Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen Wire: Hackney Council have announced the call for entries to this year’s Hackney Design Awards.

Anyone can nominate any building or space in the borough to be judged by an independent panel of industry experts and there will also be a people’s choice award.

The deadline for applications is 30 July and the award ceremony will be held in November.

Dezeen are currently running an initiative called Designed in Hackney to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’re publishing buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

See all our stories about design in Hackney »

Here’s some more information about the awards from Hackney Council:

Calling all nominations for Hackney’s fifth Design Awards

With the launch of its fifth Hackney Design Awards, Hackney Council has begun its search for the best new designed buildings and spaces in the borough.

Hackney covers just seven square miles and is the third most dense borough in London, but despite its limited space it continues to deliver innovative architecture and design. The Design Awards, which are held every two years, illustrate the Council’s commitment to the promotion and celebration of high quality design within the borough’s built environment.

Nominations for buildings or spaces within Hackney that showcase high quality design are open until Monday 30 July. Anyone can make a nomination, including architects who have designed a development, residents who inhabit newly developed homes; employees who enjoy their workplace; pupils who love their schools or people who are simply inspired by the look of a building or place in Hackney. Even visitors who have spotted an outstanding building in Hackney are eligible to nominate.

Entries to the Hackney Design Awards 2012 will be shortlisted and judged by an independent panel made up of respected figures in the built environment field. The final awards ceremony will be held in November.

Jules Pipe, elected Mayor of Hackney, said: “The Council is proud to be hosting the fifth Design Awards to celebrate great design and architecture in Hackney. We recognise the importance of high quality design and understand the difference it can make to the lives of residents and whole communities. We are committed to encouraging excellence in all development to ensure that buildings and public spaces throughout the borough meet our aspirations to improve the lives of everyone in Hackney.”

People’s Choice award

The People’s Choice award puts the power in the hands of the community to vote for its favourite from the judging panel shortlist.

All shortlisted entries will appear in Hackney Today and on the Council’s website in early October. The shortlisted entry which receives the most votes from the public will be announced the People’s Choice at the awards ceremony in November.

The nomination must:

» be in the borough of Hackney
» have been completed no earlier than 1 August 2010 and be fully functioning by the closing date for nominations, Monday 30 July 2012.

Entries for the following types of public or private development are encouraged:

» new buildings – residential, commercial, community, educational or industrial
» alterations to existing buildings – including extension, refurbishment, conversion or restoration
» parks, gardens, pedestrian or play/recreational areas that include structural design elements

The criteria for the Hackney Design Awards 2012 are:

» Quality – it is of the highest quality in terms of its design, materials used or construction, and is an exemplar for its end use.
» Visual amenity – makes a positive visual contribution to its location
» Innovation – is an original response to design, construction or environmental constraints, or uses pioneering building techniques
» Sustainability – incorporates design, construction, infrastructure, management, landscape, natural or other mechanisms/processes that embrace the principles of sustainability.

For more information about the Hackney Design Awards 2012, and to make a nomination, please visit: www.hackney.gov.uk/designawards, email designawards@hackney.gov.uk or call 020 8356 8141

When asked to draw up plans for a cycle-hire shop in southern China, Dutch studio NL Architects thought it would be fun to put a velodrome on the roof.

The curved rooftop track of the Bicycle Club will overhang the glazed exterior walls to shade a shop and cafe on the ground floor.

Once they’ve hired a bike, customers will be able to take it straight up to the track via central staircases, which will double-up as seating areas for spectators.

The architects are now working up detailed designs for construction.

Another Velodrome that’s worth a look is the one completed for this summer’s Olympic Games. See images here.

Here’s a little more text from NL Architects:

Housing Corporation VANKE has asked us to make a proposal for a Bike Club as part of a big resort in Southern China that we are currently involved in.

The Bike pavilion should accommodate bike rental and a cafe.

A protruding roof could be very welcome in this tropical climate.

The oversized top perhaps could house an additional function. What about a velodrome?

The elegant curvature of the steeply banked oval bike track creates an optimistic gesture; eaves curled upward: a surprisingly functional pagoda.

This house in Osaka by architects Suga Atelier has a faceted concrete exterior that looks like a rockface.

Located on a triangular site that is surrounded by roads, House S eschews typical windows and instead features a narrow glass wall recessed into one corner and a glazed atrium that extends down through the centre of all three floors.

Rain falling through the nine-sided roof void passes two doughnut-shaped benches and drains into a sunken basin at the lowest level, although canopies can also be folded across the floors for shelter.

The house’s concrete walls were formed against plywood, which has been reused to create internal walls, kitchen worktops and the floor of the second storey loft.

Floors and walls elsewhere in the house are lined with white plastic panels made from recycled bottles.

We also published another story last year about a house that lets the rain in. See it here.

Here’s some more text from the architects:

S

There are things that are hard to see even its existence, unless we find suitable words or expressions.

Beside a major road, the house is present, resisting against traffic.

Since the house uses structural plywood that has pits surfaces as a formwork, the whole looks like a rough concrete retaining wall.

When looking through a slit that is protected by walls on both sides like an embrasure on the east side where the site extends, morning sun and the city could be viewed. However, the space is closed when the large entrance door that is the only major aperture is shut down.

Yet, the space is always wide open to the sky by the light court positioning in the center of the space that is slightly deformed in the shape of “L” due to the entrance.

