Hasta La Ideas

With all eyes on Rio ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games, Brazilian firm Bernardes + Jacobsen Arquitetura has grouped three disused buildings under an undulating roof to create a new art museum and art school (+ slideshow + photographs by Leonardo Finotti).

The Museu de Arte do Rio, which opened last month, occupies the renovated interiors of the Palacete Dom João, an early-twentieth-century palace beside Mauá Square in Rio’s port. Meanwhile, the Escola do Olhar school is inserted within a former police building and bus station next door.

Inspired by the shape of waves, Bernardes + Jacobsen Arquitetura added an undulating concrete canopy over both of the buildings, sheltering a new outdoor bar and events space on the rooftops.

“We had the challenge of proposing an icon,” architect Bernardo Jacobsen told the Rio Times. “The more modern building had two extra floors so we eliminated these to balance the set. Then we built a wave over the two, almost like a flying object.”

The museum of art comprises eight double-height galleries, accommodated across four near-identical floors. A ground floor entrance leads in through the centre of the facade, where visitors can either head straight towards the exhibitions or take a lift up to the roof.

The neighbouring school is an elevated structure supported by pilotis. The architects have cleaned up the ground floor area to create a public square, while a small sculpture area is positioned alongside.

Three levels of classrooms, workshops and exhibition rooms begin on the first floor, plus a library and auditorium are located on the fourth floor and a bridge links the two buildings on the next level up.

The Museu de Arte do Rio opened to the public with four eclectic exhibitions of Brazilian and international art.

Above: site plan – click for larger image

The renovated palace won’t be the only museum completed ahead of the 2016 Olympic games. The Museum of Image and Sound Rio by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Casa Daros, a museum of Latin American art, by Paulo Mendes da Rocha are also set to open in the next three years. See more architecture in Brazil on Dezeen.

Above: ground floor plan – click for larger image

See more photography by Leonardo Finotti on Dezeen or on the photographer’s website.

Above: mezzanine level – click for larger image

Read on for more project details from Jacobsen Arquitetura:

MAR – Art Museum of Rio

Our challenge was to unite three existing buildings with different architectural characteristics to house the Museu de Arte do Rio, the school “A Escola do Olhar” as well as cultural and leisure spaces. The existing buildings, the palace “Palacete Dom João”, the police building and the old central bus station of Rio, connected shall be part of the major urban redevelopment in the historic downtown of Rio de Janeiro. For each construction we analysed different levels of preservation.

Above: first floor plan – click for larger image

The first step was to establish a flow system allowing the Museum and school to work in an integrated and efficient manner. Therefore we proposed the creation of a suspended square on the police building rooftop, which will unite all accesses and host a bar and an area for cultural events and leisure. Consequently, the visitation will be from top to bottom.

Above: second floor plan – click for larger image

It was established that the palace, due to its large ceiling height and structure free plan should hold the exhibition areas of the museum. The police building shall be used for the school, auditoriums, multimedia exhibition areas, administration areas and employee areas of the complex.

Above: third floor plan – click for larger image

The stilts, currently used as an access to the road, will turn into a large foyer for entire complex, and will hold the sculpture exhibition areas. Access will be controlled between the two buildings, characterizing this empty space as internal, open and covered. The marquee of the Road, heritage element listed by the City, will be used for lavatories, store and region of loading, unloading and deposits.

Above: fourth floor plan – click for larger image

The connection and circulation of visitors between the two buildings, in the form of a suspended catwalk will belong to this new building, featuring the most unusual state possible.

Above: fifth floor plan – click for larger image

For the police building, we propose the suspension of the last floor to balance the height of the two buildings as well as the replacement of the masonry closing façade profiles using translucent glass, making the structural system of indented columns visible and revealing the stilts.

Above: sixth floor plan – click for larger image

Finally as the main mark of the project, we suggested that the suspended square have an abstract and aerial form. A fluid and extremely light structure, simulating water surface waves. A poetic architectural character full of meaning, simple and at the same time modern in regards to the structural calculation. This element shall be seen near and by far, and from below to who is arriving at the Praça Mauá, from above by those who are at the Morro da Conceição.

