Europe’s largest public library in Birmingham, UK, leads Dezeen Mail issue 167, which also features all the latest news, jobs, competitions and reader comments from Dezeen.
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News: architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox has unveiled plans to surround the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles in a cloak of steel ribbons as part of major refurbishment.
Housing one of the world’s largest automotive collections, the Petersen Museum occupies a former 1960s department store on Wilshire Boulevard. In 2014, the museum will celebrate its twentieth anniversary and to tie in with this landmark it has commissioned Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) to upgrade its outdated facilities.
“The Petersen Museum is a rich cultural deposit of the most interesting and compelling automobiles in the world,” commented KPF design principal Trent Tesch. “Housed in a converted department store, the museum finds itself without a deserving image. While the ‘bones’ of the building work well for the display of cars, the expression of the structure lacks imagination.”
Set for completion in early 2015, the renovation will involve stripping back the existing concrete portico and replacing it with a red aluminium rainscreen, over which the stainless-steel ribbons will be mounted. Integrated lighting fixtures will highlight the details at night.
“Our goal was to find a way to inject life into the building, with minimal intervention that would produce the maximum effect,” said Tesch. “The design offers an abstract veil of flowing ribbons, meant to invoke not only the spirit of the automobile, but also the spirit of Los Angeles architectural culture.”
KPF co-founder and chairman A. Eugene Kohn compares the new facade to the shapes made by a dancing ballerina. “[It is] intended to express constant motion, suggesting speed, aerodynamics and the movement of air,” he added.
The architects will also overhaul the building’s interior, adding an extra 1400 square metres of exhibition space for the museum’s growing collection.
Other projects underway by KPF include an extension to a 30-storey tower in London and a skyscraper proposal for a new business district in South Korea. See more architecture by KPF »
Here’s more information from the architects:
KPF designs Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles
Firm’s exciting repositioning project on Museum Row of The Miracle Mile
International architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) is pleased to share its exciting design for the new Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The museum will mark its 20th anniversary in 2014 by commencing a complete exterior transformation and a dynamic redesign of the interior, resulting in a world-class museum that will showcase the art, experience, culture, and heritage of the automobile.
Opportunely located on “Museum Row” of the famed “Miracle Mile”, the building actually started out as a department store in 1962. Its new design will transform the Petersen building into one of the most significant and unforgettable structures in Los Angeles – an appropriate home for such an impressive collection of automobiles.
Unlike most museum renovations, which involve complete building teardown, this is a repositioning project. The existing building is like a chassis without a body. By keeping the bones, but removing the existing concrete portico on Wilshire, and installing a corrugated aluminium rain screen outboard of the current facade on each of the three street frontages, the museum will have a whole new look and feel. New “ribbons” made out of angel hair stainless steel on the front and top, and red painted aluminium on the back and bottom, flow over and wrap the building. Acting as beams that support their own weight, these evoke the feeling of speed and movement, sitting atop the existing structural system much like the body of a car mounts to its frame. At night, the colour and forms will be lit from within to accentuate the steel sculpture and act as a beacon on The Miracle Mile.
Los Angeles is a city that was brought to life by the automobile. The idea of Los Angeles architecture invokes thoughts of the mid-century modern movement led by Architects such as John Lautner, and Wayne McAllister. This modern and space age architecture, known as “Googie”, is characterised by upswept roofs, curvaceous shapes, and bold use of glass, steel, and neon. This style of architecture was influenced by car culture, suburban life, and the Atomic age. Because of increasing car ownership, cities no longer had to rely on a central downtown and business could therefore be interspersed with residential areas.
Work on the museum is expected to take 14 to 16 months and to be completed in early 2015.
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German designer Samuel Treindl has made a clock, lamp and other products from shapes cut out of existing furniture (+ slideshow).
Samuel Treindl from Münster in Germany used what he called a “parasite strategy” to create new products from existing furniture items and intends for the final pieces to reflect the manufacturing process.
In the collection – called Parasite Production – Treindl created a clock from material cut from a peach cabinet and a desk lamp from shapes cut out of an Ikea PS cabinet.
More recently the designer cut a range of components such as a hooks and hinges from a brass book shelf.
His process means that the original cabinets can still be used. “In order to work in a more economic way, I superimpose different objects on a single metal sheet,” said Treindl. “So the same material would be used twice.”
All of the objects have been produced in Germany as limited editions. Triendl’s work will be exhibited at London’s Mint Shop during London Design Festival next month.
Parasite Production was first shown as a prototype at the SaloneSatellite showcase for young designers at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan in April, that also featured squishy lamps made out of rubber by Thomas Schnur.
See more furniture »
See more product design »
Photographs are by the designer.
Here’s a full project description from Treindl:
Parasite Production
This work is based on a parasitic strategy. The cabinets and other products are produced simultaneously. The results therefore reflect the manufacturing process and history of the production.
As a producer and designer I have to pay attention to the manufacturing of a product, but also to offcuts and loss of material.
In order to work in a more economic way, I superimpose different objects on a single metal sheet. So the same material would be double used. And the question is, where is here the rest? According to which other objects are currently produced, the obtained ornaments as well as the thickness of the material of the shelf can differ.
