Hasta La Ideas

A windowless yellow facade shrouds the interior of this concrete gymnasium in southern France by architects Heams et Michel.

Located beside a secondary school in the town of Tourrette Levens, the building is used by students for gymnastics and as a general hall.

The textured concrete exterior is separated into rows of vertical stripes that the architects hoped would resemble the folding fabric of a stage curtain.

Daylight permeates the concrete walls through high-level windows on the rear elevation, as well as through a pyramidal roof light.

A colourful rock-climbing wall is located at the back of the hall, while panels of oriented strand board line the lower levels of the three remaining walls.

We’ve recently featured another building in France with a rock-climbing wall inside – see our earlier story here.

Photography is by Serge Demailly and Heams et Michel

Here’s some text from architect Benjamin Michel:

Gymnastics building

The building of the gym in Tourrette Levens is part of a plot where is erected a secondary school, and a gymnasium. This new building reserved for students and associations is intended for gymnastics and circus.

The program simplicity led us to reflect on the plastic side of the project. In fact, the area of study of the circus, put out the physical and moral development, includes a cultural, artistic, and social. The transience of the circus that is assembled and disassembled in cities remains in the collective unconscious. Our project is an allegory of the circus tent.

The idea is simple ” a concrete box that was covered with a cloth “. Concealment becomes mystery, and make us perceive differently what was commonplace before. We wanted to create a sculptural object concealed and packed in a skin of concrete, corrugated as a wavy stage curtain.

The yellow ocher color gives the blind walls an expression of lightness heightened by the fact that the stamped concrete does not touch the ground. Because of this, the object, which could have been a simple gym, takes an artistic dimension.

The volume chosen is voluntary simple : a rectangular parallelepiped of 14 meters wide and 8 meters in height in continuity of the existing gymnasium and detached from it by the volume of the entrance hall and deposits, which is less high.

By its presence, the project aims to complete the overall design of the existing sports facilities, by standing as a new south gable.

A single material wraps all the facades of the object. It walls are made of a stamped and painted concrete called “draped concrete” with a texture reminiscent of stage curtains.

The texture of the drapery is obtained by using two alternating matrices of slightly different patterns, but the same height as the concrete shells, specially designed for the project. Those walls have been casted all the way up, and the self-placing concrete has been poured in a single process so as not to reveal a horizontal joint. The vertical ones disappear in the pattern of the drapery.

Inside the room, a natural light is achieved by the presence of two major openings, not noticeable from the outside, a glass square on the roof, centered on the room, and a horizontal window in the north facade.

In this volume, the human scale is found by the calpinage at the bottom (2m50), a bounding of impact resistant OSB panels. And at the top we used acoustic wood wool insulation panels. The ceiling is made of raw concrete.

A direct connection to the existing gymnasium was constructed to promote exchanges between the various sports.

By this project, the idea of a building disappears in favor of an object carved in relation to its context and program. The rationale for the staging of such an object lies in the definition of the close relationship between sports, circus, entertainment, art, and social.

Project name: Gymnastics building Programme : Sport.
Location: Tourrette Levens, France

Architects: Heams et Michel
Engineer: GL Ingénierie
Client: Conseil Général des Alpes Maritimes

Project area: 240 m2 SHON.
Project year: 2011.

Entreprises:
Dévoiement réseaux: La Nouvelle SIROLAISE
Gros Œuvre: TRIMARCO Construction
Etanchéité: GALINELLI
Menuiseries métalliques – Serrurerie: SARL DEGIVRY
Sols Sportifs: MS DECO
É quipements sportifs: ENTRE PRISES
Electricité: EUROPELEC
Plomberie – Chauffage – Ventilation: AQUALIA
Finitions: SILENCE CONORT

Dezeen Wire: this week architecture critics have been discussing A Room For London, a boat-like apartment on the roof of the Southbank Centre that will accomodate temporary overnight guests throughout 2012. 

Writing for The New York Times, Elias Redstone declares the project a “wonderfully surreal vision” that “originated from surprisingly practical concerns,” namely the tight budget and challenging location.

