Hasta La Ideas

Curving iridescent structures resembling the scaled bodies of a pair of dragons slump over the top of this new wing created by French studio Agence Jouin Manku at an office campus outside Paris (+ slideshow).

Agence Jouin Manku was asked to design a new amenities wing for the headquarters of Société Foncière Lyonnaise, France’s oldest property company, which is housed within a converted 1920s factory building on the banks of the Seine in Boulogne-Billancourt.

Entitled In/Out, the new wing comprises a curving three-storey building that revolves around a tube-shaped concrete tower. Blocks extend out from both sides of the tower and are both topped with curving structures clad with shimmering stainless-steel shingles.

“The roof is designed like a shell made of scales,” Aude Planterose of Agence Jouin Manku told Dezeen. “We can’t ignore the reference to an animal; it could be a beetle or a dragon.”

The iridescent tiles appear green when viewed straight on, but change colour from blue to purple when viewed at an angle.

“The building changes each time that you look at it,” said Planterose. “These tiles are perfect for facade or roof, and it is actually the same technique used for the slate tiles you find on all Parisian rooftops.”

Below the tiles, the glazed exterior walls are screened with vertical timber slats that vary in density depending of the lighting requirements of the rooms behind, which include cafe and restaurant facilities for the offices, as well as new boardrooms and a 200-seat auditorium.

A staircase connecting the floors of both blocks is contained within the central concrete tower, while a footbridge creates a link between the new and old buildings at first-floor level.

Agence Jouin Manku also renovated the lobby of the original building, adding new seating areas and a large oval reception deck.

This space leads through to a courtyard, where the architects have constructed a glazed pavilion supported by a lattice of branch-like wooden beams that meets the ground at only one point.

Photography is by Thierry Lewenberg-Sturm.

Here’s a project description from Jouin Manku:

IN/OUT by Agence Jouin Manku

An office “campus”, for Société Foncière Lyonnaise, an ambitious architectural project including the transformation of the lobby with the construction of a glass microarchitecture as well as the creation of a new wing.

80 years of history

Built in 1927 by the architect Adolphe Bocage, this building, a landmark of the golden age of industry, had long been used to produce telephone control units. Located on the banks of the Seine, the site, with nearly 7 acres and a 6-storey building, used to hold the lMT society (le Matériel Téléphonique). The building soon became a symbol of industrial innovation.

The site had been designed in keeping with the great principles of the Modern Movement in architecture using simple geometrical shapes, and reinforced concrete. In 1976, Thomson-CsF took control over lMT, who, at the time, employed 10 000 people.

In 1988, seventy years after its construction, Thomson Multimedia transformed the factory into offices and set up its headquarters in the building, until 2009. SFL then decided to restructure the building, aiming for it to become a benchmark in the tertiary sector, focusing on innovation as well as on wellbeing at work. It is this ambitious decision that gave birth to the major IN/OUT project.

The site’s new organisation

After our first commission to design a series of spaces for the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Paris, Société Foncière Lyonnaise (SFL), has asked us once again to embark on another adventure. This time, they have commissioned us to design a new amenities wing of their ambitious In/Out office campus, a landmark office project that is re-defining work spaces in France which houses a cafe, restaurant, board rooms, an auditorium as well as various technical spaces and the lobby, with his pavilion, of the historical building.

The IN/OUT project involves an office campus of more than 387 500 square feet. It is located on a former industrial site in Boulogne, at the West of Paris, on the right bank of the Seine River. This factory, which used to manufacture telephone tools in the 1930s, underwent a complete rehabilitation done by DTACC Architecture, such as many industrial sites in Boulogne.

Visitors enter the historical building and are welcomed into a large vast space similar to a hotel lobby. At the entrance lies a large oval desk that leads visitors to what used to be an exterior courtyard. In the courtyard one discovers a surprising micro-architecture: a glass pavilion that is held up by a series of intertwined and woven wood beams. An ethereal floating lattice which at one point swoops down and gently balances on the floor below on just one point. This new glass canopy in the central courtyard, creates a natural transition between the lobby of the historical building and the amenities wing.

