Hasta La Ideas

Berlin and Shanghai-based studio Playze stacked up perforated shipping containers to create offices for an organic farm in Shanghai, China (+ slideshow).

Tony’s Farm, the biggest organic fruit and vegetable farm in Shanghai, asked Playze to develop a main reception, lobby and VIP area as well as offices alongside the existing factory.

The architects cut open one side of the factory – the white building seen in the photographs – and filled one end of the space with shipping containers, inside which are labs and offices.

Containers were chosen for their strength as well as their sustainability, being “a metaphor for recycled space”, as the architects explained. Local bamboo was also used for indoor and outdoor flooring.

The entrance, located underneath three cantilevered containers, leads through to a triple-height lobby created by stacking up containers and removing the walls between them.

Visitors then enter an inner courtyard, which references traditional Chinese courtyards and is partly covered by the terrace above.

Bridges on the upper floor connect the offices in the outer cluster of containers to those inside the factory.

There are also plans to build hotel rooms across the farm to host eco-tourists and guests. “It was part of the design to imagine the connection between this core building and the hotel rooms that will be built,” says architect Didier Callot. “The client is still working on this hotel project.”

Playze was founded in 2007 and is based in both Berlin and Shanghai, aiming to bring German design standards to China’s large-scale, fast-paced projects as well as working on smaller-scale urban projects in Europe, according to Callot.

We’ve featured lots of shipping container architecture on Dezeen, including temporary homes for victims of the Japanese tsunami and an observatory in South Korea, and we recently reported on news that “problem families” in Amsterdam are to be moved to shipping containers on the outskirts of the city.

Other recent stories from China include plans to construct the world’s tallest building in just 90 days and a masterplan for Shenzhen that’s larger than the whole of Manhattan – see all our stories from China.

See all our stories about shipping containers »
See all our stories about Shanghai »
See all our stories about China »

Photographs are by Bartosz Kolonko.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Context

Tony’s Farm is the biggest organic food farm in Shanghai, which produces OFDC certified (member of IFOAM) vegetables and fruits. But Tony’s Farm is meant to be more than just a place for vegetable production. The vision is to integrate the consumer and therefore promote a natural lifestyle.

To link the activities of the working people with the visitors of the farm, playze developed a building complex, which combines the main reception, a lobby, (working also for the future hotel rooms) and a vip area, with the new offices and an existing warehouse, where the fruits and vegetables are being packed.

The building provides transparency within the manufacturing process. Thus it supports the vision of integrating the visitor and helps to reinforce the consumer confidence in the products of the farm. At the same time the building design is driven by the concept of sustainability, combined with its iconic qualities, it communicates and promotes the core concept of Tony’s Farm.

Spatial concept

The building has been designed as a continuous spatial sequence in order to physically and visually connect various interior and exterior programs. The whole structure demands an exploration by the visitors. It is not obvious how the spatial sequence will develop while crossing the building and the site. A system of terraces functions not only as transitory space but also as extension of the interior work and leisure areas. Outdoor meetings and other activities support the aspiration of the client to literally work surrounded by nature and same time reduce the use of conditioned space.

Throughout the project the immediate spatial relationship between the building and the environment is meant to create a virtual dialogue between the industrial aspects of food production and the surrounding farmland. The massing strategy supports this ambiguity by creating various types of visual relations.

The systemic nature of the containers is countered with the adaptation to the specific situations, like entrance, courtyard, office wing, terraces, etc. The different orientations towards the landscape of the farm, the functional requirements and the spatial sequence are defining each situation of the layout in a specific way, although the spatial framework is the container with its standardized dimensions.

The cubing of the containers follows spatial and climatic demands. The cantilevering gesture marks the main entrance of the site. This is where the visitors enter the structure and find the reception desk. After the lobby, which is accentuated by a 3 stories high volume, they step out to an inner courtyard, where they are picked up by electric cars to be brought to their hotel rooms, distributed throughout the farm.

The second level allows a connection to the office wing of the building via 2 bridges. This part of the building complex is covered by the existing warehouse. The east facade has been sliced, so that the new container offices could find shelter underneath the existing roof and form an new inner facade towards the production hall.

Construction

Since the climatic exigence asked for impermeability and insulation, numerous specific details had to be developed to maintain the stringent appearance of the containers. The elaborate details, for example the still visible steel beams of the containers in the interior, stand in contrast to the rather rough and crude tectonic details of the freight container. Further, the modular system was challenged by the individual joints, resulting from the irregular distribution of the containers.

