Stockholm 2014: Swedish designer Anya Sebton has created a storage system that doubles as display units for magazines and plants.
The basis of the Add storage system, which Sebton designed for Swedish furniture brand Lammhults, is a thin rectangular steel frame.
Additions such as plastic boxes can be slotted inside the frames to store and display different items.
Sebton said that she aimed to design “one frame that could include different functions and still be a part of the decoration in the room.”
Plastic boxes have been designed specifically to display plants and perforated iron boxes were created to hold magazines, books or brochures. Closed iron boxes can also be added for hiding contents away.
By fixing on an aluminium rail and hooks, the frame becomes an open clothes rack. An umbrella stand can also be clipped to the outside.
Sebton suggested that Add could be used to improve a workspace. She mentioned that the clothes on the rack could function as a sound absorber, while foliage might improve oxygen levels in the room.
Each frame sits on a circular cast-iron foot plate, with the option for a swivel version. The frames can be linked together to form room dividers or stand alone.
Available in two sizes, one wide and one narrow, the designs come powder-coated or finished in chrome.
Two dance studios at the top of this copper-clad music conservatory in Paris by local studio Basalt Architecture project outwards from the facade to capture plenty of natural daylight (+ slideshow).
Basalt Architecture designed the Conservatoire Claude Debussy for a site on the edge of the 17th arrondissement, where it sits between classic Haussmann buildings to the south and more recent tower blocks to the north.
The boxes containing the dance studios cantilever from the northern facade and appear to reach towards the nearby residential towers.
“Creating a dialogue with the city, dance halls in the upper part seem detached with a particular volume that meets the residential buildings to the north,” the architects told Dezeen. “Largely glazed, they offer soft and uniform light, oriented to the north.”
The conservatory’s entire exterior is clad in a shimmering skin of copper panels, which reference the colour of the nearby sandstone church of Sainte-Odile and the recent residential buildings.
“Copper allowed us to create a facade whose playful folds and perforations play with light by filtering sunlight during the day and sifting light outward at night,” said the architects. “Copper is used as a natural material and its oxidation participates in the life of the building.”
Hinged shutters on the facade facing the busy Rue de Courcelles feature perforated patterns which are arranged in different configurations to produce a random effect and to help shade the studios.
A 300-seat auditorium at the centre of the building steps down from the ground floor to a stage at basement level, with surrounding circulation spaces leading to other facilities including practice rooms and the dance studios.
Wide corridors receive natural light from central skylights and windows surrounding a small courtyard, lending the interior a degree of transparency that contrasts with the monolithic facade.
Windows allow views into some of the dance studios and practice rooms from outside or from internal circulation areas.
Materials throughout have been chosen for their practical, ecological and acoustic properties.
The courtyard on the second floor features wooden decking, walls and a raised planted bed.
The architects sent us the following project description:
Music Conservatory in Paris’ 17th Arrondissement
Building a new conservatory in Paris’s 17th arrondissement is part and parcel of a new urban script that will mark the morphology and profile of this building located on the edge of Paris.
Located on a plot of land between two high-rise buildings, the conservatory stands at the interface of architectural scripts linked to the city’s building heritage. On the edge of the 17th arrondissement to the south Haussmann-style buildings look across at social housing of a more recent period. So the conservatory is located at a strategic point due to its theme, i.e. the 17th arrondissement’s history is closely linked with French music, and building this new edifice has to be worthy of this past.
It is strategic due to its urban location, located as it is on the rue de Courcelles, an important corridor for entering the city with its sight-line extending from the Boulevard Périphérique (ring-road) between two architectural eras and styles.
It is also the beginning of a new building fringe on the rue de Courcelles while waiting for the Consistory building. Aligned along the rue de Courcelles, the project is an oscillation from down to up through the play of external surfaces. It sends a strong signal through the city, a 20-metre-high benchmark in a green alley dominated by vegetation.
Visible from the Périphérique, its architectural treatment identifies it as a value-adding element by separating it from the publicity landscape that exists along the Parisian ring-road. Given its appearance and location, it is in constant dialogue with the city. On the one hand the dance studios in the upper floors with their expansive windows participate actively in the building’s visual signal by standing out from the city with a specific volume that responds to the apartment buildings to the north. On the other side to the south, the building’s pleated skin and its perforations that dialogue with the classic Haussmann-style buildings with their sturdy architecture.
