Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has completed a hotel in Miyazaki where guest rooms and dining areas surround a central courtyard and wedding chapel (+ slideshow).
Located on the site of a former factory, Garden Terrace Miyazaki comprises a single two-storey building that features bamboo-clad walls and a large sloping roof with overhanging eaves.
A faceted timber canopy shelters the entrance to the hotel, leading through to a reception where guests are faced with a view of the courtyard.
Kengo Kuma and Associates designed this space as a “calm and tranquil environment”, where a landscape of bamboo trees and pools of water provide a scenic setting to the glazed wedding chapel at its centre.
Restaurants and event rooms surround the other sides of the courtyard, while guest rooms are located on the first floor.
Here’s a short description from Kengo Kuma and Associates:
Garden Terrace Miyazaki
The hotel was built at a vast site near JR Miyazaki station, where a factory once stood. Around it houses and aparrments spread in no particular order.
Facilities of the hotel – guest rooms, banquet room and restaurants are arranged to circle the courtyard.
Loosely sloped roof came out as the result of each function underneath. It wraps the entire building – two-storey structure under the deep eaves.
Bamboo is planted and water is laid out in and out of the hotel and its courtyard, providing a calm and tranquil environment that stretches even to the residential area.
Completion: September 2012 Main use: hotel Total floor area: 4562.04 sqm
Warsaw studio Moko Architects has unveiled plans to build a diving and indoor skydiving centre outside Warsaw by surrounding a pair of abandoned cement silos with a tower of shipping containers.
The facility is proposed for the industrial district of Żerań, where a series of channels transport water between the city and Zegrze Reservoir, and a number of abandoned factories, warehouses and silos stand empty.
Moko Architects has designed a ten-storey structure where diving and skydiving activities can take place inside the cylinders of the converted silos. The first will be filled entirely with water to allow divers to plunge to depths of 25 metres, while the second will contain an underwater “cave” at its base and a skydiving tunnel at its top.
Shipping containers will be stacked up around the outside of the silos to provide offices and training facilities, as well as hostel accommodation, an exhibition area, a reading room, sports shops and a summer cafe. Balcony terraces will also be created on each floor by the irregular arrangement of the containers.
Here’s some more information from Moko Architects:
Modernising the existing silos at the Żerański channel into a Diving and Indoor Skydiving Centre open all year round
The area for the investment is located ca. 12 km away from the centre of Warsaw. This is a part of a house factory in Żerań which operated in the past. Today, there are abandoned halls, warehouses and non-developed area. Main facilities include wholesale warehouses of construction materials and other products. The Żerański channel flows through the entire area, which creates a unique municipal landscape.
The collection of elements described above has a huge potential. The channel is a great water communication route between the City and the Zegrze Reservoir which provides the opportunity of doing water sports and staying active. The remains of the factories, warehouses and silos may be attractive for investors interested in their modernisation into lofts, offices, studios or erecting new buildings which will interline into the surrounding landscape.
Site plan
This area is also becoming a popular place for amateurs of extreme sports, artists or people who like exploring abandoned buildings.
Our design assumes development of a Diving and Indoor Skydiving Centre open all year round in the old silos where bulk cement used to be stored in the past. The existing facility is a perfect base for this investment and will be the only place in Poland where people wishing to learn the skills of diving will have the opportunity to safely train at the depth of 25m under control. The well located in one of the silos is connected to the “cave” of the other cylinder. This is an ideal place to train wreck diving. The diameter of the well is 7m.
Apart from the cave, the second silo will feature a technical area as well as an Indoor Skydiving Centre. This place will make dreams about flying come true. In the “tube” where air will flow at high speeds, you will be able to safely train skydiving.
The Diving and Indoor Skydiving Centre will feature additional functions for people who will only visit the centre for a few hours with their families as well as for organised groups coming for training sessions lasting a couple of days.
The ground floor will feature the entrance area with exhibition space, professional magazines reading area, external café open in the summer season as well as a workshop. Level 1 will house sports stores. Level 2 and 3 will feature offices and administration. Level 4 will feature a hostel for indoor skydivers while level 5 will house training rooms and changing rooms for skydivers as well as the entrance to the area where the practical training of indoor skydiving is conducted. Level 6 will house a hostel for divers, level 7 will feature training and presentation rooms for divers while on level 8 there will be changing rooms separate for women and men. The will also be a buffer zone for divers to directly access the place where they start diving. At the same level, the facility will also feature a warm-up room. In the retained control room area at level 9 a small bar with a view onto the city panorama is designed. There will be terraces on all levels where you can relax after training while watching the industrial scenery intertwined with the Żerański channel.
