Hasta La Ideas

Dutch firm Lagado Architects have designed a temporary public toilet block with wide open sections in the roof so users can sit on the toilet and look up into the sky (+ slideshow).

Lagado Architects designed the Easehouse toilet block for the Singeldingen Foundation, a summer program with a pop-up coffee bar in the playground of Heemraadspark in Rotterdam.

“The open roof reinforces the idea of still being outside while providing the necessary ventilation,” Verhagen said.

“The trees above the roof give a protected and covered feeling and cast shadows into the interior and on the closed roof surfaces,” he added.

The dark green and brown building is split into two toilets, one for adults and one for children, neatly divided by a central entrance and a diagonal step.

The roof is an ensemble of four triangular sections, folding down into a point at the front entrance.

Architects Victor Verhagen and Maria Vasiloglou said they designed the public toilet block to have a low-tech and outdoor feeling.

Designed for use in summer, the building can be easily taken apart and transported.

Other toilets featured on Dezeen include public toilets made from a single curved wall beneath a gabled roof, an outdoor urinal that slots into a hay bale and public toilets in New Zealand shaped like headless dinosaurs.

See more toilets »

See more architecture and design from the Netherlands »

Photographs are by the architects and Rubén Dario Kleimeer.

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by Lagado Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

News: a residential development designed by Richard Rogers to adjoin two streets in London’s Mayfair via a paved arcade has been granted approval.

The £300 million scheme designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners will include 42 apartments, a restaurant and retail space. There will also be 1248 square metres of dedicated gallery space, split into five retail units for the selling of art and antiques – for which Cork Street and the surrounding area are well-known.

The conversion will transform a former office building into a nine-storey mixed-use property and will link Old Burlington Street and Cork Street via a double-height arcade, making it the first of its kind in Mayfair since the 1930s.

Alasdair Nicholls, chief executive of property developer Native Land said: “These proposals will greatly enhance Cork Street and the experience of visiting one of London’s most established art gallery districts, by both augmenting the gallery offering of the building and creating an arcade with a permanent dedicated space for young and emerging artists.”

The scheme has faced opposition from gallery owners, locals and retail experts who felt that the development and expected higher rental costs would negatively affect the area which is well known for its small galleries.

A campaign website called Save Cork Street was set up and a number of public events were held in an attempt to protect the heritage of the street. A petition against the plans was signed by 12,000 people, including retail guru Mary Portas.

Recently we published a number of films with eminent British architect Richard Rogers. In our most recent movie, Richard Rogers reflects on his 50-year career and told Dezeen that architects today must be careful to protect the public domain.

In another movie exclusive Rogers spoke to us about London’s new Leadenhall building, dubbed “the Cheesegrater”, which is currently under construction.

See all our coverage of Richard Rogers »
See more stories about Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners »

Images are from Rogers Stirk Habour + Partners.

Here’s more information from Native Land:

Westminster City Council approves Native Land’s plans for 30 Old Burlington Street

Consent granted for apartment and gallery space in Mayfair

Native Land has secured planning approval from Westminster City Council for the redevelopment of 30 Old Burlington Street, Mayfair. Westminster’s Planning & City Development Committee last night agreed to the plans for new residential and enhanced gallery provision at the W1 address.

Native Land applied to redevelop the Old Burlington Street office building, creating 42 apartments, a restaurant, retail space, and 1,248 sq m of gallery space in five units dedicated to the sale of art and antiques, as part of the restriction in the Section 106 agreement.

The proposed development, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, will replace the existing 1980s office block and will link Old Burlington Street and Cork Street via a newly built double height arcade, which is the first in Mayfair since the 1930s.

The new development will consist of nine floors, with 42 one, two and three bedroom apartments spread over floors 1 – 8. The ground floor will accommodate the new arcade, which is expected to increase gallery visitors and footfall within the area.

Alasdair Nicholls, Chief Executive of Native Land, said:

“We welcome Westminster City Council decision to approve our plans for 30 Old Burlington Street. These proposals will greatly enhance Cork Street and the experience of visiting one of London’s most established art gallery districts, by both augmenting the gallery offering of the building and creating an arcade with a permanent dedicated space for young and emerging artists. The combination of art galleries, purpose built residential and a contemporary arcade is unique, with appeal both to domestic and international buyers alike looking to live in Mayfair.”

Native Land, the Mayfair-based development company, is managing the development, after acquiring the site freehold in August 2012 in a joint venture with Hotel Properties Limited (HPL), the Singaporean hotel, property and retail group, and Amcorp Properties Berhad (Amcorp), the Malaysian property, engineering and infrastructure group.

In December 2012 Native Land secured funding for the development via a £90 million debt facility from OCBC Bank of Singapore.

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+ Partners gallery arcade in Mayfair appeared first on Dezeen.

Here are some photographs of the renovated 1960s Mineirão Stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, set to host matches during the 2014 FIFA World Cup (+ slideshow).