Above: ground floor plan – click for larger image

The structural logic of the container is the framed box, which can be opened or left closed towards the 6 orientations. These characteristics were amplified in different spatial situations, integrated within the whole structure. At the entrance situation for instance, the additional supporting structure is reduced to a minimum to underline the ”loating; moment of the containers. The 3-storeys-high vertical space is open to 3 sides to dissolve the box. In the courtyard, the terraces form a roof to the underneath and quote the chinese courtyard typology, whereas the office part is developed in the style of a slab and pillar constellation.

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

Sustainability

In order to cope with the high aspirations of the client regarding the protection of the environment, several strategies have been used to reduce the energy consumption of the building. The entire structure is well insulated, even though the containers appear in its raw form. The original container doors have been perforated and serve as external shading blinds at the sun exposed facades to minimize solar heat gain. A geothermal heat pump delivers energy for the air conditioning and floor heating systems. Controlled ventilation helps to optimize air exchange rates and therefore to minimize the energy loss through uncontrolled aeration. The use of LED lighting reduces the general electricity consumption.

Above: section 1 – click above for larger image

Another ambition of the project is to reduce the energy hidden in construction materials, the so called grey energy. Therefore recycled, ecologically sustainable, fast growing or at least recyclable materials have been used. The re-use of freight containers seemed adequate, first for its inherent structural autarky and second for being a common metaphor for „recycled space“. Further, the minimal weight of the container structure allowed to re-use the existing foundation plate. The use of local bamboo products for indoor and outdoor flooring, as well as all the built-in furniture additionally supports the ambition of constructing a truly sustainable building.

Above: section 2 – click above for larger image

Project data

Client: Tony’s Farm
Location: Shanghai, China
Completed in: July 2011
Built area: 1060m2
Number of containers: 78
Team: Mengjia He, Pascal Berger, Marc Schmit, Meijun wu, Liv Xu Ye, Ahmed Hosny, Andres Tovar, Maggie Tang

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by Playze appeared first on Dezeen.

French architecture practice Tétrarc has applied a camouflage print onto the walls of this social housing complex in Saint-Gilles Croix de Vie to create the impression of shadows cast by trees (+ slideshow).

“We used an image of a pine tree, transformed a little bit of this image and put it on our facade,” Tétrarc told Dezeen, before explaining how the print is a reference to the nearby Vendée forests. “The camouflage effect wasn’t expected,” they said.

The grey-painted shapes appear on all of the white-rendered elevations and from certain angles the images on the main buildings line up with those on projecting wings to create the same effect as real shadows.

The Mervau housing development replaces ten houses from the 1960s and provides a total of 36 residences within four crooked rows.

A network of passageways and courtyards weave in and out of the spaces between buildings, plus Tétrarc have added south-facing gardens to as many residences as possible.

The development includes of mix of housing types, from small apartments to two-storey townhouses, and parking is located underground.

Living rooms face south in most of the apartments to catch as much daylight as possible. All living rooms and bedrooms have been designed to accommodate two or more possible furniture layouts.

Based in Nantes, Tétrarc have previously designed two libraries that we’ve featured on Dezeen. See more buildings by Tétrarc »

Photography is by Stéphane Chalmeau.

Here’s a project description from Tetrarc:

Mervau by Tetrarc

In Saint-Gilles Croix de Vie, a well known Atlantic port, Tetrarc is undertaking a social housing project with Vendée overtones, Mervau. After having reviewed the housing site (Arborea), its classification (Playtime) and its services (Boreal), and its construction using the wood option (Rosa Park), Tetrarc is giving its views here on the gradual renovation at the heart of small and medium sized towns.

In order to demonstrate that an urban renovation can be fused with the existing structure rather than traumatising it, Tetrarc is seizing the opportunity for a consultation with Vendée Habitat: the regional social housing office is planning to tear down roughly ten dilapidated small houses dating from the 1960s erected on a site measuring 3,553 m2 in order to build 36 comfortable housing units to be occupied by more than one hundred people.

Instead of erecting horizontal or vertical structures at odds with a sensitive urban environment, Tetrarc is proposing to establish a hamlet there in order to ensure urban continuity whilst giving occupancy of the plot of land to 101 housing units/ha and forming a strong interiority beneficial to the development of social interaction between residents.

Above: site plan – click above for larger image

Manifest urban familiarity

Nothing picturesque here: Tetrarc is adapting this tried and trusted urban design to a current form. They are revisiting the constructed continuities, the frequently used measurements, the continually changing points of view created by the reorientation of a façade or the slope of a roof, within the context of the greater visual homogeneity and a white coloured commonality. The series of households are set along alleyways of varying lengths, along lanes, passages and small courtyards, creating a visually welcoming and physically porous urban space accessible to all the population.

