Hasta La Ideas

This performing arts centre in São Paulo by Brasil Arquitetura features huge concrete volumes lifted off the ground to create accessible public spaces and has been named on the shortlist for the Designs of the Year awards, announced this week (+ slideshow).

Local firm Brasil Arquitetura designed the expansion of the existing Praça das Artes complex, situated in a densely built neighbourhood of São Paulo, around a central plaza and paved thoroughfare that extends to the streets bordering three sides of the site.

A complex arrangement of modular buildings interspersed among the existing urban fabric accommodates various events spaces, facilities and infrastructure for the centre, which is home to several musical and dance organisations.

In some places the new additions project outwards to create sheltered walkways or hover in gaps between other buildings, marking entrances to the centre and presenting a uniform presence on all sides of the site.

“The new buildings are mainly positioned along the boundaries of the site and, to a large degree, lifted off the ground,” said the architects. “Thus, it was possible to create open spaces and generous circulation areas, resulting in the plaza which gives the project its name.”

The historic facades of a former musical conservatory and a cinema have been retained and integrated into the scheme, with the conservatory undergoing a programme of restoration including the renovation of its first floor concert hall and the creation of an exhibition space on the raised ground floor.

“These historic buildings are physical and symbolic records, remains of the city of the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century,” the architects explained. “Restored in all aspects and converted for new uses, they will sustain a life to be invented. Incorporated into the project, they became unconfined from neighbouring constructions and gained new meanings.”

The new buildings are predominantly rendered in concrete coloured with ochre pigment, with a tower housing offices, toilets, changing rooms and building services standing out due to its red pigmented concrete surfaces.

An angular staircase encased in concrete and glass connects the plaza with the first floor of the tower, providing access to the concert hall.

Windows scattered across the facades sit in places where acoustic performance is a key consideration, while floating floor slabs, acoustic walls and ceilings made from gypsum and rock wool also help to optimise acoustics throughout the building.

Photography is by Nelson Kon.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

PRAÇA DAS ARTES
Performing Arts Centre – São Paulo

“… one thing is the physical place, different to the place for the project. The place is not a point of departure, but rather a point of
arrival. Realising what this place is, is already doing the project.” – Álvaro Siza

Some architectural projects are dominant in large open spaces, in favoured conditions and visible from a distance. Other projects need to adapt to adverse conditions, minimal spaces, small wedges of long plots, leftovers between existing constructions, where the parameters for developing the project are dictated by these factors.

Praça das Artes is part of the latter category. It is not by a voluntary decision or by opting for one or the other approach, by this or the other direction to be taken, that lead us to a conceptual choice and conclusion. It is the very nature of the place; our comprehension of it as a space resulting from many years – or centuries – of socio-political factors that shaped the city.

To understand the place not only as a physical object, as Siza says, but as a space of tension, with conflicts of interest, characterised by underuse or even abandonment, all this counts. If on the one hand the Praça das Artes project has to account for the demands of a programme of various new functions, related to the arts of music and dance, it also has to clearly and transformatively respond to an existing physical and spatial situation with an intense life and a strongly present neighbourhood. Moreover, it must create new public common spaces using the urban geography, local history and contemporary values of public life.

We may say that, in this case, to design a project is to capture and to invent a place at the same time and in the same strategy.

The place of the project

The physical place, in the centre of São Paulo, is made up of a series of plots that are connected in the middle of the urban block and have fronts to three streets. This situation is a result of the mistakes of an urbanism that was always subordinated to the idea of the plot, the logic of private property. As almost the entire city centre, the area is chaotic in terms of building volumes and common sense principles of sunlight and natural ventilation. It is an accumulation of underused or vacant spaces, abandoned, forgotten, awaiting to be of interest to the city once again.

The architecture of the former Dramatic and Musical Conservatory and the Cairo Cinema portray marks and memories of different eras. At the same time, the place presents a privileged situation in view of its surrounding humanity, being full of diversity, vitality, a mixture of social classes, conflicts and tensions typical of a large city, living together and the search for tolerance. Shortly, it is a place rich in urbanity.

The programme

The project has a rich and complex programme with a focus on musical and dance activities, besides public uses of coexistence, which permeate the entire complex.

The module of the Resident Performing Arts companies houses the Professional bodies: the Municipal Symphonic Orchestra, the Experimental Repertory Orchestra, the Lyrical Choir, the São Paulo Choir, the City Ballet Company and the Municipal String Quartet. The module faces rua Formosa (Anhangabaú) and incorporates the façade of the former Cairo Cinema.

