“Our three decades of research into Japanese architecture and urbanism is evident in our winning design and we greatly look forward to building the new National Stadium,” she added.
Set to replace the existing Kasumigaoka National Stadium, the new building will join Kenzo Tange’s iconic 1964 Olympic stadium in Yoyogi Park, which will function as a handball arena this time around. Zaha Hadid Architects will also work on this building, renovating the structure and adding a retractable roof.
Two other venues from the 1964 games – the Nippon Budokan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium – will also be reused, offering venues for judo and table tennis.
Additional arenas will be constructed in downtown Tokyo in an effort to save energy and reduce the need for transport investment, while the Olympic village is proposed on Tokyo’s harbour and will be converted into housing after the games are over.
Tokyo was named as the host city for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games over the weekend and will follow on from Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Find out more about Rio 2016 »
Niché dans la forêt bavaroise juste en dehors de la petite ville de Neuschönau en Bavière, cette construction incroyable constitue une énorme structure de bois proposant une ballade sur plus de 1300 mètres à plus de 25 mètres au-dessus des arbres. Une magnifique et intrigante création à découvrir en images dans la suite.
Le photographe Pavel Bendov est un amoureux des perspectives et un spécialiste d’architecture. Avec la série « Urban Lines », ce dernier nous offre des clichés minimalistes d’une grande qualité de plusieurs gratte-ciels. De belles compositions à découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.
Les japonais de Naruse Inokuma Architects ont imaginé le design de cette structure « Share House ». Cette superbe résidence propose des espaces de vie commune d’une grande beauté, permettant ainsi de créer des moments de convivialité dans cette résidence japonaise. A découvrir en images dans la suite.
The exterior of this water tower in Chile was designed by architect Mathias Klotz to ripple like a pond disturbed by gentle winds (photographs by Roland Halbe).
Located on the edge of a motorway in Rancagua, central Chile, the structure is one in a series of new water towers constructed to replace those damaged and destroyed during the 2010 earthquake.
Chilean architect Mathias Klotz was asked by water company Essbio to come up with a concept to make the towers more attractive without changing the original shapes, which have become recognisable landmarks.
An original proposal to transform the tower into a “large urchin” by surrounding it with wire was rejected due to safety concerns, so instead Klotz designed a system of metal panels that move with the wind.
“The idea was to produce a skin whose surface was altered by the wind so as to resemble the appearance of the surface of the water when the wind is changed,” explained the studio.
New lighting fixtures project out from the top of the structure, allowing the panels to reflect light after sundown.
“Cricklewood is a community with no public space: no town hall, no library, no square, not even a single bench,” explained the designers. “The square will take the form of a civic folly on the back of a rickshaw bicycle, housing everything necessary to create a bona fide town square, including benches, stools, a clock tower, games and signage.”
The miniature square will be installed at a number of temporary locations, including outside a DIY superstore, on a pavement near a bingo hall and a rooftop car park. It will be used to host events for the local community such as dances and film screenings.
“The project aims to show what public space can do for a community, and how even these scraps of land can be used to create a sense of place,” said the designers.
When the town square is fully installed it covers 10 metres squared. The mobile folly including the bicycle is 1.22 metres wide and 2.8 metres long. It rises to 3.2 metres in height.
It has a custom-made five-wheeled base with 12 millimetre plywood covering, faux-brick cladding and a hand-made clock. Inside, there is a collection of furniture including umbrellas, benches, tables and chairs.
“The structure is both a practical solution – a vehicle to move the kit around – and a folly, providing a civic backdrop, helping to frame the spaces,” said designer Kieren Jones. “I hope this playful solution can be the town hall that Cricklewood never had.”
Cricklewood Town Square will be travelling around north London until 28 September. It will also be exhibited at the RIBA Forgotten Spaces exhibition at Somerset House in London, which runs from 4 October to 10 November 2013.
Spacemakers produce the world’s first mobile town square
Spacemakers, the civic design agency behind the successful transformation of Brixton Village market, has enlisted Studio Hato and Studio Kieren Jones to create the world’s first mobile town square. Constructed from a clever kit of parts, the innovative town square will travel by bike and move across north London from 31 August to 28 September, inhabiting patches of disused land and turning them into vibrant public spaces for all.
