Hasta La Ideas

A hotel under construction on a South Pacific island is depicted as a collection of architectural ruins in this series of images by Australian photographer Peter Bennetts (+ slideshow).

Designed by Australian architect Kristin Green, la Plage du Pacifique Hotel is under construction along the beach of an island in Vanuatu – an archipelago over a thousand miles east of northern Australia.

Concrete has been used for the structures of each building in the complex, which includes 18 guest villas, a restaurant with a roof garden and sun lounge, and a swimming pool and spa facility.

Peter Bennetts joined Green on a site visit to capture the structures in pictures. Although almost complete, the buildings contain few traces of life, which the photographer says created the impression of “a ruin”.

“Like pods of little whales, the off-form concrete villas swim together, entwining with native pandanus and rosewood trees in the face of trade winds and frequent cyclones,” he said.

Comparing one structure to both an ancient monument and an iconic Italian villa, he added: “As in an Aztec temple, or Casa Malaparte, a stair leads to a deck on top of a form I’d describe as the architect’s dance shoe. In the unflinchingly bright tropical sun the stair casts a shadow that Escher could’ve dreamed of.”

Each structure is designed to be cyclone resistant, with cross-ventilation that will reduce the need for air-conditioning. The architect has also added a series of concrete walls that will offer shade from intense sunlight.

The swimming pool is modelled on the ancient Roman baths at Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli, creating another reference to architectural monuments.

“The Colosseum has invaded these new lands, not a new notion for Western man,” writes Green. “Here she protects from violent storms; patrons are offered a chance at romance, to dance, dream and escape.”

Here are some more details from Kristin Green:

La Plage D’hôtel du Pacifique

Sounds of crashing waves and wind through the palm trees, the Hotel du Pacifique complex offers a protected paradise, set to take the world by cyclone. The buildings are designed to allow wind to pass through with little or no need for air-conditioning. Modern forms take on an ancient roman bath providing escape from the demands of the city. Areas are separated by dancing concrete limbs intertwined casting shadows to relieve one from the tropical sun.

D’hôtel du Pacifique: Restaurant Building

With this building we explored cinematic experience, coupled with the ideas of leisure, romance & dreaming. The ambience of 1950’s movies where casual bathing attire is worn by day yet one likes to dress up in the evening for dinner. The building is organised around zones:
» À la carte restaurant and bar with reception for arrivals,
» Open air roof garden for dining, cocktails and sun bathing,
» Casual grill bar for patrons relaxing around the pool & outdoor facilities including; Pétanque, beach tennis, swimming, handball &/or board games.

D’hôtel du Pacifique: Villas Stage 1

The first 18 beach front villas are near completion. All components of the villas are custom made; complete in-situ concrete board marked walls, floor & roof, concrete benches, day beds, cast-in-place basins and handmade light fittings, in-built furniture, sunken baths along with timber herringbone windows which are hand carved from local timbers by local craftsman and hand-cut stone floors. Kristin is regularly on site coordinating fabrication techniques and ensuring consistency of local construction methods.

Each villa is conceived as a robust, cyclone ready building, the result of a series of key relationship studies between man, building & the tropical landscape. The nature of the body disrobing, exposure, privacy & the personalised experience offers a certain romance and seclusion for its patrons.

La Plage D’hôtel du Pacifique: Pool Area & Landscape

The pool/massage/spa component of the resort offers a place for the leisure, relaxation and sensual decadence that one would expect from a quality 5-star experience in the Pacifique. A concrete slide, colonnade and capital recall the Ancient Roman baths, a direct homage to Emperor Hadrian (the pool is literally measured from & at Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli, outside Rome); ‘only here can one truly dream of being lost in time’.

The pool and sun lounge area wraps around the building, white sand, the ocean, a sensuous entanglement. Memories of roman villas bedecked with capitals, pediments and statues offer a delight to the pool area; a shady concrete capital creates a weighty ambience and shade relief.

Irregular clusters of Pandanus & palm trees, a simple landscape of grass and white sand ground surface make bare feet is a must. The tree roots emerge from the ground like something of a child’s dream, creating gentle barriers and shadows. Sandy walking paths wander through resort facilities, offering the odd secluded stopping point for new or renewed romance, a cocktail in hand, the soft floating fabric of colourful transparent sarongs and the opportunity to stroll into their villa.

