Hasta La Ideas

Architects Coop Himmelb(l)au have completed a film and theatre centre in South Korea with a steel and glass cantilever that’s wider than the wings of an Airbus A380 (+ slideshow).

As the home to the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), the Busan Cinema Centre sandwiches a 4000-seat outdoor cinema between the two halves of the building, while the column-free roof measures 85 metres from end to end.

“Once we build architecture like aircraft wings we will no longer need columns,” Coop Himmelb(l)au Principal Wolf D.Prix told Dezeen. ”The cantilevered part of the roof with its 85 meters is twice as long as one wing of the Airbus 380.”

LED lights glow from behind the canopy’s glass underside, creating a rainbow of colours over the heads of visitors and guests arriving across the public square at the front of the complex.

A funnel-like structure punctures the roof on one side, while a ramp spirals around it to create a red carpet route into the reception hall in the south-eastern block.

A triangulated metal lattice clads this column, concealing a cafe at ground floor level and a staircase leading to a bar and restaurant above.

An indoor cinema and theatre are contained within the north-western block and are stacked on top of one another.

“The basic concept of this project was the discourse about the overlapping of open and closed spaces and of public and private areas,” said Prix. ”While the movie theatres are located in a mountain-like building, the centre’s public space is shared between an outdoor cinema and a huge reception area.”

Prix recently caused a stir by launching an attack on this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, claiming it’s “no longer about lively discussion and criticism of topics in contemporary architecture.”

See all our stories about Coop Himmelb(l)au » 

Photography is by Duccio Malagamba.

Here’s a project description from Coop Himmelb(l)au:

Busan Cinema Center / Busan International Film Festival, Busan, South Korea (2005 – 2012)

The Busan Cinema Center – A multifunctional urban plaza

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU’s design for the Busan Cinema Center and home of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) provides a new intersection between public space, cultural programs, entertainment, technology and architecture creating a vibrant landmark within the urban landscape.

LED saturated outdoor roof elements acting as a virtual sky connect building-objects and plaza-zones into a continuous, multifunctional public urban space.

Media, technology, entertainment and leisure are merged in an open-architecture of changeable and tailored event experiences. The result is a responsive and changing space of flows acting as an urban catalyst for cultural exchange and transformation.

Project Description

The concept envisions an urban plaza of overlapping zones including an Urban Valley, a Red Carpet Zone, a Walk of Fame and the BIFF Canal Park. The urban plaza is formed by building and plaza elements sheltered by two large roofs that are enabled with computer programmed LED outdoor ceiling surfaces. The larger of the roofs includes a column-free cantilever of 85 meters over a multifunctional Memorial Court event plaza. The urban zones of the complex are formed by individual and recognizable building objects placed below the outdoor roofs. The building objects contain theater, indoor and outdoor cinemas, convention halls, office spaces, creative studios and dining areas in a mixture of sheltered and linked indoor and outdoor public spaces. The design of these spaces supports flexible, hybrid functionality that can be used both during the annual festival period and day-to-day use without interruption.

The urban zones defined by functional surfaces in plan are further articulated in a sectional dialogue between stone-clad “ground” forms of the Cinema Mountain and BIFF Hill, and the metal and LED clad “sky” elements of the roofs. The materiality of the building objects differentiates the spaces and articulates the architectural concept. Through their shape, placement and materiality, the various parts create a dynamic and informal tension between the ground and the roof.

Architecture and Cinema – the Main Roof

The dynamic LED lighting surface covering the undulating ceilings of the outdoor roof canopies gives the Busan Cinema Center its symbolic and representative iconographic feature. Artistic lighting programs tailored to events of the BIFF or the Municipality of Busan can be created by visual artists and displayed across the ceiling in full motion graphics, creating a lively urban situation at night, but also visible during the day.

Imbedded in the architecture the lighting surfaces serve as a communication platform for the content of the Busan Cinema Center. Light as art, which is at the very nature of cinema, creates a unique and memorable atmosphere for the public urban plaza and architecture of the BCC.