Our project has been designed from inside to outside; we have conceived of the conservatory as a place for exchange, emulation, a crossroads of practices. This is the idea that has driven the project from the auditorium at its heart to the music rooms. Because that is how we have perceived the facilities. A place where people play, learn, dance and create. Sounds and movement emerge from this swirl of activities, this school of practice. Which is how the volumes came to life: a skin perforated by the beat of the melody that emerges and takes shape in the outer walls.
The script is there with the volume folding and undulating in the light and the beat of the perforations that enliven it by day and by night. A place of movement and emulation, the interior and exterior volumes shimmer and move, reinforced by the play of passageways and aerial walkways, the materials sometimes reflecting, sometimes absorbing the light like the paramount acoustics of the place.
Although the exterior volume, an urban signal and catalyst of the rue de Courcelles’ recomposition, is intended to be monolithic with shape and folds that enwrap it–like the works of Christo–we have sought to dematerialise the core interior space to render it impalpable and vital.
A white spectacles showroom contrasts with black examination areas at this opticians near Montreal by Canadian studio La SHED Architecture (+ slideshow).
To create a distinction between the commercial and medical areas of L’Aire Visuelle eye clinic, La SHED Architecture installed a white element that runs through the 284-square-metre space in Laval, northwest of Montreal.
In the shop, wooden slats are randomly interspersed with strip lighting above glass display counters and linear tiles are laid in the same direction on the ground.
“The commercial space was designed as an atelier-boutique, characterised by low display tables in the open area, avoiding any visual obstruction,” said the architects.
These ceiling and floor materials continue beyond a wooden reception desk into the treatment and storage spaces behind.
In contrast, circulation spaces situated either side of the feature element have black carpets and surfaces.
These lead to dark examination rooms on one side and the staff room on the other. The waiting area is also situated on the black carpet, next to the entrance and beside the display units.
Retail consultation spaces sit inside a wooden cube, which also displays frames in the side facing the store.
Here’s some more information from the architects:
L’Aire Visuelle
Working from high contrast and simple natural materials, the firm la SHED architecture have designed a unique optometrist and optician clinic redefining the customer’s experience. The commercial space was designed as an atelier-boutique, characterised by low display tables in the open area, avoiding any visual obstruction. Looking for frames becomes the opportunity of a friendly exchange, underneath the bright ceiling, composed of wooden slats installed randomly.
With the goal of giving their enterprise a breath of fresh air, the associates of L’Aire Visuelle sought to create a new corporate image based on the state-of-the-art products and techniques that they offer, as well as the quality and expertise of the services they provide. The first objective was to redefine customer experience in the clinic. Their previous office became too narrow over time as a result of company expansion; the client therefore required an organized, spacious and open space where emphasis was placed on the sales area and their selection of eyeglass frames.
Creating a hierarchy of movements between patients and employees was an essential part of optimising displacements and creating a functional environment. The project mandate consisted of planning and developing an optometry clinic and its eyeglass store at the ground level of an existing two floor commercial building. With windows on three facades, the 3060-square-foot office accessible from a common hall had an irregular shape – a portion of which had a misaligned angle in relation to the main structural frame.
A space with double the height opening onto the second floor dental clinic offered an abundant amount of natural light. The client’s budget was limited to a maximum of $450,000 for the entirety of project work involved including mechanical work, furniture and professional fees.
The space was designed in such a way to position the sales area at the front of the building, in the section that contained the most windows and was closest to the entrance. People walking into the clinic could therefore instantly see all available products. Visible from the reception, the waiting area was placed beneath the office’s area of double height and is apart from the consultation rooms while being open to the sales area.
The two main axis of circulation are on either side of the reception area – one being meant for clients heading for consultation and examination rooms, and the other for clinic personnel heading to the employee common room, apart from the client zone. The design hierarchy was therefore established, with busier areas at the front near the entrance, and areas requiring quiet and privacy located at the rear of the office.