Undulating mounds caress the landscape. Vines trace the board marked surface of the concrete walls, delighting patrons with their patterns. The birds sing amidst the trees and promises of the sea turtle sanctuary are desired to continue nature’s course in the region.

Narrative

Bridget is perched behind Athena’s shield, a relief from the hallowing winds that are so frequent to the Pacifique region. The Coliseum has invaded these new lands; not a new notion for western man. Here she protects from violent storms…. patrons are offered a chance at romance, to dance, dream and escape; rekindling their love, offering hope for the future & their wellbeing.

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photographed by Peter Bennetts appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch studio Marc Koehler Architects has extended a former primary school in rural Belgium to create a community centre with a folded roof (+ slideshow).

Marc Koehler Architects designed the building for the Flemish government in the small village of Loker. It is one of eight government-funded projects across the province of West Flanders, which will see existing community facilities upgraded as part of a bid to attract new residents.

A steel framework creates the faceted roof of the new structure, which is clad externally with corrugated fibre-cement panels and lined internally with timber.

The walls of the building are glazed and surround a large hall that can be used for different community events, from performances and exhibitions to parties and sporting activities.

Curtains enable the space to be subdivided, allowing different activities to take place simultaneously.

A canteen, meeting rooms, bathrooms and storage space are located within the old school building.

“By re-using the existing 1960s building we create a layered reading of the history of the place,” the architects said. “Our task was creating an innovative, multifunctional building in a sensitive, historical environment.”

The corrugated roof material is intended to match the rooftops of nearby barns, while the angled forms were designed to be reminiscent of the folds of the surrounding landscape.

The roof also cantilevers beyond the glazed facade, helping to shade the building from direct sunlight.

Marc Koehler founded his architecture studio in 2005. Past projects include a corner house in the Nieuw Leyden district of Amsterdam, completed in collaboration with architect Sophie Valla.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Community Home

A compact and ecological community home

The building is located in Loker, a small village (600 inhabitants) in the east of Flanders. The project is the result of our winning entry for the Open Call competition, organised by the Flemish government. Our project is the first of eight projects to be completed in the eight sub-districts of the municipality of Heuvelland. As such it can be seen as an impulse for social change, of Flemish villages modernising and upgrading their facilities to attract a potential suburban dweller, returning to the rural landscape. So our task was creating an innovative, multifunctional building in a sensitive historic environment.

Urban integration

The building consists of a reused part of the existing structure of a primary school build in the 60’s, covered by a large folding roof with a glazed façade. The changing shade, created by the various angles of the roof parts reminds of the surrounding patch-work landscape, while the corrugated roofing-material is similar to that used in neighbouring barns.

The glazed façade provides a generous view over the surroundings, with an emphasis on the Sint-Petrus church, and the sloping landscape of the Kemmelberg. With reusing the existing 60’s building, we create a layered reading of the history of that place.

Diversity under one roof

The reused school-building houses the more intimate spaces, like the canteen, storage, sanitary spaces and meeting rooms. The polyvalent, open space can be used for a large variety of activities, like performances, gatherings, exhibitions, sports or parties. The smaller rooms can be opened up towards the polyvalent space, extending their potential, but the large space can also be divided by curtains so that several programs can coexist simultaneously.

Sustainable use

The competition prescribed the demolition of the whole existing building, but proposed to preserve the asbestos-free part of the structure, works out in our favour. We created a financial advantage not having to construct new specific spaces, allowing for the polyvalent space to become larger then requested.

A natural climate compartmentalisation of use and energy management is automatically created by the two main components of the building. The cantilevering roof acts as passive sun shading, blocking direct sunlight from entering the building in the summer, but allowing sunlight to heat the building in the winter. Another effort is made with the selection of building materials. Carbon neutral fibre cement panels are used for roofing, but also for interior cladding.

Location: Dikkebusstraat 131, 8950 Heuvelland (Loker)
Owner: Municipallity of Heuvelland
Occupant: Community of Loker
Architects: Marc Koehler Architects
Collaborating Architects: Import Export Architecture
Project team: Marc Koehler, Rafaeli Aliende, Martijn de Geus, Carlos Moreira, Miriam Tocino, Tieme Zwartbol
Construction time: 2011-2012

Structural Planning: LIME Studiebureau Viaene
Heating: Studiebureau Viaene
Lighting: Studiebureau Viaene
Electrical Installations: Studiebureau Viaene
Type of construction: steel structure
Materials: In situ concrete floors / steel structure/ wooden ceiling/ aluminium glazing/ fibre cement plates (roof and interior walls)/
Gross area: 550 m2
Gross volume: 2600 m3

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Marc Koehler Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch Design Week 2013: Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Dave Hakkens has made his own machines for recycling plastic to make new products locally and plans to share the designs so others around the world can do the same.