This new amenities wing is nearly 40 000 sq ft.including the interiors. This building was further developed in collaboration with the engineering office TESS for the structural elements and the skin of the building and with architectural agency DTACC for the technical development and architectural execution.

The amenities wing

Agence Jouin Manku has conceived the new amenities wing (nearly 40 000 sq ft.), as well as the interior design of the wing. The building has been further developed in collaboration with the engineering office TESS and DTACC. The new wing also holds a series of services and amenities, alongside the workspaces within the ‘Bocage’ building (thus completing the IN/OUT campus). The wing holds: a 103 seats cafe, a 462 seats restaurant, a 200 seats auditorium, as well as corporate board rooms, lounges, 2 large terraces and a fitness centre.

A dynamic shape, symbol of an avant-garde building

How can workspaces in big companies be improved? What is missing? This interrogation has guided the design of the amenities wing. Agence Jouin Manku decided to create a very different atmosphere to complement the ‘Bocage’ building. This gives employees a healthy balance between formal and informal, as well as between work and play, an idea at the heart of the In/Out Campus.

The structure of the ‘Bocage’ building evokes nostalgia, professionalism and rigour. In contrast, the new wing has been conceived as a building of contemporary architecture, designed around the idea of movement and flow. Its shape has been made to create a series of intertwined spaces. The building is organised around the idea of passage: passing of people, light and air. It is also a place which evokes movement, production, action and dynamism.

The concrete heart: the centre of the building

The building is organised around a central tower, made of bush hammered concrete, which holds all vertical circulation. The choice to use concrete for the centre of the building was to create a coherence and dialogue with the neighbouring ‘Bocage’ building, which is made of the same material and clearly shows its original industrial character. Two wings revolve and wrap around the central tower, but they never meet. Their architectural lines are softer and each wing is a curved form, made of curved glass and vertical wood cladding. The spaces between the concrete centre and the wood wings are filled with glass, which allows light to penetrate almost everywhere in the building, vertically or horizontally.

On the outside, the density of the vertical wood cladding increases and decreases, depending on its position, and which indoor space it corresponds to. The pattern starts out smoothly, then its texture, created by adding chamfers, changes. These edges catch light differently and create a sense of depth on the facade. Inside, the main materials are wood, bush hammered concrete, plaster and curved glass. The curved wood that wraps a large part of the interior adds to the sense of warmth, while the simple use of glass and concrete add a crisp modernity to the project. A footbridge connects the two buildings. This bridge, made of white painted steel and wood, makes access easy between the two buildings, and acts as a symbolic link betweenthe two architectural signatures, and the birth of a common project.

An architecture inspired By nature: an inside out and outside in design

Inspired by the Saint-Cloud park, the Seine river and the lush nature just close to the site, the amenities pavilion has been designed to allow these elements to penetrate the building, as well as to create spaces that would allow one to enjoy the gardens and terraces, created as an extension of the building. The flowing shapes of the project recall the movements of nature. To underline this idea, the roof of the wing has been designed as a coloured envelope wrapping the building. The coloured stainless steel tiles were chosen for their particular iridescent character. In front view, the tiles are green, but their colour changes as the angle and light move. This gives the building a dynamic and always changing character, echoing the variations in the sky and sunlight.

The insides

The interior design and furniture have been thought out as a continuation of the outside lines of the building. While the central concrete core holds the curved staircase that links the various levels of the building, each level opens out on spaces filled with light: simple yet warm spaces, spaces that open out on terraces and gardens, as well as spaces that invite one to discover the next room. The circulation is therefore fluid, and the connection between each space is harmonious. Employees can thus enjoy each space, and will always be invited to discover the next one.

