Les jeunes designers polonais Maciej Kurkowski et Maciej Sutula ont collaboré pour ce projet appelé « Kredytowa » : construire un appartement et une salle de conférence à Varsovie. L’intérieur est parsemé de détails comme par exemple des gravures sur les murs ou au sol. Les photos sont de Paulina Sasinowska.
Eight intersecting arches give a towering symmetry to this copper-coated mausoleum erected in the English countryside for a revered Iranian philosopher (photography by Edmund Sumner).
Designed by emerging London studio Borheh, the structure was built as a memorial to Javad Nurbakhsh – a master within the branch of Islam known as Sufism, which is thought by some to be a philosophy of existence that pre-dates religion.
The structure is located within a dense thicket of woodland in Oxfordshire, on a site chosen by Nurbakhsh, who spent the latter years of his life in England.
Raised off the forest floor on a tiered plinth, it comprises a ring of copper-coated steel triangles. These are expected to change colour as they gradually oxidise, allowing the tower to show its age.
“The mausoleum’s blend of striking design and organic materials presents a refreshingly modern take on mysticism without detracting from its timeless spiritual ideals,” said the architect in a statement.
The arched forms chosen reference some of the characteristic motifs of Persian architecture, creating a tower intended to demonstrate “geometrical perfection and simplicity”.
“The mausoleum combines traditional Persian architecture with contemporary materials local to Iran, resulting in a construction that reflects the Iranian heritage of Dr Nurbakhsh, while remaining in keeping with the English landscape,” said the architect.
The structure was built as a series of modules using local artisanal techniques in Iran. These were then shipped across to the UK and erected onsite.
Contemporary Sufi memorial brings Iranian mysticism to the heart of the English countryside
A mausoleum dedicated to the memory of a prominent Iranian Sufi master, Dr Javad Nurbakhsh (10th December 1926 – 10th October 2008), has recently completed construction. The mausoleum’s blend of striking design and organic materials presents a refreshingly modern take on mysticism without detracting from its timeless spiritual ideals.
London based multidisciplinary creative studio, Borheh, have unveiled the completed mausoleum which adds a unique spiritual presence to the Oxfordshire countryside. Located near Banbury, England, the mausoleum stands on a beautiful natural location chosen by Dr Nurbakhsh himself during his lifetime. It is nestled amongst a dense wooded grove, named “the Forest”, which was planted by Dr Nurbakhsh in the 1990s.
The mausoleum combines traditional Persian architecture with contemporary materials local to Iran, resulting in a construction that reflects the Iranian heritage of Dr Nurbakhsh, while remaining in keeping with the English landscape. The structure is created from copper-coated steel which will naturally change colour over time as it is exposed to the elements, allowing it to evolve and adapt organically within the forest.
Using traditional Persian architectural motifs, the mausoleum evokes the principles of Sufi mysticism with a unified display of geometrical perfection and simplicity. Eight overlapping triangular arches converge together in a form known as karbandy, maintaining a balance of strength and elegance across every point. The geometrical perfection of the form is manifested through its interaction with the sun, as the natural path of sunlight creates a unique pattern of shadows through the passing of the day.
For minimum impact to the natural landscape, Borheh utilised an innovative approach to construction by following a modular method. Each part of the mausoleum was constructed separately in Iran, using local artisanal techniques. It was then transported to the UK and reassembled on site. While this was by no means an easy endeavour, the process ensured both the protection of the natural woodland that would be home to the mausoleum and remained faithful to the mausoleum’s cultural heritage.
The project represents a combination of traditional artistic principles and cutting edge technologies – the ideal monument to the life and work of a modern mystic.
A concrete tunnel slices through the base of this Tokyo house by Japanese architect Makiko Tsukada, creating a round hole in the facade that reveals the underside of a staircase (+ slideshow).
Makiko Tsukada designed Tunnel House for a site facing a T-junction, so her concept was to produce a form that appears as a continuation of the road. The result is a curving container that cuts through the entire ground floor.
“Our design intention is to provide a visual extension of the street on the site so that it creates a virtual crossroads,” said Tsukada.
The rest of the house is planned around the tunnel, creating a series of unusual features that include a floating steel floor, a dining table beneath a staircase, a triple-height courtyard and a bedroom without a ceiling.
The architect categorises these spaces as uchi, which means “in the tunnel”, and soto, which means “out of the tunnel”.