The module of the Schools and public uses accommodates educational and common spaces – the Municipal Music School, the Municipal Dance School, a restaurant and common space. The module occupies volumes that lift up from the ground on avenida São João and rua Conselheiro Crispiniano. The street level underneath the building volumes is practically unobstructed. The kiosks along the edge of the plaza, newspaper booths, cafés, snack bars, a library – are a continuation of the existing uses along the street, bringing the urban life to the interior of the new architectural complex.

The module with a large public car parking occupies the underground floors on avenida São João (the former Saci Cinema) and rua Conselheiro Crispiniano.

The module of the Conservatory includes the restoration and adaptation of the former Dramatic and Musical Conservatory and a new tower on the plot next to it, facing avenida São João. On the raised ground floor of the historic building there is a space for exhibitions and events. The concert hall on the first floor was carefully restored to once again stage musical shows. The new tower next to the Conservatory houses the arts collections and historic archives of all the bodies of the project. The addition to the historic building houses the vertical circulation system, administrative offices and building services.

The Project

Since the initial site study, the former Conservatory, restored and converted into a concert hall and an exhibition space, represented the anchor for the project. The new buildings are mainly positioned along the boundaries of the site and, to a large degree, lifted off the ground. Thus, it was possible to create open spaces and generous circulation areas, resulting in the plaza which gives the project its name. This paved plaza can be accessed from rua Conselheiro Crispiniano, avenida São João and, in the next construction phase, also from rua Formosa (Anhangabaú) via a flight of stairs, which connect the different levels of the streets.

The new volumes reach from the centre outwards towards the three adjacent streets. A series of interconnected buildings in exposed concrete, with ochre pigments, accommodate the various functions and is the main element establishing a new dialogue with the neighbourhood and with the remaining constructions that will be incorporated into the project, the former Conservatory and the façade and foyer of the former Cairo Cinema.

These historic buildings are physical and symbolic records, remains of the city of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Restored in all aspects and converted for new uses, they will sustain a life to be invented. Incorporated them into the project, they became unconfined from neighbouring constructions and gained new meanings. The historic building on Avenida São João came into being as a commercial exhibition space for pianos in 1986, then gained an extension to become a hotel and shortly after was transformed into a musical conservatory, even before the creation of the Municipal Theatre, for which it is a precursor, in certain ways, and the training centre for the musicians who would then make up its orchestra.

A new addition to the Conservatory was built, which works as a pivot point for all departments and sectors within the complex. All administrative offices, vertical circulation (stairs and lifts), entrance and distribution halls, toilets, changing rooms, and shafts for building services are concentrated in this building, which is the only one coloured with red pigments. Towards the plaza, a sculptural triangular staircase built in concrete and glass allows for a direct access between the level of the plaza and the first floor, where the concert hall is located.

Besides the coloured concrete, the windows represent an important part of project. They are either externally attached or placed within the opening. In the rooms with special acoustic requirements, the windows are fixed and attached to the building from the outside with 16mm-thick glass; in other spaces awning windows are used.

In order to satisfy the high requirements in preventing the propagation of noise and vibrations, specific details were used, such as floating slabs, acoustic walls and ceilings made of gypsum panels and rock wool, a system called acoustic isolation.

The administrative office areas of the extension to the Conservatory are equipped with a raised floor, which means that electrical, logistical, and communication installations can be adapted freely for allowing a greater flexibility in the arrangements of the work spaces. It was possible to achieve large spans without intermediate columns by using shear walls, thus guaranteeing complete flexibility of the internal spaces and unobstructed external spaces on the plaza level.

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Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: new technologies mean the design process is becoming akin to “creating a Hollywood film,” says designer Francis Bitonti, who created a seamless 3D-printed dress for burlesque dancer Dita von Teese.

Speaking about the development of the dress at the Wearable Futures conference in London in December, Bitonti says that developments in computer-based design and 3D printing mean that designers are no longer limited by their knowledge of materials.

“The separation between what you can simulate and what you can physically model is gone”, claims Bitonti, founder of New York luxury fashion studio Francis Bitonti Studio.

Von Teese premiered the 3D-printed dress designed by Bitonti and designer Michael Schmidt at the Ace Hotel in New York in March last year and it became one of the most talked-about fashion stories of the year.

“One of the things we’ve been noticing is that materials are becoming media. I’m not operating on materials, I’m operating on animations, I’m operating on video, I’m operating on pixels and polygons. [The design process] is a lot closer to creating a hollywood film than it is making an aluminium cylinder,” says Bitonti.

Possibilities are now limited by the designer’s imagination rather than material constraints, Bitonti says. “What I’m finding every day is that I can make anything I can draw. And I can make something behave any way I can imagine it behaving. The gap closes every day.”

Prior to launching Francis Bitonti Studio, Bitonti trained as an architect. He says this background proved useful when designing the figure-hugging dress for the American model and burlesque dancer Dita von Teese.

