Dans la lignée du Ice-Hotel Design, coup de cœur pour ce splendide « Hôtel de Glace » sous la forme d’une structure ouverte tous les hivers, à 10 minutes du centre-ville de Québec au Canada. Avec des sculptures et décorations de glace, une série d’images du photographe Xavier Dachez est à découvrir dans la suite.
Bright red columns interrupt a monochrome interior inside this fashion boutique in a Montreal warehouse by Canadian firm Saucier + Perrotte Architectes (+ slideshow).
The architects inserted the store into a former industrial building, used in the nineteenth century for producing tissues, leather and fur, and they added black paint to a decaying wall of brick and stone.
Rectangular steel clothing racks run through the centre of the room, beneath a graduated ceiling that fades from black to white.
Saucier + Perrotte Architectes explain: “The colour changes gradually from a reflective, latex-like black to a pure diaphanous white, drawing visitors toward a reflective, opalescent mirror that extends the perspective of the space.”
White bookshelves line the wall on the right-hand side of the space and conceal entrances to dressing rooms.
A seating area surrounds a wood-burning stove at the front of the store, over a steel floor with a herringbone pattern.
“This metallic floor at the entry invites visitors to discover the exclusive clothing within and relax in the warmth and comfort of the fireplace,” say the architects.
In other retail design news, Fabio Novembre recently completed a Hong Kong boutique, while Schemata Architects have developed a new store concept for Japanese brand Takeo Kikuchi.
See more stories about shops »
Photography is by Marc Cramer.
Here’s some more information from Saucier + Perrotte Architectes:
Cahier d’Exercices
Cahier d’Exercices is located at the entrance level of the historic Ross warehouse-store. The stone façade, its cast iron columns, and an expansive brick wall (punctuated with pieces of wood and metal) that runs the length of the store recall the 19th Century building’s industrial past as a retailer of large tissues, leathers and furs.
Crossing the threshold, the visitor is invited to explore the boutique by the clever use of a “degradé” — or gradient effect — on the ceiling. The colour changes gradually from a reflective, latex-like black to a pure diaphanous white, drawing visitors toward a reflective, opalescent mirror that extends the perspective of the space.
Placed at distinct intervals and delicately suspended from the ceiling, the racking system was custom designed by the architect to permit the clothing displayed to be perceived as a changing and evolving building material. Slightly reminiscent of the sculptural work of artist Fred Sandback, the straight, clearly defined profiles of the racking serve to sequence the gradient of the space.
Above: floor plan
A veritable cabinet of curiosities, the seemingly out-of-scale shelving evokes notions of femininity and aspects of secrecy and privacy. Large fitting rooms are hidden from view, accessed by crossing through secret doors in the sculptural shelving system, which displays jewellery, footwear, and accessories. Details like the oval cross section of the racking also add a touch of the femininity, as do moments of phosphorescent vermillion red amid the store’s mostly black and white colour palette.
The store’s entrance is neither wholly masculine nor feminine in character; its floor, composed of chevrons in cold rolled steel, recalls herringbone textile patterns and historic hardwood floors while making original use of steel as a material in a retail space. This metallic floor at the entry invites visitors to discover the exclusive clothing within and relax in the warmth and comfort of the fireplace.
Location: Montréal, Québec (Old Montréal)
Client: Cahier d’Exercices
Architects: Saucier + Perrotte architectes
Program: Women Fashion Boutique, Office space, Fitting rooms, Storage space, Kitchenette
Construction cost: N/A
Total area: 1 600 sq.ft.
Materials: Herringbone blue-steel flooring, white mirror glass, mirror, Extenzo ceiling, steel clothing racks
The post Cahier d’Exercices boutique by
Saucier + Perrotte Architectes appeared first on Dezeen.
Chinese firm MAD has completed a pair of curvaceous twisted skyscrapers in the growing city of Mississauga, Canada (+ slideshow).
Standing at 170 and 150 metres, the Absolute Towers contain apartments on each of their oval-shaped floors, but every storey is incrementally rotated to give both buildings a curved and twisted outline.
“The concept of the tower at the beginning was very simple,” said MAD founder Ma Yansong. “We just wanted to make something organic but different, more natural and more soft and not something too strong that would remind people of money or power.”
