Hasta La Ideas

Ornate wooden screens shroud one side of this theatre in Wuzhen, China, while the other side is shielded behind angular brickwork fins (+ slideshow).

Designed by Taiwanese architect Kris Yao of Artech Architects, the shape of the building was modelled on the rare twin lotus flower – an anomaly where two flower heads sprout from a single stalk – to create a pair of oval-shaped auditoriums that share a single stage area.

“The greatest challenge was to design a large building containing two theatres in this small village,” said the architects, explaining their decision to overlap the 600- and 1200-seat auditoriums.

Wuzhou, nicknamed Venice of the East, is a village where canals take the place of streets. Visitors can either arrive at the building by boat, or approach on foot across a bridge.

Zig-zagging wooden screens fold around the glazed exterior of the largest auditorium, allowing light to permeate the building. At night, this facade glows to create a bright beacon reflected in the surrounding waters.

The smaller auditorium is surrounded by overlapping fin-like walls, which were built from a traditional grey-blue brick and have slivers of glazing tucked between them.

The Wuzhen Theatre is intended as the venue for an international theatre festival, but could also be used for fashion shows, music performances or as a wedding centre.

The building was one of over 280 projects shortlisted for awards at this year’s World Architecture Festival in Singapore, which took place last week. See all our coverage of WAF 2013 »

Other theatres we’ve featured from China include a Shanghai building resembling a cluster of duck feet and the Guangzhou Opera House by Zaha Hadid.

See more theatre design »
See more architecture in China »

Here’s a project description from Artech Architects:

Like a twin lotus, the theatres rise from the water in this dream-like town…

In this romantic and surreal water village in China, the owner of the development decided that Wuzhen would be an important name in the global atlas of theatre where an International Theatre Festival would be located. In order to complete his vision, Kris Yao and his team was asked to design the Wuzhen Grand Theatre.

The greatest challenge was to design a large building containing two theatres with 1200 and 600 seats back to back, with modern theatre functions in this small, traditional water village in southern China. Using the culturally auspicious “twin lotus” as its metaphor, which functions perfectly with two theatres sharing one stage area, the design is composed of two oval shapes interlocking one another, one of them transparent and the opaque in form.

Due to its dual purposes of the theatre festival and tourism, the functions of the theatres are multifold. Possibilities include formal stage performances, avant-garde creations, fashion shows, conventions and wedding ceremonies.

Visitors arrive at the theatres by wooden boats or on foot from an island across the bridge. The smaller theatre to the right is located within the ‘solid’ volume, where pedal-like segments of thick reclining walls, clad in ancient super-sized brick, wrap around the foyer. The grand theatre to the left, enclosed in the zigzag fan-shaped glass front with a Chinese window motif, glows in the evenings and reflects on the water, adding charm to the already misty and surreal atmosphere of this otherworldly water village.

Project: Wuzhen Theatre
Location: Zhejiang, China
Clients: Wuzhen Tourism Development Co., Ltd
Design Architect: Kris Yao, Artech Architects
Design Team – Taipei: Kuo-Chien Shen, Winnie Wang, Wen-Li Liu, Jake Sun, Andy Chang, Kevin Lin
Design Team – Shanghai: Wen-Hong Chu, Fei-Chun Ying, Nai-Wen Cheng, Chu-Yi Hsu, Qi-Shen Wu, Jane jiang,
Collaborative design institute: Shanghai Institute of Architectural Design & Research Co. Ltd

Theatre consultants: Theatre Projects Consultants Ltd
Façade consultants: maRco Skin Studio
Acoustic consultants: Shen Milsom &Wilke Ltd
Contractor: Jujiang Construction Group

Building structure: reinforced concrete, steel framing
Materials: blue bricks, glass curtain wall, wood grilles
Floor Levels: 2 floors above ground, 1 floor below ground
Building Use: theatre
Site Area: 54,980 sqm
Lot Coverage Area: 6,920 sqm
Total Floor Area: 21,750 sqm

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Artech Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki has gathered a throng of designers including Toyo Ito, Sou Fujimoto, Kengo Kuma and Riken Yamamoto to oppose the design of Zaha Hadid’s 2020 Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.

Maki, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1993, has organised a symposium where Japanese architects will protest against the scale of the proposed 80,000-seat stadium, which is set to become the main sporting venue for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games.

Sou Fujimoto told the Architects’ Journal (£) that the campaign was set up because Zaha Hadid‘s building will be “too big” in relation to its surroundings, which include Kenzo Tange’s iconic 1964 Olympic stadium.

“I hope that this protest is successful in shrinking the design to fit the context,” he told the magazine. “I’m not fighting Zaha. The competition for the stadium was very rigorous and we can’t overturn everything. But the design could be better.”

The symposium, entitled Re-thinking the New National Olympic Stadium in the historical context of Gaien, takes place tomorrow and will be streamed live via the Ustream website. Other architects involved include Hidenobu Jinnai, Taro Igarashi, Shinji Miyadai and Tetsuo Furuichi.

Zaha Hadid won a competition to design the stadium in November 2012, seeing off competition from 10 other finalists including Japanese architects SANAA, Toyo Ito and Azusa Sekkei. The judging panel included Tadao Ando, who commented: “The entry’s dynamic and futuristic design embodies the messages Japan would like to convey to the rest of the world.”

The stadium is set to be completed in 2018.