BCMF Arquitetos was commissioned for a complete overhaul of the 1960s football stadium, located on the edge of the Pampulha Lagoon. Originally designed by architects Eduardo Mendes Guimarães Júnior and Gaspar Garreto, the building features an oval-shaped structure with a rhythmic facade made up of 88 projecting ribs.

The team stripped the building back to its shell, before adding a new roof, lowering the pitch, upgrading all services and infrastructure, and adding new shops and a dedicated football museum.

“Since Mineirão is a protected building, the addition of new program could be solely made through the insertion of a platform at its base,” said the design team. “Subverting the classic notion of a podium, which refers to a horizontal building with a flat top surface, this platform is carved on the ground and shaped accordingly, creating semi-public squares set at different levels.”

The lowering of the pitch helps to improve sight lines for spectators, while redesigned seating tiers at the lower levels increase the capacity to over 62,000 seats.

Structural analysis revealed that the structure had subsided by around 30 centimetres. This was corrected using hydraulic jacks and steel cables, before the architects added a cantilevered roof to shelter spectators.

Sustainable technologies were also prioritised. As reported earlier this year, the stadium is the first in the world to be fully powered by solar energy, and uses rainwater harvesting to reduce its water consumption.

Improvements to the surrounding landscaping involved creating an artificial topography that defines public plazas, seating areas and routes between the stadium’s entrances and the nearby Mineirinho Gymnasium.

A number of large projects are underway in Brazil, as the country prepares for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Other recently completed projects include a new art museum and art school in Rio and a huge social housing complex in São Paulo.

See more architecture on Brazil »
See more stadiums »

Here’s some more information from BCMF Arquitetos:

New Mineirão

Inaugurated in 1965 (original design by Eduardo Mendes Guimarães Júnior and Gaspar Garreto) as the second largest stadium in the world, the Mineirão Stadium is located in the surroundings of the Pampulha Lagoon, close to Oscar Niemeyer’s and Burle Marx seminal work, being part of Belo Horizonte’s main postcard. As Brazil was chosen to host the World Cup 2014, opportunity came about to transform the traditional stadium, whose façade is heritage listed, into a contemporary multifunctional sports facility.

The New Mineirão aims to go beyond its primary role as a world-class sports arena, also offering a range of services, commerce, culture and entertainment for the city, becoming a new hub of activities integrated to the modernist landscape of the leisure and touristic Pampulha complex.

The instrument chosen to make this operation possible was a public-private partnership (PPP), determining that the redevelopment of the stadium would be undertaken by a company which, in return, would be granted its use for the next 25 years. The winner of the bid was Minas Arena Consortium, that invited BCMF Architects, renowned for their expertise in sports architecture, to be responsible for the renovation of the New Mineirão.

In this context, to transform the “Pampulha Giant” into a modern multifunctional facility, the interventions proposed are both radical and respectful, reinforcing the monumental original structure within the iconic modernist landscape.

As for the original architecture of the Stadium, basically only the outer “shell” remained: the 88 structural semi-porticos, the concrete roof and the upper tiers. The rest of the “core” was completely rebuilt to guarantee the total overhaul inside the arena, including the new extension of the roof, all the new program and infrastructure, besides the lowering of the pitch and the lower tiers redesign, improving the sight-lines for the new capacity of 62,160 seats.

The renovation on the outside is total, with a new 200,000 sqm operational platform separating the spectators’ from the accredited flow. The “Esplanade” includes various facilities around the stadium, opened to the public as an immense landscaped plaza, visually linked to the Pampulha Lagoon. This platform is sculpted and moulded to the site as an artificial topography, integrated with the immediate surroundings, being perceived as a continuation of the street domain. Thus, the public is attracted by programs strategically distributed throughout the esplanade, creating areas with potential to generate activities and movement during all day, seven days a week.

The project has also sustainable features, using solar energy, reusing rainwater, as well as efficient lighting systems, intelligent control of energy and so on (LEED Certification). After the event, many operational areas which are specific for the 2014 World Cup will have other uses (institutional, commercial and leisure programs), contributing for the economic sustainability of the complex.

The New Mineirão points out ways in which sports mega events can leave a lasting legacy to the host-cities. Here, even though interventions are made on a stadium scale, they respond to the demands of larger scales, such as the neighbourhood, the landscape and the city itself. Thus, the ambition is that the urban domain should be invited into the realm and scope of the architecture.

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by BCMF Arquitetos appeared first on Dezeen.

Chilean architects Mathias Klotz and Lillian Allen have renovated a castle-like residence in Santiago’s Parque Forestal to create a restaurant, exhibition space and ice-cream parlour (+ slideshow).

The building is named “Castillo Forestal”, which means forest castle, but it was actually constructed at the start of the nineteenth century as a house for the park’s gardener. Over the years the building had become abandoned, so Mathias Klotz and Lillian Allen were asked to bring it back into use.