Double Cone, Café and Roof Restaurant

The Double Cone is the symbolic landmark entrance element to the Busan Cinema Center and serves as the connective element between the Cinema Mountain and the BIFF Hill. Designed as a steel web drum on top of a series of radial concrete fin walls, the Double Cone also is the only vertical structural support for the large cantilevered roof acting as a large, singular column.

During day-to-day use, the ground level of the Double Cone contains a public café with outdoor seating, and the upper level links to a world-class restaurant, bar and lounge within the roof volume with views overlooking the APEC park and river beyond.

During the festival the Double Cone marks the Red Carpet Zone and VIP entrance to the “Busan Cinema Center”, and can be used as a pre-event space for VIP’s on the ground level, or as a pre-staging area for transfer to the Red Carpet procession to the outdoor cinema stage, or to the upper levels of the Cinema Mountain or BIFF Hill foyers via the red carpet spiralling ramp and bridges suspended from the roof.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image 

Cinema Mountain

The Cinema Mountain is a multifunctional building containing both a 1,000 seat multifunctional theater with fly-tower and full backstage support, and a three-screen multiplex comprised of a 400-seat and two 200-seat Cinemas. Separate entrances and foyers are provided for theater and cinema respectively, however the foyers and circulation are designed so that they can be combined depending on operational preferences.

Complete structural separation between the theater and the cinemas ensures optimal noise isolation for the theater space, which is designed as a first-class, flexible hall with seating on two levels and optimal sight lines and adjustable acoustics. A flexible proscenium type stage with side stages and fly-tower accommodates movable acoustical towers used to close down the stage volume for concerts and operatic theater, but can be easily moved for theater, musicals and other staged events. The stage includes a fore-stage lift that can provide additional seating, an orchestra pit or stage extension as preferred. Horizontally tracking curtains along the walls of the audience chamber can be hidden or deployed to adjust the acoustics of the space.

Second floor plan – click above for larger image 

Urban Valley / Outdoor Cinema

The Urban Valley combines a flexible flat ground surface and large stepped tribunes of the BIFF Hill as seating for a 4,000 seat Outdoor Cinema. The Valley is sheltered by a large sculpted outdoor roof with an LED ceiling surface and is oriented towards a flexible stage and screen area on the outside of the Eastern façade of the Cinema Mountain. Accommodation for purpose built projection screens, stages, loudspeaker and lighting arrays are provided allowing for exterior performances to share the interior theater’s backstage facilities.

Third floor plan – click above for larger image 

BIFF Hill

The BIFF Hill is a ground surface formation creating the tribune seating space of the outdoor cinema and accommodating the concourse, the convention hall, the BIFF-center, the BIFF-offices and the visual media center. Given the flexible organization of the ground plan, it can be easily adapted to the different requirements during festival and day-to-day usage.

Fifth floor plan – click above for larger image 

Red Carpet Zone

During the BIFF festival, or for other special events, the Red Carpet Zone is created by a special drop-off and media-event processional entrance at the Double Cone entrance element. A red carpet can be extended from the Double Cone event space and photo position to the south through the park and along a pier. VIP’s can enter from limousines along the street edge, or arrive by boat from the pier. Various options are provided for the red carpet circulation from the Double Cone to the different event and performance spaces depending on the scenario preferred, including a vibrant spiralling ramp from the staging level of the event space to the VIP restaurant lounge of the upper roof or to the BIFF Hill and Cinema Mountain on upper levels of the foyers. During non-event periods the Red Carpet Zone acts as the symbolic entryway into the Busan Cinema Center complex.

Seventh floor plan – click above for larger image

Memorial Court & Walk of Fame

The Walk of Fame contains the Memorial Court as a public plaza. Our proposal is to imbed sources in the ground surface projecting holographic images of the stars, directors, producers and the like who have been made a part of the Walk of Fame. Their avatars inhabit the memorial court as permanent residents; however their programs can be changed to show variable aspects of information over time or in relation to specific BIFF- events.

During non-event times the Memorial Court is used as a grand entryway to the Cinema Mountain and contains an outdoor dining area of the Double Cone Café overlooking the park and water beyond.

