Hasta La Ideas

The faceted surfaces of this library in the French town of Montauban by Paris architecture studio Colboc Franzen & Associés follow the lines of historical roads bordering the site (+ slideshow).

A former royal road created by Louis XIV influenced the alignment of the second floor, while the ground floor and first floor echo the orientation of a nineteenth century bypass.

There’s a foyer, auditorium, café and exhibition space on the ground floor, a large reading space on the first floor, and reference and work areas above.

Colboc Franzen & Associés twisted the top floor to face a different direction from the levels below, creating a mezzanine that projects through the centre of the building and a tiered seating area in the triangular space that connects it to the floor below.

A large overhang covers the entrance, sheltering visitors from the prevailing winds and noise from the nearby bypass.

Baked clay shingles that reference the brick typically used in the region cover the external walls.

Snøhetta has designed an angular library for an American university that uses a robotic system to retrieve books, while Foster + Partners wants to overhaul a public library in New York by creating a four-level atrium to allow access to unused reading rooms – see all stories about libraries.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

The construction of Montauban’s new multimedia library is the spearhead of an urban redevelopment project in the eastern parts of town. It will form a gateway into the town, an create an identity for neglected neighbourhoods and provide an emblem for the town of Montauban.It also had to reinvent what a library is for. Knowledge is going digital, so what issues have a bearing on this kind of programme? Montauban’s multimedia library gives a spatial context to and a material representation of information and how it is shared.

The land on which the multimedia library is to be built is bordered and intersected by the geometrical lines left by history. The road that cuts across the site is a former royal road laid out by Louis XIV; the old layout and therefore part of the buildings neighbouring the library are governed by this geometry.

The road that runs along the southern side of the site is a 19th-century bypass, whereas the roads and buildings to the north are influenced by the construction of the Chaumes complex between the 1960s and the late 1970s. Designing the project induced us to divide the building into three equal parts – a citizens’ forum, a large reading space called “Imaginary Worlds” that encourages people to explore and meet each other, and reading and working rooms.

By setting the three different parts of the project on top of each other and swivelling the top floor so that it shares a diagonal with two storeys below it and then connecting them by triangulation, we establish an interesting internal space that addresses the project’s needs and takes account of the site’s geometry.

The ground floor and the first floor therefore follow the line of the 19th-century road. The overhang is slightly truncated to echo the bend in the bypass. The second floor is laid out perpendicular to Louis XIV’s road, ensuring that the building and the roof ridge are aligned with the geometry of history. Lastly, the triangulation matches the geometry of the recent urban development in the northern part of the site.

Visitors will therefore approach the library under the northern overhang from the areas where development work is ongoing. The building protects them from the noise from the bypass and from the prevailing southeasterly wind. It also gives architectural expression to the political desire to welcome in local residents, for who have lived through some hard times and whose future development is ongoing.The citizens’ forum on the ground floor is there for use by passers-by and to welcome visitors inside. There is a large foyer that gives the latest news, a literary café, a 120-seater auditorium, and an exhibition room.

It also contains the service entrance and the administrative offices. The central foyer has a direct visual link to the first floor, which houses the “Imaginary Worlds”, a place of exploration and discovery for visitors of all ages. It has tiered reading areas to ensure a visual and spatial connection with the second storey, which is positioned as a mezzanine above the “Imaginary Worlds”, giving it the benefit of natural light when the sun is high in the sky.

Big plate glass windows at the edges of the two flat reading corners frame the stand-out features of the surrounding area, which are the gateway into town, a copse of hundred-year-old trees, and Montauban town centre. The initial geometrical positioning of the building ensures that the interior of the library resonate with the town outside.

Positioning it this way lends structural support to the overhangs. Two main steel girders run along the top floor and carry it, and they are propped up by four posts. Two of these are positioned at the corners of the lower levels, while the other two hold up the points of the overhangs and situated on the sides of the lower floors. This means that there are no carrying walls inside, allowing for extremely flexible usage.

The building is cloaked in a baked clay skin, which is a reference to Montauban’s typical brick exteriors. This skin consists of shingles, which operate as shading devices on some of the ground floor walls. They keep the staff’s offices cool and private. Only the large glass panes of the reading areas pierce the unusual baked clay-coated mass. The use of dyed concrete for the outside areas brings to mind the pebblestones used in the pavements of the old town.