Hadid previously caused controversy over the design of her Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympic Games, which featured 600 seats with restricted views of the diving events. See more news about Zaha Hadid »

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Zaha Hadid’s 2020 Olympic Stadium appeared first on Dezeen.

This L-shaped wooden house by Dutch studio Pasel Kuenzel Architects sits at the water’s edge on an artificial island in Amsterdam.

Rotterdam studio Pasel Kuenzel Architects designed the family home in Grote Rieteiland, one of six islands that makes up the man-made archipelago of Ijburg, east Amsterdam.

Each residence on the group of islands is allocated a similar-sized plot and shaped by strict scale and massing guidelines.

For this house, the architects created a rectilinear building with a three-storey tower on one side and a small courtyard at the entrance.

“Within a strict and complex set of urban rules [we] succeeded to develop a plain and sober urban villa that is unique in its reduced design and compelling in its materialisation and level of detailing,” said the architects.

White-painted wooden boards clad the house’s exterior, interspersed with windows that extend right to the edges of the facade.

A monochrome colour scheme dominates the interior, which accommodates a large open-plan living area on the ground floor and bedrooms and workspaces inside the tower.

Sliding doors provide access from the ground floor to a waterside garden, while the master bedroom opens out onto a large roof terrace.

Other properties built in Ijburg include a two-storey house clad with timber and a house with a spiral staircase climbing its exterior. See more Ijburg houses »

More residential projects by Pasel Kuenzel Architects include a rectangular house with two courtyard gardens behind its exterior and a house clad in a chequered pattern of timber and white render. See more projects by Pasel Kuenzel Architects »

Photography is by Marcel van der Burg.

Here is a short description from the architects:

The Power of Simple Things

Close and compact are the residences lined up along the waterside of Grote Rieteiland, an artificial island in Amsterdam’s hip neighbourhood Ijburg.

Within a strict and complex set of urban rules pasel.kuenzel architects succeeded to develop a plain and sober urban villa that is unique in its reduced design and compelling in its materialisation and level of detailing.

The building is a composition of a horizontal plinth for living and a vertical element comprising workspaces, bedrooms for the kids, a master bedroom and above all a tremendous roof terrace. Due to a 12m wide glazed facade on the south side the main living area relates directly to the water. The house grants access via a patio facing the street and marking the threshold between public and private.

The unusual materialisation of white painted raw timber boards of Douglas fir underlines the compelling power of simple things.

Architect: pasel.kuenzel architects
Team: R. Pasel, F. Künzel, F. Pocas
Client: Private
Location: Amsterdam, NL
Date: 2009-2013
Size: 307 m2

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Pasel Kuenzel Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is waging a campaign to preserve the Astrodome and 34 other endangered places.

Endangered cultural and historic places: don’t leave home without (preserving) them. American Express is pitching in to help the National Trust for Historic Preservation in its work to save America’s historic places. The company will provide the privately funded nonprofit with a $2 million grant to help protect architectural, cultural, and natural heritage sites at risk of destruction or irreparable damage. Part of a $15 million, ten-year pledge made by American Express to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the grant funding will go to overall support of the National Treasures program—a revolving portfolio of endangered places that includes the Astrodome in Houston, Joe Frazier’s Gym in Philadelphia, Miami Marine Stadium in Miami, and Union Station in Washington, D.C.—as well as funding for specific preservation needs at some of the locations.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This small white building on the edge of the Danube River in Vienna was designed by Austrian studio Share Architects for use as a holiday home or party venue.

Share Architects positioned the Bathing Hut at the water’s edge, creating a two-storey space with a kitchen and living area on the lower level and a sleeping deck above with an entrance leading out to the street.

“The Bathing Hut was conceived as a micro villa with full amenities and is a private chill-out oasis within an otherwise dense urban context,” said the architects.

“It is easily reachable from Vienna so you can even use it in the summertime during lunch breaks or as an alternative residence, and otherwise as a weekend retreat and for parties on the lake,” they added.

Constructed from reinforced concrete, the building is clad with white aluminium composite panels on the facade and roof. One edge appears to have been sliced away, leaving a row of angled windows that face up towards the sky.

The all-white kitchen features a floating counter that can be used for preparing food or dining.

Sliding doors lead out onto a wooden deck and jetty, offering a mooring point for boats.

A wooden staircase runs alongs the side of the house and leads directly from the street to the river.

Other waterside residences we’ve featured include a small wooden house overlooking the ocean in Scotland and a yacht house containing four apartments on the Crimean coastline.

See more holiday homes »
See more Austrian architecture »

Photography is by Kurt Kuball.

Here’s a short description from the architects:

Bathing Hut

The bathing hut was conceived as a micro villa with full amenities. Located on the waterfront of the Old Danube, but still in the centre of Vienna (Austria), it is a private chill-out oasis within an otherwise dense urban context.

Coming from the street, the property is accessed through a large sliding gate that leads to the top terrace of the very compact arrangement. An open-air staircase along the side facade takes the visitor 3 meters below.

On this level the main terrace open to the Old Danube, and the double-height, main living room can seamlessly connect to the outdoor space through a sliding facade.

Inside, a suspended gallery offering wonderful views over the water is used as a sleeping deck. Under the gallery there is place for the bathroom and the adjacent open kitchen.

In the rear of the house under the overlying top terrace place was found for a storage. A wooden floating deck, illuminated at night, offers the possibility of a boat mooring.

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Share Architects appeared first on Dezeen.