Hasta La Ideas

Chilean architects Mathias Klotz and Lillian Allen have renovated a castle-like residence in Santiago’s Parque Forestal to create a restaurant, exhibition space and ice-cream parlour (+ slideshow).

The building is named “Castillo Forestal”, which means forest castle, but it was actually constructed at the start of the nineteenth century as a house for the park’s gardener. Over the years the building had become abandoned, so Mathias Klotz and Lillian Allen were asked to bring it back into use.

The architects began by demolishing previous extensions to the two-storey red-brick building, then added a new steel and glass structure that wraps around the north and east elevations.

“Our proposal was to demolish the successive extensions and replace them with a single-story volume housing an intermediate space between inside and outside,” said Klotz.

This structure accommodates the restaurant, creating a glazed ground-floor dining room and a first-floor terrace overlooking the park.

Additional dining areas are provided by the two main rooms of the original house, which have been renovated to reveal their interior brickwork. The architects removed various stucco details, but left cornices intact and painted them grey to match the steel framework of the new extension.

Bare lightbulbs hang from the ceiling in rows and have been clustered into groups of three on the first-floor.

The exhibition galleries and ice-cream parlour are also housed in the existing building, while customer toilets are located in the basement and the circular tower is set to function as a wine store.

We’ve recently featured new photographs of the first major project by Mathias Klotz, which was a home for his mother. Other projects by the architect include a holiday home for a family with 11 daughters.

See more architecture by Mathias Klotz »
See more architecture in Chile »

Photography is by Roland Halbe.

Here’s a project description from Mathias Klotz:

Castillo Parque Forestal, Santiago, Chile

The so called “Forest Castle” is in reality nothing more than a modest lodging built in the Parque Forestal on the occasion of Chile’s 1910 Centenary celebrations, to house the park’s gardener.

The park, which dates from the Centenary, was inaugurated at the same time as the Fine Arts Museum on the other side of the street. Over time the house lost its original function; it was extended and occupied on a temporary basis, and gradually deteriorated until it was abandoned altogether a number of years ago. For this reason Santiago city council tendered a 30-year concession to restore the structure and find a new use for the building.

Our proposal was to demolish the successive extensions and replace them with a single-story volume housing an intermediate space between inside and outside.

The two rooms of the original structure were restored, removing the stucco and leaving the brickwork visible, with the exception of the cornices. These were painted the same dark grey as the steel structure of the new volume, in order to link the two structures together and emphasise the original building.

The new uses it has acquired are a bookstore, restaurant, ice-cream store and exhibition space.

The post Restaurant Castillito by Mathias Klotz
and Lillian Allen appeared first on Dezeen.

A contemporary house inserted behind the crumbling walls of a ruined twelfth-century castle in Warwickshire, England, by Witherford Watson Mann is one of the six projects nominated for the 2013 Stirling Prize (+ slideshow).

The mediaeval Astley Castle was once the home of an aristocratic English family, but has stood as a ruin since the 1970s, when a devastating fire wiped out the hotel that occupied the building at that time.

Without a budget to restore the building, architectural charity The Landmark Trust launched a competition for the design of a holiday house that could be created within the decaying structure and announced London studio Witherford Watson Mann as the winner in 2007.

The architects designed a two-storey residence that would squat within the building’s chunky sandstone walls. Clay brickwork was used to infill gaps in the structure, creating a visible contrast between the new and old structures.

Laminated wooden beams form a new system of floors and ceilings, creating living areas and bedrooms in the oldest part of the castle.

The wooden roof also stretches over extensions added in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, but instead of blanketing these spaces it simply forms a hollow canopy, creating entrance courtyards that are exposed to the rain.

Four bedrooms, with space to sleep eight people, occupy the lower level of the house. An oak staircase leads up to the first-floor living room, where the architects have increased natural light by adding two new windows.

Astley Castle is one of six projects shortlisted for the Stirling Prize, which is awarded to the building that has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year. Other projects nominated include an elliptical chapel and a museum that mimics volcanic formations.

Other castle renovations on Dezeen include one converted into a mountain museum and one used as an art gallery. See more castles on Dezeen »

The post Astley Castle renovation
by Witherford Watson Mann appeared first on Dezeen.

