This shell-like concrete structure with triangular slices is an auditorium designed by Luxembourg studio Valentiny HVP Architects for an annual music festival in the Brazilian town of Trancoso (+ slideshow).
Nearly complete, the Teatro Mozarteum Brasileiro will provide a performance venue for the Música em Trancoso, a week-long music festival that takes place every March in the popular beach town on Brazil’s Bahia coast.
The festival was founded by architect François Valentiny of Valentiny HVP Architects, with partners Sabine Lovatelli, Reinold Geiger and Carlos Eduardo Bittencourt. Now in its third year, the event will have its own permanent auditorium capable of hosting indoor and outdoor audiences.
Two large triangular openings in the curved concrete facade provide entrances for the two separate seating areas. These are positioned alongside one other and can accommodate up to 1100 people each.
A neighbouring structure, known as the facilities building, houses ancillary spaces, including rehearsal rooms, meeting areas and a bar.
The triangular windows of this building are decorated with engraved bronze panels, created by Brazilian artist Maria Bonomi.
“The engravings refer to both the local nature with its impressive cliffs and the birth of the Brazilian nation,” said the studio.
Photography is by Jean de Matteis and Valentiny HVP Architects.
Here’s a project description from Valentiny HVP Architects:
Música in Trancoso Festival
The Música em Trancoso 2014 Festival, to be held March 15th through March 22nd, the third grand event that celebrates arts, promotes education and transforms music as a tool for social integration, announces this year’s wide range of activities.
After two years of meticulous planning, the first Música em Trancoso Festival was held in March 2012. It was the result of the dream of four friends, music lovers and social activists who wanted to create an event to bring together young musicians and established artists while at the same time promoting the natural beauty of the Trancoso region and stimulating economic and social development.
The Festival’s critical and popular success was immediate and can be measured by the outstanding performances of more than 200 musicians before 10,000 spectators.
Every year for eight days in a series of free concerts and accompanying musical events between Carnival and Easter, the village of Trancoso welcomes performers and soloists of international recognition in classical music as well as the greatest names in Brazilian popular music.
Its founders are Sabine Lovatelli, president of Mozarteum Brasileiro, one of the most acclaimed associations devoted to the diffusion of classical music in Brazil; Reinold Geiger, president of the L’Occitane group; Carlos Eduardo Bittencourt, entrepreneur from Trancoso, Bahia; and the Luxembourgish architect François Valentiny, internationally known for designing theatres and cultural venues.
Música em Trancoso has three interrelated activities, which take place throughout the event: – Performances at the Teatro Mozarteum Brasileiro. – Masterclasses in the “Facilities” building, adjoining the theatre – Music Initiation Classes for children and teens from public schools in the Trancoso and Arraial d’Ajuda region
The Mozarteum Brasileiro Theatre
From the bold design by architect François Valentiny, the Mozarteum Brasileiro Theatre has two different overlapped audiences, one indoor and one outdoor, each with 1,100 seats.
Design as well as acoustics of the theatre, are in charge of Valentiny architects, Luxemburg, known for their designs of cultural venues including the Concert Hall Saarbrücken (Germany), the House of Mozart – Kleines Festspielhaus Salzburg (Austria) and the Luxemburg Pavilion Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
The Mozarteum Brasileiro Theatre also includes an annex, “The Facilities” building, with eight rehearsal rooms, spacious bar and meeting rooms. With a design which contrasts curves with triangular openings, totally integrated with the natural environment of Trancoso, the building brings imposing panels, etched in bronze, from the renowned Brazilian artist Maria Bonomi. The engravings refer to both the local nature with its impressive cliffs and the birth of the Brazilian nation.
L’agence Nameless Architecture a décidé de construire une église en béton dans une ville aux alentours de Séoul, en Corée du Sud. Avec sa façade structurée de petits carrés et faite tout en bloc, cette bâtisse imposante contient des baies vitrées qui diffusent une lumière dans un intérieur gris.
This raw concretechurch by Nameless Architecture presents a cross-shaped elevation to a road junction in Byeollae, a new district under development outside Seoul, South Korea (+ movie).
Nameless Architecture, which has offices in Seoul and New York, used concrete for both the structure and exterior finish of RW Concrete Church, creating an austere building intended to embody religious values.
