention that could engage a new natural diversification. Some other plots, on the contrary, have been maintained in a state of biological poverty due to frequent mowing and pasture. These ones could use a higher level of interventionism, in order for a new ecosystem to settle on a long term basis.
Biodiversity
The Museum & Biodiversity research centre tries to find a right balance between light actions, preserving the biodiversity already on site, and other stronger actions, creating a positive impact on the biological diversity. Thus the project is neither a theme park, nor an ornamental garden.
This really is a site-specific project, inspired by the local biodiversity, the topography, and the other qualities that are proper to Beautour. The visit itinerary is drawn by this logic, scientific purpose leading the visitor down to the fields and the valley, where the wild nature meets both Beautour historical and newly designed gardens and meadows.
Architectural project
In a very present landscaped green setting, the project takes on a strong identity, re-interpreting a traditional technique in a contemporary and innovative way, by adopting a thatched skin, that entirely covers both walls and roof of the building. The competition renderings display the natural ageing of the material, fading to grey tones and shades changing as the seasons pass by.
As a compact shape would have vied with Mr Durand’s mansion, the building grows organic, embracing the mansion, surrounding it and spreading on the site without overthrowing the natural order. Solid raw chestnut tree trunks also confuse the overall image of the mimetic project. The building, as a branch laying on the ground, is a ‘piece of built landscape’, a ‘new geography’ completing the natural scenography.
Making the building rise up the ground allows the biodiversity to stay in place and minimises the impact of foundation works. The project slowly lifts up to unveil the pond hosting frogs and herons. The technical facilities annex is painted black and houses locker-rooms and a wood-fired boiler. A pedagogical greenhouse stands next to it at the entrance of the site.
Global approach : how to combine bioclimatic design and contextual approach
A bioclimatic approach seems obvious considering the program (environment and biodiversity are the leitmotiv words), and would concentrate on being as compact as possible, in order to prevent thermic loss.
But in the context of Beautour, where the mansion (even in ruins) stands quite impressive from the first visits, it has been chosen not to go in this way and add a second massive building, but instead to design a stretched shape, laying on over 100 meters.
From our point of view, this contextual approach compensates the ideal of the bioclimatic shape, and follows these principles: – Light impact on the surroundings by using natural thatch and raising the building on stilts, lowering the impact of foundation works – Solar south façade, generously open on the landscape, and circulations concentrated on the north side – Maximal in-factory prefabrication phase, allowing a clean construction site and a low environmental disturbance
Structure & materiality
Given the will to protect the existing ground and minimise concrete foundations, the extension is built on a prefabricated timber frame, allowing a control during the fabrication with high precision assembly techniques, and a high internal flexibility in the future. The use of a composite timber-concrete floor compensates for the low inertia of the timber structure. Heath is kept inside in winter, but the thatched roofs and walls (35cm on roofs, 25cm on walls) prevents its penetration in summer.
Concerning the existing mansion, it is rehabilitated in a patrimonial way: restoration of all windows, floors and timber frame, exterior walls are coated with a light grey lime plaster. Inside the mansion, existing floors have been conserved and original cement tiles have been relocated and mixed with contemporary pieces to create an ambiguousness on what is and what has been.
Orientation
On the south façade, the pronounced thatch overhang, in association with the existing deciduous trees hedge, prevent from overheating during summer, and provides a visual comfort all year long. In the restored building, the width of the walls and the insulation panels (90 cm combined) and the position of the windows (aligned with the insulation) create a solar protection from direct sunlight during summer months.
Program: Museum & Biodiversity research centre Address: Le Bourg-sous-la-Roche, Beautour, La Roche sur Yon Client: Région des Pays de la Loire Architect in charge: Agence GUINEE*POTIN Architectes Design team: Anne-Flore Guinée et Hervé Potin architectes; Solen Nico chef de projet Landscape design: Guillaume Sevin Paysages Scenography: BLOCK Architectes Graphic design: WARMGREY Museographic content: Stéphanie VINCENT Engineering: ISATEG (structure / fluides), ITAC (acoustique) Area: 2057m2 Cost: 5000000€HT
Israeli studio SO Architecture added this auditorium and gallery to a hilltop war memorial in Nesher, Israel, and tilted it upwards so that it faces towards the sky (+ slideshow).
SO Architecture designed the concrete auditorium building as an extension to the existing structure, which commemorates Israeli soldiers that died in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War but previously was only used once a year on the country’s national memorial day.