Windows are set within two-metre-deep recesses in the stone walls of this castle visitor centre in southwest Germany by Swiss architect Max Dudler.

Positioned at the entrance to the historic Heidelberg Castle ruins, the two-storey visitor’s centre borders the retaining walls of the sloping grounds, alongside a seventeenth century saddle-store.

The roughly cut stone blocks that comprise the exterior walls are made from local sandstone.

Inside the building, the windows sit flush against the white-plastered walls, while the floor is finished in terrazzo.

If you’re a fan of castles, see more stories about them here.

Photography is by Stefan Müller.

Here’s some more information from Max Dudler:

Heidelberg Castle Visitor Centre

The first new building to be constructed at Heidelberg Castle for more than four hundred years – a visitor centre designed by architect Max Dudler – is now open to the public.

Heidelberg Castle ranks as one of the most important Renaissance buildings north of the Alps. Having been partially destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War, and on many occasions since, the castle was abandoned altogether in the eighteenth century. Today the famous ruin serves as a museum. Receiving more than one million visitors a year, it is one of the country’s top tourist destinations and makes a lasting impression on international tourists visiting Germany.

The purpose of the visitor centre is to familiarize guests with the castle before they proceed to the castle proper. The visitor centre showcases the castle’s history as well as orientating guests so as to ensure a trouble-free visit. In May 2009, Max Dudler’s design prevailed in the architectural selection procedure. The visitor centre’s foundation stone was laid in summer 2010, making it the first new building to be constructed at Heidelberg Castle for more than four hundred years. This building shows how the contemporary architecture of Max Dudler is rooted in history. At the same time, its abstract form underscores both the grandeur and actuality of this German cultural monument.

The new building is situated outside the old defensive ring wall, at the entrance gate to the castle and garden (Hortus Palatinus). The narrow strip of land chosen for the new structure lies between a small garden house and a saddle store built in the reign of Frederick V. The building backs onto a seventeenth century retaining wall which shores up the park terraces above. With its building lines following those of its neighbours, the sculpturally designed visitor centre structurally completes this small ensemble of buildings in the forecourt area.

In architectural terms, the building blends in with the surrounding historical fortifications through its re-interpretation of elements of the existing site’s architecture. The window embrasures, for example, are set more than two metres into its walls, echoing the large-sized apertures that can be seen in the neighbouring saddle store. The windows of the visitor centre are positioned according to the building’s interior requirements and also offer visitors new visual relationships with the entry building and garden outside. The popular Elisabeth Gate in particular can be seen from many parts of the interior. The façade’s deeply-set embrasures are made possible because of the special layout of the building: the broad expanse of its exterior walls hide a number of small side rooms and a stairwell. Like pockets (French: poches), these interior recesses offer space for display cabinets, shelves and seating areas, while the centre of the narrow building remains open.

For the façade, local Neckar Valley sandstone has been machine-cut to form a monolithic wall of roughly-cut blocks with joins that are barely visible. This masonry detailing is a contemporary re-interpretation of the historical retaining wall, with its hand-cut, undressed stonework. Unlike the heavy relief of the building’s exterior, the surfaces of its interior are smooth. The large window panes are fitted flush with the white plastered walls, as are the lighting panels set into the white plastered ceilings. The floor consists of a light blue polished terrazzo. All the fixtures and fittings in the recesses, as well as the doors and other furnishings are made of cherry wood.

Ensuring a smooth flow of large numbers of visitors was a particular challenge posed by the architectural brief. Dudler’s design solves this with its ingenious ‘architectural promenade’ through the building: visitors proceed from the entry hall through to the educational room, then up onto the roof terrace with its elevated views of the castle before exiting via the exterior stairs at the rear of the building to begin a tour of the castle proper. In this way, the full potential of this small building is realised, ensuring it has both multi-purpose usage and allows the maximum throughput of visitors.