This approach requires that a careful response be given to each urban micro context: this will avoid any mass effect by favouring a perpendicular settlement; this will provide a visual vista on a street by opening up an alley along its line; thereby retaining the peaceful nature of residents’ houses by placing access to the parking areas in a buffer between the gardens and the new hamlet; another street will be changed by introducing an urban settlement on it created by at least six adjoining town houses.

Above: long section one – click above for larger image 

A strong sense of interiority

This arrangement has the added advantage of aligning housing with public space to the palpable diversity of collective spaces. Because of this it offers the residents the opportunity of having social facilities: children’s playground facilities, neighbourhood contact, shared public festivities… all elements of a socially active population.

This use leads to the quality in the use of shared spaces being comparable to the use of the access spaces to the housing and their external extensions which have a very direct participation in the quality and use value of the locations. Separating boundaries, the enclosure of small gardens, house doorways, handrails, ramps and balustrades are designed with exceptional care. Letter boxes and electricity meters are fitted into the scheme with extreme care. The sun shading equipment is in the form of playful vernacular designs. The walls and boundaries between the housing appear as cast shadows, an allusion to the pine trees in the Vendée forests, heightening the hamlet’s seaside resort atmosphere.

Above: long section two – click above for larger image 

Diversity and use value

With its homogenous forms the hamlet combines several types of housing in order to meet the big demand for diversity of residents: houses T2, T3 and T4, simplex garden apartments; houses T2, T3 and T4 upstairs simplex, duplex town houses.

Tetrarc is paying particular attention to the quality of everyday use. Accordingly the garden apartments are extended by a space screening the views from the alley and offering a south facing living room. The upstairs apartments are served, two on each side, by an independent staircase directly connected to the alley. They have some external space in the form of a large balcony with room for table and chairs. The town houses have a ground floor entry, a living room and kitchen both opening onto a small planted courtyard. A bathroom, a water feature and a bedroom; the other bedrooms are upstairs.

These varied types of housing have the common features relevant to the life style of today’s families: the open plan living room/kitchen is big enough to fit different types of furniture. In the bedrooms the bed can be positioned in at least two (and often three) different places.

Similar consideration has also been given to the collective areas. Along the alleys the areas opposite the buildings have been organised into night-time spaces and day-time spaces, which diversifies the architecture between the two façades and reconciles usage by avoiding the conflicts linked to noise nuisance.

In the same way, to protect the housing from the noise arising from car parking access, rubbish bin areas, maintenance areas, the housekeeping areas and meters have been placed in an enclosed section on the western gables.

Wisely managed energy

The response to environmental requirements and the optimisation of the operational energy use are, for example, directly evident in the architectural devices: in order to intensify the harnessing of free energy the installation of fabricated straps has been precisely calculated in order to optimise their absorption of sunlight, the roofing profiles have been examined with the same objective, which has led to some of them being lowered; a maximum number of living rooms are south facing; the sun shading equipment is fitted with openings located upstairs and the balconies protect those on the lower level.

In this way Mervau is providing high density medium housing which takes into account contemporary life styles and environmental requirements; it is providing quality thanks to the sophisticated streamlining of the construction, and this is integrated into the existing town by giving it a feel of poetic serenity.

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by Tétrarc appeared first on Dezeen.

News: New York mayor Michael Bloomberg will today lead the groundbreaking ceremony for the world’s tallest modular building, a 32-storey residential tower in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards development by Manhattan-based firm SHoP Architects.

At the groundbreaking, developers Forest City Ratner will display one of the 930 modular chassis that will be combined to build the tower, called B2. More than 60% of the construction will be completed off-site at the Brooklyn Naval Yard before being transported to the site as pre-fabricated modules.

B2 is the first of three new residential towers planned around the Barclays Center, the 19,000-seat indoor sports and music arena that opened this September. Both were designed by Manhattan-based firm SHoP Architects as part of the controversial Atlantic Yards development, which has attracted criticism from residents over its lack of transparency.

The three buildings will provide around 1500 residential units in total, half of which will be earmarked as affordable housing. B2’s 363 apartments are expected to be available for occupancy in summer 2014.

While developers and city officials hail B2 as the world’s tallest modular building, construction is also set to begin this month on a modular tower in Changsha, China, which at 838 metres, or 220 storeys, would be the tallest building in the world – and construction firm Broad Sustainable Building says the tower, called Sky City, will go up in just 90 days.

We reported on the opening of the Barclays Center in September, while back in May we reported on plans for a 425-metre-high skyscraper by architect Rafael Viñoly on New York’s Park Avenue, which will become the tallest residential tower in the US if built – see all our stories about New York.

