Hasta La Ideas

Slideshow: this small twisted tower is one of the six artists’ studios that Saunders Architecture of Norway are constructing on Fogo Island off the coast of Canada.

The three-storey Tower Studio is the fourth and most recent folly to be completed and like the others it has a painted wooden exterior and a whitewashed interior.

The floors of the building incrementally rotate, so that a terrace on the roof is turned away from the ground floor by 180 degrees.

These twists also create a faceted recess at the entrance, which unlike the other exterior walls is lined with white-painted spruce.

A large triangular skylight allows light to flood into the studio on the middle floor, while a mezzanine overlooks it from above.

On the ground floor is a small kitchen powered by photovoltaics panels, a wood-burning fireplace and a composting toilet.

A narrow boardwalk leads out from the building’s entrance to the main road, creating access for nothing larger than a wheelbarrow or bicycle.

We published the first of the studios when it was completed this time last year. See images of it here.

Photography is by Bent René Synnevåg.

Here’s a longer description from Saunders Architecture:

Tower Studio

Shoal Bay, Fogo Island, Newfoundland

The Tower Studio is dramatically situated on a stretch of rocky coastline in Shoal Bay, Fogo Island, Newfoundland. The studio’s sculptural silhouette leans both forward and backward as it twists upward. For the average visitor to the island, this windowless black tower, more often than not, provokes a quizzical response and the enviable question, “What’s that?”

For the locals, they know that this structure is a project of the Fogo Island Arts Corporation – an art studio opened in June 2011. The Tower Studio’s official opening was one of the most festive and included: a roaring bonfire, flares dramatically shot from its rooftop terrace and the recorded sounds of local whales as a background score.

Perched on a rocky stretch of shoreline, there are no roads to the Tower Studio, it can only be reached by hiking along the shore from the adjacent community or walking on a narrow wooden boardwalk consisting of weathered planks that hover just slightly above a bog that features an abundance of cloudberries, known locally as bakeapples.

From a distance the wooden boardwalk reads like a tether strap, linking the stranded Tower Studio to the lifeline of a busy stretch of road. The boardwalk, a mere twelve inches wide, is a vital component to the story of the Tower Studio, it provided an even track for wheel barrows to bring building supplies to the construction site without disturbing the delicate ecosystem of the Newfoundland bog and the lichens that grow on outcroppings of rock.

The boardwalk is a testimony to the holistic thinking that is part of the Shorefast Foundation mindset that connects the dots of economic, cultural and ecological sustainability at both the macro and the micro level. Now that its purpose has past, the boardwalk will soon disappear in order to minimize the impact on the surrounding landscape of the Tower Studio’s construction.

As one approaches the studio, its south-facing entry area is angled back thirty degrees. Overhead a triangulated section of wall leans forward to shelter the double glass doors below. Both the soffit and the angled entryway, clad in horizontal boards of spruce are stained white in sharp contrast to remainder of the building’s windowless exterior of vertical plank siding painted slate black.

The Tower Studio is comprised of three levels with an overall height of thirty-two feet. Its entry area is equipped with a kitchenette, a compost toilet and wood- burning fireplace. Its second level is a studio, day lit by a generous skylight that faces northward. A mezzanine overhead, juts into the double height volume of the studio. Aside from the geometric complexity of the space, the second feature that adds to a sense of disorientation is the elimination of architectural detail and the fact that all vertical, horizontal and inclined surfaces, clad in smooth plywood, are painted a brilliant white.