Cricklewood, north west London, has an intriguing history but little civic amenities left to show for its heritage – not only is there no town hall or library, there’s not even a single public bench. Now the team that created the cult Brixton Village renaissance are turning their attentions north, seeking to highlight the dire lack of public space in Cricklewood via their ingenious mobile town square.
Designed and built by Studio Kieren Jones, the mobile town square will emerge in a series of forgotten spaces: from an unloved patch of grass next to B&Q, to an empty pavement outside a bingo hall, and even a rooftop car park. The square will take the form of a civic folly on the back of a rickshaw bicycle, housing everything necessary to create a bona fide town square, including benches, stools, a clocktower, games and signage.
To bring the Capital’s newest public space to life Londoners are invited to join in, with a dynamic programme of events running throughout the installation, from dog shows and chess championships, to tea dances and debates. Many of the events play on Cricklewood’s little known past, with film screenings on a car park roof referencing the area’s long lost film studios, and a DIY library where locals can read books by the town’s famous literary progeny.
Designer Kieren Jones explains: “In response to the relative lack of civic space in Cricklewood, I have created a miniature and mobile town hall, which will enable the activation of places and spaces within the town centre that have been previously underused. The structure will also house a set of bespoke furniture, using local suppliers, that can be flexibly deployed. The clock tower is a reference to the Smiths clock factory that used to exist in Cricklewood, and to the decorative clock that used to exist on Anson Road, but which was sold for scrap during the war.
The structure is both a practical solution – a vehicle to move the kit around – and a folly, providing a civic backdrop, helping to frame the spaces. Cricklewood has a thriving community, but no space for this community to exist. In a way, I hope this playful solution can be the town hall that Cricklewood never had.”
The fully installed space will be up to 10 metres squared, the mobile folly including the bicycle is 1.22m wide x 2.8m long x 3.2m tall and made from a bespoke, dip-coated 5-wheeled bike base, a steel frame, with 12mm plywood covering, faux-brick cladding (polyurethane, resin and brick dust) and a hand-made clock. The square’s furniture is made from a welded steel base, dip-coated in Cricklewood by local car-resprayers and finished with locally sourced, reclaimed wood.
Studio Hato were tasked with creating the signage and graphics for the square. Their solution was to come up with a DIY sign-making workshop, where local people could use stencils to create their own signs, and set their own rules, for the space.
A unique font, based on the standard British ‘transport’ font used on street signs across the country, has been created, and will be applied using stencils to pre-cut, temporary boards, with marker pens in official signage colours: blue, red, green and brown. Wayfinding signs will also be created, pointing towards the square, and re-positioned each time the square moves.
For Spacemakers it’s the incidental activities which take place on the structure which will be the most fascinating element of all, as project director Tom James reveals: “It’s these unplanned elements that will really generate the social life of these squares, attracting passers by. Our project is all about giving local people permission to sit, rest, play and meet in these spaces. This free, public space, open to everyone, is vital to making any place feel like a real community.”
James notes that the project aims to show people what’s possible, even in these scraps of land, but more than this, it aims to start a conversation. “We hope to use this project to get an idea into Cricklewood, to set a precedent that local people can use to help them work towards a permanent public space. The structure will stay in the community long-term: but just as important is the inspiration.”
Cricklewood Town Square is funded by the Mayor’s Outer London Fund, as part of a set of interventions in Cricklewood, led by Gort Scott Architects.
Cricklewood Town Square director Tom James is a writer and urbanist. His previous projects include GO, a cult fanzine about Sheffield which was named as one of Britain’s Top Ten Arts Secrets by the Observer, featured at the Venice Biennale for architecture in 2006, and is part of the V&A’s Permanent Art Collection; and Sheffield Publicity Department, an imaginary tourist board for Sheffield.
Furniture
Kieren Jones is a designer and maker. His award winning work includes the Sea Chair project, a method of harnessing waste plastic in the oceans to make furniture, and the Blue Fence project: a proposal to reuse olympic fencing to create social furniture. In 2006, his ‘Flatpack Rearranged’ project, repurposing Ikea furniture, gave rise to the ‘Ikea Hacking’ subculture. Kieren leads the Materials Futures MA course at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
Rotterdam studio Kraaijvanger has added two new buildings to a school in a suburb of the Dutch capital, The Hague, with pitched roofs and rustic materials that reference the site’s original role as a farm (+ slideshow).