Mississauga first developed as a suburb of Toronto but has grown in recent decades and was named as a city in 1974. Since then, high-rise developments have sprung up across the city and the architects were keen to avoid designing another of these “listless, boxy buildings”.
“Lots of cities like this are happening in China, just repeating the modern urban typology and always making square towers,” added Yansong. “We were thinking; how about reversing that? “So we don’t treat architecture as a product, or an artificial volume or space. It’s more like a landscape.”
MAD won a competition to design the buildings in 2006, which were initially dubbed “the Marylyn Monroe towers” by local residents in reference to their shapely bodies.
Apartments in both towers boast panoramic views of the city skyline from continuous balconies that wrap around the recessed glass facades. This set-back also helps to shade each apartment from direct sunlight in the summer months.
MAD also recently unveiled plans for a village of towering apartment blocks beside the Huangshan Mountains in China.
See more architecture by MAD, including a museum the firm completed last year in the desert city Ordos.
Above: site plan – click above for larger image
Photography is by Iwan Baan.
Above: typical floor plan – click above for larger image
Here’s a project description from MAD:
Absolute towers
We call our cities steel concrete forests.
Throughout the process of urbanization, skyscrapers have been symbols of technological bravado, prime capitals and the societal projections of wealth and prosperity. This limited framework for skyscrapers often results in solutions limited by homogenous, linear structures and degenerative duplication in business districts across the globe. Forced into an unnatural state of conformity, metropolitan life is negatively affected by these unchecked, efficiency-centric development practices. Without a challenge to the status quo, our cities will continue to lack the cohesion of life as implied by the term: forest. A forest is a thriving ecosystem wherein every organism survives only in a state of symbiosis. New ambitions nurtured in a changing global consciousness challenge the aging pattern of last century’s development and favor fresh thoughtful, inspiring and eloquent solutions for tomorrow’s high-rises.
What lies in the future of our cities? How should one grasp the concept of emerging high-density cities? How can city dwellers be immersed with an enriching experience of nature when its presence steadily diminishes in the face of the ever intensifying concrete inundation? Faced with these challenges, future high-rise buildings need to catalyze a higher level of complexity in our cities for the sake of harmonious civilization.
Fondly dubbed the Marylyn Monroe towers by local residents, the Absolute Towers parallel the twisting fluidity or natural lines found in life. This activation of flow forms an organic punctuation in the landscape and a desire for an urban acknowledgement of enthusiasm. Here, we thrive to challenge the sustenance of commonplace boxy skyscrapers. Our ambition was to provide each resident a unique experience of the city, a heterarchitical distribution. Continuous balconies widen individual viewing angles and promote community at the micro scale of a single floor. At the macro, the cadence of the floors rising into the sky echo the modular rhythms of the human experience, yet emphasizes the movement of an adoring figure. We hope this building can wake up metropolitans’ desires towards nature, such as sun and wind, and certainly, human bodies.
A Crisis of Identity
Like other suburbs in North America, Mississauga, near Toronto, has been quickly developing into an independent, urbanized area. Yet, the cityscape lacked a unique character. In response, we wanted to add something naturalistic, delicate and human in contrast to the backdrop of listless, boxy buildings. Sited at the junction of two main streets (Hurantario and Burnhamthorpe), the Absolute Towers gracefully bear their landmark status and act as a gateway to the city beyond. As a residential landmark that strives for more than simple efficiency, the buildings provide residents an emotional connection to their hometown and neighbors.
Eschewing the tradition of accentuated verticality in high-rises, the Absolute Towers choose not to emphasize vertical lines. Instead, the design features a smooth, unbroken balcony that wraps each floor of the building. In addition, at each successive level, the floor plate rotates in a range of one to eight degrees affording breathtaking panoramas of the Mississauga skyline concluding in reverence to the principle street intersection at its peak. By maximizing the viewing potentials inside and out, creating a wonderful medium for social interaction throughout the balconies, and connecting the city dwellers with naturalistic design principles, Mississauga is infused with a new character.
