Hasta La Ideas

British firm John McAslan + Partners has converted a stone barn into a library and added a contrasting stained timber extension, as part of its redevelopment of a university campus in Cumbria, England (+ slideshow).

During the first stage of a masterplan for updating the University of Cumbria‘s Ambleside Campus, John McAslan + Partners refurbished the traditional Cumbrian barn, which was constructed in 1929 and had until recently been used as a student union.

Informed by the campus’s setting in a National Park, the architects endeavoured to minimise alterations to the existing barn’s stone exterior and added an extension with a pitched roof and large windows overlooking a new courtyard.

“The reconfiguration, a contemporary interpretation of Cumbrian vernacular, respects the original stone fabric of the building while enhancing the character and quality of the space,” said the architects.

Timber beams supporting the roof of the barn were exposed to increase the interior volume and contribute to a spacious upper storey that is filled with light from the redesigned windows.

The single-storey addition with its steeply sloping roof is clad in black-stained timber that provides a contrast to the stone barn and surrounding buildings.

“John McAslan + Partners’ design for the new library and student hub respects the original stone fabric of the building, while enhancing the character and quality of the space,” said the university’s head of facilities management, Stephen Bloye.

Full-height windows brighten the interior of the cafeteria and allow views across the landscaped courtyard towards the rest of the campus.

New stone floors used throughout the ground floor of the library and the cafeteria unite the interiors of the two spaces.

Pale wood covering the walls and ceiling of the cafeteria recurs in fitted furniture including rounded booths on the library’s ground floor and the cladding of the circulation areas.

As part of the ongoing masterplan the architects will continue to repair and refurbish other buildings around the university campus and improve landscaping and connections around the site.

Photography is by Hufton + Crow.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Library and student hub, Ambleside Campus, University of Cumbria

A newly opened library and student hub marks the completion of the first phase of the practice’s masterplan for the Ambleside Campus at the University of Cumbria.

Stephen Bloye, Head of Facilities Management, University of Cumbria, comments: “John McAslan + Partners’ design for the new library and student hub respects the original stone fabric of the building, while enhancing the character and quality of the space.”

The existing timber roof structure has been exposed, greatly increasing the building’s overall volume. In addition, new stone floors have been installed and windows redesigned to maximise natural light, creating an attractive working environment and improve energy use.

A new mono-pitch addition, containing a cafe, is clad in stained black timber, contrasting with the grey stone of the existing building.

Generous glazing provides views out onto the adjacent courtyard space, one of the new landscape spaces created as part of the campus redevelopment, and beyond over the mature landscape of the campus.

The reanimated university campus will comprise Business Enterprise and Development, Outdoor Studies, Environmental Sciences and the National School of Forestry, creating a 21st-century university campus within the National Park.

Phase One of the masterplan has also delivered improved access and services infrastructure across the campus, including disability access for 75% of all teaching accommodation, induction loop systems, illuminated pedestrian routes, disabled parking provision and level access into and within all buildings where possible.

The University’s revitalised buildings will accommodate community events and lectures out of hours, enhancing the opportunities for adult learning in the community.

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into a library for University of Cumbria appeared first on Dezeen.

These new photographs by Hufton + Crow show Herzog & de Meuron’s extension to the Messe Basel exhibition centre now that the three new halls are in use (+ slideshow).

Herzog & de Meuron replaced two of the older halls at the Messe Basel, which hosts Art Basel each June, with an extension that stacks three new ten-metre-high halls on top of one another to create volumes that appear displaced.

Brushed aluminium clads the exterior of the building and has a textured surface to create the impression of a basket weave.

Part of the extension bridges across the neighbouring Messeplatz public square to creates a sheltered area with a huge circular skylight.

Glazing surrounds the space and leads into a ground-floor lobby filled with shops, bars and restaurants.

The building was completed in February, but only opened to the public in April. Read more about the Messe Basel New Hall in our previous story.

Since completing the building, Herzog & de Meuron has also started construction of a football stadium in France and an outdoor bathing lake in Riehen.

The pair were also controversially chosen to design the new National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. See more architecture by Herzog & de Meuron.

