Hong Kong-based architecture photographer Edmon Leong has sent us a set of exclusive photos of Zaha Hadid’s nearly-completed Innovation Tower at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (+ slideshow).
The 76 metre-high building, located on the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus close to Hung Hom station in Kowloon, is being built to house the institution’s design school.
Providing 12,00 square metres of space for 1,500 students, the project is part of a strategy to turn Hong Kong into a leading design hub in Asia.
The building is conceived as a variant of the tower-and-podium typology, with the concrete podium and the louvred tower visually united by flowing forms.
Zaha Hadid Architects were appointed to design the building in 2008. “The Innovation Tower design dissolves the classic typology of the tower and the podium into a seamless piece,” Hadid said at the time. “The design unashamedly aims to stimulate a vision of possibilities for the future whilst reflecting the history of the institution.”
Hadid first came to international prominence in 1983 for a project designed for Hong Kong – a hilltop spa and leisure club called The Peak that was never built.
“I am delighted to be working in Hong Kong again,” Hadid said when the Hong Kong Polytechnic University project was announced. “The city has such diversity in its landscapes and history; this is reflected in an urbanism of layering and porosity. Our own explorations and research into an architecture of seamless fluidity follows this paradigm so evident in Hong Kong.”
She added: “One of our seminal projects was designed for the city exactly 25 years ago, and the Innovation Tower design is a realization of this continued research.”
All images are copyright Edmon Leong and used with permission.
Israeli architect Pitsou Kedem has renovated a 1950s house in Tel Aviv with a roughly hewn sandstone mosaic wall inside it (+ slideshow).
An Urban Villa was designed by Dov Karmi, one of Israel’s most celebrated modern architects, and Pitsou Kedem was asked to restructure the two-storey interior.
“The main idea was to preserve the spirit of the original design whilst implementing a contemporary, independent interpretation of the existing structure and its adaptation to contemporary technologies, materials and knowledge,” said Kedem.
Walls were whitened both inside and outside the house, while black-painted wood was used to construct the new staircase and louvred balustrade.
“These monochromatic hues provide the background for the original materials that we decided to preserve,” explained Kedem, referring to the limestone floor and sandstone wall left intact.
The architect selected furniture to complement the design, including an Eames chair, a marble kitchen counter and a vivid red sofa.
In the 1950s what was known as the “International Style” was highly developed in Tel Aviv. It developed thanks to architects who studied at the Bauhaus Institute in Germany and who then returned to Israel to continue their work. One of the architects who led the “International Style” was Dov Carmi. He designed many, usually large, projects. One of his more restrained projects was an urban villa in the centre of Tel Aviv which he designed in 1951.
In his design, Carmi expressed his local interpretation of “Free Design” in which there is a continuous series of spaces created by light and shadow, view and movement without creating one large, single and open space.
My office executed a massive reconstruction of the structure which included the changing of the exterior facade and the division of the interior. The main idea was to preserve the spirit of the original design whilst implementing a contemporary, independent interpretation of the existing structure and its adaptation to contemporary technologies, materials and knowledge.
During the project, we took great care to create an experience of defined, intimate and continuous spaces in a relatively restricted area; and this without detracting from the overall understanding of the entire structure.
The house is simple and minimalistic with the light and the materials creating drama and vitality. The unique range of materials was preserved throughout the project.
The building’s external facades were painted white and the profiles chosen are decks painted black, similar to the Bauhaus style. The floor is of off-white concrete. These monochromatic hues provide the background for the original materials that we decided to preserve.
The central wall that divides the entry space was preserved in its original form, built from hewed, course sandstone constructed in a unique composition. The floor of the living room is wild, natural limestone of earth hues and changing sections. The wall and the floor symbolise the building in its original state. Around them is modern, minimalistic architecture which emphasis the space and the light. The project’s furniture was carefully chosen to complete the overall experience of a living urban villa that conducts a dialogue between two worlds and two separate eras.
A facade designed to look like a picture frame outlines a courtyard garden at this house in Hiroshima by Japanese studio UID Architects.
Named Frame, the two-storey house was designed by UID Architects with a two-layer facade, comprising a black outer skin with a clean white wall behind. The courtyard garden is slotted in between and forms the house’s entrance.
