These shoes are 3D-printed using flexible, durable filament so they can be folded up and stuffed into a pocket or bag (+ slideshow).
Designed by Ignacio Garcia of Spanish 3D-printing firm Recreus, the Sneakerbot II shoes are printed with the company’s Filaflex 1.75-millimetre filament, which comes in a range of metallic colours and matte hues.
This elastic filament forms a rubbery, waterproof material that is bendy and retains its shape after being scrunched up.
The shoes can be printed on a MakerBot using a custom extruder also designed by Garcia, which prevents the elastic filament becoming tangled during the process.
Sole and upper are printed in one piece, then the tongue is attached to the front of the shoe. Holes for threading the laces through are incorporated into the print file.
Chunky faceted forms around the bases of the high-top trainers create a Futurist appearance.
This design builds on the original Sneakerbot model, which has smoother surfaces that look more like running shoes.
The files for both designs are available to download for free from MakerBot’s Thingiverse website.
The Design Museum will host the exhibition of shortlisted projects for its annual Designs of the Year awards, which honour exemplary projects completed in the past year.
A selection of the 76 projects nominated for the Design of the Year title will be displayed, including a mobile phone you can build yourself and a floating school in a Nigerian lagoon.
Dezeen readers can also receive 25 percent off the admission price when booking online and using the code DEZ25 under the Dezeen Special Offer.
Competition closes 9 April 2014. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.
Lego Calendar designed by Adrian Westaway, Clara Gaggero, Duncan Fitzsimons, Simon Emberton. Photograph by Adrian Westaway
Here’s some more information from the Design Museum:
Five pairs of tickets to see Designs of the Year 2014 at the Design Museum
Now in its seventh year, Designs of the Year gathers together a year of cutting-edge innovation and original talent; showcasing the very best in global Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphic, Product and Transport design.
Chineasy created by ShaoLan Hsueh with Illustrations by Noma Bar. Photograph by Brave New World
Featuring Kate Moss’s favourite app, a floating school in a Nigerian lagoon, friendly lamp posts, a mobile phone you can build yourself and many others, Designs of the Year 2014 include international design stars such as Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield and Miuccia Prada, alongside crowd-funded start ups and student projects.
ME.WE: Forward-Thinking Car designed by Massaud & Toyota ED2. Photograph Small Dots
This not to be missed exhibition is a clear reflection of everything that is current and exciting in the world. Someday the other museums will be showing this stuff.
The Gourmand: A Food and Culture Journal created by David Lane (Creative Director), Marina Tweed and David Lane (Founders/Editors-in-chief). Photograph courtesy of The Gourmand
As a Dezeen reader, you can also receive 25% off regular admission price when pre-booking here and using code DEZ25 under the Dezeen Special Offer.
Dita von Tease in A Magazine Curated By Stephan Jones illustrated by David Downton
Hay‘s current selection of furniture, tableware and home accessories has been arranged as it might be found in the home and photographed against pink and blue backdrops.
Copenhague Chairs by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
“Our wish was to present the furniture in very simple set-up without losing any atmosphere,” the company’s founder Rolf Hay told Dezeen, “focusing on the furniture and products in the best possible way, and letting the coloured walls define the room and giving it the atmosphere.”
Copenhague Round Tables by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
These items are set up to showcase individual products rather than link them together as a coherent range. “We don’t really consider it as a collection,” said Hay. “It’s very important for us that the products are independent.”
Copenhague Moulded Plywood Desk CPH190 by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
Copenhague Desk CPH90 by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
The moulded plywood chairs comprise seat and back sections that form a crease where they join the A-shaped legs, which allow the chairs to stack.
About A Lounge Chair AAL83/AAL93 by Hee Welling
Stools and tables are also designed with same double-leaf surfaces and angled legs.
Mags Soft Sofa
Tables and desks in the Copenhague collection are also available with flat tops, either in veneer or coated with linoleum.