See more photography by Hufton + Crow on Dezeen, or on the photographers’ website.

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photographed by Hufton + Crow appeared first on Dezeen.

Zaha Hadid’s 142-metre tower for French shipping company CMA CGM in Marseille is documented in these new images by London photographers Hufton + Crow (+ slideshow).

The 33-storey structure, which was completed in 2011, is currently the tallest building in the city and features a glazed facade with a seam of tinted glass running up through its centre.

The darkened glass tapers outwards at the top, creating the illusion of swelling upper storeys although the building actually has a rectilinear body that only curves outwards at its base.

Located within Marseille’s 480-hectare Euroméditerranée development zone in the north of the city, the CMA CGM Headquarters functions as the primary offices for the transportation company, bringing together over 2400 employees that had previously been located on seven different sites.

Zaha Hadid Architects also designed a 135-metre-long annex building, which is joined to the tower with a curving glass bridge.

In 2010, when the project was nearing completion, Marseilles studio Exmagina shot a time-lapse movie showing the surrounding activity over the course of one day – watch the movie.

Zaha Hadid Architects has recently unveiled designs for a few new projects, including a cultural complex in Changsha, China, a cluster of towers in Bratislava and a masterplan for the site of an old textile factory in Belgrade.

In recent months the studio has also completed the 330,000-square-metre Galaxy Soho complex in Beijing and a museum of contemporary art at Michigan State University. See more architecture by Zaha Hadid Architects.

See more photography by Hufton + Crow on Dezeen, or on the photographers’ website.

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photographed by Hufton+Crow appeared first on Dezeen.

The stone mullions surrounding this visitor centre by Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects imitate the towering basalt columns of the volcanically formed Giant’s Causeway (+ slideshow).

Created around 60 million years ago by the movement of basalt lava, the causeway is the most popular tourist attraction in Northern Ireland and comprises over 40,000 columns that step down from the foot of the cliff into the sea.

Heneghan Peng Architects won a competition in 2005 to design a visitor centre for the Giant’s Causeway, providing exhibition spaces, a cafe, toilets and a giftshop.

The new building opened this summer and is described by the architects as “two folds into the landscape”. The first fold rises up from the ground to create a building with a sloping grass roof, while the second angles down to form a car park and entrance that meets the level of the approaching road.

“It is a carefully sculpted intervention,” say the architects. ”It is both visible and invisible; invisible from the cliffside yet recognisable from the land side.”

Between each of the stone mullions, vertical windows line the walls and surround a cafe that overlooks the coastline from the far end of the building.

Visitors can climb up over the grassy roof, where skylights let them peer down into the exhibition spaces.

Floors inside the building are staggered to negotiate the sloping site, but ramps connect each level.

Other projects at natural landmarks include the installations along the Norwegian national tourist routes.

Photography is by Hufton+Crow.

Here’s a project description from Heneghan Peng Architects:

The project is located at the ridgeline of the North Antrim coast at the gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The proposal for the new visitor facilities can be understood as two folds into the landscape. One folds upwards revealing the building and the second folds down to form the carpark and shield it from view of the approach road and coastal path. Between the two folds, a ramp leads to the coastal ridgeline which is restored at this location.

The visitor’s centre at the Giant’s Causeway is experienced as an event along the route to the Causeway and the coastline. It is a carefully sculpted intervention into this landscape which is both visible and invisible, invisible from the cliffside yet recognisable from the land side.

Internally the building can be understood as a series of stepping floor plates which are linked by a series of ramps.

These floor plates allow the different activities of the building to flow into each other creating a fluid movement through the building for the visitor.

The cafe has been situated close to the main building entrance with a long view to the coastline. The visitor ends the route through the building by exiting onto the access road to the stones.

The folds are precise and geometric yet vanish into the patchwork that forms the tapestries of fields.

The architectural expression of the edges of the folds is singular, stone mullions that echo the columnar landscape of the Causeway site.

The strategy for the building creates a space between the basalt and the folded plane of the grass roof; a space formed within the materials of the site.

The basalt edge is formed as a weave between basalt stone columns and glazing where changes are created in transparency and opacity along the visitor’s route.

