Hasta La Ideas

Slideshow: Madrid studio Exit Architects designed this concrete sculpture museum behind the retained facade of an old house in southern Spain.

Translucent glazed walls connect the existing brick walls to the new three-storey-high structure, which is recessed by a few metres to create a public plaza at the main entrance.

Concrete tiles clad the exterior of the museum, while the interior walls are cast concrete, formed against timber.

At ground level, the floor of a central exhibition hall snakes upwards on a series of parallel ramps to correspond with the steeply inclining site.

Chunky wooden platforms separate these ramps and provide exhibition stands for the display of artworks.

Huge folding doors at the back of the building allow larger sculptures to be transported inside the building with relative ease.

See all our stories about museums here, or all our stories about galleries here.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s a more comprehensive description from Exit Architects:

The Museum Project was the result of an ideas competition organized by the Hellín Municipality.

The competition rules considered the refurbishment of the Casa del Conde as well as the construction of an extension on the plot area former occupied by some small service buildings of the house.

In the competition winning proposal we included the completely refurbished Casa del Conde as a part of the Museum. We even wanted to give it a main role, incorporating the former backyard facade as the background of the new main exhibition space.

The inner court of the house played also a significant role as an exhibition area which established a relationship between the old and the new parts. The upper levels hosted an administration area and a library.

Nevertheless, at the time we developed the Project, and after a rigorous inspection of the building we confirmed that it was not possible to refurbish the whole house at a reasonable cost, so we decided to concentrate all the efforts in preserving and restoring the painted façade and those valuable elements (stone columns, ironworks,…) we could recover for the museum.

This way, the old façade, once disappeared the rest of the house, is no more only a construction element and becomes also a canvas, a decorated surface to be integrated in the museum as an exhibition object.

Indeed a very special one, due to the decisive role it plays in the relation of the building with its surroundings (the Assumption Church) and with the city history and memory.

Despite the disappearing of the house, we preserve the volume occupied buy it, as a mechanism to adequate to the surroundings scale.

The new building steps backwards, creating a small square in front of the main visitors access.

Therefore the museum as a whole responds to a double urban scale, the close-scale of the street and the far-scale of the Church square.

Besides the building adapts itself to the steep slope of the plot decreasing its height in the longitudinal section so that it keeps always the urban scale of the surrounding houses.

Another mechanism to integrate the building and give it a representative character is the use, for the facades, of the same local stone as the one of the nearby Church, keeping the museum into the chromatic spectrum of the historic centre.

In the inside, a white-concrete space, shaped by light, surrounds a sinuous way among the sculptures, which stand on several big wooden bases that organize the exhibition and contain the showcases for smaller objects.

Therefore it happens just the opposite as in Easter, and in this case it is the visitor who wanders between the sculptures as he discovers them from different points.

The great scale of the main space, the intentional use of light and the construction with few and durable materials give the interior a character very appropriate for the important collection of religious sculptures to be exposed.

project: EASTER SCULPTURE MUSEUM. HELLÍN. ALBACETE
architects: EXIT ARCHITECTS – IBÁN CARPINTERO / MARIO SANJUÁN
client: PUBLIC WORKS MINISTRY / HELLÍN MUNICIPALITY

built area: 2.160 m2
budget: 3.512.235 EUROS

project: 2002
completion: 2011

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collaborators: MIGUEL GARCÍA-REDONDO, SILVIA N. GÓMEZ, ÁNGEL SEVILLANO, JOSÉ Mª TABUYO
technical architects: ALBERTO PALENCIA / JOSÉ ANTONIO ALONSO

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mechanical consultant: MAINTENANCE IBÉRICA
structural consultant: INDAGSA (JOSÉ LUIS CANO)

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general contractor: PEFERSAN, S.A.

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Slideshow: a bronzed box window peers out like a periscope from the auditorium of this cathedral visitor’s centre in Lund, Sweden, by architect Carmen Izquierdo.

Located opposite the cathedral, the two-storey Domkyrkoforum building is clad entirely in the bronze-coloured brass alloy, which will continually darken with age.

