Georgia is using architecture to rebrand itself like Germany did after the Second World War according to architect Jürgen Mayer H, who has built a range of striking border checkpoints, airports and service stations in the country (+ slideshow).
“Georgia is a country in need of a lot of infrastructure and a lot of things that make the country run like a normal country,” the German architect said in an interview with Dezeen.
“So there’s an urgency. I sometimes compare it to Germany in post-war times when a town hall had to be built, a bus station had to be built, just to make the country work, and that resulted in some great contemporary architecture.”
His architectural practice, J. Mayer H, has worked on a dozen infrastructure projects across the country, which is strategically located in the Caucasus between Europe and Asia and which was part of the Soviet Union until 1991.
Following independence and the “Rose Revolution” democratic reforms of 2003, Georgia embarked on a major investment programme, hiring leading architects to renew the country’s infrastructure.
The focus on infrastructure is an attempt to rebrand the young country, which is on an important transit route between west and east, said Mayer H.
“Georgia has a very rich history in architecture but it’s also a very transitory country,” he said. “People drive and transport things from Azerbaijan to Turkey, and architecture along those transportation routes is maybe the only thing that you see when you drive through the country.”
These projects are helping Georgia forge a new identity, a decade after the period of civil unrest and economic crisis that followed the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.
“Georgia has a very rich history in architecture but it’s also a very transitory country and it’s in a period of change right now,” said Mayer H, in an interview with Dezeen in Miami last week, where the architect presented an artwork at the Art Basel fair.
“Nothing really happened after the Soviet regime and architecture works quite well to show there’s a certain reach towards modernisation and a transformation of the country, also connecting the country to the West,” he said. “These projects are a very visible sign to show that there’s a change going on.”
Mayer H. became involved in that change at the invitation of Mikheil Saakashvili, who was president of Georgia from 2004 until last month.
“He saw our Metropol Parasol project [in Seville, Spain] in a book and he was inspired to invite me to talk about projects in Tbilisi,” the architect recounted. “I think he had a really interesting vision to see architecture not only in buildings that we think are high cultural buildings, but also in very mundane structures.”
“To see that as an architectural contribution – how you welcome people entering your country or say goodbye with your checkpoint – I think that’s really impressive,” he added.
Saakashvili stepped down as president in November after serving two consecutive terms, so Jürgen Mayer H predicts a pause in the country’s architectural development. “I think now it’s a moment where they stop a little bit and the new government uses this moment to rethink if this is the right speed of transformation, if it’s the right direction,” he said. “But of course there’s so much curiosity in the country, so it’s just having a little break before it continues again.”
J. Mayer H. have three ongoing projects in Georgia: a 2500-square-metre private house; Saakashvili’s presidential library in the capital Tbilisi; and an train station that will connect west and east.
“The station is in the middle of nowhere in the high plateau,” he told us. “It connects Turkey to Azerbaijan so they have to change the width of the train tracks, so everybody has to get out and everything has to be reloaded with security and customs and checkpoints and everything.”
1. Building 88 Ways Looking to literally turn reality on its head, photographer Víctor Enrich challenged himself to digitally manipulate a Munich building into 88 different forms for a staggering series of photographs. Enrich is known…
Danish architects COBE and Transform have completed an aluminium-clad museum of maritime history in Norway with a zigzagging profile modelled on the shapes of local wooden buildings (+ slideshow).
Located south-west of Oslo in the harbourside town of Porsgrunn, the Maritime Museum and Exploratorium was designed by COBE and Transform to relate to the scale of its surroundings, which include a number of small wooden residences and warehouses.
Photograph by Rasmus Hjortshøj
The architects broke the volume of the building down into eleven blocks, with asymmetric roofs that pitch in different directions. Combined, these shapes give a zigzagging roofline to each elevation.
Photograph by Rasmus Hjortshøj
“We wanted to understand the area’s characteristics and then we wanted to strengthen it but at the same time create something new and contrasting,” said COBE founder and director Dan Stubbergaard. “The abrupt building structure of downscaled building volumes and the expressive roof profile are, for example, clear references to the area’s historic small wooden buildings, which all have their own particular roof profiles.”
Photograph by Rasmus Hjortshøj
“This interpretation of the area’s pitched roofs and small wooden building entities sets the final frame for a unique and characteristic contemporary building,” he added.
