Hasta La Ideas

Slideshow: Croatian-Austrian design collective Numen/For Use have suspended carpet-lined cocoons from the ceiling of a former church in Pula, Croatia.

Like their earlier installation during the DMY Berlin fair in 2010, the two overlapping funnels are made from several kilometres of adhesive tape wrapped like a web around a skeletal framework.

A four-metre-high ladder lets visitors climb up inside the structure, where the curved and furry red walls create a womb-like interior.

The installation will remain in place until the end of March.

Read more about the webbed installation in Berlin here.

Here’s some more text from Numen/For Use:

TUFT Pula

TUFT is an evolution of the tape concept into a more permanent,self-standing, transferable structure. Adhesive tape is used to generate the primary form of the object. The organic surface of the carpet is later achieved through precise division of the shape in two-dimensional segments, enabling traditional tufting technology. The development and production were executed in a Croatian factory Regeneracija, a former regional industrial giant.

Rough, industrial surface of the back side of the carpet is deliberately exposed to serve as a counterpoint to the invitingly soft, carnal interior. The result is a surreal simultaneous feeling of anxiety and thrill whilst entering into the installation.

The exhibition of the structure at the height of 4 meters in the middle of the former church in Pula, additionally enhances the tension and the sensational perception of the visitor. After the initial caution, the user starts perceiving the functional aspect of the installation, utilizing the softness and sound isolation of the installation and using it as an inward facing collective sofa.

Slideshow: a visitor’s centre with an ornate herringbone facade by Bernard Tschumi Architects opens this weekend on an archaeological site in central France.

The cylindrical centre occupies the same position held by the Roman army during a historic battle against the Gauls over 2000 years ago and its wooden exterior references the timber fortifications that would have been constructed nearby.

A second museum building, contrastingly clad in stone, is also being constructed a kilometre away across the battlefield and the pair will together comprise the Alésia Museum complex.

Exhibitions inside the visitor’s centre will portray the events of the battle and its aftermath, while the second building will present artefacts unearthed from the site.

A garden of grass and trees covers the roof of the visitor’s centre and will be accessible to visitors.

See more stories by Bernard Tschumi Architects here, including a bright red pedestrian bridge.

Photography above is by Christian Richters, while photography below is by Iwan Baan.

Here’s some more text from Bernard Tschumi Architects:

Opening Day Set for Alésia Museum, First Phase

Part of a museum complex designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects, a new interpretive center on the site of the historic Battle of Alésia will open in a formal ceremony on March 23, 2012.

Located in Burgundy, France, the building marks the position of the Roman army, under Julius Caesar, and its encampment surrounding the Gauls under Vercingetorix in 52 B.C. The building will be open to the public starting on March 26th.

Tschumi’s design features a cylindrical building with an exterior envelope made of wood, a material that references the Roman fortifications of the era, some of which are reconstructed in an area a short walk from the building.

The roof of the building is planted with low shrubs and trees, so as to minimize the visual impact of the building when seen from the hill above (the historical position of the Gauls).

The materiality and sustainable elements of the building are meant to make visitors aware of the surrounding landscape, which appears much as it would have 2000 years ago.

A second building on the hill will mark the location of the Gauls, and has a similar geometry, but is clad in stone, evoking its trenched position.



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The interpretive center will contain exhibits and interactive displays that contextualize the events of the Battle of Alésia and its aftermath.

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The displays are intended to reach a broader audience than a museum, with a range of media and programs for all ages.

The second building will act as a more traditional museum, with a focus on found objects and artifacts unearthed from the site. The second building is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Slideshow: the faceted copper envelope of this house extension near Sydney was designed by architects Innovarchi to resemble a roof.

This design concept was devised in response to a local guideline stating that new buildings in the area should all have traditional pitched roofs.

Named the Balmain Archive, the building branches out from the rear of the existing house to provide a storage archive, work studio, barbeque area and laundry room.

Glazed walls across the front of the studio slide back to open the room out to a raised deck facing the garden.

Other residential extensions we’ve featured include a barrel-vaulted conservatory in London – see them all here.

Photography is by John Gollings.

The text below is from Innovarchi:

Project Description

In the context of the heritage area in and around Balmain this extension to a small cottage demanded careful consideration of the philosophy behind the new intervention.

Analysis of traditional built forms, usage patterns and development codes led to a strategy of providing a contemporary interpretation of the ever-decreasing volumes often evident in ad hoc additions of kitchens, laundries and outside toilets that were often made to these original structures.

Moving away from traditional usage patterns, the public penetration of the private realm has progressed from the compartmentalised formal front rooms to the more relaxed and inclusive realm at the back of the property.

The area closest to the entry now becomes the bedroom precinct and the back is a fragmented indoor/outdoor public space bounded by the allotment fencing. Access is via a central corridor that extends through the house right back to the rear gate.