“Concrete reveals its solidity as a metaphor for religious values that are not easily changed in an era of unpredictability,” said the architects.
The introduction of a bell tower and a cantilevered second-floor lobby give the church its cross-shaped profile. Additional cross motifs can also be spotted at the top of the tower and within the lobby window.
“The cross as a religious symbol substitutes for an enormous bell tower and is integrated with the physical property of the building,” explained the architects. “The minimised symbol implies the internal tension of the space.”
A large sheltered terrace takes up most of the ground floor of the site, creating a space that can be used for various community activities.
An entrance leads into the church via a ground-floor lobby, from which a staircase ascends towards the chapel on the second floor. Visitors have to pass through the cantilevered lobby before entering the space.
“This cantilevered space is a physical as well as spiritual transition that connects daily life with religion,” added the architects.
A gently sloping floor helps to frame the seating around the pulpit, while clerestory windows help to natural light to filter across the entire room.
Photography is by Rohspace.
Here’s more information from Nameless Architecture:
RW Concrete Church
RW Concrete Church is located in Byeollae, a newly developed district near northeast Seoul, Korea. It evokes a feeling, not of a city already completed, but a building on a new landscape somewhere between nature and artificiality, or between creation and extinction. The church, which will be a part of the new urban fabric, is concretised through a flow of consecutive spaces based on simple shape, single physical properties and programs.
The use of simple volumes and a single material adapted to the site collects a range of desires created in the newly developed district. Concrete, which is a structure as well as a basic finishing material for the building, indicates a property that penetrates the entire church, and at the same time, a firm substance that grasps the gravity of the ground it stands on, which is contrary in concept from abstraction.
Concrete reveals its solidity as a metaphor for religious values that are not easily changed in an era of unpredictability. Moreover, the cross as a religious symbol substitutes for an enormous bell tower and is integrated with the physical property of the building through the empty space at the upper part of the staircase. The minimised symbol implies the internal tension of the space.
The first thing encountered upon entering the building is the empty concrete yard on the ground floor. This is a flexible space that acts as a venue for interaction with the community while also accommodating varying religious programs. By the time you become accustomed to the dark as you walk past this empty yard, and climb the three storeys of closed stairs, you come face to face with a space full of light.
This interior space has a cantilever structure protruding 6.9m, and you must pass through this hall before entering the chapel. This cantilevered space is a physical as well as spiritual transition that connects daily life with religion.
The chapel creates a sense of peace with a single space, using a slope that is not so steep, evoking the feeling of attending a worship service on a low hill. The subdued light gleaming through the long and narrow clerestory embraces the entire chapel and lends vigour to the static space.
Project: RW Concrete Church Architect: NAMELESS Architecture Architects In Charge: Unchung Na, Sorae Yoo Location: Byeollae, South Korea Area: 3,095.5 sqm / 33,319.7sqft
Collaborating Architect: Jplus (Jungtaek Lim, Hwataek Jung) Structural consultant: Mido Structural Consultants Mechanical consultant: One Engineering Client: RockWon Church
The clients asked Formwerkz Architects to extend a two-storey 1970s residence in Singapore’s Bukit Timah neighbourhood to give them a multigenerational family home, which is named the Extended House.
The architects designed a new wing at the rear of the plot with a contemporary geometric profile and a exposed concrete exterior that contrasts with the black-rendered plaster finish of the older building.
“From the beginning, we wanted to retain as much of the existing house [as possible], working around it and using it as part of the new narrative,” said studio co-founder Alan Tay. “It became a dichotomy of old and new, a story of a recent past and contemporary aspirations.”
As well as the new wing, which contains a dining room, kitchen and bedrooms, the architects added a lap pool along one edge of the site and extended the ground floor of the existing building to create a new lounge area.
This extension and a new balcony that projects from the facade of the black building are both finished in the board-formed concrete that creates a clear distinction between the old and new parts of the home.
The cantilevered section contains the master bedroom and extends out towards the pool, shading the decking and the dining room windows below.
An atrium built on the site of the original double-height dining room connects the two wings, while gaps on either side create courtyards sheltered by the long sections of the two main buildings.
