Hasta La Ideas

Bands of light shine through the perforated metal facade of this sports hall by French studio Ateliers O-S Architectes in north-west Paris (+ slideshow).

Located beside a railway embankment in Asnières-sur-Seine, the Gymnase Curie provides a flexible games hall for a nearby school and was designed by Ateliers O-S Architectes to be “visually homogeneous” to its surroundings.

The facade is glazed at street level to reveal the building’s activities to pedestrians walking by, while the remaining sections of the walls are uniformly clad with the perforated metal panels.

Fluorescent tubes are arranged vertically behind the panels to create the illuminated stripes, allowing the building to glow after dark.

“Emerging from the railway embankment as a rock with straight edges, the gymnasium manifests itself through its massive aspect, leaning over an illuminated rift that shows the interior activities,” explained the architects.

Behind the facade, the building has a timber roof structure that is exposed across the ceiling of the hall.

Clerestory windows bring daylight in from the east, reducing the need for artificial lighting.

Changing rooms, storage areas and bathrooms wrap the south and east sides of the building, while a small public square frames the main entrance.

Photography is by Cecile Septet.

Here’s more information from Ateliers O-S Architectes:

Gymnse Scolaire Zac Bords de Seine

The site is characterised by three special features that led our intentions:
» Its dimension: a narrow piece of land, 30m width and 250m long, along a railway embankment
» Its orientation: the site opens to the south on the river La Seine
» A breach generated by the western entrance of the new district under the embankment

The urban challenge was to develop a coherent project on the site scale that uses these features. The breach becomes a unifying square, a strong link between the gymnasium and the outdoor playgrounds. The length of the site is organised by a sequence of wooden planted wall.

Emerging from the railway embankment as a rock with straight edges, the gymnasium manifests itself through its massive aspect leaning over an illuminated rift that shows the interior activities.

The sports hall, that we wanted visually homogeneous, is located along the street, creating a strong visual link between the city and the gymnasium. Around are organised the changing rooms, the facilities and other additional rooms.

An opening on the roof brings diffuse light, completing the light coming from the wide windows on the facades.

The street facades are composed by two levels: a glassed low level that brings life to the street at pedestrian scale, and a high massive level composed of metallic punched panels that highlight the building with vertical lights.

The structure is made of a wooden framework leaning over a concrete basement along the railway. The high laminated timber beams appears on the roof, giving rhythm and depth. This project is a simple answer to sustainable development concerns and to a particular urban context.

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with bands of light on its walls appeared first on Dezeen.

This golden library in Copenhagen by architects COBE and Transform is meant to resemble a pile of books (+ slideshow).

Libraries for children, teenagers and adults are split between three of the differently shaped floors, while a concert hall sits on the top.

Perforated aluminium gives the building its bumpy, golden facade and also lines the walls of a triple-height atrium that cuts through the interior.

Entrances lead into this atrium from both sides of the building, while balconies branch across it on the upper floors.

Windows for some of the rooms are concealed behind the metal cladding and are only visible after dark.

Above: photograph is by Stamers Kontor

The architects won a competition to design the building back in 2009 – see our earlier story for the original proposals.

Above: photograph is by Stamers Kontor

We’ve featured a few golden buildings in recent months, including the new wing at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. See more stories about golden architecture and interiors here, and see more stories about libraries here.

Photographs above are by Adam Mørk, apart from where otherwise stated.

Above: photograph is by Kåre Viemose

Here’s a project description from COBE:

The Library is an extension of an existing culture house in Copenhagen’s north-west. The extension fulfills four main functions: a children’s library, a youth library, a library for adults and a concert hall.

Above: photograph is by Stamers Kontor

The building’s unique design is comprised of four golden boxes stacked on top of one another, each containing one of the building’s four main functions. Deliberately designed to resemble a stack of books, the building’s floors each contain a world of their own, including individually staged scenography.

Above: photograph is by Stamers Kontor

The spaces between the boxes are used as flexible spaces. Moving through the building, you experience an interplay between the different staged spatialities in each box versus an open, flexible space outside and between the boxes.

An important element in the architecture is the golden brown siding inside and out of extruded, gold anodized aluminium, which offers the possibility of varying the transparency of the fenestration and creates a uniform facade expression.

Above: photograph is by Jens Lindhe

Seen from the outside, the facade changes over day depending on how the daylight falls. Some windows are placed behind the expanded metal, which is barely visible in daylight, but clearly appears in the evening when the house is illuminated from the inside.

Above: photograph is by Jens Lindhe

North-west is an area in Copenhagen located between the lively, dense and diverse urban neighbourhood of Nørrebro and the villa neighborhood at the edge of the city.

Above: photograph is by Kåre Viemose

Many people live and work in this multiethnic area.

Yet, since the area is located in the vicinity to numerous entry roads, most Copenhagener’s only use the north-west as passage when going in and out of the city by car. Located here, The Library appears as a golden gem, beautifying an often disregarded part of town – a much needed institution for arts and culture in the area.