Puzzle Cushion
Among other furniture pieces in the range is a moulded polyurethane chair supported on wooden legs by Danish designer Hee Welling.
Lup candle holder by Shane Schneck
There’s also the blocky modular Mags sofa constructed from sprung upholstered foam, with high armrests and deep seats. This can be decorated with patchwork cushions covered in fabric by Danish textile company Kvadrat.
New York architect Steven Holl has released two movies about the Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing, China, a building designed to recreate the “parallel perspectives” that are characteristic of Chinese landscape paintings.
The first of the two movies depicts a typical day at the museum, which is located at the entrance to an architectural complex within the Laoshan National Forest Park. The second is a guided tour from Steven Holl that explains how he and collaborating Chinese architect Li Hu came up with the design.
According to Holl, the building was designed as a sequence of walls that angle in different directions to confuse a visitor’s sense of perspective.
“It gives you a feeling of mystery about the space. It’s not really clear what’s parallel to what,” he says. “This had to be worked out on the site. We had to actually position these walls while standing and manipulating the space on the site, that was the only way it could be done.”
The concept to create “parallel perspectives” around the building was inspired by the Chinese artists who rejected the single-point-perspective approach of Western painters in favour of images that allow the viewer to travel between vistas.
“The first drawings were about the courtyard,” says Holl. “You can see the way the landscape is organised in these parallel perspective walls, creating conditions where there’s not really the sense of a vanishing point but there’s a kind of a sense of warping the space.”
The base of the building is a black concrete volume surrounded by walls imprinted with the texture of bamboo, while the upper section is an illuminated glass tunnel raised up on columns. It is surrounded by a landscape of fields and pools.
“This landscape comes down to an edge, but the edge isn’t quite yet the building because there’s this edge of bamboo against a freestanding wall which also creates an ante space before you get to the condition of the parallel perspective,” says Holl.
Galleries are located on all three floors of the building, creating places for displaying contemporary art and sculpture. “The condition of space isn’t exactly box-like, but it is more or less orthogonal and that gives a good background for the art,” added the architect.
Movies were produced by Spirit of Space. Photography is by Xia Zhi.
Here’s some extra information from Steven Holl Architects:
Steven Holl Architects presents two films on the Sifang Art Museum
Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with Spirit of Space has created two short films on the Sifang Art Museum, which opened in November 2013 in Nanjing, China.
The film series explores the changing perspectives as visitors move through the new Sifang Art Museum, from the lush green landscape of the Pearl Spring near Nanjing, through the Museum’s entry court and lower gallery, to its floating upper gallery. The film, A Conversation with Steven Holl, presents Steven Holl on site, as he explains the design concept for the new building.
Designed by Steven Holl with Li Hu, the Sifang Art Museum explores the shifting viewpoints, layers of space, and expanses of mist and water, which characterise the deep alternating spatial mysteries of the composition of Chinese painting. The museum is formed by a “field” of parallel perspective spaces and garden walls in black bamboo-formed concrete over which a light “figure” hovers. The straight passages on the ground level gradually turn into the winding passage of the gallery above. Suspended high in the air, the upper gallery unwraps in a clockwise turning sequence and culminates at “in-position” viewing of the city of Nanjing in the distance. This visual axis creates a link back to the great Ming Dynasty capital city.
The courtyard is paved in recycled Old Hutong bricks from the destroyed courtyards in the centre of Nanjing. Limiting the colours of the museum to black and white connects it to ancient Chinese paintings, but also gives a background to feature the colours and textures of the artwork and architecture exhibited within. Bamboo, previously growing on the site, has been used in bamboo-formed concrete, with a black penetrating stain. The museum is heated and cooled by geothermal wells, and features a storm water recycling system.
News: Chilean architect Smiljan Radic has been named as the designer of this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion and is proposing a translucent domed structure of white fibreglass.