The courtyard next to the pool is raised above the level of the decking around it and is bounded by a low concrete retaining wall that provides additional seating space.
A steel mesh bridge inside the atrium traverses the space between the old house and the extension, with concrete walls creating a sense of consistency with the external surfaces. The angled roofline of the original structure can be seen below the level of new windows installed when the atrium was constructed.
Photography is by Albert Lim.
Here’s some more information from Formwerkz Architects:
The Extended House
The house at the intersection of Linden Drive and Jalan Naga Sari in Singapore is built for a multi-generational family that entertains frequently. We retained the existing 2-storey post-war bungalow built in the seventies and added a new block at the rear and a lap pool along the side boundary. The new rear extension sits on higher ground than the pool with its upper volume cantilevering over the deck.
From the beginning, we wanted to retained as much of the existing house, working around it and use it as part of the new narrative. It became a dichotomy of old and new, a story of a recent past and contemporary aspirations. The dialogue between the old and new formed the framework for the design. Formally, the new addition is articulated in board-formed concrete volumes in contrast to the existing house in black rendered rough plaster.
The existing high ceiling dining hall is converted to a atrium that bridged the existing house with the new block at the rear. This is the heart of the project where it bridges both physically and spatially, the old house and the new extension.
On the upper floor, a wire mesh steel bridge negotiates the level difference between the existing house and the new extension. The H-shaped massing encloses two intimate courtyard spaces that together with the atrium are spaces of greatest tension between the old and new. The elevated courtyard that fronts the pool has a low concrete retaining wall that encircle it to serves as both barrier and outdoor seating.
A doorway is the only opening in the faceted concrete facade of this family residence in Tokyo by architecture studio MDS.
Kiyotoshi Mori and Natsuko Kawamura of Tokyo-based MDS wanted Shirokane House to make the most of its small site, so they designed a three-storey volume that angles outwards and upwards to create extra space and bring in more light.
“There are basic requirements for a house, where people live, such as privacy protection and ample daylight and ventilation,” they said. “It, however, takes a little ingenuity to satisfy such requirements under a given condition that a site is surrounded by the neighbouring buildings.”
Residents enter the house on the middle floor, and are led through to a double-height kitchen and dining room that receives natural light through a pair of high level windows.
One of the windows fronts a living room on the storey above, while the other sits in front of a small roof terrace.
A lightweight steel and timber staircase leads up to this top floor. Upon arriving in the living room, a steeply angled ceiling is revealed, as well as a corner window with a pointed tip.
Concrete walls are left exposed inside the house as well as outside, and are textured by horizontal markings that reveal the original timber formwork. Floors are finished in walnut.
A set of wall-mounted rungs form a ladder leading up to a second terrace on the roof, while bedrooms and bathrooms are located on the lowest floor.
The small site is located in a typical Tokyo urban residential area, where houses are closely built up. A pursuit of internal spaces in this house, as a result, changes the Tokyo cityscape a little.
An area for one floor is usually desired as large as possible, in particular, in such a narrow site. For this house, the first floor area is small due to the parking space and the second floor is, instead, larger. The outer appearance is examined based on ceiling height, slant line regulations for a building shape.
There are basic requirements for a house, where people live, such as privacy protection and ample daylight and ventilation. It, however, takes a little ingenuity to satisfy such requirements under a given condition that a site is surrounded by the neighbouring buildings. For the site, the southern site across the road is “tentatively” a parking space and no one can tell what will happen in the future. The daylight is, therefore, taken in from the above as much as possible and it is brought downstairs.
The living room is on the top floor. The roof terrace facing the blow-by above the living room and the terrace connected with the living room take daylight and air in the house and the light falls on the dining and kitchen room downstairs. The irregular shape at the corner of the site allows the house continuously to keep privacy as well as daylight and ventilation.
The building looks quiet only with the entrance on the south facade, it embraces expressive internal spaces where light and shadow change by the minute.