A New Sustainability
In place of the basic, functional logic of an aging modernism, the current trend of sustainable design is reminiscent of the sudden rise in the glass-faced boxy buildings of last century. Sustainability, in concept, is often unfortunately simplified to the lowest common denominator. If we limit the scope of sustainable ecology to energy savings, it will become merely a demand for comfort while the yearning of a return to nature is ignored. This design practice remains the axiom of the industrial revolution, man controls nature. We feel sustainability is a much greater concept which can guide a new culture of design resulting in real change. For instance, in traditional Chinese gardens, building and nature elements are integrated to create a spiritual and poetic environment fostering great literature, poem and music, or simply life and philosophy. Our approach, ergo, is to create a balanced environment that evokes the feeling of exploring nature while simultaneously a responsive model for the development of urban space in harmony with nature. A sustainable architecture in modern concept. Real sustainability results in a harmonious civilization.
This is the biggest challenge of our time. How do we rebuild urban environments with life and emotion where people are connected and respected?
An Economy of Structure
The torsional form of the towers is underpinned with a surprisingly simply and inexpensive structural solution. The two residential towers are supported by a grid of concrete load bearing walls. The bearing walls extend and contract in response to the sectional fluctuation created by the rotation of the floors while the balconies consist of cantilevered concrete slabs. In order to ensure the elegant edge profiles are as thin as possible, there is a thermal break in the slabs at the exterior glazing such that the insulation need not wrap the entirety of the balconies. Meanwhile, the dynamically fluid shaping of the towers, naturally aerodynamic, adeptly handles wind loading and ensures comfort throughout all the balconies. Besides providing every resident with a nice exterior place to enjoy views of Mississauga, the balconies naturally shade the interior from the summer sun while soaking in the winter sun, reducing air conditioning costs.
Location: Mississauga, Canada
Height: 170 meter
No. of floors: Tower A: 56 stories/170 m
Tower B: 50 stories/150 m
Building Area: 95.000 square meters
Tower A: 45,000 sqm
Tower B: 40.000 sqm
Site area: 4090 square meters
Primary Use: Residential
Client: Fernbrook / Cityzen
Design Architect: MAD architects
Director in Charge: Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano, Dang Qun
Design Team: Shen Jun, Robert Groessinger, Florian Pucher, Yi Wenzhen, Hao Yi, Yao Mengyao, Zhao Fan, Liu Yuan, Zhao Wei, Li Kunjuan, Yu Kui, Max Lonnqvist, Eric Spencer
Associate Architects: BURKA Architects INC.
Structural Engineer: SIGMUND, SOUDACK & ASSOCIATES INC.
Mechanical Engineer: ECE Group
Electrical Engineer: ECE Group
Landscape Architect: NAK Design
Interior Designer: ESQAPE Design
The post Absolute Towers
by MAD appeared first on Dezeen.
Focus sur le travail « Planet Toronto », le nom de cette très belle vidéo en time-lapse afin de présenter la ville canadienne sous son plus beau jour. Une superbe création signée Ryan Emond sur une musique de Joseph McDonald. L’ensemble est à découvrir en HD dans la suite de l’article.
Focus sur ce projet de film court-métrage pour la promotion du vélo, pensé en collaboration par iBike, Starley Rover Society et Ombres & Lumieres. Alors que la diffusion de cette vidéo réalisée à Montréal est prévue pour décembre 2012, voici un trailer très réussi à découvrir dans la suite.
Cala il freddo, si va alla ricerca di giacche che ci possano tenere un minimo di caldo. Questo è il piumone di Canada Goose x Concepts in vendita sul loro store. Rosso e camo, combo sempre vincente.
L’agence Rethink au Canada a pensé cette campagne très réussie pour le Science World à Vancouver. En intervenant sur l’environnement urbain avec des explications de faits scientifiques étonnants, ces publicités parviennent à intéresser et intriguer les passants. Plus d’images dans la suite.
Canadian architect Omar Gandhi has completed a wooden cabin for two artists that appears to be climbing up a hill in rural Nova Scotia (+ slideshow).
Surrounded by woodland, Moore Studio is built on the side of a slope so that the upper floor is accessible through the back door – an arrangement that creates jagged, asymmetrical elevations at each end.
