Hasta La Ideas

Danish studio 3XN has revealed the first photographs of its whirlpool-shaped aquarium under construction in Copenhagen.

Set to open in the Spring, The Blue Planet aquarium was designed by 3XN to mimic the shapes created by swirling water and different exhibitions will be contained within each of the building’s curved arms.

“We wanted to create an adventure, a story about being carried under water into an unknown world full of fascinating experiences,” said architect and partner Jan Ammundsen. “With this in mind, we came up with the idea of a whirlpool.”

“However, it is one thing to create a story and a building that looks like a whirlpool, but the real challenges lay in creating a design that also has architectural value and quality, something that is elegant and hopefully can stand the task of time. So making the story and the aesthetics go hand in hand has been the main challenge,” he added.

The 9000-square-metre building is located on the waterfront, close to the city’s airport, and is expected to attract 7000 700,000 visitors a year.

A circular foyer at the centre of the building will feature a glass ceiling, allowing visitors to look directly up into a pool above their heads.

This year 3XN has also completed a riverside cultural centre in Norway and converted a warehouse into an experimental food laboratory at popular Copenhagen restaurant Noma.

Photography is by Adam Mørk.

Here’s some more information from 3XN:

The Blue Planet – Denmarks New Aquarium
Copenhagen, DK

Inspired by the shape of water in endless motion, Denmark’s new National Aquarium, The Blue Planet is shaped as a great whirlpool, and the building itself tells the story of what awaits inside.

Into Another World

The walls and roofs form a single, continuous flow and the longest of the whirlpool’s arms follows the shape of the landscape and the building, moving into the land inviting visitors inside. As soon as visitors arrive at The Blue Planet, the building will convey a sense of the special experience that awaits them inside. Here, the whirlpool has pulled you into another world – a world beneath the surface of the sea. If you tilt your head backwards, you understand that you are really a part of this aquarium because the roof above the foyer is made of glass, and at the same time it is the bottom of a pool.

Flexible Flows Between Exhibitions

The Round Room is a centre of navigation in the aquarium, and this is where visitors choose which river, lake or ocean to explore. Each exhibition has its own face towards the Round Room, each with its own entrance, starting with a buffer zone – a platform where sound and images are used to introduce the atmosphere communicated in the ensuing exhibition room.

One with the Surrounding Landscape

In the landscape, the great whirlpool continues through the terrain, the pools and the sea surrounding the building. Like watery currents, the building is not static – the movement continues into the future by virtue of always allowing possible extensions to add more, simply by letting the lines of the whirlpool grow further out.

Complex Building Project

The Blue Planet is a building of great complexity, and 3XN has taken on the role as project manager for 15 sub-consultants – including Kvorning Exhibition Designers and the Australian aquarium experts AAT. Ambitions have been sky high from the outset, and the construction of the special double curved facade has been a development project in itself, which has proven a great challenge to all parties involved.

The Blue Planet is scheduled for completion in 2013.

Address: Kajakvej, 2770 Kastrup, DK
Client: The Building Foundation “Den Blå Planet” (Realdania, Knud Højgaards Fond, Tårnby Municipality)
Competition: 1st prize in invited competition 2008
Project development: 2010 – 2013
Size: 9.000 m2
Budget: DKK 630m / €84.6m
Architect: 3XN
Engineer: Moe & Brødsgaard A/S
Aquarium Specialists: AAT

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by 3XN appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish architecture studio CEBRA has revealed a proposal for a snowflake-shaped ski dome that would be the biggest in the world, with three kilometres of slopes arching over a river in the Danish city of Randers.

Designed by CEBRA for the ski travel agency Danski, Skidome Denmark would have six indoor and two outdoor slopes on its three centrally connected arches, which resemble a six-armed snowflake.

If constructed, each arch would stretch 700 metres across the river Gudenåen, with the highest arch rising 110 metres above the ground. The biggest ski dome in the world at present is in Dubai – but at 22,500 square metres, Ski Dubai would be easily eclipsed by the 70,000 square metre Skidome Denmark if it goes ahead.

Unlike most indoor ski slopes, which tend to be built with few or no windows, the Skidome would have a perforated facade to give skiers a view over the surrounding river and meadows.

The topography of the six slopes is based on the most popular pistes of the Alpe d’Huez ski resort in France, but the architects say the slopes could be altered over time to give skiers a different experience on each visit.

The Skidome is also intended to be a useful addition to the city’s wider infrastructure. ”We have placed and designed the ski dome over the river to connect the different neighborhoods in the town of Randers,” said Danksi representative Simon Oscar Andersen. “Actually, we give a whole lot to the city – the world’s biggest ski dome, and a whole new connection across the river, which solves a lot of infrastructural problems for the city.”

