Focus sur les plus beaux villages visibles à travers le monde, du Mali au Tibet en passant par l’Iran. Cette sélection de photographies a été faite par différents photographes aux quatre coins du monde où les couleurs et les architectures se font écho ou contrastent selon les niveaux de vie de chacun.
Popeye Village à Malte, par Mosin.
Village au Niger, Mali, par Yann Arthus-Bertrand.
Mountain Village en Iran, par Mohammadreza Momeni.
Village africain, par Michael Poliza.
Village au Tibet, par Coolbie Re.
Gàsadalur Village aux Iles Féroé, par Gareth Codd.
Fort Bourtange aux Pays-Bas, par Jan Koster.
Village dans le Sud-Ouest de l’Angleterre, par Bob Small.
Village caché dans le Sud de la Chine, par Christian Ortiz.
Hobbiton Village, lieu du tournage du Seigneur des Anneaux en Nouvelle-Zélande, par Weta Workshop.
Village de La Spezia en Italie, par James Brandon.
A sequence of arches creates topsy-turvy openings and curvy doorways through the spaces of this art gallery in Beijing by design collective Penda (+ slideshow).
Vienna and Beijing firm Penda refurbished the Hongkung Art Gallery and Art Arcadion on the outskirts of the city, providing a new reception area where curved openings of different sizes guide visitors through to the existing exhibition rooms.
The curves begin at the building’s entrance and continue around the space to create arches of different sizes and alternating orientations.
“As a visual effect, we chose the arch as an inviting and welcoming gesture,” architect Chris Precht told Dezeen. “In combination with the counter-arch, it has the appearance of a continuous ribbon.”
The designers based the forms on the mountains and valleys depicted in typical Chinese landscape paintings, tying in with the artworks that comprise the gallery’s main exhibition.
“Multiple arches altering in size and orientation create a continuous, gentle curve, which becomes a sculptural interpretation of the landscape paintings that are exhibited in the gallery,” said Precht.
A new monolithic facade forms the building’s entrance. Inside, the arched openings frame an information desk, cloakroom and a staircase shielded behind translucent glass.
Ground floor galleries are located just beyond and focus on well-known Chinese artists, while the floor above caters for themed temporary exhibitions. A special exhibition hall is located in the basement and the mezzanine level is reserved for gallery employees.
Most spaces in the building have clean white walls, designed to allow visitors to focus on the artworks.
Photography is by Xia Zhi.
Here’s a project description from penda:
Hongkung Art Gallery / Art Arcadion
Located on the southern 3rd ring road in Beijing, the white exterior of the Hongkun Art Gallery works a sculptural focal point for the area.
Entering the gallery through an opening in the monolithic facade, the arch-like curves continue to the interior and gently merge into a clean white space for exhibiting the artworks.
The open areas in the gallery offer a wide space for themed exhibition, while the gently curved entrance part draws people into the space and guides them naturally further into the gallery.
The solid expression of the exterior continually merges with a carved out interior and increases the sculptural appearance of the gallery. Multiple arches altering in size and orientation create a continuous, gentle curve which becomes a sculptural interpretation of the landscape paintings, that are exhibited in the gallery.
Within the arches, the entrance sculpture inhabits an information desk, a coatroom and the main circulation staircase, which guides visitors to the basement with a special exhibition hall and employees to the office area located on the mezzanine level.
Project: HK Art Gallery Architects: penda Project location: Beijing, China
Design concept
Project area: 2000sqm on 2 floors Project started: End of October 2013 Gallery opened: beginning of December 2013
Le photographe Lintao Zhang a réussi à capturer ces superbes images lors d’un show le 7 janvier dernier au Harbin Pole Aquarium en Chine. Une véritable chorégraphie « White Whales Performance » entre les plongeurs et 2 bélugas à découvrir dans une série de photographies dans la suite de l’article.
The walls of this six-sided community centre in a suburb of Shanghai by Scenic Architecture Office project outwards from a central courtyard and are connected by an angular roof (+ slideshow).
Local firm Scenic Architecture Office designed Community Pavilion as a multipurpose centre for residents of Malu in the Jiading district of Shanghai.
“We played down the differences between the attributes of the six indoor and outdoor spaces and tried not to dictate where is the interior, where is the outdoors, or how each space should function,” said the architects.
Two sides of the building are enclosed to create a recreation room and a teahouse, while a third acts as a covered stage. The other sides are open to provide views of two bridges and the adjacent river.