The shell-like pavilion will rest on a bed of huge rocks, based on the Castle of the Selfish Giant imagined by nineteenth-century author Oscar Wilde.
“Externally, the visitor will see a fragile shell suspended on large quarry stones,” said Radic. “This shell – white, translucent and made of fibreglass – will house an interior organised around an empty patio, from where the natural setting will appear lower, giving the sensation that the entire volume is floating.”
The translucent fibreglass will allow the structure to glow after dark. “At night, thanks to the semi-transparency of the shell, the amber tinted light will attract the attention of passers-by, like lamps attracting moths,” said the architect.
Smiljan Radic – a 48-year-old architect who before now has built little outside of his native Chile – will be one of the youngest and least-known architects selected by the Serpentine Gallery in the 14-year history of the programme.
“We have been intrigued by his work ever since our first encounter with him at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2011,” said Serpentine Gallery directors Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
“Radic is a key protagonist of an amazing architectural explosion in Chile. While enigmatically archaic, in the tradition of romantic follies, Radic’s designs for the Pavilion also look excitingly futuristic, appearing like an alien space pod that has come to rest on a Neolithic site. We cannot wait to see his Pavilion installed on the Serpentine Gallery’s lawn this summer.”
The pavilion will open to the public on 26 June and will remain in Kensington Gardens until 19 October.
Here’s the full press release from the Serpentine Gallery:
Chilean architect Smiljan Radic to design Serpentine Galleries Pavilion 2014
The Serpentine has commissioned Chilean architect Smiljan Radic to design the Serpentine Galleries Pavilion 2014. Radic is the fourteenth architect to accept the invitation to design a temporary Pavilion outside the entrance to the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens. The commission is one of the most anticipated events in the cultural calendar, and has become one of London’s leading summer attractions since launching in 2000.
Smiljan Radic’s design follows Sou Fujimoto’s cloud-like structure, which was visited by almost 200,000 people in 2013 and was one of the most visited Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, 2012; Peter Zumthor, 2011; Jean Nouvel, 2010; Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA, 2009; Frank Gehry, 2008; Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen, 2007; Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, with Arup, 2006; Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura with Cecil Balmond, Arup, 2005; MVRDV with Arup, 2004 (un-realised); Oscar Niemeyer, 2003; Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond – with Arup, 2002; Daniel Libeskind with Arup, 2001; and Zaha Hadid, who designed the inaugural Pavillion in 2000.
Occupying a footprint of some 350 square metres on the lawn of the Serpentine Gallery, plans depict a semi-translucent, cylindrical structure, designed to resemble a shell, resting on large quarry stones. Radic’s Pavilion has its roots in his earlier work, particularly The Castle of the Selfish Giant, inspired by the Oscar Wilde story, and the Restaurant Mestizo, part of which is supported by large boulders. Design as a flexible, multi-purpose social space with a café sited inside, the Pavilion will entice visitors to enter and interact with it in different ways throughout its four-month tenure in the Park. On selected Friday nights, between July and September, the Pavilion will become the stage for the Serpentine’s Park Nights series, sponsored by COS: eight site-specific events bring together art, poetry, music, film, literature and theory and include three new commissions by emerging artists Lina Lapelyte, Hannah Perry and Heather Phillipson. Serpentine Galleries Pavilion 2014 launces during the London Festival of Architecture 2014,  Smiljan Radic has completed the majority of his structures in Chile. His commissions range from public buildings, such as the Civic Neighbourhoods, Concepción, Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Santiago, Restaurant Mestizo, Santiago, and the Vik Winery, Millahue, and domestic buildings, such as Copper House 2, Talca, Pite House, Papudo, and the House for the Poem of the Right Angle, Vilches, to small and seemingly fragile buildings, such as the Extension to Charcoal Burner’s House, Santa Rosa, The Wardrobe and the Mattress, Tokyo, Japan, and The Bus Stop Commission, Kumbranch, Austria. Considerate of social conditions, environments and materials, Smiljan Radic moves freely across boundaries with his work, avoiding any specific categorisation within one field of architecture. This versatility enables him to respond to the demands of each setting, whether spatial constraints of an urban site or extreme challenges presented by a remote rural setting, mountainous terrain or the rocky coastline of his native Chile.