The modules forming the space for additional functions are applied onto the existing structure of the silo walls looking as if they were growing on them. They are made of light self-supporting steel structure located on both sides and connected by a staircase. They comprise system cubes operating on the basis of single containers which are relatively cheap to manufacture and easy to rearrange in case of the need of changing the functional arrangement of the entire project. Polycarbonate plates will be the covering material through which the structure will be visible.
Completion of this project will set a direction for the development of this district and may become an alternative cultural centre in this part of Warsaw.
Dutch firm OMA’s proposal to place a hotel on top of the Miami Beach Convention Center is going head-to-head with Danish firm BIG’s plan for the site (+ slideshow + movie).
Both Rem Koolhaas’ firm and rivals BIG are presenting their proposals to the Miami Beach City Commission today.
“The convention centre site is a total aberration in the urban fabric of the city,” says Dan Tishman, chairman of Tishman, in the movie (above). “It just doesn’t live up to the standards of Miami.”
The team’s vision includes building an 800-room hotel on top of the existing convention centre, which is the location for the annual Art Basel – Miami Beach and Design Miami trade fairs.
The convention centre would also be expanded and reorganised, rotating it 90 degrees and placing its main entrance to the south, where it would face a row of new and old buildings, including the renovated Jackie Gleason Theater.
To the north would be a network of shaded green spaces and a large grassy hill covering a loading area for trucks and a parking garage.
Here’s some more information from South Beach ACE:
Sitting on 52 acres within the vibrant and unique community that is Miami Beach, an outdated convention centre acts as an urban blockade – inactive when conventions are not in town, disruptive to adjoining neighborhoods and inhibiting connections to Lincoln Road and surrounding communities. Our masterplan resolves each of these issues through a series of ingenious yet simple moves:
» We conceptually rotate the convention center, reorienting the site to allow for east-west neighbourhood connectivity and a southerly orientation for both convention centre and hotel guests
» We concentrate the density at the centre of the site and make the revamped convention centre and its meeting and ballroom space contiguous with the hotel – a feature that meeting planners love
» We reimagine the area’s existing assets: the Jackie Gleason Theater, the Carl Fisher Clubhouse, City Hall, the 17th Street Garage and 17th Street itself are all maintained and transformed to better engage their surroundings while keeping the character of Miami Beach
» We fill the rest of the site with public amenities and programmed uses appropriate to activate the space 7 days a week, 365 days a year
In short, our plan upgrades the convention centre into a best-in-class facility and weaves the entire convention centre site into the fabric of Miami Beach. It will feel both new and like it was always there.
A large public square is at the heart of Danish firm BIG’s proposed overhaul of Miami Beach Convention Center, home to the annual Art Basel/Miami and Design Miami trade fairs (+ slideshow + movie).
Bjarke Ingels’ firm will present its proposal to the Miami Beach City Commission today, where it will go head-to-head with a rival design by Dutch firm OMA.
Miami Beach Convention Center is currently “a dead black hole of asphalt in the heart of one the most beautiful and lively cities in America,” the team explain. “Our mission is to bring Miami Beach back to the Convention Center.”
The proposal is centred around the creation of a public square, with paths, plazas, gardens and parks connecting the convention centre with the surrounding buildings.
The convention centre itself would be given a green roof, which would function as an event space and a location for annually commissioned artwork.
The Jackie Gleason Theater would be renovated and its street level lobbies, restaurants and cafe made publicly accessible, while a new museum for Latin American culture would be built alongside it. The proposal also includes a hotel and several blocks of apartments.
BIG together with West 8, Fentress, JPA and developers Portman CMC proposes Miami Beach Square as the centerpiece of their 52 acre Convention Center.
Miami Beach is a unique city in so many ways. It is one of the youngest cities in America – and perhaps right now one of the most vibrant and dynamic. Its streetscape is characterised by a lively walkable urban fabric with a friendly human scaled environment under the cool shade of tropical trees and art deco canopies – except at the convention center. It is a dead black hole of asphalt in the heart of one the most beautiful and lively cities in America.