The only relief from the stark interior is a sliver of the exterior visible through the studio’s sole skylight. A slightly angled wall opposite and parallel to the skylight provides the perfect viewing surface upon which a body can recline and enjoy the view. One can imagine the magical effect of resting against this surface during a moonlit evening with the audible roar of the North Atlantic and force of the wind against the exposed surface of the tower. From the studio level, a narrow ladder (also painted white) leads past the mezzanine level to the underside of a roof hatch. As one passes through the horizontal opening and stands on the rooftop deck, the view of the ocean and the rocky windswept terrain is spectacular. From the roster of studios recently completed, it is generally agreed that the building of the Tower Studio by the local crew of carpenters was one of the most challenging. Although the basic premise of the Tower’s geometry is a simple one – the plan rotates one hundred and eighty de- grees to the roof plan – the construction of the facetted form proved to be a little more complex. In order to figure out the framing diagram, a series of wooden models were constructed. Ultimately a large-scale model was fabricated to mini- mize any on-site confusion.

The story of the Tower Studio is not complete without referencing two structures that support it. The first one is a ‘standalone’ array of solar panels situated about fifty feet to the west of the studio’s main entrance. Because all the studios are located on isolated sites without access to the utilities of electricity, water and sewer, they are equipped with photovoltaic panels, compost toilets and water cisterns.

The other structure necessary for the Tower Studio’s success is its ‘fraternal twin’ – a restored traditional house in the nearby village where the artist lives while he/she is not working in the studio. All the Fogo Island studios follow the same model in which the studio is paired with a Saltbox – a traditional Newfound- land house, where the artist abides when not fixated on his/her most recent art project. The restoration of the traditional Saltbox house and the new construction of the architecturally provocative studios has created an interesting dynamic that brings the local vernacular architecture face-to-face with the multi-faceted expressions of contemporary culture.

As the architect, Todd Saunders, has explained, the fact that the renovated houses were part of a vernacular way of building increased the level of architectural experimentation allotted to the studios. In contrast to the renovated houses, located in the middle of the villages, the studios are situated about a fifteen-min- ute walk on the villages’ periphery. The artists experience both the warm hospitality of their neighbours, as well as, the cool refuge of their studios. Because the studios are outside the local villages, their architectural character is both seemingly familiar and uncannily ‘strange’. In some sense the studios ‘fit in’, but more importantly they stand out.

At times, the stark abstract forms of the studios painted black and/or white seem to disappear into the foggy weather, typical on Fogo Island. Disappearance may be an interesting addition to the lexicon of Saunders’s architectural production that focuses on playful geometries that generate dynamic forms that are strangely familiar. This series of architectural projects on Fogo Island does encompass the vernacular within the production of the new. More importantly, it forms a contemporary sensibility that is vital to reframe, re-situate and rejuvenate any traditional culture, in order for it to meet the opportunities and challenges of the twenty-first century – head on.

Slideshow: slatted wooden screens separate the three staggered tiers of this restaurant that Spanish architects Pauzarq have completed in Bilbao.

Furniture throughout the restaurant is black, as are the insides of shelving recesses in the walls.

Threads of yarn wrapped around the lampshades that hang from the ceiling thin out in places to let stripes of light through.

White ceramic tiles are separated into small squares, large squares and rectangles on the five-metre-high wall that faces the street-level dining area.

The next two floors step upwards to meet the level of a courtyard at the back of the restaurant.

In the last year Pauzarq have also completed the interior of a concrete-framed apartment, which you can see here.

Here’s some more information from Pauzarq:

The project had to relocate the former Gallastegi Restaurant in the reconstructed residential building situated in the neighborhood of Deusto.

The new space consisted initially of two different parts. The first one, the main area, was 5 meters high and with three big openings at street level.

Two meters above this area and on the back side, you could find the second one, with three openings to the courtyard of the building.

The project intended to soften this height difference with an in-between wooden level which created a new dining place, one meter above street level.

The restaurant is clearly divided into two functional spaces/parts.

This dividing line, going from the front to the back façade, separates the public spaces from the private ones.

On one hand, the service side, which has a direct entry from the street to the storage, followed by the kitchen, the changing room and the office. On the other hand, the 100sqm main public area, with three different dining levels.

From the street entrance, you access the first level, where the bar, toilets and a first dining area with a capacity of 25 people are located. From here you can find two staggered terraces that contain the next two dining zones.