Due to the column-free sheltered roof above, the public plaza of the Memorial Court is a multi-functional event space that can be utilized for BIFF- or Busan City- events without interrupting the day-to-day activities of the Busan Cinema Center, or simultaneously with other events in the additional spaces.

Long section 1 – click above for larger image

BIFF Canal Park

The BIFF Canal Park is proposed as an extension of the open network of public programs into the planned riverside park, and as a linking element between the river and the cinema complex. A new pedestrian footbridge is proposed to connect the Busan Cinema Center site with the park across the Boulevard to the South connecting the Double Cone with the APEC Park. An additional outdoor event ‘bowl’ is proposed surrounded by canals that can provide public and private boat access to the project site. Space for a future extension of the Busan Cinema Center project is proposed as an island among the canals, further integrating the cultural functions of the Busan Cinema Center project with the surrounding public space and landscape environment.

Long section 2 – click above for larger image

Competition (1st Prize): 11/2005

Start of Planning: 01/2007
Start of Construction: 10/2008
Opening: 29/09/2011
Completion: 2012

Cross section 1 – click above for larger image

Site Area: 32,100 m²
Net Floor Area (interior spaces): 51,067 m²
Gross Floor Area (interior spaces): 57,981 m²
Built-up Area: 10,005 m² (without roofs)
Cubage: 349,708 m³

Cross section 2 – click above for larger image

Building Costs: about EUR 100 Mio
Costs per m²: 1.725 EUR/m² (excl. exterior spaces)

Cross section 3 – click above for larger image

The post Busan Cinema Centre
by Coop Himmelb(l)au appeared first on Dezeen.

Budapest architects MARP have replaced the missing corner of a ruined Renaissance palace with a Corten steel lookout point.

The L-shaped structure is part of a renovation of the ancient site in the city of Pécs, Hungary, which was almost completely destroyed. The architects stabilised the site and added new elements, including the lookout point, a low-level stage for open-air theatre and Corten steel seating blocks.

“We chose Corten steel as the primary material of our intervention to make the new structures significantly distinguishable from the older parts,” architect Márton Dévényi told Dezeen. ”The old remaining structures had been so incomplete for centuries that we did not want to rebuild them, we preferred to show their absence.”

The lookout point offers vistas over the Tettye valley, similar to those that the original two-storey palace would have enjoyed, while an aperture in the steel wall frames views of the internal courtyard.

Visitors ascend a staircase hidden within one wall and emerge on a walkway that runs along the length of the adjoining wall. A perforated pattern allows light to permeate the structure and filter into the staircase.

Photography is by Tamás Török.

Check out our Pinterest board for plenty more projects made from Corten steel.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

The reconstruction of the Szatmáry Palace

The existing ruins of the renaissance Szathmáry Palace is one of Hungary’s most valuable protected monuments. The palace is situated in the city of Pécs which is one of the oldest town of the southwestern region of Hungary with long historical background. The ruins are located in a park of Tettye Valley in the northeast part of the city, where the dense historical urban fabric meets nature. The valley rises almost from the heart of the city, offering a magnificent view of the city from the top. Bishop György Szathmáry (1457-1524) built his own Renaissance style summer residence here at the very beginning of the 16th century. The palace must have been a two-storey building with inner patio, made of local stone. It was said to have been a U-shaped building arranged around a courtyard open towards the South, that is to say, towards the city. A former archeological excavation confirmed that the Bishop of Pécs had a building with inner courtyard built that was rebuilt a number of times later. During the long occupation of Hungary by the Ottoman Empire from the mid-16th century, the palace housed probably a Turkish dervish cloister. This is when the south-east tower must have been built that is still untouched. After the Ottomans had been driven away, the building was left empty and its condition became worse and worse. At the beginning of the 20th century, one part of the building was demolished, and certain openings were strengthened with arches, thus providing a sense of romantic ruin aesthetics. Until recently the ruin was used as a background scene for a summer theatre. Despite the long history and its superb location, the palace in its bad condition was not able to fulfil the proper role following from its historical and architectural importance.