Aluminium shingles give a scaly surface to the outer walls and roof of the museum, and pick up reflections from the river that runs alongside.
Opening today, the museum’s exhibition galleries chart the town’s maritime history and tell the story of its dockyard industry.
A grand staircase leads visitors up to a large exhibition hall on the first floor, while smaller galleries and events rooms are housed on the ground floor.
Transform principal Lars Bendrup said he hopes that the building will help to revitalise the formerly industrial section of the town.
“Our general vision was to turn a backside into a frontside,” he said. “With the new museum, the town will now orientate itself towards the beautiful river that for much too long has been Porsgrunn’s industrial backside.”
Photography is by Adam Mørk, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here’s a project description from COBE and Transform:
Porsgrunn Maritime Museum and Exploratorium
Today is the grand opening of a new spectacular Maritime Museum and Exploratorium in the Norwegian town Porsgrunn. The building is designed by the Danish architects COBE and TRANSFORM, and has already, before the opening, become an architectural landmark of the town.
From backside to frontside
Porsgrunn Maritime Museum and Exploratorium is situated in the Norwegian town of Porsgrunn, 100 km south west of Oslo. The new museum will tell the story of the town’s dock yard industry and its maritime history, which has employed thousands of people from the whole region. In addition, the attractive location of the museum right on the riverside opens up an important process for the city concerning the future extensive urban renewal of the entire Porsgrunn Harbour area.
“Porsgrunn is an industrial town, which is reflected clearly in the museum’s surrounding context. It consists of small to medium sized industries in the shape of small characteristic wooden buildings. It was important to create a museum with a high level of sensitivity towards these surroundings, yet at the same time for the new Maritime Museum and Exploratorium to stand out as a spectacular contemporary building and become a landmark of Porsgrunn,” Lars Bendrup explains, owner of TRANSFORM, and continues: “Our general vision was to turn a backside into a frontside. With the new museum the town will now orientate itself towards the beautiful river, which for much too long has been Porsgrunn’s industrial backside.”
New meets old
The new Maritime Museum and Exploratorium is composed of eleven smaller square volumes, together amounting to almost 2,000 m2. Each volume has a different roof slant that assembled make up a varied roof structure. A characteristic aluminium facade, locally produced in Porsgrunn, not only holds the dynamic building structure together, but at the same time it reflects light and colours from the surrounding Norwegian mountain landscape.
Dan Stubbergaard, founder and creative director of COBE, elaborates: “It is a sensitive art adding new to old in a historic area. First of all we wanted to understand the area’s characteristics and then we wanted to strengthen it but at the same time create something new and contrasting. The abrupt building structure of downscaled building volumes and the expressive roof profile are for example clear references to the area’s historic small wooden buildings, which all have their own particular roof profiles. This interpretation of the area’s pitched roofs and small wooden building entities sets the final frame for a unique and characteristic contemporary building.”
He continues: “The goal was to create a house that not only understands and shows consideration for its surroundings, but also contributes with something radically new and different.”
Porsgrunn Maritime Museum and Exploratorium Porsgrunn, Norway Client: Telemark Museum Architects: COBE and TRANSFORM Engineers: Sweco Gross area: 2.000 m2 Construction period: 2011-2013 Total construction costs: 34 mio.
Hello Wood has gotten into the holiday swing of things with a Ai Weiwei-esque installation. With 365 sleighs, some colored lights and lots of helpful hands, the Hungary-based art program put together a Christmas tree made entirely of the multitude of sleighs. The entire installment—which is on display at the Palace of Arts in Budapest—gives off the same glow and textures that we see in Weiwei’s bike installations.
Lucky for us, the organization has created an online panoramic view just in case you can’t make it to Hungary this holiday season. You can take a look at the entire structure from two vantage points: a passerby’s view and an inside look at the core of the installation (which you can also experience on-site.
News: the American Institute of Architects has named Californian architect Julia Morgan as the first female recipient of the AIA Gold Medal, 56 years after her death.
Julia Morgan (1872-1957), whose best-known buildings include the Hearst Castle mansion in San Simeon (main image) and St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, will posthumously becomes the first woman to receive the AIA‘s highest accolade in the 105-year history of the programme.
