Hasta La Ideas

News: New York studio SO-IL has won a competition to design an art museum at the University of California’s Davis campus with plans that will unite indoor and outdoor spaces beneath a large steel roof.

Designed in collaboration with architecture firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art is conceived by SO-IL as a landscape of galleries and workshops that reference the flat plains of of California’s Central Valley.

The 4000-square-metre canopy will stretch out across the entire site, creating varying degrees of shelter in different sections. “Its form and its shape are an abstract patchwork of geometric forms that in a way refers to the agricultural landscape and the vast horizon,” says SO-IL’s Florian Idenburg.

Beneath the roof, the building will contain galleries for the University of California‘s collection of artworks, as well as temporary exhibition spaces, lectures rooms, studios and artists’ residences.

“I think the museum of the future will be one that needs to be able to accommodate a lot of change,” says Idenburg. “A museum on campus, like here, should be a testing ground for new ideas. We see the building itself offering a stage on which all these different things can happen.”

Construction of the museum is set to begin next year.

SO–IL, led by Idenburg and his wife Jing Liu, is based in Brooklyn. Past projects by the studio include the snaking white tent that hosts New York’s Frieze Art Fair and an art gallery draped in chain mail in South Korea. See more architecture by SO-IL.

Here’s a project description from the design team:

Grand Canopy

Davis is an ideal setting for a museum that will sow new ways of thinking about the experience of art. The Central Valley breathes a spirit of optimism. Whether one is influenced by the sweeping views over the flat plains beyond to the horizon, or the sense of empowerment one feels when being able to cultivate and grow freely – the spirit of this place is of invention and imagination. It is precisely this spirit we capture in our architectural proposal for the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

As an overarching move, the design proposes a 50,000 square-foot permeable cover – a “Grand Canopy” – over both site and building. The distinct shape of this open roof presents a new symbol for the campus. The Canopy extends over the site, blurring its edges, and creating a sensory landscape of activities and scales. The Canopy works in two important ways: first, to generate a field of experimentation, an infrastructure, and stage for events; and second, as an urban device that creates a new locus of activity and center of gravity on campus. The Canopy transforms the site into a field of diverse spaces. At night, the illuminated canopy becomes a beacon within the campus and to the city beyond.

Inspired by the quilted agrarian landscape that stretches beyond the site, the design inherits the idea of diverse landscapes, textures and colors stitched together. Like the Central Valley, the landscape under the Canopy becomes shaped and activated by changing light and seasons. Its unique form engenders curiosity from a distance, like a lone hill on a skyline. Catalyzing exploration and curiosity, the Canopy produces constantly changing silhouettes and profiles as visitors move through the site.

Under the Canopy, the site forms a continuous landscape, tying it in with its context. Lines from the site and its surroundings trace through to shape the design. Interwoven curved and straight sections seamlessly define inside and outside. The result is a portfolio of interconnected interior and exterior spaces, all with distinct spatial qualities and characteristics that trigger diverse activities and create informal opportunities for learning and interaction. Textures and landscape break the program down into smaller volumes to achieve a human, approachable scale. The future art museum is neither isolated nor exclusive, but open and permeable; not a static shrine, but a constantly evolving public event.

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Four courtyards penetrate the rectilinear volume of this concrete library in Ibiza by Spanish architects Ramon Esteve Estudio (+ slideshow).

Completed in 2010, Biblioteca Sant Josep is a single-storey public library in the village of Sant Josep de sa Talaia.

Ramon Esteve Estudio slotted courtyards into recesses on three of the building’s four elevations. One accommodates the entrance approach, while the other three are filled with plants and trees.

Every window faces towards a courtyard, rather than out the building’s perimeter. “This library is a small closed universe in which light and green penetrates under controlled conditions,” say the architects.

The outlines of the courtyards continue through the inside of the building, generating the curved shapes of four reading rooms with a communal lobby at the centre.

One of the curved spaces contains a children’s library, while another houses the multimedia room. The third has an area for magazines and newspapers in its corner and the fourth includes the lending desks.

The board-formed concrete walls remain exposed both inside and outside the building. Books are slotted into plain white bookshelves, while circular lighting fixtures are dotted across the ceilings.

The spaces behind the courtyards are filled with offices and storage areas.

Other libraries featured on Dezeen include a converted house in Mexico and a university library with robotic book retrieval system in the US. See more libraries on Dezeen.

Photography is by Diego Opazo.

Here’s some more information from Ramon Esteve Estudio:

Sant Josep Library

The library is a detached building within green surroundings splashed with trees that penetrate into the openings of the building. It is a prism box where the interior fragments with planes that flow between the spaces of the layout of the library. Between two fissures, the building opens to the exterior and allows the interior spaces to reach out to the vegetation that surrounds all of the building.