“One of the visitors’ comments was that ‘tunnel-uchi’ and ‘tunnel-soto’ betray one’s sense of space, as one feels like being outside while actually being inside the house,” she explained.
A glazed wall exposes the full outline of the tunnel from the house’s entrance. Inside, the structure is revealed to be wrapping around a pair of lidless boxes that contain the main bedroom and bathroom.
“From the bedroom box, one can see the view of the entire ‘tunnel-uchi’ space as if seeing an exterior view from a rooftop,” said Tsukada.
Two double-height spaces behind the curving concrete accommodate a small study and a toilet. Glass doors lead out from spaces into the simple courtyard, which is sandwiched in between.
A staircase leads up onto the top of the tunnel, which doubles as a mezzanine walkway. Residents can then access a guest bedroom and dining room, located on the suspended steel floor that provides the uppermost storey.
The dining table sits over the stairwell and has a mirrored underside that creates upside-down reflections.
Photography is by Shinkenchiku-sha.
Read on for a project description from Makiko Tsukada:
Tunnel House
The site is at the end of a T-junction. Our design intention is to provide a visual extension of the street on the site so that it creates a virtual cross road. The interior space and the exterior space are connected by carving out a part of the volume along the extended axis of the street. The tunnel-like configuration is intended to activate both “uchi” (in the tunnel) and “soto” (out of the tunnel) spaces.
The open side of the quarter cylinder is enclosed by glass. The “tunnel-uchi” comprises two small boxes containing a bedroom and a bathroom respectively. The bedroom is enclosed by screen-like partitions and its ceiling is open. From the bedroom box, one can see the view of the entire “tunnel-uchi” space from there as if seeing an exterior view from a rooftop.
The opening at the side of the tunnel is connected to the “tunnel-soto” space. “Tunnel-soto” space is an interior space where the light that is cascading down along the tunnel surface from the oblong top light and the light coming down from the courtyard intersect each other three-dimensionally.
When going up the stairs, one can see the entire “tunnel-soto” space. From the gap of the floating steel floor, one can see the reflected image of “tunnel-soto” space on the mirrored surface on the rear side of the tabletop on the second floor. The floating steel floor and the super-thin 6mm thick table give the space a surreal atmosphere of floating and expansion, while creating a sharp contrast with the immense volume of the tunnel.
One of the visitors’ comments was that “tunnel-uchi” space and “tunnel-soto” spaces betray one’s sense of space, as one feels like being outside while actually being inside the house. By experiencing repeated reversals of the interior and the exterior spaces (betrayed feelings), one probably can feel a sense of expansion and openness in this tunnel house.
Location: Suginami-ku, Tokyo Structure: Reinforced Concrete and Steel Principal Use: Residence, Office Site Area: 82.39m2 Total Floor Area: 87.17m2 (43.65m2/1F, 43.52m2/2F) Structural Engineer: Taizen Nieda and Taizo Komatsu
News:Herzog & de Meuron has won a competition to design a hospital in a Danish forest, with plans for a building shaped like a four-leaf clover (+ slideshow).
Located north of Copenhagen in Hillerød, the New North Zealand Hospital will be Herzog & de Meuron‘s first project in Scandinavia and will be completed in collaboration with local firm Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects.
The building is conceived as a low-rise pavilion-like structure that never exceeds four storeys in height. A total of 24 medical departments will be housed inside and a large garden will be located on the roof.
Herzog & de Meuron says the structure will demonstrate that architectural ambition and functionality can be combined within a hospital.
“The choice of the jury is a seminal sign to architects and the entire health-care sector: low, flat hospital buildings can be better integrated in the city or the countryside than the high-rises structures that were often realised in the last decades,” said the studio.
“The hospital organically reaches out into the wide landscape. Simultaneously its soft, flowing form binds the many components of the hospital. It is a low building that fosters exchange between staff and patients, and it has a human scale despite its very large size.”
The building is scheduled to open in 2020, but could also facilitate an expansion in 2050.
“Herzog & de Meuron have designed a patient-centred hospital – a beautiful, healing and functional building that supports our patients’ recovery in the best possible way,” said hospital director Bente Ourø Rørth. “The hospital’s great strength is its highly successful and fundamental fusion of form and function.”