While the western side of the house has a simple gabled roof, the eastern side of the roof has been split to create a long clerestory window on the upper floor.
The exterior walls are clad with vertical timber while seamed aluminium has been used on the roof.
Inside the house, plywood and chunky chipboard appear on the walls, floors and ceilings alongside industrial fixtures such as bare bulbs and concrete floors, ”emphasising the rawness of the interior,” as the architect explains.
On the ground floor are a double height kitchen, dining area and living room, leading to two bedrooms at the front of the house and two bathrooms and a storage room at the rear.
Two separate first-floor studios overlook the kitchen and are partly lit by the narrow glazing in the roof.
We’ve previously featured a writer’s retreat in the woods of upstate New York and a series of artist’s studios on a small island off the coast of Canada.
See all our stories about Canada »
Above photo is by Omar Gandhi
See all our stories about houses »
Photographs are by Greg Richardson except where stated.
Here’s some more information from the architects:
The clients, who are new empty-nesters with two dogs, had previously been full time artists before finding other work to support their family. The project is intended to be a vehicle for pursuing their youthful ambitions once again. The new home is built on a recently purchased piece of land amidst a dense forest in the small town of Hubbard’s, Nova Scotia, approximately 45 minutes south of the city of Halifax.
Ground floor plan – click above for larger image and key
The 1500 square foot house is designed to be left exceedingly raw, providing open spaces and allowing plenty of natural daylight to penetrate the interior. The objective was to provide a platform for their artistic aspirations to flourish once again, while also providing a quiet setting for the couple to enjoy the surrounding landscape with their dogs, free of the stress of the city.
First floor plan – click above for larger image and key
The project relies heavily on idea of metamorphosis. The point of departure for the form began as a simple and elegant gable with a 12:12 roof pitch, a vernacular form commonly found in Nova Scotia. As the design process began, the undemanding form began to shift and change to allow for the space and natural lighting requirements of the clients, while still relying heavily on the simplicity of the original gable.
Section
The unique product of this distortion is a result of the relationship between all of the entities involved, including the landscape, the programme and the clients.
Section
The palette of the designed house is soft wood, exposed to the sometimes harsh weather of Nova Scotia, aluminium roofing and concrete floors. The interior walls, floors and ceilings are clad in plywood and OSB, reducing the need for drywall to a minimum and emphasizing the rawness of the interior.
East elevation – click above for larger image
The ground floor includes a double height kitchen and dining space, a living room, 2 bedroom and bathrooms. The upper floor is separated into two individual studios for Peg and Garth, each looking down upon the kitchen from above.
South elevation – click above for larger image
Materials such as caged industrial fixtures, salvaged steel grating and natural construction materials (plywood) flank the interior space. Stretching along the main façade of the house is a continuous strip of windows, which allow for a long view of the property and opens up the main floor to the exterior.
West elevation – click above for larger image
The upper floor is lit by an end to end clerestory window. The upper floor also opens up to the rear bank as the house is built on the side of a natural hill. Adjacent to the house, a steel shipping container has been re-used as a shed. The house was built by young and highly skilled local contractors Mike Burns and Adam Smith at MRB Contracting.
North elevation – click above for larger image
Moore Studio
Client: Peg and Garth Moore
Location: Hubbards, Nova Scotia
Project Status: Completed Winter 2012
Architect: Omar Gandhi Architect
Contractor: MRB Contracting (Mike Burns)
Structural Engineer: Andrea Doncaster
Physical Model: Ryan Beecroft, Jeff Shaw, Omar Gandhi (photography)
The post Moore Studio by
Omar Gandhi appeared first on Dezeen.
Abbiamo fatto due chiacchere con il collettivo Canada in occasione del loro primo corto girato nel nostro bel paese Beyond Mountains More Mountains presentato durante l’ultimo MFF in collaborazione con 55DSL.
Beyond Mountains More Mountains is your very first film. What kind of difficulties have you found approaching this new exciting adventure?
It is not really our first short film. We’ve made others but not recently. The extra difficulty comes with the length, and that is finding the narrative, or something that keeps the audience watching the piece until the end.
It was very hard work, indeed, but we are happy with the results.
How did you come out with the idea of building the film over the image of a young girl loosing her boot?