The new building provides a community hall for events, film screenings and other activities, as well as an exhibition gallery charting the history of the site, which served as a guarding post during the war.
The exhibition space, called the Remembrance Gallery, is filled with photographs of fallen soldiers. These cover boxes installed along the walls, where victims’ families can store items that preserve the memories of their loved ones.
In the auditorium, rows of ascending timber bleachers provide seating, while a large window fills the space with light and offers a view out over nearby Haifa Bay.
Dark grey paint covers the exterior of the extension, uniting it with the existing memorial. A concrete plaque adorns the side of the old tower, and a golden Star of David is positioned at the top.
“The concrete relief was made in the 1950s by the artist Michael Kare as part of the transformation of the building from guarding post to a memorial,” added the architects.
Stepped landscaping and a viewing platform have been added to the south of the site, joining an existing limestone square and a children’s playground.
Here’s a project description from SO Architecture:
Nesher Memorial
Nesher Memorial was built on a basis of an historic preservation building that was used in the past as a guarding position. In ’48 war the position’s used as protection to the residents of Giv’at Nesher. The building is located in the heart of a quiet neighbourhood, on a hilltop, surrounded by a large square and a children’s playground.
Prior to the construction works, the building was neglected and was used in favour of the public only once a year – in the National Memorial Day, then it was open for a tour and impression of memorial pictures, as a part of the public ceremony for the memory of the fallen.
Nesher municipality asked SO Architecture office to expand the square surrounding the building so it will enable multiplayer events, and to redesign the building and add functions to it, so that it can serve the public throughout the year as a gathering space.
The main architectural idea was to add to the existing building an auditorium structure that could be used for different kinds of public activities such as lectures, film screenings, activities of youth groups, etc., along with preservation of the historical memory.
The auditorium
The auditorium reveals its insides geometry to the park and the city surrounding, by its inclined façade. This geometrical act has an additional meaning in creating a symbolic geometry that communicates with the memorial concept, and the function of the building as a monument.
A large window is located at the edge of the auditorium, facing north and thus brings a soft light into the auditorium and enables a breathtaking view at the landscape of Haifa bay. In a poetic allegory to reality, the window function as a bright ending to the inner space, and thus symbolises the balance between the bereavement pain and the light and hope in the living world.
The memory space
A box for each fallen, with its picture on it, is hanged on the wall of the memory area inside the building. Inside it, there is a room for storage of memorial personal belongings that the family and the municipality can put. In the space itself there is a place for seating and communion with the memory books and the memory of the fallen.
The centre of the memory space is lighted by long and narrow windows that were the shooting slits in the original guarding position, and by upper skylight windows from the original historic building. The memory space was designed in a modular manner, so that if necessary, it will be possible to add additional boxes without any difficulty.
The original building contours regarding to the addition, are marked and highlighted through aluminium bars that were sediment in mortar and emphasise the contours of the old building regarding to the new addition. The materials that we used in the building are simple.
The floor in the memory space is a concrete floor. The ceiling along the whole building is covered with oak planks, so that it creates a warm atmosphere. The auditorium area was also covered with wood, and sponge padded seats. An access to disabled was also arranged.
The gatherings’ square on the front of the building, was designed on the basis of the existing square. The works in it included suitability and accessibility to the disabled, creating grandstand steps in the edges to enable a more comfortable viewing, and an addition of another viewing site at the southern end of the square. The finishing material of the square is a visible concrete that delimits the steps, and grey concrete blocks.
Dutch studio Marc Koehler Architects has extended a former primary school in rural Belgium to create a community centre with a folded roof (+ slideshow).
Marc Koehler Architects designed the building for the Flemish government in the small village of Loker. It is one of eight government-funded projects across the province of West Flanders, which will see existing community facilities upgraded as part of a bid to attract new residents.
A steel framework creates the faceted roof of the new structure, which is clad externally with corrugated fibre-cement panels and lined internally with timber.
The walls of the building are glazed and surround a large hall that can be used for different community events, from performances and exhibitions to parties and sporting activities.
Curtains enable the space to be subdivided, allowing different activities to take place simultaneously.
A canteen, meeting rooms, bathrooms and storage space are located within the old school building.
“By re-using the existing 1960s building we create a layered reading of the history of the place,” the architects said. “Our task was creating an innovative, multifunctional building in a sensitive, historical environment.”
The corrugated roof material is intended to match the rooftops of nearby barns, while the angled forms were designed to be reminiscent of the folds of the surrounding landscape.
