Hasta La Ideas

News: American studio Höweler + Yoon Architecture has won the Audi Urban Future Award 2012 with a concept to combine individual and public transport in the region between Boston and Washington nicknamed BosWash (+ slideshow).

As one of four firms invited by automotive company Audi to explore how cities will function in the future, the architects have imagined a controlled transport infrastructure that stretches across the BosWash region to connect the suburbs with the cities, serving a population of 53 million people.

Eric Höweler and J. Meejin Yoon explain how the suburbs were constructed around the “outdated” American Dream of “the single-family home, with a front lawn and two-car garage.” They describe how within the “infrastructural leftovers of this now outdated dream” lies a possibility to create “alternate paths, different trajectories or new cultural dreams”.

In their proposals, all forms of transport would be connected to a single artery, following the 450-mile route of the existing Interstate 95 motorway.

Höweler + Yoon Architecture are the second recipients of the Audi Urban Future Award, following German architect J. Mayer H, who presented proposals in 2010 for a digitally integrated city.

The text that follows is from Audi:

The Audi Urban Future Award 2012 is presented to the American architecture practice Höweler + Yoon Architecture for their proposed concept for modern urbanization in the Boston/Washington metropolitan region. With their ambitious planning and architectural idea of the “shareway” the American team of architects revolutionize commuting between places of living and work. Their basic idea is to merge individual and public transport by means of a new kind of mobility platform. This combines existing infrastructure with intelligent flows of traffic and networks. For their holistically controlled traffic system Höweler + Yoon Architecture are awarded prize money of 100,000 euros.

John Thackara, design theorist and chairman of the interdisciplinary jury, explained the decision: “The jury selected as its winner the Boswash project by the design team of Höweler + Yoon Architecture. The jury concluded that this was the most thoroughly resolved response to the competition brief, and noted that it also has the potential to be realised, at least in part, within the 2030 timeframe prescribed by the competition. The jury also noted with approval that the winning entry is based on thorough research into its social and economic context; it involves both social and technical innovation at a system-wide level; and real architectural quality is evident in its execution.”

“The winning proposals are a visionary document setting out what is required for cities of the future. This city dossier will be a specific set of instructions about how to plan or remodel a metropolitan region, in order to tackle increasing density”, says Rupert Stadler, chairman of the executive board of AUDI AG.

The Audi Urban Future Award is intended to make a contribution to learning how to understand more about cities of the future. Because the question “in which form will individual mobility be possible?” can only be answered by the development of cities. In order to play an active part in shaping tomorrow’s world, Audi has to understand significant patterns of urban planning worldwide and their relevance for future mobility.

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Audi Urban Future Award 2012 appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese studio UID Architects often place gardens inside buildings and this house in Fukuyama is no exception (+ slideshow).

The two-storey family house is nestled amongst an assortment of high-rise buildings, which “shut out the sunlight” according to architect Keisuke Maeda.

Instead of adding windows to the facade, Maeda specified a series of skylights and clerestory windows to bring daylight in from above to the living room, kitchen and children’s room on the top floor.

The indoor garden occupies a double-height space at the centre of the residence and also acts as a lightwell for the entrance lobby at the front of the ground floor.

A grid of bookshelves provides a balustrade around the edge of the courtyard, which is also the location of a wooden staircase connecting the two floors.

Maeda explains how a traditional Japanese townhouse occupied the site previously and also had a garden at its centre, which he believes creates a connection between “past and present”.

This is the third project we’ve recently featured by UID Architects, following a house with sunken rooms and a renovated townhouse.

Other projects by the studio include a timber house at the foot of a mountain and a residence comprising four cedar-clad blocks.

See more Japanese houses on Dezeen »

Photography is by Hiroshi Ueda.

Here’s some information from UID Architects:

Renewal of a form / lasting sense of scale

This is a reconstruction of a house in the centre of the city. The site has 5 meters for lateral directions, and 18 meters for longitudinal one.

This is a north‐south site formed like machiya. The family is consisted of two children and their parents.