The Skidome would also offer facilities for skateboarding and BMXing, as well as a landscaped park on the roof.

Earlier this year we reported on CEBRA’s proposal for a science and technology centre full of curving green ramps inside a former mineral water bottling plant in Copenhagen.

Images are from CEBRA.

See all our stories about winter sports »
See all our stories from Denmark »

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Danish architecture practice CEBRA has designed Skidome Denmark – a vision for the world’s biggest ski dome in the city of Randers for ski travelling agency Danski. The proposal offers over 3 km of indoor and outdoor slopes, freestyle park, hotel, restaurant and shops, covering a total area of 100.000 m2.

CEBRA’s ambitious proposal consists of three centrally connected arches, which resemble the basic shape of a six-armed snowflake. The arches each span 700 m across the river Gudenåen and the top arch’s highest point rises 110 m over ground, creating a distinctive landmark for the entire region, bringing a piece of the Alps to Denmark.

The basic idea of Skidome Denmark is to share and pass on the joy of skiing to the Danes by creating spectacular indoor facilities that bring skiers as close as possible to the experience of hurtling down a mountain side in the Alps. In order to meet this ambition, the architects have been inspired reversely, so to speak. Most ski domes around the world are designed from the inside with no or very few windows. However, an essential part of the skiing experience consists in being able to enjoy the surrounding scenery. The proposal’s high-rise composition of three arches combined with a filigree façade structure allows for spectacular views over Randers and the river-meadow area.

Skidome Denmark brings, quite literally, a piece of the Alps to Denmark: The slopes are developed in association with Alpe d’Huez ski resort in France, and the gradients are copied directly from the most popular pistes. The arches contain a total of six slopes with real snow and varying degrees of difficulty, so that skiers of all ages will be able to find challenges according to skills and experience. Every piste has its own chair lift and the three arches are conjoint by an elevator for transporting skiers between the different levels. In order to ensure variation in the landscape over time, it is possible to transform the pistes’ topography, providing visitors with a different experience each time they visit the ski dome.

Besides its primary function as a ski park, the vision for Skidome Denmark is designed to form an addition to Randers’ infrastructure, connecting the city across the natural barrier formed by the river Gudenåen. It is the aim of the concept that the dome can be used and enjoyed by everyone – any time of the day, any time of the year. Thus, the arches’ exterior roof surfaces are an integrated part of the design equal to the interior ski slopes. The top arch’s roof offers two black pistes, allowing outdoor skiing even during the summer. The middle arch is shaped like an urban playground with street sport facilities for skateboarding, BMX etc., while the bottom arch has a green landscape roof, which like a raised city park invites to a wide range of leisure activities.

Name: Skidome Denmark
Commission: Private
Client:  Danski
Type: Conceptual proposal
Location: Randers, DK
Area:  100,000 m2
Max. capacity: 3000 guests
Facilities: 6 indoor and 2 outdoor ski slopes (total length of 3020 m), 1 freestyle park
Hotel, restaurant, bar, shops
Public street sports park and green park

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by CEBRA appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture studio Neri&Hu has opened a design gallery, shop and event space in a former colonial police station in Shanghai’s Jingan district.

Named Design Commune, the renovated brick building houses a series of design stores and showrooms, including the new flagship for Neri&Hu‘s own furniture brand, Design Republic.

“The concept for the Design Commune is to bring designers from around the city to hopefully have a place where they can have a discourse in architecture, in product design, in interior design,” Lyndon Neri told Dezeen. “To have a place where they could shop, a place where they could rest, a place where they could meander and wander and see different shops and different stores, different products, and at the same time be a part of an exhibition, or be part of a gallery, or be part of a talk.”

The architects hope the spaces will be able to showcase the vibrancy of China’s growing design scene. ”We want to bring the best of what the world can offer to China and hopefully one day bring the best of what China can offer back to the world,” said Neri.

For the conversion, the architects peeled back the decaying layers of wood and plaster, before restoring the original brickwork and adding new walls and rooms using a materials palette of glass, metal sheeting and white plaster.

“The existing building has a heaviness, and a kind of institutional feel,” explained Rossana Hu, before describing how they wanted to offset this with lighter materials. “Big open glass lets you see through a lot of visual corridors, or openings between floors that didn’t used to exist.”

A new glass structure runs along the facade of the building, creating a modern shopfront for Design Republic.