The roof also cantilevers beyond the glazed facade, helping to shade the building from direct sunlight.
The building is located in Loker, a small village (600 inhabitants) in the east of Flanders. The project is the result of our winning entry for the Open Call competition, organised by the Flemish government. Our project is the first of eight projects to be completed in the eight sub-districts of the municipality of Heuvelland. As such it can be seen as an impulse for social change, of Flemish villages modernising and upgrading their facilities to attract a potential suburban dweller, returning to the rural landscape. So our task was creating an innovative, multifunctional building in a sensitive historic environment.
The building consists of a reused part of the existing structure of a primary school build in the 60’s, covered by a large folding roof with a glazed façade. The changing shade, created by the various angles of the roof parts reminds of the surrounding patch-work landscape, while the corrugated roofing-material is similar to that used in neighbouring barns.
The glazed façade provides a generous view over the surroundings, with an emphasis on the Sint-Petrus church, and the sloping landscape of the Kemmelberg. With reusing the existing 60’s building, we create a layered reading of the history of that place.
The reused school-building houses the more intimate spaces, like the canteen, storage, sanitary spaces and meeting rooms. The polyvalent, open space can be used for a large variety of activities, like performances, gatherings, exhibitions, sports or parties. The smaller rooms can be opened up towards the polyvalent space, extending their potential, but the large space can also be divided by curtains so that several programs can coexist simultaneously.
The competition prescribed the demolition of the whole existing building, but proposed to preserve the asbestos-free part of the structure, works out in our favour. We created a financial advantage not having to construct new specific spaces, allowing for the polyvalent space to become larger then requested.
A natural climate compartmentalisation of use and energy management is automatically created by the two main components of the building. The cantilevering roof acts as passive sun shading, blocking direct sunlight from entering the building in the summer, but allowing sunlight to heat the building in the winter. Another effort is made with the selection of building materials. Carbon neutral fibre cement panels are used for roofing, but also for interior cladding.
Ornate wooden screens shroud one side of this theatre in Wuzhen, China, while the other side is shielded behind angular brickwork fins (+ slideshow).
Designed by Taiwanese architect Kris Yao of Artech Architects, the shape of the building was modelled on the rare twin lotus flower – an anomaly where two flower heads sprout from a single stalk – to create a pair of oval-shaped auditoriums that share a single stage area.
“The greatest challenge was to design a large building containing two theatres in this small village,” said the architects, explaining their decision to overlap the 600- and 1200-seat auditoriums.
Wuzhou, nicknamed Venice of the East, is a village where canals take the place of streets. Visitors can either arrive at the building by boat, or approach on foot across a bridge.
Zig-zagging wooden screens fold around the glazed exterior of the largest auditorium, allowing light to permeate the building. At night, this facade glows to create a bright beacon reflected in the surrounding waters.
The smaller auditorium is surrounded by overlapping fin-like walls, which were built from a traditional grey-blue brick and have slivers of glazing tucked between them.
The Wuzhen Theatre is intended as the venue for an international theatre festival, but could also be used for fashion shows, music performances or as a wedding centre.
Here’s a project description from Artech Architects:
Like a twin lotus, the theatres rise from the water in this dream-like town…
In this romantic and surreal water village in China, the owner of the development decided that Wuzhen would be an important name in the global atlas of theatre where an International Theatre Festival would be located. In order to complete his vision, Kris Yao and his team was asked to design the Wuzhen Grand Theatre.
The greatest challenge was to design a large building containing two theatres with 1200 and 600 seats back to back, with modern theatre functions in this small, traditional water village in southern China. Using the culturally auspicious “twin lotus” as its metaphor, which functions perfectly with two theatres sharing one stage area, the design is composed of two oval shapes interlocking one another, one of them transparent and the opaque in form.
Due to its dual purposes of the theatre festival and tourism, the functions of the theatres are multifold. Possibilities include formal stage performances, avant-garde creations, fashion shows, conventions and wedding ceremonies.
Visitors arrive at the theatres by wooden boats or on foot from an island across the bridge. The smaller theatre to the right is located within the ‘solid’ volume, where pedal-like segments of thick reclining walls, clad in ancient super-sized brick, wrap around the foyer. The grand theatre to the left, enclosed in the zigzag fan-shaped glass front with a Chinese window motif, glows in the evenings and reflects on the water, adding charm to the already misty and surreal atmosphere of this otherworldly water village.
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