The transformation of the lobby: a micro architecture at the heart of the ‘Bocage’ building

On the outside, the ‘Bocage’ building still looks like an industrial fortress from the 1930s. Yet inside, gently perched in the space of the old atrium, Agence Jouin Manku has designed a ‘soft’ space, filled with light, which is one of their trademarks.

Visitors enter the building and are welcomed into a vast space, similar to a hotel lobby. at the entrance lies a large oval desk, which leads visitors to what used to be an indoor atrium. In the newly created courtyard, one discovers a surprising micro-architecture: a glass canopy, held up by a series of intertwined wood beams, an ethereal floating lattice, which at one point swoops down and gently balances above the floor.

This structural frame was a complex element that required the expertise of TESS, an engineering firm with whom Agence Jouin Manku regularly works.

This lobby is the new heart of the ‘Bocage’ building. It is a central meeting point between different spaces. It also invites visitors or employees to have a break. Both simple in its design and complex in its realisation, the glass pavilion foretells the bold amenities wing designed by the agence Jouin Manku.

The vertical circulation spaces

The other major architectural work is the transformation of the office spaces, especially through the vertical circulation spaces and service points, which now stand on the inside corners of the courtyard.

This has created new circulation spaces around the lobby. In the upper floors, natural light now floods largely into the workspaces. Corridors and stairs are highlighted by a strong yellow colour. This creates a contrast with the rest of the building and encourages one to use the stairs as well as the elevators.

Conclusion

IN/OUT is an ambitious architectural project by DTaCC architecture and agence Jouin Manku; together, they created two unique buildings for SFL. The campus offers a new approach to workspace based on the ideas of sharing, wellbeing and collective activities. The renovation and construction have greatly improved the campus’ amenities, for the benefit of the future users. This project also transforms a typical scenery of the Seine river.

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has dragon-like scales appeared first on Dezeen.

Ma Yansong of Chinese studio MAD presents a masterplan for Nanjing, China, where buildings are designed to look like mountains and public spaces overlap with the natural landscape, as part of the Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture.

The Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza proposal is the latest in a series of projects by MAD based on Yansong’s Shan-Shui City concept – an urban strategy based on a style of Chinese landscape painting and named after the Chinese words for mountains and water.

The masterplan, which encompasses an area of approximately 60 hectares, envisions an assortment of buildings and spaces that mediate between the city’s urban centre and its surrounding landscape of mountains and lakes.

“We need to rethink how to define the boundary between the nature and the urban on this piece of empty plot in the new city development area,” says MAD. “Is it possible to combine the high-density city with the atmosphere of the nature to create an energetic urban public space for the future, so people will reconnect their emotion with the nature?”

Expected to complete by 2017, the masterplan includes a set of high-rise buildings with unique curving profiles intended to avoid the “height competition” associated with most skyscrapers.

At ground level, pathways and plazas will be integrated with a mixture of manmade and natural landscaping.

Yansong is exhibiting a scale model of the proposal at the Border Warehouse in Shenzhen for the Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture 2013.

Here’s a project description from MAD:

Ma Yansong Featuring ‘Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza’ in Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture 2013 in Shenzhen

Ma Yansong presented his work, ‘Shanshui Experiment Complex’ in the Border Warehouse of Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture 2013 in Shenzhen. This is an artwork in-between architecture model and landscape installation, created based on MAD’s latest project, ‘Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza’. The total area of this urban design project is about 600,000 sqm and it is expected to be completed in 2017.

The historic city Nanjing is famous for the mountain and water landscape around the city, as well as its modern prosperities. With the culture, nature and history considered, we need to rethink how to define the boundary between the nature and the urban on this piece of empty plot in the new city development area. Is it possible to combine the high-density city with the atmosphere of the nature to create an energetic urban public space for the future, so people will re-connected their emotion with the nature?

