Hasta La Ideas

Fir trusses create triangles that meet in the middle of the ceiling at a community hall in California designed by Siegel & Strain Architects.

A grid of tension cables supports the structural trusses, while slatted pine panels fill the spaces between them.

A central skylight runs along the length of the ceiling to provide natural light.

The 25 metre-long hall has large wooden doors resembling those of a barn.

The hall was completed by the architects in 2009, as were a library, youth centre and meeting rooms contained within the same building.

Other popular multi-purpose halls featured on Dezeen this year include one with an arched steel shell and another with a facade of shutters.

Photography is by David Wakely.

Here’s a more detailed description from the architects:

Yountville Community Center

For decades, the residents of Yountville, California, a rural town in Napa County, relied on a small 1920s-era community hall and a hodgepodge of rented spaces to host community events. The hall was in need of renovation, ill-equipped to support art classes and lacking in outdoor recreation spaces. In addition, the town had outgrown its library. In 1998, after surveying residents’ needs, the municipality embarked on a planning process for an expanded town center at the heart of town.

The Yountville Town Center opened in November 2009, weaving new and existing buildings and outdoor rooms into a place designed to enrich community life. Designed by Siegel & Strain Architects and located on a 2.5-acre site on Yountville’s main street, the town center consists of a new 10,000-square-foot community center, the renovated 4,800-square-foot community hall, and the addition of a sheriff’s substation to the adjacent post office. The new community center houses a branch library, multipurpose room, teen center, and meeting and program spaces. It opens onto a new town square framed by the existing community hall and the post office.

Building exteriors blend with the rural character, while inside the spaces are light and airy. The large multipurpose room, 80 feet by 50 feet, is day-lit along the roof’s spine by a ridge skylight, which has splayed walls that soften the light as it enters the room. A unique combination of Douglas fir trusses and cables enables the roof’s structural support system to have a minimal presence in the room and avoids blocking daylight from above. A large, covered porch of red cedar on two sides of the town square connects the community hall and community center, providing shade in the summer. Barn doors extend the multipurpose room onto the adjacent barbecue patio.

Targeted to achieve a LEED Platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council and to achieve energy savings of 44% over Title 24, the design integrates a range of green features. Walkways and bike paths connect the center to surrounding neighborhoods and main street activities. Exterior sunshades, a highly insulated building envelope, and “cool” standing seam metal roofs reduce energy use.

Energy-efficient mechanical systems are integrated with ground-source heat pumps for heating and cooling. A building integrated management system takes advantage of the temperate climate by opening skylights and windows on days with mild temperatures. Operable skylights, controlled by CO2 and rain sensors, and operable windows provide natural ventilation and balanced natural illumination.

Roof-mounted photovoltaic laminates on the new and existing buildings supply energy. Water-conserving plumbing fixtures, harvested rainwater, drip irrigation, subsurface irrigation, and drought-tolerant native plants further reduce water use. The existing parking lot was regraded to slope naturally so that rainwater could be harvested in a bioswale. Overall, site design reduces storm runoff by 40% over preconstruction conditions.
Building materials were selected to minimize life-cycle impacts and provide light and airy interiors free of formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds. Buildings feature durable, recycled content cement-fiber shingles and metal roofs. The new building’s red cedar cladding and Alaskan yellow cedar sunscreens and entrances are regionally harvested. Slatted wood ceilings are locally sourced white pine, and the existing community hall’s oak floor was reused. Over 75% of the wood is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Sustainability may not have been stated as part of the original vision, but the desire to incorporate green design grew over time as the project developed, championed by both civic leaders and the community. Now Yountville has a new “front porch,” bringing together residents of all ages while blending an agrarian vernacular with time-honored sustainable practices.

Architect: Siegel & Strain Architects
Location: Yountville, VA
Client: Town of Yountville
Date of occupancy: December 2009
Gross square footage: 20,000
Construction cost: $9.8M
Contractor: Swank Construction

Structural Engineer: Endres Ware Architects Engineers
Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing: Timmons Design Engineers
Civil Engineer: Coastland Civil Engineering
Landscape Architect: John Northmore Roberts & Associates
Lighting: Alice Prussin Lighting Design
Commissioning: Enovity Inc.
Specifications: Topflight Specs
Construction Manager: Pound Management

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Milson Island Sports Hall by Allen Jack+Cottier	Sports Hall by Franz Architekten & Atelier Mauch	Community centre by MARP and Dévényi és Társa

Criss-crossing metal beams surround a first floor reading room at a multimedia library near Paris.

Designed by French architect Philippe Gazeau, the Médiathèque Romain Rolland is situated within a residential neighbourhood and overlooks a community park.