Kraaijvanger‘s additions to the American School of The Hague include a sports hall and a larger barn-like building that houses a nursery, 12 classrooms and a gym for babies and children up to the age of six.
The new “barn” adjoins a sixteenth-century farmhouse that the architects are currently renovating. The site’s historic significance meant that the height and shape of the buildings had to correspond with the existing agricultural structures.
“We weren’t allowed to build any higher than the old farm buildings so we had to bury the lower storey below ground,” architect Annemiek Bleumink told Dezeen.
Wood is used for the external cladding to tie the buildings in with their rustic setting, as well as for internal beams and columns that continue the natural look indoors.
“Because the buildings are used by small children we wanted to use warm materials for both the exterior and the interior,” explained Bleumink.
Large windows in the sloping roof fill the nursery classrooms with natural light, while a glazed walkway traverses a void between that part of the building and an atrium housing the main entrance.
A bridge crossing a public road links the “barn” with the sports building, which has sloping roofs covered in plants that further emphasise the scheme’s agrarian aesthetic.
School as farmyard: expansion of the American School of the Hague with the Early Childhood Center & renovation monument farm Ter Weer.
As a farm with several buildings, The American School of The Hague in Wassenaar is expanded for The Early Childhood. This set-up fits the small scale of the area. On the location stood already the 16th century farmhouse ‘Ter Weer’. The farm is restored and incorporated into the whole. The entire complex is integrated into the environment and the landscape. The school has a capacity for 250 children from 0 to 6 years and includes a nursery, twelve classrooms, a gym and a multipurpose room. The entrance is in line with the arrival route over the Deijlerweg and is designed as a monumental glass heart between the farm and the ‘barn’.
Dialogue between old and new
The dialogue between the two buildings, can be felt both inside and outside. The expansion partly deepened to encrouch the monument is not too much. The new and the old are connected to each other by a bridge in the new atrium. The materialization of the new building refers to a barn by applying wood substructures, caps and wooden parts for wall cladding.
Program
The barn houses the classrooms. Because of the inclined slope they all recieve enough daylight. The classrooms are characterized by the entry of natural light, the use of healthy materials and the direct relationship with the surrounding landscape. In farmhouse are located the administrative functions of the school a lunch room for 100 children, a kitchen, a nursery, a library and a local labor.
The sports facilities are housed in a separate building. It contains a gymnasium, changing rooms, a canteen and the clubhouse of the local handball association. The building is designed as two interlocking volumes with sloping green roofs, matching the shape of the extension and rural character of the area. A large window is placed in the gymnasium overlooking the connecting bridge to the main building and offers insight from the school and outside play areas.
Around the school are several playgrounds to suit the different age groups. They are designed by design studio van Ginneken with greenery, seating and educational components such as a vegetable garden. Hedges, wooden fences and gentle slopes locks provide a friendly separation between the different squares. In an adjacent site parking there are gravel pavement and rows of trees between the parking.
The building is fully integrated into the environment and the surrounding landscape. The design of the landscape is based on the objectives of the school. A healthy environment where young children playfully learn why sustainability matters. By using water, natural materials and to show how energy is generated children come in a natural way in contact with this theme. The building makes use of solar energy, LED fixtures, cold and heat storage, wastewater reuse and craddle to craddle materials such as Accoya cladding.
News:an Islamic cemetery in Austria and a restored market hall in Iran are among the five winners of the 2013 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (+ slideshow).
Rabat-Salé Urban Infrastructure Project, Morocco
A health centre in Sudan, a reconstructed community in Palastine and a concrete bridge in Morocco were also named as recipients for the triennial accolade, which recognises architectural projects that exhibit social responsibility as well as design quality.
A jury including architects David Adjaye, Wang Shu and Murat Tabanlıoğlu selected the five winners from a shortlist of 20 projects and they were revealed at a ceremony in Lisbon on Friday night. A $1 million prize will be shared between the recipients, with allocations given to builders, clients and engineers, as well as the architects.