The interior of the space is covered by recycled plastic bottles’ white polyester fiber mat in the same size of plywood (910mm×120mm), fixed to the walls and the ceilings with plastic screws using separators.

Needle-punched mats made with the same material cover the floor.

The idea was to express the light absorbing shining cocoon in addition to insulation and soundproofing.

The space became very quiet and pure like a deep cave.

The sense of walking onto it is like tatami-mat and the elastic walls are almost like a cushion.

It is a trial of a new floor-sitting life style that offers sitting and lounging wherever in the house.

On the other hand, furniture-like staircase and the loft, which are made relating the house, are made with recycled plywood used for formwork and keep the memoir.

The light brought from the sky draws blinking picture of light on the white floor through enneagon glass that always maintains a positive position.

Rain goes through the light court, beat down on the thin water basin on a garage floor and remain its traces.

Slideshow: New York architect Steven Holl has concealed a underground gallery beneath a pool of water in Seoul, the city in South Korea that we’ve been focusing on following a string of proposals for skyscrapers.

Named Daeyang Gallery and House, the copper-clad building has two pavilions that rise up above the water to provide an entrance and an event space for the private gallery, while a third is the home of the owner.

The architects claim that the building’s proportions follow the patterns of a musical score by Hungarian-Canadian composer Istvan Anhalt, which they say can be best observed in the arrangement of 55 skylights on the roofs of the three blocks.

More skylights are scattered across the base of the pool, so daylight must pass through the water before entering the gallery.

Above: photograph is by Inho Lee

See all our recent stories about projects in South Korea here and see more architecture by Steven Holl here.

Above: photograph is by Inho Lee

Photography is by Iwan Baan, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from Steven Holl Architects:

Daeyang Gallery and House Seoul, Korea
2008 – 2012

The private gallery and house is sited in the hills of the Kangbuk section of Seoul, Korea.

The project was designed as an experiment parallel to a research studio on “the architectonics of music.”

The basic geometry of the building is inspired by a 1967 sketch for a music score by the composer Istvan Anhalt, “Symphony of Modules,” which was discovered in a book by John Cage titled “Notations.”

Above: photograph is by Inho Lee

Three pavilions; one for entry, one residence, and one event space, appear to push upward from a continuous gallery level below. A sheet of water establishes the plane of reference from above and below.

Above: photograph is by Inho Lee

The idea of space as silent until activated by light is realized in the cutting of 55 skylight strips in the roofs of the three pavilions.

Above: photograph is by Inho Lee

In each of the pavilions, 5 strips of clear glass allow the sunlight to turn and bend around the inner spaces, animating them according to the time of day and season. Proportions are organized around the series 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55.

Views from within the pavilions are framed by the reflecting pool, which is bracketed by gardens that run perpendicular to the skylight strips.

In the base of the reflecting pool, strips of glass lenses bring dappled light to the white plaster walls and white granite floor of the gallery below.

A visitor arrives through a bamboo formed garden wall at the entry court, after opening the front door and ascending a low stair.

He or she can turn to see the central pond at eye level and take in the whole of the three pavilions, floating on their own reflections.

The interiors of the pavilions are red and charcoal stained wood with the skylights cutting through the wood ceiling. Exteriors are a rain screen of custom patinated copper which ages naturally within the landscape.

Skyscrapers in Seoul: the first of two stories about buildings that architect Daniel Libeskind has designed for the Yongsan International Business District that he masterplanned for Seoul, South Korea, features three towers inspired by the movements of a Korean Buddhist dance.

Named Dancing Towers, the 41-storey skyscrapers will each have a curved body that the architect likens to the twisted sleeves of traditional Seung-Moo dancers’ costumes.

All three towers will be positioned on a single podium, which will house the shared foyer for 834 apartments on the upper storeys.

Just like SOM’s proposals nearby, the towers will contain structural columns within their curtain wall facades, so as not to interrupt the spaces within.

See more stories about the Yongsan International Business District, including a slideshow of all the projects commissioned by developer DreamHub.

Here’s a project description from Studio Daniel Libeskind:

Dancing Towers

Dancing Towers, a project that is part of the new Yongsan International Business District YIBD development in Seoul, is a mixed used development that consists of three 41 story residential towers,( a total of 834 total residential units) with amenities, retail, parking and a connecting commercial podium base.

The design for the Dancing Towers is inspired by the traditional Korean Buddhist Dance known as Seung-Moo. The subtle rotation of the towers creates the illusion they are dancing, as inspired by the long sleeves of the Seung-Moo dancer’s traditional costumes, gracefully propelled by the dancer’s movements. The towers are engineered with a unique structure of a central concrete core and alternating cantilevered fin walls to support the floors that create column free buildings that allow the forms to ‘dance’ and twist while opening up panoramic views from the apartment interiors.

While creating an interrelated composition, the location of the three towers in the site and each tower’s rotations are oriented to create maximum light and views toward the water, the YIBD project, the city of Seoul and the mountains beyond for the residents.

Location: Seoul, South Korea
Building size: 265,000 sq.m
Structure: Concrete central core with cantilevered concrete fin walls and floor slabs
Client: Dream Hub, AMC – Yongsan Development Co., Ltd.
Structural engineer: ARUP
Mechanical / Electrical / Plumbing engineer: ARUP
Landscape architect: Martha Schwartz Partners
Lighting designers: Focus Lighting
Status: In design