Hasta La Ideas

In Las Vegas, when people refer to “culture,” it usually involves French-Canadian acrobat savants, ersatz monuments, or dancing fountains, but change is afoot. This month, Sin City welcomed the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, a megaproject that was set into motion during headier, pre-recession days. We dispatched writer Doug McClemont to try his luck at getting an inside look at the newly opened cultural complex, and he came up trumps.

Photos: Steve Hall/HedrichBlessing

Most narratives of current state of things in Las Vegas include “overbuilt” or “downturn” in the very first sentence. Indeed, since roughly 2006 the fortunes of the legendary desert oasis have changed for the worse. Visitor spending in the destination city is on the decline, the housing market remains troubled, and MGM’s shining new star City Center, a 72-acre sprawling complex of hotels, gaming, condos, and high-end retail at the heart of the Strip, posted an operating loss of $45 million in the fourth quarter of last year. So this might seem a strange moment to be celebrating the construction of a new $470 million cultural center on the outskirts of the (still more beleaguered) downtown area. But then again Las Vegas&#8212that ultimate paean to pastiche and panache&#8212is not known for its introverted ways.

The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, a lavish art deco-influenced, multi-purpose complex that features music, visual art, theater, and education opened earlier this month. It dominates a 61-acre site in a former rail yard that is now called Symphony Park. “All of the budgeting was done in the old economy,” according to architect David M. Schwarz, “the Center was built in the new.” As a result, the architects were able to utilize high-end materials and avoid troublesome cost-cutting concerns when creating Las Vegas’s newest addition. A 170-foot tall bell tower with 47 imported bronze bells is just one opulent feature of the inviting collection of buildings.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The curved wings of this house in Kuwait converge around an outdoor swimming pool (photos by Nelson Garrido).

Designed by Spanish-Kuwaiti studio AGi Architects, the three-storey house comprises two curling blocks, each with cantilevering upper storeys.

An access corridor creates a spine through the centre of the building, providing entrances at both the front and back.

Other projects by AGi Architects include a house that emits a cooling mist – see more here.

Here’s some more text from the architects:

Mop House

The site can be accessed from either side of the surrounding streets to allow for both a private and a public entrance. After moving along a curved wall that guides the visitor from the exterior of the plot into the center, one reaches the main entrance into the house.

Upon entering through the main door frame, the space opens up to reveal the swimming pool and the public living areas of the house.

The form of the residence is reminiscent of the movement patterns of a mop, from which flexible volumes are organized diagonally around a central axis.

This axis twists upwards to generate spaces that are channeling the vision in different directions: the front side of the house, side gardens and angles of the back street.

The circulation surrounding the patio on the first floor contrives of a succession of living spaces, which not only communicate to one another, but also relate visually the interior of the patio to the exterior.

The first floor overhangs to shade the rooms on the ground floor, and the patio is designed to define a break in between the volumes of the house, which subtly reveals a side garden.

The residence was originally planned to house one family with two small children, however in the future it could be divided into two units. The structure of the house and the distribution of the circulation, as well as the positioning of the entrances and lift allows for guaranteed privacy between parents and children in the prospective future.

Type: Housing | 1300 sqm
Location: Kuwait
Date: 2006-2011
Client: Private
Cost: Confidential

Design Team: Joaquin Pérez-Goicoechea, Nasser B. Abulhasan
Architectural team: Gwenola Kergall, Georg Thesing, Lucía Sánchez Salmón, María Eugenia Díaz, José Ángel del Campo, Daniel Muñoz Medranda, Hanan Alkouh, Nicolás Martín
Engineering: Babu Abraham, Abdul Hafiz Mohammed
Drafting: Robert Varguese, Naseeba Shaji
Consultants: Arturo Macusi, Joseph TomasInterior Design: AGi architects
Supplier: Gunni & Trentino

Slideshow: the walls of this house in Tokyo by Japanese studio Apollo Architects & Associates stretch outwards around a secret balcony.