Architect Anupama Kundoo discusses the power of craft and working with traditional stone masons, in the second of our series of movies from BE OPEN’s Made In… India Samskara exhibition in New Delhi.
Architect Anupama Kundoo, who designed the exhibition
For architect Anupama Kundoo, being surrounded by work made using hand-crafted techniques is a reminder that there is an alternative to the “standardised industrial products”, people have become used to.
“We are all different, we are all unique, and it’s very strange that we have to be adjusting ourselves continually to standard products.” she says. “We have just accepted and surrendered ourselves to this future: it doesn’t have to be like that.”
The granite slabs rise up from the floor to create plinths to support the exhibits
She describes her installation as an undulating landscape, made from three principle elements: ferrocement slabs, pools of water and modular slabs of hand-levelled granite. This landscape hosts the homeware, lighting, clothes and furniture on display.
The granite slabs were hand-levelled in Tamil Nadu
Kundoo teamed up with stone-cutters from Tamil Nadu in the south of India to produce the slabs that dip and rise throughout the space. These long granite strips make up both the floor of the space and the surfaces for displaying the exhibits.
Detail of the granite slabs, here supporting a terracotta speaker
“These heavy slabs flow through the space like ribbons,” says Kundoo. “They frame the space and the undulations come out [of] the function: to raise the slab to the level required to display a particular object.”
Exhibits raised on plinths above one of the pools in the exhibition
“The actual elements are modular. The pieces rest on a sand bed and they can be reassembled in a wide range of ways and it can all be directly reused,” she says.
View of the entrance to the exhibition, showing the granite floor in the foreground, the ferrocement to the rear of the image
It took the masons six week to level the granite used in the exhibition, through a painstaking process of hand-levelling, a technique normally used to make stones for grinding masala paste, says Kundoo.
The exhibition contained two pools of water
Seeing the exhibition design, with these familiar techniques used in unexpected ways, had a dramatic effect on the craftsmen, said Kundoo.
“They’ve been making stone slabs for generations. But when they see [them], in this kind of composition, they realise that that they can make anything.” she says.
Three pieces by designer Gunjan Gupta on a ferrocement plinth
Kundoo works between Spain and India. In 2012 she exhibited her Wall House project at the Venice Architecture Biennale. This project also used the skills of Indian craftsmen — she brought a team to Italy to construct a full-size replica of a house inside the Arsenale.
Samskara, which ran from 10 to 28 February at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi, launched BE OPEN’s Made In… programme, a two-year-long project focussing on the future of craft in design.
The music featured in the movie is a track called Bonjour by Kartick & Gotam on Indian record label EarthSync.
Austrian firm Coop Himmelb(l)au has completed a major new concert venue and music school in the Danish city of Aalborg, which claims to be “one of the quietest spaces for symphonic music in Europe” (+ slideshow).
Located on the edge of the Limfjord – the body of water that bounds the city – the House of Music was designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au as a cultural hub that accommodates both a 1300-seat performance venue and a music college.
The architect worked closely with an acoustic consultant to develop a curvaceous auditorium that will offer exemplary acoustics. This is encased within a U-shaped volume that contains the classrooms and rehearsal areas of the school.
“The idea behind the building can already be read from the outer shape. The school embraces the concert hall,” said Coop Himmelb(l)au principal Wolf D. Prix.
Externally, the building’s facade is a composition of boxy volumes, undulating roof canopies, circular windows and latticed walls of glazing.
According to Prix the design is intended to represent the unity between music and architecture: “Music is the art of striking a chord in people directly. Like the body of musical instruments this architecture serves as a resonance body for the creativity in the House of Music.”
Visitors enter through a five-storey-high atrium with a concrete staircase winding up through its centre. This provides access to different levels of the auditorium, but also leads to an observation area facing out over the fjord.
Windows within the interior offer glimpsed views into the auditorium from the surrounding spaces. There are also three smaller performance spaces located underneath the foyer.
Water-filled pipes run through the concrete floor slab to provide heating in winter and help keep the building cool in summer. This will be controlled as part of an intelligent building management system.
The House of Music opened with a thirteen-day extravaganza of concerts, performances, film and fireworks.
Scroll down for the project description from Coop Himmelb(l)au:
House of Music as a creative centre for Aalborg
After four years of construction, the “House of Music” in Aalborg, Denmark was ceremoniously opened on March 29, 2014 by the Danish Queen Margrethe II.