The pebbled floor of the courtyard continues into the house, wrapping around a wooden staircase that runs along behind the windows.
Bedroom and bathroom areas sit on the ground floor, while the first floor opens out into a spacious living and dining room with a study on one side.
Light penetrates the house through a long narrow skylight that spans the roof, as well as through large openings in the facade.
“In this house you’re able to live feeling the gentle breeze and daily sunlight as much as possible,” say the architects.
The house aims the space such as one integral room which is 7m×7m+X. There are bedroom and guest room, washroom and bathroom in the ground floor, also LDK and study room on second floor because of referencing around site environment surrounded 3 ways. Basically the house is designed like one integral room which is 7m×7m while considering to make each space as small as possible.
In addition to that, the yard space set to road which connect to outside as extension of interior wall. Therefore we can feel the extra space more than physical extent space.
Furthermore by setting this wall, it can connect to outside of area smoothly as ensure the privacy. On the second floor, it could be possible to get lighting inside without affection by around site environment from the top light which exists north to south. Regarding yard, we can feel south side lightning from LDK to study room integrally by setting yard on north to south. And also it could be comfortable study room owing to constant sunlight of north direction by locating study room to north side. In this house it’s able to live as feeling gentle breeze and daily under the natural sunlight as much as possible in interior room.
Axonometric diagram
Architects: UID architects – Keisuke Maeda Consultants: Konishi Structural Engineers, Toshiya Ogino Environment Design Office General contractor: Hotta Construction Co.Ltd.
The latest residence to feature a combined staircase and bookshelf is this loft conversion in north London by British design studio Craft Design. (+ slideshow)
Craft Design renovated a former office to create the open-plan residence, inserting a central bathroom that separates the kitchen and dining area from the living room, while also providing the framework for a first-floor bed deck.
The gabled end wall is covered with bookshelves, providing storage for three different areas. The staircase is formed from a series of extruded shelves and leads up from the living room to the mezzanine sleeping area.
“The idea was to maximise the sense of space as well as keeping a simple and efficient layout,” said designers Hugo D’Enjoy and Armando Elias.
The designers kept to a simple palette of wooden flooring with white walls and fittings, allowing the owner to add colour by displaying books and other collected items.
London based Studio Craft Design led by Hugo D’Enjoy and Armando Elias has transformed a loft space in Camden into a bright and dynamic living-working space.
Originally used as an open plan office space, the challenge was to convert the property into a bespoke and innovative environment that efficiently and creatively responds to the demands of living in London.
3D diagram
In response to the brief, the idea was to maximise the sense of space as well as keeping a simple and efficient layout. The solution successfully achieved this with the introduction of a single volume located central to the loft where all the services are accommodated. Detached from the facades and ceilings this element has divided the open plan into several spaces for different uses such as kitchen-dinning, living room, storage, bathroom and a mezzanine for the sleeping and working area.
The 4.5 m height party wall and roof eaves have been fully used with shelves and storage, which serve the whole space. The stair to access the mezzanine level was cleverly integrated into this single piece of furniture. The rest was about keeping a simple palette in terms of materials and colors to allow the owner collection of objects, art and books give the wall an authentic personality to the space.
Dutch architect Bastiaan Jongerius was commissioned by six families to design this group of houses around a communal courtyard in Amsterdam (+ slideshow).
The buildings were constructed on a plot of land in the city’s Jordaan district, which the city council had simply handed over due to contaminated soil and a number of buildings yet to be demolished.
Bastiaan Jongerius Architecten decided to retain and renovate two buildings on Elandsstraat to the north, creating a four-storey townhouse and a pair of maisonettes behind the rough brick and blue stone facades.
The architects then constructed a row of three new three-storey houses facing south onto Lijnbaansstraat, each with earth-coloured brick walls and wooden fenestration details.
A narrow alleyway leads from Elandsstraat into the L-shaped courtyard at the centre of the site, which is shared by all six residences.
Five homes have french windows that open out to wooden patio decks around the edge of the courtyard, while wooden balconies overlook it from both sides.
Here’s some text from Bastiaan Jongerius Architecten:
Six courtyard houses in Amsterdam
In 2004, three couples with children who were looking for suitable housing in the city centre decided to join forces in order to commission their own construction project. They set their sights on a plot of land between Elandsstraat and Lijnbaansstraat.