The installation approaches those issues by creating a green open space spreading on the ground level of the city, where the natural and man-made landscape cross over with each other, existing in different dimensions both indoors and outdoors. The clear boundary of the site thus becomes blurred. While walking to their urban destination, people will feel as if they are sometimes walking in the nature. Above that, a series of buildings rise in the fog with flowing lines, changing smoothly as integrity, resolving the vertical power and the height competition, and the city skyline that used to be controlled by technology and power is now back to the artistic mood of faraway-so-close that our ancients have perceived in the nature.

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designed to look like mountains appeared first on Dezeen.

Red brick buildings wrap around an elevated piazza at this education centre in Rwanda by German office Dominikus Stark Architekten (+ slideshow).

Dominikus Stark Architekten used over half a million handmade clay bricks to build the walls, floors and columns of the Education Centre Nyanza, which is located on a road between the towns of Kigali and Butare.

The original brief called for a sheltered forecourt to extend a small existing building. The programme later expanded to encompass various educational projects, forming a self-contained complex where teaching rooms are clustered around a courtyard.

Comparing the design to local agrarian architecture, Dominikus Stark explained: “The complex, in analogy to local building tradition, is set like a boulder in the landscape.”

There are no openings in the outer walls of the complex, as all windows face inwards towards the central piazza. An internet cafe at the southern entrance to the site is the only space that opens to the surroundings.

Narrow patios and brick columns create intermediate spaces between the courtyard and the surrounding rooms, which include a library, a language lab, three classrooms and an administration block.

Ceilings are made from thin sheets of papyrus, while wicker doors and gates were constructed by local basket makers.

“Local craftsmanship gives the building a simple elegance and combines the various elements of the complex to form a robust, clear unit,” said Stark.

A dining hall with one glazed wall allows a variety of different activities – such as talks, parties or even weddings – to spill out into the courtyard.

Gaps in the brickwork facilitate natural ventilation, plus mono-pitched roofs are angled inwards to allow rainwater to be collected and recycled.

Photography is by Florian Holzherr.

Here’s a project description from Dominikus Stark Architekten:

Education Centre Nyanza, Rwanda

The Central African State of Rwanda, commonly known as the “land of a thousand hills”, is rarely the focus of West European interests. On a private initiative, on the road in Nyanza connecting the country’s most important towns Kigali and Butare, a new IT Centre has been built. While the initial order was to design a new roof over a forecourt, after first discussions the idea was born to build a training centre with lighthouse character, with a future-oriented curriculum and training options.

In the agrarian structure, the complex – in analogy to local building tradition – is set like a boulder in the landscape. New buildings grouped around a central piazza integrate the existing building into the new layout. The individual buildings have no outward-facing openings, but are oriented to and open up to the centre. Only the publicly accessible internet cafe with copy shop opens up to the outside and forms the forecourt and entrance to the facility.

Inner courtyards and rows of columns form a filter between the buildings and the central piazza in the middle. The resulting refuge options permit parallel usage. Only the dining hall, which is also used for weddings and movie evenings, opens directly onto the main piazza and resolves the spatial boundary to the exterior. The buildings’ language of colour and form makes reference to local materials. Clay, the traditional building material, manually processed to form fired clay bricks, has been used for the whole complex. The reduction to three basic materials – bricks, steel, and wickerwork – as construction, protection, surfacing or decoration with function, recurs throughout the entire building.

A simple ventilation concept in combination with the thermal storage capacity of the solid brick walls provides a comfortable indoor climate. The way the roof structure is oriented to the inner courtyard also has a functional background: the gathering of rainwater, which is so precious in these latitudes. Because of the shortage of wood, it is not used for building purposes. Local craftsmanship such as the papyrus ceiling linings or the wickerwork of the restaurant doors and courtyard gates made by local basket makers gives the building a simple elegance and combines the various elements of the complex to form a robust, clear unit. The involvement of local craftsmen and others promotes acceptance and contributes to economic and architectural sustainability.