The feature of this site is surrounded by buildings on east and west side, and faced on the south road; there is a 30-meter-high car park building. This shuts out the sunlight.

Since the site has many conditions, we thought that it would be comfortable space that we can feel basic elements such as sunlight and wind, and that we succeed to a form which nagaya have had.

As regards to the plan, we put every rooms along with the inner garden that contains the element coathouse has.

Thanks to the shape of the section like 凸, every room that run from north to south can get homogeneous sunlight and wind.

The element of the exterior of a building from inner garden make a room give space like exterior, and depth, so we can feel a vague condition.

Cut-through axonometric – click above for larger image.

The house takes in building-wind possibly from first floor, and go by through the inner garden.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image.

Which the leaves are trembling in the breeze, visualize wind, sound and sunlight. That helps making a space as if we were in the forest despite in the city.

First floor plan – click above for larger image.

Thanks to the hanging wall run from west to east and ceiling height, every rooms is connected as one room providing each territory, and frame construction, the house takes in many elements of exterior from free section.

Section – click above for larger image.

As we renewed the garden of nagaya that built before, as we make people be aware of the sense of scale that nagaya has. We thought that will be only point that can connect past to present.

Section – click above for larger image.

Location: Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan
Name project: Town-House
Architects: UID – Keisuke Maeda
Structural consultants: Konishi Structural Engineers – Yasutaka Konishi, Takeshi Kaneko,
Landscape consultants: Toshiya Ogino Environment Design Office – Toshiya Ogino
General contractor: Yamato Co.Ltd – Monden Umayahara
Structural system: steel construction
Site area: 95.41 sq m
Built area: 75.56 sq m
Total floor area: 138.23 sq m
Date of completion: March 2011

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UID Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s some text from the architects:

Tower Wharf Café London, UK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tony Fretton Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Renaissance artist El Greco lived and worked in the Spanish city of Toledo and Pardo + Tapia Arquitectos has refurbished and added a glazed entrance pavilion to the small museum that houses some of his most important paintings (+ slideshow).

Located in the city’s Jewish quarter, the El Greco Museum comprises two buildings; a 16th century house designed as a recreation of the artist’s home and a 20th century extension.

Architect Fernando Pardo Calvo told Dezeen how his extension was conceived as a glazed volume to respect the existing buildings. ”Its presence in the garden is diminished by its transparency,” he explained.

Behind the glazed entrance, a second new space is clad in concrete panels, which are engraved with the outlines of one of the artist’s paintings.

“El Greco is present at all times,” said Pardo Calvo. “Not only in the collections but also in the architecture. In the historic building because this place was near his workshop, and in the new building because his painting “Vista y plano de Toledo” is engraved in the concrete.”

As well as adding a new entrance, the architects have restored the spaces of the gallery, which house artworks by El Greco and a selection of other 17th century painters.

The architects used a traditional material palette of ceramics, plaster, stucco and wood for these areas of the building.

See more stories about renovations, including a replacement corner for a ruined Renaissance palace.

Photography is by Miguel de Guzman.

Here’s some information from the architects:

El Greco Museum
Toledo, Spain 2003-2011

Adequacy and realignment works of the El Greco Museum, at buildings and gardens surrounded by Samuel Levy St., Paseo del Tránsito St., Alamillos del Tránsito St. and San Juán de Dios St. at Toledo city. Toledo

Short historic notice

On the remains base of a XVI century house and a renaissance palace at the Jewry of Toledo, it was built on the beginning of XX century the edification conjunct that today compounds the El Greco Museum House.

The Marquis de la Vega-Inclán was who recovered those areas, as well, the gardens during the years 1907 – 1910, the aim was to develop the idea of organize a center dedicated to the art work of El Greco performed at the Jewry of Toledo, in the real El Greco’s house environment , nearby of Villena’s Palace.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

When the works were finished the Spanish State donation was formalized, and on April, 27th, 1910, the Patronage was founded, this institution took over of the custody and govern of the Greco’s Museum House.

First floor plan – click above for larger image

That age significant personages were involved in the Patronage. (Beruete, Sorolla, Mélida, Cossío, etc.). The House was opened and inaugurated on June, 12nd, of 1911. A section was restored as the Marquis Vega-Incan’s house, staying this private situation up to 1942.