In order to avoid open tendering, the city council sold the plot complete with contaminated soil and buildings that had yet to be demolished. There was space for six housing units, enabling a further three families to join the project, and the six households then formed a ‘collective private commissioning body’.
The land was divided into six condominium units, each of which also included a one sixth portion of the communal garden courtyard. The design process was an intensive trajectory of endless discussions, structuring responsibilities and monitoring costs.
Architect and resident Bastiaan Jongerius designed a plan in which the edges of the plot are built on, giving rise to a central private courtyard.
Two buildings on Elandsstraat have been carefully incorporated in the existing facade frontage. The dwelling at number 133 is characterised by an abundant use of glass and wood, while the adjacent building, which houses an upstairs and a ground-floor dwelling (numbers 135 and 137), has a bluestone facade.
Behind the door, above which are the names of all the children who live in the complex, is an alleyway that leads to the garden courtyard.
Three pavilion-like dwellings, which are accessed via wooden steps, are situated here. The front doors and facade gardens of these dwellings are on Lijnbaansstraat.
The housing scheme has injected new life into this narrow cul-de-sac.
Site planSite sectionFloor plans for No. 133 ElandsstraatCross section for No. 133 Elandsstraat
Coastal walkers in south-west England can now detour through a historic naval supply yard thanks to this dramatic staircase that cuts through formerly impregnable walls (+ slideshow).
Designed by Gillespie Yunnie Architects, the cantilevered stairs link Royal William Yard in Plymouth to the public park above, allowing ramblers on the South West Coast path to enter walk through the 19th Century yard for the first time.
The stairs are part of the regeneration of the yard by developer Urban Splash, which is converting the complex of Grade I-listed warehouses that once held supplies of beer, rum and ship’s biscuits into apartments, offices, shops and restaurants.
At night the stairs are illuminated by colour-shifting ribbons of LED lights.
Here’s some info from Gillespie Yunnie Architects:
The stair links the defensive western end of the Royal William Yard to the South West Coast path above the site. The Royal William Yard was designed by Sir John Renny to supply the entire Royal navy Fleet with beer, rum, ships biscuits and cured meat. Built between 1826 and 1831 it was used continually by the Navy until the 1990s when it closed and has since been subject to one of the largest regeneration programmes in the South West. Gillespie Yunnie Architects have been working with developers Urban Splash since 2005 on the Grade I Listed site, which now houses a mixture of apartments, offices, shops and restaurants.
The Royal William Yard has always been a dead end due to its naturally defensive nature and peninsular location, so the staircase linking the far end of the Yard with the open green space of the peninsula above has always been a key part of the regeneration masterplan, to allow residents to access the park and historic battlements at the top of the high retaining wall, and allow walker to continue along the Coast Path route via a dramatic piece of architecture.
As a practice we are all very aware of how stunning our local coastline is, we all sail, surf and regularly walk the coast path. To be involved in linking two amazing and contrasting waterfront locations with a piece of bold contemporary design was always going to be right up our street. We designed the stair to emulate some of the excitement and surprise of journeying along the South West Coast path.
The journey is very different depending on which way you approach the stair; From the Yard, the stair is a dark solid mass, snug against the historic retaining wall, and the journey, hidden by the high solid sides, is only apparent as you begin to climb the stair, with the concealed glass viewing platform and panoramic views over the Tamar Estuary across to Cornwall being concealed until the last minute; from the park above, you first have to find the entrance, housed within a sunken ruin of an old military store. A steel ‘portal’ is cut through the huge wall marking the start of the journey, and your first view opens up before you, as you descend down the cantilevered upper flight. At night it changes again, using concealed LED ribbon lights beneath the handrail to wash the entire inner surfaces with an ever changing river of colour, a bit of fun, and brightness in the otherwise dark, hard context of the old military site, and reminiscent of seaside promenades across the country.
Beijing architecture studio MAD has designed an artificial island with an art museum set in caves in its three dune-like forms.
Set in a reservoir on Pingtan island in China’s Fujian province, the Pingtan Art Museum will be accessed via a narrow undulating bridge.