In 2010, it was Pécs, Essen and Istanbul that were awarded the title of European Capital of Culture. As part of this, a priority project focussed on the renewal of public areas including Tettye Park. This project provided an opportunity to put the ruin in a new context and the park could be present in its redefined way as a whole. The ruin in its dense complexity carries a number of qualities, therefore the designers of the intervention studied the current context and condition of the ruin as a starting point.

The Szathmáry Palace are, mostly, ruins of a building, but today this quality does not say too much in itself. It does not particularly reflect a significant renassaince feature. Obviously it lacks the architectural details we know very little about (few of the renaissance stone fragments kept in Pécs can be attributed to the building in Tettye). So it can be said that the architectural reality of the ruins continue to exist through the spatial relations generated by the remains of the wall. However, this shows a very mixed picture caused by natural and human erosion. The volume of damage at the southeast corner is so big that one can hardly picture the supplement of the ruins.

At the same time, the badly damaged ruin, particularly due to the neglected state of the park, appeared as a picturesque landscape element in the valley of Tettye. Pre-war postcards represent the atmosphere of a nice, picturesque tourist destination which undeniably rule the whole landscape. However, the abandoned park began to re-conquer the ruin so much that during high season, the character of the ruin can hardly be made out. From certain angles, it looked like a geological creature. This feeling has still remained if one looks at the ruin closely due to the intense erosion of the former southern side of the building. The image of the picturesque ruin is emphasised by the strengthening arches made through the early 20th century.

The third important peculiarity about the building is that the originally closed inner space of the palace has continued to be part of the park’s public areas today, dissolving the former differentiation between the landscape and the building. Thus the ruin has gained a public space quality in the meantime. Interestingly enough, the open-air performances of the summer theatre set in the ruins emphasised this feature even more.

The reconstruction programme of the Tettye Park basically made it unavoidable to re-define the role of the palace ruin as an emphatic landscape element and architectural monument. When defining the interventions, our main aim was to avoid overwriting the intellectual layers as well as the quality resulting from the ruin’s complexity. The starting point was to accept the existence of these even if the layers were developed either through centuries or just a few decades. At the same time, it was unavoidable to revise and ’retune’ the quality and the meanings carried by the ruin.

During the course of the architectural interventions, together with the monument protection authority, the ruin’s wholescale floorplan and its partial spatial reconstruction was carried out based on the scientific results of the archaeological excavations that preceded the design phase. During the excavation, the base walls of the southern wing believed to have been missing for a long time were discovered, which seemed to support the hypothesis that the building did not have a U-shape. As a result of the excavations, we were now able to draw the ascending wall parts and construct the original floorplan. What we basically did during the reconstruction of the floorplan was to repair the floor level inside the external outline of the whole of the original ruins, and we also attached retaining walls along the eroded southern side and the south-eastern corner, behind which we filled up the eroded ground up to the floor level. This supporting wall has a stabilising role in stopping the erosion that resulted in the sliding. The original floorplan is marked by the walltrace.

During the local spatial reconstruction, we designed an L-shaped, steel structure building part that had been missing from the south-eastern side, which includes a look-out tower and stairs leading to it, as well as a technical facility required for theatre use. It is important to mention that the new construction did not mean to be a formal reconstruction (the latter one was not an aim in fact and the amount of data that was available was insufficient), therefore it does not repeat the original mass properly. What happened instead was that we wanted to create such a mass in the place of the former wall corner that strengthens the building character of the ruin as opposed to its ruin character, framing the city view along with the current corner resembling it to the act of viewing out of a building. On the territory of the ruin, no more reconstructions were done, that is to say, we did not mean to ’complete’ the ruin. Evidently, the look-out tower offers a fascinating view of the city, but at the same time there is a nice view too to the inner part of the ruin, making the floor plan reconstruction neat and revealing.