Elsewhere in the building, the architects have created a restaurant, a cafe, a lecture hall and a one-room hotel.

Dezeen visited the The Design Republic Commune last week to take part in a series of discussions about architecture and design in China and you can see our snapshots in an album on Facebook. We’ll also be publishing a full movie interview with Neri&Hu soon and you can also read about another Design Republic showroom in Shanghai in our earlier story.

During our visit, Hong Kong-based designer Michael Young also tipped China to have as many world-class designers as Japan within 20 years.

See more stories about Neri&Hu »
See more stories about Shanghai »

Photography is by Pedro Pegenaute.

Here’s a project description from Neri&Hu:

The Design Republic Commune (Shanghai)

The Design Republic Commune, located in the center of Shanghai, envisions itself as a design hub, a gathering space for designers and design patrons alike to admire, ponder, exchange, learn, and consume. It houses the new flagship store for Design Republic, a modern furniture retailer, alongside a mixture of design-focused retail concepts, including books, fashion, lighting, accessories and flowers. The Commune will also have a design gallery, an event space, a café, a restaurant by Michelin-Starred Chef Jason Atherton, and a one-bedroom Design Republic apartment.

Situated within the historic relic of the Police Headquarters built by the British in the 1910s, the project takes a surgical approach to renovation. First, gently removing the decaying wood and plaster, then carefully restoring the still vibrant red brickwork, while grafting on skin, joints, and organs onto parts that needed reconstruction. And finally with the attachment of a brand new appendage which, like a prosthetic, enables the existing building to perform new functions, the nearly abandoned building begins its life again.

Replacing the rather dilapidated row-shops on the street front, Neri&Hu introduced a modern glassy insertion onto the brick façade. To accentuate the historic nature of the main building, the street level periphery is enveloped by transparent glazing to reveal the existing brickwork and rough concrete structures. Breathing new life into a traditional colonial building plan, Neri&Hu strategically removed certain floor plates, walls, as well as ceiling panels, to allow a renewed experience of the existing building, one that is fitting for the new functions to which the building now needs to respond.

Various small and precise incisions have been made in the interior architecture to reveal the building’s history and integrity while creating experiential intersections for a coherent experience when moving through the building. Contrasting with the exterior which has mostly been left intact due to historic preservation guidelines, the interior has been completely transformed. The starkly modern white rooms are juxtaposed with untouched remnants of brick walls, and in some cases, exposed wood laths underneath crumbling plaster walls. The clear intentionality behind the detailing of connections between the old and the new creates a visually and spatially tectonic balance in relation to the building as a whole.

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image and key

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image and key

Above: second floor plan – click above for larger image and key

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by Neri&Hu appeared first on Dezeen.

A loosely curving wall of timber shingles spirals around this visitor centre that Dutch studio Emma Architecten has constructed beside one of the coastal batteries of Amsterdam’s historic defence line (+ slideshow).

Fort Diemerdam is one of only two coastal fortifications along the Stelling of Amsterdam, which comprises a series of armed forts dating back to the late nineteenth century and is classified as a World Heritage Site.

Paviljoen Puur is constructed over the plot of the old soldier’s shelter and the new plan was derived from the footprint of the original building.

Architect Marten de Jong told Dezeen how the curves of the landscape inspired the undulating curves of the wooden walls, which angle in different directions so that in some places they face the ground and in others they point up towards the sky.

“We wanted anybody visiting the building to be puzzled about when it was built, and whether it is the future they’re looking at or the past,” said De Jong. “To do this, the building had to have little or no reference to architectural elements. A window or a door usually depicts a specific age of architectural thinking, which would make it easy to pinpoint the year of its creation. Instead, the building comes forth from the landscape.”

The glazed entrance is nestled back between the folds of the walls, while windows appear in slices that face the historic gun bays, as well as the next fort on Pampus Island.

Timber shingles were used for the exterior so that the building would comply with the historic Dutch law that required all buildings within the firing range of guns to be constructed from wood so that they can be shot when enemies hide behind them.

“I especially like how the wooden cladding will age over the years,” said De Jong. “Due to its curved shape it will change colour gradually, soft like nature, without sharp edges or hard lines.”

There are three floors inside the building, including two above ground and one below, which can also be used for private functions such as weddings or corporate events.

Photography is by John Lewis Marshall.

Here’s a project description from Emma Architecten:

Fort Diemerdam / Paviljoen Puur

Brief

Fort Diemerdam is part of the “Stelling of Amsterdam’. This historical defence line was recently put on the UNESCO world heritage list. This ignited a re-development plan for Fort Diemerdam to make it accessible to visitors, tourists and those interested.