AECOM will again provide engineering and technical design services, as it did for the first time in 2013. In addition, AECOM will also be acting as cost and project manager for the 2014 Pavilion. While this is the second Serpentine Pavilion for AECOM, its global chief executive for building engineering, David Glover, has worked on the designs for a majority of the Pavilions to date. The Serpentine is delighted that J.P. Morgan Private Bank is the co-headline sponsor of this year’s Pavilion.
News: residents of a Brutalist housing development in London have persuaded Channel 4 to screen a home-made version of the broadcaster’s ident after a lengthy campaign against its “inaccurate” portrayal of life on the estate.
The offending ident is used by Channel 4 as programs are introduced and depicts a desolate concrete urban environment strewn with rubbish, washing lines and satellite dishes.
“The ident includes embellishments such as bin bags, discarded shopping trolleys and graffiti — all added in post production,” explained community worker Charlotte Benstead. “The Aylesbury has had a long and undeserved reputation. Channel 4 is just emphasising the negatives.”
“It’s a bad thing,” Benstead added. “It points a finger at anyone living on a 1970’s estate and makes a statement about how people there live.”
Still from the original Channel 4 ident
Attention has focused on the ten-year-old ident following a recent campaign by tenants to force it off the air. As part of the battle, Aylesbury’s residents teamed up with filmmaker Nick Street to create a new version of Channel 4’s original.
“Residents are fed up with seeing their homes on Channel 4 shown to be dirty and messy,” said Benstead. “We wanted to remake it showing how the estate really is.”
Following continued pressure from the community and widespread media coverage, Channel 4 has offered to showcase the community’s version “based on liking the creative, not on a belief that the original is wrong and needs to be replaced.”
Still from the original Channel 4 ident
Channel 4 refutes all claims that they have created negative perceptions of the community and vows to continue broadcasting the ident.
In an email to campaign organisers, Channel 4’s Charlie Palmer stated that the ident is “a conceptual creative which doesn’t claim to represent a specific place and is never identified as the Aylesbury estate.”
Channel 4 will broadcast the ident created by Nick Street on Friday 14 March at 9pm after it’s introduced by an announcer. Residents have been promised a preview of the script but are yet to see it.
The Aylesbury estate was designed in 1963 to house 10,000 people in response to the chronic housing shortage of the day by Austrian architect Hans Peter Trenton. The project was the largest, most ambitious postwar public housing scheme in Europe at the time.
In 1971 the first tenants moved in and the estate’s architecture quickly came under attack. As architect and city planner Oscar Newman toured the estate for BBC’s Horizon program in 1974, his conclusion was that modern architecture actually encouraged people to commit crime.
Victim of cost-cutting and poor construction, the Aylesbury became emblematic of the shortcomings of postwar public housing and a byword for crime and poverty. Incoming prime minister Tony Blair used the Aylesbury estate in 1997 to deliver a message that there would be “no more forgotten people” in Britain. Despite the setbacks, in 2001 the majority of residents voted against its demolition.
Industrial fabrics and hardware supplies were used to create these garments shown at Design Indaba 2014 by South African fashion graduate Renee Nicole Sander.
For her graduate collection titled Deficiency, Renee Nicole Sander chose to experiment with PVC and padding, using the icy forms and colours of glaciers as a reference.
“The concept for my third year collection was glacier formations,” Sander told Dezeen. “Looking at these formations from afar and close up, I was able to use these interesting shapes and textures and transfer them into my collection.”
She used wadding for padded quilts and blackout lining for curtains along with plastic canvas and other industrial materials to create the garments.