The building is designed by MAD as three concrete mounds, creating cave-like exhibition spaces inside and curved public spaces over the rooftops.
“The island is firstly a public space that is then turned into a museum,” say the architects. “The sea, the beach, the oasis and the slope all interconnect with each other, forming a harmonious capacious space with the mountains in the distance.”
The concrete walls will be mixed with local sand and shells to give them a rough, grainy texture.
As the largest private museum in Asia, the 40,000 square-metre structure will display a collection of over a thousand Chinese artworks and objects.
The building will also form the centre of a new city on Pingtan, which is currently in the planning stages.
MAD Pingtan Art Museum Begins Construction Preparation Phase
Pingtan Art Museum, the third museum design by MAD Architects, has just begun its construction preparation phase. It will be the largest private museum in Asia, claiming a construction area of over 40,000 square metres. The museum’s investments total around 800 million RMB and upon completion, its debut exhibition will display over a thousand pieces of national treasures.
Being the largest island in the Fujian province, Pingtan is also the Chinese island nearest to Taiwan. In 2010, the ‘Comprehensive Experimental Zone’ project in Pingtan was officially launched; the island is expected to become the primary location for trade and cultural communication between Taiwan and the mainland in the foreseeable future. The island, which is currently home to fisheries and a military base, will quickly be transformed into an large-scale urban development zone.
This new city, which is still under planning, will hold the museum at its centre. The museum itself acts as a smaller scale island off the Pingtan Island itself, connected to land only by a slightly undulating pier, which, in turn, bridges artificial and natural, city and culture, as well as history and future. The museum represents a long-lasting earthscape in water and is a symbol of the island in ancient times, with each island containing a mountain beneath it.
The island is firstly a public space that is then turned into a museum. The sea, the beach, the oasis and the slope all interconnect with each other, forming a harmonious capacious space with the mountains in the distance. The building is constructed with concrete that is blended with local sand shells. The indoor space, formed by the rise and fall of the formal movements, looks similar to ancient caves.
Site location plan
Pingtan Art Museum is built in a landscape setting of an urban city. After its completion, it will create a new space for the city and the city’s inhabitants and further inspire them to reflect on the impact made by time and nature.
Location: Pingtan, China Program: Museum Site Area: 32,000 sqm Building Area: 40,000 sqm Director in Charge: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano Design Team: Zhao Wei, Huang Wei, Liu Jiansheng, Jei Kim, Li Jian, Li Guangchong, Alexandre Sadeghi
These public toilets in Japan by Tato Architects comprise a single curved wall sheltered beneath a gabled roof (+ slideshow).
The toilets were installed by Japanese architect Yo Shimada of Tato Architects for visitors to the Setouchi Triennale, an art festival that takes place for three seasons on on Shodoshima Island.
Shimada followed the shapes of local soy sauce factories, where large cedar barrels are contained inside timber warehouses, to create an angular canopy with curved forms below.
“I decided to make the toilet adapt to such surroundings and make it the starting point of a walk by partitioning the space with curved surfaces, as softly as a cloth under a traditional cabin roof,” he said.
The curving steel wall outlines three main enclosures, framing toilets for men and women, as well as one for disabled visitors.
The roof is clad with a mixture of opaque and transparent tiles, allowing daylight to filter into each space.
“The smoked tiles and glass tiles cannot easily be distinguished during the day,” said Shimada. “But the difference appears clearly when night falls and light begins to leak from inside.”
I made a public toilet at Shodoshima Island as a part of the project of Setouchi Art Festival in which I came to participate from this time. The site is in the area called “Hishio-no-sato (native place of sauce)” where pre-modern architecture of soy sauce making warehouses remains collectively most in Japan. These warehouses are authourised as registered tangible cultural property, where soy sauce has been made still in the old-fashioned formula. Framing of a traditional cabin and large cedar barrels on the floor are the characteristic scene.
I decided to make the toilet adapt to such surroundings and make it be the starting point of a walk by partitioning the space with curved surfaces as softly as a cloth under a traditional cabin roof.
Due to circumstances on the site the construction had to be completed in about two months. I tried to shorten the construction period by making the curved surfaces with steel plate and by, while making them at factory, proceeding with the foundation work at site at the same time.