The concept, geared towards the creation of a workshop-boutique, opted for presentation tables in order to keep the display area clear of all obstacles limiting vision or obstructing lighting. As a result, the eyeglass frame shopping area turns into a far more friendly area, where artificial light is articulated within a randomly organised ceiling of lath wood. The ceiling, by its dynamic and rhythmic design, creates an illusion of movement within the adjacent space.
In the spirit of architectural continuity, a wall of vertical lattice creates a space for attaching eyeglass frame presentation modules while enveloping the sales area. The long and narrow ceramic tile flooring is a harmonious continuation of the lath wood ceiling, therefore completing the envelopment of the sales area.
The immaculate white band that is the showroom is a start contrast to the wooden monolithic cube immediately adjacent to it, covering the private consultation areas. Behind the sales floor, a black satin volume containing the exam rooms seems to have slipped under the ceiling lath, creating an attractive backdrop to the reception area. Detached from adjacent surfaces by recessed lighting, this volume, fragmented by full height openings, seems to float gingerly between the floor and ceiling.
The highly contrasted colours provide the area with a theatrical character featuring the eyeglass showroom with its bright white presentation modules, whereas the mechanical and unaesthetic elements of the open ceiling disappear in black. A sober, neutral and classical colour palette ensures a total coherence between different elements of the clinic.
A black carpet covers the floor in circulation and consultation areas, absorbing sound and light emitted by the sales area. Fluorescent tubes randomly built into the lattice ceiling frame animate the sales area by producing bright and stimulating lighting in stark contrast to the other more private spaces. Black cylindrical tubes hidden throughout the mechanics and structure provide rich and soft lighting in the circulation, waiting and consultation areas as opposed to the abundant lighting of the showroom.
The contrast of porosity, colours and textures within the project elegantly reflect the different character of each space, and contribute to a simple and clear understanding of the planning of the office. Refined finishing details such as doors with hidden frames, and recessed plinths contribute to the clean appearance of the various spaces, underscoring the strong architectural ideas implemented to make L’Aire Visuelle a contemporary and elegant optometry clinic.
News: the rising cost of property in city centres is causing the “biggest crisis” facing architects and urbanists, according to critic Joseph Rykwert, the recipient of this year’s RIBA Royal Gold Medal (+ interview).
Speaking to Dezeen the day before being awarded British architecture’s most prestigious award, the 87 year-old spoke with concern that the increasing cost of city centre property would make the diversity that makes cities thrive impossible.
“What’s happening is that – this is common knowledge – the price of property in city centres is making it impossible, particularly in the big cities, for any kind of social mix to take place. It’s castrating the whole notion of city life,” he said.
Rykwert is known for his large body of work on cities including his seminal 1963 book The Idea of a Town, which his RIBA Gold Medal citation called “the pivotal text on understanding why and how cities were and can be formed”. His other books include The Necessity of Artifice and The Seduction of Place.
Though the life of cities were one of his early topics, the rise of cities with over 20 million occupants holds little excitement for Rykwert. “They are not very happy places are they? Extremes of inequality are underlined in the way those kind of cities are built and extremes of inequality always tend to show up in political movements.”
Joseph Rykwert the day before receiving the 2014 Royal Gold Medal. Photograph by Dezeen.
The other major challenge facing architecture is climatic, said Rykwert. “We have an energy crisis and … if we go on building large, glass-faced, air-conditioned buildings we will exacerbate the situation. And this is what’s we are doing”.
Rykwert said architects can – and should – try to make modest improvements wherever they can, and understand the impact they can have. “It’s very important that architects understand their own power and that what they do is something which is of enormous impact to society. Not that I believe that architecture influences social behaviour directly, but it certainly does so indirectly.”
The critic believes that contemporary architects need to take a more intelligent engagement with the past. “At the moment architects tend to ignore the past. Yet the past is all we know. We don’t know the future. The way in which the past and the present mesh is something I find a bit lacking in current architecture discourse,” he said.
Three of Rykwert’s best-known books
Rykwert was born in Poland in 1926 and moved to London in 1939. He is Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania and has taught at the University of Cambridge, Princeton, the Cooper Union, New York, Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of Sydney.