Architecture: Kiyotoshi Mori & Natsuko Kawamura / MDS Location: Minato-ku, Tokyo Principal Use: Residence Structure: RC Site Area: 64.49 sqm Total Floor Area: 101.63 sqm
Exterior Finish: cedar forms exposed concrete Roof: exposed concrete Floor: walnut flooring Wall: plaster/cedar forms exposed concrete Ceiling: acrylic emulsion paint + plaster board
A square wall covered in plants announces the presence of this concrete housing block in São Paulo by Brazilian architecture studio TACOA (photos by Leonardo Finotti + slideshow).
Entitled Vila Aspicuelta, the terrace of eight compact houses sits perpendicular to the adjacent street, but its north-facing end wall provides a growing area for a variety of bushy plants and shrubs.
Rodrigo Cerviño Lopez and Fernando Falcon of TACOA chose to plan the building as a series of maisonettes rather than as a simple housing block, meaning that each residence would have more than one floor and its own private access.
“The eight houses that compose Vila Aphins challenge the logic of vertical buildings: the different units are disposed side by side horizontally, and function vertically,” said the architects.
The building is raised off the ground to create parking spaces at ground level. Eight separate concrete staircases lead up to each of the residences, creating a zigzagging volume along the western edge of the block.
The first floor of every house is a living area with a kitchen counter and enough space for a dining table.
A second row of staircases leads up to bedrooms and bathrooms on the next level up, while a third set of stairs ascends to private gardens on the roof.
Wooden screens cover a wall of windows in the bedroom and bathroom of each home, but fold back to reveal a row of balconies at the rear.
The east-facing orientation of these windows ensures that the houses are filled with sunlight in the mornings but are shaded during hot afternoons.
The eight houses that compose Vila Aphins challenge the logic of vertical buildings: the different units are disposed side by side horizontally, and function vertically.
The street continues through the villa, partially covered by the building, and gives access to the staircase of each individual unit. The parking lot, gardens and common areas are also placed on this street.
On the first floor of every house, one single area provides space for the kitchen, dining and living. The second floor was conceptualised as a private area, a bedroom with a balcony and garden and a bathroom. Finally, on the rooftop, an open air plaza is set, with individual spaces.
The eastern orientation of the villa enables the houses to enjoy sunny mornings, shady afternoons and crossed ventilation. The western facade hosts the access stairs of the houses and unifies all the units, providing the vila its wavy project identity.
The concrete cells of the canopy spanning this new airport terminal in Mumbai was designed by American firm SOM to reference both the open-air pavilions of traditional Indian architecture and the arrangement of feathers in a peacock’s tail (+ slideshow).
The new 40-hectare terminal at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport will accommodate 40 million passengers a year for both international and domestic flights, and was designed by SOM to adopt the styles and motifs of the regional vernacular.
“We designed an airport that is intimately connected to its surroundings,” said SOM partner Roger Duffy. “By subtly incorporating regional patterns and textures at all scales, Terminal 2 resonates with a sense of place and serves as a spectacular symbol for India and Mumbai.”
The check-in hall is located on the upper level of the four-storey terminal, directly beneath the perforated concrete ceiling. This canopy is supported by 30 tapered columns that are punctured with similar recesses, creating a decorative pattern of openings that are infilled with coloured glazing to allow light to filter through the space.
“The monumental spaces created beneath the 30 mushrooming columns call to mind the airy pavilions and interior courtyards of traditional regional architecture,” said the design team.
“The constellation of colours makes reference to the peacock, the national bird of India, and the symbol of the airport,” they added.
A 900-metre long glass wall with a gridded cable frame provides the hall’s facade. The decorative canopy extends beyond the walls to offer protection from both intense heat and monsoons, but also creates an area where Indian departure ceremonies can take place.
The rest of the terminal is laid out with an X-shaped plan, where modular concourses radiate outwards from the central core to minimise walking distances to boarding gates.
Floor-to-ceiling glazing offer passengers the opportunity to watch planes arriving and departing, while patterned jali screens help light to filter gently through the spaces.
Photography is by Robert Polidori, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here’s a project description from SOM:
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Terminal 2
Ten years ago, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport welcomed six million passengers per year through its gates; today it serves nearly five times that number. With the city’s emergence as India’s financial capital and the country’s rapidly expanding and economically mobile middle class, the existing airport infrastructure proved unable to support the growing volume of domestic and global traffic, resulting in frequent delays. By orchestrating the complex web of passengers and planes into a design that feels intuitive and responds to the region’s rocketing growth, the new Terminal 2 asserts the airport’s place as a preeminent gateway to India.