With local design guidelines requiring pitched roof forms the new architecture grew out of the recognizable triangular shapes traditionally associated with hipped roofs.

The building also acts as a protective screen creating a privacy hood blocking the views into the garden from the neighbouring house. As the scale and dimension of the addition reduces towards the back gate the external landscape is amplified and spliced into the informal semi-internal spaces.

The folding forms create a canopy that provides shading in summer and allows the northern sun to penetrate into the space for passive heating in winter. The addition breathes new life into old under-used home with 95% of the existing building fabric retained.

The roof design increases the rainwater harvesting capacity and the skylights foster a reliance on natural daylighting. The spaces are naturally ventilated and the roof has high performance insulation to minimise heat gain. The landscape concept includes a deck area and large native garden eliminating the need for lawn.

Architect: Innovarchi
Engineer: TTW, Builder Grater Constructions
Cladding: Craft Metals

Slideshow: Indonesian architects Aboday have won a competition to significantly extend their country’s National Museum in Jakarta.

A glazed atrium will separate the original museum from the new building, which will be more than twice as tall.

A waffle-gridded canopy on stilts will shelter this entrance lobby and provide a location for informal exhibitions alongside book and gift shops.

A bronze elephant that is currently positioned at the museum’s entrance will also be relocated into this atrium, marking a central position where corridors converge.

Other projects by Aboday on Dezeen include a house with a spiralling concrete slide – see them all here.

Here’s a lengthier project description from the architects:

Museum Nasional Indonesia
(Open National Competition, 1st Prize Winner)

As a national pride, Museum Nasional Indonesia, located in Jakarta, on the west side of the city’s infamous Monumen Nasional (National Monument with its 24 karat gold coated flame on the top) has been suffering from identity crisis for more than a decade. Occupying an 1862 colonial building from the era of Dutch Governor General JCM Radhermacher; it has an iconic Bronze Elephant in its front yard; a gift from Siamese King Chulalongkorn during his visit in 1871 thus its nickname of Museum Gajah (Elephant Museum).

Despite its long journey as an oldest research institution dedicated to Indonesian history, the museum has only been visited by 200.000 visitor during the year of 2010. This is happened in a city whereby one nearby shopping mall welcoming 30,000 visitor a day; and a research about shopping habits shows that people in this city religiously paying a visit to their favorite mall once in 6.5 day! It doesn’t help that the museum has 145,000 artifact and artwork, the largest of its kind in South East Asia; and that its collection span from the Prehistoric Indonesia to the Independence era of 1945.

A new MasterPlan was produce in 1996 as a result of a closed competition; an attempt to revamp the museum by extending its facilities with commercial supporting areas; even thought it was halted halfway due to the global economic crisis that hit Indonesia badly. This MasterPlan with typical approach of ‘archeological-conservation: copying an existing building to achieve a ‘new harmony’ , resulting on the construction of Building B on the Northern part of the original museum creating a confusing dual identity that put the whole complex in dismay rather than the intended harmony. Some attempt to steal its precious collection also force the museum to develop a massive security fencing eliminating the museum role as a supposedly public facility, to become a building with full surveillance element. The museum complex loose its relevance to the life of cosmopolitan Jakarta.

The new scheme to develop the museum complex try to bring back this massive institution to its original role as public facility. It addresses the question of urban context by inserting a new corridor between the existing museum building (A) and building (B) that will maintain an openness to the pedestrian and city park on the Eastern part of the complex. Called Museum Corridor, this East-West axiality of future urban stream further organized and help visitor to navigate their journey within the museum complex. Shaded by a giant urban canopy, the architect introduce new activities along the corridor in a hope to attract wider audience to the otherwise staid institution. Arrange between the row of slender steel rumboid shape colonnade is a series of social and commercial nodes such as bookshop, museum store, orientation/exhibition hall and choices of F&B areas that will surely attract people in this food heaven city.

Made entirely of steel structure and shading of waffle pattern aluminum fin, the glass covered corridor is a magnified version of open terraces surrounding the perimeter of existing building; an attempt to respect and reflect the old without imitating it as guided by Charter of Venice. In this very space that the architect expect people will start diving into the experiential ambience of contemporary social and museum aesthetic. Without even buying ticket, the first time museum visitors will still be able to enjoy the collection in this passage as display starts as early as in the open garden next to the F & B sitting area. This is part of the idea to widen the exhibition area in the museum complex, as absolutism has been indefinitely ended from the issue of museum display presentation.