The RIBA Royal Gold Medal is the institution’s highest honour, given to a person or group in recognition of a lifetime’s work and for significant influence “either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture.” The Queen personally approves each recipient, and recent winners have included architects David Chipperfield, Herman Hertzberger and Peter Zumthor.
Other architectural writers and critics who have won the medal include Nikolaus Pevsner and Colin Rowe.
Announcing the award last September, RIBA described Rykwert as “a world-leading authority on the history of art and architecture” whose “groundbreaking ideas and work have had a major impact on the thinking of architects and designers since the 1960s and continue to do so to this day”.
Here’s a full transcript of the interview:
James Pallister: Congratulations on being awarded the Royal Gold Medal.
Joseph Rykwert: It wasn’t wholly expected I must say!
James Pallister: I suppose you wouldn’t expect to get a gong from the profession you criticise?
Joseph Rykwert: Exactly. Though I’m not an adversarial critic.
James Pallister: What’s missing from architectural discourse today?
Joseph Rykwert: Well a sense of power. Architects don’t have a sense – perhaps power is the wrong word – they don’t always have the sense of the authority they should have.
I think it’s very important that architects understand their own power as it were and that they understand what they do is actually something which is of enormous impact to society. Not that I believe that architecture influences social behavior directly, but it certainly does so indirectly.
James Pallister: For you, as a critic and a historian, is it important to engage the public in the architectural debate or is it ok to solely engage the architectural profession in debate?
Joseph Rykwert: Well the trouble is that very few people outside those who have actually been trained professionally have much of an understanding of architecture. One of the essential skills in judging a building before it is built is the ability to read plans. I really am sometimes quite horrified at how few people can read plans.
James Pallister: Do you think critics are still relevant today, given the power of the internet, and the globalization of architectural media?
Joseph Rykwert: Come on! We are all critics. We are all critics all the time. That’s what criticism is about. The Greeks used the word to signify winnowing. You have a winnow net, you throw things up and the wheat comes down and the chaff flies away. And that’s what you hope to do when you are a critic: separate the grain from the chaff.
James Pallister: Was there any particular artist or architect who made a big impact upon you in your early career?
Joseph Rykwert: Well the dominant architect of my time was Le Corbusier. No doubt. He was obviously the greatest architect of his generation. He was also the most insistent publicist – some people would say self-publicist. You could look at his buildings, and you could read his writings. This is not true of Walter Groupius or of Alvar Aalto, certainly not true of Mies van Der Rohe. Mies was very laconic, as I’m sure you know. Not only laconic but also gnomic.
James Pallister: How hopeful are you for the future of architecture?
Joseph Rykwert: Well as always we are at a critical moment. Architecture is permanently in crisis. The crisis now is as much financial as technical. What’s happening is that – this is common knowledge – the price of property in city centres is making it impossible, particularly in the big cities, for any kind of social mix to take place. It’s, as it were, castrating the whole notion of city life. And I have no idea what will happen as a result, but something must. I probably won’t see the consequences but it’s something, which is bound to have a long-term effect.
James Pallister: Is that the biggest issue facing architecture?
Joseph Rykwert: Well it’s certainly the biggest issue facing urban planning.
James Pallister: You’ve seen the rise and fall of idealistic modernism and the emergence of sustainability as an interest of many: what’s your definition of a sustainable city?
Joseph Rykwert: I think it’s a word that’s up for grabs, isn’t it.
The fact is that we have an energy crisis. In this country we don’t need to underline it, we’ve just had the floods, which may be or may not be a seasonal phenomenon independent of global warming but certainly the extreme weather phenomena all over he world, including heat waves in Australia and south-east Asia, are almost certainly related to it.
If that makes parts of Equatorial Africa and Equatorial America uninhabitable it will mean the population will shift, either north or south – probably more north than south. This will create a population crisis. It’s already, in a minor way, in place in the northern shores of the Mediterranean. They can’t cope with the influx of refugees. I’ve no idea what will happen as a result of that and I don’t wish to prophesy because it’s a risky business. But it is a permanent crisis, which doesn’t seem to be going away.
James Pallister: What is architecture’s role in this?
Joseph Rykwert: Well if we go on building large, glass-faced, air-conditioned buildings we will exacerbate the situation. And this is what’s we are doing, so it’s anyone’s guess what will happen.