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Terminal 2 adds 4.4 million square feet of new space to accommodate 40 million passengers per year, operating 24 hours a day. The terminal combines international and domestic passenger services under one roof, optimizing terminal operations and reducing passenger walking distances. Inspired by the form of traditional Indian pavilions, the new four-story terminal stacks a grand “headhouse”, or central processing podium, on top of highly adaptable and modular concourses below. Rather than compartmentalising terminal functions, all concourses radiate outwards from a central processing core and are therefore easily reconfigured to “swing” between serving domestic flights or international flights.
But just as the terminal celebrates a new global, high-tech identity for Mumbai, the structure is imbued with responses to the local setting, history, and culture. Gracious curbside drop-off zones designed for large parties of accompanying well-wishers accommodate traditional Indian arrival and departure ceremonies. Regional patterns and textures are subtly integrated into the terminal’s architecture at all scales. From the articulated coffered treatment on the headhouse columns and roof surfaces to the intricate jali window screens that filter dappled light into the concourses, Terminal 2 demonstrates the potential for a modern airport to view tradition anew.
A Gateway to India
All international and domestic passengers enter the terminal headhouse on the fourth floor, accessed from a sweeping elevated road. At the entrance, the lanes split, making room for wide drop-off curbs with ample space for traditional Indian departure ceremonies. From the moment of arrival, the terminal embraces travellers. Above, the headhouse roof extends to cover the entire arrivals roadway, protecting passengers and their guests from Mumbai’s heat and unpredictable monsoon weather. A 50-foot-tall glass cable-stayed wall – the longest in the world – opens to the soaring space of the check-in hall. The transparent facade also allows accompanying well-wishers, who must remain outside of the terminal due to Indian aviation regulations, to watch as their friends and family depart.
Once inside, travellers enter a warm, light-filled chamber, sheltered underneath a long-span roof supported by an array of multi-storey columns. The monumental spaces created beneath the thirty mushrooming columns call to mind the airy pavilions and interior courtyards of traditional regional architecture. Small disks of colourful glass recessed within the canopy’s coffers speckle the hall below with light. The constellation of colours makes reference to the peacock, the national bird of India, and the symbol of the airport.
The check-in hall leads to a retail hub – a common space that allows passengers to shop, eat, and watch planes take off though expansive, floor-to-ceiling windows. Centrally located at the junction of the concourses and the terminal core, these commercial plazas provide a focal point of activity in close proximity to the gates. Within these spaces and throughout the concourses, culturally referential fixtures and details, such as custom chandeliers inspired by the lotus flower and traditional mirror mosaic work created by local artists, ground the traveler to a community and culture beyond the airport. Regional artwork and artifacts are displayed on a central, multi-storey Art Wall, illuminated by skylights above. The prevalence of local art and culture, coupled with the use of warm colours and elegant accents, elevates the ambience of terminal beyond the typical, often unimaginative airport experience.
Although the terminal is four storeys, interconnecting light slots and multi-storey light wells ensure that light penetrates into the lower floors of the building, acting as a constant reminder of the surrounding city and landscape. At dusk, illuminated from within, the terminal glows like a sculpted chandelier.
The construction site of the new terminal building was located in close proximity to the existing terminal which had to remain fully operational during construction. This site requirement inspired the elongated X-shaped plan of the terminal, which could both mould around existing structures and incorporate modular designs to accommodate rapid and phased construction. This innovative form also allows for the consolidation of important passenger processing, baggage handling, and retail/dining functions at the centre of the terminal. On each floor, radiating piers permit the shortest possible walking distances from the centre of the terminal to boarding areas, while also maximising the terminal’s perimeter for aircraft gates.
The terminal’s roof – one of the largest in the world without an expansion joint – ensures further terminal flexibility. The long-span capabilities of the steel truss structure allow for the spacing of the thirty 130-foot columns to be far enough apart to not only give a feeling of openness to the large processing areas below but also to allow for maximum flexibility in the arrangement of ticket counters and other necessary processing facilities.