The first one is accessed by the staircase adjacent to the toilets-changing room box. The second dining area is raised one meter above the access level and has similar size and capacity to the first one.

Finally, the stairs lead to the last dining zone, at courtyard level. Its position and minor dimensions give it a more private nature.

Architects: pauzarq
(Felipe Pérez Aurtenetxe, Elena Usabiaga Usandizaga, Gerardo Zarrabeitia Ullíbarri)
Work: Restaurant in Bilbao
Location: Ramón y Cajal 4, Bilbao (Spain)
Built area: 210 m²
Year: 2012
Contractor: Probiak

Slideshow: Madrid studio Exit Architects designed this concrete sculpture museum behind the retained facade of an old house in southern Spain.

Translucent glazed walls connect the existing brick walls to the new three-storey-high structure, which is recessed by a few metres to create a public plaza at the main entrance.

Concrete tiles clad the exterior of the museum, while the interior walls are cast concrete, formed against timber.

At ground level, the floor of a central exhibition hall snakes upwards on a series of parallel ramps to correspond with the steeply inclining site.

Chunky wooden platforms separate these ramps and provide exhibition stands for the display of artworks.

Huge folding doors at the back of the building allow larger sculptures to be transported inside the building with relative ease.

See all our stories about museums here, or all our stories about galleries here.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s a more comprehensive description from Exit Architects:

The Museum Project was the result of an ideas competition organized by the Hellín Municipality.

The competition rules considered the refurbishment of the Casa del Conde as well as the construction of an extension on the plot area former occupied by some small service buildings of the house.

In the competition winning proposal we included the completely refurbished Casa del Conde as a part of the Museum. We even wanted to give it a main role, incorporating the former backyard facade as the background of the new main exhibition space.

The inner court of the house played also a significant role as an exhibition area which established a relationship between the old and the new parts. The upper levels hosted an administration area and a library.

Nevertheless, at the time we developed the Project, and after a rigorous inspection of the building we confirmed that it was not possible to refurbish the whole house at a reasonable cost, so we decided to concentrate all the efforts in preserving and restoring the painted façade and those valuable elements (stone columns, ironworks,…) we could recover for the museum.

This way, the old façade, once disappeared the rest of the house, is no more only a construction element and becomes also a canvas, a decorated surface to be integrated in the museum as an exhibition object.

Indeed a very special one, due to the decisive role it plays in the relation of the building with its surroundings (the Assumption Church) and with the city history and memory.

Despite the disappearing of the house, we preserve the volume occupied buy it, as a mechanism to adequate to the surroundings scale.

The new building steps backwards, creating a small square in front of the main visitors access.

Therefore the museum as a whole responds to a double urban scale, the close-scale of the street and the far-scale of the Church square.

Besides the building adapts itself to the steep slope of the plot decreasing its height in the longitudinal section so that it keeps always the urban scale of the surrounding houses.

Another mechanism to integrate the building and give it a representative character is the use, for the facades, of the same local stone as the one of the nearby Church, keeping the museum into the chromatic spectrum of the historic centre.

In the inside, a white-concrete space, shaped by light, surrounds a sinuous way among the sculptures, which stand on several big wooden bases that organize the exhibition and contain the showcases for smaller objects.

Therefore it happens just the opposite as in Easter, and in this case it is the visitor who wanders between the sculptures as he discovers them from different points.