Our mission is to bring Miami Beach back to the Convention Center – and to imagine an architecture and an urban space unique to the climate and culture of Miami Beach.
We propose to roll out an urban fabric of paths and plazas, parks and gardens that forms an archipelago of urban oases throughout the site. At the heart of it we introduce a central square to become the pivoting point of the entire neighbourhood, becoming the front door to the convention centre and the convention hotel, a front lawn to the revitalised Jackie Gleason Theater, a town square for the city hall, an outdoor arena for the Latin American Cultural Museum, and the red carpet for the big botanical ball room.
“We have devised a strategy that combines urban planning and landscape design to create a neighborhood characterised by human scale, pedestrian connections, shaded spaces with public oriented programmes lining the streets and squares. A neighbourhood that, depending on the season, the weekday, or even the time of day can be perceived as a lively downtown neighbourhood or an inviting public park.” Bjarke Ingels, creative director, BIG
The square creates a series of intuitive connections across the site – a diagonal that connects the Soundscape to the Botanical Gardens and Holocaust Memorial. A north-south connection joins the Collins Canal to Lincoln Road and naturally channels the flow of convention visitors to the liveliness of Lincoln Road. A green network of public spaces that stitches together all of the adjacent neighbourhoods – formerly separated by the convention centre – into a complete and coherent community for both visitors and residents. All public programmes old and new come together on the square. All great cities have a great square – this will be Miami Beach Square.
“Rather than scattering all the programme across the 52 acre site we have decided to concentrate it around the center piece of our public realm – Miami Beach Square bringing focus to the renovated Jackie Gleason Theater, the entrance of the convention center and for the first time ever creating a worthy civic presence to Miami Beach City Hall.” Jamie Maslyn Larsen, West 8, Creator of Soundscape Park
Diagram of green roof and surrounding parks and paths
By popular demand we have found a way to preserve and enhance the architecture and programming of the Jackie Gleason Theater. By making it all public at the street level – opening up lobbies, restaurants and cafes on all sides – we make the Gleason a lively centerpiece in this new neighborhood. Towards the Square we propose to extend the fly tower with a performing arts centre with various spaces for rehearsal and offering a visual connection to the public. Adjacent to the Jackie Gleason Theater sits the new Latin American Cultural Museum consisting of a base of public programmes opening up on the square. The building form creates a covered shaded event space on the square blurring the transition between inside and outside.
Today the Miami Beach City Hall is almost like a leftover wedged between random neighbours surrounded by traffic. Our proposal places it right in the middle of the town square with ample space for public expression and at the heart of communal life. The Miami Beach City Hall and Botanical Ballroom bookend the Square making it a natural extension of the civic activities of city hall. To the north the botanical ballroom opens up allowing for beautiful views of the botanical gardens and the memorial. The Ballroom has an entrance to the south and to the north allowing for seamless connectivity to the convention centre – under the shade and shelter of the canopies.
Rather than being the hermetic monoprogrammatic box that the Miami Beach Convention Center is today – a single programme at the size of an urban block – we propose to consider the Convention Center an actual urban block complete with different programmes, grown together to form a continuous architecture. A gradual transition from public to private, cultural to civic, conference to residential turns a stroll around the block into an experience of continuous variation. Along the entire west adjacent to the various gardens and the new square – the main entrances to the Convention Center and Conference Center occupy the ground. The hotel lobby spans the entire south elevation in continuation of the Convention Center lobby. The hotel façade as pulled back, forming a cascade of terraces for the south facing hotel rooms – decreasing the perceived height seen from the Gleason.
The roof of the Convention Center is framed by a green roof drawing the outline of the urban block – framing the hotel gardens and the roof parking interspersed with shade giving landscapes. As a reoccurring annual event we propose to sponsor an art foundation that will deliver a roof art piece to cover the remaining roof surface turning it into a giant ever-changing canvas seen from the air as well as the roof terrace of the hotel. An ever changing giant canvas that will annually challenge contemporary artists with an architectural scale canvas – seen from the roofs and penthouses of adjacent buildings, from aeroplanes and Google Earth.