At the centre of the building is an open courtyard with a tree planted in the middle. Six brick-clad walls radiate from the courtyard, creating openings that act as entrances and shaded outdoor areas.
Latticed wooden shades on either side of the indoor spaces can be opened to connect the rooms to the courtyard and the outside.
The arrayed walls all extend upwards from the building’s core, reaching different heights and creating a dynamic, angular roofline that funnels rainwater down into the courtyard.
Aluminium cladding covers the outer edges of the roof, while the top surface is tiled to reference the traditional local vernacular.
Timber slats cover the underside of the roof where it projects over part of the courtyard, creating a sheltered walkway.
Located on a spur of land at the junction of two rivers, a low concrete bridge to the northwest and a stone bridge to the east of the site connect the community centre to the surrounding neighbourhood and farmland.
News: a skyscraper shaped like a giant doughnut has been completed by Italian architect Joseph di Pasquale in Guangzhou, China (+ slideshow).
Located on the edge of the Pearl River, the 138-metre Guangzhou Circle was designed by Di Pasquale of Milan studio AM Project to provide an iconic headquarters for Chinese companies Guangdong Hongda Xingye Group and GDPE Guangdong Plastic Exchange.
“The architectural concept is for a building that will be immediately perceived as a native Chinese landmark using a closed and central structure instead of the usual western skyscrapers stereotype,”said the architect.
A circle with a 50-metre diameter punctures the heart of the 33-storey structure, turning the building into a hollow circle. When reflected in the river, this shape becomes a figure of eight – a lucky number in Chinese culture.
“[It] is inspired by the strong iconic value of jade discs and numerological tradition of feng shui, in particular, the double disc of jade (bi-disk) is the royal symbol of ancient Chinese dynasty that reigned in this area around 2000 years ago,” said Di Pasquale.
“This figure also corresponds to the number eight and infinity symbol that in Chinese culture have a strong propitiatory value,” he added.
The front and rear walls of the building are clad with copper plates, while the curved side walls are broken down into glazed rectilinear boxes.
Elevated gardens are located within the central void.
Here’s a project description from Joseph di Pasquale:
Guangzhou Circle (Canton), China
On December 16th 2013 the completion ceremony of the Guangzhou Circle Mansion had taken place in Guangzhou, China. It’s the Headquarter of Guangdong Hongda Xingye Group and the venue of GDPE Guangdong Plastic Exchange, the world largest stock exchange for raw plastic material with more then 40 billions euros of annual turn over.
Local and Italian authorities will attend the ceremony including the Italian General Consul in Guangzhou mr Benedetto Latteri and the scientific responsible of the Italian Embassy in Beijing, mr Giuseppe Rao.
The building has been designed by the Italian architect Joseph di Pasquale and his professional practice AM project from Milan that has been the winning proposal of the international architectural competition held in 2009. The total height is 138 mt for 33 floors, 85.000 square meters of floor area and about 50 million euros of global investment. The inner hole is a unique space that has no equal in the world with its almost fifty meters of diameter (48 mt).
The architectural concept intends to design landmark building that will be immediately perceived as a native Chinese Landmark Building using a closed and central structure instead of the usual western skyscrapers stereotype. Therefore the architecture is fully defined, and iconic, very close to the Chinese way of perceiving and understanding. It’s a sort of “urban logo” that works as a landmark in the same way that ideograms are used in the Chinese writing, instead of the alphabet.
The architectural concept is inspired by the strong iconic value of jade discs and numerological tradition of feng shui. In particular, the double disc of jade (bi-disk) is the royal symbol of ancient Chinese dynasty that reigned in this area around 2000 years ago. The building reflected in the water of the river creates exactly the same image: a double jade disc.
This figure also corresponds to the number 8 and infinity symbol that Chinese culture has a strong propitiatory value. Just remember how the date and time of the start of the Beijing Olympics was for the same reason fixed to 8:08 am of the ‘8-8-2008.
But the building is also a clear reference to the theme dear to the Italian Renaissance “quadratura del cerchio” (squaring the circle). The two circular facades in fact contain and support suspended groups of storeys that are actually “squaring” the perfect circumference of the facades in order to make the interior space orthogonal and habitable.
The 33 floors are grouped to create two rows of volumes blocks that appears from the side of the building and are progressively pushed out till an extreme 25 meters cantilever. The main interior space is the exchange hall that is located just lower then the central hole of the building. This is the heart of the entire complex and of the entire company.
