Hasta La Ideas

Atelier 9.81 of France have inserted a perforated canopy in between a row of houses to create a covered pedestrian walkway in Tourcoing, France.

The structure is made from a composite of aluminium and plastic with a series of folds to create a roof over the passage.

Graphics are applied to this surface, directing visitors between the new bus station on one side, and a tram and subway station on the other.

Photographs are copyright Julien Lanoo.

See more photography by Julien Lanoo in our special category.

The following information is from the architects:

Covered pedestrian crossing, downtown Tourcoing (fr)
Geoffrey Galand + Cédric Michel, associated architects
Atelier9.81

Atelier 9.81 of France have completed a bright red covered pedestrian walkway in Tourcoing, France.

Downtown Tourcoing is currently at the heart of an extensive restructuring, launched a few years ago. All public spaces, streets and squares are being fully renovated, and a large shopping mall with movie theatres will be inaugurated soon. As part of this project, the Metro, tram and bus station come together to offer a true multimodal system.

The project of a covered pedestrian crossing for downtown Tourcoing is born of this new direct relationship between transportation modes (with the bus station on one side and the trams and subway on of the other), between the Place du Doctor Roux and the Place Charles et Albert Roussel. The pedestrian crossing will fit into a row of townhouses of the same style, taking the place of one of them. By breaking thus with the alignment, the pedestrian crossing asserts itself visually, with the orange-red hues used on the open gables and by the constitution of a retro glassed facade, lit up at night.

Stepping into the void thus constituted, the project consists in erecting a canopy representing an urban origami; Fine sheet of graphic Alucobond, a support for the signage designed with this project in mind. Spread out over a 20-meter-long, 4.5-meter-wide area, this sheet reveals numerous complex folds and height variations, from which it derives its uniqueness.

The covering ends in a notable slope, signalling the pedestrian crossing from the Tram terminus and the entrance to the shopping mall and Metro. The crossing’s floor is made of gray granite pavement, an extension of the planned layout for all downtown public spaces.

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Project management: Atelier 9.81 – urbanist architects, Geoffrey Galand + Cédric Michel – architects, Lucie Vandenbunder – project chief, IOSISgroup – BE generalist, Les Produits de l’Épicerie – graphic designers
Project owner: SEM Ville Renouvelée
Project Information: Covered pedestrian crossing between two public squares
Project surface: 150 M2 of covered crossing
Budget: 400,000 euros (excluding taxes)
Planning: Delivery in September 2010

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On the Way to the Sea by Derman Verbakel	Amington Youth Shelter by Sjölander da Cruz Architects	More photography by Julien Lanoo

Henn StudioB, the Berlin design and research studio of Henn Architekten, have won a competition to design a new business district in Wenzhou, China.

The Central Business District is located where the Ou Jiang river meets the East China Sea and will comprise five towers of differing heights.

The towers will be situated in a staggered row to provide views of the river, while at street level a series of green spaces and walkways will weave inbetween the structures.

The masterplan will include a five star hotel, offices, commercial space and a public park.

See all our stories on skyscrapers in our special category.

Here’s some more information about the project:

New Central Business District, Wenzhou

HENN ARCHITEKTEN have won the first prize in the international competition to design the new Central Business District in Wenzhou, China. The proposal was designed by HENN ARCHITEKTEN’s Design & Research Studio HENN StudioB.

Wenzhou lies within a mountainous region of Zhejiang Province where the Ou Jiang River meets the East China Sea. The traditional trading town opened to foreign trade in 1876 and as an international port is one of today’s key production locations for the consumer goods industry in China. The centrepiece of the future Central Business District comprises offices, a five-star hotel, commercial space and a public park.

The Wenzhou coastline is interspersed with an intricate network of small and large rivers. The proposed design picks up on the river delta image and transposes it onto an organic park landscape which opens towards the sea. The green corridor leading out of the city continues across the site, where it branches out and forms an undulating connection between the city and the riverfront.

On ground level, this architectural landscape merges with the flowing form of the buildings and simultaneously traces the movement of their users. The five towers stand in a staggered row to ensure a largely unrestricted view of the river.

Their height reflects that of the surrounding buildings in the south west and rises in a wave towards the river, where it defines the edge of the city on the bank of the Ou Jiang.

The rolling landscape provides open spaces in various forms – from private inner courtyards and broad pedestrian walkways to urban parks. These layers of space offer access from all sides and encourage interaction between people and places.

The competition marks a beginning for the future development of Wenzhou. In this way, the Central Business District is a model for the process of transformation taking place in Chinese cities and their race for a distinct identity in the changing economic climate.

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Like many other economically aspiring cities in China, Wenzhou faces the challenge of establishing an urban identity that unites local traditions with viable concepts for the future.