“I found that developing a second skin for the body wasn’t really that much different from thinking about a building facade. It’s about breaking up shapes in pretty much the same way,” he says.

The seamless dress, which he developed last year, was made out of 3000 unique moving parts made using selective laser sintering (SLS), where material is built up in layers from plastic powder fused together with a laser.

The two-day Wearable Futures conference explored how smart materials and new technologies are helping to make wearable technology one of the most talked-about topics in the fields of design and technology.

Bitonti is not the only designer exploring the fashion possibilities of 3D-printing.

Last year fashion designer Iris van Herpen and shoe designer Rem D Koolhaas collaborated to create 3D-printed shoes that look like tree roots and creative director of 3D Systems Janne Kyttanen designed a range of 3D-printed shoes for women that can be made at home overnight to be worn the next day.

The music featured in the movie is a track by DJ Kimon. You can listen to his music on Dezeen Music Project.

Dezeen and MINI Frontiers is a year-long collaboration with MINI exploring how design and technology are coming together to shape the future.

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This concrete Second World War bunker in Hamburg has been converted into a renewable energy plant and visitor centre by urban development company IBA Hamburg (+ slideshow).

IBA Hamburg restored and expanded the 42-metre-high ruined concrete shell, which had remained unoccupied since the end of the war. Working with German energy firm Hamburg Energie, the company transformed the bunker into a plant that provides heat and electricity to the surrounding neighbourhood.

“After standing empty for more than sixty years, followed by a seven-year project development and construction phase, this war monument has been transformed into a sign of the dawn of a climate-friendly future,” said IBA director Uli Hellweg.

The imposing structure is circled by a balcony towards the top, above which sits four cylindrical forms at each corner that are connected by the cantilevered ledge. A public cafe that spills out onto the balcony through a glass wall and an event space were also added on the upper level.

To make the building safe to occupy, concrete was sprayed onto the disintegrating facade to stabilise it and thermal insulation was added to keep the cafe warm. Inside, the bombed floor slabs were removed and replaced plus an elevator and staircases were added.

A two-million-litre water reservoir sits at the centre of the structure, acting as large heat buffer. This is fed by heat from a biomass thermal power plant, a wood burning unit, a solar thermal system on the roof and waste heat from a nearby industrial facility. The heat is redistributed to surrounding buildings in the district.

Rows of photovoltaic panels covering the south facade and a thermal power station feed power into the electricity grid. The cafe contains an interactive monitor that displays current energy production data and visitors can take guided tours around the plant.

The bunker has been supplying energy to Hamburg’s Reiherstieg district for a year and the public facilities opened six months ago.

Here’s some more information from IBA Hamburg:

Energy Bunker: World First in Heat and Electricity Supply

From a war memorial to a green power plant: the Energy Bunker in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, created by HAMBURG ENERGIE and the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg, is the first project of its kind in the world. For exactly a year the Energy Bunker has been supplying heat energy to the residential buildings in the surrounding area. Six months ago it opened to visitors and has become a major attraction. The development of this remarkable joint project is now complete and is being celebrated with an opening ceremony and the unveiling of two plaques.

“Today we are here to mark a project that encapsulates the philosophy of the IBA Hamburg more than any other,” said IBA director Uli Hellweg. “After standing empty for more than sixty years, followed by a seven-year project development and construction phase, this war monument has been transformed into a sign of the dawn of a climate-friendly future. Not only does it produce clean energy to supply the district, but also demonstrates how local resources can be used to produce and store heat. With its viewing platform, permanent exhibition, and café, the Energy Bunker also makes an appealing visitor attraction. Almost 100,000 people have visited the Energy Bunker so far.”

Dr Michael Beckereit, director of Hamburg Energie, said, “The Energy Bunker has been supplying heat energy since October 2012, and since March 2013 it has also been providing electricity. Its performance and network are gradually being extended. By the final stage of expansion we will be supplying 3,000 households with heat from the Bunker and generating over 2.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.”

At the heart of the project is a two-million-litre water reservoir that acts as a large heat buffer inside the Energy Bunker, and serves as the centre of a local heating network for the Reiherstieg district. The reservoir is fed by the heat from a biomass thermal power plant and a wood burning unit, as well as a solar thermal system on the roof. This is supplemented by the waste heat from a nearby industrial plant. By bringing these different sources of energy together in an effective way, the Energy Bunker is able to supply the adjacent Global Neighbourhood with heat, and in future will be capable of providing heat to most of the Reiherstieg district. At the same time it feeds into the public grid green electricity from the thermal power station and the photovoltaic unit fitted to the south façade.