Building Name: Besucherzentrum Schloss Heidelberg
Location: Heidelberger Schloss, Schlosshof 1, D-69117 Heidelberg
Client: Land Baden-Württemberg represented by Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg, Mannheim Office
User: Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg

Building Volumes: 490 m² usable floor area, 770 m² gross surface area, 3450 m³ gross building volume
Total building cost: 3 million Euros

Design and Construction Period:
Design commenced: April 2009
Construction commenced: 2010
Building Completion: December 2011

Architect: Max Dudler
Project Manager: Simone Boldrin
Co-workers: Patrick Gründel, Julia Werner

Here are some photographs of a renovated fortress in northern Italy that now features patinated steel bridges, an extended underground tunnel and concrete towers.

Austrian Italian architects Markus Scherer and Walter Dietl overhauled the site in 2009, when it hosted a regional exhibition.

The fortified site was originally constructed in the nineteenth century by the Habsburg family, who were nervous about revolutionary iedas spreading from France and catching on in their own neighbourhood.

Since then, it has been used as a gunpowder depot, army territory and as a venue for the 2008 European contemporary art biennale.

Two sandblasted concrete towers with horizontal fissures lead visitors through to a ticket office, shop, bar, restaurant and exhibition area.

Restored vaults provide exhibition rooms with newly exposed brick arches and steel staircases.

One of these staircases leads down into the extended underground tunnel, which was apparently once used to hide gold stolen from the Bank of Italy.

Steel bridges emerge from windows to create external routes between first and second floor rooms, crossing an artificial lake.

Elsewhere, the granite walls of all existing buildings onsite have been restored, while roofs have been waterproofed.

Other stories about renovated castles and strongholds include a castle converted into a mountain museum – see all our stories about castles here.

See also: our recent feature about about caves and grottoes.

Photography is by Alessandra Chemollo.

Here are some more details from Markus Scherer:

The Fortress of Franzensfeste

“Begun under Francis I in the year 1833 – completed by Ferdinand I in the year 1838”, reads the Latin inscription over the gate of the fortress. In just five years, over 6,000 workers and soldiers built a blocking position at one of the narrowest points in the Eisack valley. It has the dimensions of a small town and, with a surface area of 20 hectares, is the largest fortification in the Alpine region. With this monumental defensive work the Habsburgs hoped to halt the advance of the revolutionary changes provoked by the French revolution. Designed by regimental engineer Franz von Scholl, it consists of three autonomous sections: the upper, middle and lower fortress levels. It has clear and simple classicist lines; it is functional and impregnable. As the military threat did not materialise in the decades following its construction, however, the fortress rapidly lost its importance. By the end of the 19th century it was merely used as a powder depot. In 1918 Franzensfeste came under Italian rule and was used by the army until 2003.

Acquired by the province of South Tyrol, new opportunities for the preservation of this cultural monument have arisen: the former fortress is intended to become a place for meetings and cultural exchanges. In 2008 it was one of the four venues for the European biennale of contemporary art, Manifesta 7, and in 2009 it hosted the South Tyrolean regional exhibition.

The Meran architect Markus Scherer prepared the lower fortress level for Manifesta 7, an exhibition surface area of over 3600 m². Preservation of the buildings and the character of the fortress was paramount. The huge granite blocks making up the walls were restored, the roofs waterproofed and the windows repaired. Walled-off spaces were opened up and later additions removed. The size and extent of the complex are not at first obvious from the courtyard behind the main gate. The monolithic structures with small, regularly spaced window apertures are on different levels around the compound, connected by ramps. The lowest are lapped by the dark waters of the adjacent artificial lake. New galvanised steel railings and staircases have improved safety. Two windowless concrete towers with lifts and staircases link the buildings. The surfaces and the material used interpret the historical building method anew: they are concreted in irregular 30-70 cm sections, with a fine layer of sand between each. These layers were flushed out to produce an irregular horizontal joint pattern and granite sand was used to adapt the towers to the surrounding colour, with the surface roughened by sandblasting.