The building is composed of two different rooms, part of the functional design: the multi-purpose space, the children’s one, the general background, and the space for magazines, newspapers, music and images.
The soul of the library is the books that accompany the walls that form the structure that organizes the different areas.

The surroundings give unity and include all of the space of the different areas, marking the limits but maintaining the continuity and fluency of the spaces.

The building opens to the exterior through polygonal courtyards that generate intersecting views between rooms and fleeting views of the environment. A large amount of skylights of different diameters filter a similar, neutral, clean light, generating a warm atmosphere that encourages reading and reflection.

Architect: Ramon Esteve
Collaborator Architects: Esther Broseta, Rubén Navarro, Olga Badía
Collaborators: Silvia M. Martínez, Tudi Soriano, Patricia Campos, Estefanía Pérez
Building Engineer: Emilio Pérez
Promoter: Ajuntament d’Ontinyent
Construction company: Díaz-Sala
Works manager: Manuel Pamies
Project: 2008
Completion date: 2010

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Ramon Esteve Estudio appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Italian architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas have won a competition to transform the central railway area of Bari, a city in southern Italy, with a proposal to build a three-kilometre-long elevated park over the track.

The winning design, a collaboration between Fuksas and architect Jordi Henrich I Monràs, stretches over an area of 78 hectares and is centred around a large park that will pass over the railway and offer promenade views over the city and the sea.

The project will also provide Bari with a new cultural centre spread across the former Rossani barracks. Existing buildings will be restored and turned into a public library, an exhibition space, municipal offices and workshops for artists, actors and academics.

A new elliptical building with a wood facade will house a 1000-capacity auditorium adaptable to concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and exhibitions, while underground parking will be provided on the northern edge of the park near the railway station.

In the south-west corner of the park, alongside Bari’s existing Auditorium Nino Rota, the architects propose to enlarge the city’s music conservatory with a new auditorium and teaching rooms as well as an area for outdoor concerts.

Last month the Fuksas duo won a competition for the Moscow Polytechnic Museum and Educational Centre with a design consisting of four copper-clad elements, while in January they completed a new building for the National Archives of France – see all architecture by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas.

In 2011, a two-and-a-half mile-long elevated park called The High Line opened on abandoned railway along 22 blocks of downtown Manhattan, while last year Danish architects BIG completed a project to place a 750-metre-long carpet of grass and rubber through Copenhagen – see all parks and gardens.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

International competition for the “Baricentrale railway area”, Italy, won by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas + Jordi Henrich I Monràs

Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas along with Jordi Henrich I Monràs have won the international competition for the design of the railway area “Baricentrale”.

The international competition launched by the Municipality of Bari, aimed to promote the transformation of the city, using the reorganisation of the railway area which has long acted as a rift that cuts through the city, as the starting point for its transformation. The site of the project stretches over an area of 78 hectares which is divided into 7 segments.

The decision of the jury in choosing the winning design team came about on the basis of the following main reasons: the ability to fully respond with consistency and quality to the primal need of the city, that of reconnecting the two “sides” of the railway area which have been split apart for so long; the integration of buildings situated on the two sides, through the realisation of a large elevated park; the introduction of an increase of the current building density, balanced and well distributed between the different compartments; the proposal having a high level of environmental sustainability as its main characteristic.

The project signed by Studio Fuksas desires to solve the issue of the fracture of the city of Bari in a radical way through the design of a large city park with promenade views of the city and the sea, which acts as the connective tissue of the entire project. Without burying the rail track, the project aims at the rebirth of a strongly degraded area and pass through a large elevated park, 3 km long with an east-west bike path. A big lung which will double the amount of green for inhabitants, from the current 2.7 m to 5.1 m ab / ab.

The sub-sector of the barrack Rossani, composed of 5 buildings has been assigned an important role. It will become the cultural centre of the city of Bari with spaces for social gatherings in a green area. Existing buildings will be restored without altering the architectural shape. Their function will be related to culture and arts. The building positioned at the center of the park (1400 square meters) will host the municipal offices. The building D will host workshops for artists and fellows of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bari; the building E (2930 sqm) will become the city’s public library with specialized sections devoted to the visual arts, theater, music and architecture, the building F (2,184 sqm) is transformed into a huge exhibition space for temporary exhibitions and will support the educational activities of the Academy of Fine Arts. The building H (2890 square meters) will host residencies for artists, actors, contract professors, scholars and students of the academy linked to European programs of cultural exchange. The ground floor will also house a café open to the public and immersed in the park. It will include the construction of an underground parking with 800 seats, located in the northern edge of the Park Rossani near the new Central Station.