The initial structural concept has been developed and tested at the wind gallery of Polytechnic of Milan, and the structural calculations and final test has been developed by the South China University of Technology (SCUT) in Guangzhou.
It’s no a secret that China hasn’t exactly been a champion of preserving architectural traces of its historical identity. Most Chinese cities are parades of copycat projects that seldom tell a story about the region or the country. In the last few years…
Anni fa, quando ero un promettente studente di architettura il set di Rapidograph era qualcosa di cui dovevi averne maniacalmente cura. Poi col passare del tempo, l’ho purtroppo dimenticato in chissà quale cassetto. Il parigino Shane lo usa ancora per disegnare queste fantastiche illustrazioni, punto dopo punto. Questa è la serie Coq Rico.
Ma Yansong of Chinese studio MAD presents a masterplan for Nanjing, China, where buildings are designed to look like mountains and public spaces overlap with the natural landscape, as part of the Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture.
The Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza proposal is the latest in a series of projects by MAD based on Yansong’s Shan-Shui City concept – an urban strategy based on a style of Chinese landscape painting and named after the Chinese words for mountains and water.
The masterplan, which encompasses an area of approximately 60 hectares, envisions an assortment of buildings and spaces that mediate between the city’s urban centre and its surrounding landscape of mountains and lakes.
“We need to rethink how to define the boundary between the nature and the urban on this piece of empty plot in the new city development area,” says MAD. “Is it possible to combine the high-density city with the atmosphere of the nature to create an energetic urban public space for the future, so people will reconnect their emotion with the nature?”
Expected to complete by 2017, the masterplan includes a set of high-rise buildings with unique curving profiles intended to avoid the “height competition” associated with most skyscrapers.
At ground level, pathways and plazas will be integrated with a mixture of manmade and natural landscaping.
Ma Yansong Featuring ‘Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza’ in Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture 2013 in Shenzhen
Ma Yansong presented his work, ‘Shanshui Experiment Complex’ in the Border Warehouse of Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture 2013 in Shenzhen. This is an artwork in-between architecture model and landscape installation, created based on MAD’s latest project, ‘Nanjing Zendai Thumb Plaza’. The total area of this urban design project is about 600,000 sqm and it is expected to be completed in 2017.
The historic city Nanjing is famous for the mountain and water landscape around the city, as well as its modern prosperities. With the culture, nature and history considered, we need to rethink how to define the boundary between the nature and the urban on this piece of empty plot in the new city development area. Is it possible to combine the high-density city with the atmosphere of the nature to create an energetic urban public space for the future, so people will re-connected their emotion with the nature?
The installation approaches those issues by creating a green open space spreading on the ground level of the city, where the natural and man-made landscape cross over with each other, existing in different dimensions both indoors and outdoors. The clear boundary of the site thus becomes blurred. While walking to their urban destination, people will feel as if they are sometimes walking in the nature. Above that, a series of buildings rise in the fog with flowing lines, changing smoothly as integrity, resolving the vertical power and the height competition, and the city skyline that used to be controlled by technology and power is now back to the artistic mood of faraway-so-close that our ancients have perceived in the nature.
News: architecture firm Foster + Partners and designer Thomas Heatherwick have unveiled images of a finance centre they are collaborating on, which is currently under construction in Shanghai.
The 420,000 square-metre Bund Finance Centre will feature two 180 metre-high office towers, alongside a mix of shops and restaurants, a boutique hotel, and an art and culture centre.
Located at the end of Shanghai’s popular waterside street The Bund, the complex is intended by Foster + Partners and Heatherwick Studio to connect the Chinese city’s old town with its financial district.
“Sitting at the gateway to Shanghai’s old town, on the river bank where boats would arrive from the rest of the world, this is an extraordinary site which stood unoccupied for many years,” said Thomas Heatherwick.
“In filling this last empty site on Shanghai’s famous Bund, the concept is inspired by China’s ambition not to duplicate what exists in the rest of the world but to look instead for new ways to connect with China’s phenomenal architectural and landscape heritage,” he added.
The art and culture centre will be located at the centre of the masterplan and will feature exhibition galleries and a performance venue based on traditional Chinese theatres. According to the designers, this structure will be “encircled by a moving veil” that can be adapted to suit changing activities inside.