Above: cross-section – click for larger image

Above: elevation – click for larger image

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News: the rooftop of Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse housing block in Marseille is to open to the public this summer as a contemporary art space masterminded by French designer Ora-Ïto. Originally intended as an outdoor gymnasium for the self-contained community of Cité Radieuse – the first building in Le Corbusier’s influential Unité d’Habitation project – the rooftop gradually fell into disuse and was put up for sale three years ago.

Ora-Ïto, whose past designs include a spaceship and sedan chair for French auto maker Citroen, stepped in to buy the space and set to work transforming it into an arts centre with a cafe, shop and artists’ residences.

As part of a £6 million restoration jointly funded by Ora-Ïto, the building’s co-owners and the French state, a 1950s extension was removed to reveal a sun deck and shower room with coloured tiles. The exhibition space will be called MAMO, which is short for “Marseille Modulor” and intended as a playful reference to New York’s MoMA, where a major Le Corbusier retrospective will take place this summer.

Set to open in June as part of Marseille’s 2013 Capital of Culture celebrations, MAMO’s first show will be an exhibition by French sculptor Xavier Veilhan, whose Architectones installations are developed specifically for architectural sites.

Cité Radieuse was damaged by fire last August when a fire broke out in a first floor apartment – see all news about Le Corbusier’s architecture.

Earlier this year Foster + Partners completed a polished steel canopy in Marseille’s harbour, while we also recently featured Hufton + Crow’s photographs of Zaha Hadid’s new 142-metre tower in the city – see all projects in Marseille.

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to open as art space appeared first on Dezeen.

News: architects and critics have called for the earthquake-damaged Christchurch Cathedral in New Zealand to be restored to its original gothic appearance after rejecting two contemporary proposals as “bizarre” and “architecturally illiterate”.

Writing for the New Zealand news website The Press, British architecture critic Kieran Long said the proposals by New Zealand firm Warren & Mahoney, which were unveiled by Anglican leaders last week, offered “a fairly mediocre architectural choice.”

If pressed to choose between the three options – a full restoration, a traditional redesign or an entirely new building – Long said he advocated the complete rebuilding of British architect George Gilbert Scott’s gothic revival cathedral, which was constructed in the second half of the nineteenth century and suffered major structural damage during Christchurch’s 2011 earthquake.

Above: traditional redesign proposal
Top: new building proposal 

“It is the only piece of architecture of these three that will have enduring meaning. It would speak of continuity, which is surely something valuable in a city like Christchurch today,” said Long, who was recently named senior curator of contemporary architecture at the V&A museum in London.

The traditional redesign proposed was “architecturally illiterate”, he noted. “The hexagonal facade treatment is bizarre and at odds with the ornamental logic of the gothic – the pattern and the rose window jar horribly.”

He also criticised the contemporary timber and glass proposal as “too generic to be interesting”, adding: “Its clumsy modern gothic is a kind of euphemistic architectural language that wants to appear rooted in history but in fact doesn’t take it very seriously.”

Above: original restoration proposal

Ellis Woodman, architecture critic for the Telegraph in London, also called for a straightforward restoration, dismissing the two alternatives as “painfully voguish”, while Australian architecture critic Elizabeth Farrelly agreed that the “depth and mystery” of the original gothic cathedral should be preserved.

Professor Paul Walker from the University of Melbourne and Australian architectural writer Justine Clark added to the debate by saying reconstruction should be “given serious consideration”, but called on Anglican leaders to think more carefully about their options.

An online poll conducted by The Press found that, as of this morning, 30.6 per cent back the restoration option, 24.2 per cent are for the traditional redesign and 39.6 per cent approve of the contemporary proposal, while 5.6 per cent of voters say they want something else.

Above: photo by Searlo

Christchurch’s mayor Bob Parker backed the contemporary option, saying it “points us to where we need to be thinking as a city” while its lower costs and shorter estimated completion time also worked in its favour.

“I love the idea of something new. I think it’s about looking forward rather than looking back, and this design helps with that,” he said.

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has meanwhile designed a transitional cathedral for the city made from an A-shaped frame of cardboard tubes, which is due to be completed this spring.