Projecting several metres in front of the two-storey house, the extended walls are supported by narrow columns and define the boundaries of a front entrance courtyard.

Narrow vertical windows frame the front door, which leads in towards bedrooms and bathrooms on the ground floor.

A cantilevered staircase with tapered treads leads up though the centre of the house to a living and dining room that occupies the entire top floor.

Apollo Architects & Associates have designed a number of interesting houses over the last few years – see a selection of them here.

Photography is by Masao Nishikawa.

More information from the architects is provided below:

RING

This project started with the plot which locates at a tranquil residential area in west Tokyo. The client is a high school teacher and his wife.

The first floor with slit windows lays a kids room, a main bedroom and a water area while the 2nd floor resolutely sets a family room with a large opening.

Taking the privacy into consideration, we adopted a court house with entrance attached and the wall encloses the south opening.

To answer to the coverage ratio, we set a grating balcony which functions as a gentle connection of the 1st and 2nd floor and as a stand to appreciate the view of the symbolized tree.

Making maximum use of the compact plot, the masters cherished modern furniture create lively and dynamic space which cannot be imagined from the outside.

Credit Information

Architecture: Satoshi Kurosaki/APOLLO Architects & Associates

Project Outline
Location: Kitayamacho Fuchu city Tokyo

Date of Completion: March 2012
Principal Use: Private House

Structure: RC
Site Area: 104.36m2
Total Floor Area: 88.98m2 (40.99m2/1F, 40.99m2/2F)

Structural Engineer : Kenta Masaki
Mechanical Engineer : Zenei Shimada

Material Information
Exterior Finish: Lath Mortar

Floor: Walnut Flooring & Tile/1F, Walnut Flooring & Tile/2F
Wall: Wall paper
Ceiling: Wall paper

Slideshow: Swedish architects Waldemarson Berglund were inspired by the slopes of a nearby ski resort to create these three slanted timber cabins in north Sweden.

Although they look like they’ve been tipped upwards by accident, the three Åre Solbringen residences were actually designed to follow the slopes of their hillside site and have level floors inside.

Only the perpendicular windows that intermittently puncture the wooden facade give any indication that the buildings are intentionally sloped.

Staircases spanning the length of each building link the five tiered floors inside, connecting bedrooms, a bathroom and a sauna on the upper storeys with a kitchen, living room and outdoor terrace on the levels below.

Last year another wooden house designed by Waldemarson Berglund was one of our most popular stories – see it here.

Photography is by Åke E:son Lindman.

The following text is from the architects:

Åre Solbringen

3 houses on Åreskutan’s southern slope. Partly, the houses’ shape is a consequence of the urban regulations. Partly, the form is also the consequence of a discussion on the site.

The commission was to divide the plot into three equal ones where houses for recreational use would be built.

The property is located just outside Åre’s centre, in Åreskutan south-facing slope, overlooking the river and the mountains.

Building designs in Åre are often half buried houses in 1 ½ plans with a sloping roof and big gables facing the views down the mountain, resulting in houses with only one really profitable floor.

The half-buried level is partly windowless, and the upper level is limited by its low, sloping ceilings.

According to the local regulations the plot could only be divided in the direction of the slope, with a minimum size of 800 m2, maximum built area of 120 m2, minimum distance to the neighbouring property 4,5 m and maximum height of 5,2 m.

Being the slope one of the conditions for skiing it was tempting to let the buildings doing so. Or at least to let them give that impression.

So we decided to make a building which would lay over the ground without disturbing the mountain, where all the rooms would have a generous height and windows with views.

A connection axis extents along the building’s long side, divided in four generously sized sets of stairs. This space allows a view of the whole house from the entrance to the opposite end.

Height difference between the highest and lowest points is 31 stairs, as in any other 1 ½ storey house with two stair cases.

The difference, though, is that this house has 5 individual levels. The upper levels house the hall, two bedrooms, bathroom and sauna, and the two bottom levels the kitchen and the living room, with a terrace facing south.