Terminal 2 uses a high-performance glazing system with a custom frit pattern to achieve optimal thermal performance and mitigate glare. Perforated metal panels on the terminal’s curtain wall filter the low western and eastern sun angles, creating a comfortable day-lit space for waiting passengers, and responsive daylight controls balance outdoor and indoor light levels for optimal energy savings. Strategically-placed skylights throughout the check-in hall will reduce the terminal’s energy usage by 23%.
At Terminal 2, modern materials and technologies are used to powerful effect. But while cutting-edge strategies set a new standard for sustainable, modern airport design, the terminal is as much a showpiece of the history and traditions of India and Mumbai as it is an unprecedented structural and technological achievement. Rising from the Mumbai cityscape, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport celebrates both India’s rich cultural heritage and the country’s increasingly global future.
Mexican architect Frida Escobedo has transformed the former home and studio of painter David Alfaro Siqueiros into a public gallery and encased the entire complex behind a triangulated concrete lattice (+ slideshow).
Young architect Frida Escobeda reworked the complex built in the 1960s by late artist and political activist Siqueiros as a mural painting workshop, creating an art gallery and artists’ residence in the small Mexican city of Cuernavaca.
A wall of perforated concrete blocks was build around the perimeter of the La Tallera de Siqueiros complex, forming an enclosure around the buildings that groups them together but also allows light to filter through.
Two large murals painted by Siqueiros were moved from their original positions around a private courtyard to frame a new entranceway – a move that Escobeda says was key in opening the complex up to the public.
“Rotating the murals ignites the symbolic elements of the facade’s architectural syntax, altering the typical relationship between gallery and visitor,” she said.
In their new positions, the murals provide a framework for the cafe and bookshop, but also help to separate the gallery building from the old house, which now functions as a base for artists in residence.
Siqueiros’s former workshop remains largely unchanged but had been coated with white paint to create a neutral gallery space. Extensions have been built from concrete, with an exposed surface that reveals the markings of its timber formwork.
La Tallera de Siqueiros was one of 14 architecture projects shortlisted for Designs of the Year 2014 earlier this week.
La Tallera Siqueiros generates a relationship that reconciles a museum and a muralist’s workshop with the surrounding area by way of two simple strokes: opening the museum courtyard onto an adjacent plaza and rotating a series of murals from their original position. The space itself was built in 1965 and became the house and studio of the muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros during the final years of his life.
La Tallera is “an idea Diego Rivera and I came up with in the 1920s to create a real muralist workshop where new techniques in paint, materials, geometry, perspective and so on would be taught”. This is how Siqueiros himself defined this workplace, now a museum, workshop and artist’s residency program focused on art production and criticism. By opening up the courtyard, the museum yields a space for shared activity, while also appropriating the plaza.
The murals, originally intended for the outside area, now have a dual role: firstly, as a visual and programmatic link with the plaza by encompassing the public areas of the museum (café, bookshop and store) and secondly as a wall/program that separates the artist’s residence from the museum and workshop.
Rotating the murals ignites the symbolic elements of the facade’s architectural syntax, altering the typical relationship between gallery and visitor. Like the exterior, the gallery space, from both an exhibition design and artistic perspective, though unfolding, generates new relationships and spatial connections.
The distribution of these spaces and the interplay of planes – in murals and walls among others – is revealed in crossing a perimeter lattice that demarcates the urban surroundings – a single horizontal sculptural piece that contains and displays Siqueiros’ work.
Architect: Frida Escobedo Design team: Frida Escobedo, Rodolfo Díaz Cervantes, Adrian Moreau, Adiranne Montemayor, Daniela Barrera, Fernando Cabrera, Luis Arturo García Castro Client: Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros – La Tallera Type: Public building / Museum Adaptation
Consulting: BulAu (Carlos Coronel / Hector de la Peña) Building contractor: Francisco Alvarez Uribe (1st phase), Grupo Mexicano (2nd phase) Construction Supervision: Fernando Cabrera, Javier Arreola, Frida Escobedo Furniture design: Frida Escobedo Total Floor Area: 2,890sqm Budget: $2,240,000 USD Invited competition, 1st. Place Cuernavaca, Morelos Mexico, 2012
This concrete Second World War bunker in Hamburg has been converted into a renewable energy plant and visitor centre by urban development company IBA Hamburg (+ slideshow).
