Hasta La Ideas

Clerkenwell Design Week 2013: Zaha Hadid has opened a gallery in Clerkenwell, central London, to display her furniture and design to the public (+ slideshow).

The ground floor and lower floor of the Zaha Hadid Design Gallery contains furniture, lighting, jewellery and paintings by the architect.

There’s also a floor of architectural models upstairs, available to view by appointment.

The space was previously home to a pop-up hair salon designed by Hadid during last year’s London Design Festival.

Following the launch during Clerkenwell Design Week, the gallery and showroom is now open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday between midday and 6pm at 101 Goswell Road, London, EC1V 7EZ.

We reported on the highlights from the design fair last week, including lamps that look like vats from a milking parlour and a target made of reflective pixels that change with the light – see all products and events from Clerkenwell Design Week.

Last week two temporary wing-like seating stands were removed from Hadid’s Aquatics Centre at the London 2012 Olympic Park, allowing the building to be seen for the first time as it was originally designed.

Developers recently unveiled images of Hadid’s proposed 60-storey residential skyscraper in Miami, USA – see all architecture by Zaha Hadid.

Photographs are by Luke Hayes.

Here’s some more information about the gallery:

Zaha Hadid Design Gallery

Zaha Hadid Design opens a new Gallery and Showroom featuring innovative product and furniture designs over 2 floors. Also featuring paintings and other artwork by Zaha Hadid.

Zaha Hadid Design creates a wide variety of pieces for living and for the home, from sculptural jewellery to limited edition furniture, experimenting with architectural projects at a small scale, exploring the latest technological and material innovations, as well as responding directly to commercial briefs.

Her portfolio spans a concept for an entire room to bespoke jewellery commissions. The gallery, arranged over two floors, is the first opportunity to view exclusive new designs recently shown in Milan, alongside a showcase of iconic products and original artwork.

Many of the products are available to buy so if you are interested please ask. The space hosts an ever-changing programme of exhibitions and collaborations. We have recently hosted a pop-up hair salon and we regularly showcase emerging fashion and jewellery designers.

As an architect and designer, Zaha Hadid’s designs explore spatial concepts at all scales, from the city to individual product, interior and furniture commissions.

Her projects are internationally renowned and have won the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize in two consecutive years.

She was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2004, becoming the first woman to receive architecture’s highest honour, and her Aquatics Centre was the centrepiece of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She is also engaged in experimental research, leading an architectural practice and teaching.

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opens to the public appeared first on Dezeen.

Motion graphics designer Al Boardman celebrates five Chicago skyscrapers in this short animation.

Al Boardman is a British designer, but he lives and works in Chicago and wanted to pay homage to the city’s architecture. “Chicago has many truly great buildings. It sits firmly on the map of global architecture and is the birthplace of the skyscraper,” he explains.

The movie presents each tower as a colourful cartoon made from bold blocks of colour and clean geometric lines.

First up are two projects from US firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill: the 442-metre Willis Tower – more commonly known as the Sears Tower and until recently the tallest building in the US – and the 344-metre John Hancock Observatory.

Also featured are the diamond-shaped Crain Communications Building, the corncob-like Marina City towers and Trump Tower, a hotel and apartment block owned by billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump.

Another architectural illustration on Dezeen recently was The ABC of Architects, an animation depicting a famous building for every letter of the alphabet.

See more animations »

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by Al Boardman appeared first on Dezeen.

An elongated timber prow oversails a solid brick base at this school boathouse in Worcester, England, by British studio Associated Architects (+ slideshow).

The Michael Baker Boathouse replaces an existing building that had served as the The King’s School’s boathouse since the 1950s but was too small to accommodate storage for rowing boats and sculls as well as training facilities, changing rooms and events spaces.

Associated Architects redesigned the building as a two-storey structure with a boat-shaped first floor that cantilevers out towards the adjacent River Severn, while the brickwork ground floor protects the interior from the regular flooding that occurs on the site.

The architects used double-length bricks to emphasise the slender form of the boathouse. The timber-clad upper floor features diagonal lengths of sweet chestnut, which will naturally fade to a silvery-grey, and a glazed bow facing out over the water.

“This and the gently curving plan, following [Worcester’s] historic defensive line, give the building a distinctive modern presence on Riverside Walk,” say the architects.

Interior walls are lined with sheets of birch, alongside more exposed brickwork. A skylight spans the roof to bring daylight into the upper floor.

The layout of the new boathouse also creates a new pedestrian route across the neighbouring memorial gardens.

“The scheme creates a new route to the boathouse through the gardens, which is much more direct, wheelchair friendly, and improves security: the previous boathouse was isolated and accessible only from outside the school grounds,” add the architects.

The Michael Baker Boathouse is the latest of several projects by Associated Architects at The King’s School, which include a new library and a sports hall that is still under construction.

Other boathouses on Dezeen include a cylindrical building in Austin and a renovated Victorian boathouse in the south of England.

Photography is by Martine Hamilton Knight.