Client: Montauban Town Council
Cost of construction: € 7,200,000 excluding all tax
Surfaces: Parcel area: 4 488 m2, Useable area: 2,965 m2, Net floor area: 3,800 m2
Location: 2 rue Jean Carmet – 82000 Montauban
Project management: Colboc Franzen & Associés, architects
Project manager › Géraud Pin-Barras
Mission › base exe partielle + OPC + furnishings
Technical consultants › Structure: Groupe Alto | Fluids and Green Building – INEX | Finances: Bureau Michel Forgue | Roads and External Works: ATPI | Acoustics: J-P Lamoureux | Landscaping: D Paysage | Lighting: SB.RB | OPC : INAFA

Contractors: LAGARRIGUE BTP et INSE: terracing/ foundations/structural work
RENAUDAT: structural steel work SO.PRI.BAT: steel tanks roofing + waterproofing TROISEL SA: ceramic panel cladding + over- roofing
LUMIERE ET FORCE: high and low voltage electricity
REALCO: outdoor fittings and smooth aluminium façade
CONSTRUCTION SAINT-ELOI: metalwork
MISPOUILLE: plumbing/toilets GTVS: heating/ventilation/air-conditioning
OTIS: elevator
LAGARRIGUE: partitions/doubling/false ceilings
BATTUT: indoor wooden fittings
MERZ FABIEN: tiles/earthenware
LE SOL FRANCAIS: soft floors
VEDEILHE: painting/wall coatings
MALET: roads + external works
CAUSSAT: landscaping

Schedule:
Competition: 2005
Building permit: march 2009
Beginning of building work: June 2010
Date of completion: February 2013

Brief:
Subject reference areas, cafeteria, 120-seater auditorium, exhibition room, car parks

Sustainable development:
– Green Building project (Targets 1, 4, 8 and 10)
– Complies with RT 2005 thermal insulation standards
– Use of certified materials
– Balanced ventilation with heat recovery
– Low noise pollution

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by Colboc Franzen & Associés appeared first on Dezeen.

Foster + Partners has completed 58-storey bowed tower in Calgary, Canada (+ slideshow).

At 247 metres, The Bow is the tallest building in the city, and the tallest tower in Canada outside of Toronto.

Climate analysis helped to determine the form of the tower, with a concave facade on the south side facing the sun and a convex surface reducing the load of prevailing winds on the other side.

A triangulated grid structure with sections spanning six storeys braces the building and helps to reduce the visual mass of the surfaces. “Every aspect, from the raised floors to the diagrid structure, is designed to be highly efficient,” says Nigel Dancey, a senior partner at Foster + Partners.

A series of atria occupy the space behind the concave facade, helping to insulate the building and reduce energy consumption.

Three skygardens projecting into the atria provide social spaces for staff in the offices that occupy the building, featuring mature trees, meeting rooms, catering facilities and lifts.

A system of enclosed walkways links The Bow, which is located in the city’s downtown district, to the surrounding buildings so locals can avoid the harsh winter climate.

On the ground level, a publicly accessible space contains shops, restaurants and cafes.

Foster + Partners is working on two residential skyscrapers for a mixed-use development in north London and a riverside development in Lambeth featuring three towers of different heights – see all architecture by Foster + Partners.

Photography is by Nigel Young.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Official opening of The Bow, Calgary’s tallest tower

Special events have been held in Calgary this week to mark the official opening of The Bow, a 237- metre-high headquarters tower – the city’s tallest building and Canada’s tallest tower outside Toronto.

A bold new landmark on the skyline, the project is equally significant in urban, social and environmental terms: the public base of the tower is filled with shops, restaurants and cafes and extends into a generous landscaped plaza, while the office floors are punctuated by three six-storey sky gardens, which encourage natural ventilation and help to significantly reduce energy use.

The Bow is the first major development on the east side of Centre Street, a major axis through downtown Calgary, and it provides a shared headquarters for Encana and Cenovus.

The building’s form was shaped by analysis of the climate and organisations. The tower faces south, curving towards the sun to take advantage of daylight and heat, while maximising the perimeter for cellular offices with views of the Rocky Mountains. By turning the convex facade into the prevailing wind, the structural loading is minimised, thus reducing the amount of steel required for the inherently efficient diagrid system.

Each triangulated section of the structure spans six storeys, helping to visually break down the scale of the building.

Where the building curves inwards, the glazed facade is pulled forward to create a series of atria that run the full height of the tower. These spaces act as climatic buffer zones, insulating the building and helping to significantly reduce energy consumption. As each floor plate has been sized to accommodate a whole business unit, there was a need to promote collaboration across the companies and bring a social dimension to the office spaces.