Entrances lead into a double-height atrium from both a public plaza at the front of the building and from Kyrkogatan Street, the road that runs alongside.

This reception lobby accommodates temporary exhibition spaces and a cafe, while the auditorium is located just beyond and a series of offices and meeting rooms occupy the floor above.

Walls inside the building are of exposed concrete and reveal the grain of the wood used to form them.

Carmen Izquierdo previously designed the perforated orange facade for Tham & Videgård Arkitekter’s Moderna Museet Malmö – see it here.

Photography is by Åke E:son Lindman.

Here’s some more information from Carmen Izquierdo:

Domkyrkoforum – Cathedral Forum

The site of the new cathedral forum is central Lund, in direct connection to the cathedral itself. On the site is situated the existing “Arken” house, which is a building of historical value.

The new building aims to integrate itself in the urban fabric in a natural way, by adapting to the scale and lines of the surrounding cityscape.

At the same time our vision has been to create a contemporary building that adds a new layer to the many historic layers that characterize the urban environment of central Lund.

The shape of the building creates new adjacent public spaces: The entrance plaza towards Kyrkogatan street, the entrance passage facing the cathedral, and a triangular square towards Kungsgatan street.

In addition to the welcoming exterior spaces an internal atrium is created, as well as an interior courtyard, shaped by the existing and the new building.

The central public space in the building is the entrance hall that is reached from both entrances. The entrance hall is formed as a meeting space; a general and generous which can hold various activities like reception, exhibitions and a cafe.

A two-storey atrium allows daylight to enter from above, while visually integrating the public spaces with the congregational facilities on the second storey. The auditorium is conceived as a unique space, with its skylight pointing up towards the cathedral towers.

The exterior is a simple yet characteristic volumes, its lines playing with the surrounding buildings.

Towards Kyrkogatan street the roof lines of the Arken house are continued over the entrance plaza.

Towards the cathedral the entrance is signaled by the characteristic skylight.

The facade of the building is made of a brass alloy, a natural material that ages with a rich and living texture, allowing the building to age into its surroundings; at the inauguration it shimmers like gold, but in a couple of years it will have oxidized into a deep and matte bronze color.

The interior of the building is cast in concrete with form of wooden boards.

The massive and heavy character of the material is balanced by the play of light in the interior spaces.

Name of project: Domkyrkoforum
Address: Domkyrkoplan i Lund / Domkyrkoplan in Lund
Architect: Carmen Izquierdo Arkitektkontor AB
Project managers: Carmen Izquierdo & Andreas Hiller
Collaborating architects: Andreas Hermansson, Erik Törnkvist, Isabel Gonzaga, Malin Belfrage

Landscape:
Domkyrkoforum: Carmen Izquierdo Arkitektkontor AB
Domkyrkoplan: Ateljé Landskap

Other consultants:
Project leader: Lars G Gustafsson
Structural engineer: Jan Lövgren
Mechanical engineer: Patrik Holmquist
Electrical engineer: Ronny Sjöholm
Acoustics: Anna Swanberg, Maria Carlsson
Artwork in the lecturehall: Anita Christoffersson

Client: Domkyrkrådet i Lund
Construction form: Partnering- General entreprenad
Building Contractor: PSG
Gross Area sq.m:
New buiding: 1617kvm
Rebuilding: 883kvm
Year of construction: 2010-2011

A blanket of golden shingles clads the new wing that London studio Hugh Broughton Architects have added to a Tudor-style museum in Maidstone, England.

Open since the end of March, the East Wing and new entrance block slot into the recesses of the sixteenth century brick building, which was converted from a manor house into a museum over 150 years ago.

The copper-alloy exterior is interspersed with large panels of glazing to create views in towards the lower ground floor entrance lobby and shop, as well as into a new public meeting room.

The rear of the building steps up to meet the sloping ground level of the public gardens just behind, while the windows of this elevation reveal the interior facades of a courtyard enclosed between the extension and the refurbished existing galleries.