Perpendicular to this passage corridor, there is a wide alley on the upper level stitching the existing museum building (A), new building (B) and proposed building (C) . Called Museum Alley, it is connected by the curvilinear gentle ramp; circulating the urban stream from the passage below to the key-points at the North-South end of this alley. It also serves as the main handicap access from the secondary drop of on the Northern side of the complex. Vertically co-join by a series of elevator and ramps, the alley bring people further up to areas of temporary exhibition in Building (B) or Display Storage, Offices and 1000 seater auditorium in Building (C). The highest level of this new building block will be occupied by a museum theme restaurant that will claim the magnificent view of Monumen Nasional as it main attraction.

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Many of museum collections are now scattered around the existing building, some of them are displayed in the courtyard or open verandah with no proper protection, endangering its lifespan by exposing it to weather. Also the lack of display areas within the building resulting in a very cramp museum interior, where visitor and collections sometimes knocking elbow by elbow. With the new pragmatic program of additional 10.000 sqm exhibition space, this situation will be improved as more collections can now be displayed in proper sequence or story.

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Positioning these exhibition spaces in layers of levels enable museum goers to create their own choreography during the visit; as display will likely be categorized base on theme rather than chronological year. Aside from the exhibition space, new additional storage area of 5500 sqm in the upper level will be designed as such, that it will actively visible to the visitors. A storage passage of floor to ceiling glass wall for museum goers will be inserted within the storage space, allowing the visitor to have a view of what happened inside; an attempt to reduce the possibility of any wrongdoing to those priceless collection when its shielded from the public view.

To establish the criss cross of new Museum Corridor and Museum Alley as the key-point within the building, the bronze elephant will be relocated, positioned on a 2 storey pedestal right on the crossing path of these 2 main thoroughfares. People from both axial of East-West and North-South will be able to see this iconic sculpture as the museum’s mainvisual connector. Generating objections during the competition presentation as many museum insider are worried that the relocation will cause museum a lost of identity, the architect rather convinced that relocating an old icon to new position will strengthen the meaning and put the symbol into a more relevant context of time and space.

Architect: Aboday

Competition Team
Partner in Charge: Ary Indra
Team: Rafael David, Johansen Yap, Ferdy Apriady, Radhi Maulanza, Vani Wijaya, Agie Aditama, Budi Yono, Dugi Maheswardhitra

Artist Impression: Rizal Bayu
Client: Museum Nasional Indonesia

Slideshow: a Ferrari automotive museum designed by the late Czech architect and Future Systems founder Jan Kaplický has opened in Modena, Italy.

Following Kaplický’s death in early 2009, the Enzo Ferrari Museum has been completed by London practice Shiro Studio under the direction of former Future Systems associate Andrea Morgante.

The museum comprises two buildings. The first is the early nineteenth century former house and workshop of Ferrari’s father, renovated to house a 40-metre-long gallery, while the second is a new glass-fronted structure that curves around it.

This new non-linear structure has a streamlined yellow aluminium roof that matches the colour of the Ferrari logo and features sliced incisions intended to resemble the air intake vents on the bonnet of a car.

A gently-sloping ramp leads down into the building’s basement level exhibition hall, where up to 21 cars can be exhibited on a series of raised platforms.

Above: photograph is by Andrea Morgante

An exhibition of models and key drawings spanning Kaplický’s career took place at the Design Museum the year he passed away – you can find photographs and a podcast from it here.

Above: photograph is by Andrea Morgante

Photography is Studio Cento29, apart from where otherwise stated.

Above: photograph is by David Pasek

Here’s a more comprehensive project description from Andrea Morgante:

Enzo Ferrari Museum, Modena, Italy

In 2004 Future Systems won an international competition to design a new museum in Modena, Italy. Dedicated to motor racing legend and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari (1898 – 1988), the museum comprises exhibition spaces within the early nineteenth century house where the motor racing giant was born and raised, and its adjoining workshop, as well as a separate, newly constructed exhibition building.

Above: photograph is by Andrea Morgante

Following the death of Jan Kaplicky in 2009, the office of Future Systems was dissolved ¹. Andrea Morgante, formerly of Future Systems and now director of Shiro Studio, was appointed to oversee the museum’s completion. The new building has been constructed to Kaplický’s original design– it is sensitive to the existing historical context, combines the latest in construction and energy saving technology, and resonates in spirit, language and materials with the cars it is intended to showcase. The fully restored house and workshop provide additional exhibition space designed by Morgante.

Above: photograph is by Andrea Morgante

New Exhibition Building

The sculpted yellow aluminium roof with its ten incisions – intentionally analogous to those air intake vents on the bonnet of a car – allows for natural ventilation and day lighting, and both celebrates and expresses the aesthetic values of car design. With its 3,300 square metres of double-curved aluminium, the roof is the first application of aluminium in this way on such a large scale. Working together with boat builders whose familiarity with organic sculpted forms and waterproofing made them the ideal partner, and cladding specialists, the form is constructed from aluminium sheets fitted together using a patented tongue and groove system. The bright Modena yellow of the roof is Ferrari’s corporate colour, as seen on the Ferrari insignia where it forms the backdrop to the prancing horse. It is also the official colour of Modena.