What belies this simple façade concept is a carefully engineered solution which evolved around the inherent properties of the locally sourced basalt stone.

The aspirations for this project in every way are of the highest order as befits its location, excellence in architectural and landscape design, excellence in sustainable practices and construction.

The project’s design has received a BREEAM “Excellent” rating.

Client: National Trust
Gross Internal Area: 1800m2
Location: Northern Ireland

Architecture, Landscape Concept and Interiors: heneghan peng architects
Competition: Shih-Fu Peng, Róisín Heneghan (Project Directors) Chris Hillyard, Aideen Lowery, Marcel Piethan
Project Design & Construction Stages: Shih-Fu Peng, Róisín Heneghan (Project Directors), Julia Loughnane (Project Architect), Monika Arczynska, Jorge Taravillo Canete, Chris Hillyard, Kathrin Klaus, Carmel Murray, Padhraic Moneley, Catherine Opdebeeck, Helena del Rio.

Structures: Arup
Building Services: Bennett Robertson
Quantity Surveyor/Project Manager: Edmond Shipway

Facade Engineering: Dewhurst MacFarlane
Planning: Turley Associates
Civils: White Young Green

Landscape: heneghan peng architects (Concept design) Mitchell + Associates (Implementation)
Exhibition Design: Event
Accessibility: Buro Happold
Acoustics: FR Mark

BREEAM: SDS Energy
Fire/Traffic/Environmental: Arup
Specialist Lighting: Bartenbach Lichtlabor
Specification: Davis Langdon
CDM Coordinator: The FCM Partnership

Above: Hexagonal basalts at the Giant’s Causeway

Competition: 2005
Appointment: 2006
Start On-Site: November 2010
Completion: May 2012
Open to public: July 2, 2012
Contractor: Gilbert-Ash
Contract: NEC 3 Option A

Site plan – click above for larger image

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Longitudinal section – click above for larger image

Cross section – click above for larger image

East elevation – click above for larger image

South-east elevation – click above for larger image

South elevation – click above for larger image

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by Heneghan Peng Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Here are some photographs of the recently completed Coca-Cola Beatbox, a pavilion in the London 2012 Olympic park that can be played like a musical instrument (+ slideshow).

Designed by London architects Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt, the Coca-Cola Beatbox invites visitors to make a musical collage of sporting sounds by touching parts of its structure.

The sound samples, including a human heartbeat and trainers squeaking on a court, are taken from the Olympic song ‘Anywhere in the World’ recorded by British producer Mark Ronson.

The sounds are embedded in 200 interlocking ETFE plastic pillows which are sensitive to movement and touch.

The pavilion opens to the public on 27 July.

We first published images of the project proposal back in March.

See all our stories about the London 2012 Olympics »

Above: photograph is by Getty Images

Photography is by Hufton + Crow, except where indicated.

Here’s some more information from the event organisers:

Coca-Cola reveals spectacular Olympic Park pavilion that will inspire visitors to Move to the Beat of London 2012

Coca-Cola has today unveiled the Coca-Cola Beatbox, its iconic pavilion for the Olympic Park, at a private view event ahead of the official opening of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games next Friday 27th July.

The Coca-Cola Beatbox, designed by Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt, is an experimental fusion of architecture, sport, music and technology that creates a stunning multi-sensory experience. The visionary pavilion has been inspired by Coca-Cola’s global campaign for London 2012 – Move to the BeatTM – that aims to connect young people to the Games by bringing together their passions for music and sport.

Its giant crystalline structure is made up of over 200 interlocked translucent air cushions, each the size of a billboard. Visitors will be able to ‘play’ designated cushions as they ascend the exterior of the pavilion, remixing ‘Anywhere in the World’, the uplifting track featuring sounds of five different Olympic sports created for Coca-Cola by GRAMMY award winning producer Mark Ronson and 2011 Mercury Music Prize nominee Katy B.

Integrated within the 200 cushions is groundbreaking audio, lighting and responsive sensor technology, which has been used by the architects to upload the rhythmical sport sounds into the structure of the Coca-Cola Beatbox. Recordings, which include athletes’ heartbeats, shoes squeaking, and arrows hitting a target will be triggered and remixed by the gestures and movements of an estimated 200,000 visitors during Games time as they make the 200m journey to the pavilion’s rooftop.