North-facing rooflights bring even levels of natural daylight into the one of the east wing’s three new galleries, which together will display some of the museum’s 600,000 artefacts.

Other buildings with a similar copper alloy exterior include a visual arts centre and a public library. See a selection here.

Photography is by Hufton + Crow.

Here’s some more text from Hugh Broughton Architects:

Maidstone Museum East Wing: new ‘gold’ clad extensions hint at treasures inside

Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery has re-opened following an extensive £3 million refurbishment and the addition of a new east wing by Hugh Broughton Architects.

Clad with ʻgoldʼ shingles which hint at the museumʼs collection of ʻtreasuresʼ on display inside, the new East Wing provides the museum with a reinvigorated look making it the cultural focus for the town centre.

Housing a collection of over 600,000 artifacts and specimens that are outstanding in their diversity and quality, Maidstone Museum forms the largest mixed collection in Kent and one of the largest in the South-East of England.

Hugh Broughton Architectsʼ 2006 RIBA competition-winning architectural scheme transforms the museumʼs display, storage and visitor facilities, allowing more of the collection to be accessed.

The core of Maidstone Museum, a Grade II listed building located within the boundaries of a conservation area, is a Tudor manor house dating from 1561. The building was acquired by Maidstone Borough Council in 1855 and opened as a Museum in 1858. Since then it has been subject to numerous expansions, resulting in an eclectic architectural arrangement.

The East Wing project forms the second phase of the Museumʼs re- development programme, following the renovation of the West Wing in 2003. The aims of the project have been three-fold including the long-term preservation of the museumʼs collection, increase in visitor numbers and greater public involvement.

The scheme improves storage facilities, brings previously inaccessible spaces into use and allows more of the Museumʼs historic buildings to be experienced. The East Wing provides new gallery spaces, which enable more of the collections to be seen. The provision of new and improved services including a shop, new toilets with baby-changing facilities and cloakroom, ease visitor circulation throughout the building and enhance the visitor experience.

The East Wing responds to the multilayered history and architecture of the museum. The elevations combine frameless glazing with a diagrid of copper alloy shingles, creating a contemporary counterpoise to the existing brick facades. The copper alloy shingles emulate the diamond leaded glass windows of the original Tudor building and have been individually hand cut and crafted on site, enhancing the artisanal qualities of the Museum.

A new entrance on the East elevation welcomes visitors from Maidstone High Street into the new East Wing. The entrance opens into an open plan foyer and orientation area occupied by Maidstoneʼs Visitor Information Centre and the Museum shop.

Beyond the foyer and shop a multi-functional education suite brings areas previously occupied by storage into lively public use, creating a designated study area for community groups and schools.
At ground floor level the principal public space in the East Wing is a gallery housing one of the museumʼs noteworthy exhibits – a Solomon Islands war canoe, the only example of its kind outside of the Islands. Glazing on the rear wall of this gallery reveals a public courtyard and Tudor facades unseen by the public for over 40 years.

At first floor level a public meeting room housed in a glazed box offers dramatic views of St. Faithʼs Church which visually re-connects the museum with Brenchley Gardens, fulfilling the ambitions of the Museumʼs Victorian founders. A system of bespoke connectors between the glass and steel structure ensures a completely frameless flush glazed finish.

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The new Japanese Gallery is located within the copper clad space above the reception. It is lit by an undulating ceiling of north-facing rooflights, which enliven the white cube space and ensure an even stream of daylight in to the gallery. This gallery is the new permanent home for one of the museumʼs highlights, an internationally significant display of Japanese Art collected in the nineteenth century by one of the Museumʼs founders, Julius Brenchley.

In addition to these new galleries, the existing galleries in the original museum have been refurbished and re-organised, increasing the display space by 30%.

Beyond the public spaces, the practice has worked closely with the museum staff to completely overhaul and modernize the storage spaces, increasing the capacity by 100%, and improving security and accessibility. This process has allowed the museumʼs staff to take stock and reorganize exhibits in storage, taking the opportunity to digitize and hone the full collection.