Above: Shigeru Ban’s cardboard cathedral, photo by Shigeru Ban Architects

Earlier this year we featured a spiralling titanium-clad church completed in northern Norway and a proposal for a chapel in Miami shaped like a flowing gown – see all churches on Dezeen.

Images are by Warren & Mahoney except where stated.

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earthquake-hit Christchurch cathedral appeared first on Dezeen.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is set to reopen next week following a ten-year restoration and extension programme led by Spanish office Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos (+ slideshow).

Above: the Atrium, photographed by Pedro Pegenaute

Working alongside French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte and restoration architect Van Hoogevest, Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos has overhauled the interior of the historic arts and crafts museum, which was designed by architect Pierre Cuypers in the late nineteenth century. As well as restoring galleries to their original configuration, the architects have created a new entrance hall and added a pavilion to showcase Asian artworks.

Above: the Atrium, photographed by Pedro Pegenaute

The entrance hall, named the Atrium, replaces a series of gallery extensions in the museum’s two inner courtyards.

Above: the Atrium, photographed by Pedro Pegenaute

A rib-vaulted passageway divided the space in two, so the architects have lowered the floor to create an underground zone linking the two sides from underneath. As the main route through the building, this passageway was then reconnected to the hall with a set of new staircases.

Above: the passageway, photographed by Pedro Pegenaute

The architects have installed a new glass roof to enclose the grand triple-height court, filled with natural light. Polished Portuguese stone covers the floor, while two rectangular chandelier-like structures are suspended overhead on each side.

Above: Gallery of Honour, photographed by Iwan Baan

Elsewhere in the museum, lowered ceilings and half-storeys have been removed to rationalise the layout of the Rijksmuseum‘s 80 galleries, which have been completely reorganised. Only Rembrandt’s seventeenth-century painting The Night Watch remains in its original position, in the dedicated Night Watch Gallery.

Above: Rijksmuseum, photographed by Iwan Baan

New display areas are designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte to look invisible where possible and include cases made from anti-reflective glass and simple rectangular plinths. Walls are finished in five different shades of grey, in line with Cuypers’ original palette.

Above: The Night Watch Gallery, photographed by Iwan Baan

Under the supervision of Van Hoogevest, the terrazzo floor has been restored in the Great Hall, while additional ornaments have been revitalised in the Gallery of Honour and within the stairwells.

Above: 17th Century Gallery, photographed by Iwan Baan

The new Asian Pavilion is located to the south of the building and features walls of stone and glass. It is surrounded by water and sits within redesigned gardens by Dutch landscape architects Copijn Landschapsarchitecten.

Above: 17th Century Gallery, photographed by Iwan Baan

A number of historic museums have been given a facelift in recent years. Also in Amsterdam, Benthem Crouwel Architects recently added a sink-like extension to the Stedelijk Museum, while David Chipperfield won the Mies van der Rohe Award for his 2009 renovation of the Neues Museum in Berlin. See more museums on Dezeen.

Above: 20th Century Gallery, photographed by Iwan Baan

Here’s some more information about the opening:

Rijksmuseum to open following ten-year transformation

The Rijksmuseum will open on 13 April 2013, following a ten-year transformation. Never before has a national museum undergone such a complete transformation of both its building and the presentation of its collection.

Spanish architecture firm Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos has spectacularly transformed the 19th-century building into a museum for the 21st century, with a bright and spacious entrance, a new Asian Pavilion and beautifully restored galleries. Under the guidance of restoration architect Van Hoogevest, the lavish decoration scheme of Pierre Cuypers, the original architect of the museum, has been fully reconstructed in a number of the museum’s key spaces. Parisian architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte designed the new interior of the galleries, fusing 19th-century grandeur with modern design.

The presentation of the Rijksmuseum’s world-famous collection is also new. For the very first time, visitors can follow a chronological journey through the collection, and experience the sense of beauty and time this offers. In a sequence of 80 galleries, 8,000 objects tell the story of 800 years of Dutch art and history. Only Rembrandt’s masterpiece The Night Watch will be returning to its original position.

The renovation and opening of the Rijksmuseum is made possible by founder Philips and main sponsors BankGiro Lottery, ING and KPN. The restoration of the Cuypers colours is made possible by AKZONobel/Sikkens.