The Precious Plastic machines by Dave Hakkens include a plastic shredder, extruder, injection moulder and rotation moulder, which are all based on industrial machines but modified to be less complex and more flexible.

“Of all the plastic thrown away, I’ve heard that we recycle just ten percent and I wondered why we recycle so little,” Hakkens told Dezeen at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show opening on Saturday.

One of the issues turned out to be a lack of demand for recycled material from factories, so he visited a range of firms making plastic products to ask why they weren’t using recycled plastic. He found that difficulties with sorting plastics for recycling make the resultant material less reliable than brand new plastic.

“I went to all these companies and I realised that the machines they use to build plastic products are really expensive, very precise and efficient, and [the manufacturers] don’t want to use recycled plastic because it’s not as pure so it could damage the machinery or slow down production,” he explained.

“I wanted to make my own tools so that I could use recycled plastic locally,” Hakkens continued. First he modified a shredder and collected unwanted plastic from his friends, family and neighbours. This allowed him to grind empty bottles and containers into small plastic chips in a mixture of colours.

He then built three machines for melting the plastic and manufacturing new products with it, using a combination of new custom-made components and reclaimed parts like an old oven that he found at a scrapyard.

Having perfected the systems so they could handle inconsistencies in the recycled plastic, he designed a small range of products to make and sell.

At the academy show there’s an injection-moulded spinning top, a lamp made by extruding a ribbon of plastic and wrapping it round a mould, and a rotation-moulded waste paper bin, but Hakkens stresses that the processes could be adapted to make a wide variety of different products.

“In the end you have this set of machines that can start this local recycling and production centre,” he said, explaining that while mass-manufacturers are put off recycled plastic as a material because they need optimum efficiency and accuracy, a local craftsperson making batches of products could afford to work more slowly and make allowances for material inconsistencies.

In addition to setting up his own workshop in Eindhoven, Hakkens intends to publish the blueprints online so that people around the world can create their own local recycling and manufacturing centres, and adapt his designs for their own production needs.

“The idea is that you can make whatever moulds you want for it – so I made this, but I prefer that everybody can just use them and make whatever they want and start setting up their production,” he said. “People can just make [the machines] on the other side of the world, and maybe send some feedback and say ‘maybe you can do this better.'”

He also suggested that local residents who collect plastic waste and bring it to the workshop could be paid a small fee according to the weight of raw material they donate, and predicted that his system could be put to use making filament for 3D printers.

Hakkens is also showing a mobile phone made of detachable blocks at the graduation show as part of Dutch Design Week, which continues until 27 October.

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Dave Hakkens appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch Design Week 2013: designer Daan Roosegaarde has unveiled a “Lego from Mars” installation consisting of hundreds of wireless LED crystals that light up when placed on the floor (+ movie).

Crystal, a permanent installation that has opened in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week, allows visitors to arrange the glowing crystals in patterns – and even steal them.

“We made thousands of little crystals which have two LEDs in them,” Roosegaarde told Dezeen. “When they’re placed in the area that you see here, they light up. It’s a sort of Lego from Mars. You can play, you can interact, you can steal them.”

There’s no battery, no cables,” he added. “The floor has a weak magnetic field, which gives light to the Crystals by wireless power.”

The installation is located in a void created at the newly refurbished Natlab, a building that once contained the Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium (Philips Physics Laboratory) and which played a key role in the development of products including the electric lightbulb and the compact disc.

“This location is quite special. Philips produced the lightbulb here; Einstein worked here on a lot of ideas,” said Roosegaarde. “So the city commissioned us to think about the future of light, where light gets liberated. It jumps out of the lightbulb and becomes free.”

LEDs are housed inside plastic tokens which visitors can tesselate to form patterns or words. Roosegaarde plans to publish the designs so that people can produce their own open-source versions in future.

“Every month we will make new crystals,” said Roosegaarde. “We will open-source how to make them, so students can make their own in different colours and shapes. New crystals will arrive and I will have nothing to do with it. People can do whatever they want. In that way it becomes an eco-system of behaviour. That’s going to be super-exciting, to let go of control and see what will happen.”