We pictured our trip around Italy as our own personal experience trying to figure out if the idea we had of Italy still existed, We also were trying to find a plot that we’d be able to develop within a shortfilm length but also featuring many different situations and outfits, that last one brand-wise.
So eventually we decided to go for this boot idea, very naïve and a bit of a joke, but we felt it was good as a place to start and not to pretentious for the kind of film related to a brand this was meant to be after all.
With Beyond Mountains, More Mountains you said you wanted to start a trip around Italy with the aim of verifying if that beautiful old country full of arts, culture and literature still exists nowadays. So, have you find the answer to your quest?
I guess Italy it’s hidden over there somewhere. But the quest is what really matters, and I guess it never ends, and it is good for it to stay like this.
On the 19th of September, Beyond Mountains, More Mountains will be presented as world premiere at Milano FIlm Festival. A bit scared by the eventuality of receiving any bad feedback/ review?
We don’t really think about that. We always try to make the best film possible within the possibilities we have in place. That’s what we can control, the rest is out of our boundaries. Of course we’re happy if we get a good reaction, our aim is always to do something as beautiful and entertaining as possible.
How did your collaboration with 55DSL help you to complete the film?
We were given quite a lot of freedom and at some point they were keen to help us getting the right music for the film, so all fine.
What about your future plans? Any new film ideas?
We’ll keep on doing this the best way we can, of course we’re interested in features, but we don’t have any particular project in this direction so far.
News: architect Frank Gehry has today unveiled proposals for a major new art gallery and university complex at the centre of Toronto’s entertainment district.
Working alongside David Mirvish, director of production company Mirvish Productions, Gehry has designed three 80-85 metre-high residential towers on the top of the new buildings, which will be located beside the historic Royal Alexandra Theatre on King Street West.
The Mirvish Collection gallery will sit beneath two of the towers and house a collection of abstract art built by David and Audrey Mirvish over a period of 50 years. The neighbouring OCAD University Public Learning Centre for Visual Art, Curatorial Studies and Art History will be positioned beneath the third tower and will accommodate exhibition galleries, seminar rooms, studios and a public lecture theatre.
“It’s especially interesting that this project involves the arts,” said Gehry. “With this project, I wanted to create buildings that were good neighbours to the surrounding buildings and that respected the rich and diverse history of the area.”
Six properties currently located on the site will be preserved and maintained as part of the development, as will the Canada Walk of Fame along King Street West and Simcoe Street, but three warehouses and a small theatre are set to be demolished.
Gehry is also designing the new campus for Facebook, and recently donated $100,000 towards a new annual prize for architecture graduates.
See all our stories about Frank Gehry »
Here’s the full press release from the developers:
David Mirvish and Frank Gehry Unveil Conceptual Design to Transform Toronto’s Entertainment District
Reimagining of King Street Entertainment District Continues Mirvish Family’s Legacy While Supporting Toronto’s Thriving Cultural Corridor
Major Cultural Additions to the District Include the Mirvish Collection, a 60,000-Square-Foot Gallery Dedicated to Abstract Art, and OCAD University Facility
David Mirvish, founder of Mirvish Productions, and world-renowned architect Frank Gehry today unveiled the conceptual design for a mixed-use project that will transform Toronto’s downtown arts and entertainment district and advance the area’s future as a thriving cultural centre. The multi-year, multi-phase project is the largest and most significant urban commission to date for the Toronto-born architect, bringing new cultural, residential and retail spaces to a site immediately next to the Royal Alexandra Theatre and creating a new visual identity for the city’s premier arts district.
The Mirvish/Gehry project is the vision of David Mirvish, who through his family’s support of the arts has helped make the city a major international centre for performing arts and has transformed the downtown King Street Entertainment District. Bordered by many of Toronto’s leading cultural institutions including the Royal Alexandra Theatre and Roy Thomson Hall to the east, the Toronto International Film Festival Bell Lightbox to the west, and the John Street Cultural Corridor to the west culminating at the Art Gallery of Ontario to the north, the project will have at its centre the new Mirvish Collection museum and a new facility for OCAD University.