The existing bunkers and fortress guardian house have been restored. The original plan of slopes and strongholds is restored and a nature conservation program has started. Emma architects has designed a new pavilion in which and from which puur produkties revives the fortress again with events, tours and catering.

Paviljoen Puur can be exclusively reserved for corporate and private events such as product presentations, meetings, corporate events and weddings. On Sunday and in the summer Paviljoen Puur is a place where everyone feels at home: young and old can enjoy indoor and outdoor atmospheric seasonal meals, tastings and a cultural program with theater and music.

Paviljoen Puur is located on the exact site of a former soldiers shelter. The footprint of this shelter was taken as the basis for the pavilion. Around its base a wooden wall curves up to protect the site and encompass the program. The design is inspired by the undulating forms of the slopes and the surrounding landscape. Openings in the sloping wall give views of the gun bays, a terrace and the direction of the island Pampus, the next fortress of defence line.

The stelling of Amsterdam, a UNESCO World heritage site

The coastal battery Fortress Diemerdam is part of the Stelling of Amsterdam, a former defence line around the capital, which was constructed between 1880 and 1914. The defence line consists of 46 forts and batteries, dikes and sluices at about 15 kilometres from Amsterdam, that by means of inundation would protect the lands of Amsterdam.

The Stelling of Amsterdam is protected in its entirety as a monument by the Province of Noord-Holland and the state. Since 1996, the Stelling of Amsterdam features on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Fort Diemerdam is particular within the Defence Line of Amsterdam, because it is one of only two coastal batteries.

Site plan – click above for larger image

Redevelopment

In 2006 Stadsherstel Amsterdam NV became the owner of Fort Diemerdam. They wanted to establish a cultural location in the fort. In such a location visitors get information about the fort, about the Defence Line of Amsterdam. Also, the grounds and buildings would be highly suitable for events such as open air theater, lectures and music.

Basement plan – click above for larger image

To this end, a plan was developed which entailed for the restoration of existing buildings, earthworks and the surrounding nature and the rebuilding of a former guard house. This plan was rejected by the advisory board, there would be no historicist building rebuilt, something new was needed for the fort to look again towards the future, instead of back into the past. Emma Architects from Amsterdam was commissioned a building that should give the fort a future alongside such a prominent past.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Architecture

Now, how to create something new in a place where it is fixed that the old is protected? Emma started looking for ways to simultaneously imagine the future and the past. To convey both an air of positive futurism, as well as a strong sense of the past. They found leads in the history of the fort and in the special landscape that surrounds her.

First floor plan – click above for larger image

In and around the fort site the kringenwet (‘law of circles’) applied. This required that all buildings within the firing range of the guns must be constructed out of wood. When the enemy would approach, all buildings were shot so they could no longer hide. A plinth of just 60 centimetres was allowed to be built from stone, all wooden houses would not last long in this wetland area.

Long section – click above for larger image

Emma brought the footprint of a former soldiers shelter, which emerged in an archaeological research, into the design. At the exact spot, the historical plan is pushed 60 cm into the ground, instead of above it. Visitors will sit slightly lowered, sheltered in the fortress grounds. A wooden wall curves up around this base plan to protect the site and encompass the required spatial program.

East elevation – click above for larger image

The wooden wall is draped along the features of the surrounding landscape. The Dutch engineers work of embankments, bastions and ramparts is characterized by the military precision of elevations, slopes and curves which could strategically hide troops and artillery from view. The wooden facade leans forward and backward, bends around the program and nestles the building deep in the stronghold. It plays with the landscape.

South elevation – click above for larger image

The openings in the wall and the terrace on the first floor offer visitors a focused view of the earthworks, the bunkers, the sky and let your gaze to the horizon. The differentiation of heights and openings creates a dynamic play looking and being looked at, of gradual and continuous disclosure.

West elevation – click above for larger image

Underneath the pavilion a large basement is built inside the major earthwork. This allowed the rear entrance to be realized outside the pavilion, towards the road. Thus the pavilion addresses the landscape on all sides. The technical installations are also integrated in the earthwork. The pavilion has been equipped with air heat pumps and the sewage discharges on a helofyte filter. The wooden facade is lined with 40,000 WRC natural shingles.

North elevation – click above for larger image

Due to the variable differences in orientation, the facade will naturally change colour as differently. Depending its inclination towards the sky or the earth, orientation on south or north, on prevailing wind direction or close to the trees; in time, the surrounding nature and the elements will define the appearance of the building.

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Emma Architecten appeared first on Dezeen.