At the centre of the regular structure of the barrack will arise the auditorium / performance centre with a capacity of about 1,000 seats. The architectural shape of the elliptical performance center generates a volume from soft geometries that deliberately contrasts with the rigidity of existing buildings. A multi-purpose building that can accommodate a variety of events and activities such as concerts, theater, conferences, exhibitions and film screenings. Common areas, the cafeteria and the foyer are fully glazed in order to create a relationship of continuity between inside and outside. The wood will be the outer skin of the structure of the facade of the building in order to be in harmony with the park and vegetation.

The city of music will be built at the south-west of the park. The function is already defined by the presence of the Auditorium Nino Rota. The existing structure also plays a supporting role at the Conservatory Niccolo Piccinni. The project proposes to shape a genuine city of music providing for the enlargement of about 2000 square meters of the conservatory with a new building that will house a 400-seat auditorium and music school. Furthermore it is also planned to build an area for outdoor concerts with 400 seats. The park of music because of the new structure planned by the master plan is easily accessible from the city centre.

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News: Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre in Reykjavik, Iceland, by Henning Larsen Architects and artist Olafur Eliasson has won this year’s European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, the Mies van der Rohe Award.

The crystalline Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre by Henning Larsen Architects and Olafur Eliasson with local practice Batteríið Architects beat four other projects on the Mies van der Rohe Award 2013 shortlist to scoop the €60,000 prize.

The Emerging Architect Special Mention award was given to María Langarita and Víctor Navarro for the Red Bull Music Academy, where they took over a warehouse and filled it with makeshift huts, providing individual studios for 60 musicians alongside a lecture hall, recording studio and staff offices.

The award ceremony will take place on 6 June at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona, Spain.

Opened to the public on 4 May 2011, the Harpa Concert Hall is clad in panes of clear and colour-coated glass on a faceted steel framework, scattering glittering reflections of the surrounding harbour and sky. Read more and and check out a full set of images of the Harpa Concert Hall in our earlier story.

The biennial Mies van der Rohe Award is the most prestigious accolade in European architecture and is awarded to the best building completed in the last two years by a European architect.

The four other projects on this year’s shortlist were the Superkilen park by BIG in Denmark, Metropol Parasol by J. Mayer H. in Spain, a retirement home by Aires Mateus Arquitectos in Portugal and a Market Hall by Robbrecht en Daem architecten and Marie-José Van Hee architecten in Belgium. See all the projects shortlisted for the Mies van der Rohe award 2013.

Previous winners include David Chipperfield for the Neues Museum in Berlin in 2011 and Snøhetta for the Norwegian Opera & Ballet in Oslo in 2009. See all our stories about the Mies van der Rohe Award.

The prize is organised by the European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, which was established in 1983 with the initial purpose of reconstructing the iconic pavilion designed by Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition, and now organises exhibitions and events promoting the study of Modern architecture and Mies van der Rohe’s work.

This year’s winning firm was founded in Denmark in 1959 by its namesake Henning Larsen, who last year was among the five laureates of the Praemium Imperiale arts prize awarded by the Japan Art Association. Henning Larsen Architects’ recent projects include plans for a Danish headquarters for software giant Microsoft and a proposed complex of public and leisure buildings in Trondheim, Norway.

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has worked on several other architectural projects throughout his career, including a fort-like headquarters for a Danish investment company and a temporary pavilion outside London’s Serpentine Gallery, which he designed with architect Kjetil Thorsen of Snøhetta in 2007.

More about the Mies van der Rohe Award »
More about architecture by Henning Larsen »
More about Olafur Eliasson »

Here’s some more information from the Mies van der Rohe Foundation:

Harpa wins the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2013

Harpa, the Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre in Iceland, is the winner of the 2013 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, the European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation announced today. Designed by Henning Larsen Architects, Batteríið Architects and Studio Olafur Eliasson, the building has helped to transform and revitalise Reykjavik harbour and brought the city and harbour district closer together. The ‘Emerging Architect Special Mention’ award goes to María Langarita and Víctor Navarro for the Nave de Música Matadero (Red Bull Music Academy) in Madrid, Spain. The award ceremony will take place on 7 June at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona, coinciding with the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the prize.

“Architecture is one of the most visible expressions of our contemporary culture. My warmest congratulations go to this year’s winners – indeed, to all of those who made the final shortlist. They have created buildings which are not only of the highest aesthetic and technical quality, but also places which touch our emotions and bring people together. I would also like to thank the Mies van der Rohe Foundation for their excellent collaboration in helping to bring the best of contemporary European architecture to worldwide attention,” said Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth.

Harpa’s crystalline structure was inspired by Icelandic landscapes and traditions. Its dramatic design captures and reflects the light of the city, ocean and sky to thrilling effect.

Peer Teglgaard Jeppesen, from Henning Larsen Architects said: “On behalf of the team I would like to thank the European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe for this award. We are immensely honoured. Harpa is the result of collaborative process that has involved many people and with their efforts, strong commitment and drive Harpa has become a symbol of Iceland’s renewed dynamism.”