I adopted tile roofing following nearby houses. Actually I roofed with smoked tiles and glass tiles in mosaic pattern as these are compatible with each other thanks to the standardisation, and I used FRP plates for the sheathing to make the place light as if sunlight came in through branches of trees.
The smoked tiles and glass tiles cannot easily be distinguished during the day, from outside and may be mistaken for the same as the unevenness of the aged roof tiles of the neighbourhood. But the difference appears clearly when night falls and light begins to leak from inside. The internal space will give feeling of being guided on while walking along the softly curved surface.
I think I may have realised such a place as looks more spacious than actually is and as being secured while being relieved.
Trend forcaster Li Edelkoort shows there is more to fetishism than just bondage with garments displayed at this year’s MoBA 2013 fashion biennale in Arnhem, the Netherlands (+ slideshow).
“There is a moment in fashion where there is this super need to be very fetishistic,” Edelkoort told Dezeen. “There is animalism, there are children’s behaviours, there is of course bondage, there is lace, there is fur, feathers and so on.”
Edelkoort co-curator Philip Fimmano told us: “[Li noticed that] we’re all born with kinds of fetishes and have a need for belonging and bondage from birth. It’s not just about fashion design, it’s about a movement that’s happening in society.”
“We tried to explore the extent of where fetishism can take us, changing from the sexual side to the shamanistic side,” he added.
Among the eight shows, Elevated is a showcase of high-heeled, platform and other raised shoe designs that looks at obsessions with gaining height. It includes a collection of shoes that undergo physical transformations by Benjamin John Hall.
Another exhibition called Fascination focusses on the secret side of men’s lives and how they collect accessories such as ties, underwear, shoes and scents.
Monsters created from fake fur are on show at a local zoo, forming an exhibition designed for children: “This is really to explore the way we are getting closer to nature and animals and that we want to animate garments with little ears or tails,” Fimmano said.
Elsewhere, the history of the apron is charted from humble utility roots to its place in so many of today’s sexual fantasies.
“We wanted to explore how the apron is an archetypical fetish garment, something that’s been around since Adam and Eve,” said Fimmano. “It’s of course a carrier for lots of different fantasies, whether it be the maid, the waitress, the worker or the farmer.”
All the biennale volunteers are dressed in aprons and visitors on 7 July received free entry if they wore one too.
Fimmano spoke to Dezeen about the reaction from event visitors and how their perception of fetishism changed: “A lot of people have the misconception that the word ‘fetishism’ is just linked to the sexual side,” he said. “I think it was surprising for a lot of visitors that it had so many different aspects such as childhood memories, nomadism, regional identity.” The biennale continues across Arnhem until 21 July.
Seaweed pillows were used as cladding for this holiday house on the Danish island of Læsø by architecture studio Vandkunsten and non-profit organisation Realdania Byg (+ slideshow).
The Modern Seaweed House revisits the traditional construction method in Læsø, where for many centuries trees were scarce but seaweed has always been abundant on the beaches. At one stage there were hundreds of seaweed-clad houses on the island but now only around 20 remain, which prompted Realdania Byg to initiate a preservation project.
The team enlisted Vandkunsten to design a new house that combines the traditional material with twenty-first century construction techniques.
“Seaweed is at the same time very old and very ‘just-in-time’, because it is in many ways the ultimate sustainable material,” Realdania Byg’s Jørgen Søndermark told Dezeen.
“It reproduces itself every year in the sea, it comes ashore without any effort from humans, and it is dried on nearby fields by sun and wind,” he continued. “It insulates just as well as mineral insulation, it is non-toxic and fireproof, and it has an expected life of more than 150 years!”
Rather than just piling the seaweed onto the roof, the designers stuffed the material into netted bags and attached it in lengths across the timber-framed walls and roof of the house. More seaweed was enclosed in wooden cases to use as insulation behind the facade and beneath the floors.
“By using seaweed in the construction, we not only secure the continued supply of seaweed for use on the historic houses, we also reintroduce a material to the modern building industry which is CO2-reducing, environmentally friendly and sustainable in a broader sense,” said Søndermark.
The interior walls are lined with wooden boards, framing a series of rooms intended to house two families. A double-height living room and kitchen forms the centre, while bedrooms are located at the ends and in the loft.