Above: 18th Century Gallery, photographed by Iwan Baan

Journey through time, from the Middle Ages to Mondrian

The new presentation of the Rijksmuseum collection is a journey through Dutch art and history from the Middle Ages and Renaissance until the 20th century. The story of the Netherlands has been set in an international context and is told chronologically across four separate floors. Paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, silver, porcelain, delftware, furniture, jewellery, arms, fashion and objects from Dutch history will be presented together for the very first time.

More than 30 galleries are dedicated to the glory of the Golden Age, when the young mercantile republic led the world in trade, science, military exploits and the arts. At the heart of the museum will be the magnificently restored Gallery of Honour, presenting world-famous masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Jan Steen. The Gallery of Honour leads visitors to the dedicated space that architect Cuypers created for Rembrandt’s The Night Watch in the late 19th century, and where this huge masterpiece can once again be admired.

New to the presentation are the 20th century galleries. Paintings, furniture, photography, film and an aeroplane paint a picture of Dutch culture from the last century.

Above: 18th Century Gallery, photographed by Iwan Baan

Special Collections

The Special Collections are also displayed separately for the first time. Here, visitors will be able to discover famous and unexpected objects from the applied arts, science and national history, such as ship and navy models, musical instruments, and an armoury.

Above: Cuypers Library, photographed by Iwan Baan

New acquisitions and restorations

With the support of businesses, funds and private donors, hundreds of new objects and works of art have been acquired over the last ten years, of which more than 100 will be showcased in the museum when it reopens. The Rijksmuseum was also able to carefully study and restore almost the entire collection of works featured in the new presentation. Highlights among the new acquisitions include:

The ‘Golden Bend’ in the Herengracht (1671-72) by Gerrit Berckheyde, one of the highlights of the Dutch landscape genre from the Golden Age. Acquired with the support of Royal Dutch Shell, the National Art Collections Fund foundation and the BankGiro Lottery.

The Burgomaster of Delft and his Daughter (1655) by Jan Steen, one of the masterpieces of the 17th century collection. Acquired with the support of the BankGiro Lottery, The Mondrian Fund, VSB, Vereniging Rembrandt and National Art Collections Fund foundation.

A rare white armchair (1923) by Dutch designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld. With the support of the BankGiro Lottery Fund.

Two-metre high wooden sculptures of celestial warriors from Japan, temple guardians from the 14th century. With the support of the BankGiro Lottery Fund, the M.J. Drabbe Fund, The Mondrian Foundation and Vereniging Rembrandt.

Above: Great Hall, photographed by Jannes Linders

Cuypers for the 21st century

The main building of the Rijksmuseum has undergone a spectacular transformation. The lead architect for the renovation was Seville-based architecture firm Cruz y Ortiz. They based their ideas on the original design by Pierre Cuypers, the 19th-century architect of the museum. Under the motto Cuypers for the 21st century, and in close collaboration with Dutch restoration architect Van Hoogevest, the architects have turned the 19th-century national monument into a modern museum for the 21st century, restoring and introducing light and space. Cruz y Ortiz have opened up the previously converted inner courtyards into an impressive glass-covered new entrance hall, known as the Atrium. The original, richly decorated walls and ceilings have been revealed again in a number of places under the guidance of architect Van Hoogevest. The French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, known for his work in the Louvre, is responsible for the design of the Rijksmuseum galleries. He has designed elegant display cases, plinths, lighting and furniture, and has selected an interior colour scheme inspired by Pierre Cuypers’ palette for the building.

Above: Gallery of Honour, photographed by Iwan Baan

The new Asian Pavilion

Surrounded by water, the new Asian Pavilion is made from Portuguese stone and glass, and is characterised by many oblique surfaces and unusual sightlines. It houses the museum’s rich collection of Asian art from China, Japan, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and Thailand, dating from 2000 B.C. to 2000 A.D. A total of approximately 350 objects will be on display.