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Client: Wenzhou-Oujiang City Development + Construction Commanding Center
Location: Wenzhou, China
Program: Office, Conference, Hotel, Retail, Park
Area: 400,000 sqm
Competition 2010: 1st Prize
Local Partner: IPPR International Engineering Corporation
Structural Engineering & Building Services: IPPR International Engineering Corporation
Design Team: Leander Adrian, Daniel da Rocha, Martin Henn, Ingrid Hufnagl, Markus Jacobi, Klaus Ransmayr, Max Schwitalla, Xin Wang, Sun Wei

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Huaxi city centre by MAD and others	Raffles City Hangzhou by UNStudio	More skyscrapers on Dezeen

Remember last summer when starchitect Will Alsop announced that he was getting out of the architecture business to concentrate on his painting? As quickly as that was announced, shortly thereafter it came out that, no, he was getting into becoming a professor. Finally, just a month or so later, he decided that he was going to stick with architecture after all and would be joining the international firm RMJM. Unfortunately, it’s looking like it may have been a better move to stick with his original painting and retirement plans as now RMJM is in something of a tumultuous flux, with not just layoffs, but staffers exiting en masse from several offices and at least twenty principals and senior staff have left as well. Specifically worse is that the firm has admitted that, after a year of employment, none of Alsop’s big projects have been picked up yet, something they undoubtedly must not have expected and which certainly isn’t helping the situation at a company “struggling to pay its bills” according to the Independent. Will Alsop stick it through and will RMJM, one of the largest firms in the world, make it through this bump in the road relatively unscathed? That’s a cliffhanger you’ll have to wait it out for.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

American studio Michael Graves & Associates have completed a new building to house over 230 cars of the Dutch national automobile museum in the Hague.

The new home for the Louwman Museum features peaked roofs and dormer windows in sympathy with traditional architecture in the area and attempts to resemble a traditional carriage house.

The facade is made of basket weave-patterned brickwork with bluestone details and a slate roof.

The building comprises an auditorium, restaurant, workshops, conference facilities and exhibition spaces.

The 185,000 square-foot building houses the largest collection of automotive art in the world.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

National Automobile Museum, designed by Michael Graves & Associates, opens in the Netherlands

Building’s Understated Elegance Gives Center Stage to Remarkable Collection

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS – Michael Graves & Associates, architects of more than 350 major buildings around the world, have just finished work on The Louwman Collection, the National Automobile Museum of the Netherlands. The project was designed by MGA Principal and Studio Head Gary Lapera, AIA.

Speaking of the firm’s interest in museum design, Founding Principal Michael Graves remarks, “For an architect, museums are certainly among the most gratifying commissions one can receive—they give you a chance to contribute to cultural history and to the public’s shared experience of that history. We’ve been fortunate to have designed a variety of museums over the years.” Says Gary Lapera, “In designing this particular museum, we were greatly influenced by the character of the historical and physical context, and endeavored to give this institution a presence with a unique sense of place.”

The 185,000-square-foot building contains temporary and permanent exhibition galleries, a reception hall, conference facilities, an auditorium, food service facilities, and workshops for conservation and repair of cars. A gift to the people of the Netherlands, the Louwman Collection is a public showcase of selections from collector Evert Louwman’s extraordinary vintage automobile collection. In addition, the National Automobile Museum of the Netherlands is home to the world’s largest collection of automotive art.

The museum’s simple design vocabulary and massing compliment its historic surroundings: located on a sensitive site near the Queen’s Palace in beautiful Den Haag. Steeply sloped peaked roofs and dormers, characteristic of traditional Dutch architecture, give the building’s exterior the visual aspect of a typical pre-modern carriage house, while breaking down the scale of the overall composition to be sympathetic to a nearby residential district.

The brickwork of the facades, laid in a basket-weave pattern interspersed with projecting bricks, creates textural interest within the otherwise planar surfaces, and is complemented by bluestone detailing and slate roofs. Inside, the Great Hall—a large barrel-vaulted space—creates an east-west spine through the building, separating the double-height volume of the exhibit area from the lower-scaled U-shaped public spaces that define the entry court.

To the rear of the site, a small octagonal pavilion used as a special gallery is located along the axis of an existing allée of trees in Haagsche Bos park. A quiet, contemplative space well suited to its site, the pavilion gracefully exerts a formal but tranquil presence on its serene setting.

About Michael Graves & Associates

Michael Graves & Associates has been in the forefront of architecture and design since AIA Gold Medalist Michael Graves founded his practice in 1964. Today, the practice comprises two firms run by 8 Principals.

Michael Graves & Associates (MGA) provides planning, architecture and interior design services, and Michael Graves Design Group (MGDG) specializes in product design, graphics and branding. MGA has designed many master plans and the architecture and interiors of over 350 buildings worldwide, including hotels and resorts, restaurants, retail stores, civic and cultural projects, office buildings, healthcare, residences and a wide variety of academic facilities.

MGDG has designed and brought to market over 2,000 products for clients such as Target, Alessi, Stryker and Disney. Graves and the firms have received over 200 awards for design excellence. With our unique, highly integrated multidisciplinary practice, the Michael Graves Companies offer strategic advantages to clients worldwide.

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Autostella by Supermachine Studio	Porsche Museum by Delugan Meissl	Automobile Museum by 3GATTI Architecture Studio

Never mind that pesky lawsuit filed back in September, the Art Institute of Chicago would much rather you focus on their positive news, like that nifty French Impressionism iPad app they’ve launched, or this week’s big news, that the organization has learned that it will be receiving more than 15,000 items from the collection of local architecture photography hero, Richard Nickel. The Chicago Tribune‘s Blair Kamin broke the story, sharing a peek at what’s in the collection, as well as the story behind its donation, from the Richard Nickel Committee. While the museum already had access to a large portion of Nickel’s photos, this huge new supply ups that tenfold, and should make for a busy exhibition once they figure out how and what to display. If you’re unfamiliar with Nickel’s work, which means that you don’t live in Chicago and don’t already have a copy of his posthumous book somewhere in your house, we highly recommend getting a copy of it immediately and also browsing what the museum has available online. You might also enjoy the Lost Buildings animation by Chris Ware and This American Life‘s Ira Glass, which tangentially touches on Nickel’s contributions to capturing Chicago’s architectural gems before they were destroyed.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.