Here’s some more information about each winning project from the competition organisers:
Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery, Khartoum, Sudan
The Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery, which consists of a hospital with 63 beds, serves over 50,000 patients per year, drawing from a catchment area in eastern Africa of over 300 million people. The welcoming architecture “provides an exemplary prototype for the region as well as for the field”, remarked the Master Jury in their citation. The Centre meets the high technical demands of a hospital with complex functions, including three operating theatres, while providing a number of eco-friendly solutions to common problems. Mixed modes of ventilation and natural light enable all spaces to be homely and intimate. In addition to solar panels and special insulation techniques, the architects have reused 90 six- metre (20-foot) containers that had been discarded after being used to transport construction materials for the Centre.
Revitalisation of Birzeit Historic Centre, Birzeit, Palestine
The five-year project, which will eventually encompass 50 villages, is part of a rehabilitation master plan initiated by the Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation. The project has transformed the decaying town of Birzeit, creating employment and reviving traditional crafts. The Master Jury remarked that the project brought together “stakeholders and local craftsmen into a process of healing that is not merely physical but that is social, economic and political”. By focusing on towns and villages in the area under Palestinian civil authority – where an estimated 50 percent of the surviving historic structures are located and where most Palestinians live – Riwaq realised that it could save much of the local heritage while at the same time having greatest significant socio-economic impact.
Rabat-Salé Urban Infrastructure Project, Morocco
Linking Rabat and Salé to form an urban hub, the project was born out of a new vision of large-scale regeneration, one in which improved transportation and mobility were to be priority components of the larger urban plan. The project combines exemplary bridge design, infrastructure improvement and urban planning. As a result, the Hassan II Bridge has become a new icon for Rabat-Salé, reinforcing a modern, progressive, twin-city identity. The Master Jury remarked that the project was “a sophisticated and cohesive model for future infrastructure projects, especially in places of rapid urbanisation”.
Rehabilitation of Tabriz Bazaar, Tabriz, Iran
With origins in the 10th century, the Tabriz Bazaar has long functioned as a main commercial centre for the city. But by the late 20th century, it had begun to deteriorate. To rehabilitate the structures, which cover 27 hectares and over 5.5 kilometres of covered bazaars, a management framework was established that involved the bazaar community, municipal authorities and the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organisation (ICHTO). During the pilot restoration project, the government contributed 85 percent of the financial coverage and the bazaar community contributed 15 percent; in subsequent stages, the bazaar community – convinced of the value of the restoration – provided up to 90 percent of the funding. The Master Jury found that the project was “a remarkable example of stakeholder coordination and cooperation to restore and revitalise a unique structure”. Since 2000, numerous complexes within the bazaar have been rehabilitated, infrastructure has been improved and public facilities have been built.
Islamic Cemetery, Altach, Austria
Until recently, some Muslims in Austria would send their dead back to their countries of origin for burial. But the desire of Muslims to be buried in the countries of their birth led to the creation of a multi-faith, multi-ethnic group of actors, including local authorities and an NGO, to create a cemetery where funeral rites could be administered locally. The design was lauded by the Award’s Master Jury for the way it realised “the wish of an immigrant community seeking to create a space that fulfils their spiritual aspirations and, at the same time, responds to the context of their adopted country”. Inspired by garden design, it features roseate concrete walls, five staggered, rectangular gravesite enclosures, and a structure housing assembly and prayer rooms. The principal materials used were exposed reinforced concrete for the walls and oak wood for the ornamentation of the entrance facade and the interior of the prayer space.
News: Chinese architect Ma Yansong has revealed plans for a mixed-use complex in Beijing featuring skyscrapers, office blocks and public spaces modelled on mountains, hills and lakes.
Yansong, who leads Beijing studio MAD, designed the urban development for a site on the edge of Chaoyang Park, one of the largest city parks in the world. Rather than creating an obstacle between the city and the green space, the architect wanted to design buildings that bring the two districts together.