Vertical access to the office floors is therefore directed through three spectacular sky gardens, which project into the atria at levels 24, 42 and 54 and incorporate mature trees, seating, meeting rooms, catering facilities and local lift cores. Staff facilities in these atria are complemented by an auditorium at the very top of the building.

The Bow also establishes lateral connections with surrounding buildings. The tower is fused at two points to Calgary’s system of enclosed walkways, which offers a retreat from the city’s harsh winters.

The second floor is open to the public and integrates shops and cafes, and with the only public connection over Centre Street, the scheme completes a vital pedestrian link in the downtown network. Externally, the building’s arc defines a large landscaped public plaza, at the heart of which is a landmark sculpture by Spanish artist, Jaume Plensa.

Nigel Dancey, Senior Partner, Foster + Partners: “The tower’s form was shaped by the unique Calgary climate – facing south, the building curves to define a series of spectacular light-filled six-storey atria, with mature sky gardens, cafes and meeting areas, which bring a vital social dimension to the office floors. This principle extends to the base of the tower, which is highly permeable, with a +15 enclosed bridge connection to downtown, an atrium of shops and cafes and a fantastic new plaza. Every aspect, from the raised floors to the diagrid structure, is designed to be highly efficient. The Bow is a bold new symbol for Calgary, and is testament to the strength of our team and excellent local relationships.”

The Bow, EnCana and Cenovus Headquarters
Calgary, Canada 2005 – 2013

Client: H+R Real Estate Investment Trust
Appointment: 2005
Construction Start: 2007
Completion: 2013
Site area: 17,500m2 / 188,300ft2
Area (gross external): 199,781m2 / 2,149,644ft2
Typical Floor Area (net): 3,584m2 / 38,564ft2
Height: 236m / 774.3ft
Number of Floors: 58
Structure: Steel-braced moment frame with a diagrid
Capacity: 4000
Facilities: Offices, Public plaza, Retail facilities
Parking facilities: 1360 car spaces
Materials: 39,000 tonnes of steel was used; 900,000ft2 of glass was used
Sustainability: The building’s form deflects the prevailing winds, allowing for a lighter structure
The solar heat collected in the atrium is redistributed throughout the year by means of extraction during winter and heat exchange during summer, reducing the load on the mechanical systems
3 x 6 storey-high “Sky gardens” with natural vegetation at levels 24, 42 and 54
Large glazed areas reduce the need for artificial lighting Heat redistribution system
Displacement ventilation via a raised floor

Client: H+R Real Estate Investment Trust
Tenant: Encana and Cenovus
Developer: Matthews Southwest Developments
Architect: Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners Design Team: Norman Foster, David Nelson, Spencer de Grey, Nigel Dancey, James Barnes, Julia Vidal Alvarez, Laura Alvey, Tim Bauerfeind, Jakob Beer, Karin Bergmann, Mattias Bertelmann, Stephen Bes,t Federico Bixi,o Marie Christoffersen, Vasco Correia, Kirsten Davis, Ulrich Hamman, Michelle Johnson, Arjun Kaicker, Sabine Kellerhoff, Chiu-Ming Benny Lee, Mathieu Le Sueur, Shirley Shee Ying Leung, Alissa MacInnes, Carsten Mundle, Florian Oelschlager, Cristina Perez, Susanne Reiher, Diana Schaffrannek, Anja Schuppan, Carolin Senfleben, Robert Smith, Eva Tzivanki

Collaborating Architect: Zeidler Partnership
Structural Engineer: Yolles
Civil Engineer: Kellam Berg
Mechanical Engineers: Cosentini
Main contractor: Ledcor Construction
Fire Consultant: Leber Rubes
Vertical Transport Consultant: KJA
Acoustic Consultant: Cerami
Cost Consultant: Altus Helier
Lighting Consultant: Claude Engle Lighting Design
Landscape Consultant: Carson McCulloch
Planning Consultant: Sturgess Architecture
Environmental Consultant: Transolar
Wind Engineer: RWDI
Transportation Engineer: DA Watt
Signage Consultant: Cygnus
Code Consultants: Leber-Rubes
Art Consultant: Via Partnership
Artist: Jaume Plensa
Cladding: Brook Van Dalen

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Foster + Partners appeared first on Dezeen.

The London store of Swedish denim brand Nudie Jeans has been fitted out as a repair station to mend old jeans (+ slideshow).

Original architectural features in the shop such as crumbling mouldings have been kept along with rough plastering to give a vintage appearance.