As a part of the floor plan reconstruction, we re-defined the ground surfaces inside the outer walls of Palace, referring the former usage of spaces: the inner patio became a green lawn zone, while the other older inner areas, where the inner rooms were, received a surface course of mineral rubble of local stone granulations. As part of the interpretation of the ruin’s space as a public space, we applied surfaces that refer to the current public space use rather than to the original floor carpet. In the former inner space of the ruin’s Western wing, a new carpet-like stage was completed for theatrical purposes, rising above the surface level very slightly. The new corner construction, the stage and the street furniture (sitting facilities) all received the same Corten steel carpet.

As part of the reconstruction of Tettye Park, both the ruin’s immediate and distant environment have been renewed. Having replanted the green area around the ruin, the formerly covered, fragmented building that could be characterised as a more unified, magnificent whole has managed to regain some of its original character. We also managed to restore both the physical and intellectual layers that contribute to the ruin’s complexity through applied interventions. It was also an aim to rather define new directions to its future destiny when we placed the parts endowed with the remaining meanings in a new context. Furthermore, the whole area could become a new, exciting part of the city context, in which the re-defined palace ruin plays an outstanding role. Through the re-arrangement of the green surroundings, which included the removal of the traffic located south of the ruin, we created a triple terrace system that defines the centre of the Tettye valley in this place again.

Architects: Marp, Budapest
Márton Dévényi, Pál Gyürki-Kiss
Assistants: Ádám Holicska, Dávid Loszmann

Landscape planning: S73, Budapest
Dr. Péter István Balogh, Sándor Mohácsi, János Hómann

Structural engineering: Marosterv, Pécs
József Maros, Gergely Maros

Steel construction planner: J.Reilly, Budapest
Zoltán V. Nagy, Péter Bokor

Electrical Planning: LM-Terv, Pécs
Gábor Lénárt

Mechanical services: Pécsi Mélyépítő Iroda, Pécs
Erzsébet Bruckner, Ferenc Müller

Competition phase: 2007
Design phase: 2008-2010
Construction: 2009-2011
Gross area: 1040 m2
Client: City of Pécs

Photos: Tamás Török

 Above: site plan

Above : section

Above: floor plan 

Above : elevations

 Above: details

Above : axonometry

The post Reconstruction of the Szatmáry Palace
by MARP appeared first on Dezeen.

Architect Jean Nouvel has completed a design showroom in Montpellier where furniture and homewares are caged behind chain link fencing.

A four-storey atrium divides the split-level building into two halves, with staircases that criss-cross from side to side.

A bookshop occupies the ground floor, alongside a restaurant furnished with stacking metal chairs that Nouvel designed especially.

The facade of the building is embellished with a series of words, which name activities that might take place in the home.

As the fifth RBC Design Centre to open in France, the Montpellier store was initiated by brand founder Franck Argentin and is due to be inaugurated later this month.

Read more about the chair designed by Nouvel for the showroom in our earlier story.

See all our stories about Jean Nouvel »

Here’s some information from Ateliers Jean Nouvel:

RBC Design Centre – Montpellier

Designed by Jean Nouvel and initiated by Franck Argentin, founder of RBC, RBC Design Centre is the ultimate place dedicated to design.

This amazing building of 9 levels, is a 2 000 m2 art of living destination with no equivalence in Europe in its architecture and philosophy.

RBC Design Centre celebrates a global design culture that goes from furniture pieces, objects, books to exhibitions and food.

Synthesis of RBC’s know-how, leading player in the french design retail, RBC Design Centre presents the best international brands of furniture, lighting, kitchen and bathroom design (Alias, Artemide, Arper, B*B ITALIA, Belux, Cappellini, Cassina, Emu, Fantoni, Flos, Fontana Arte, Foscarini, Knoll, Antonio Luppi, Magis, MDF, Muuto, Poliform, Poltrona Frau, Varenna, Vitra…), taken care of by a great architecture and design passionate professionals’ team who is entirely dedicated to the best indoor and outdoor solutions for better living. To support even better people’s needs, a lightnig designer position has been created so that lighting becomes a true wellness source in function as well as in design.