This timber-clad cafe by architect Tony Fretton was designed as an upside-down interpretation of the neighbouring Tower of London (+ slideshow).

“I wanted to design a building that engages directly with the architecture of the tower,” Fretton told Dezeen, after explaining how the central section of the cafe is like the castellated walls of the historic building that was used as a prison for centuries.

The battlements that line the upper edge of the tower reappear as windows along the base of the cafe, while the chestnut panels that cover the facade have been painted grey to match the old stone walls.

Fretton explained how other new buildings around the tower fall into two categories. While the recently constructed entrance to the tower has a “high-tech” appearance that relates more closely to the office buildings nearby, the “anonymous” refreshment counters look more like ”wooden garden buildings”, but Fretton said he “didn’t want to do either.”

One end of the building stretches out beneath the arches of Tower Bridge, while the other finishes in a zig-zagging canopy that shelters an outdoor dining area.

“If you’re sitting on the terrace you see the metalwork of the awnings in relation to Tower Bridge,” said Fretton. “From some angles they look like little sketches of buildings.”

A dining room that seats 100 occupies the majority of the building and a separate bar is positioned beneath the bridge. Visitors enter through a glazed lobby, while an original oak door leads into the bar, offering access in the evenings when the rest of the wharf is closed.

See more projects by Tony Fretton, including a museum of fine art in Denmark. Photography is by Peter Cook.

Here’s some text from the architects:

Tower Wharf Café London, UK

Tony Fretton Architects has completed a new-build café and restaurant in one of London’s and the world’s most historically significant locations, the Tower of London.

The site forms the intersection between Tower Bridge and the UNESCO world heritage site of the Tower of London on the historic Tower Wharf to the Thames overlooking the Greater London Assembly building and HMS Belfast. The new development has been commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces – the independent charity that looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, the Banqueting House, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace.

Tower Wharf Café provides indoor and alfresco dining on the wharf, serving the 2.5 million tourists that visit the Tower of London each year. It adds to an assembly of pavilions, including a ticket office and river frontage kiosks. Positioned closer to the Tower and further from the main tourist entrance than these kiosks the new building demanded a design that is visibly striking and fanciful. It takes its cue from the Tower itself instead of the hi-tech architecture of the neighbouring City district or generic garden pavilion architecture.

The new building responds playfully to the Tower’s outer wall, an assembly of towers and curtain walls of differing height and form. It is made up of four linked volumes, housed in two discrete forms: one is like the castellated wall turned upside down with the space between the battlements becoming glazed recesses. The other is a long low-rise form joining the arch under Tower Bridge. Both are clad in rough sawn English Sweet Chestnut timber in a vertical formation. The timber is painted grey to match the hues and tones of the Kentish Ragstone rubble with limestone dressing of the Tower Walls and the Cornish granite blocks with Portland Stone dressing of the bridge. The use of rough timber continues the tradition of using the material in the utilitarian buildings that have historically occupied this site on the wharf.

The entrance is via a glazed lobby at the centre of the wharf elevation into a tall dining room and bar accommodating 100 covers. The dining hall opens out at the eastern end into an expansive glass-walled terrace serving an additional 60 covers. The terrace is paved with smooth sawn Yorkstone with elongated slabs demarking the remains of a historic wall on the site dating from the seventeenth century. A pitched roof of motorized retractable blinds and sophisticated guttering system ensures that the terrace can be used in all weather, providing alfresco dining against the backdrop of the Tower day and night throughout the seasons.

The dining hall is a light-filled space characterised by a central oculus skylight. A narrow band of glazing at the western end provides a light-of-touch interface between the new building and the arches, giving diners an unexpected view upwards to Tower Bridge. All of the windows are fixed with opening wooden side panels providing natural ventilation. The south elevation facing onto the wharf is fitted with electric blinds, which are perforated to allow ventilation during hot weather.

The arch under the Tower Bridge provides a setting for a more intimate cavernous oak lined bar and accommodates back of house kitchen and support functions beyond. The original solid oak door under the arches, which dates from the construction of the bridge in the 1880’s, provides a dramatic entrance through the bar to the restaurant when the wharf gates are closed at night.

At night, Erco ceiling lighting provides focused pools of light on each dining table. The building itself will be in shadow as diners inside and on the terrace will look out onto illuminated landmarks on every side.

Tower Wharf Café is a significant addition to London’s cultural and historical riverside. The design demonstrates sensitivity to the heritage of the Tower whilst acknowledging the popular culture of the wharf.

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Tony Fretton Architects appeared first on Dezeen.