James Pallister: Do architects have an ethical duty here?
Joseph Rykwert: I would have thought they did. I’m certainly in no position to dictate it. But as a critic you are bound to note that sort of thing.
James Pallister: In general do you think that architects should make the world a better place?
Joseph Rykwert: That’s what it’s about! If it’s not about that it’s not about anything.
James Pallister: Some people say that bad things happen when architects think they can change the world…
Joseph Rykwert: I didn’t say change the world. I said make it a better place. The world is changing anyway without architects. Maybe it could do with a bit of help every now and again.
James Pallister: Is there anything missing from architectural discourse today?
Joseph Rykwert: What I do miss is a sense or consciousness of the past. Past achievement is not something that should weigh heavily on architects but something that should be part of –as it were – the fertilising ground on which they grow.
Architects tend to at the moment ignore the past. Yet the past is all we know. We don’t know the future. I’m not a great believer in reaching out beyond what you can learn both from the past and the present. The way in which the past and the present mesh is something I find a bit lacking in current architecture discourse. Which is why historicism is really a danger. There are people who see the past as a kind of quarry (which is sterile, of course) instead of thinking it as the kind of ground and manure and fertilising background…
James Pallister: Who are the most interesting architects working today?
Joseph Rykwert: Well the architect I’ve worked most closely with is David Chipperfield. There are older figures. Richard Meier in America has also done some wonderful buidlginds. Frank Gehry is another one who has done interesting and fascinating work.
James Pallister: Does the growth of cities with over 20miliion inhabitants in places like China excite you, as a writer on the life of cities?
Joseph Rykwert: They are not very happy places though are they? Extremes of inequality are underlined in the way those kind of cities are built and extremes of inequality always tend to show up in political movements. However that will work out I’ve no idea.
James Pallister: Why do you think architectural theory matters?
Joseph Rykwert: Well at the moment there’s much too much of it! It only really matters if it effects practice. As an independent discipline, I think it’s really rather boring.
James Pallister: What do you mean there’s much too much of it?
Joseph Rykwert: Well the amount of interminable books published on architectural theory! I don’t have to list them. Just go down to the RIBA Boookshop and look at the shelves. Theoreticians who don’t look at real buildings are of no interest to me.
James Pallister: How do you think that critics can make architecture relevant to the public today?
Joseph Rykwert: Well only if the public reads them. So they have to reach out to the public. They have to be accessible. They have to write as if they weren’t some sort of superior being, but as if they were like everyone else.
Chunky wooden columns and beams support the sloping timber ceiling of this small pharmacy by Japanese studio Ninkipen! in the city of Ogaki (+ slideshow).
Osaka architects Ninkipen! designed the pharmacy for a plot in front of a hospital and chose to let the building’s facade signal its presence to patients, rather than employing typical neon signs.
“We considered how the architecture itself could become a symbol in the town, but unlike other pharmacies filling the streets with big, showy graphic signage,” explained the architects.
The underside of the building’s long pitched roof is clad in timber to create an expansive, warm surface that can be seen through the full-height windows and is intended to welcome visitors entering the pharmacy from the street.
The roof’s low eaves correspond to those of neighbouring buildings, while grass planted on top will eventually cover the entire surface.
A skylight in the middle of the ceiling brings additional daylight into the reception area, as well as to a raised walkway beneath the roof on the upper storey.
The exposed wooden trusses supporting the roof contrast with black metal bracing rods and the black electrical cords from which bare pendant bulbs are suspended.
The dispensing desk is also clad in timber to maintain a consistency of materials throughout the interior.
Photography is by Hiroki Kawata.
Here’s a short project description from Ninkipen!:
O Dispensing Pharmacy
This is a new construction for a pharmacy in front of a general hospital.We considered how the architecture itself could become a symbol in the town, but unlike other pharmacies filling the streets with big, showy graphic signage.
A single sloping roof you can see from the street is made of timber and it will be completely covered with grass in a few years. We lowered the edge of the eaves like the surrounding eaves and made the ceiling continue from there to the second floor with a truss with steel diagonal rods. You can look around to the sky on the other side when you enter the pharmacy.