Project: Education Centre
Location: Nyanza, Rwanda
Architect: Dominikus Stark Architekten
Project Area: 5500 m²
Civil Contractors: Stanbuild

Functions: administration, classrooms, language laboratory, library, kitchen, dining room, internet cafe and copy shop
Area of facility: 2400 sqm
Effective area: 1000 sqm
Numbers of bricks: 575,000 bricks
Visible length of joints: 150,000 m
Length of papyrus: 24.000 lfm
Weight of chimney: 52.000 kg
Brick manufacturers: local one-man-companies, burned in a cooperative
Brick size: 200 x 100 x 62mm

Members of staff: Markus Seifert, Adi Wiesenhofer
Consultant structural engineer: Marcel Enzweiler
Materials used: Handmade bricks; steel, wicker, papyrus

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and wicker by Dominikus Stark Architekten appeared first on Dezeen.

News: a tower under construction in Miami by Porsche Design and Dezer Development is to feature car elevators, allowing some of the world’s wealthiest people to park right next to their living rooms (+ slideshow).

The sixty-storey Porsche Design Tower will feature three automobile lifts to transport vehicles up to “sky garages” integrated into each of the 132 units.

Twenty-two billionaires – just under two percent of the world’s total – have already purchased property in the tower according to The Atlantic Cities.

“Featuring the level of superlative quality and groundbreaking ingenuity synonymous with Porsche Design’s iconic style, buyers understand the unprecedented value of these properties,” said Porsche Design CEO Juergen Gessler about the first real estate venture for the company.

Located in Sunny Isles Beach, a seaside district north of Miami, the cylindrical design developed by Dezer Development will rise 198 metres from the shoreline.

Depending on their size, units will have two to four garages that will be visible through glass walls inside the apartments. Resident’s vehicles will be washed and maintained by a concierge service.

The residences will include double-height spaces with ocean views, with plunge pools and outdoor kitchens on expansive balconies. Other amenities in the tower will include a spa, a cinema, a game room and a seafront ballroom.

Construction began in April 2013 and the first residents are predicted to move in during early 2016.

A luxury residential tower by Herzog & de Meuron has also been proposed on the same strip of shoreline and Zaha Hadid has designed another high-rise apartment building nearby.

Here’s some more information from Porsche Design:

$214 Million Construction Loan Secured for Porsche Design Tower

Largest loan for a single construction project in the Southeast United States

New York/South Florida-based Dezer Development today announced that it had closed a $214 million loan from Wells Fargo for construction of the iconic Porsche Design Tower Miami, located in Sunny Isles Beach. It is the largest loan approved for a major construction project in the Southeast United States since the real estate recession, and exponentially larger than any post-recession loan of its kind in South Florida. At $214 million, it is almost 30 percent larger than the previous largest substantive construction loan for a South Florida project since the recovery began.

The 132-residence, 60-story, ultra-luxury Porsche Design condominium tower is located at 18555 Collins Avenue, Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. The project has already secured $535 million in sales – representing over two-thirds of the units – far exceeding the benchmarks for securing the loan. Sell-out of the remaining units is anticipated to occur towards the end of the year at the current absorption rates. The building’s expansive residences range in size from 4800 to 17000 square feet and are priced from $4.8 million to $32.5 million. The building is slated for occupancy first quarter of 2016.

“This is extremely positive news for real estate financing and the recovery of the residential real estate market in South Florida,” says Gil Dezer, president of Dezer Development. “It is also a testament to how this one-of-a-kind project has been received by our buyers, as well as the lending community.”

“The opportunity to be part of Porsche Design’s first-of-its-kind real estate venture has been paramount to our sales success,” says Juergen Gessler, CEO Porsche Design Group. “Featuring the level of superlative quality and groundbreaking ingenuity synonymous with Porsche Design’s Iconic Style, buyers understand the unprecedented value of these properties.”