Offset behind the white lattice exterior and glazing is a second layer of criss-crossing beams, finished in black, that could be mistaken for shadows.

The reading room occupies the entire first floor of the building and surrounds an enclosed second floor mezzanine where multimedia facilities are located.

The ceiling of this room subtly undulates to create natural drainage slopes on the grass-covered roof above.

Offices, meeting rooms, toilets and an auditorium are located on the ground floor of the library.

Another recently featured building that employs metal latticework is a design institute in Hong Kong – see our earlier story here.

More stories about libraries on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from Philippe Gazeau:

Media Library Romain Rolland

Rue Albert Giry, quartier Cité Cachin, 93230 Romainville

The Romainville multimedia library is located in the heart of a dormitory town that is being completely renovated. The town planners wanted to open up the district by fragmenting the housing blocks, creating a central plain to provide a large park and two facilities, including the multimedia library which is intended to act as an attractive magnet on a neighbourhood level.

The new building floats between two flying carpets. Following a continuous movement, the multimedia library’s volume sweeps over the level of the street and the public garden to slide under the gentle slopes of its planted roof.

It is the project’s roof that gives the initial driving force. The roof’s hills and valleys transmit the sweeping movement through to the level of the central plain, crossing through the large reading room on the upper floor.

This is achieved by the negative curves reflecting the undulating movements of the roof through to the ceiling. As well as traversing, the oriented interior space of the reading room overlooking the street and garden is also traversed and suspended by the landscape as it rises up to become the ceiling.

The new media library at Romainville can be seen as a building with simple architectural forms, but with great power and expressive richness. It is a building ‘oriented’ between the new street and the large redesigned garden.

It is a building ‘hierarchized’ on the basis of 3 superimposed horizontal sequences: a base on the ground floor, a large metal covered hall on the first floor cantilevered on both the street side and the garden side, lastly a topographically undulating vegetated roof. These three main elements structure and bring together the building’s architectural and functional image.

The project is no more extensive than the surface area of the plot proposed in the overall development plan, thereby freeing up the largest possible area for the future garden. The main volume is aligned with the new street, but the ground floor recess under the first floor cantilever is an opportunity to lay out a vast covered, sheltered passage between the public roadway and the media library.

The building takes its characteristic appearance from the first floor metal structure’s extensive columnless overhang. On the street, the monumental awning opening onto this big covered area naturally signals the entrance to the building.

Some powerful architectural sequences accompany the user or visitor from the outside right into the heart of the media library: the parvis under the awning, the exhibition hall, the vertical link space with the grand staircase, from where you come to the main reading room.

Finding one’s way around is facilitated by the large north-east and south-west windows facing each other like a pair of indoor-outdoor bookends.

Another powerful feature of the reading room is its ceiling, which follows the underside of the undulating vegetated roof. The very fluid crossing space is also set in movement through the random shapes of the ceiling, contrasting with the straight frontage walls.

A second mezzanine floor houses the multimedia area: on the ‘Russian doll’ principle, this area readily accessible from the adult and children’s sections hovers slightly above the rest of the browsing areas for reasons of soundproofing, while remaining highly visible and attractive from the central area.

The two glass frontages are picture windows looking onto the city or the garden through the filter of the exterior metal structure A maintenance area midway between the glazed façade and the structure gives depth to the casing. This depth is used to install the outer blinds protecting the reading areas in conditions made to last.

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Circular translucent skylights nested in the roof bring extra light to the central area, while providing smoke ejection from the interior volume.

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The green roof is treated as a natural but hanging extension of the future garden. Its topography lends it a different status from the ordinary vegetated terrace roof. This roof can be seen from neighbouring buildings, and we feel it is very important that it blends in with the future landscaped area.

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The inverted impact of its undulations is a key element in characterizing the atmosphere in the large reading room, and evidences the determination for this project to be highly consistent, with continuity between the work on the interior spaces and the handling of the exterior architecture. The metal structure featuring like a grid around the first floor, and the cantilevering over the ground floor areas are the other main examples of this.

Client : Mairie de Romainville
Architect : Philippe Gazeau
Project manager : Lorraine Pele, Benjamin Clarens
Engineers : SLH
Area : 2085 m² SHON
Cost : 3 730 000 € HT
2004-2011

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Torre Telefónica Diagonal ZeroZero by EMBA	Pedestrian bridge by Bernard Tschumi	Design Institute by CAAU

Faceted glass triangles create glowing crowns around a trio of stadiums for the World University Games currently taking place in Shenzhen.

The three Universiade stadiums were designed by German studio GMP Architekten and surround an artificial lake.

The largest of the three buildings is the main events arena, which seats up to 60,000 spectators in three tiered stands.

The second stadium hosts indoor activities including ice skating and the third houses a swimming pool for aquatic events.

