In 2012, 60 Minutes reporter Morley Safer revealed that contemporary art sales had reached $5.5 billion that year from auctions alone. The astonishing number sparked a large debate about the price of art, since its value is…
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Housed inside a landmark building in Dallas, boutique hotel The Joule is in the final phases of a two-year expansion and renovation featuring new guest rooms, retail space, a spa…
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A master of bespoke tailoring, Duncan Quinn can typically be found presiding over the bold interior of his atelier on Spring Street in NYC. The ambience fits Quinn, who made a name by importing Saville Row techniques with the color and flare of a dandyish punk. Quinn recently announced…
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New York practice Cooper Joseph Studio was inspired by Mexican beach huts to insert four pyramidal chimneys behind the concrete exterior of this playground pavilion in Dallas, Texas (+ slideshow).
Sandwiched between a football pitch and a children’s playground, the pavilion offers a sheltered seating area for resting between games as well as picnicking benches for lunchtimes, so Cooper Joseph Studio wanted to keep the space as cool as possible.
The architects concealed the four bright yellow chimneys within the chunky concrete structure and each one works in the same way as the traditional Mexican “palapa” huts, drawing hot air upwards to keep the lower level ventilated.
“The palapa is a time-tested mechanism for creating shade and encouraging passive air flow in a hot climate,” Cooper Joseph Studio’s Greg Evans told Dezeen. “Many state parks use a similar form for picnic structures. We took the geometry and embedded it within a different volume, gaining the cooling benefits without the prescribed aesthetic.”
Describing the decision to colour them yellow, he explained: “We carefully selected a colour that could resolve itself with both the green landscape and the blue sky visible in the apertures.”
The structure of the pavilion is built entirely from concrete and three rectangular columns support the weight of the rectilinear roof.
“We were able to lighten the concrete with the use of local fly ash,” said Evans. “We used a rough board formwork to soften the aesthetic.”
The two playing fields on either side are at slightly different levels, so the structure is partially sunken into the slope to create three tiered levels of seating on the raised edge.
The Webb Chapel Park Pavilion is one one several new shelters planned in the city’s parks, as replacements for 1960s structures that have decayed over time.
Above: site plan
Cooper Joseph Studio also recently completed a writer’s hideaway in upstate New York. See more projects in the USA »
Above: ground floor plan
Photography is by Eduard Hueber.
Above: ceiling plan
Here’s a project description from Cooper Joseph Studio:
Webb Chapel Park Pavilion
Cooper Joseph Studio
In Dallas, Texas, the Department of Parks and Recreation is working to replace several decaying, minimal 1960s shelters in the surrounding metropolitan public parks. Sandwiched between a community soccer field and playground, this simple pavilion embraces a passive, natural cooling system that becomes one with the spatial design.
Above: long section
The solution asserts pure geometry to simultaneously achieve bold form and function. A concrete canopy of exaggerated depth enables a simple structure with minimal visible supports to create virtually seamless views of the surrounding site. The result is an impressive cantilever that comfortably sits atop a mere three structural supports.
Inside the pavilion, the heavy shell of concrete opens to reveal four playful, pyramidal voids in the roof. Although a whimsical surprise of color, the ceiling’s primary purpose is a natural ventilation system based on a traditional “palapa” encouraging the hot Texas air to move through the pavilion. Convection breezes are increased as the bold volume perceptually lifts away from the ground, leaving the seating embedded in a berm where the box once was.
Above: cross section
The use of raw concrete as both structure and finish makes the shape both expressive and efficient. Both its conceptual model and execution match the demands of program and community with reductive simplicity. This bold result finds its identity in these dualities.
The post Webb Chapel Park Pavilion
by Cooper Joseph Studio appeared first on Dezeen.
American firm Morphosis has completed a museum of nature and science in Dallas where visitors begin their tour by taking an escalator journey to the uppermost floor.
Surrounded by glazing, the escalator streaks diagonally across the striated concrete facade then angles back inside the building. At the top, each visitor is faced with a view of the city before spiralling their way back down through five exhibition floors into the atrium where they first arrived.
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is sited in Victory Park, downtown Dallas, and when it opens to the public next weekend it will replace some of the facilities of the existing Museum of Science and Nature, located further east in Fair Park.
Morphosis‘ founder Thom Mayne conceived the building as a large cube emerging from a series of landscaped lower tiers. These levels, designed in collaboration with landscape architects Talley Associates, are covered in stones and drought-resistant grasses that are typical of the landscape in Texas.
A 3D cinema, auditorium, cafe and shop accompany the eleven exhibition galleries inside the building.
Above: site plan – click above for larger image
“The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is a gift to the city of Dallas,” said Mayne. “It is a fundamentally public building – a building that opens up, belongs to and activates the city. It is a place of exchange. It contains knowledge, preserves information and transmits ideas; ultimately, the public is as integral to the museum as the museum is to the city.”
Above: exploded axonometric diagram – click above for larger image
See more projects by Morphosis on Dezeen, including a floating house for Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation in New Orleans.
Photography is by Iwan Baan.