“Although these alternative materials made an impact, construction using them proved complicated,” Sander explained. “I felt it was important to look at materials outside of fabric stores and experiment with substances not often used in fashion.”
One piece comprises translucent PVC sheets linked with plastic ties down the sides, which look like shower curtain rungs, and large circular arm holes in the front.
This is worn over trousers and a shirt with elongated sleeves that extend past the knee, both in softer translucent fabrics.
Voluminous hooded coats engulf the bodies like giant sleeping bags. More commercial clothes include a loose halter-neck top and wide-legged trousers.
The collection was designed purely in white to show off the silhouettes and varied textures. “Apart from the purity of white; I feel this colour represents my collection well without seeming aggressive or overwhelming to the viewer,” said Sander.
This house in the Scottish Highlands by London office Raw Architecture Workshop is partly buried into its sloping site and features a kinked plan that directs views towards the sunrise and sunset. (+ slideshow).
Located on a patch of former grazing land on Scotland’s rugged northwest coast, the house was designed by Raw Architecture Workshop for a young couple who wanted to optimise views of the sun rising behind mountains in the east and setting over the islands in the west.
“During an initial visit we pinpointed specific axes that would provide [the] best views from the site,” said the architects. “These were translated into physical models and the symmetrical, splayed and cranked plan was derived.”
Starting from the simple gabled form of typical Highland cottages, the architects created a building that provides the space required by a modern family and twisted the plan to direct one end towards the mountains and the other towards the islands.
The gable ends were widened to create space for expansive windows and the roofline lowered in the middle to reduce the building’s mass and exposure to the harsh climate.
Burying the exposed concrete base into the hillside also protects it from the weather and allows the surrounding soil to provide natural insulation.
Wild grasses that will gradually grow up around this submerged section will help to ground the house in its surroundings and the architects chose a black stained timber finish for the exterior surfaces to echo “the characteristics of the peat, gorse and stormy skies.”
To make the most of the spectacular views, the main living spaces are arranged on the upper storeys, with the basement containing an entrance hall, boat room and spare bedroom.
“There is a clear distinction in internal arrangement of space and function across three levels denoted by changes in light levels, scale of spaces, floor to ceiling heights and materials,” said the architects.
From the dark entrance area, a birch ply staircase leads up to a first floor containing three more bedrooms and a hallway incorporating library shelving.
The staircase is filled with natural light from a long vertical window and continues to the open-plan upper floor containing the main living space, which is connected to a kitchen and dining area.
In this space the building’s pitched ceiling results in a complex series of angled surfaces as it kinks in the centre before framing windows in the gabled ends.
Pale wooden floors and cabinetry add to the light and bright feel of this room, which opens onto a narrow covered terrace with steps leading to the garden at the higher end of the site.
Over 2000 years ago the occupants of Skara Brae, Orkney used locally sourced materials to build partially submerged dwellings providing thermal insulation and protection from the storm battered climate. The weather definitely hasn’t improved, but for the most part the buildings remain intact.
Incorporating these principles, Raw Architecture Workshop has completed a new build house on steeply sloping former rough grazing land at Camusdarach Sands.
The Clients, a young couple already living and working in this isolated location, were keen that we develop the proposals to capture the spectacular sun rise views over the mountains and sun set behind the islands. Given the topography of the site our early response was to locate the living spaces on the upper portion of the plot, with sleeping accommodation and entry level stacked below.
During an initial visit we pinpointed specific axis that would provide best views from the site. These were translated into physical models and the symmetrical, splayed and cranked plan was derived.
Similar forms were also explored in the section to reduce the visual mass, significantly improve the field of view from opposite ends of the space and increase daylight levels, which are critical in mid-winter around this line of latitude. In time the wild grasses will re-grow around the building to further reinforce the idea of a building built into, and not on top of, the hill.
Construction is low tech consisting of an exposed concrete base sitting beneath the more expressive timber frame superstructure. There is a clear distinction in internal arrangement of space and function across 3 levels denoted by changes in light levels, scale of spaces, floor to ceiling heights and materials.