Example: If an industrial company produces spoons and forks, I will make a spoon shelf. If lamps are produced, I make a lamp cabinet. That way, I don’t want to design furniture, but I create a process which uses industrial production for generating and designing objects.
Material: brass steel, aluminum, powder-coated, laser cutting method. The IKEA PS cabinet/lamp was hand-cut.
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by Samuel Treindl appeared first on Dezeen.
Japanese firm Naruse Inokuma Architects has designed a shared occupancy house in Nagoya with communal areas for eating, cooking and relaxing that encourage the residents to interact in different ways (+ slideshow).
Naruse Inokuma Architects says the building was designed in response to the increasing demand in Japan for houses where unrelated individuals share kitchens, living spaces and bathrooms.
Whereas most of these homes are adapted from existing properties, the architects based this new build on the principles of communal living and the need “for complete strangers to naturally continue to share spaces with one another.”
Bedrooms with identical dimensions are arranged across the building’s three levels, with the voids between them housing an open plan living, dining and kitchen area and a rug space on the first floor.
“The shared and individual spaces were studied simultaneously and, by laying out individual rooms in a three-dimensional fashion, multiple areas, each with a different sense of comfort, were established in the remaining shared space,” the architects explain.
A dining table near the entrance provides seating for large groups, while the kitchen counter, sitting room and rug space offer alternatives for smaller gatherings.
The 13 bedrooms each have a floor area of 7.2 square metres and the total floor space for each resident equates to 23 square metres, which the architects believe compares favourably to the world’s many one-room apartments.
Naruse Inokuma Architects previously renovated an apartment in Tokyo with raw plywood and smeared cement details and created an installation for Tokyo Designers Week featuring tree-shaped display furniture – see more projects by Naruse Inokuma Architects.
We recently published a white house in Kanazawa, Japan, punctuated by interconnecting voids and another in Osaka with a garden enclosed between the living areas and a high surrounding wall – see more projects in Japan.
Photography is by Masao Nishikawa.
The architects sent us this project description:
Share house LT Josai
This is a plan for a newly-built “share house,”* a singular model of housing, even within the architectural industry. The “share house” is an increasingly popular style of living in Japan, somewhat close to a large house, where the water systems and living room are shared by the residents.
What makes it different from a large house, however, is that the residents are not family and are, instead, unrelated strangers. So a special technique in both its management and its space becomes necessary for complete strangers to naturally continue to share spaces with one another.
In this design, focus was given to the fact that it was a newly constructed building, and the share house spaces were created through a reconsideration of the building’s entire composition.
The shared and individual spaces were studied simultaneously and, by laying out individual rooms in a three-dimensional fashion, multiple areas, each with a different sense of comfort, were established in the remaining shared space.
While the entrance hall with its atrium and dining table space are perfect for gatherings of multiple people, the corner of the living room and spaces by the window are great for spending time alone.
The kitchen counter is suitable for communication between a relatively small number of people. The rug space on the 1st floor is the most relaxed of all the spaces.
Through the creation of such spaces, the residents are able to use shared spaces more casually, as extensions of their individual rooms.
At the same time, the individual rooms, which seem to have the same character in plan, are all different due to their relationships to the shared space, defined by characteristics like their distance and route from the living room.
While this share house has such rich shared spaces and spacious 7.2 square sized individual rooms, its total floor area divided by the number of residents amounts to a mere 23 square meters per person.
This share house is thus so efficient and rich that the countless number of one-room apartments in the world seem to make less sense in comparison.
* Share House = a model of a residence in which multiple unrelated people live and share a kitchen, bathroom and living room. In Japan, demands for share houses are increasing, mainly for singles in their 20’s and 30’s. Most of these share houses are provided by renovating single-family homes or dormitories.
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Naruse Inokuma Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
Dutch studio Mecanoo has completed Europe’s largest public library in Birmingham, England, with a sunken amphitheatre, rooftop gardens and a shimmering facade clad with interlocking metal rings (+ slideshow).
Sandwiched between a 1930s building and a 1960s theatre, the new Library of Birmingham fronts one of three piazzas that comprises Centenary Square. The building is made up of a stack of four rectangular volumes, which are staggered to create various canopies and terraces.
Mecanoo designed the exterior of the building to reference the city’s jewellery quarter, adding a filigree pattern of metal rings over golden, silver and glass facades.
Inside, these rings cast patterns of shadows onto the floors of the reading rooms in the middle levels of the building.
“I didn’t want to make a brick building, because we needed a lot of light, but I didn’t want to make a glass building either,” architect Francine Houben told Dezeen. “It’s so beautiful to sit inside because of the reflections and the shadows, and the changing of the weather. It’s different from December to June.”
A gently sloping floor allows the building to negotiate the level change from the front to the back of the site, but also leads visitors down to the fiction area at the back, then down to the children’s library and music section at the base of the building.
“We needed many ground floors,” said Houben, “so we introduced a ground floor, a mezzanine, a mid-lower ground floor and a mid-mid-lower ground floor in the form of gently descending terraces.”
The lowest level extends out beneath Centenary Square, where the architects have created a sunken circular courtyard that functions as an informal amphitheatre.
The three main reading-room floors branch out from a staggered rotunda at the centre of the building, integrating rows of bookshelves and clusters of study spaces. There are also benches and stools lining the perimeter, offering views down the square below.