Here’s a project description from Morphosis:
Museums, armatures for collective societal experience and cultural expression, present new ways of interpreting the world. They contain knowledge, preserve information and transmit ideas; they stimulate curiosity, raise awareness and create opportunities for exchange. As instruments of education and social change, museums have the potential to shape our understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live.
Above: east-facing section – click above for larger image
As our global environment faces ever more critical challenges, a broader understanding of the interdependence of natural systems is becoming more essential to our survival and evolution. Museums dedicated to nature and science play a key role in expanding our understanding of these complex systems.
The new Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Victory Park creates a distinct identity for the Museum, enhances the institution’s prominence in Dallas and enriches the city’s evolving cultural fabric. Designed to engage a broad audience, invigorate young minds, and inspire wonder and curiosity in the daily lives of its visitors, the Museum cultivates a memorable experience that persists in the minds of its visitors and that ultimately broadens individuals’ and society’s understanding of nature and science.
Above: north-facing section one – click above for larger image
The museum strives to achieve the highest standards of sustainability possible for a building of its type. High performance design and incorporation of state of the art technologies yields a new building that minimizes its impact on the environment.
This world class facility inspires awareness of science through an immersive and interactive environment that actively engages visitors. Rejecting the notion of museum architecture as neutral background for exhibits, the new building itself is an active tool for science education. By integrating architecture, nature, and technology, the building demonstrates scientific principles and stimulates curiosity in our natural surroundings.
Above: north-facing section two – click above for larger image
The immersive experience of nature within the city begins with the visitor’s approach to the museum, which leads through two native Texas ecologies: a forest of large native canopy trees and a terrace of native desert xeriscaping. The xeriscaped terrace gently slopes up to connect with the museum’s iconic stone roof. The overall building mass is conceived as a large cube floating over the site’s landscaped plinth. An acre of undulating roofscape comprised of rock and native drought-resistant grasses reflects Dallas’s indigenous geology and demonstrates a living system that will evolve naturally over time.
The intersection of these two ecologies defines the main entry plaza, a gathering and event area for visitors and an outdoor public space for the city of Dallas. From the plaza, the landscaped roof lifts up to draw visitors through a compressed space into the more expansive entry lobby. The topography of the lobby’s undulating ceiling reflects the dynamism of the exterior landscape surface, blurring the distinction between inside and outside, and connecting the natural with the manmade.
Above: west-facing section one – click above for larger image
Moving from the compressed space of the entry, a visitor’s gaze is drawn upward through the soaring open volume of the sky-lit atrium, the building’s primary light-filled circulation space, which houses the building’s stairs, escalators and elevators. From the ground floor, a series of escalators bring patrons though the atrium to the uppermost level of the museum. Patrons arrive at a fully glazed balcony high above the city, with a bird’s eye view of downtown Dallas. From this sky balcony, visitors proceed downward in a clockwise spiral path through the galleries. This dynamic spatial procession creates a visceral experience that engages visitors and establishes an immediate connection to the immersive architectural and natural environment of the museum.
Above: west facing section two – click above for larger image
The path descending from the top floor through the museum’s galleries weaves in and out of the building’s main circulation atrium, alternately connecting the visitor with the internal world of the museum and with the external life of the city beyond. The visitor becomes part of the architecture, as the eastern facing corner of the building opens up towards downtown Dallas to reveal the activity within. The museum, is thus, a fundamentally public building – a building that opens up, belongs to and activates the city; ultimately, the public is as integral to the museum as the museum is to the city.
The post Perot Museum of Nature and Science
by Morphosis appeared first on Dezeen.
Susan O’Brien founded snack company Hail Merry on the island of Maui, crediting yoga and meditation as the inspiration for creating healthy food. We sampled the line of raw, vegan and gluten-free macaroons and tarts at CH HQ and were pleasantly surprised with how satisfyingly rich the treats seemed…
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The serious scene with a down-home spirit
A recent invitation to the Dallas Art Fair piqued our interest initially by the range of 78 participating galleries and artists like Erwin Wurm bringing his “Beauty Business” from the Bass Museum in Miami, and Zoe Crosher creating a site-specific installation of her Michelle DuBois project as part of the simultaneous Dallas Biennale.
While we didn’t expect to encounter a domestic event in the scope of Art Basel Miami or New York’s Armory Show, Art Fair co-founder Chris Byrne clarified that wasn’t the point. “The hope is that by presenting the local, national, and international galleries on an even playing field that the viewer has an important role in evaluating the art on its own terms,” he says. After experiencing the fair among a swirl of strong sales, serious parties filled with decked-out Texas-style socialites, football stadium art tours and a glimpse at some serious private collections, we’ve discovered a Dallas that is, indeed, all its own when it comes to an art scene.