“Realising that a challenge that seemed to be driven by two incompatible agendas was actually the opportunity to create a convention centre district that is not only for convention-goers but, more importantly, for residents.” Jack Portman, Portman Holdings and JPA
This concrete staircase into the air by Lisbon architecture studio Ateliermob functions as a riverside amphitheatre on the banks of the Tagus in central Portugal (+ slideshow).
Positioned on the northern shore of the river near the village of Rio de Moinhos, the structure is built on the site of an old fishing boat dock that had fallen out of use due to regular flooding.
Ateliermob‘s brief was to create a public installation on the site. To withstand the changing water levels, the intervention needed a solid structure that would resist decay even if submerged for a few days a year.
The chunky concrete bleachers rise up in a northerly direction, facing a stage that cantilevers out across the riverbank. A telescope is mounted at the very top, while rectangular concrete benches and tables provide a picnic area on one side.
“The new element wipes out the boundary between land and water, projecting itself on the river, and on a flat terrain it erupts in the air as a reference in the landscape,” say the architects.
The Rio de Moinhos Open-Air Theatre is the latest in a series of riverside installations designed by Ateliermob for the banks of the Tagus since 2007.
Following an international competition for the banks of the Tagus River in four counties in central Portugal where ateliermob got the first prize, they were asked to design three projects in the municipality of Abrantes.
Located on the right bank of the Tagus River, near the village of Rio de Moinhos, the Cais das Barcas served as a fishing boat dock and transported people and goods between the two banks. Over the years, that space lost its essence, both due to the nearly non-existent maintenance as the constant flooding of the Tagus (the height of the pier is +18.00 m, and the 1979 flood overflowed the river, which rose to 31.00 m).
Following a study of the dynamics of the local population, which can be characterised as having intense activity in recreational and popular associations, and it was understood that an outdoor space that could serve as an informal area for groups and communities and that could withstand submersion for a few days of the year. The new element wipes out the boundary between land and water, projecting itself on the river, and on a flat terrain it erupts in the air as a reference in the landscape.
The project seeks to recreate a place that spring-starts from the renovation of the pier, adding new collective reference meanings and uses. A new space for the local people that acts as a gathering place for the community or as an idyllic meeting place. The entire area around the auditorium, parallel to the existing dock, is redrawn maintaining its natural character, yet providing it with urban furniture – benches and tables for a more effective use by the population. Rio de Moinhos has experienced a difficult relationship with the river, noticeable its urban morphology – from times of flooding to times of drought. Every year, during the rainy season, this structure may become partially submerse.
The proposed structure seeks to reclassify the area, creating a new meeting space for the local community. When no events are taking place, this amphitheatre will be ideal to contemplate the river, the landscape and from its highest point, Rio de Moinhos.
Project: Rio de Moinhos Open Air Theatre Place: Rio de Moinhos, Abrantes, Portugal Promoter: Câmara Municipal de Abrantes (city council) Construction: Construforte – Sociedade de construções e Empreitadas, Lda Architecture: ateliermob – Andreia Salavessa and Tiago Mota Saraiva with Vera João, João Torres, Ana Luísa Cunha, Zofia Józefowicz and Sophia Walk (competition: Carolina Condeço, Nuno Ferreira) Structures: Betar Estudos – José Pedro Venâncio and Maria do Carmo Vieira Lights: João Pedro Osório
Architects Snøhetta and AECOM have revealed their latest renderings of a new stadium for NBA basketball team the Golden State Warriors on the waterfront in San Francisco (+ slideshow).
Set to replace the team’s existing home at the Oracle Arena in Oakland when the lease expires in 2017, the 67,000 square-metre arena will be constructed in time for the start of the 2017-18 basketball season and will also provide a venue for music concerts, conventions and other cultural events.
Snøhetta and AECOM‘s latest design shows a circular building with large areas of glazing around the facade, designed to give visitors a view from outside into the practice facility and the arena during games.
Additional high-level windows will allow spectators inside the building a view through the walls to Bay Bridge just beyond.
“We believe our new design lives up to the importance of this incredible waterfront site and fuses together the vision of the Golden State Warriors with the landscape of the bay,” says Craig Dykers, architect and founding director of Snøhetta.
The Golden State Warriors arena will also accommodate 8000-square-metres of retail, plus a fire station with docks for two fireboats.