After being the first woman to study architecture at the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Morgan became California’s first licensed female architect in 1904. She then went on to design over 700 buildings, including houses, museums, churches, hotels and offices, in a variety of different historical styles that included Tudor, Georgian and Spanish colonial.
“She designed buildings to fit her clients, blending design strategy with structural articulation in a way that was expressive and contextual, leaving us a legacy of treasures that were as revered when she created them as they are cherished today,” wrote architect Michael Graves in a recommendation letter.
Architecture critic Alexandra Lange commented via Twitter: “There’s only one other case of awarding [the medal] to a long-dead person. Morgan, who is deserving, is an anodyne choice for the first woman to get the medal. She would not have been during her lifetime.”
However AIA board member Julia Donoho told Architect magazine that she began her search for “the first women to win the Gold Medal” when she joined the board a year ago. Donoho said she nominated Morgan because she felt that the organisation needed to go back in time and recognise female architects who “were overlooked”.
Scott Brown, who also recommended Morgan, said: “Her work mirrored the social and economic burgeoning of California and the changing roles of women. Now that we are taking off our blinders, we can see Morgan’s greatness. Including her now will help the profession diversify its offerings to include greater richness and creativity of expression.”
“Her story tells us not to look at her gender, but to look at her work,” added Frank Gehry in his own recommendation letter. “Her projects are personal, distinctive, and were built in a lasting and sustainable manner.”
St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley – photograph c/o Mark Anthony Wilson
Morgan is the 70th recipient of the Gold Medal, which is awarded annually by the AIA in recognition of a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. Other recent recipients of the award include Thom Mayne of Morphosis Architects and New York architect Steven Holl.
From next year, the criteria for the award will be altered to include two people working together, providing that their collaborative efforts are recognised as having created a singular body of architectural work. This paves the way for partners, such as Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi, to collectively receive the medal in future years.
Here’s the full announcement from the AIA:
Early 20th-century architect becomes the first female to receive the Gold Medal
The Board of Directors of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) voted today to posthumously award the 2014 AIA Gold Medal to Julia Morgan, FAIA, whose extensive body of work has served as an inspiration to several generations of architects.
The AIA Gold Medal, voted on annually, is considered to be the profession’s highest honor that an individual can receive. The Gold Medal honors an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. Morgan’s legacy will be honored at the AIA 2014 National Convention and Design Exposition in Chicago.
Morgan, who died in 1957, won a litany of firsts she used to establish a new precedent for greatness. A building technology expert that was professionally adopted by some of the most powerful post-Gilded age patrons imaginable, Morgan practiced for nearly 50 years and designed more than 700 buildings of almost every type, including houses, churches, hotels, commercial buildings, and museums. The first woman admitted to the prestigious architecture school at the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Morgan designed comfortably in a wide range of historic styles.
“Julia Morgan is unquestionably among the greatest American architects of all time and a true California gem,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in her recommendation letter. “Morgan’s legacy has only grown over the years. She was an architect of remarkable breadth, depth, and consistency of exceptional work, and she is widely known by the quality of her work by those who practice, teach, and appreciate architecture.”
Born in 1872, Morgan grew up in Oakland, Calif. Exceptionally bright from a young age, she was one of the first women to study civil engineering at the University of California-Berkeley, where she caught the eye of AIA Gold Medalist Bernard Maybeck, who taught there. He gave Morgan what he would give the best and brightest of any gender: a recommendation to apply for the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts, the most prominent architecture school of its day. But there were two problems: She was a foreigner, and subject to unstated, but strict quotas, and a woman. No female had ever been admitted. She failed the first entrance exam; her second exam was discounted for no other reason than her gender. She was finally admitted after her third try. She completed the entire program in 1902.
Back in Berkeley, Morgan went to work for architect John Galen Howard, designing buildings for her undergraduate alma mater. In 1904, she became the first women licensed to practice architecture in California, and opened her own firm.
An early project was an open air Classical Greek theater; the first such structure in the nation. After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, much of the city was leveled, but her greek theater survived, providing her with a level of unprecedented credibility. In addition to this project solidifying her reputation, the project also brought her closer into the orbit of Phoebe Apperson Hearst, a university booster and mother to publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. Word of Morgan’s skill with reinforced concrete spread across California. She began to take advantage of the material’s groundbreaking plasticity and flexibility in imaginative, new ways, savoring opportunities to clamber through scaffolding at buildings sites to inspect the work.