With galleries representing cities from Berlin to Milwaukee, New York, LA, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Marfa and Waxahachie, TX, the digestible smaller Dallas Art Fair, held in the Fashion Industry Gallery (or simply the f.i.g. “if you want anyone to know what you’re talking about”, a cab driver told us), presented a truly eclectic blend of big-ticket classics and new work by unknown artists. We were pleased to see a thread installation by Gabriel Dawe, as well as the 2009 graphite drawings of another thread artist gaining traction, Anne Lindberg, at Chicago’s Carrie Secrist gallery. Local Fort Worth Artist Helen Altman had her torch-drawn animal prints on display at Talley Dunn gallery out of Dallas, while New York galleries like Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld Gallery featured Richard DuPont‘s polyurethane heads and newer work by Ouattara Watts, and Josee Bienvenue featured cut-paper grids by Marco Maggi.
In the three years since its inception the fair has grown with quality, not quantity in mind, boasting this year’s solid headliners in and around the fair like Wurm and Crosher, as well as Jacob Kassay, Adam McEwen and Dallas-based Erick Swenson. “There’s no grand plan with a push pin map of the art world. The fair starts to generate an organic life of its own with a visual coherence and cohesion as a byproduct of that independent life,” says Byrne.
The long-term relationship of ’80s pop legend George Michael with his former partner Kenny Goss, who happens to be a Dallas-based arts patron and former cheerleading coach, gave the city another of its idiosyncratic art contributions. The non-profit Goss-Michael Foundation was founded in 2007 to support British contemporary art and expose a larger community beyond collectors to the works of the so-called YBA movement. Adam McEwen opened his show during DAF, on the heels of an impressive roster that in the Foundation’s tenure has included the likes of Marc Quinn, Nigel Cooke, Tracey Ermin, Damien Hirst and others.
When team owner Jerry Jones opened the roughly 3 million-square-foot Dallas Cowboys Stadium in 2009, it didn’t come as a surprise that the team’s new stomping grounds would become the largest domed stadium on the planet, house the largest HD JumboTron and hold a maximum capacity crowd of 110,000—this is Texas, after all. More surprising was the breadth and depth of its contemporary art collection, and the freedom with which the artists were able to create. The artists were selected by a committee led by Jones and his wife, Gene, the interior decorator for the VIP areas of the stadium, but were given minimal limitations beyond the inspiration of the team’s legacy to create their work. The resulting 19-piece collection spans the entire arena, from massive 2D pieces by Ricci Albenda, Terry Hagerty and Dave Muller over main concourse concession stands; to Olafur Eliasson’s “Moving Stars takes Time” mobile over a VIP entrance and the aptly titled “Fat Superstar” in the Owner’s Club. Lawrence Weiner’s “Brought up to Speed” graces a 38-foot staircase wall, while perhaps most on-brand for the Cowboys, coincidentally, are two acquisitions from Doug Aitken that play to the team’s star logo.
Running simultaneously with the Dallas Art Fair was the Dallas Biennale—a tongue-in-cheek, one-time presentation of works by Crosher, Sylvie Fleury, Claude Levecque, Gabriel Martinez and more at various venues across the city. While we were curious to see Fleury’s windows at the flagship Neiman Marcus store downtown, the Dallas Contemporary, where Crosher and Levecque presented alongside Wurm, offered an interestingly offbeat, and physically off-the-beaten-track experience in our art wanderings. Located across some sort of freeway network in what’s known as the Design District, nestled on a remote dead-end among gems like the seemingly abandoned Cowboy Bail Bonds and various strip joints, the Contemporary looks like a commercial space that might have a loading dock around the side like its neighbors. Such a spot makes for the perfect intersection of fresh ways of thinking away from the rest of the city’s stereotypically oversized or Southwestern-style neighborhoods, uncovering yet another intriguing aspect of Dallas.
Rainwater slides down into the central folds of a plunging roof at this Dallas house, draining into a collection tank for reuse.
The UR22 house was designed by American architect Vincent Snyder and features projecting external walls that have a skin of slate tiles and an underside of timber panels.
Hefty timber joists brace the house internally and are exposed inside a sequence of double-height living rooms on the ground floor.
A first-floor gallery leading to bedrooms overlooks these timber-framed rooms.
None of the windows overlook neighbouring plots, where two new houses are proposed.
Snyder previously worked for architect Frank Gehry, whose residential skyscraper New York by Gehry was recently published on Dezeen.
Other popular houses on Dezeen this week include twin residences that mirror one another in different materials and a house where cooling pools of water and trees line corridors and rooms – see all our stories about houses here.
Photography is by Chuck Smith.
Here’s some more information from the architects:
UR22 Residence
This project is a 4000 square foot speculative single family residence within the Urban Reserve master planned sustainable development in Dallas, Texas. With Gold LEED and HERS rating of 50, the house uses approximately ½ the energy per square foot of a typical home.
Through complex study, potential heat gain – which would require cooling – is substantially reduced by the precise placement of a durable envelope that blocks direct sun intrusion.
This protective envelope is clad in Vermont slate on the wall and roofs surfaces, which are naturally ventilated for heat reduction and material integrity.
Additionally, extensive reflective daylight is used to create bright, lofty interior spaces and heavy timber frames throughout express the simplicity and dynamics of the primary structural system.
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| Providence Chapel by Jonathan Tuckey | Clay Fields by Riches Hawley Mikhail | Wooden House by Atelier Martel |
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