Entrance is at the lower level into a darker, utilitarian concrete bunker. As you progress up through the building, via the birch ply staircase, spaces enlarge, daylight levels and ceiling heights soar, and materials are characterised by a lighter finish. The angular form of the building is reflected in the black painted cedar internal door handles and handrail detail of the plywood balustrade.
We were conscious that connection to the garden would be critical for a rural house and felt it important that you were able to step out of the main living spaces directly onto the landscape. This factor controlled the balance between elevating the top floor sufficiently to see the islands and keeping it low enough so that you were only 3 steps from the garden.
Environmental considerations vary in scale and type, from building position and orientation, local labour, skills and materials, to the inclusion of an air source heat pump and super insulation to provide a U-Value of 0.15 [W/m2k] to walls and roof.
The final external colour was much debated and in the end black was chosen to tune into the characteristics of the peat, gorse and stormy skies. Perhaps, in a few years, we might try a deep red…
Perched on a clifftop along the Chilean shoreline, this idyllic residence by architecture studio L2C forms part of a self-sustaining community that produces its own energy and water, and deals with its own waste (+ slideshow).
L2C’s Nicolás Lipthay built the single-storey family residence in Tunquén, a 90-minute drive from Santiago, where an assortment of wooden cabins and concrete houses are dotted across a vast landscape 50 metres above sea level.
“Big and small, all [houses] share the tranquil and simple lifestyle that characterises this unique getaway location,” said Lipthay. “The disconnection from mainstream civilisation makes Tunquen an eco-friendly self-sustainable community.”
Tunquen House is situated on the edge of the coastline, so its plan is arranged to offer wide-stretching views of the Pacific Ocean from most rooms but also to ensure courtyard spaces are protected from the strong prevailing winds.
“The climatic conditions of the area, dominated by a powerful south wind, conditioned the design,” said the architect.
Concrete walls surround the building and are rendered white both inside and out, while the roof is supported by a series of visible wooden joists that have been painted white to match.
A combined living room, dining area and kitchen forms the centre of the plan. Glazed walls run along two sides of the space to open it out to a sea-facing terrace on one side and an entrance courtyard on the other.
The master bedroom sits beside the living room and features a private bathroom and a walk-in dressing room.
Childrens’ rooms and guest bedrooms are positioned on the opposite side of the building and lead out to a second courtyard.
A separate outbuilding sits off to one side, accommodating solar panels, water tanks, sewage treatment and recycling facilities.
Here’s a project description from Nicolás Lipthay Allen:
Tunquen House
Quiet, peaceful and with astonishing views of the Pacific Ocean, lies Tunquén, a group of a few hundred houses scattered over hills, cliffs and shore, overlooking the rugged Chilean coast, only an hour and a half away from the capital city Santiago.
An enormous fair sanded beach – as well as beautiful small secluded ones – a protected wetland and the proximity to quaint fishing villages and the coastal town of Algarrobo, make Tunquén an ideal spot.
A variety of architectural styles are found in this area, ranging from charming wooden cabins to grand sophisticated concrete houses. Big and small, all share the tranquil and simple lifestyle that characterises this unique getaway location. The disconnection from mainstream civilisation makes Tunquen an eco-friendly self-sustainable community. All of the houses count with solar power, water tanks and individual sewage treatment systems, and recycling is an important concern of the neighbours.
Tunquen House, located 160 km from the city of Santiago, is on the first line of the waterfront on a cliff over 50 meters above sea level. The house sits on the oceanfront in a contemplative and respectful manner, as a frame for nature and the environment. It is defined as a single volume of white concrete which is divided into three areas.
The main area houses the living room, dining and kitchen, leaving at one end the master bedroom and its services, and at the other the bedrooms for children and guests. This way, the house can set two scales of use, the first is when the owners are at the house by themselves, and the second is when they are there with the kids or guests.