IBA Hamburg restored and expanded the 42-metre-high ruined concrete shell, which had remained unoccupied since the end of the war. Working with German energy firm Hamburg Energie, the company transformed the bunker into a plant that provides heat and electricity to the surrounding neighbourhood.
Photograph by Bernadette Grimmenstein
“After standing empty for more than sixty years, followed by a seven-year project development and construction phase, this war monument has been transformed into a sign of the dawn of a climate-friendly future,” said IBA director Uli Hellweg.
Photograph by Martin Kunze
The imposing structure is circled by a balcony towards the top, above which sits four cylindrical forms at each corner that are connected by the cantilevered ledge. A public cafe that spills out onto the balcony through a glass wall and an event space were also added on the upper level.
Photograph by Bernadette Grimmenstein
To make the building safe to occupy, concrete was sprayed onto the disintegrating facade to stabilise it and thermal insulation was added to keep the cafe warm. Inside, the bombed floor slabs were removed and replaced plus an elevator and staircases were added.
Photograph by Martin Kunze
A two-million-litre water reservoir sits at the centre of the structure, acting as large heat buffer. This is fed by heat from a biomass thermal power plant, a wood burning unit, a solar thermal system on the roof and waste heat from a nearby industrial facility. The heat is redistributed to surrounding buildings in the district.
Photograph by Martin Kunze
Rows of photovoltaic panels covering the south facade and a thermal power station feed power into the electricity grid. The cafe contains an interactive monitor that displays current energy production data and visitors can take guided tours around the plant.
Photograph by Bernadette Grimmenstein
The bunker has been supplying energy to Hamburg’s Reiherstieg district for a year and the public facilities opened six months ago.
Here’s some more information from IBA Hamburg:
Energy Bunker: World First in Heat and Electricity Supply
From a war memorial to a green power plant: the Energy Bunker in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, created by HAMBURG ENERGIE and the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg, is the first project of its kind in the world. For exactly a year the Energy Bunker has been supplying heat energy to the residential buildings in the surrounding area. Six months ago it opened to visitors and has become a major attraction. The development of this remarkable joint project is now complete and is being celebrated with an opening ceremony and the unveiling of two plaques.
Photograph by Bernadette Grimmenstein
“Today we are here to mark a project that encapsulates the philosophy of the IBA Hamburg more than any other,” said IBA director Uli Hellweg. “After standing empty for more than sixty years, followed by a seven-year project development and construction phase, this war monument has been transformed into a sign of the dawn of a climate-friendly future. Not only does it produce clean energy to supply the district, but also demonstrates how local resources can be used to produce and store heat. With its viewing platform, permanent exhibition, and café, the Energy Bunker also makes an appealing visitor attraction. Almost 100,000 people have visited the Energy Bunker so far.”
Photograph by Bernadette Grimmenstein
Dr Michael Beckereit, director of Hamburg Energie, said, “The Energy Bunker has been supplying heat energy since October 2012, and since March 2013 it has also been providing electricity. Its performance and network are gradually being extended. By the final stage of expansion we will be supplying 3,000 households with heat from the Bunker and generating over 2.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.”
Photograph by Bernadette Grimmenstein
At the heart of the project is a two-million-litre water reservoir that acts as a large heat buffer inside the Energy Bunker, and serves as the centre of a local heating network for the Reiherstieg district. The reservoir is fed by the heat from a biomass thermal power plant and a wood burning unit, as well as a solar thermal system on the roof. This is supplemented by the waste heat from a nearby industrial plant. By bringing these different sources of energy together in an effective way, the Energy Bunker is able to supply the adjacent Global Neighbourhood with heat, and in future will be capable of providing heat to most of the Reiherstieg district. At the same time it feeds into the public grid green electricity from the thermal power station and the photovoltaic unit fitted to the south façade.