New “outdoor museum”

Based on Cuypers’ 1901 design, the Rijksmuseum gardens’ new layout was created by Dutch garden and landscape architecture firm Copijn. The gardens feature several of the original formal garden styles, as well as classical statues, and fragments and ornaments of historic buildings. A fountain, a water artwork designed by Jeppe Hein, a 19th-century greenhouse with ‘forgotten’ vegetables, and a children’s garden with playground equipment by Dutch designer Aldo van Eyck will soon be added to this “outdoor museum”. A Henry Moore exhibition will open in the new gardens on 21 June 2013, the first in a series of international sculpture exhibitions to be held each year.

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and Jean-Michel Wilmotte appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Italian architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas have won a competition for the Moscow Polytechnic Museum and Educational Centre with a design consisting of four copper-clad elements that appear to have been “cut by the wind”.

The $180 million centre will be built at the Sparrow Hills district of the Russian capital, close to Soviet-era monuments including Moscow State University and the Luzkniki Stadium.

“It’s one of my most beautiful projects and it is an Italian victory,” said Massimiliano Fuksas. “The museum and educational center must become a milestone and reflect the image of the new generation.”

Fuksas will work with Russian studio Speech on the centre, which is due to be completed in 2017.

Moscow is experiencing a building boom, with plans to double the size of the city announced last year and the 339 metre Mercury City tower recently overtaking London’s Shard to become Europe’s tallest tower. See all our stories about Moscow.

See all our stories about architecture by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas.

The following information is from the architects:

International competition for the “Moscow Polytechnic Museum and Educational Centre”, Russia, won by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas architects + Speech

March 2013

Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas + Speech have won the prestigious international competition for the design of the “Moscow Polytechnic Museum and Educational Centre” in Moscow which should be realized by 2017. After the historic season of Italian architects, centuries later, an Italian architect returns to realize an important public work in Moscow.

“It’s one of my most beautiful projects and it is an Italian victory, the museum and educational center must become a milestone and reflect the image of the new generation.” Massimiliano Fuksas

The “Moscow Polytechnic Museum and Educational Centre” in Moscow (about 31,403 square meters) will be located in the “Sparrow Hills”, about 10 km from the Red Square, at a cost of 180 million dollars. Near the site there are several buildings built during the “socialist classicism”, monumental buildings, among which the library of Moscow State University.

The project is composed of four elements that make up a sculpture of irregular geometry, as cut by the wind, entirely covered by copper pre-oxidized that sends back streaks of green and blue. The elements are connected to each other through the internal levels. They develop across and lay on a transparent case that looks at the city.

The project idea came from the desire to communicate with the architecture of the past and at the same time come into conflict with it. The monumental architecture of the surrounding buildings is in contrast with this new building that is imposing but expresses a formal complexity underlined by the color of copper pre-oxidized that covers it.

The volume of the case, having a regular layout, is functional for loading and unloading the artworks between the level -1, which include the parking, ground floor and upper levels of the four sculptural elements. The transparent case consists of two levels. The area open to the public is situated on the ground floor and it includes the lobby that can accommodate several art installations, a cafe, a shop, two auditoriums of different sizes (between 500 and 800 seats) designed as parallelepiped made of red wood and three winter gardens with a sliding roof.

On the ground floor  three structural volumes made of copper pre-oxidized stand out housing the vertical connections, in contrast with the formal geometry of the surrounding space. At the top level, the mezzanine, there are the offices. The cover made of stone of the case is conceived as a “square suspended” for the public. The sculptural part of the project is laid on it.

The sculptural elements  made of copper pre-oxidized develop on three main levels. Each level corresponds to a function. Interior spaces are designed on the basis of functional flows, deliberately in contrast with the complexity of the geometry of the exterior.

The first level is dedicated to a space related to communication. There are mainly placed several conference / auditorium rooms and the Science and Technology Center with support services.

The second level is dedicated to the exhibition: exhibition halls, science / art gallery, exhibition area of the Museum’s collection, exhibition Maths, cinema / auditorium. On the third level there are several laboratories, a library, a workshop, the exhibition area of the Science and Technology Museum Center.

Natural light enters the museum through three major cuts, two arranged vertically, one on the front side and another at the rear overlooking the near park, while a large skylight at the ceiling dominates all levels of the museum.

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