The climatic conditions of the area, dominated by a powerful south wind, conditioned the design. Attached to the living area is a courtyard that has multiple functions, the most important is to be outside sheltered from the wind, in connection with the view and the interior of the house. This same courtyard provides the access, an outdoor dining area and garden.
The structure of the house is made up of a “bracket” of reinforced concrete which along with the fireplace and the walls of the exterior courtyards shape the projected volume, the roof is based on beams and wood, giving texture and greater height to the spaces.
This raw concretechurch by Nameless Architecture presents a cross-shaped elevation to a road junction in Byeollae, a new district under development outside Seoul, South Korea (+ movie).
Nameless Architecture, which has offices in Seoul and New York, used concrete for both the structure and exterior finish of RW Concrete Church, creating an austere building intended to embody religious values.
“Concrete reveals its solidity as a metaphor for religious values that are not easily changed in an era of unpredictability,” said the architects.
The introduction of a bell tower and a cantilevered second-floor lobby give the church its cross-shaped profile. Additional cross motifs can also be spotted at the top of the tower and within the lobby window.
“The cross as a religious symbol substitutes for an enormous bell tower and is integrated with the physical property of the building,” explained the architects. “The minimised symbol implies the internal tension of the space.”
A large sheltered terrace takes up most of the ground floor of the site, creating a space that can be used for various community activities.
An entrance leads into the church via a ground-floor lobby, from which a staircase ascends towards the chapel on the second floor. Visitors have to pass through the cantilevered lobby before entering the space.
“This cantilevered space is a physical as well as spiritual transition that connects daily life with religion,” added the architects.
A gently sloping floor helps to frame the seating around the pulpit, while clerestory windows help to natural light to filter across the entire room.
Photography is by Rohspace.
Here’s more information from Nameless Architecture:
RW Concrete Church
RW Concrete Church is located in Byeollae, a newly developed district near northeast Seoul, Korea. It evokes a feeling, not of a city already completed, but a building on a new landscape somewhere between nature and artificiality, or between creation and extinction. The church, which will be a part of the new urban fabric, is concretised through a flow of consecutive spaces based on simple shape, single physical properties and programs.
The use of simple volumes and a single material adapted to the site collects a range of desires created in the newly developed district. Concrete, which is a structure as well as a basic finishing material for the building, indicates a property that penetrates the entire church, and at the same time, a firm substance that grasps the gravity of the ground it stands on, which is contrary in concept from abstraction.
Concrete reveals its solidity as a metaphor for religious values that are not easily changed in an era of unpredictability. Moreover, the cross as a religious symbol substitutes for an enormous bell tower and is integrated with the physical property of the building through the empty space at the upper part of the staircase. The minimised symbol implies the internal tension of the space.
The first thing encountered upon entering the building is the empty concrete yard on the ground floor. This is a flexible space that acts as a venue for interaction with the community while also accommodating varying religious programs. By the time you become accustomed to the dark as you walk past this empty yard, and climb the three storeys of closed stairs, you come face to face with a space full of light.
This interior space has a cantilever structure protruding 6.9m, and you must pass through this hall before entering the chapel. This cantilevered space is a physical as well as spiritual transition that connects daily life with religion.
The chapel creates a sense of peace with a single space, using a slope that is not so steep, evoking the feeling of attending a worship service on a low hill. The subdued light gleaming through the long and narrow clerestory embraces the entire chapel and lends vigour to the static space.
Project: RW Concrete Church Architect: NAMELESS Architecture Architects In Charge: Unchung Na, Sorae Yoo Location: Byeollae, South Korea Area: 3,095.5 sqm / 33,319.7sqft
Collaborating Architect: Jplus (Jungtaek Lim, Hwataek Jung) Structural consultant: Mido Structural Consultants Mechanical consultant: One Engineering Client: RockWon Church
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