Archives and research spaces occupy the levels above, while an oval space at the top of the structure houses the Shakespeare Memorial Room – dedicated to the library’s extensive collection of works by English playwright William Shakespeare. Dating back to 1882, the room has been relocated twice from former library buildings.
Plant-filled terraces cover two of the rooftops, creating spaces for visitors to read and study outside.
Referring to the library as a “public palace”, Houben told Dezeen how she sees the building as an important landmark for the city community. “I think libraries at this moment are the most important public buildings, like cathedrals were many years ago,” she said.
Francine Houben founded Mecanoo in 1984 and the studio’s best-known designs include the Maritime and Beachcombers Museum and the TU Delft Library, both in the Netherlands. Mecanoo was also recently shortlisted to design the World Expo 2017 exhibition in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Other libraries completed recently include a faceted multimedia library in France and a university library in the US that features a robotic book retrieval system. See more libraries on Dezeen »
Photography is by Christian Richters.
Read on for a project description from Francine Houben:
A People’s Palace
In June 2008 I visit Birmingham for the first time of my life. Mecanoo is one of seven international architecture firms shortlisted to design the new Library of Birmingham integrated with the Repertory Theatre (REP). In this project, the written and the spoken word will be united. The client wants to select the best team to help them realise their ambitions for an innovative and world-class library that will become the largest library in Europe with ten thousand people expected to visit every day.
Birmingham is a multicultural British city of a little over one million people from very different backgrounds. It has many identities, both culturally and architecturally. It is not only Europe’s youngest city with 25% of the population under 25 years old but it’s also a student city with 50,000 students, second in student population only to London.
Library of the future for Birmingham
I meet library director Brian Gambles and his staff, he tells us enthusiastically that “the Library of Birmingham will become a centre of learning, information and culture that will help to foster Birmingham’s knowledge economy. It is intended to become the social heart of the city; a building connecting people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds. The modern library is no longer solely the domain of the book – it is a place with all types of content and for all types of people. The library’s influence will also extend beyond the physical boundaries of the building, its global digital presence allowing the public to access content from anywhere in the world.”
Shakespeare Memorial Room
The very first Library of Birmingham dates back to the year 1865. This building burns down in 1879, along with most of the collection. After the fire a group of citizens unite to form ‘Our Shakespeare Club’, a civic pride movement that brings together one of the most comprehensive Shakespeare collections in the world. When the Victorian Library opens its doors in 1882 at Radcliff Place, it incorporates a Shakespeare Memorial Room, a reading room designed especially for the Shakespeare Library by John Henry Chamberlain, a member of the city’s Shakespeare club. In 1974, the Victorian Library is replaced by the Central Library at Paradise Circus a brutalist building designed by architect John Madin. The Shakespeare Memorial Room is dismantled and stored. Twelve years later it is reassembled in the School of Music, located next to the Central Library. The intention is to integrate the Shakespeare Memorial Room in the new library.
James Watt and Matthew Boulton
Besides the extraordinary Shakespeare Collection, the library staff shows us their unique historic photo collection as well as original drawings and notebooks by 18th and 19th century inventors James Watt and Matthew Boulton. The Birmingham Music Library has extensive special collections. Music groups such as Black Sabbath, UB 40, Electric Light Orchestra, Duran Duran and The Streets are all “Brummies” from Birmingham.
The ‘Red Line’
For three days my husband and I endlessly walk through this city I’ve never been to before. I observe and photograph everything that catches my eye in order to unravel the essence of the city and the people. In the evening we go to a performance at the REP Theatre. From our hotel we try to take the shortest route by foot to the theatre but on our way we are blocked by highways that cut through the city centre. After the show we decide to follow the crowd and discover they take a logical, informal pedestrian route right through the heart of the city. I call this route the ‘Red Line’ as it connects the Bullring Shopping Centre, New Street Station, New Street, Victoria Place, Centenary Square, the ICC, the canals, Brindley Place and the Westside. The new library site is located in the middle of the Red Line next to the existing REP in Centenary Square.
The rhythm of architectural history
Two things strike me during our walks. First, when following the Red Line, the entire architectural and urban history of Birmingham passes by like a film. The city breathes a rich industrial history: Gothic buildings from the 17th, 18th and early 19th century, Victorian Classicist buildings such as Birmingham Town Hall from 1834, as well as many Victorian buildings made with beautiful craftsmanship. Birmingham has more canals than Venice. These narrow canals were created in the 18th and 19th century in order to guarantee the supply of coal. Also in this frame are buildings such as the Baskerville House from the early 20th century and concrete buildings such as the existing library from the 1960s, the ICC from the eighties, and the Bullring Shopping mall with the Selfridges blob from 2003. Scattered around the city, the steel skeletons of gas holders catch my eye.
Gently sloping hills
The second thing I notice is that Birmingham is built on gently sloping hills. It’s a green city, except for the city centre. I love these soft hills. They remind me of my native province of Limburg in the South of the Netherlands. I notice the way train tracks cut through these hills and valleys, appearing and disappearing in the landscape. Birmingham is the geographical centre of the UK and a junction of the British railroads. One train tunnel runs underground diagonally through Centenary Square. It occurs to me that we can surely build underground here, whereas in my own country this is a challenge. This idea becomes a source of inspiration.