An account from The Guardian’s Liz Bird gives an insight into what it is like to stay in the vessel. She writes: ”the pièce de resistance is the snug upper deck, filled with London-themed books, which we quickly rename ‘The Bridge’ and where we write up the ship’s log”.

Observer critic Rowan Moore praises the project as “an enjoyable and well-made jeu d’esprit”, but warns readers not to be disillusioned into thinking of the project as an aid to urban regeneration, stating that “it is not a prototype for future Thames-side development”.

Contrastingly, Edwin Heathcote of the Financial Times discusses the “unheimlich” (uncanny) qualities of the rooftop apartment’s nautical aesthetic, and controversially compares it to the “shocking and visceral images of the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami last year” when fishing boats were “left marooned on roofs after the waters had subsided”.

A few Dezeen readers got caught up in the fun aspects of the project, with one keen to “spend all day interpreting scenes from Jaws” and another imagining images from Mary Poppins – see all our readers’ comments here.

You can see images of the project in our earlier story here, or see more stories about the instigating organisation, Living Architecture, here.

These renders show the cedar shell and glazed facade of a triangular house by Swedish firm Wingårdh Arkitektontor to be constructed on a rocky, harbourside plot.

The two-storey residence, named Villa Flåttarna, is one of nine similar houses proposed as part of a masterplan for a site near Smögen Island.

The building’s glazed front elevation will permit views out towards the water from the first-floor living room and balcony, as well as from the master bedroom below.

Residents will enter the house on this lower level, which also accommodates a second bedroom, bathrooms, dressing rooms and a garage.

This is the third Swedish house we’ve featured in recent months, following an idyllic pine house near Stockholm and a residence with an aquarium-like swimming pool – see more projects in Sweden here.

The images were produced by Swedish visualisation studio Tenjin.

The following text explains the masterplan and was provided by Tenjin:

The Klevens Udde project aims to create one of the most exclusive residential areas in Europe, in one of the worlds most beautiful locations. A handful of highly personalised homes just a half a dozen meters from the waters of Skagerrak strait.

A rock cape near the summer idyll of Smögen Island, Klevens udde has potential to gain international status, with extraordinary setting and the charming local building styles merging to form a unique architectural milien.

The buildings are low and close together. Their architecture consists of variations on common themes and shifting geometric shapes, creating a vibrancy in the visual effect. At the same time windows, facades and landscaping are the same, which pulls the whole neighbourhood together.

Each house in Klevens Udde has unique solutions based on the personality and characteristics of the specific site – a very rare occurrence in modern construction. Klevens udde is the brainchild of PEAB, one of Scandinavia’s leading construction and civil engineering companies.

The architects behind this project, the Wingårdh firm is one of the most laurelled architectural companies in all of Scandinavia. Their assignment in Klevens udde was to create personal top-quality houses that make the very most of the sea and the view.

The company’s owner, Gert Wingårdh, describes his architecture as “high organic” – combining high-tech solutions with sensual poetic qualities rooted in the natural world.

American architects Richard Meier & Partners have unveiled designs for a 34-storey tower in Mexico City.

Glazed curtain walls will cloak each elevation of the Mitikah Office Tower and will be subtly faceted on the south and east faces.

A rooftop restaurant and bar are to occupy the top floor of the tower, while a domed conference room and surrounding garden will be located on floor number 19.

The building was designed as part of a wider masterplan by American firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and is scheduled to complete in 2014.

Other projects by Richard Meier that we’ve featured on Dezeen include an extension to a California gallery and a Jewish candle-holder – see them all here.

Here’s the full press release from Richard Meier & Partners:

Richard Meier & Partners Designs New Tower in Mexico City

New York, January 16, 2012 – The third project designed by Richard Meier & Partners in Mexico – is revealed today. The new Mitikah Office Tower will be a state-of-the-art building in the Delegacion Benito Juarez in Mexico City.