Above: photograph is by Stamers Kontor

Place: Copenhagen, Denmark
Client: Copenhagen Municipality
Program: Transformation of existing culture house and extension containing library and concert hall
Size: Existing 1.150 m2, new build 2.000 m2
Status: 1st prize in competition 2009, completed 2011
Architects: COBE and TRANSFORM

Above: photograph is by Stamers Kontor

Landscape Architects: Schönherr
Engineers: Wessberg
Contractor: Bdr. A&B Andersen
Budget: DKK 42 m.

Concept sketch one

Concept sketch two

Concept sketch three

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

First floor plan – click above for larger image

Second floor plan – click above for larger image

Third floor plan – click above for larger image

Section – click above for larger image

Section – click above for larger image

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and Transform appeared first on Dezeen.

Swiss architects Bureau A have created decorative steel gates to discourage nocturnal “illegal activities” in the entrance to their Geneva studio.

Instead of designing an opaque barricade, the architects came up with a concept for a perforated gateway that would be both secure and ornamental.

The elaborate designs draw inspiration from textile designer William Morris and artist Kara Walker, and are laser-cut into the 10 millimetre-thick steel.

Bureau A also recently worked with students to create a travelling commune inside a collection of shipping containers – see the project here.

Photography is by Federal Studio.

Here’s some more text from Bureau A:

The realization of THE PORTAL, the latest design of Leopold Banchini and Daniel Zamarbide of BUREAU A, has just been completed. Located in the centre of Geneva, Switzerland. Régis Golay from federal studio has produced some images of the design piece.

Designer’s statement:

NEWS FROM SOMEWHERE

Like many places within the urban fabric the tiny area of intervention was of problematic nature. By the slight retreat of the street it formed a dark entrance close to some of the hot places in Geneva, hidden from direct views. It constituted thus a perfect place to hide and realize some of the things that are not allowed in our institutional life, a perfect nightspot for illegal activities. The portal appeared thus as a problem-resolution sort of project, the sort of project that is best served by the design of a wall with the pragmatic ambition to solve social issues or report them somewhere else. Within the modest size of the intervention it emerged during the short process of design a belief in the utopian decoration claimed by William Morris. The portal wanted to demonstrate the pleasure of designing and fabricating a decorated surface that could scape from the problem solving design formula. The modest utopia in this case would be to replace vandalism and nightlife odours by a naïvely ornamented pleasure. The same ingenuity sincerely believed in the Alice in wonderland effect that transforms a simple door into a magical threshold to be enjoyed on a daily basis. The portal proposes a game of light and shadows, appearance and disappearance through a very classical pattern that has been playfully modified by filling in or emptying the metal surface.

On another angle, the project was confronted to urban and city regulations and official commissions that lack of real competence on historical matters when it comes to intervene on sensitive ancient sites. They tend to find shelter on standards of contemporary recipes and catalogues of possibilities that might or might not be adequate when studied thoroughly. The portal wanted to play around the idea of what is classical and how much the question of contemporaneity needs to be addressed and constitute an issue or not. Manipulating a stereotype pattern borrowed to a traditional French blacksmith the design wanted to address the question of modern craftsmanship as much as the transmission of a certain vernacular classicism in dialogue with our own 2012 culture. The installation of the portal in this context of debate around classical, vernacular and contemporary languages in our city was an attempt to address the absurdity of these debates and place the aesthetic pleasure of design and craftsmanship at the centre of our preoccupations. In a sort of Kara Walker approach (particularly her work on black cut-paper silhouettes in dialogue with folklore traditional images from the south of the United States) the Portal uses the communicative potential of traditional patterns.

‘Before I leave this matter of the surroundings of life, I wish to meet a possible objection. I have spoken of machinery being used freely for releasing people from the more mechanical and repulsive part of necessary labour; it is the allowing of machines to be our masters and not our servants that so injures the beauty of life nowadays. And, again, that leads me to my last claim, which is that the material surroundings of my life should be pleasant, generous, and beautiful; that I know is a large claim, but this I will say about it, that if it cannot be satisfied, if every civilized community cannot provide such surroundings for all its members, I do not want the world to go on”

“How We Live and How We Might Live”
William Morris in a lecture of 1884

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Bureau A appeared first on Dezeen.

Designed in Hackney: we’re kicking off our new Designed in Hackney initiative today, showcasing world-class architecture and design created in the borough that’s home to Dezeen’s offices and one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games. First up is the London 2012 Olympic Torch by BarberOsgerby.

The triangular torch will be made from a golden aluminium alloy and perforated by 8000 circular holes representing the 8000 torch-bearers to take part in the Olympic relay, which will pass through Hackney on Saturday 21 July 2012. The design was first unveiled in June last year – read more in our earlier story.

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby founded their studio in 1996 after graduating from a Masters in architecture at the Royal College of Art in London. The Loop Table produced by Isokon was their first piece to go into production, appearing as a continuous loop of plywood that hovers off the ground at one end. The pair have since worked with international brands including Vitra, Established & Sons, Flos, Cappellini and Sony. See all our stories about their work here.

Their office is based in Charlotte Road, Shoreditch EC2.

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.