Reflecting the Porsche Design luxury brand’s hallmarks of technical innovation, forward-thinking and its timeless Iconic Style, the Porsche Design Tower Miami features a one-of-a-kind automobile lift system which will allow owners to park their vehicles in “sky garages” directly next to their units. While typically a luxury reserved for the most elite of penthouses, the building features plunge pools and outdoor summer kitchens on the balconies in almost every unit which completes the feel of the sky residence.

Other incomparable building amenities include a state-of-the-art spa equipped with treatment rooms featuring Vichy showers, sunset terrace complemented with twin over-sized spa tubs, an oceanfront ballroom and multipurpose clubrooms including a movie theatre and game room, and a Car Concierge who will tend to a resident’s vehicle, by assisting with regular maintenance, tire rotations, washing and other services.

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let billionaires drive into their apartments appeared first on Dezeen.

This combined dental clinic and beauty salon in Takashima, Japan, by Osaka designer Ryutaro Matsuura features a plain white facade that conceals windows and patios behind perforated metal screens (+ slideshow).

Ryutaro Matsuura designed the two storey building to accommodate the White Essence Takashima dental surgery on its lower level, while the first floor houses Salon de M, a beauty clinic offering non-surgical procedures such as hair removal and slimming treatments.

To break down the scale of the building, the volume was conceived as a cluster of four structures surrounding a central courtyard. “We thought of making four small buildings and uniting them like a ring,” said the architect.

Treatment rooms and reception areas are contained within the four perimeter blocks, while the space between becomes a double-height atrium with a glass ceiling, used as a patient waiting room by both businesses.

Windows line the perimeter of the dentist’s treatment rooms but are fronted by “buffer zones” comprising enclosed double-height patios. Perforated metal screens are positioned in front to allow daylight to enter without compromising privacy for patients.

“This made cozy treatment spaces with soft daylight and patients’ privacy,” said Matsuura.

A mixture of square and rectangular windows perforate the walls of the beauty clinic, creating views both into the courtyard and out to the external patios.

Each of the four blocks has a mono-pitched roof designed to allow snow to fall away during the winter season.

A low concrete wall surrounds the site and integrates benches that Matsuura hopes will encourage activity around the building.

“We hope that this building will endear itself to the town’s people and be nurtured by them as a new landmark of the town,” he added.

Photography is by Nacasa & Partners.

Here’s a project description from Ryutaro Matsuura:

White Essence Takashima and Salon de M

We planned to build a facility comprised of the aesthetic dental clinic “White Essence Takashima” on the first floor and the aesthetic salon “Salon de M” on the second floor, which is owned by one dentist and located in a residential area of the northwestern part of Shiga Prefecture, Japan. What the client requested to us was “The building can give neighbourhood a sense of affinity and good impressions as a symbolic object in the town”.

We thought that putting together the necessary functions into one square-shaped ‘box’ should be avoided because the town’s people would not heart such a dominating building. So, we thought of making four small buildings and uniting them like a ring.

We also gave them shed roofs in order to slide the accumulated snow off the surface considering their heavy winter snowfalls. That is how we created a community-friendly shape bundling the slanted roofed boxes which are snuggling up to each other.

In regard to the interior space, we made the space enclosed by four buildings into a void space with a top light. It was turned into a comfortable place with varied natural light. We fixed perforated metal screens on the outside of the windows of the first floor treatment rooms to set up buffer spaces bridging the inside and the outside. This made the cozy treatment spaces with soft daylight and patients’ privacy.

The fence around the premises is punctuated by partial 350 mm setbacks that can be used as benches by any pedestrians. This design should alleviate a sense of rejection.

We hope that this building will endear itself to the town’s people and be nurtured by them as a new landmark of the town.

Project name: White Essence Takashima, Salon de M
Use: aesthetic dental clinic (1F), aesthetic salon (2F)
Location: Shin’asahi-cho, Takashima City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan

Site area: 1536.76 square metres
Floor area: 364.87 square metres
Date of competition: November, 2013
Client: Uehara Dental Clinic
Design: Ryutaro Matsuura

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with concealed windows and patios appeared first on Dezeen.