Hasta La Ideas

News: the architecture of OMA‘s Kunsthal gallery in Rotterdam has been criticised following the theft of seven major paintings by artists including Picasso, Matisse and Monet.

The heist, which took place in the early hours of Tuesday 16 October, saw thieves break in through the doors of the gallery and escape with millions of pounds worth of paintings.

Security expert Ton Cremers has said that some of the fault lies with the architecture and that this is a recurring problem in Dutch museums. Speaking to Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, he said: ”Once inside the building, thieves could easily walk through the entire museum. There were no extra compartments built for the expensive pieces.”

Cremers explained that the glazed design typical of many modern galleries gives thieves a good view of the paintings from the outside. Despite calling the Kunsthal “a gem of a building” he told De Volkskrant how it is “an awful building to protect,” as it is impossible to move artworks away from the exterior walls.

“Museums should focus more on the security of the buildings,” said Cramer. “They are currently too focused on electronics such as cameras and motion detectors.”

Completed in 1992, the Kunsthal was one of Rem Koolhaas’ first major projects and was praised for providing flexible spaces that can accommodate various exhibitions within three halls and two galleries.

OMA are currently working on designs for a gallery with sliding walls and removable floors in a Moscow park. Find out more in our interview with Rem Koolhaas.

See more stories about OMA »

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for Rotterdam art heist appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Michigan State University has unveiled the first photographs of its Zaha Hadid-designed museum of contemporary art, which opens to the public next month.

Featuring a pleated stainless steel facade, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum stands in contrast to the brick buildings of the university’s Collegiate Gothic north campus.

Zaha Hadid won a competition in 2008 to design the museum, which contains 1600 square metres of exhibition space, alongside an education wing, study centre, cafe, shop and outdoor sculpture garden. The three-storey building has one basement floor and features double-height galleries for showing modern art, photography, new media and works on paper.

The museum opens on 9 November with the inaugural exhibitions Global Groove 1973/2012, an exploration into current trends in video art, and In Search of Time, which investigates the relationship to time and memory in art.

See images of the competition-winning design for the museum in our story from 2008, or see images of the final design in our most recent update.

Other new projects by Zaha Hadid include a pop-up hair salon in London and a streamlined government building in Montpellier.

See all our stories about Zaha Hadid »

Photography is by Paul Warchol.

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Art Museum by Zaha Hadid unveiled appeared first on Dezeen.

A grid of red sandstone panels dominates every side of this university library in Katowice, Poland, by architects HS99 (+ slideshow).

Architects Dariusz Herman, Piotr Smierzewski and Wojciech Subalski arranged the rectangular panels in a brickwork-style pattern to ”relate to the raw clay bricks on the neighbouring buildings,” but used a different scale.

Gaps between the panels create hundreds of narrow windows, which become slivers of light all over the facade after dark.

HS99 won a competition back in 2002 to design the library, which houses a series of scientific and economic collections for the University of Silesia and is the first stage in a campus-wide redevelopment.

Three large floors form the main volume of the library, matching the scale of the neighbouring university campus buildings, while three upper floors with a smaller footprint create a slab-like tower at the north-east corner.

The architects planned this taller block as a visual marker for students, directing them towards the public square that lines the edge of the building.

Students enter the library through a three-storey-high atrium, which leads to reading rooms, group study areas, conference rooms and individual workspaces amongst the bookshelves.

Above: photograph is by Tomasz Zakrzewski

“The interiors are zoned to respond to the many ways in which research and study can take place,” Smierzewski told Dezeen. “We’ve create a wide variety of environments ranging from social to intimate.”

Above: photograph is by Tomasz Zakrzewski

Precast concrete panels cover the interior walls, while grated ceilings offer glimpses of the mechanical systems behind them. ”The utilitarian materiality and finishing alludes to the Silesian region’s heritage rooted in mining and other forms of heavy industry,” said Smierzewski.

Other libraries on Dezeen include a glass pyramid by MVRDV and a golden library by COBE and Transform.

See more stories about libraries »

Photography is by Jakub Certowicz, apart from otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from HS99:

Katowice – CINiBA (The Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library)

In 2002 a competition was launched by the University of Silesia for the design of a new library that would provide a world-class didactic facility for scientific research. The flexibility the winning proposal offered proved to be its major strength when, after securing a building permit, the program was modified to also include the collections of the University of Economics with no changes to the exterior form.

The Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library (Polish acronym: CINiBA) anchors the new campus redevelopment plan to be implemented in the coming years.

Located at the intersection of the east-west axis that forms the spine of the campus, and the north-south axis which connects the recreational grounds by the river to land set aside for further university expansion, the library reinforces the axial organization which has so far been poorly articulated. A central university square at the foot of the library, the FORUM, generates a civic gathering place that opens onto the library’s grand three storey atrium.

The height of the library has been determined by the average height of buildings on the university campus. The north elevation surpassing this height is directed towards the FORUM and houses the library’s closed stacks. This elevation emphasizes the rank and function of the FORUM and is in dialogue with the existing tall buildings which close the east-west axis.