Dream
After three days my dream slowly starts to take shape. Back at the office we develop our ideas further. Does the client expect us to make an icon? For sure we do not want to design a building that is just another “incident”. We want to make a building that brings coherence to the urban network of Birmingham. Our dream is to create a People’s Palace: inviting, welcoming, inspiring for all ages and backgrounds – a real public building that also creates an outdoor public space. One that entices passers-by to enter and embark on a journey of discovery. We imagine visitors moving from one floor to the next through interconnected and overlapping rotunda spaces that serve as the main vertical circulation route. Changing vistas and view lines unfold as you navigate through the building. On the lower levels the route continues below ground nearly to the train tunnel that passes in front of the building, and resurfaces in Centenary Square. At this point this interior route weaves itself with the ‘Red Line’ route revealing a piece of the inner library world to the public.
Team as a symphony orchestra
In August 2008 the Mayor announces that we have won. I feel confident. I trust that we can make a strong design within the tight one year time schedule. A contractor is to be selected within three months. Mecanoo has a strong team and a lot of experience with libraries and theatres. We also have architectural, urban planning, landscape, interior design and restoration disciplines in house. The Mecanoo team can work together as a symphony orchestra and along with a compact interdisciplinary consultant team. We open our Mecanoo UK office in Birmingham and roll up our sleeves!
The search continues
Our search for the essence of the city continues. Local historian Carl Chinn guides us through Birmingham and explains that building materials used to come from local sources – hence the many buildings made with red and blue bricks and the extensive use of steel. Limestone was the material of choice to represent the international city in the 19th or 20th century. Examples of this are Town Hall and Baskerville House. In the last fifty years additional materials included: concrete, glass, modern red bricks and aluminium disks. So which material are we to use amidst the composition of this city?
The rhythm of the city: not one but two buildings
We want our design to fit into the rhythm of the city, so we make a critical decision that the Library integrated with the REP Theatre will not become one building, but two. Together with Baskerville House, they will form an ensemble of three palazzos along a square, each with its own materialisation – first, Baskerville House, a limestone building from 1938, then the REP Theatre, an optimistic concrete building from 1971. Between them is the library of 2013 with its metal filigree façade of interlocking circles. We propose the three identities to be reflected in Centenary Square: a more formal area in front of Baskerville House containing the Hall of Memory, an open event space in front of the REP and the Symphony Hall, and a more intimate soft landscaped space in front of the library.
Intermezzo: the Repetory Theatre
In February 2009, I have lunch with Graham Winteringham, architect of the Repertory Theatre. I meet a respectable, enthusiastic man of age and a faithful visitor of the REP. “How did you actually come to this project?” I ask him. He tells me that he studied architecture in Birmingham after the Second World War. First he designed the small Crescent Theatre with a revolutionary 360 degree rotating stage. Because he was the only architect in Birmingham with theatre experience, he was commissioned in 1964 to design the theatre for one of the most influential theatre groups in the history of English theatre, the REP. He told me that the project was actually a nightmare. The program requirements were a hall with 900 seats, without balconies. Another salient detail in this program was that there had to be many more men’s than ladies’ toilets because the audience was mainly male! In 1964, the building is contracted, but the Wilson government orders all public projects on hold. Winteringham must wait three and half years, and in this time, his mind is still designing. But he can no longer make changes, no matter how many reasons there are to do so. Originally, the plan was to have a reflective pond in the front, so he designs arched windows. The water would reflect a beautiful scene. This pond never came to be. Stairs as exterior sculptural elements connecting the underground parking garage also never left the page. A steep slope that looks out of place at the rear of the building is a remnant of the idea to make Cambridge Street one storey lower, making it level with the abrasive highways that cut through the centre of Birmingham. Cambridge Street was never lowered.
I describe our first ideas to Graham Winteringham. We don’t intend to demolish the REP, but to maintain the unique hall in the shape of a Greek theatre. We want to restore the original auditorium and foyer and improve the façade by deep cleaning it and replacing the glass with high performance glazing. However, we intend to renew the entire back of house: the theatre technology, logistics and workshops. He is very glad to hear his building will not be demolished.
Four masterplans for Birmingham in eighty years
I realise that this architect has seen four master plans for the city come and go. In the thirties, it was the Grand Plan of a French signature in all public buildings, a monumental type of Champs Elysées. Three buildings have been built in the classical, monumental spirit with limestone facades, including Baskerville House and the circular Hall of Memory in front of it. The Second World War draws a line straight through the Grand Plan. In the sixties, a master plan reflecting the spirit of the times is produced: optimistic grand gestures, many demolitions, space for cars and lots of concrete. A new central library forms the transition to the old city centre. In 1974, a sculptural, brutalist building opens its doors. An influential city architect determines that the facade is created not of marble but in modern pre-cast concrete panels. The REP is also from this period. The master plan of the nineties – the era of urban renewal – generates a large conference centre, the ICC, next to the REP, with a concert hall on the other side of Centenary Square. This is indeed a successful project as Birmingham becomes the conference centre of the UK, second only to London.
In 2008, Birmingham works on its fourth Big City Plan with the new library and the REP as the most important buildings. I feel a great responsibility to bring every period of the last century together at last, in a sustainable way for the coming century.