Visitors to the installation have already used the Crystals to write messages, including a marriage proposal. “We had one lady whose boyfriend proposed to her last night. He wrote ‘Marry me’ and he brought her here.”

Today Roosegaarde also unveiled a concept for an “electronic vacuum cleaner” that could remove smog from urban skies.

Here’s some text from Studio Roosegaarde:

Innovative Crystals of light in Eindhoven

Daan Roosegaarde: “People can play and share their stories of light”

At the start of the Dutch Design Week on Saturday 19 October the interactive light artwork CRYSTAL can be experienced in Eindhoven. The permanent artwork consists out of hundreds of LED-crystals which brighten when people touch them. Artist Daan Roosegaarde calls them “Lego from Mars”. The name refers not only to its futuristic design, but also to its endless potential to play. CRYSTAL has been previously exhibited in Amsterdam, Paris, Moscow and is now permanent in Eindhoven NL.

The Crystals are placed in a black tunnel at the Natlab, the place where Einstein once worked, where Philips produced its lightbulbs, and the first CD-ROM was presented. They are part of the light program Light-S which wants to create new experiences between people and space. CRYSTAL is a perfect match, the Crystals are white geometric shapes with LEDs inside. The local floor has a magnetic field which allows the Crystals to light-up. CRYSTAL is therefore one of the latest innovations in light. The artwork CRYSTAL can be experienced at night at Natlab, Kastanjelaan 500 in Eindhoven NL.

Interactive crystals

CRYSTAL is not only innovatie in terms of appearance, but also the interactive element makes the artwork unique. With Crystals people can share their creativity. For example someone used Crystals for a wedding proposal to his girlfriend by writing the letters ‘Marry me’. Artist Daan Roosegaarde describes this phenomenon as “Facebook Square”, where social media and light are combined to create new public places.

The future with CRYSTAL

Studio Roosegaarde will continue to make new Crystals with the vision that light is enhancing the relation between people and their environment. The coming years the studio will develop Crystals with different shapes and colors together with high-tech companies and cultural organisations. Crystal keeps on growing.

About Daan Roosegaarde

Daan Roosegaarde (Nieuwkoop, 1979) is artist, innovator and ambassador of the Dutch Design Week 2013. With his Studio Roosegaarde he explores the relationship between art and technology to make the world more interesting, better or beautiful. Interactive designs such as ‘Dune’ and ‘Smart Highway’ have been exhibited around the world. www.studioroosegaarde.net

About Light-S

Light-S is an innovative project by the city of Eindhoven and Park Strijp Beheer. Within Light-S several projectteams are researching how light can create new experiences between people, space and technologies. www.light-s.nl

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by Studio Roosegaarde appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has developed an “electronic vacuum cleaner” that can remove smog from urban skies and is working with the mayor of Beijing to use the technology in a new park in the city (+ interview + movie).

The concept uses buried coils of copper to create an electrostatic field that attracts smog particles, creating a void of clean air above it.

“You can purify the air so you can breathe again,” Roosegaarde told Dezeen in an exclusive interview during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. “It creates these holes of 50-60 metres of clean air so you can see the sun again.”

Roosegaarde’s company Studio Roosegaarde has signed a memorandum of understanding with the mayor of Beijing to create a public park to showcase the technology.

The authorities in Beijing are finally admitting the huge problems caused by smog. This weekend the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center warned children, the elderly and those with heart and breathing problems to stay indoors due to extreme levels of pollutants in the air.

Working with scientists at the University of Delft, Roosegaarde created a working prototype of the project last week. “We have a 5×5 metre room full of smog where we created a smog-free hole of one cubic metre,” he said. “And now the question is to apply it in public spaces.”

The buried copper coils produce a weak electrostatic field that extends into the sky above. Smog particles are drawn down towards the ground, punching a clean hole in the air and allowing the particles to be collected. The coils can be buried beneath the grass of a park and are completely safe.

“It’s a similar principle to if you have a statically charged balloon that attracts your hair,” Roosegaarde explained. “If you apply that to smog, to create fields of static electricity of ions, which literally attract or magnetise the smog so it drops down so you can clean it, like an electronic vacuum cleaner.”

Roosegaarde had the idea for the project while staying at a hotel in Beijing and looking at OMA’s CCTV building from his window. “I saw the CCTV building,” he said. “I had a good day when I could see it and I had a bad day when I could not see it. On a bad day the smog is completely like a veil. You don’t see anything. I thought, that’s interesting, that’s a design problem.”