We think the warm timber ceiling on the back of the roof will gently greet the people coming in for medicine. We are happy if citizens remember this as ‘the Wood Roofed Pharmacy’ and for them this becomes a virgin landscape of pharmacy.
Architect: Yasuo Imazu / ninkipen! Stractual engineer: Yosiki Mondo Use: dispensing pharmacy Location: Ogaki city, Japan
Site area: 177.00m2 Building area: 106.50m2 Total floor area: 172.14m2
Alchemist Lauren Bowker applied heat-sensitive ink to a sculptural leather garment and used fire to alter its colour during a presentation for her company The Unseen (+ movie).
Coinciding with London Fashion Week earlier this month, Bowker’s design house The Unseen debuted a series of garments embedded with her colour-changing ink at an event in the Dead House – a series of vaulted passages beneath Somerset House where her studio is located.
She created a giant black headdress made from overlapping layers of hand-stitched leather that engulfed the wearer like a shell, completely covering the head and extending down past the hips.
During the presentation, a figure wearing this headdress was lead down a tunnel and positioned beneath a spotlight. Large flames erupted around the garment as wicks that protruded from the body were lit in unison.
As the heat from the fire lapped the material, peacock-tail colours began to emerge and disperse across the surface. When the flames died down, the green and purple tones remained on the material as the model was lead back into the depths of the underground vaults.
The collection also included garments worn over the torso that react to the movement of air, changing colour as environmental conditions shift in varying climates and when people come close or walk past.
“Seasonally each piece exhibits different tones of colour,” Bowker told Dezeen. “The summer environment will create a brightly coloured jacket that will dull in the wind to become black again, whereas in the winter the pieces are black until the wind hits them then revealing the colour shift.”
Made in a similar layered style to the larger heat-responsive piece, these designs were displayed on models in alcoves along the subterranean tunnels.
“The fins in each jacket are shaped and designed to create turbulence trips within the wind – triggering the colour-change response,” said Bowker.
Boston engineering firm Spike Aerospace is building a windowless supersonic jet that will be able to fly from London to New York in under four hours, and will offer passengers digital views of their surroundings (+ slideshow).
The S-512 eschews the small porthole style windows typically found on planes in favour of full-length curved digital screens that run the length of the fuselage. An array of cameras installed on the outside of the cabin will feed images through to the displays, which will then be stitched together to create panoramic views.
“Passengers will be able to dim the screens to catch some sleep or change it to one of the many scenic images stored in the system,” Spike Aerospace said in a press release.
Unlike standard commercial airliners, which fly at approximately 567 mph, the S-512 will achieve speeds of between 1,060-1,200mph thanks to advanced airframe and engine technology, and the absence of windows.
“It has long been known that the windows cause significant challenges in designing and constructing an aircraft fuselage. They require additional structural support, add to the parts count and add weight to the aircraft,” said the company.
The reduced weight and lack of drag caused by removing the windows will also mean the S-512 will use considerably less fuel compared to other private jets. Spike projects that this means the plane could carry 18 passengers at up to 1370 mph.
The result is a plane that will shave flight times in half, meaning traveling from Los Angeles to Tokyo would take eight instead of 16 hours.
The S-512 is still in development, but Spike Aerospace hopes to begin shipping in December 2018, with a price tag of £48million.
“We expect the first customers for the jet will be businesses and their management teams that need to manage global operations more efficiently. They will be able to reach destinations faster, evaluate more opportunities and have a bigger impact on their enterprises,” said the company.
The cylindrical shape of this university building on the outskirts of Dutch town Wageningen is designed by BDG Architects to optimise the usable floor space inside and reduce energy loss through the facade (+ slideshow).
Stoas Vilentum is the only institution in The Netherlands dedicated to teaching agriculture and ecology, and the Zwolle office of Dutch firm BDG Architects wanted to reflect its sustainable focus through the building’s shape, materials and interior details.
“For the basis of the building [we] chose a cylindrical shape because of the favourable ratio of surface area relative to the area of the facade,” said the architects, adding: “This minimises energy loss through the building’s skin.”
Located on a site surrounded by grass and trees, the building is slightly raised to make the most of its position in the landscaped campus.