Composition of three palazzo’s
The three palazzo’s are all on the sunny side of Centenary Square. We make a large inviting canopy at the entrance that welcomes visitors to both the library and the REP, protecting them from the rain and shading them from the sun. The foyers of both buildings are to be connected. At the transition, the Studio Theatre is located, merging the spoken and the written word.
Once the urban strategy is determined, we conduct several massing studies in order to discern the most appropriate relationship between the new building, its immediate surroundings and the wider city. The result is a building form with three stacked volumes, each connected to the city at a different scale – the lower volume and terrace relating to Centenary Square, the middle volume to the district, and the upper volume to the city scale.
The stacking of the library volumes creates an opportunity for outdoor gardens, each one relating to the city at a different scale. The lower terrace – The Discovery Terrace – overlooks Centenary Square, and is the most public. In contrast, the upper terrace -The Secret Garden – has a more introverted, intimate atmosphere, reflecting its elevated position in the building. The sloping beds of the garden respond to the gentle slopes around Birmingham.
Perceived as an extension of the street, the library’s interior journey is intended as a sequence of events and experiences, each discernible from the next. The potential for extending this concept to the exterior was explored and is expressed both in the circular outdoor amphitheatre on Centenary Square and a ‘crowning’ rotunda on top of the building which houses the Shakespeare Memorial Room.
The essence of the building is the cross section
The layout of the library is organised for maximum public accessibility. One might expect the archives to be placed in the basement of the building, but in collaboration with Brian Gambles, we decide to bring the archives up. When the archives are buried in lower levels, no one sees them. The archives of Birmingham are something to be very proud of, something worth putting on display.
The most public functions are on the ground floor which simplifies the expected flow of 10,000 visitors per day. We need many ground floors, so we introduce a ground floor, a mezzanine, a mid-lower ground floor and a mid-mid-lower ground floor in the form of gently descending terraces. Finally a spacious lower ground floor, which is extended until the edge of the train tunnel, reaches out into Centenary Square. The stepping terraces allow the soft northern light to enter deep into the interior space and the amphitheatre in the square provides yet another source of daylight penetration. The children’s library is located on this floor along with the music library. The outdoor circular amphitheatre sets the tone as a performance space. We imagine the sound of a grand piano filling the air, beckoning the passers-by above to peer into the space below and stay a while.
A sequence of rotundas
It’s the cross section that drives the building and is based on a sequence of rotundas with the Book Rotunda at its centre. The Book Rotunda connects three floors with three main functions: the Public Library, The Discovery Terrace with the gallery and the Research Library. The Book Rotunda itself has five floors. It is an iconic space that celebrates books and can also be used for different kinds of events. Via escalators and travelators visitors can make their own journey through the Book Rotunda and the building. A round lift leads to The Secret Garden. On this floor are also staff offices and meeting rooms for public use. The Shakespeare Memorial Room on the roof can be reached directly by lift. This public lift with stairs featuring a Mecanoo Blue core forms a point of orientation to visitors making their journey through the library.
An ode to the circle
With its many different functions, the library is wrapped in a filigree pattern of metal circles which are bold and refined interlocking stories of industrial heritage, jewellery, people and knowledge. The large circles may symbolise the craftsmanship of the steel industry while smaller ones might refer to the 200-year tradition of craftsmanship of the gold and silver smiths of the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham unique in the UK and around the world. Every visitor – every Brummie – can provide their own interpretation, comparing them to the Olympic circles or to the Lord of the Rings. In fact, the façade of the building is designed primarily from within. Entering the library, the repeating circles generate shadows and reflections creating an unforgettable world inside the building. It is an inner world with its own panorama of continuously changing shadows, dependent upon weather, time of day and seasonal expression. With its rotundas and its façade, the building is an ode to the circle: an archetypical form that embodies universality, infinity, unity and timelessness.
The interior: bold and refined
In the many meetings we have with the enthusiastic and involved user groups, we decide to create an interior that is both flexible and timeless, bold and refined, as well as easy to maintain. In the library the main materials and colours are natural stone, white ceramic flooring, oak, Mecanoo Blue, gold, glass and metal, as well as fleeting circles and shadows. In the Repertory Theatre the main materials and colours are concrete, white and red. Inside and outside we try to create a bold and refined building that reflects the spirit of Birmingham.
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by Mecanoo appeared first on Dezeen.
Spanish architecture studio Ábaton has developed a micro home that can be transported on the back of a lorry and placed almost anywhere (+ slideshow).
Ábaton chose dimensions of nine by three metres to provide just enough space for two people and also allow the transportable house to be hoisted onto the back of a truck.
“The proportions are the result of a thorough study by our architects’ team so that the different spaces are recognisable and the feeling indoors is one of fullness,” said Ábaton.
Externally the home is clad entirely in grey cement-board panels, creating a monolithic form.
However, some of these panels hinge open to reveal sliding glass doors in the front and windows to the sides.
A combined living room and kitchen is positioned in the centre with a bathroom and bedroom either side, all under a gabled roof that reaches 3.5 metres at its peak.
Spanish fir wood stained white lines the interior, which is furnished with products by Spanish design brand Batavia.
The unit can be manufactured in four to six weeks and assembled in just one day.