Roosegaarde’s team will now spend up to 18 months developing the technology before starting work on the ground in Beijing.

Here’s the text of the interview between Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and Daan Roosegaarde:

Marcus Fairs: Tell us about the smog project.

Daan Roosegaarde: As you may know I hop from obsession to obsession, from fashion to highways to a problem we have right now which is smog. So it’s weird, because in a way we as human beings have always developed tools to enable ourselves. Wheels are an extension of our legs; glasses are an extension of our eyes; we developed cars to travel around.

But the weird thing in China, where growth is going so fast, is that these machines are striking back. They create side effects that we never thought about, which is pollution, which is smog. And Beijing is getting so incredibly worse that the American Embassy had to buy a new meter, because it was hitting the top all the time.

Marcus Fairs: How did the project come about?

Daan Roosegaarde: I was in a hotel in Beijing where I saw the CCTV building. I had a good day when I could see it and I had a bad day when I could not see it. On a bad day the smog is completely like a veil. You don’t see anything. I thought, that’s interesting, that’s a design problem. We could use smog as a material to design with, to draw.

Marcus Fairs: How does it work?

Daan Roosegaarde: We learned a lot from the Crystal project we’ve done in Eindhoven, which uses static electro-magnetic fields of ions. It’s a similar principle to if you have a statically charged balloon that attracts your hair.

If you apply that to smog, to create fields of static electricity of ions, which literally attract or magnetise the smog so it drops down so you can clean it, like an electronic vacuum cleaner. You can purify the air so you can breathe again. And it creates these holes of 50-60 metres of clean air so you can see the sun again.

So we teamed up with the Technical University of Delft, with a smog expert, and he said the technology is possible, so we have a big indoor prototype working. And I spoke to the mayor of Beijing who, when the microphone is turned off, admits they have a big problem, and so they are investing in making it happen.

The idea is to make a park in Beijing where you will see the old world and the new world. We’ll drag nature in. It’s Dutch landscape design in a most radical way.

It’s similar to how static electricity works, where you create a field. By electrifying particles they gravitate and fall down. It’s similar to how they spray-paint metal onto surface [by a process known as vacuum metallisation, in which electrostatically charged metal particles are attracted to the surface of an object, creating a metallic surface on it].

Marcus Fairs: Could this be a solution to smog in future?

Daan Roosegaarde: It could be a first step in creating awareness of how bad it really is. Because you see the difference really clearly. Of course the real solution lies in dealing with reality in a different way; it’s a human problem not a technological problem. But for sure my goal would be to apply it to parks, to public spaces which are for everyone, where people can meet and enjoy life again.

Marcus Fairs: What does the device look like?

Daan Roosegaarde: It’s copper coils that we put in the ground and put grass over them so you don’t see it. It sounds a bit dangerous but it’s pacemaker-safe, you can walk through it, the electric field is quite low. It’s an induction thing similar to how your toothbrush gets charged.

Marcus Fairs: How high can it reach?

Daan Roosegaarde: That’s what we’re testing now. The smog is quite low, which is good, especially in Beijing. Basically the more energy you put in it, the higher you can get. It’s high voltage, low ampere, and the more power you put in the more smog you can attract.

Marcus Fairs: If you switch it on would you see the smog suddenly disappear into the ground?

Daan Roosegaarde: Yes. You would literally see it on the ground. What I would like to do is capture all that smog and then compress it. So for example you could make a smog ring of all the smog in a cubic kilometre. It would show the reality and question why we accept it.

Marcus Fairs: Have you tested it?

Daan Roosegaarde: Yes. We have a 5×5 metre room full of smog where we created a smog-free hole of one cubic metre. And that happened this week. And now the question is to apply it in public spaces.

Marcus Fairs: Is the Beijing project going to happen?

Daan Roosegaarde: Yes. We signed a memorandum of understanding to do it. They just launched [another] project, a €2.3 million project to purify air, to reduce cars, more cycling. But it’s peanuts. It’s not going to work.

Marcus Fairs: How much does your concept cost?

Daan Roosegaarde: The research and development is the biggest hurdle as always. It will take another 12-15 months with a good team of people to make it work, to make it safe. But we know it’s possible and you know me by now: I have a scientist who says it’s possible, you have me, a designer who creates the imagination and you have a client who is desperate. And now all we have to do is find the “merge” button. It’s a new challenge.

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could solve smog problem appeared first on Dezeen.