“The interaction between architecture and landscape is intensified by placing the building on a green mound,” the architects explained. “The campus will develop in the future more into a surrounding where education, working and living come together.”
Balconies wrap around sections of the facade and transition into long staircases that connect the building’s three storeys.
A staircase ascends through the circular atrium at the centre of the building, which is filled with natural light from large round skylights.
The architects planned the interior spaces to accommodate the university’s flexible learning practices, with labs, offices and classrooms located around the circumference of the building, and spaces for informal activities in the open areas at the centre.
Angled green columns punctuate the communal spaces around the edge of the stairwell on each floor, in some places surrounding glass-walled cylindrical meeting rooms.
Students and staff can also congregate on giant beanbags clustered throughout the atrium to conduct impromptu meetings or relax during free time.
Swivel desk chairs lining long curving work surfaces provide an alternative place to study with views across the surrounding campus.
Stoas Vilentum is a small academic institution where research and teaching focus on the green sector, and where educational specialists in the fields of agriculture and ecology are trained.
The educational philosophy of the institution is based on ‘ecological intelligence’. The design of BDG Architects is a translation of this philosophy and is conceived in close cooperation with the future users.
The building is designed as a pavilion in the green surroundings of the campus. The interaction between architecture and landscape is intensified by placing the building on a green mound. The campus will develop in the future more into a surrounding were education, working and living come together. The new building for the Stoas Vilentum is an important step in this development, which is emphasized by placing the building on this mound.
The three floors of the building are linked to each other by a central atrium in which lazy stairs connects the different floors. The balance between open learning areas, intimate study places and classrooms is designed to serve the educational philosophy of the university optimal. The spaces are divides into the so called ‘nesting areas’- rational spaces with established functions such as labs, offices and classrooms -, and ‘cave areas’- open spaces where different (spontaneous) activities can take place.
Beautiful prints on the walls make these areas recognisable. On different places in the building are ecological structures used, for example on these prints, which refer to the education that is given in which the relation between humans and nature and ecology is placed central.
For the basis of the building BDG Architects choose a cylindrical shape, because of the favourable ratio of surface area relative to the area of the façade. This minimises energy loss through the building’s skin. The cylindrical shape also represents the equivalence between tutors and students. The clear shape makes it into a firm and attractive building, well placed in its surroundings and with an pleasant interior for the students and tutors.
Architect: BDG Architects Zwolle Name project: Stoas Vilentum Wageningen Address: Mansholtlaan 18, 6708 PA Wageningen, the Netherlands
Semi-translucent polycarbonate panels and wooden shelving systems create partitions in this officerenovation for a television station in Hangzhou, China, by Daipu Architects (+ slideshow).
Chinese studio Daipu Architects renovated the two-storey open-plan office to bring more light to the interior and inserted a system of shelving, cabinets and partitions to break up the different spaces.
Architect Dai Pu said he designed the interior layout to be similar to that of the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona, also using influence from the three-dimensional works of Italian artist Giorgio Morandi.
“No regular partition walls (plaster wall or brick wall) have been built,” Pu said. “The new partition is composed of very light cabinet and one centimetre semi-transparent polycarbonate panel, while the furniture, stairs, handrails and bar counter all come up to constitute the partition system.”
The simple interior features polished white floors with wooden desks, chairs and shelving.
A cafe, kitchen and a mixture of office spaces and meeting rooms make up the lower floor, with extra space for leisure activities including a ping pong and a football table.
In the lobby, a curved plaster-clad staircase with wooden treads leads up to the first floor.
Two rooftop terraces used as interview spaces sit on either side of a large meeting room. The rest of the first floor is occupied with more desks, a corner reading room and another small room with beds for staff members to rest.
Photography is by Xia zhi.
Here’s a project description from Daipu Architects:
Office Renovation of CCTV Zhejiang Reporter Station
This office renovation is located in west of Ba Gua field, Hangzhou, China. The site possesses excellent landscape; however, it was dark and gloomy in the old building. The existing structure had a floor-height of 3.3 m for the ground floor, and the clear height below the beam is only 2.6m, which is comparatively depressing for open office. The height of the second floor was ok, however it did not have enough connection with the ground floor. The old structure layout could hardly exhibit advantage of a double-deck.