RBC Design Centre also features a 120 m2 Kartell shop and a 150 m2 shop in shop dedicated to smaller objects and supporting international and french young design editors such as Edition sous Etiquette, Atelier d’Exercices, Chilewich, Eno…

Positioned as a cultural destination, RBC Design Centre will also held a number of design exhibitions, together with book signatures in its amazing library of 4000 books on architecture, design and food.

The 70 seat restaurant – MIA by Pascal Sanchez, with a large 120 seat terrace has just opened. Chef Pascal Sanchez has worked more than 15 years with famous Pierre Gagnaire, first at its parisian place and further on at Sketch (London) and Twist (Mandarin Oriental-Las Vegas). From those years he takes with him the love of a very modern mix of good local food, art and design. Outdoor tables and chairs have been specially designed by Jean Nouvel and edited by EMU and tableware is 100% Alessi.

The building designed by Jean Nouvel can be first seen as a simple box, in a very neutral grey, enhanced by key words in white: CREATE – DREAM– READ – COOK – LIGHT – LIVE

Once you enter, the outside opacity gives place to transparency. The deep unique grey tone of the building is a perfect scene for the strong museum like set ups of the furniture pieces.

Distributed on eight levels on both sides of a central major hole, protected by a stainless stitch, they are colors and life of the place, inviting to roam from a visual request to the other one.

This spectacular “furniture wardrobe”, cut by stairs that link levels, looks inspired by mathematician Escher’s drawings.

The building is situated in Port Marianne, a brand new contemporary area in Montpellier where Jean Nouvel has also designed the town hall.

The post RBC Design Centre Montpellier
by Jean Nouvel appeared first on Dezeen.

Courtyard gardens bite through the walls of this cafe in Japan by Tokyo studio Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects (+ slideshow).

Glass screens allow views across the courtyards from each of the five dining areas that comprise the Tablehat cafe, some of which are only large enough to accommodate a single table.

A wooden roof sits like a series of boxes atop the single-storey building, with openings that let daylight through to the plants and flowers in the courtyards.

The cafe was constructed beside the client’s house and a door leads into it from the side of the existing building.

Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects more recently completed a controversial house with holes in the walls and floors.

See more projects in Japan »

Photography is by Kai Nakamura.

Here’s a short description from Hiroyuki Shinozaki:

Tablehat

This small cafe is built in the peaceful residential street of Odawara city.

If it looks up, there are some on which the air of various sizes is likely to collect.

On the scale as shown in a table, they stood in a row superficially and have floated, under them, tables, chairs, plants, and the kitchen are placed.

The air as the exterior enclosed by the foundation of concrete and the air of various sizes which collects on it as an inside are making a border of inside and outside in the place with a height of 1.8 m.

How to make a border as air of suchinside and outside is tried.

Client: individual owner
Location: Kanagawa, Japan

Site area: 341.19sqm
Built Area: 49.51sqm
Completion date: September 2011

Plan – click above for larger image

Structure: Wood frame and reinforced concrete, 1 storey
Structure engineer: Tatsumi Terado Structural Studio

Section – click above for larger image

Producer: Uemura Design Studio
Lighting design: Izumi Okayasu Lighting Design
Contractor: Sensyu, Ltd

West elevation – click above for larger image

The post Tablehat by
Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Prints of the London 2012 Aquatics Centre by photographer Luke Hayes are now on display in The Changing Room, a space at Dezeen Super Store that is given over to a different creative each week to showcase their products or artwork.

The black and white photographs of Zaha Hadid’s purpose-built games venue capture the undulating form of the roof and the scale of the structure compared to its visitors.

Prints are available to purchase at a range of sizes on request: ask in-store for more details.

If you have a product or piece of work you would like to exhibit at The Changing Room at Dezeen Super Store, please email ben@dezeen.com with The Changing Room in the subject line.

See more products available at Dezeen Super Store »
See more photography by Luke Hayes on Dezeen »
See more stories about London 2012 »

Dezeen Super Store
38 Monmouth Street, London WC2
1 July – 30 September 2012

www.dezeensuperstore.com

The post Luke Hayes photography in The Changing
Room at Dezeen Super Store appeared first on Dezeen.