The great scale of the main space, the intentional use of light and the construction with few and durable materials give the interior a character very appropriate for the important collection of religious sculptures to be exposed.

project: EASTER SCULPTURE MUSEUM. HELLÍN. ALBACETE
architects: EXIT ARCHITECTS – IBÁN CARPINTERO / MARIO SANJUÁN
client: PUBLIC WORKS MINISTRY / HELLÍN MUNICIPALITY

built area: 2.160 m2
budget: 3.512.235 EUROS

project: 2002
completion: 2011

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collaborators: MIGUEL GARCÍA-REDONDO, SILVIA N. GÓMEZ, ÁNGEL SEVILLANO, JOSÉ Mª TABUYO
technical architects: ALBERTO PALENCIA / JOSÉ ANTONIO ALONSO

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mechanical consultant: MAINTENANCE IBÉRICA
structural consultant: INDAGSA (JOSÉ LUIS CANO)

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general contractor: PEFERSAN, S.A.

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Slideshow: a bronzed box window peers out like a periscope from the auditorium of this cathedral visitor’s centre in Lund, Sweden, by architect Carmen Izquierdo.

Located opposite the cathedral, the two-storey Domkyrkoforum building is clad entirely in the bronze-coloured brass alloy, which will continually darken with age.

Entrances lead into a double-height atrium from both a public plaza at the front of the building and from Kyrkogatan Street, the road that runs alongside.

This reception lobby accommodates temporary exhibition spaces and a cafe, while the auditorium is located just beyond and a series of offices and meeting rooms occupy the floor above.

Walls inside the building are of exposed concrete and reveal the grain of the wood used to form them.

Carmen Izquierdo previously designed the perforated orange facade for Tham & Videgård Arkitekter’s Moderna Museet Malmö – see it here.

Photography is by Åke E:son Lindman.

Here’s some more information from Carmen Izquierdo:

Domkyrkoforum – Cathedral Forum

The site of the new cathedral forum is central Lund, in direct connection to the cathedral itself. On the site is situated the existing “Arken” house, which is a building of historical value.

The new building aims to integrate itself in the urban fabric in a natural way, by adapting to the scale and lines of the surrounding cityscape.

At the same time our vision has been to create a contemporary building that adds a new layer to the many historic layers that characterize the urban environment of central Lund.

The shape of the building creates new adjacent public spaces: The entrance plaza towards Kyrkogatan street, the entrance passage facing the cathedral, and a triangular square towards Kungsgatan street.

In addition to the welcoming exterior spaces an internal atrium is created, as well as an interior courtyard, shaped by the existing and the new building.

The central public space in the building is the entrance hall that is reached from both entrances. The entrance hall is formed as a meeting space; a general and generous which can hold various activities like reception, exhibitions and a cafe.

A two-storey atrium allows daylight to enter from above, while visually integrating the public spaces with the congregational facilities on the second storey. The auditorium is conceived as a unique space, with its skylight pointing up towards the cathedral towers.

The exterior is a simple yet characteristic volumes, its lines playing with the surrounding buildings.

Towards Kyrkogatan street the roof lines of the Arken house are continued over the entrance plaza.

Towards the cathedral the entrance is signaled by the characteristic skylight.

The facade of the building is made of a brass alloy, a natural material that ages with a rich and living texture, allowing the building to age into its surroundings; at the inauguration it shimmers like gold, but in a couple of years it will have oxidized into a deep and matte bronze color.

The interior of the building is cast in concrete with form of wooden boards.

The massive and heavy character of the material is balanced by the play of light in the interior spaces.

Name of project: Domkyrkoforum
Address: Domkyrkoplan i Lund / Domkyrkoplan in Lund
Architect: Carmen Izquierdo Arkitektkontor AB
Project managers: Carmen Izquierdo & Andreas Hiller
Collaborating architects: Andreas Hermansson, Erik Törnkvist, Isabel Gonzaga, Malin Belfrage

Landscape:
Domkyrkoforum: Carmen Izquierdo Arkitektkontor AB
Domkyrkoplan: Ateljé Landskap

Other consultants:
Project leader: Lars G Gustafsson
Structural engineer: Jan Lövgren
Mechanical engineer: Patrik Holmquist
Electrical engineer: Ronny Sjöholm
Acoustics: Anna Swanberg, Maria Carlsson
Artwork in the lecturehall: Anita Christoffersson

Client: Domkyrkrådet i Lund
Construction form: Partnering- General entreprenad
Building Contractor: PSG
Gross Area sq.m:
New buiding: 1617kvm
Rebuilding: 883kvm
Year of construction: 2010-2011

Slideshow: just like the museum we published yesterday, this library in Worcester, England, by architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios is covered with shimmering squares of golden metal.