Frank Gehry, whose other major Canadian project is the redesigned Art Gallery of Ontario (2008), grew up in the King Street West neighbourhood, and his design relates directly to the scale, materials and feeling of the area. “We see an opportunity to join our history with Frank Gehry’s history and continue our ongoing commitment to the neighbourhood,” said David Mirvish. “This area was transformed 50 years ago after my father purchased the Royal Alexandra Theatre, and this project will continue the theatre’s future and transform the neighbourhood again for the next 50 years. I am proud that we can continue this legacy that my father began.”
“It is very special for me to be able to work in Toronto where I was born and to engage the neighbourhoods where I grew up,” said Gehry. “It’s especially interesting that this project involves the arts. That is always meaningful to me. With this project, I wanted to create buildings that were good neighbours to the surrounding buildings and that respected the rich and diverse history of the area. I also wanted to make nice places for the people who live in and visit the buildings. David has an exciting vision, and I am thrilled to be a part of it.”
The Mirvish/Gehry design will create a new profile for the arts and entertainment district at the streetscape and in the skyline, add significantly to the John Street Cultural Corridor, and provide new and enhanced public spaces. The site includes the north side of King Street West and the south side of Pearl Street, occupying the entire block between John Street and Ed Mirvish Way and a portion of the block between Ed Mirvish Way and the Royal Alexandra Theatre, and consists of six properties owned by the Mirvish family. The Canada Walk of Fame, located along King West and Simcoe Streets, will be preserved and maintained. The project’s development, management and construction will be led by Peter Kofman of Projectcore Inc. in conjunction with David Mirvish.
The conceptual design, which will continue to evolve, consists of two six-story stepped podiums, which relate in scale and articulation to the neighbouring buildings, topped by three iconic residential towers, ranging in size from 80 to 85 storeys. Each tower has a complementary but distinctive design, which fits with the history and texture of the surrounding neighbourhood. The trio of towers works together to form a dynamic still life on the skyline. The west block of the plan, oriented to King Street West, features a stepped podium with the Mirvish Collection in the atrium and planted terraces that create a green silhouette overlooking King Street and Metro Square. The east block of the plan includes the preservation of the Royal Alexandra Theatre and another stepped podium housing the OCAD University facility that fronts onto King Street West.
The new 60,000-square-foot Mirvish Collection will be a destination for viewing contemporary abstract art from the exemplary collection of Audrey and David Mirvish. The collection was built over 50 years, beginning when David Mirvish ran a globally recognized art gallery in Toronto from 1963-1978. The Mirvish Collection comprises works by leading artists including Jack Bush, Anthony Caro, Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Larry Poons, David Smith and Frank Stella. The nonprofit Mirvish Collection, which will be free and open to the public, will present curated artist-focused exhibitions that leverage the depth of the Mirvish holdings and will be available to other institutions. It will also host traveling exhibitions.
The project incorporates a new multi-floor facility for the OCAD University Public Learning Centre for Visual Art, Curatorial Studies and Art History, including exhibition galleries, studios, seminar rooms, and a public lecture hall. The galleries will feature curatorial programming drawn from OCAD University faculty, the OCAD University Art Collection, the OCAD University Archives and the Printmaking and Publications Research and Production Centre. “Urban universities such as OCAD University contribute to and benefit from their situation within a creative city,” said Dr. Sara Diamond, OCAD University President andflivbrary Vice-Chancellor. “We are a hub for art, design, media, research, innovation and the business of creativity, and this new facility, in the heart of a transforming cultural district, is a perfect setting for OCAD University.”
As part of the plan, the Princess of Wales Theatre, owned and operated by Mirvish Productions, will be replaced along with adjacent warehouses. The artist Frank Stella, whose commissioned murals are part of the Princess of Wales Theatre, will partner with Frank Gehry to develop new work for the project, integrating art and architecture. “The Princess of Wales Theatre is a wonderful space to experience theatre, but the next step for the future of this neighbourhood is providing new kinds of cultural spaces,” said David Mirvish. “We are dedicated to providing more theatre in Toronto, not less, and through our other theatres, we will continue to provide world-class theatre experiences.”
The post Frank Gehry unveils plans for
Toronto’s entertainment district appeared first on Dezeen.
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