On the ground floor clothing and accessories are displayed on metal shelves, while more garments are hung on rods suspended from the ceiling.

Sewing machines threaded with orange cotton are lined up ready to fix customers’ ripped attire.

One wall, painted petrol blue to match the exterior, has a grid of white hooks to hang jeans from their belt loops.

Curtains made from patches of old fabric form circular changing booths against a tiled wall in the basement.

More clothes are set on a metal cabinet topped with wood, additional shelving and rails against the white and plywood surfaces downstairs.

Wooden blocks laid on the floor like bricks are covered with rugs made from recycled denim, reinforcing the repair and reuse concept.

Nudie Jeans creative director Maria Erixon Levin used a Gothenburg food market as a reference when designing the shop.

Other related stories include a pavilion built by G-Star Raw to display their clothes at Tokyo Designer’s Week 2007 and an installation of lightbulb arches in a Diesel gallery.

We spoke to Miguel Fluxá, head of shoe brand Camper, at the opening of the brand’s lastest New York boutique where he explained why all their shop interiors are different – read the interview here.

See more retail interiors »

Read on for the press release:

Swedish organic denim house, Nudie Jeans, this month debuted their first UK concept store, and officially their first Repair Station in the world, in the Soho district of London, UK. The 15th concept store for the brand, London follows Stockholm, Tokyo, Los Angeles,Zurich, Barcelona, Sydney and Nudie’s own backyard Gothenburg.

“We are very excited to be opening our first UK store, which will give us the opportunity to really tell our unique concept. The UK is one of our biggest profile markets and our store will meet the demands we have seen for our brand globally,” says Andreas Åhrman, Sales & Marketing Director.

Standing in a prominent location on the corner of Berwick and D’Arblay Street, the 100-square-metre store is presented over ground and basement floors, with a 40-square-metre showroom housed above. The interior concept is designed by creative director Maria Erixon and inspired by a Gothenburg food market, featuring raw and rustic vintage fixtures juxtaposed against a stark bright backdrop, while carefully preserving the beautiful architectural features.

The London store houses the first official Repair Station globally, and offers customers a complimentary repairs and alterations service by one of the experienced Denim Specialists.

The repair and reuse initiative reinforces Nudie’s ardent strive to set a new standard in sustainable production. With Nudie’s extensive range of unisex fits and washes, the store will be the faultless place for London and international visitors alike to find a perfect pair of jeans guided by seasoned denim experts.

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by Maria Erixon Levin appeared first on Dezeen.

Shoes are displayed in metal mesh columns at this footwear store in Osaka, Japan (+ slideshow).

Interior designer Ryutaro Matsuura used the see-through wire panels and a neutral palette to create an environment that puts all the emphasis on the shoes.

“When the differences of surrounding decorative environment are suppressed, the items themselves begin to enhance their presence,” he explains.

Shoes are displayed on translucent shelves made from a honeycomb resin sandwich, attached to floor-to-ceiling columns of different circumferences.

Matsuura describes the interior as a “shoe forest”, with “the merchandise hovering like fruits on trees”.

The design gives equal prominence to each product and allows customers to navigate the displays without overbearing design elements influencing their purchasing decision.

Nendo recently designed a store in New York for Spanish brand Camper with white resin shoes covering the walls and we spoke to Miguel Fluxá, head of Camper, who told us why they use different designers for each of their stores.

See more retail design »

Photography is by Nacasa & Partners Inc.

Here is some more information from the designer:

Stores tend to be composed of wall shelves and display tables. In those cases, the priority levels for the items at the store and the flows of customers would be set by the sellers. And hence the selection behaviours of the customers tend to be controlled.

So that made us create a pleasant space where customers can find the goods they have hoped for without bias. That was the birth of the shoe store studded with the same C-shaped wire mesh fixtures.

The fixtures have translucent loose shelves for shoes that are made of honeycomb sandwich resin panels. The merchandise hovering like fruits on trees shows its presence in the store that can be described as a “shoe forest”. Customers can enjoy meeting the merchandise and feel a sense of exaltation.

When the differences of surrounding decorative environment　are suppressed, the items themselves begin to enhance their presence. Therefore we think that spontaneous perceptions would be educed from
customers. And then, imagination and curiosity of the customers would be getting large.

Those feelings will provide a motivation for customers to approach each item, and they will have an opportunity to find the item that really suits. That is what we are expecting.

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by Ryutaro Matsuura appeared first on Dezeen.