The pavilion forms part of Coca-Cola’s Future Flames campaign for London 2012, which aims to recognise and reward the best of the nation’s youth and shine a spotlight on emerging talent to inspire other young people to pursue their passions. Coca-Cola appointed London-based designers Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt following a formal commissioning process administered by the Architecture Foundation. The company wanted to identify the best single emerging talent in British architecture and reward them with a showcase at London 2012, handing over creative control of its pavilion.

Coca-Cola has spent two years working with other partners including the Royal College of Art and interactive theatre company London Quest to bring together the best in emerging talent across design, performance and technology who will all play a role in bringing the pavilion to life during the Games. The result is a pavilion that is created by, embodies and celebrates the passions of thousands of Coca-Cola Future Flames who make a positive contribution to their local communities every day.

Maxine Chapman, Director of Showcasing, London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Project Team, the Coca-Cola Company, said:

“Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of London 2012 is rooted in celebrating and recognising young people and we’re delighted to give so many young talents the chance to showcase their skills and passions on the world’s stage. Our team of emerging architects, artists, sound and light technicians – led by Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt – have all played a crucial role in creating a pavilion that is hip, fresh and energetic. The Coca-Cola Beatbox is unlike anything else on the Olympic Park. Over 300 young performers from London will help to bring it to life during Games time, and it will stand as a testament to the millions of young people who use their passions in areas like sport and physical activity, music and dance to spread happiness in communities all over the UK.”

Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt, said:

“The Coca-Cola Beatbox is our largest commission so far and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase our distinctive brand of architectural design at London 2012. We have created a structure that fuses architecture, music, sport and technology in a completely unique way. The beat will draw people in and allow them to personally experience sports through sound away from the main Games venues. Coca-Cola has really allowed us to push the boundaries and we’re looking forward to unveiling the pavilion to the world when London 2012 opens its doors next week.”

Visitors will enjoy spectacular views of the Olympic Park from the top of the Coca-Cola Beatbox. The ramp then plunges down into the heart of the pavilion which will feature an interactive light installation.

Within the Coca-Cola Beatbox pavilion visitors will discover Jason Bruges Studio’s Aerial Dynamics installation. A living, breathing light show that has been designed to emulate the energy released when a bottle of Coca-Cola is served and shared. 180 bespoke mechatronic ‘bubbles’ glow rhythmically in time with Mark Ronson’s track. Controlled with individual code, each bubble has eight polypropylene blades that fold in on themselves. Special sensors embedded in the three ‘cheers in celebration’ kiosks at the base of the Beatbox detect when Coca-Cola bottles are clinked together, triggering the blades and bubbles to glow with red and white LED lighting. These light patterns become increasingly intricate as the number of participants grow.

Jason Bruges, Creative Director, Jason Bruges Studio, based in Hackney, said:

“Our installation captures the celebratory aura that surrounds the Games and is itself a living, visual, dynamic performance. We worked closely with students Coca-Cola chose from the Royal College of Art who helped create the final design through a series of design workshops. A unique mix of architects, lighting designers, industrial designers, programmers and engineers have all collaborated to bring this extraordinary installation to life.”

The Coca-Cola Beatbox was brought to life at the private view event by young performers from across London boroughs. These talented young people from part of a group of 300 who have been selected to perform within the Olympic Park and London’s Hyde Park following six month audition process with the support of the interactive theatre company London Quest. Whether it’s re-enacting a medal winning performance or encourage visitors to recycle they will help to bring the magic of London 2012 to life in the Captial.

Tim Morgan, Director of London Quest, said:

“We at London Quest have thoroughly enjoyed the last year working in partnership with Coca-Cola. In awarding us a theatrical consultancy contract for their Olympic Games showcasing activity, Coca-Cola has given us a massive opportunity to promote our company to the world and it’s great to know that we have helped to give some very talented young performers a once in a lifetime opportunity to shine.”

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and Pernilla Ohrstedt appeared first on Dezeen.