Foster + Partners’ head of design David Nelson commented: “The project has given us an exciting opportunity to create a glamorous new destination, as well as a new series of spaces that create a major addition to the public realm, right in the heart of historic Shanghai.”
The glazed facades of the buildings will be complemented with bronze details, while the edges will be finished with strips of granite that taper as they rise.
Dutch firm UNStudio has completed a shopping centre in Wuhan, China, with over 42,000 shiny silver balls attached to its facade (+ slideshow).
UNStudio designed nine variations of the stainless steel spheres to cover the exterior of the Hanjie Wanda Square shopping centre, which are intended to recreate the effect of rippling water or silk. Each one contains a small LED light that further animates the facade after dark.
Three different entrances lead shoppers towards atriums at the north and south ends of the building. The first has an oval-shaped plan, while the second features a perfect circle.
“In Hanjie Wanda Square a circular motif is repeated in many different ways and patterns, both in the facade and throughout the interior,” explained UNStudio principal Ben van Berkel, whose previous projects include an airport in Georgia and a department store in South Korea.
“The patterns used are influenced by numerous cultural references, both traditional and contemporary. Patterns drive our aesthetic choices, whether they be personal or shared, and in Hanjie Wanda Square act as a background to the world of desire encapsulated in the contemporary shopping plaza,” he said.
A monochrome colour scheme is predominant throughout most of the interior and incorporates perforated screens, glazed balustrades and polished floors.
The southern atrium continues this theme, with shades of grey picked up across surfaces, but the larger northern atrium offers a few golden and bronze tones.
Van Berkel said: “Reflection, light and pattern are used throughout the Hanjie Wanda Square to create an almost fantastical world. New microcosms and experiences are created for the shopper, similar perhaps to the world of theatre, whereby the retail complex becomes almost a stage or a place of performance and offers a variety of different impressions and experiences to the visitor.”
There are four main levels to the shopping centre, organised around a looping plan that accommodates shops, restaurants and cinemas.
Large skylights stretch across the roof to allow daylight to enter the building.
Ben van Berkel / UNStudio’s Hanjie Wanda Square in Wuhan completed
Hanjie Wanda Square is a new luxury shopping plaza located in the Wuhan Central Culture Centre, one of the most important areas of Wuhan City in China.
Following competitions in 2011 with design entries from national and international architects, UNStudio’s overall design was selected as the winning entry for the facade and interior of the Hanjie Wanda Square. The shopping plaza houses international brand stores, world-class boutiques, catering outlets and cinemas.
In UNStudio’s design the concept of luxury is incorporated through the craftsmanship of noble, yet simple materials and combines both contemporary and traditional design elements in one concept.
Synergy of flows
For the design of the Hanjie Wanda Square attention and visitor flows are guided from the main routes towards the facades and entrances of the building. From the three main entrances visitor flows are thereafter guided to two interior atria.
The concept of ‘synergy of flows’ is key to all of the design components; the fluid articulation of the building envelope, the programming of the dynamic facade lighting and the interior pattern language which guides customers from the central atria to the upper levels and throughout the building via linking corridors.
Facade design
The facade design reflects the handcrafted combination of two materials: polished stainless steel and patterned glass. These two materials are crafted into nine differently trimmed, but standardised spheres. Their specific positions in relation to each other recreate the effect of movement and reflection in water, or the sensuous folds of silk fabric.
The architectural lighting is integrated into the building envelope’s 42,333 spheres. Within each sphere LED-fixtures emit light onto the laminated glass to generate glowing circular spots. Simultaneously a second set of LED’s at the rear side of the spheres create a diffuse illumination on the back panels. Various possibilities to combine and control the lighting allow diverse effects and programming of lighting sequences related to the use and activation of the Hanjie Wanda Square.
The interior concept is developed around the north and south atria, creating two different, yet integrated atmospheres. The atria become the centre of the dynamic duality of the two Hanjie Wanda Square identities: Contemporary and Traditional. Variations in geometry, materials and details define these differing characters.
With two main entrances, the north atrium is recognised as a main venue hall, and the south atrium as a more intimate venue hall. The north atrium is characterised by warm golden and bronze materials reflecting a cultural, traditional identity.
In the south atrium silver and grey nuances with reflective textures reflect the city identity and its urban rhythm. Both atria are crowned by skylights with a funnel structure which connects the roof and the ground floor. The funnel structures are each clad with 2600 glass panels and are digitally printed with an intricate pattern. In addition, each funnel integrally houses a pair of panorama lifts.
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