The large disc-like roof is to be covered with LEDs and will be used for the projection of images and motifs.
Construction is expected to take three years and will include $100 million worth of repairs to the piers, where the arena is set to be located.
Golden State Warriors release updated design of new arena on San Francisco waterfront
Today the Golden State Warriors released the updated design of their new sports and entertainment arena on the waterfront at Piers 30-32 in San Francisco.
“This new design by Snøhetta and AECOM builds on the first draft we released to create an arena experience on the waterfront that is unique, community-focused and unlike any other venue in existence around the world,” said Joe Lacob, Co-Executive Chairman and CEO of the Warriors. “The new design creates more open space and accessibility to the waterfront, new berths for fireboats and cruise ships and public views into the arena that will be one-of-a-kind for an NBA venue.”
“From the beginning, we’ve said this arena will be world-class, incorporating the best in design, technology and sustainability,” said Peter Guber, Co-Executive Chairman of the Warriors. “Snøhetta and AECOM have done a masterful job designing an arena and public space that will serve as the model for a 21st century digital sports and entertainment center.”
The new arena design now includes a fire station with berths for two fireboats, a deep-water berth for large ships, public access space on the eastern edge of the pier, a sustainable “Gabion Wall” stormwater filtration system and public views that allow visitors to see inside the Golden State Warriors practice facility and into the arena during Warriors games. Additionally, the Warriors have removed nearly 750 seats and several luxury suites to allow fans to view the Bay Bridge from their seats inside the arena during games. The exterior roof of the arena will also feature small LEDs similar to the current Bay Lights art installation that can project images, patterns or shapes.
“We believe our new design lives up to the importance of this incredible waterfront site and fuses together the vision of the Golden State Warriors with the landscape of the bay and the community input we’ve heard over the past several months,” said Craig Dykers, Architect and Founding Partner of Snøhetta. “When people view the new designs, they will see a place that provides for everyone: fans, pedestrians, bicyclists, tourists, local residents and the diverse community of San Francisco.”
“The NBA is thrilled about this new design and excited that the Bay Area’s NBA team will be playing in a unique, world-class facility on the San Francisco waterfront,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern. “Once completed, the Warriors’ arena will provide our fans with one of the most technologically advanced and unique fan experiences in the NBA and all of professional sports.”
“These updated designs show the incredible potential of a new waterfront venue at Piers 30-32,” said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. “In addition to hosting the Warriors and enabling our city to host major indoor sporting events and concerts, the Piers 30-32 project will provide tremendous public benefits to San Francisco, including a new fire station, berths for large ships and SFFD fire boats and an expansive new civic space for fans, residents and tourists to enjoy.”
The privately financed arena will be located at Piers 30-32 on San Francisco Bay, south of the Bay Bridge, between the Ferry Building and AT&T Park.
Under the agreement, the City will provide the land and the Warriors will pay to repair the crumbling piers and privately finance the arena project. The cost of repairs alone is estimated at $100-120 million.
The new facility will host the Bay Area’s NBA basketball team, as well as provide a spectacular new venue for top-tier concerts, cultural events and conventions – prominent events the City currently cannot accommodate.
This sports hall in Lelystad, the Netherlands, by Dutch firm Slangen + Koenis Architects is coloured in fluorescent shades of green, yellow and blue (+ slideshow).
The De Rietlanden Sports Hall was designed by Slangen + Koenis Architects to extend and combine two existing sports buildings located beside a secondary school in the small Dutch city.
The architects sandwiched the new building between the two existing structures in a space formally occupied by a bicycle stand, then added the brightly coloured cladding to create a welcoming atmosphere for students staying after school for sports.
Photograph by Bart Solinger
“The starting point of the design was to not only create a friendly volume that combines the two existing buildings into one centre, but also to create a fresh and bright impulse for the drab and grey surroundings,” say the architects.
“To accentuate the placement of the new structure, we created very colourful facades at the two sides that intersect the existing buildings, accentuating the contrast between old and new.”
The hall itself is the size of three basketball courts. Changing rooms stretch along the length of the courts on one side, while a spectator balcony and restaurant are located on a mezzanine floor above.
A glazed entrance is positioned opposite an outdoor sports pitch at one end of the hall, plus extra routes lead through from both of the old buildings on either side.