Ábaton also rebuilt a crumbling stone stable in the countryside of western Spain and converted the building into a self-sufficient family home.
If you’re into mobile architecture, check out a quilted cube bedroom attached to the back of a tricycle and a house on a sled that can be towed off the beach to avoid incoming tides.
See more mobile architecture »
See more micro homes »
Photographs by Juan Baraja.
The architects provided us with the following information:
Ábaton is proud to present its brand new project Portable Home ÁPH80
Twenty-seven square metres, sectional and for immediate placement.
Ábaton has developed the ÁPH80 series as a dwelling ideal for two people, easily transported by road and ready to be placed almost anywhere. The proportions are the result of a thorough study by our architects’ team so that the different spaces are recognisable and the feeling indoors is one of fullness.
It is a simple yet sturdy construction made of materials chosen to provide both comfort and balance. ÁPH80 embodies the principles and objectives of Ábaton: wellbeing, environmental balance, and simplicity.
ÁPH80 has three different spaces measuring 27 square metres (9×3): a living room/kitchen, a full bathroom and double bedroom. Its gabled roof is 3.5 metres high indoors. Most of the materials can be recycled and meet the sustainable criteria that Ábaton applies to all its projects. It blends in with the environment thanks to its large openings that bring the outdoors inside.
The use of wood throughout the building not only adds calmness and balance but it is also hypoallergenic. The sourced wood comes from regulated forests (will regrow to provide a wide range of other benefits such as further carbon storage, oxygen generation and forest habitat).
Technical Data
The outside is covered with grey cement wood board. Ventilated façade with ten-centimetre thermal insulation around the building. Solid timber structure manufactured through numerical control; inside timber panels made of Spanish Fir Tree dyed white. ÁPH80 has been designed and manufactured fully in Spain.
Manufacturing time: four to six weeks. Assembly time: one day. Transportation by road.
We are currently developing simpler series that can be added to the ÁPH80 to suit every particular need, creating larger spaces and contributing to the project’s versatility.
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by Ábaton appeared first on Dezeen.
A series of new cultural venues has sprung up along the waterfront in Marseille, including the contemporary art centre by Kengo Kuma we featured yesterday and a mirrored pavilion by Foster + Partners (+ slideshow).
As this year’s European Capital of Culture, the coastal city in southern France has recently seen heavy investment in public buildings and temporary event spaces along its harbour.
The first we featured was an events pavilion by British architects Foster + Partners that reflects visitors walking beneath its polished steel canopy.
More recently, Japanese designer Kengo Kuma completed the FRAC Marseille arts centre for the Provence Alpes Cotes d’Azur region with a chequered glass facade.
Also completed this year is the filigree-clad Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MuCEM) by architect Rudy Ricciotti, which connects to a seventeenth-century fort across the water via a long thin bridge.
An archive and research centre with a cantilevered exhibition floor and an underwater conference suite by Boeri Studio is located just down the promenade.
Elsewhere in the city, the rooftop of Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse housing block was opened as a contemporary art space as part of the celebrations.
See more architecture and design in Marseille »
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Capital of Culture 2013 appeared first on Dezeen.
The MuSe Museum by Italian architect Renzo Piano has opened to the public in Trento, Italy, and features angled profiles that echo the shapes of the nearby Dolomites mountains (+ slideshow).
The science and technology museum forms part of a wider regeneration by Renzo Piano Building Workshop of Trento’s Le Albere district, a riverside site that formerly housed a Michelin tyre factory. The museum is positioned at the northern boundary of the new neighbourhood, beyond housing, offices, a hotel and a new public park.
Comprising a mixture of steel and glass panels, the dynamic roofline juts up and down between three- and six-storey heights to create a rhythm with the mountains beyond, as well as to divide the building into four sections.
“The idea of the roofs was important because we are in a deep valley, and the area is really visible from above,” project architect Danilo Vespier told Disengo magazine. “You just need to drive half an hour into the mountains and you can look down on the area as if it was an architectural model.”
The two central sections accommodate exhibitions dedicated to natural history, from mountains to glaciers. These galleries centre around a full-height atrium where taxidermied animals and skeletons are suspended below a large glass ceiling.
A huge glass-fronted lobby provides an entrance to the museum, leading visitors to the top of the building so that they make their way down through the exhibits. To its east, an adjoining block contains administration and research departments.
The smallest section of the building is positioned on the western side and functions as a greenhouse for cultivating tropical plants, which are irrigated using rainwater collected from the rooftops.
The entire building is built over a pool of water that emerges around some of the edges. A series of canals feed into the pool from the streets of the new masterplan, while the Adige river runs along the southern boundary of the site.
Renzo Piano has completed a number of buildings over the last 12 months, from The Shard skyscraper in London to a flat-pack auditorium in Italy and a small wooden cabin at the Vitra Campus in Germany.
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Here are some extra details from Renzo Piano Building Workshop:
The Ex-Michelin Area – The “Le Albere” District, Trento
Overview
The area extends from the railway line and Palazzo delle Albere, on Via Monte Baldo, up to the left bank of the River Adige.
This area has an extremely high potential, but is constrained between two physical and psychological barriers to the east and west: the railway, separating the area from the town’s nearby historical centre, and Via Sanseverino, which acts as an urban boundary between the area itself and the river’s natural environment.