The architects began by demolishing previous extensions to the two-storey red-brick building, then added a new steel and glass structure that wraps around the north and east elevations.

“Our proposal was to demolish the successive extensions and replace them with a single-story volume housing an intermediate space between inside and outside,” said Klotz.

This structure accommodates the restaurant, creating a glazed ground-floor dining room and a first-floor terrace overlooking the park.

Additional dining areas are provided by the two main rooms of the original house, which have been renovated to reveal their interior brickwork. The architects removed various stucco details, but left cornices intact and painted them grey to match the steel framework of the new extension.

Bare lightbulbs hang from the ceiling in rows and have been clustered into groups of three on the first-floor.

The exhibition galleries and ice-cream parlour are also housed in the existing building, while customer toilets are located in the basement and the circular tower is set to function as a wine store.

We’ve recently featured new photographs of the first major project by Mathias Klotz, which was a home for his mother. Other projects by the architect include a holiday home for a family with 11 daughters.

See more architecture by Mathias Klotz »
See more architecture in Chile »

Photography is by Roland Halbe.

Here’s a project description from Mathias Klotz:

Castillo Parque Forestal, Santiago, Chile

The so called “Forest Castle” is in reality nothing more than a modest lodging built in the Parque Forestal on the occasion of Chile’s 1910 Centenary celebrations, to house the park’s gardener.

The park, which dates from the Centenary, was inaugurated at the same time as the Fine Arts Museum on the other side of the street. Over time the house lost its original function; it was extended and occupied on a temporary basis, and gradually deteriorated until it was abandoned altogether a number of years ago. For this reason Santiago city council tendered a 30-year concession to restore the structure and find a new use for the building.

Our proposal was to demolish the successive extensions and replace them with a single-story volume housing an intermediate space between inside and outside.

The two rooms of the original structure were restored, removing the stucco and leaving the brickwork visible, with the exception of the cornices. These were painted the same dark grey as the steel structure of the new volume, in order to link the two structures together and emphasise the original building.

The new uses it has acquired are a bookstore, restaurant, ice-cream store and exhibition space.

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and Lillian Allen appeared first on Dezeen.

News: architecture firm OMA has been selected to design a major mixed-use public building featuring angled blocks stacked like dominoes for downtown Santa Monica, California (+ slideshow).

The stepped development will fill an entire city block at Fifth Street and Arizona Avenue, a site which is currently occupied by a car park and a public ice rink, which will be retained.

The building will contain a bit of everything, from shops and offices to apartments and a hotel. There will also be a hub for tech businesses while the open terraces atop each block will be given over to gardens, markets and venues for events.

Each of the angled horizontal blocks will have a distinct use, with the top level containing a 225-room boutique hotel and the one beneath that housing residential and live/work spaces. Below that are two office blocks, with the ground levels given over to retail.

OMA‘s design was recommended by city planners and their choice will be reviewed by the City Council next month, with construction starting next year if the project is approved.

Yesterday, OMA were declared winners of a competition to renovate Miami Beach Convention Center in Florida. See all our stories about OMA »

Here’s more info from OMA:

City Staff select OMA New York, led by Shohei Shigematsu, for major design competition in Santa Monica

Santa Monica’s City Staff has announced their recommendation of OMA’s competition proposal for a mixed use development that encompasses civic plaza, cultural venue, retail, residences, offices and a boutique hotel in the heart of downtown Santa Monica.

The selection panel praise OMA’s approach, commenting: “The proposed design delivers iconic architecture from all elevations, as well as a highly flexible interior space design that could most easily accommodate potential design modifications and adjust to market demand changes in the future. Additionally, the site design maximizes the public view corridor toward the open plaza areas and integrates within the framework of downtown and adjacent properties.”

Shigematsu commented: “Our ambition was to contribute to Santa Monica’s diverse network of public spaces, from the recreational plazas at the Pier and Palisades Park to contained commercial centers like Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place. Our design provides residents, tourists, and entrepreneurs a dynamic new public realm – a stepped building that achieves a strong interaction between interior program and exterior environments.”

The building integrates a ground level plaza and elevated terraces that provide an additional 56,500 sf of programmable open space compared to the original site. These public spaces are capable of hosting a wide range of outdoor programming, including a market galleria and the existing public ice rink. A cultural venue is embedded at the heart of the building, with street level access and a dedicated park.

The site will be anchored by office spaces designed to create a hub for the growing tech industry within the greater Los Angeles area. The office complex will be supported by a boutique hotel offering 225 rooms with unobstructed views of the city, beach and mountains. The project will also provide pedestrian improvements such as wide sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaping, street furniture and additional public parking.

The recommendation will be reviewed by Santa Monica’s City Council on August 27th before the project formally proceeds in 2014.

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Santa Monica project appeared first on Dezeen.