This cultural centre was designed by the Viennese architectural studio Coop Himmelb(l)au as a combined school and concert hall: its open structure promotes the exchange between the audience and artists, and the students and teachers.
U-shaped rehearsal and training rooms are arranged around the core of the ensemble, a concert hall for about 1,300 visitors. A generous foyer connects these spaces and opens out with a multi-storey window area onto an adjacent cultural space and a fjord. Under the foyer, three more rooms of various sizes complement the space: the intimate hall, the rhythmic hall, and the classic hall. Through multiple observation windows, students and visitors can look into the concert hall from the foyer and the practice rooms and experience the musical events, including concerts and rehearsals.
The concert hall
The flowing shapes and curves of the auditorium inside stand in contrast to the strict, cubic outer shape. The seats in the orchestra and curved balconies are arranged in such a way that offers the best possible acoustics and views of the stage. The highly complex acoustic concept was developed in collaboration with Tateo Nakajima at Arup. The design of the amorphous plaster structures on the walls and the height-adjustable ceiling suspensions, based on the exact calculations of the specialist in acoustics, ensures for the optimal listening experience. The concert hall will be one of the quietest spaces for symphonic music in Europe, with a noise-level reduction of NR10 (GK10). Thanks to its architectural and acoustic quality, the concert hall is already well-booked: there will be concerts featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with violin soloist Arabella Steinbacher and the Danish National Radio Orchestra with soprano Mojca Erdmann in April.
The foyer serves as a meeting place for students, artists, teachers, and visitors. Five stories high with stairs, observation balconies, and large windows with views of the fjord, it is a lively, dynamic space that can be used for a wide variety of activities.
Instead of fans, the foyer uses the natural thermal buoyancy in the large vertical space for ventilation. Water-filled hypocaust pipes in the concrete floor slab are used for cooling in summer and heating in winter. The concrete walls around the concert hall act as an additional storage capacity for thermal energy. The fjord is also used for cost-free cooling.
The piping and air vents are equipped with highly efficient rotating heat exchangers. Very efficient ventilation systems with low air velocities are attached under the seats in the concert hall. Air is extracted through a ceiling grid above the lighting system so that any heat produced does not cause a rise in the temperature in the room.
The building is equipped with a building management program that controls the equipment in the building and ensures that no system is active when there is no need for it. In this way, energy consumption is minimised.
Planning: Coop Himmelb(l)au, Wolf D. Prix & Partner ZT GmbH Design Principal/ CEO: Wolf D. Prix Project Partner: Michael Volk Design Architect: Luzie Giencke Project Architect: Marcelo Bernardi, Pete Rose Design Architect Interior: Eva Wolf
News: “An architecture challenge doesn’t come much better than this,” says David Chipperfield, who has been named winner in the competition to design a new home for the Nobel Prize in Stockholm (+ slideshow).
David Chipperfield Architects saw off competition from Swedish studios Wingårdh and Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor to land the prestigious commission to create the Nobel Center – an exhibition centre and events venue for the award that recognises advances in science and culture.
“I think all projects are important but this project has enormous meaning, not just for the city of Stockholm but internationally. An architecture challenge doesn’t come much better than this,” said Chipperfield.
The architect’s vision is for a shimmering brass-clad building on the waterfront. It will be fully glazed on the ground floor, opening out to a new city park on the sunny south-eastern side of the site.
“The jury finds the lightness and openness of the building very appealing and consistent with the Nobel Foundation’s explicit ambition to create an open and welcoming centre for the general public,” said Nobel Foundation executive director Lars Heikensten, who was a member of the judging panel.
“We view the winning proposal as a concrete interpretation of the Nobel Prize as Sweden’s most important symbol in the world. Stockholm will gain a building – magnificent but without pomp, powerful yet graceful – with qualities like those the City Hall gave the capital a century ago.”
Fellow jury member Per Wästberg added: “We view the winning proposal as a concrete interpretation of the Nobel Prize as Sweden’s most important symbol in the world. Stockholm will gain a building – magnificent but without pomp, powerful yet graceful – with qualities like those the City Hall gave the capital a century ago.”
As well as hosting the annual award ceremony each December, the building will provide a public centre for exhibitions, educational activities, events and meetings.
Proposed site plan
“It can be spectacular on its greatest night, but also it can be very useful and functional and working the rest of the year,” said Chipperfield.