History of the Energy Bunker

The 42-metre-high flak bunker on Neuhöfer Strasse was built during World War II. After the end of the war this concrete behemoth could not be blown up without endangering nearby tenements, so the British Army restricted itself to destroying the interior. On the outside, however, the bunker remained more or less intact. From then on, the ruin stood in the middle of the residential area, largely unused and in danger of collapsing. In 2006 the conceptual planning for converting the building into an Energy Bunker began, and 2010 saw the first static tests carried out. Safety, restoration, and conversion tasks on the bunker could only begin in 2011. The total cost of the work amounted to €26.7 million. As a flagship project, it was funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Hamburg Climate Protection Concept.

The clients are the IBA Hamburg (restoration and expansion of the building) and HAMBURG ENERGY (energy supply). As part of a joint opening ceremony Uli Hellweg and Dr Michael Beckereit have now unveiled the IBA plaque and the ERDF sign.

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a green power plant by IBA Hamburg appeared first on Dezeen.

News: universities “aren’t interested in the type of education that is needed for creatives,” says Neil Austin, head of the UK’s leading furniture design course, which is being closed down.

Bucks New University in High Wycombe, northwest of London, announced last month it will cease recruitment for its renowned undergraduate programmes in furniture design and there will be no new intake for September 2014.

“This isn’t just about getting rid of furniture courses, it’s about making a statement that creativity isn’t welcome within a university environment,” Austin told Dezeen.

“If Bucks goes down, it’s a big signal that universities themselves aren’t interested in the type of education that is needed for creatives,” he continued. “This is beyond furniture, this is about creative courses.”

He believes the main problem is that the space and resources needed to teach subjects like design make them less financially attractive for universities than more academic subjects.

“Creative courses are a little bit messy and a little bit big – they need workshops, they need facilities and they need space to play,” he explained. “Universities like sticking 100 students in a lecture theatre with one lecturer for an hour, two or three times a week. That’s the business plan.”

Rather than simply abandon courses that don’t fit the neat business model universities have been forced to adopt, he suggests that academic institutions should balance the more lucrative courses against those that are more expensive to run in order to continue equipping graduates with skills required by industry, in particular the creative sector.

“Any good university has got to get the balance right between making the income and supporting courses that foster skills and intellectual pursuits which are needed in the country,” he said. “If some of those other courses with one lecturer and 100 students are able to support the courses that make less money, then so be it.”

Bucks New University cites the high costs of running the courses and declining numbers of applications as reasons for the decision.

“Competition for students has increased significantly in recent years and it has become necessary for universities to make changes in order to remain financially sustainable,” said a statement from the university. “Our evaluation of courses took into consideration amongst other things the operational costs and investment required in delivering the programmes as well as declining student number trends over time.”

Austin blames student numbers on a lack of targeted marketing. “Marketing at Bucks has no budget within the university – it’s very poorly funded,” he said. “But the bigger problem is that the people who do the marketing truly have no idea what the essence of advertising a creative course is about and so we’re not reaching the right people. We get bundled in with the generic marketing programme that has absolutely no results for us.”

Students, tutors and alumni are campaigning to keep BA furniture design courses at the university. Though the decision is unlikely to be reversed, by keeping discussion about furniture at Bucks open they hope it will be possible to create new undergraduate options in the future, to complement MA courses that are not affected.

“There is no doubt that since this announcement there is huge support outside the university for Furniture at Bucks, which is really heartening,” said head of department Lynn Jones on the campaign’s Facebook page. “Endorsements like these on Facebook give us a great marketing opportunity,” she added. “I hope that in time we can turn this support into positive proposals for any potential future growth and new courses.”

The BA Furniture course itself has only been running for two years, having formed from the merging of BA Contemporary Furniture and Product Design with BA Furniture Design and Craftsmanship. All current students will be allowed to complete their degrees but there are fears they could be affected by immediate cuts in staff and workspace.

The university is also closing BA Furniture Restoration, Conservation and Decorative Arts, BA 3D Contemporary Crafts and Products, and BA Fine Art, plus five engineering degrees.

Bucks is just one of many UK design schools under pressure from funding cuts, dwindling applicant numbers and increasing costs. Though record numbers of overseas students have applied to study architecture and design courses in the UK this year, the number of UK students seeking places on domestic architecture and design courses has been falling steadily since 2010.

Though MA courses in the country continue to thrive, closure of the UK’s undergraduate courses fuels concerns raised last year that postgraduate institutions like the Royal College of Art could become “a Chinese finishing school”, with intake limited to those who have already completed undergraduate education overseas.

However, recent changes to immigration law have fuelled concerns from prominent figures in the industry, who predict that visa restrictions could put off overseas talent as well.

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