Here’s some more information from Associated Architects:

The King’s School, Worcester
Michael Baker Boathouse

Associated Architects’ second ten-year Masterplan for King’s Worcester included rebuilding the Boathouse, which was previously a small and unsightly 1950s building. The site is a focal point in the Masterplan, Conservation Area and in the Worcester City Council/Sustrans Worcester Riverside project. On the line of the old city defences, it is at the edge of the historic city core which has a rich history including Norman and medieval archaeology. The Masterplan proposal to create a striking modern building was welcomed by Worcester City Council planners.

The existing ground floor footprint is increased by 60% to provide storage for all the School’s considerable fleet of rowing boats and sculls. The site is subject to regular flooding, so this floor’s construction internally and externally is robust fair-faced brickwork growing out from the line of the historic brick embankment. Reflecting the elongated form of the building, the new wall is built with double-length bricks.

By contrast, the lightweight upper floor floats above the retaining wall and flood plain. It provides changing, teaching and a school/community training and reception space, with dramatic views up and down the River Severn from a new glazed and cantilevered prow. This and the gently curving plan, following the historic defensive line, give the building a distinctive modern presence on Riverside Walk.

The upper floor overlooks the historic Creighton Memorial Gardens, previously an under-used part of the School grounds. The scheme creates a new route to the Boathouse through the Gardens, which is much more direct, wheelchair friendly, and improves security: the previous Boathouse was isolated and accessible only from outside the School grounds. A new garden terrace and windows north focus views to the twin Worcester landmarks of the Cathedral and St Andrew’s spire.

Fine sweet chestnut timber laths cloak the upper volume, weathering down to a natural silvery-grey colour in keeping with the sensitive historic context. Rather than running horizontally, the laths are set at a shallow angle to enhance the dynamic form of the building. The interior is panelled in ice-birch over timber I-beams, facilitating airtight construction and rapid thermal response for multiple uses. The roof is traditional standing seam terne-coated stainless.

Sustainability is a central consideration in the brief and design. Solar electric and hot water roof panels meet much of the building’s energy needs in summer, and make a useful contribution in winter. The construction uses the principles of Passivhaus design with triple glazing, super-insulation and air-tightness. These measures, coupled with a wood-pellet boiler, give environmental performance to EPC A, approaching zero carbon standards.

Contract Value: £1.86M
Cost per sqm: £1772/sqm
Floor area: 772 sqm
Design: 2010
Construction: 2012
Carbon footprint: 9.4 kg CO2 kg/m2/yr

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by Associated Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

The partners of new Vancouver studio Scott & Scott Architects created this remote snowboarding cabin for their own use at the northern end of Vancouver Island.

The Alpine Cabin by Susan and David Scott is lifted off the ground on six columns made of douglas fir tree trunks, which pierce through the rooms on both storeys.

The exterior clad in cedar, intended to weather to the tone of the surrounding forest, and the interior finished in planed fir.

“The construction approach was determined to avoid machine excavation, to withstand the annual snowfall, to resist the dominant winds and to build in a manner which elevates the building above the height of the accumulated snow on the ground,” say the architects.

The majority of the ground floor is taken up by a combined living room and kitchen, but also includes a bathroom and sauna. Upstairs there are two bedrooms with a study in between.

One corner of the ground floor is cut away to create a spacious porch where firewood and snowboarding equipment can be stored.

The cabin is located in a community-operated alpine recreation area 1300 metres above sea level and is accessible by a gravel road for five months of the year, but otherwise equipment and supplies must be carried on a sledge to the site.

The building is completely off-grid, heated by a wood-burning stove and using water that must be fetched from nearby and carried in.

The architects built the project themselves with the help of friends. “The cabin was constructed out of a desire to directly design and build as a singular act, to work with the freedom one experiences when snowboarding, and in a manner which is centered in the adventure and not bound heavily in pre-determination,” they explain.

Susan and David Scott launched their own practice in February after twelve years of working for established firms.

Other winter retreats on Dezeen include a holiday home that Peter Zumthor designed for himself and his family and one that’s been squeezed into the passageway between two farm buildings in northern Italy.

See more winter retreats »
See more architecture in the snow »

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Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

These new photographs by Hufton + Crow show Herzog & de Meuron’s extension to the Messe Basel exhibition centre now that the three new halls are in use (+ slideshow).

Herzog & de Meuron replaced two of the older halls at the Messe Basel, which hosts Art Basel each June, with an extension that stacks three new ten-metre-high halls on top of one another to create volumes that appear displaced.

Brushed aluminium clads the exterior of the building and has a textured surface to create the impression of a basket weave.

Part of the extension bridges across the neighbouring Messeplatz public square to creates a sheltered area with a huge circular skylight.

Glazing surrounds the space and leads into a ground-floor lobby filled with shops, bars and restaurants.

The building was completed in February, but only opened to the public in April. Read more about the Messe Basel New Hall in our previous story.

Since completing the building, Herzog & de Meuron has also started construction of a football stadium in France and an outdoor bathing lake in Riehen.

The pair were also controversially chosen to design the new National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. See more architecture by Herzog & de Meuron.

See more photography by Hufton + Crow on Dezeen, or on the photographers’ website.

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photographed by Hufton + Crow appeared first on Dezeen.