Le photographe japonais Sinichi Higashi (aussi connu sous le nom de Sinkdd) a fait la série « Graffiti of Speed / Mirror Symmetry » dans laquelle il capture la ville de Tokyo en combinant longue exposition et symétrie. Un très beau light painting aux lumières de la ville est à découvrir en photos dans la suite.
Take a walk through it and you might not even realize you’re not in a scenic park but rather a mega skyscraper. It’s called Re-Silience— living architecture that uses as much (or even more) area for green spaces as the structure’s footprint takes up in land space. Inspired by honeycombs, coral reefs, and ant nests, the design is focused on optimal use of soil and biomass that’s normally lost in urban environments. It’s not only eco-concious, but as beautiful as a stroll through the park!
Designers: Diego Espinosa Figueroa, Javiera Valenzuela Gonzalez
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Living Skyscraper was originally posted on Yanko Design)
Children can clamber onto the curved roof of this community library in China, which architects John Lin and Olivier Ottevaere designed for an earthquake-damaged village in Yunnan Province (+ slideshow)
Ottevaere and Lin led a team from the University of Hong Kong to design The Pinch, a library and community centre built as part of a government reconstruction following the 2012 Yunnan earthquakes.
Situated in the mountain village of Shuanghe in south-west China, the library and surrounding plaza offers a meeting place for local residents, as well as a space where children can play and read.
“Villages in China often prioritise building houses over community spaces and community programs, even though it is an important aspect of village life,” Lin told Dezeen.
“Although the government provided an open plaza for the reconstruction, we wanted to help introduce a program which would activate the site. By adding the library, we have created an important public and communal facility in the village,” he explained.
The library features a twisted shape that bends out to meet an elevated stretch of pavement, allowing visitors to walk over the roof and look out towards a new basketball court.
Inside, rows of books sit on shelves made from interlocking timber frames, which are suspended from the ceiling and hover just above the floor.
Simple school benches offer flexible seating, while polycarbonate plastic doors and windows front the building.
The project was part-funded by the University of Hong Kong. Forming part of a knowledge exchange project, the design team worked with a local timber company to learn about native wood and regional construction techniques.
Here’s a project description from the design team:
The Pinch: library and community centre
The Pinch is a library and community centre in Shuanghe Village, Yunnan Province, China. The project is part of a government-led reconstruction effort after an earthquake in Sept 2012. The majority of village houses were destroyed, leaving the residents living in tents for up to one year. After the earthquake the government has sponsored new concrete and brick houses and a large central plaza. During the first site visit, the houses remained incomplete and the plaza was a large empty site.
The University of Hong Kong decided to sponsor the design and implementation of a new library building. Located in the new but empty public plaza, it would serve to activate the community and provide a physical memorial for the event. The site of the library is against a 4 meter high retaining wall. The design spans across this level difference and acts as a bridge between the rebuilt village and the new memorial plaza. Emphasising its location in a remote mountain valley, the design responds visually to the space of the valley, offering stunning views across a dramatic double curved roof. The structure itself rises to a peak, a monument to the earthquake and rebuilding effort.
As a Knowledge Exchange Project, the construction involves collaboration with a local timber manufacturing factory. The process resulted in the development of a surprisingly diverse form through simple means. A series of trusses is anchored between the upper road level and lower plaza level.
The form of each truss changes to create both a gradual incline (to bring people down) and then a sharp upward pitch (to elevate the roof). The trusses were covered in an aluminium waterproofing layer and timber decking. On the interior, the trusses extend downward to support a floating bookshelf. Simple traditional school benches are used as chairs. The polycarbonate doors can open to create a completely open space extending out to the plaza.
Rather than submitting to the abandonment of wood construction (as with the houses after the earthquake), the project reasserts the ability to build contemporary timber structures in remote areas of China.
Construction diagram
Location: Shuanghe Village, Yunnan Province, China Design: Olivier Ottevaere and John Lin / The University of Hong Kong Construction: Kunming Dianmuju Shangmao Company Funding: Supported by the Knowledge Exchange Impact Award, HKU Project Team: Crystal Kwan (Project Manager), Ashley Hinchcliffe, Connie Cheng, Johnny Cullinan, Jacky Huang Size: 80 sqm Cost: 130,000 rmb Unit Cost: 1600 rmb/sqm
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