Photography is by Marcel van der Burg, apart from where otherwise indicated.
Here’s a project description from Slangen + Koenis Architects:
Sports hall ‘De Rietlanden’
The new sports hall ‘De Rietlanden’ will, together with its existing neighbouring sport facilities, form a new important in- and outdoor sports centre in Lelystad. The existing situation already had two sports halls, though separated by a bike stand from the local secondary school. This unusual separation made it very hard to combine the different sport and social activities. Also the site has a very grey and pale colour pallet with an unwelcoming atmosphere, especially after school hours. The starting point of the design therefore was to not only create a friendly volume that combines the two existing buildings into one centre, but also to create a fresh and bright impulse for the drab and grey surroundings. By moving the entrance to the other side of the building we created a centre that is more accessible from a spacious and more inviting entrance square that welcomes the visitors.
Since both of the neighbouring buildings had to remain, the new sports hall had to fit into the relatively narrow empty spot, where the bike stand used to be. To accentuate the placement of the new structure, we created very colourful facades at the two sides that intersect the existing buildings, accentuating the contrast between old and new. The two front facades are very crisp and light with white colours in varying materials. The new entrance faces towards the outdoor sport fields through large glass windows, as well as the covered terrace on the upper floor, that can function as a grandstand. In order to create an optimal sports and teaching environment, windows allows light and views into the sports hall. But they can also be closed if it is convenient for the activities. To create extra relief and agility to the entrance square the shutters can be adjusted to the needs of the users, causing the building to open or close towards the square.
The floor plan clearly shows how the new structure is implemented on the site and in between the other buildings. There’s a hallway connecting the sports halls on ground level and the 6 changing rooms. These spaces are optimized to leave maximum space for the optimal layout. On the upper floor a spectator zone is situated along the length of the field with a restaurant. The restaurant is an important connection between the old and the new building on grandstand level.
The timber-clad building was designed by SAKO Architects with different functions in each of its five wings, while a wine cellar occupies the basement.
An entranceway cuts through the first of the five wings. A lobby is located beyond and leads into a central hall with a circular skylight overhead.
A wine showroom and bar are contained in the second wing, while the third contains the dining room of the restaurant. Both of these spaces open out to rectangular terraces, plus one of them projects out across the surface of the lake.
The fourth wing contains a series of private function rooms, divided by brick walls with gaps to let the light through, and the final wing contains the kitchen and staff facilities.
Here’s some more information from SAKO Architects:
Asterisk in Beijing
The project is a building which on a floating island in the lake, with an area of 2,000 sqm. Including ground floor and basement. Wine showroom, restaurant and underground winery are included.
The space separated by five different functional blocks, and setup as one integral building which is direction relative and continuity connected with the central multifunction space.
The respective functions are connected through a space, the large openings in the exterior wall, form the interior and outdoor overall sense. There are five different functional plazas between each block, wedding or wine exhibition and other activities can be held here.
Project Name: ASTERISK in Beijing Project Location: Beijing, China Project Type: Architecture
Architect/s: Keiichiro SAKO, Shuhei AOYAMA, Ariyo MOGAMI, Touru IWASA/ SAKO Architects Lighting Design: Masahide Kakudate Lighting Architect & Associates Client: Beijing Sheng Lu International Zhuang Park Hotel Management Ltd.
Element: Winery, Restaurant Size: Site area: 4,800m2 Building area: 2,000m2 Design Period: 2010/05 – 2011/04 Construction Period: 2010/10 – 2012/11
With a terrace sheltered beneath its overhanging eaves, this building by Japanese architects Kakuro Odagi and Daisuke Narushima functions as an information centre for prefabricated show homes in Yokohama (+ slideshow).
The two-storey building is positioned within the ABC Center, where visitors come to see full-size mock-ups of prefabricated houses, and serves as an administrative centre and an enquiries point.
Designed as a collaboration between Odagi, of Odagi Planning & Associates, and Narushima, of Narushima Architecture Office, the ABC Center House features a mono-pitched roof covered in skylights and solar panels, as well as mixture of different cladding materials that include timber and stone.
“In contrast to most model homes, where the building products pretend to be the surface of real materials, the real materials are applied in a graphical way in this building, as if they look like the imitated materials,” says Kakuro Odagi.