The house is completely built in a wooden frame system. Due to the limited width of the house it was possible to use standard pieces everywhere but in the floor slabs, built in glued laminated timber.

The wooden construction rests over brick slabs located across the longitudinal axis of the houses. A wide vent runs along this axis, allowing the eaves to meet the ground cleanly and ”tightly”. Wooden panels are the facade’s material, which will darken and turn greyish as they age.

The wooden windows and doors have a painted steel exterior framing and the roof is built in painted, folded metal sheets. The floors are in massive oak, whilst walls and ceilings are finished in white plasterboard.

Project: Åre Solbringen
2006-2012
Björnänge, Åre, Sweden
Architect: Waldemarson Berglund Arkitekter AB, Stockholm. Jonas Waldemarson, Paulina Berglund, Hanna Kucera Wengelin

Slideshow: the modular fenestration of this school building in western Switzerland was inspired by shapes from 1980s computer game Tetris.

Designed by Swiss architects ipas, the four-storey block is an extension to an existing secondary school and a glass bridge connects it to the main building at second-floor level.

Concrete steps lead up to the first-floor entrance and can also be used as bleachers when sports activities take place in the adjacent playground.

Differently coloured walls and floors inside the school differentiate between classrooms, the gym, bathrooms and the entrance foyer.

Dezeen visited Switzerland at the end of last year for an architectural tour of Basel and Zurich – listen to our podcast from the trip here.

Photography is by Thomas Jantscher.

The text below is from ipas:

Tetris

The building is located near the forest and its large windows fully open the school on its wooded surroundings. Imagine our children, perched in the wild beauty of foliage, about to sprout from vertigo that comes from the rise of knowledge ….

A place outside any, between heaven and earth, where reigns only the relentless beauty of a diaphanous light colored green, the sweet sound of singing of leaves blowing in the wind, a spellbinding atmosphere by its serenity in harmony with all the idea that there is a place of learning.

Imagine a school which draws its plastic aesthetics of the forest. A beauty who plays a musical symphony to the rhythm of chance and repetition, to capture, play, live emotions that nature gives us.

The building unfolds quietly because dialogue with nature, respect for the latter, out of modesty, its footprint is minimal: as a result of deforestation is reduced, the search also.

The repeating pattern used for the definition of the openings of facade has its roots in the plant environment that characterizes the place. Zoom on the macroscopic foliage delivers us a pixelization constituting the frame in which the openings take place.

The famous arcade game Tetris animates the facades and makes light of the serious idea of a school to give it a more playful.

A door-to-north false facade welcomes the entry of the new school which is in turn connected to the existing complex through a large entry step outside that can serve as bleachers for outdoor sporting activities. A glass bridge, geometry broken, connects the two schools.

The program follows a hierarchical organization clear down the access and sport, the top areas of learning, this spatial arrangement is enhanced by the multiple external environments and their lights.

The circulation spaces are generous because we must accommodate students, create meeting places and provide surfaces for new teaching methods.

The colors also draws its source in the nearby forest by restoring a concrete-colored brown, evoking the tree trunks. Inside, the chromatic variations borrow light of the four seasons, autumn orange for the lower level, the winter-brown at the entrance, spring green on the first floor and was green-blue in the second floor.

The bathrooms are blue, penetrates to the wood walls and ceiling of the gyms where the soil reflects the blue sky.

The building uses the principle of large spans, two concrete walls 40 inches thick and encompassing two levels of classes materialize an arc of 32 meters in length through which the gym is divisible released any intermediate support.

In terms of sustainability, maintenance, materials which constitute the outer shell provide durability that resists the vicissitudes of time: an inert material such as concrete, and a compact roof completely resistant to ambient humidity generated by the near the forest

Architectes: ipas architectes sa

Competition: 1st prize

Planning: 2004, 2005-2007

Owner: Commune de Genolier

Team: Michel Egger, Eric Ott, Salvatore Chillari, Delphine Jeanneret-Gris, Gilles Batista, Michael Desaules

In collaboration with: Daniel Schlaepfer, Lausanne, artiste