The project is mainly aimed at reintegrating the existing urban landscape and exploiting the site’s relationship with the river environment by making better use of its natural resources.
The project’s secondary goal is to urbanise these localities, which for social and cultural reasons have become marginalised with respect to the rest of the city, by including a range of different structures (such as residences, office buildings, shops, cultural venues, conference centres and recreational areas) and by concentrating their volumes within just one sector of the area in order to free up enough space for a large park.
This new district is primarily characterised by its innovative urban fabric, which features a specific dimensional hierarchy of roads, pathways, squares and open spaces.
Via Sanseverino and Via Monte Baldo provide Road access to the area. This new urban fabric is also relatively traffic-free. It is restricted to residents, taxis and public transport, and offers numerous pedestrian walkways that wind into the courtyards of certain building complexes.
The new district therefore offers an atmosphere of meeting places, open spaces, workplaces and trade areas, where individuals can easily get around on foot and explore the large number of aggregation points within this widely varied environment.
The main east-west streets, which traverse the railway embankment in order to unite the new road scheme with that of the existing urban fabric, are lined along their entire length by two rows of trees, and lead directly into the park area on the shores of the River Adige, where cultural and recreational centers are expected to arise.
In accordance with the plans that have already been established by the City Council, it will be necessary to construct new railway underpasses for vehicles and pedestrians, to render this connection both physically and visually feasible.
The construction volumes have even been calculated based upon an examination and careful analysis of the City of Trento’s historic centre, as well as the way in which the different activities will occupy the urban spaces themselves and the proportions between the width of the streets and the heights of the surrounding buildings.
In fact, due to the height, the cadence and dimensional scale of the buildings themselves, which are comparable to those of the city’s historic centre and the existing industrial structures, the project favours a horizontal interpretation of the relationship between the new buildings and the open spaces foreseen by the design.
The entire new district will feature a number of 4 to 5 storey buildings, with an in-line or courtyard layout, along with the presence of two “special objects”, serving as aggregation points at all hours of the day, for both the complex’s residents and the rest of the city.
The Science Museum
The new Trento science museum is located in the northern portion of the new district foreseen for the Ex-Michelin area, and is housed is what is known as the A-block, situated at the end of the main pedestrian route that connects the area’s higher-end activities with the functions of the greatest public interest. It is also located in close proximity to the new public park and Palazzo delle Albere, with which it will boast a respectful and productive relationship.
The idea was based on establishing a perfect compromise between the need for flexibility and the desire for a precise and consistent response to the scientific content of the cultural project itself. The museum’s magnificent exhibition themes can even be recognised in the form and volumes of the structure itself, all while maintaining the flexible layout typical of a more modern museum.
In addition to the volumetric interpretation of the museum’s scientific contents, the architectural design has also been dictated by the museum’s relationship with its surrounding environment: or rather the new district, including the park, the river and Palazzo delle Albere. Thus, all these inputs have physically taken shape thanks to the clearer definition of the specific architectural elements that make up the rest of the district itself, above all in terms of its tertiary, residential and commercial functions.
The building is made up of a sequence of spaces and volumes (solids and voids) resting (or seemingly floating) upon a large body of water, thus multiplying the effects andvibrations of light and shade. The entire structure is held together at the top by its large roof layers, which are in complete harmony with its forms, thus rendering them recognisable even from the outside.
Starting from the east, the first structure houses functions which are not available to the public, such as administrative and research offices, scientific laboratories and ancillary spaces for on-site staff. Next, we find the lobby. It is aligned with the main axis of the district and traverses the entire depth of the building towards the north, overlooking the park area outside Palazzo delle Albere.
The scientific themes of the mountain and the glacier are subsequently dealt with through a series of exhibition spaces, which gradually rise up from the basement level and nearly “break through” the roof, thus creating an observation point immersed within the environment, from which a true “simulation” of the real experience can be enjoyed. This experience is highlighted by ample exhibition spaces on two or three levels, with ceilings high enough to welcome extremely large sets and backdrops.
The building’s shape and/or “rain forest” function also serves to define is interior space and functionality. In fact, the building represents a large tropical greenhouse which, during certain periods of the year, is even capable of establishing a functional relationship with the specific exhibition stands (even outdoors), in which water, lighting and greenery often play a key role in defining the visitor’s natural surroundings.
The educational and laboratory services for the public are offered in a series of aboveground structures located alongside the exhibition areas, thus promoting interactive experiences for each individual subject matter.
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Building Workshop appeared first on Dezeen.
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: San Francisco designer Yves Behar, who recently launched a keyless lock controlled by a smartphone, discusses his vision for how technology can be successfully integrated into the home in this movie filmed in Milan.
Speaking at our Dezeen and MINI World Tour Studio at the MINI Paceman Garage during Milan design week, Behar says that design for the home has been slow to embrace technology.
“What we see here [in Milan] from the Italian manufacturers is very safe,” he explains. “On the other hand, you have a world of technology that’s very dynamic. What I’m missing is for those two worlds to come together more.”
“It’s not about putting a speaker in a chair, or putting a TV in a bed. That’s not how technology and the home intersect. For me, it’s about sensors, about the home knowing where you are.”