Mitikah Office Tower will be part of a mixed use master plan designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and developed by IDEURBAN/IDCity from Mexico. The scheme consists of commercial space, low-rise residential buildings, and a hotel and residential tower. Located at the southwest corner of the master plan, the tower offers an extraordinary opportunity to develop an architecture that mediates between the commercial core and the nearby residential community. Mitikah Office Tower will be the visual transition between the Av. Rio Churubusco, an elevated highway, and the pedestrian boulevard of the retail plaza.

Design Partner-in-charge Bernhard Karpf comments: “Mexico City has always been among the most important cultural and commercial centers in Latin America. The new tower will undoubtly contribute visual significance to the skyline of the city and to the neighborhood. The design is inspired by a modern interpretation of Aztec forms.”

The architectural massing of the new building combines a slender and elegant 34-story tower that rises above a transparent and translucent building base. The building lobby has been carefully positioned to be visible from all approaches to the site, and it anchors the building to the exposed retail plaza and to the adjacent commercial space.

A six-story underground garage provides joint parking not only for the building but for the other components of the master plan. The design of the office tower with its refined formal vocabulary reflects the distinct orientation of the site while addressing requirements of sustainability, maximum efficiency and flexibility. The South and East facades of the tower are composed of a continuous high-performance curtain wall modulated by subtle folds and reveals that create a memorable sculptural expression.

The North and West elevations are composed by a curtain wall system with modular and orthogonal expressions that reference the proportions of the surrounding context. A sky garden with an integrated conference pavilion on the 19th floor, and a restaurant and sky-bar on the 34th floor provide unique destinations for the mix-use development.

All facades of the building boast floor-to-ceiling glass walls with unparalleled views of downtown Mexico City, the surrounding mountains and the central valley. The selection of an efficient curtain wall system with clear and fritted Low-E glass maximizes the use of natural daylight throughout the office building while reducing the solar energy intake. The interplay of natural light and shadow animates the interior office space giving its occupants a quality that changes throughout the day. Mitikah Office Tower is expected to be LEED-certified and to be completed in 2014.

The fight against Frank Gehry‘s Eisenhower Memorial in Washington D.C. continues to grow ever more heated. Already more than slightly contentious, with the Eisenhower family becoming more publicly vocal in their distaste for Gehry’s plans over the past few months, now they’ve taken their feelings directly to the powers that be. This week, the family sent a formal, written objection to the National Capital Planning Commission, stating that “The mandate is to honor Eisenhower, and that is not being done in this current design. Or, shall we say, it is being done in such a small scale in relation to the memorial that it is dwarfed.” Meanwhile, the arts organization, the National Civic Art Society, has joined the fight, launching a website “devoted to stopping Gehry’s Memorial” and preparing a “book-length report” on the flaws they found with the project, which they intend to submit to “Congress and other interested parties.” Here’s a collection of some of the particularly damning claims their report levels against the current Memorial plans:

The Memorial competition was secretive, exclusive, elitist, and undemocratic—if it was a true competition at all. Only 44 entries were solicited. This is hundreds fewer than the number of entries submitted in previous national memorial competitions, which were open to all.

An unknown, unconnected designer could not have won, let alone even entered, the competition. It was thanks to America’s openness to talent that Eisenhower was able to rise to the presidency from a humble background. The Memorial competition should have been equally open.

The design of the boy Eisenhower statue is being advised by an artist whose work sexualizes children and is obscene.

The Memorial design has contained benches spelling out “IXXI,” the Roman numerals for 9 and 11. Whether this reference to the 9/11 attacks is intentional or negligent, the Memorial’s architect, Frank Gehry, can no longer be trusted with its design.

On the other side of the fight, it appears that Gehry and the project’s various partners don’t appear to be bending by these past few months of criticism. ABC News reports that the Eisenhower Memorial Commission is still moving forward in seeking “final approval of the design in March and hope to break ground this year.” What’s more, the project’s executive architect tells the news outlet that “he does not expect to make any major changes to Gehry’s design.”

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