An inflatable pavilion covered with a clear tensile membrane has been installed in east London by Paris architects Atelier Zündel Cristea (+ slideshow).

A continuous white tube twists and undulates to create a three-armed form that visitors can walk or sit underneath and climb on top of.

“The design of the structure is a simple topological deformation of a torus and the shape was mathematically generated,” the architects told us.

The clear plastic sheet stretched over the top and attached with zips forms a springy surface, which can be reached by clambering up one of the sections that touch the ground.

An anodised aluminium platform with the same plan as the inflated structure forms the base, anchored to the ground at six points around the edge.

Atelier Zündel Cristea‘s design won first prize in a summer pavilion competition organised by ArchTriumph.

It is located in Museum Gardens in the east London area of Bethnal Green, next to the Museum of Childhood, and will be in place until 16 June.

Over in west London, this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion by Sou Foujimoto was unveiled earlier this week. See the first photos of the structure here, additional images here and watch our interview with Fujimoto here.

Our other stories that feature blow-up design include the entrance to last year’s Design Miami fair that was covered by inflatable sausages and a balloon shaped like a naked fat man pressed up against a gallery window.

See more inflatable architecture and design »
See more pavilion design »

Photography is by Sergio Grazia.

The architects sent us the following information:

Enhancing the experience of the city does not always require projects of significant cost and time, but can often come about as the result of modest, temporary interventions and events, in key places, at chosen times.

Our office is dedicated to the conception of interventions likely to appeal to city residents, transforming the way in which they view the places around them and the practices possible in their cities.

Human beings carry within them nostalgia of a primordial happiness from ancient times. The notion of a return to these origins of happiness is often associated with Nature.

Our intention is to encourage inhabitants to participate in fun, uncommon events taking place within the urban landscape: an inflatable bridge equipped with giant trampolines rises above the Seine, a pavilion erected in a London park, a museum traversed by a roller coaster.

These projects offer, in the heart of the city, new forms of Elysian Fields, given over not to the Champs-Élysées of shopping and strictly urban activities, but rather to fundamental human practices, which liberate strong emotions calling on all our senses.

The site of this competition is the Museum Gardens, Cambridge Heath Road in Bethnal Green, London. It lies within the Tower Hamlets and Hackney boroughs. The gardens are on the English Heritage Register for Historic Parks and Gardens. It is approximately 1.05 hectares in size and is surrounded by: Cambridge Heath Road, Museum Passage, V&A Museum of Childhood, St John’s Church and Victoria Park Square. The site’s main use is as a recreational garden for living, working and visiting communities. Given it’s prominence within the community it serves, it is clear to us that it is important that the most is made of the site through our pavilion.

Our project responds to the desire to create a temporary transportable pavilion for the summer of 2013 in such a public space, with a need for inclusion, socializing, relaxation, discussion, reflection, escape, view and enjoyment of a high quality space.

It will provide an inspirational space where visiting architects, designers, families and the general public can stand and sit whilst admiring, embracing diversity and engaging with each other in discussions about design, the importance and benefits of peace and co-existence, or even novel stories they have to tell in a peaceful setting.

The Museum Gardens, and nature in general are the perfect settings to promote the idea of peace, to encourage the sharing of joyful stories and provoking discussions about architecture and design.

We propose a Pavilion which is visually and aesthetically engaging. We think it is capable of providing an ideal contemporary space which offers a sense of tranquility, beauty and an exceptional aesthetic value to the very heart of the Museum Gardens.

Peace is one of the highest possible human ideals. It is a state of equilibrium; it means NO WAR, but also harmony, silence, pureness, kindness, happiness, appeasement, calm, reconciliation, serendipity, tranquility…

To express all of these ideas, we have created a perfect and symmetrical sculpture, obtained by a precise geometrical manipulation. The beauty of the shape lies in its perfect symmetry and fluidity; we feel there is no need to explain it a great deal as it is a pavilion that speaks to everyone. It allows visitors looking at the volume for a split second to get a sense of the pavilion and its layout with minimum effort.

The symmetrical geometry of the pavilion blurs our notions of inside and outside, however the simple act of motion through the exterior and interior spaces of the pavilion bringing an understanding to the visitor.

The Pavilion is 4 meters in height and 20 square metres in area. Designed entirely with lightweight materials – 77.96m² of PVC membrane and 20m3 of air – our project is a self-supporting structure; it is easily scalable to inhabit larger dimensions of other sites.

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Atelier Zündel Cristea appeared first on Dezeen.