The facades, clad in a repetitious fabric of rich kahan red sandstone, relate to the raw clay bricks on the neighbouring buildings without the connotation of scale inherent to a singular brick element. The exterior treatment abstracts the building’s function of organized book storing while introducing a notion of mystery inseparably connected to books.

Site plan – click for larger image

The lack of discernible scale produces a monolith when seen from afar that is gradually familiarized. Details such as the decreasing proportions of the façade tiling, the irregular cut of the sandstone slabs, as well as the windows carefully nested inside become visible.

Ground floor plan – click for larger image

The fenestration projects a stunning patchwork of light onto the FORUM at night, yet in the daytime allows diffused light to permeate into the library’s reading rooms. The resulting strongly introverted interior composition of the library floors focuses one’s attention onto the books while calming the space. Partial isolation from the external world not only influences the atmosphere within but also introduces a flow of time detached from the pulse of the surrounding city.

First floor plan – click for larger image

Location: Katowice, ul. Bankowa 11a
Client: Consortium of the University of Silesia and University of Economics in Katowice
Design: SARP Competition No. 924: 12.2002 (1st prize)
Building Permit Secured: 2004

Second floor plan – click for larger image

Construction: 2009-2011
Building Footprint: 2 910 m2
Total Floor Area: 10562 m2

Longitudinal section – click for larger image

Volume: 62 560 m3
Net Floor Area: 12 273 m2
Gross Floor Area: 13 260 m2

Cross section – click for larger image

Maximum Volume Storage: 2 000 000 books
Volumes Currently Held: 340 000 books (open collection); 460 000 books (closed collection)

North elevation – click for larger image

Team: HS99, Dariusz Herman, Piotr Smierzewski, Wojciech Subalski,
Cooperation: Rafal Sobieraj, Adam Kulesza, Jacek Moczała, Wojciech Słupczyński
Structural Design: Jan Filipkowski, Joanna Jacoszek, Jerzy Rawski, Mariusz Staszewski

West elevation – click for larger image

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and Academic Library by HS99 appeared first on Dezeen.

Coinciding with the official release of “Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors: Things We Made,” we are now able to publish previously unseen photos of new additions to the Facebook main office. The center, designed by the interior design duo, acts as a 24-hour cafeteria and social space for…

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The deep-framed windows of this office building by French studio Chartier-Corbasson Architectes burst through mossy walls and piles of stone beside a 100-year old mansion in Amiens.

Scattered across the green walls, the windows offer glimpses inside the new six-storey building that accommodates the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Picardy.

Chartier-Corbasson’s Olivia Caillou explained that the organisation had first planned to occupy both the new building and the historic Hôtel Bouctôt Vagniez, but eventually “decided to move all their offices into the new construction” and use the old building as a reception space.

Describing the design of the green walls, Caillou said that they drew inspiration from the Japanese-style garden that surrounds the property and that “the choice of our plants was guided by this particular aesthetic”.

Meeting rooms and offices occupy each of the floors, while a 189-seat auditorium is located in the basement.

The rear of the block nestles into a row of buildings on a neighbouring street and is clad with steel panels that were designed to match the colours and patterns of the typical local brickwork.

See more projects with green walls, including a pharmacy and clinic by Kengo Kuma.

Photography is by Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Amiens 2012

The Bouctot-Vagniez Town Hall in Amiens is a remarkable building, an architectural testament to the glories of nineteen-twenties Art Nouveau. Our project is concerned with designing an extension to this unique building, which is home to the Picardy Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

All the essential features of the project are represented in a plinth of living greenery that creates a link between the new wing, the existing premises and the gardens. The offices will be situated above this greenery plinth. They are housed in two separate spaces divided from one another by an atrium that will allow natural light and air to penetrate the heart of the building. Screen-printing technology protects certain perspectives by shading the glazed areas or leaving them clear, according to the needs created by the utilisation of the rooms behind. To the south, on the roadside elevation, a double skin of metal mesh allows for ventilation and creates a sunscreen, creating a secluded atmosphere in the offices.

Second floor plan – click above for larger image

As regards the garden elevation, the design forms part of the existing landscaping as a sort of kink in the boundary wall. The hall opens out as broadly as possible onto the gardens, and the ground floor rises up to embrace a wide panoramic bay window creating a fluid, light-filled space.

Section – click above for larger image

Client: CRCI de Picardie
Architects: Chartier-Corbasson Architectes
Iida Tulkki, Gabriel Guthieriez architectes assistants

Engineering: Betom
HEQ engineering: Cap Terre
Acoustics: JPLamoureux
Stage design: Ducks scéno
Consultant facade: Van Santen et associés

Program: Office building, meeting rooms, reception rooms, 189 seats auditorium, landscape design
Net surface: 1800 sq m
Budget: €56 million
Delivery: June 2012

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by Chartier-Corbasson Architectes appeared first on Dezeen.