Above: photograph is by Andrea Morgante

Kaplický wanted to create a sensitive dialogue between the two exhibition buildings that showed consideration for Ferrari’s early home and underscored the importance of the museum as a unified complex made up of several elements. The views out of the new exhibition building dramatically frame the house and workshop, while views from outside the house and workshop immediately reveal the function and content of the new exhibition building. The height of the new exhibition building reaches a maximum of 12 metres – the same height as the house – with its volume expanding below ground level. In addition, the new building gently curves around the house in a symbolic gesture of appreciation.

The glass façade is curved in plan and tilts at an angle of 12.5 degrees. Each pane is supported by pre-tensioned steel cables and is able to withstand 40 tonnes of pressure. The technical specification of these panes and cables means that greater transparency in the façade is achieved with maximum functionality. In the summer months a thermo-sensor activates the windows in the façade and roof allowing cool air to circulate. With 50% of the internal volume of the main exhibition building set below ground level, geothermal energy is used to heat and cool the building. It is the first museum building in Italy to use geothermal energy. The building also employs photovoltaic technology and water recycling systems.

Visitors entering the new building have uninterrupted views into the entire exhibition space: a large, open, white room, where the walls and floor transition lightly into one another and are perceived as a single surface. A stretched semi-transparent membrane spreads light evenly across the roof, and in combination with the slits running from side to side which allow air to escape and give a ribbed effect, recalls the language of a car interior. A bookshop and café are situated to one side of the entrance and facilities to the other. Both are painted the same Modena yellow as the roof and take the form of blister-like pods. A gently sloping ramp gradually leads the visitor around the building from the ground floor to the basement level, with display stands designed by Morgante punctuating the circulation path. These stands lift the cars 45 centimetres so that they can be viewed from different angles and appreciated as works of art rather than objects simply placed in a room. Up to twenty-one cars can be displayed in this open space at any one time. Supplementary exhibition material is displayed in leather cases located along the perimeter wall. At the bottom of the ramp and directly below the entrance, an audiovisual room forms a permanent part of the exhibition. A flexible teaching space and a conference room with a carved out opening allowing views up into the entrance area are located next to it.

Restored House and Workshop

The two-storey house and workshop built by Ferrari’s father in the 1830s has been completely refurbished. Later additions to the house and workshop have been removed and, with the exception of two internal bracing structures that have been inserted in accordance with Italian anti-seismic regulations to give structural rigidity, no alterations have been made. The main gallery space is located within what was the double height workshop. Here Morgante has designed a contemporary exhibition display system, which incorporates digital projections, objects owned by Ferrari, information panels and other material.

The display system was conceived as a large-scale vertical book that allows the visitor to read the different chapters of Ferrari’s life through various media; a three-dimensional immersive biography. The system takes the form of a sinuous wall separated into pages, so that as visitors progress down the room, they are obliged to gradually discover each page and chapter in sequence. At every point the next chapter is concealed so as to maintain interest and create a sense of excitement. This organic landscape stretches through the entire length of the 40 metre long space and soft, low-level backlighting gently illuminates both it and the room, making the space intimate in spite of its size. At the northern end of the main gallery, in the original house, two smaller exhibition spaces are located next to one another. Administrative spaces are situated directly adjacent to them and on the first floor.

Client: Fondazione Casa Natale Enzo Ferrari
Location: Via Paolo Ferrari 85, Modena, Italy
Concept design: 2004
Completion date: 2012
Site area: 10,600 m²
Gross floor area: 5,200 m²
Contract value: €14.200.000

Architect: Jan Kaplický (Future Systems)
Project Architect: Andrea Morgante
Competition team: Jan Kaplický, Andrea Morgante, Liz Middleton, Federico Celoni
Project team (Preliminary, Detailed, Construction) (2005-2007): Andrea Morgante, Søren Aagaard, Oriana Cremella, Chris Geneste, Cristina Greco, Clancy Meyers, Liz Middleton, Itai Palti, Maria Persichella, Filippo Previtali, Daria Trovato.
Art Direction (2009-2012): Andrea Morgante (Shiro Studio)
Gallery Exhibition design: Jan Kaplický (Future Systems), Andrea Morgante (Shiro Studio)
Enzo Ferrari House Exhibition design: Andrea Morgante (Shiro Studio)

Project Management and Site Supervision: Politecnica- Modena
Structural, Mechanical & Electrical Design, Environmental Impact Assessement, Health & Safety (Preliminary, Detailed & construction stages): Politecnica

Main Contractor: Società Consortile Enzo
CCC soc. coop. (Leader), Ing. Ferrari s.p.a, ITE Group s.r.l, CSM.
Technical Director: Giuseppe Coppi (CdC – Modena)