Positioned on the riverbank between the city centre and one of the campuses for Worcester University, the four-storey building contains an academic library for students, a public library, a county archive and a local history centre.

An extruded roof comprising seven rectangular cones divides the building into a conjoined cluster of blocks, which reflect the arrangement of rooms and spaces within.

These chimney-like forms draw light and ventilation into each of the reading rooms, as well as into a central atrium that connects each of the floors.

Balconies and staircases are picked out in ash, while a set of red, yellow and blue-painted volumes are slotted between rooms on one floor to provide a row of informal reading spots.

The building will open in July.

In the last year Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios have also completed a hospital unit for sick or premature babies, which you can see here.

Photography is by Hufton & Crow.

Here’s some more text from the architects:

UK’s first purpose-built joint-use library to open in July

The Hive which will open in July is the UK’s first purpose-built joint-use library serving the University of Worcester and the county that incorporates the county archive, a local history centre, accommodation for the County Archaeologist’s team and a ‘one stop shop’ for the local authority: It’s a pioneering response to the challenge of providing a wide range of public services in an age of austerity whilst promoting social and environmental sustainability.

The distinctive form is a response to the project partners’ aspirations to create a beacon for learning in the city centre, a counterpoint to the Cathedral on the edge of the floodplain to the River Severn.

The Hive forms part of a new city block which incorporates an accessible route connecting the city centre, via the top of the medieval city wall, to the new Castle Street University campus – it is designed to entice passers by to come in and explore.

Sustainability was a high priority throughout: The Hive maximises daylight and natural ventilation via the seven iconic roof cones that echo the undulating ridgeline of the Malverns and the historic kilns of the Royal Worcester pottery.

Water from the river Severn provides peak cooling and locally sources biomass provides heating.

The building is designed to adapt to climate change predicted by UK-CIP to 2050. It has an A rated Energy Performance Certificate and confirmation is awaited on whether it has met or exceeded the requirement to achieve BREEAM Excellent.

The roof structure was designed using award winning software developed for the project which allowed the form to be constructed from solid laminated timber: This generated a saving of more than 2000 tonnes of CO2 compared to the initial design in steel and concrete.

The exterior is clad in a scaley carapace of copper alloy. Inside the palette of concrete and ash is animated by colours drawn from the palette used by Royal Worcester.

The development includes extensive new public realm with both hard landscape (using locally sourced Forrest of Dean Pennant) and planting which draws on indigenous species to create a new and rich habitat for wildlife.

The Hive, which was procured via a PFI process, is a testament to teamwork; from the inspiration of the Project Partners who identified the opportunity to create a generous new public facility to the creativity of the design team and the tenacity of the contractors it demonstrates that by sharing a vision and pulling in the same direction the UK construction industry can deliver extraordinary buildings.

Vital Statistics:
1.34 ha site,
12,371m2 gross external area
£29.7m total construction ex vat, fees, external works and FF+E
£2400/m2
15.8 CO2/m2/yr
4.3m3/m2 at 50 Pa air tightness
40% GGBFS in cement

Team:
Client: University of Worcester and Worcestershire County Council
Architect: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Structural Engineer: Hyder Consulting (UK) Ltd/ Atelier One
M&E Engineer: Max Fordham LLP
Planning Supervisor: Arcadis AYH
Landscape Consultant: Grant Associates
Contractor: Galliford Try Construction
Cladding Consultant: Montresor Partnership
Fire Consultant: Exova Warringtonfire
Access Consultant: All Clear Designs