The closing ceremony for the games takes place on 23 August.

GMP Architekten have designed a number of stadiums for international competitions, including the recently published World Aquatics Championships complex in Shanghai – see all our stories about stadiums by GMP Architekten here.

Photography is by Christian Gahl.

Here are some more details from GMP:

2011 Universiade in Shenzhen

Inauguration of the Sports Center and Bao’an Stadium

To mark the occasion of the Universiade, which will take place from 12th to 23rd August 2011, the Universiade sports center and Bao’an stadium will be opened tomorrow in Shenzhen, southern China. The international com- petitions to come up with a design for the buildings were won in 2006 and 2007 by the designs of architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp). The Universiade sports center consists of a stadium, a multifunctional hall and a swimming pool. The stadium in the Bao’an district is designed as an athletics stadium. However, during the 2011 Universiade, it is being used for football matches.

Universiades are World Games for students and are held every other year in winter and summer, hosted by the International University Sports Federation, the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU). Going by the number of athletes participating, the summer Universiade is the second largest multi-sport event in the world after the Summer Olympics. It was announced in January 2007 that the 26th summer Universiade 2011 was to take place in Shenzhen.

Universiade 2011 Sports Center

The design for the Universiade Sports Center in the city of Shenzhen is inspired by the surrounding undulating landscape and generates a formal dialog that references Chinese horticulture and philosophy toward the land. The roof structure projects up to 65 m, and is designed as a steel prismatic shell on a basis of triangular fac- ets. The crystalline shape of the three stadia is additionally emphasized by the illumination of the translucent facades at night. An artificial lake connects the stadium with the circular multifunctional hall in the north and the rectangular swimming hall west thereof. The central sports plaza is accessed via a raised promenade from the individual stadia.

The main stadium is planned to be multifunctional, meeting the requirements of international sports occasions and events. Total capacity is 60,000, seated in three stands. The total diameter of the roof is 310 m lengthways and 290 m across.

The indoor sports complex is designed as a circular multifunctional arena for indoor sports competitions as well as for ice-skating and other events. The overall capacity is approx. 18,000 spectators. The swimming complex forms the third module of the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Center. The overall capacity is approx. 3,000 spectators, the seats are arranged on two stands.

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Competition: 2006 – 1st prize
Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with Nicolas Pomränke
Project: leader Ralf Sieber
Staff Xu: Ji, Alexander Niederhaus, Huang Cheng, Niklas Veelken, Martin Gänsicke, Stephanie Brendel, Marlene Törper, Andrea Moritz, Zheng Xin, Kralyu Chobanov, Chen Zhicong, Thomas Krämer, Lin Wei, Martin Schulte- Frohlinden, Plamen Stamatov, Christian Dorndorf, Lian Kian, Zhou Bin, Tobias Keyl, Li Ling, Helge Lezius, Meng Xin, Kuno von Haefen
Structural concept and design roof: schlaich bergermann und partner – Sven Plieninger with Wei Chen
Technical building equipment: IG Tech
Lighting design: Conceptlicht
Acoustics Acoustic Design: Ahnert
Facade planning: Shen and Partner
Chinese partner practices: SADI (stadium), CNADRI (multifunctional hall), CCDI (swimming hall), BLY (landscape design)
Client: Bureau of Public Works of Shenzhen Municipality
Seats, stadium: 60,000
Seats, multifunctional hall: 18,000
Seats, swimming hall: 3,000
Construction period: 2007–2011

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London Aquatics Centre by Zaha Hadid	Convention Centre by Eva Jiricna Architects	Shanghai Sports Centre by GMP Architekten

The roof of a cafe pavilion in a German town cemetery is edged with both round and pointed arches.

Designed by German studio Architekten Martenson und Nagel Theissen, the building contains three separate dining rooms for cemetery visitors and funeral parties.

A barrel-vaulted ceiling covers one of the rooms, whilst the second has a tented ceiling and the third is mono-pitched overhead.

Dolomite stone was sprinkled into poured concrete to create a terrazzo-like floor inside the cafe.

Mirrored glass surrounds the facade of the timber-framed pavilion, reflecting the surrounding plane trees during the day.

Two other buildings designed to house funerals have been featured on Dezeen this year – see also a crematorium of circular structures surrounded by granite blocks and a funeral home arranged around four courtyards.

Photography is by Brigida González.

Here is some additional text from Architekten Martenson und Nagel Theissen:

Cafe Pavilion, Düren – A Moulded Space

Site and Commission

The town cemetery in the Eastern part of Düren has taken on the role of a public park. Before, there was nowhere for visitors to the cemetery to shelter nor for large or small funeral ceremonies to take place.