Diagram of the Energiebunker
History of the Energy Bunker
The 42-metre-high flak bunker on Neuhöfer Strasse was built during World War II. After the end of the war this concrete behemoth could not be blown up without endangering nearby tenements, so the British Army restricted itself to destroying the interior. On the outside, however, the bunker remained more or less intact. From then on, the ruin stood in the middle of the residential area, largely unused and in danger of collapsing. In 2006 the conceptual planning for converting the building into an Energy Bunker began, and 2010 saw the first static tests carried out. Safety, restoration, and conversion tasks on the bunker could only begin in 2011. The total cost of the work amounted to €26.7 million. As a flagship project, it was funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Hamburg Climate Protection Concept.
The clients are the IBA Hamburg (restoration and expansion of the building) and HAMBURG ENERGY (energy supply). As part of a joint opening ceremony Uli Hellweg and Dr Michael Beckereit have now unveiled the IBA plaque and the ERDF sign.
A raw concrete house in Alicante by Spanish studio Langarita-Navarro Arquitectos becomes the scene for a string of mysterious murders in this series of images by photographer Luis Diaz Diaz (+ slideshow).
Langarita-Navarro Arquitectos designed the two-storey Casa Baladrar as a holiday house in the Spanish town of Benissa, but Luis Diaz Diaz chose to photograph the building as is it were a crime scene, rather than an attractive tourist destination.
“Every time I take pictures of houses I think about all of the things that could happen inside,” Diaz Diaz told Dezeen. “Many things happen in the life of a house, sometimes good sometimes bad; it can be robbed, or there could be a big party. So a house is the perfect place for creating a fantasy.”
One image features a man slumped over the mint-green frame of one of the house’s many large windows, while another features a woman lying behind a sofa on the terracotta tiles of the living room floor.
“I wanted to create a contrast between the clarity of the architectural lines of the house and these kind of weird events,” explained the photographer.
These architectural lines include a series of faceted ceilings that angle back and forth through the open-plan living room and kitchen, which occupies the house’s upper floor.
Architect María Langarita said they added these details to mimic the rugged topography that links the house with the sea. “We wanted a way to inhabit this rocky landscape,” she told Dezeen.
A series of bedrooms are located on the level below. Like the living room, each one can be opened out to surrounding terraces by sliding back glass doors and perforated metal shutters.
“Our goal was to make a very open house, so when the windows are open they disappear completely behind these lively green lattices and you don’t see any glass,” said Langarita.
Matching green glass tiles cover some of the lower walls. There’s also a swimming pool wrapping around part of the perimeter, which is depicted containing a body face-down.
Here’s a project description from Langarita-Navarro Arquitectos:
Casa Baladrar
The scattered and trans-European city that the mountainous coast of Alicante has become, houses a heterogeneous population that is drawn to the sun, the sea, the temperate climate, the convenient public services and the leafy greenery.
The promise of relaxing and hedonistic experiences captivates both seasonal tourists and long-term residents who see their expectations fulfilled amongst jasmine and bougainvilleas. The project draws from this context and is designed to meet the demands of multiple families in the summertime and as a haven for retirees the rest of the year.
The house rests on terraces that were once used for farming, which resolve the steep gradient of the terrain. The plot’s sloping nature means that there are some spectacular views of the sea from its upper reaches, while the lower portion looks over a wooded stream bed that carries water into a pebble-strewn cove.
The house takes advantage of the views and the breeze and makes the most of the uneven terrain and vegetation for the creation of small areas where activities can take place simultaneously, day and night. The existing trees were preserved and new species added in an effort to conquer the promising exuberance of local flora.
The interior spaces are arranged in a cascade, with common areas on the upper floor adjoining the terraces with their views, and bedrooms on the lower floor with access to the garden and swimming pool. The detail proposed for the openings eliminates all presence of glass when they are drawn back, transforming the house into an enormous porch that provides continuity between outside and inside activities.
The building uses the thermal inertia of the concrete and stone to its advantage, combining it with the lightness of the avocado green latticework and the glass tiles to create a cool and well-ventilated atmosphere. The house’s geometry and mineral quality reflect the impressive Peñón de Ifach and respond to a desire for time travel, with a minimum amount of maintenance.
Project: Casa Baladrar Location: Benissa, Alicante Architects: María Langarita and Víctor Navarro Collaborators: Marta Colón, Roberto González, Juan Palencia Structures: Mecanismo S.L. Date: September 2009 Client: Private
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