What stands out most is the vast array of architectural styles she employed: Tudor and Georgian houses, Romanesque Revival churches, and Spanish Colonial country estates with an Islamic tinge. Her late-period Beaux-Arts education gave her the ability to design in these historicist styles, gathering up motifs and methods from all of Western architectural history to select the approach most appropriate for each unique site and context.
“She designed buildings to fit her clients, blending design strategy with structural articulation in a way that was expressive and contextual, leaving us a legacy of treasures that were as revered when she created them as they are cherished today,” wrote AIA Gold Medalist Michael Graves, FAIA, in a recommendation letter.
Some of Morgan’s most notable projects include:
St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, an excellent example of First Bay architecture. An intimately scaled church, its interior is entirely clad in redwood, including open cross-strut beams that create a sense of humble grace and wonderment.
Asilomar YWCA in Pacific Grove, Calif., this YWCA conference center (Morgan designed approximately 30 YWCAs) is perhaps the largest Arts and Crafts campus complex anywhere, according to Sara Holmes Boutelle’s book Julia Morgan Architect. Its palette of rich natural materials and fluid mix of indoor and outdoor spaces suits its pleasant Northern California climate.
The Hearst Castle in San Simeon, Calif., William Randolph Hearts’ seaside retreat, 165 rooms across 250,000 acres, all dripping with detailing that’s opulent bordering on delirious. The style is generally Spanish Colonial, but the estate seems to compress Morgan’s skill at operating in different design languages: Gothic, Neoclassical, as well as Spanish Colonial, all into one commission.
Morgan joined the AIA in 1921 as only the seventh female member. She is the 70th AIA Gold Medalist and joins the ranks of such visionaries as Thomas Jefferson (1993), Frank Lloyd Wright (1949), Louis Sullivan (1944), Le Corbusier (1961), Louis I. Kahn (1971), I.M. Pei (1979), Santiago Calatrava (2005), Glenn Murcutt (2009), and Thom Mayne (2013). In recognition of her legacy to architecture, her name will be chiseled into the granite Wall of Honor in the lobby of the AIA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Japanese architect Tomohiro Hata planned this suburban house in Hyogo Prefecture as a cluster of three buildings around a courtyard, based on the traditional city residences of farmers, artisans and merchants.
Named House N, the family residence was designed by Tomohiro Hata to reference Japanese minka, a typical vernacular home from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that is often made up of several structures. These can include a main building, a separate cottage, a warehouse and a chicken coop.
“Following the form of traditional Japanese private houses, we considered an arrangement that can let all rooms open to the garden,” said Hata.
The three buildings fold around the generously sized courtyard, but also lead out to two smaller gardens at the corners of the site, which are enclosed behind a high perimeter wall.
“The building and the wall are integrated, so that the arrangement [of the plan] can be designed as freely as possible,” added Hata.
All three buildings have separate entrances, but are connected to one another by glazed corridors that allow views between the three outdoor spaces.
The largest of the three buildings is a two-storey structure with a dining room and kitchen on the lower level and a childrens’ room above.
Another two-storey block contains a multi-purpose room and the master bedroom, while the smallest building houses the family living room.
Large windows direct views towards the courtyard, which is made up of wooden platforms at different heights to one another.
The site slopes down at the rear, so the architect has slotted a single-car garage underneath the house.
Photography is by Toshiyuki Yano.
Here’s a project description from Tomohiro Hata:
House N
Housing that takes advantage of the richness of a private house in the city.
It is found that an architectural form as a main building, a separated cottage, and a warehouse: kura are built within a site surrounded softly by a wall at the suburbs of Sasayama city and Tamba city in Hyogo prefecture where many traditional houses remain.
Surrounding the area softly with walls, each of the rooms faces to the inner courtyard produced by the external space between each building. It is a very simple and rich living space as you can keep it open with feeling at ease.
By focusing on the characteristics of the house that site area is limited at suburbs in the complicated city described above, we aimed to create the environment protected as a residence with opening to the outside of the house.
La firme basée à Shanghaï Studio Twist a transformé un bâtiment servant à l’origine de bunker en galerie, connu sous le nom de Connoisseur Gallery. Avec des choix de décoration originaux, ce lieu proposant une collection de pièces et objets exotiques propose une ambiance unique, mélangeant l’étrange au luxueux.
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