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These objects, with their military numbering, now accommodate a visitor centre with a ticket office and shop, as well as a bar, restaurant, a play area for children and, last but not least, a large exhibition area. Visitors to Manifesta are greeted by a seemingly endless series of rooms. The carefully restored vaults of exposed brick-work and the plastered walls, some decorated with murals, have retained the aura of the past. On one of the walls can be read “Immer vorwärts!”, always forwards, understandable in every language spoken in the Empire: let modern art breathe fresh life over the walls! New items such as grilles, handrails, doors and the two free-floating bridges over the lake, connecting two buildings, are all constructed of galvanised, patinated steel: the existing elements form a pleasant context for their cloudy black coloration.

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The existing tunnel, where the Bank of Italy’s stolen gold was found, was extended and a 22-metre long vertical shaft driven through the rock to connect the lower to the middle fortress. The black concrete stairway with its golden handrail (Kunst am Bau (The Art of Building) by Manfred Alois Mayr) spirals upwards like a sculpture.

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The stairs and lift end in the partially destroyed powder magazine. This was redesigned as the new entrance building, while the new adjacent building of compressed concrete (coloured to match the existing construction through the use of granite sand) provides the outside edges of the missing sections and contains all the sanitary and technical areas for the middle fortress.

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The remaining buildings have as far as possible been left as they were found. Only certain elements such as safety grilles, rails and ramps have been added and these, as in the lower fortress, are of galvanised, patinated steel.

Client: Autonome Provinz Bozen
Project managment: Arch. Josef March (main coordinator)
Geom. Hans Peter Santer (Project leader)
Hbpm Ingenieure – Ing. Julius Mühlögger, Ing. Gunnar Holzer (Project leader)

Architect: Markus Scherer, Meran with Walter Dietl, Schlanders
Construction supervisor: Markus Scherer, Meran – Klaus Plattner, Bozen
Collaborator: Heike Kirnbauer, Elena Mezzanotte
Structural engineering: Baubüro-Klaus Plattner, Bozen
Safety coordinator: Günther Rienzner, Bozen
Electrical and domestic engineering: Planconsulting, Burgstall
Finishing: 05.2009
Location: Festung Franzensfeste, Franzensfeste

See also:

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Messner Mountain Museum by EM2	Museum Extension by Nieto Sobejano	Jaffa Flat by Pitsou Kedem

Italian architects EM2 have converted a castle into a mountain museum.

The architects left the exterior untouched but constructed several new rooms in unfinished timber, added wooden staircases inside and opened up the basement.

Located in the Alps, the Messner Mountain Museum houses a permanent exhibition about people who live in mountainous regions around the world.

More stories about museums on Dezeen »

Photography is by Harald Wisthaler.

The following information is from EM2:

Renovation and adaptation of Castle Bruneck to MMM Messner Mountain Museum by EM2 Architects. Castle Bruneck, which has been reorganised and extended for several times, has been redeveloped and adapted during the years 2008 – 2011 by EM2 Architects from Bruneck.

The architects (Gerhard Mahlknecht, Heinrich Mutschlechner, Kurt Egger) aim consists on one hand in the cultural inheritance saving and restoring and on the other hand in accommodating the exhibition of “mountain people in the world”.

Telling his own and the history of mountain people at the same time, was the order and cultural responsibility towards the history, the present and the future of the castle.

The difficulty lay in integrating an museum concept for the exhibition “mountain people” in already built historical structures.

The needed extending buildings should be clearly readable, reserved and are established in a contemporary architectural language

The extending buildings in the access area are consciously made of wood.

Wood is a material with a restricted life span, it’s aging and will once be gone like the MMM on castle Bruneck.

The extension of the subterranean part “Zwinger” is hardly discernible and covered with a passable greenery free surface between castle and castle wall.

About the subterranean extension, cellar rooms are opened in which, darkness and medieval walls are very perceptible.

A modern, his technology showing elevator integrated in an late-Gothical part of the building, is part of the museum concept and opens the building for handicapped people.

A massive wooden stair has been integrated to the round about the year 1282 built tower (Bergfried).

While going up to the roof top of the tower, the museums visitor is able to watch the exhibition about “tourism in mountain regions.”

The top of the tower offers a beautiful view over Bruneck up to the snowy summits of the Zillertaler Aplen in the Ahrntal valley.

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See also:

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Museum Extension by Nieto Sobejano	Castelo Novo by Comoco Architects	Museum Extension by Nieto Sobejano