In May this year, shortly after we filmed this interview, Behar launched a new company and product called August Smart Lock, which replaces physical keys with a smartphone app and opens automatically as you approach the door.
“Cars have been like this for years,” Behar says in the movie. “Keyless entry in a car is something that we’re used to. Somehow, the home has been very resistant to this. Some of it has to do with security, but today we know that technology, when things are invisible, is actually safer than physical artefacts.”
Looking to the future, Behar believes that wearable technologies, such as the Up wristband he designed for San Fransisco company Jawbone, provide an exciting opportunity for integrating technology into the home.
“The next step for me with the Up is how it talks with the rest of the home,” he says. “It’s an object that can tell the home where I am and what I’m doing. Am I tired from a long day so the lighting should be really mellow and calm, or do I need to be energised so the ambience is going to be rocking? Am I about to get home, so maybe the temperature should go up?”
He concludes: “There are all kinds of new intuitive ways that these technologies that we’re wearing can interface with the technologies in our home. For reasons of efficiency, but also for having a home that responds to you in ways that are going to be magical.”
See all our stories about Milan 2013.
The music featured is a track called Divisive by We Have Band, a UK-based electronic act who played at the MINI Paceman Garage in Milan on Friday. You can listen to the full track on Dezeen Music Project.
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where you are” – Yves Behar appeared first on Dezeen.
News: architecture firm OMA has won an international competition to masterplan a 275-hectare mixed-use development in the Colombian capital, Bogotá (+ slideshow).
OMA‘s New York office was chosen to develop its proposal for the regeneration of the city centre, which will house the Colombian government’s headquarters, as well as residential, retail, cultural and educational facilities.
Proposed for the midpoint of an arterial road that bisects the city, the masterplan features an arcing public space that connects the road to an adjacent park and university.
“Our proposal enables CAN (Centro Administrativo Nacional) to be a lively node, providing a continuous public domain that curves through the site to connect the park, the university and Calle 26,” explained director of OMA New York, Shohei Shigematsu. “With a single gesture, the arc achieves a clear urban identity while accommodating programmatic diversity.”
The development will cover an area equivalent in size to the National Mall in Washington DC and will become the largest institutional masterplan completed in Latin America since Oscar Niemeyer’s Brasilia was built in the 1960s.
OMA and Danish firm BIG were recently announced as two of ten design teams chosen to revitalise parts of the USA affected by Hurricane Sandy, while OMA has also won a competition to renovate the convention centre that hosts the Art Basel/Miami and Design Miami trade fairs.
See more OMA »
See more masterplans »
Here’s some more information from the architects:
Bogotá Centro Administrativo Nacional (CAN)
The Bogotá Centro Administrativo Nacional (CAN) is positioned as a new civic centre, located at the midpoint of Calle 26 avenue, the city’s main axis that has symbolically charted its growth from the historic downtown to the airport and the international gateway of Colombia. With a footprint as large as the National Mall in Washington DC, this new city centre will serve as the city’s government headquarters, with additional mixed use program of residential, educational, retail and cultural developments.
The proposed masterplan utilises a curved, public space axis to connect the adjacent natural parks to Calle 26 and link the existing districts. With a single gesture, the arc achieves a unified system of green, infrastructural, and programmatic networks. The new axis divides the site into three districts: (1) an office zone that connects to the existing financial district, (2) an institutional/ governmental zone that is linked to the existing cultural spaces and recreational parks and (3) an educational campus connected to the existing university. These districts are unified by a green path that extends the meandering paths of the Simon Boliver Park to the National University plaza at other end of the site. This park axis will be programmed with cultural attractions and a bike path that will extend to Bogota’s highly successful pedestrian CicloVia network.
OMA’s proposal shifts the city’s historic downtown center, for which Le Corbusier had been commissioned to master- plan from 1949-1953, demonstrating the city’s longstanding commitment to urban planning. The CAN masterplan will be the largest built institutional master plan in Latin America after Oscar Neimeyer’s Brasilia, built in the sixties.
Status: Competition 2013
Client: Empresa Virgilio Barco
Location: Bogotá, Colombia
Site: 870,000 m2
Program: 680 acres (2,750,000 m2) of total buildable area / 72 acres (29,000 m2) of Public Open Space
» 982,000 m2 Government Offices
» 683,000 m2 Residential
» 650,000 m2 Offices
» 160,000 m2 University Campus
» 85,000 m2 Cultural (including Museum of Memory)
» 75,000 m2 Retail
» 60,000 m2 Hotel
» 55,000 m2 Hospital
Lead Designer/ Masterplanner: OMA
Partner-in-Charge: Shohei Shigematsu
Team: Sandy Yum, Daniel Quesada Lombo, Yolanda do Campo, Denis Bondar, Ahmadreza Schricker, Cass Nakashi- ma, Jake Forster; with Isaiah Miller, Maria Saavedra, Andrew Mack, Sean Billy Kizy, Caroline Corbett, Christopher Kovel, Simona Solorzano
Local Architect: Gomez + Castro
Mobility Consultant: Carlos Moncada
Financial Consultant: Oscar Borrero
Sustainability Consultant: Esteban Martinez
The post OMA to masterplan new civic centre
in Colombia’s capital appeared first on Dezeen.
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