“By taking the natural beauty of lakes and mountains, the architectural complex can be read as a futuristic city landscape painting,” explained the designers. “High-rise buildings act as the peaks, individual office buildings as the slope, high-end offices as the ridge and residential buildings as mountain ranges, in combination with classical landscape elements like lakes, springs, forest, streams, valleys, rocks and peaks.”
Two skyscrapers overlooking the park will tower above the surrounding buildings, boasting striated volumes that reference organic rock formations.
The design is based on Yansong’s ongoing Shan-Shui City concept, which proposes a kind of architecture and urbanism that is influenced by nature and emotion, enabling city dwellers to reconnect with the natural world. The concept was first developed in the 1980s by Chinese scientists.
“The whole architectural complex does not look like it is ‘built’, but growing up naturally from its surrounding environment and recreating a new Shan-Shui space typology,” added the studio.
Ma Yansong’s latest design, Chaoyang Park project was launched at Times Square in New York city
At 6pm New York time, September 5th of 2013, a green building with distinct Oriental features designed by Ma Yansong was launched at Times Square in New York city. Located along the lake of Beijing Chaoyang Park, this city complex is the continuation “Shan-Shui City” – a design concept Ma Yansong has been pursuing. It is a new interpretation of China’s ancient natural philosophy in contemporary city. In this typical CBD area that is flooded with extreme-modernism buildings, Ma Yansong aims at infusing the vigorous Shan-Shui culture into the new urbanisation with this “Chao Yang Park” project.
Since this project is adjacent to the world’s second-largest city park, Ma Yansong hopes that it will not become the boundary that separates the park and the city. On the contrary, by introducing the Shan-shui elements into the design, the building and the park is to be merged into a whole landscape, so to have the nature extending into the city, and to create a land of idyllic beauty in the city. The design starts with the understanding that the park is part of the plot: by taking the natural beauty of lakes and mountains, the architectural complex can be read as a futuristic city landscape painting in which high-rise buildings act as the peaks, individual office buildings as the slope, high-end offices as the ridge and residential buildings as mountain ranges in combination with classical landscape elements like lakes, springs, forest, streams, valleys, rocks and peaks. As a result, the whole architectural complex does not look like they are “built” but growing up naturally from its surrounding environment and they recreate a new Shan-Shui space typology. People can feel both the grandeur of the holistic landscape and its exquisite inside scenery.
This project is an ecological complex mainly functions as offices and residential buildings. However, it goes beyond the usual concept of green building. It is a Chinese-featured green building developed with the “spirit of green”. What Ma Yansong concerns a lot about is to seek the new direction of contemporary architecture and city from the traditional culture. This also decides if Chinese architecture can find its own way for future urban development. The simulation of the landscape of an international metropolis should take over the traditional Shan-Shui spirit and restore the natural traditional values followed with the innovation of architectural forms and the transformation of urban structures. In conformity with this idea, Ma Yansong will proceed with his exploration and practice of Shan-Shui City.
News: Architecture for Humanity co-founders Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr have announced plans to leave the disaster-relief organisation they started 15 years ago.
Sinclair and Stohr launched Architecture for Humanity in 1999 to provide design and construction services to world-wide communities affected by natural disasters, but will now step down to undertake new ventures. Stohr will leave at the end of this month to pursue a career in television and web production, while Sinclair will remain in his position as executive director until April 2014, before moving on to focus on his own community projects. His replacement will be announced later in the year.
“It’s great to see something you started evolve into an institution,” commented Stohr. “We are excited about the future of the organisation and plan to continue lending support in whatever ways we can.”
Since launching, the San Francisco-based non-profit organisation has evolved into a global community of 63 local groups and has responded to 15 natural and man-made disasters with the completion of over 300 projects. The departure of its co-founders forms part of a new five-year vision that will see Architecture for Humanity increase its fund-raising and open new offices.
Before leaving, Sinclair will work alongside celebrity Jennifer Lopez to raise $1.5 million (£956,000) in support of future projects.
“Kate and Cameron’s vision and years of dedication and hard work leaves the organisation in a solid place to continue its leadership role in using architecture to solve humanitarian problems,” said board president Matt Charney. “They have built a world-class team of staff and volunteers committed to improving communities – both around the globe and in the US. I speak for the entire board of directors when I say we are extremely excited by the possibilities in front of us.”
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