The new cemetery and café pavilion is a space where people can encounter each other when things are out of the ordinary. They can grieve together, exchange memories and look for refuge, which they will find under a multifaceted ceiling landscape.

Diversity in Unity

The architecture of the pavilion unfolds out of a neutral, nondescript, square ground plan. Three closed volumes have been inserted to accommodate the service facilities of the pavilion; they structure the space and divide the ground plan into three areas, without blocking them off from one another. Each of the three areas, which all receive visitors, is characterised by archetypical roof shapes and varying room heights, combining to form one large space.

The barrel vault, the mono-pitch roof and the tented roof of the visitor areas together form a manifold, continuous ceiling landscape, which offers refuge and connects the visitor areas to form a flowing unified space; it also provides richly diverse views into the surrounding park.

The landscape profile created by these roof shapes can be read on the façade; it connects the individual exterior elevations of the building with one another.

Structure and Materiality

The simple materials applied, give this pavilion clarity and uniqueness. Dolomite stone from the Alps was sprinkled into the reinforced concrete floor slab while it was being poured to give the floor of the pavilion a lively, terrazzo-like feeling after it was sanded.

Pre-produced timber elements form the walls and the ceiling landscape, giving the interior spaces a homogenous, monolithic appearance.

The large roof volume, which covers the pavilion and accommodates the ventilation pipes, has been shaped using a timber framework. The façade of the roof is formed by Kerto panels, which also bear largeformat panes of glass; these are highly reflective to give the mourners the necessary intimacy.

During the day, the pavilion interlaces with the surrounding greenery, which is extended by its reflection in the glass façade. This effect is reversed at night when the façade becomes transparent and the interior space dominates the appearance of the building.

The colour scheme of the pavilion is based on the colour of the dignified plane trees, which characterise the cemetery park; this finds expression in silver-glazed timber surfaces, oxidised aluminium windows, and greenish-coloured glazing.

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Trail House by Anne Holtrop	Faculty Club by Shift architecture	Parking Attendant’s Pavilion by Jean-Luc Fugier

A steel shell curls over the arched frame of this sports hall near Sydney by Australian architects Allen Jack+Cottier.

Glazed end walls in the Milson Island Sports Hall allow views right through the building.

The inside is clad in curved, slotted plywood to absorb noise and withstand the impact of stray balls.

Strips of glazing run along both sides of the building below head height.

More stories about sport on Dezeen »

Photography is by Nic Bailey of Allen Jack+Cottier.

The following information is from the architects:

Milson Island Sports Hall

The most recent addition to Allen Jack + Cottier’s suite of award-winning sports and recreation centres for the NSW Department of Sport & Recreation is located just north of Sydney on Milson Island, in the Hawkesbury River.

The shape of the building emerged by morphing the ideal shapes resulting from the thermodynamic analysis, the side wind forces, the need to shed leaves and branches and yet collect water and the enclosure requirements. All building elements had to be sized to be barged across the river to the site.

The design celebrates this integrated thinking by not allowing any visible ridge, eaves gutters, downpipes or skylights on the exterior. The natural thermal ventilation aided by the suction caused by the wing shape demanded a clean crisp interior skin with no visible fixings bracing, wiring or lighting.

The acoustic slotted ply ceiling is integrated to the structural bracing, so that the walls and ceiling carry all the wind loads of 38 m of building to the ground. The shape of the building reduced wind load by 30%, thus reducing structural sizes and saving money.

At night, the curved wing shape of the new building acts as a proscenium arch to define the place for the campfire, an important part of each camp at the site. It works both for the audience inside looking out to the gathering space, and for the audience around the fireplace looking back into the hall.

When the campfire is lit at night, and the hall interior is illuminated only by a strip of lights, the building seems to magically float off the ground, into the surrounding bushland.

Natural light from the roof windows ground level slot windows and end walls create an even, almost art gallery like, light on the playing surface of the hall.

A combination of twelve wind turbines and a series of floor mounted louvres ensure the building remains cool in Sydney’s fierce summer heat.  In winter with the turbines and louvres closed a heat plume forms to act like an insulation blanket. Attached amenities and storage modules service the fireplace, the bushwalking activities and the oval so have to be accessed from outside, forming a strong entry and destination point.

Roof water, free from the blockage of leaves and branches, falls clear of the sloping glass slots into an oversized roof garden for natural filtering and collection to water tanks for future use.

This is a powerful building which in its frugality demonstrates the essence of shelter.

Completed: 2010
Cost: A$ 2.7 m
GFA: 670 m2
Client: Sport and Recreation, Community’s NSW

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ANZAS Dance Studio by Tsutsumi and Associates	Football Training Centre by RUFproject	Parc de la Ciutadella by Batlle i Roig Arquitectes