The architect also explains that, like the show homes, the building was designed without any reference to its industrial surroundings. “The architecture may be seen to be fitting into the daydream-like landscape at a glance, but it is free from the model-home park’s merchantability,” he adds.
The square-shaped skylights are dotted across the surface of the roof to bring natural light to both the outdoor terrace and a top-floor seminar room, which opens out to a narrow balcony.
Glass walls separate the terrace from a customer lounge and information desk on the ground floor, plus an office and storage area are located alongside.
ABC CENTER HOUSE is an administrative building in a model-home park located in the inhospitable area with factories and industrial plants in Yokohama city, Kanagawa prefecture. This two-storied building is used as an office where customers first come to get information and where various events and seminars related to homebuying take place.
Ground floor plan
In general, the model homes are remodeled almost every 5 years in an attempt to promote their own merchantability and are equipped with the latest technology and specifications. The relationship with the surrounding environment and other neighboring model homes are ignored, and as a result, self-contained houses based merely on commercial value are standing independently on the park. It is ironic that every design of the house, consisting of factitious and mass-produced materials that would appeal to the dream of the buyer, all look much the same and has no distinctive qualities at all. In response to this context, we intended to create a place where visitors can experience the openness of the space and its value. The architecture may be seen to be fitting into the daydream-like landscape at a glance, however, it is free from the model-home park’s merchantability.
First floor plan
A large shed roof with randomly-placed top lights covers the three parts of the building: the lounge connected contiguously to the terrace, the seminar room that looks like it has its interior and exterior reversed, and the semi-outdoor terrace under the eaves. It makes a gentle unity of the three spaces while maintaining each spatial identity. The terrace also serves as an intermediate space between the outside park and interior.
In contrast to most model homes, where the building products pretend to be the surface of real materials, the real materials are applied in a graphical way in this building as if they look like the imitated materials. This finishing gives a coordinated impression, seen from a distance, with the surrounding model homes in appearance of materials, while its actual contrary state can be seen from close by. Every material, whether it is for interior or exterior, is treated equivalently and mapped across the boundary of the adjacent room. The crossover of surface elements generates a relationship between the inside and outside space of the architecture itself and the one between architecture and landscape. Thus the outward extending space can be felt wherever you are: expansive space is created within a small building.
Cross section
Architect: Kakuro ODAGI (Odagi Planning & Associates) + Daisuke NARUSHIMA (Narushima architecture office) Location: Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan Structural Design: Yosuke KINOSHITA Structural System: Wooden Storeys: 2 Storeys Maximum Height: 8,950 mm Building Area: 81.86 sqm Total Floor Area: 93.44 sqm Project Year: 2012
Revellers at this year’s Coachella festival in California can visit a silent disco inside a dome of colour-changing balls by Spanish designer Héctor Serrano (+ slideshow).
Produced by Borealis, the installation arm of Serrano’s studio, The Dome is built from nearly 1000 inflated PVC spheres with LED lights at their centres. “They’re kind of like beach balls,” Serrano told Dezeen.
Each LED is connected to a computerised system, which relays a combination of around 50 different patterns of light and colour. The program can be downloaded to a smartphone or tablet, making it easy to alter the sequence.
Cables fix each of the balls around the skeletal framework of the dome.
Serrano says he originally planned to rent a much smaller structure, but ended up using a dome that Coachella already owned.
“It’s four times bigger than our original proposal,” he explains. “We had to have the balls custom made in China to get them ready in time.”
The structure was installed for the two weekends of the annual music festival and will be dismantled later this month.
Inspired by the Pantheon dome in Rome, the installation resemblance a cathedral of light, an art piece where the visitor is immerse in a 360º unique experience completely surround with light. The dome works as immersive environments when inside and as large scale sculpture when view from outside. The dome is made out of nearly 1000 spheres and LEDs that are used as a pixel, creating a volumetric environment with infinite patterns and possibilities.
Borealis is the installation division of Hector Serrano. The Dome launches on Friday 12 April and will be open for Coachella two weekends 12-15 and 19-21 and attended by more than 200,000 people. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is an annual three-day music and arts festival, held in Indio, California in the Inland Empire’s Coachella Valley. The event features many music genres, including rock, indie, hip hop, and electronic music, as well as sculpture.
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