See all our stories from Brooklyn »
See all our stories about skyscrapers »

Images are by SHoP Architects.

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breaks ground in New York appeared first on Dezeen.

The latest house in our A-Zdvent calendar of residences named after letters cantilevers from the landscape in southern Germany and has 380 acrylic cylinders puncturing its facade. Read more about House R »

The post Dezeen’s A-Zdvent calendar:
House R by Bembé Dellinger appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish studio BIG has unveiled plans for two twisted apartment blocks in Coconut Grove, Miami (+ slideshow).

The 20-storey towers will be constructed on the site of the former Grand Bay Hotel, one of Miami’s most prestigious attractions during the 1980s and early 1990s. Despite being the only hotel in the area to have earned a five-star rating, Grand Bay lost popularity in its later years and was eventually closed in 2008.

Over that time many houses and apartment buildings have been constructed in the neighbourhood, so the developers felt that a hotel would no longer be appropriate and commissioned BIG to design a residential complex.

The two similar towers will include a total of 96 apartments and both will feature balconies wrapping the exterior walls, offering residents views across the bay.

Behind the balconies, the buildings will have glass walls that create floor-to-ceiling windows for each aprtment.

BIG’s founding architect Bjarke Ingels explained: “Miami has developed a contemporary condominium vernacular that combines brise soleil style balcony shading with floor-to-ceiling windows in order to best enjoy the panoramic water views of the area. We propose to elaborate on these indigenous elements and continue the evolution of the local condominium architecture.”

Landscape architect Raymond Jungles has designed gardens and terraces to surround the buildings, while the curling red sculpture created by artist Alexander Liberman at the hotel entrance will remain in its place.

Construction is scheduled to begin this month, with completion anticipated for late 2014.

BIG previously designed a twisted skyscraper for Vancouver, while Chinese architects MAD just completed a pair of contorted towers near Toronto.

This year BIG also completed a brightly coloured carpet on a street in Copenhagen and revealed proposals for a building shaped like a hash symbol.

See all our stories about BIG »

Here’s a project description from BIG:

The Grove at Grand Bay residences, located on the former site of the Grand Bay Hotel and just minutes from key areas including the airport, downtown Miami and Coral Gables shall leave an imprint on the South Bayshore Drive community, redefining luxury and breathing new life into Coconut Grove for decades to come.

Developed by Terra Group, Miami’s leading real-estate development company, the construction is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2012, completing end of 2014. Upon completion, the project seeks LEED Certification Silver designation, the first such structure in Coconut Grove.

Rising 20 stories over the bay-front, Grove at Grand Bay will showcase 96 expansive residences with panoramic views from every angle as the two towers take off from the ground and clear the surrounding buildings, readjusting their orientation to capture the full breadth of panoramic views from sailboat bays and the marina to the Miami skyline.

The interactive movement of the two towers creates a new dancing silhouette on the Grove’s skyline.

Whether in the shade of the buildings’ twisting facades or inside, residents of the Grove at Grand Bay will fully experience and relish living amid the open air.

The gardens and architecture will fuse seamlessly at the amenity levels, maximizing indoor outdoor living experiences that are unique to the South Florida climate.

Views down into the gardens, towards the surrounding canopied neighborhoods, and beyond Sailboat Bay will offer peaceful, verdant backdrops to elegant residential interiors and vast balconies.

Above: site plan

The interior design of the individual units are refined towards minimalism and luxury.

Above: North Tower plan, levels 2 – 8 – click for larger image

With an open flow-through floor plan, each residence will showcase 12′ ceilings and 12′ floor-to-ceiling windows, first among Florida developments, and spacious outdoor terraces with wraparound balconies that create a continuous indoor/outdoor living environment.

Above: North Tower plan, levels 12- 17, click for larger image

Raymond Jungles, the landscape architect renowned for his creative and ecologically sensitive landscape architecture, captures the natural beauty of the neighborhood and magnifies it with ample green spaces.

Above: North Tower plan, penthouse – click for larger image

The two glass towers in a pas de deux appear to float over Raymond Jungles’ lush, canopied oasis, beckoning to Biscayne Bay and beyond.

Above: Section A, click for larger image

Name: The Grove at Grand Bay
Client: Terra Group
Collaborators: Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates Inc, Esrawe, Desimone, Hngs, Raymond Jungles

Above: Section E, click for larger image

Type: Commission
Size: 58 900 m2
Location: Coconut Grove, Miami, FL, USA

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by BIG appeared first on Dezeen.