“Our project has demonstrated that seaweed has remarkable acoustic properties,” added Søndermark. “This creates surprisingly comfortable rooms, while the ability to absorb and give off moisture contributes to regulate the indoor climate.”
As well as building the new seaweed house, Realdania Byg has restored the seaweed roof of Kaline’s House, a 150-year-old residence next to the site. The team hopes the two projects will inspire more seaweed architecture and restoration in Læsø.
“The seaweed houses on Læsø are physical testimony to the culture and the life that have characterised the building tradition on the island for centuries,” said Realdania Byg director Peter Cederfeld. “It is our hope that others will embrace the experiences from this project and develop the ideas even further.”
The cultural heritage of Læsø: A resource in sustainable building
On the small island of Læsø in Denmark, a several hundred-year-old building style has formed the basis on which a new holiday house has been built – the Modern Seaweed House. The house is designed by Vandkunsten firm of architects and developed by Realdania Byg as a holiday house built in wood, covered and insulated with seaweed. The Modern Seaweed House is carefully adapted into the landscape and has a wonderful interaction with nature, the historic buildings and Læsø’s unique cultural history. The Modern Seaweed House is now to be sold – but the ideas live on.
The Modern Seaweed House is part of the Realdania Byg project ‘Seaweed Houses on Læsø’ that also includes ‘Kaline’s House’ – a listed seaweed house from 1865, purchased and carefully restored by Realdania Byg in 2012. The seaweed houses on Læsø are an exceptional part of the cultural heritage of Denmark – and the world. Originally, several hundred of these seaweed houses were found all over Læsø while only approximately twenty remain today. The traditional seaweed houses were built using a timber frame construction with robust seaweed roofing – an abundant resource in the small and modest fishing community. ‘Kaline’s House’ is one of these houses.
The Modern Seaweed House is not a replica of the building style of the past but a development inspired by the architectural history of Læsø. In contrast to the historic houses, on which the seaweed is stacked high on the roof, the Modern Seaweed House is more contemporary and tight in its expression. The visible seaweed has been stuffed into bolsters made of knitted nets attached to the façade in lengths. At the same time, seaweed is used invisibly for insulating floors, walls and ceilings enclosed in wooden cassettes. These prefabricated building modules comprise the framework of the house.
A sustainable resource
When seaweed was used in the past as a building material it was due to the fact that seaweed was found just outside the door, it was free, had a long-term durability, was very effective as insulation, naturally protected against vermin and putrefaction, and, finally, there was lots of it. These very preconditions make seaweed of current interest as a building material, especially in the light of the present attention to the topic of sustainability. The Modern Seaweed House fulfils expected 2020 demands, and, thereby, will have extremely low energy consumption.
At the same time, LCA (life cycle analysis) calculations have shown that the house actually has a negative carbon footprint. The almost exclusive use of organic materials, including seaweed used as both insulation and roofing material, causes the amount of CO2 accumulated within the house to exceed that which has been emitted during the production and transportation of the building materials.
Modern Seaweed House with Kaline’s House
In a broader view
With the ‘Seaweed Houses on Læsø’ project, Realdania Byg wishes to focus on the unique tradition of Læsø using seaweed as a building material – both the immediate need to ensure the architecture of the past and the at least equally relevant need to develop the architecture in a sustainable approach. This way, seaweed is also ensured for restoring the historic houses.
Realdania Byg’s project to develop and preserve seaweed houses on Læsø is one among a variety of existing projects that aim to secure the survival of the distinctive seaweed roofs on Læsø. The initiative is carried out in unison with enthusiastic inhabitants of Læsø, other foundations as well as the Danish Agency for Culture who are all involved in the effort to save this rather exceptional part of the cultural heritage of Denmark – and the world.
The restored Kaline’s House nearby
The Modern Seaweed House has shown that eelgrass has a lot of qualities. Besides its excellent insulating property and long-term durability, which in itself offer a lot of potential, it has been discovered through practical application that seaweed has exceptional acoustic properties. This creates surprisingly comfortable rooms while the ability to absorb and give off moisture contributes to regulate a good indoor climate. The numerous qualities provide a wide range of applications in modern, sustainable building.
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