Wiel Arets, Chair of the Jury, said: “Harpa has captured the myth of a nation – Iceland – that has consciously acted in favour of a hybrid-cultural building during the middle of the ongoing Great Recession. The iconic and transparent porous ‘quasi brick’ appears as an ever-changing play of coloured light, promoting a dialogue between the city of Reykjavik and the building’s interior life. By giving an identity to a society long known for its sagas, through an interdisciplinary collaboration between Henning Larsen Architects and artist Olafur Eliasson, this project is an important message to the world and to the Icelandic people, fulfilling their long expected dream.”

The Nave de Música Matadero Madrid (Red Bull Music Academy) was built in only two months to host a nomadic annual music festival in an early 20th-century industrial warehouse complex in Madrid. It responded to the technical and acoustic needs of the event, while promoting and enriching artistic encounters between the participating musicians.

Antoni Vives, President of the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, said: “It has been an honour for the city of Barcelona and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation to grant this Prize with the European Commission for the last 25 years: a quarter of a century of the best European architecture. I would like to congratulate the winners of this 13th edition and I would like encourage architects to continue to play their role as catalysts for transforming cities.”

The winners were chosen from 335 submitted works in 37 European countries. Five works were shortlisted for the main award. The other finalists were: Market Hall (Ghent, Belgium by Robbrecht en Daem architecten; Marie-José Van Hee architecten); Superkilen (Copenhagen, Denmark by BIG Bjarke Ingels Group; Topotek1; Superflex); Home for Elderly People (Alcácer do Sal, Portugal by Aires Mateus Arquitectos) and Metropol Parasol (Seville, Spain by J. Mayer H).

The jury members who selected the finalists for 2013 are: Wiel Arets, Chair of the Jury, Principal, Wiel Arets Architects, Maastricht/Dean, College of Architecture, IIT, Chicago; Pedro Gadanho, Curator, Contemporary Architecture, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Antón García-Abril, Principal, Ensamble Studio; Louisa Hutton, Principal, Sauerbruch Hutton Architects, Berlin; Kent Martinussen, CEO, The Danske Arkitekter Center (DAC), Copenhagen; Frédéric Migayrou, Director, Architecture & Design, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Ewa Porebska, Editor-in-Chief, Architektura-murator, Warsaw; Giovanna Carnevali, Secretary of the Jury, Director, Fundació Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona.

About the Mies van der Rohe Award

The architecture sector is at the heart of Europe’s vibrant cultural and creative industries. It directly employs more than half a million people, as well as more than 12 million in the construction sector. Architecture is part of the cultural and creative sectors, which contribute 4.5% to the EU’s GDP.

The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award highlights the contribution of European architects to the development of new ideas and technologies in contemporary urban development. Launched in 1987 and co-funded by the EU Culture Programme and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, the prize is the most prestigious in European architecture. It is awarded every other year to works completed within the previous two years. The winner receives €60 000. This year’s ceremony is the 13th to take place since its launch.

Works nominated for the Prize are put forward by independent experts from all over Europe, as well as by the member associations of the Architects’ Council of Europe, national architects’ associations, and the Advisory Committee for the Prize.

The Prize is named after Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who is regarded as one of the pioneers of 20th century modern architecture. His most celebrated works include the German Pavilion at the 1929 Barcelona Exhibition, Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic, the Seagram Building in New York and the National Gallery in Berlin.

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News: planning permission has been granted for Daniel Libeskind’s proposed peace centre on the site of the notorious former Maze prison in Belfast.

Northern Ireland’s environment minister Alex Attwood announced yesterday that the new Peace building and Conflict Resolution Centre (PbCRC) has been given the green light, along with the conservation of surrounding buildings.

A collaboration between Studio Daniel Libeskind and Belfast architects McAdam Design, the centre will support the work of peace building organisations in the region.

Used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles, the Maze prison, also known as Long Kesh, became notorious for the hunger strikes of 1981, in which ten prisoners died. The prison was closed in 2000.

“It is truly meaningful to build a hope-filled common ground, to tell individual stories and to do so at Maze Long Kesh,” said Libeskind.

The redevelopment is set to cost £300 million, with the peace centre itself wholly funded through an £18 million grant from the European Union’s PEACE III Programme.

Plans to redevelop part of the site as a showground were approved back in January, with the aim of relocating the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society’s annual show from its current Belfast location.

Libeskind’s work includes a number of other monuments to conflict, such as the Imperial War Museum North in Salford, England, and the Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, due to be built at the University of Essex in England – see all architecture by Daniel Libeskind.

Other Belfast projects we’ve featured include a performing arts centre with a volcanic stone facade and a maritime museum dedicated to the RMS Titanic.

Images are by Studio Daniel Libeskind.

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