So the first consideration was to build up a connection between 2 floors, the connection not only on physical space aspect, but also on psychological perception of people who will work here. People who will be working downstairs or upstairs could feel the existence of the other part of colleagues, thus to create an ambient of teamwork.
A lot of attempts have been made. Finally the Barcelona Pavilion of Mies and the painting works of Morandi give a breakthrough. The work of Mies only offered the idea for the 2-dimensional design, whilst the approaches of Morandi were good examples for seeking the 3-dimensional solutions. In Morandi’s late works, the relations between the main object and the background and their colour relations were becoming assimilated and simplified; it can see that the boundaries of many objects merged into the background in many of his works.
The approach is, if we take the furniture as the object, while taking the structural components like the walls and stairs as the canvas, then to make the object (furniture) merged into the canvas (structure), it can easily pass the perception of flowing to the people as the furniture is the very thing which most connected to the people. The space upstairs now is connected to the space downstairs due to this assimilated effect happened between the building structure and the furniture. In order to imply the space concept and work with the atmosphere, a few works of the Morandi’s paintings have been redrawn and placed in some particular corners.
There is not any regular partition wall (plaster wall or brick wall) has been built. The new partition is composed of very light cabinet and 1cm semi-transparent polycarbonate panel. The furniture, stairs, handrails and bar counter all comes up to constitute the partition system.
The prefabricated partition system saved the cost of on-site work, and it also avoided wet operation meanwhile it saved the time. The partition system, as the most important part of the construction had been put into furniture factory which has advanced equipments; this is also a solution to improve the perfection of construction here.
Location: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China Design Architect: Daipu Architects Design Director: Dai Pu Design Team: Dai pu, Luo yaqin, Wang tiantian No. of floors: 2 Area: 640 sqm indoor, 147 sqm outdoor Program: office, dubbing, duty, outdoor interview, leisure, storage Client: China Central Television Furniture manufacture: Hangzhou Runzhu Science & Technology Co. Ltd Contractor: Zhejiang Sunshine Decoration Engineering Co. Ltd Design: 2012.06 – 2012.09 Construction: 2012.09 – 2013.09
A square wall covered in plants announces the presence of this concrete housing block in São Paulo by Brazilian architecture studio TACOA (photos by Leonardo Finotti + slideshow).
Entitled Vila Aspicuelta, the terrace of eight compact houses sits perpendicular to the adjacent street, but its north-facing end wall provides a growing area for a variety of bushy plants and shrubs.
Rodrigo Cerviño Lopez and Fernando Falcon of TACOA chose to plan the building as a series of maisonettes rather than as a simple housing block, meaning that each residence would have more than one floor and its own private access.
“The eight houses that compose Vila Aphins challenge the logic of vertical buildings: the different units are disposed side by side horizontally, and function vertically,” said the architects.
The building is raised off the ground to create parking spaces at ground level. Eight separate concrete staircases lead up to each of the residences, creating a zigzagging volume along the western edge of the block.
The first floor of every house is a living area with a kitchen counter and enough space for a dining table.
A second row of staircases leads up to bedrooms and bathrooms on the next level up, while a third set of stairs ascends to private gardens on the roof.
Wooden screens cover a wall of windows in the bedroom and bathroom of each home, but fold back to reveal a row of balconies at the rear.
The east-facing orientation of these windows ensures that the houses are filled with sunlight in the mornings but are shaded during hot afternoons.
The eight houses that compose Vila Aphins challenge the logic of vertical buildings: the different units are disposed side by side horizontally, and function vertically.
The street continues through the villa, partially covered by the building, and gives access to the staircase of each individual unit. The parking lot, gardens and common areas are also placed on this street.
On the first floor of every house, one single area provides space for the kitchen, dining and living. The second floor was conceptualised as a private area, a bedroom with a balcony and garden and a bathroom. Finally, on the rooftop, an open air plaza is set, with individual spaces.
The eastern orientation of the villa enables the houses to enjoy sunny mornings, shady afternoons and crossed ventilation. The western facade hosts the access stairs of the houses and unifies all the units, providing the vila its wavy project identity.
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