Roof plan – click above for larger image

The reasons for restore this conjunct were to shelter in it, the El Greco’s work collection that was spread out all over the city of Toledo (San Jose´s Church, Santiago’s Hospital, etc…) and was on risk of disappearing and lost. This collection was developed with a further room’s extension at 1921, for the exposure of the painting art work of the XVII century Spanish schools. This should be the starting point of a Spanish Art Center.

Section one – click above for larger image

The 1921 restoration was followed by any other two, at 1950 and 1960 and other one at 1990. The current project begins on the base site of the last one (1990).

Section two – click above for larger image

Project

The target of the project has been to take advantage of space and cultural potential that the edifications, gardens and the El Greco personality as well, going through a realignment labor.

Sections three and four – click above for larger image

Meanwhile a pavilion construction gives shelter to the museum funds and a new travel path is restructured across the conjunct of buildings (rehabilitated and adapted to the current normative standards) and also allows the visit to the gardens and caves.

Section five – click above for larger image

Museografy

The museography project, although formally distinguished, takes part of the propound common objective, going through the existing building path, showing the recuperation and construction of the El Greco figure by the Marquis de la Vega-Inclán, the work and the different aspects of his life and travels, and his painting later influences, with the aim of explaining and giving value itself trough a reference configuration frame.

Section six – click above for larger image

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by Pardo + Tapia Arquitectos appeared first on Dezeen.

Bright shades of yellow and green help elderly people find their way around in this 17-storey housing block in Barcelona by Spanish architects Pau Vidal, Sergi Pons and Ricard Galiana (+ slideshow).

“The building is divided into three communities and each community is assigned a different colour to facilitate orientation,” Pons told Dezeen. “We’ve used yellow and two shades of green, one lighter and one darker. These colours are uplifting whilst also calming.”

Located beside a motorway on the edge of the city, the tower contains 77 government-allotted apartments for pensioners.

A shared garden covers the top floor of the building, which Pons hopes will be used by both grandparents and grandchildren.

Corridors and staircases wrap the exterior and lead into double-height communal spaces, which were designed to encourage residents to communicate with their neighbours. ”The hallways were conceived as streets,” explained Pons.

At ground level, the building opens out to a small public square that it shares with a new sports centre and housing development.

See more stories about housing, including an apartment block with a grid of chunky balconies.

Photography is by Adrià Goula.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Torre Júlia. Government-allotted housing for elderly people

This project forms part of the urbanization that is taking place in one of the lots left over after the construction of the Ronda de Barcelona, a bypass road, in 1992.

A sports centre, a residential development and an old people’s home will all share the same space, creating a public area that will stretch from the street to a square giving access into the different facilities.

A prominent feature in the city’s northern quarter, Torre Júlia rises up to a height of 17 floors.

There are three areas in the building. Each community has a larger space assigned, where users carry out most of their collective activities. These spaces, the core of the proposed project, figure plainly on the building’s frontage, which is wrought entirely in concrete and works as a cantilever beam.

Typical floor arrangement – click above for larger image and key

Wide corridors overlooking the city, stairs in all outdoor places, double-spaced areas and sun-shaded terraces configure a building that is intended to give elderly people an opportunity to socialize and engage in community activities.

Site plan

Project team: Pau Vidal, Sergi Pons, Ricard Galiana
Address: Via Favència 348-350, Barcelona
Program: 77 Home Units, Facilities and Parking Space
Construction dates: Building 2009-2011

First floor plan – click above for larger image

Client: Patronat Municipal de l’Habitatge
Collaborators: Gioia Guidazzi, Diana Sajdova
Consultants: Encarna García, BOMA, L3J, 3dLife, Ambar Fotografia, Artkitech, Estel Rosell
Contractor: Acsa

Second floor plan – click above for larger image

Gross floor area: 8.391
Budget: 7.518.419
State: Built

Section – click above for larger image

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and Ricard Galiana appeared first on Dezeen.