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Projects facts
Address: Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery St. Faithʼs Street, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1LH
Construction value: £3m (including a £2m grant from Heritage Lottery Fund)
Gross internal area: 1150 sq m (470 sq m new build / 680 sq m refurbishment)

Project credits
Client: Maidstone Borough Council
Architect: Hugh Broughton Architects
Project director: Hugh Broughton
Project architect: Gianluca Rendina
Structural Engineer: AECOM
Services Engineer: AECOM
Quantity Surveyor: GB Fitzsimon
Building Contractor: Morgan Sindall
Lighting Consultant: AECOM
Security Consultant: AECOM
Health & Safety: AECOM
Japanese Gallery Design (Concept): Ralph Appelbaum Associates

Slideshow: the undulating oak underbelly of four auditoriums bursts through the glazed facade of this concert hall in Kristiansand, Norway.

Designed by Finnish architects ALA, the Kilden performing arts centre opened in January.

The curving wooden wall cantilevers out across the building’s entrance, creating a huge canopy that projects out towards the harbour.

Behind the glass, a sprawling entrance lobby spans the length of the building and leads onto a 1200-seat auditorium, a 750-seat theatre and two smaller halls.

Production facilities are located to the rear of the halls, as are workshops, storage areas and staff rooms.

Aluminium zigzags across the remaining exterior walls of the building and a series of windows create a grid within the folds.

We originally wrote about the project in 2008, when construction was first underway – see a set of visualisations here.

Photography is by Hufton + Crow.

Here’s a full project description from ALA Architects:

“KILDEN”, Performing Arts Center for Sørlandet

DESCRIPTION

The Performing Arts Centre “KILDEN” will house three organizations: the ‘Agder Theater’, the ‘Kristiansand Philharmonic’ and the ‘Opera South’.

The four performance halls are lined up in the mid-zone of the building leaving the production -spaces to the east and audience -spaces to the west side.

Further on the west along the waterside, a huge cantilevered roof will cover both the public city-space by the sea and the foyer space which provides access to the shows.

Waterfront-facade clad with local oak follows the forms defined by the halls and creates a surface separating real world from the illusional.

URBAN IDENTITY

The urban character of the new theatre- and concert hall building should not only express the functionality of the project. The building will have a major impact on the cultural identity of the city of Kristiansand and the whole region. The architectural expression has to be instantly recognisable and unique. There is a strong demand for a cultural landmark building.

Often in theatres the fly tower reflects the buildings function, acting simultaneously as a landmark. On this shore the role of the tower has already been taken by the silo. The signature image of the performing arts centre should be built with other means.

The main concept of the Teater- og Konserthus design is the series of performance spaces, which has been shaped out to act as a sign in the cityscape. This undulating, unified surface forms a dramatic lobby and foyer between the performance halls and the shoreline. The relationship of the building with the canal and the sea has strong tension and drama.

ARCHITECTURAL EXPRESSION

The undulating main façade acts as a surface separating reality from fantasy. This line is crossed as you step into the hall from the foyer. The other façades consist of a vertical folded surface giving the building a subdued elegant form, enhancing the foyer wall as the signifying form of the building. The audience is instinctively drawn towards the public foyer. The building has a desire to please the public, to be popular and understandable to everybody.

The foyer wall is built of local wood, most likely oak. This further emphasises the warm, inviting character of the foyer space. The vertically folded dark facades are made of sharply detailed, stained metal sheets, most likely of brass or copper.

The building is a sharp object with an almost exaggerated clarity of expression. It stands proudly in the rough industrial surroundings. The building creates elegant public and performing spaces and rough, functional production facilities. All this is combined into a shape of an elegant machine –a building as an instrument.

FUNCTIONAL CONCEPT

The striking exterior appearance of the project is the first thing the visitor experiences. It is, however, a result of a careful analytical design process. The main functional concept is to organise all the production facilities of the building along a straight indoor street wide enough for trucks and deliver sets, instruments and materials. The performance halls are arranged to the other side of the street.

The order of the auditoriums is determined by the relations to the production facilities, the relations to the exterior logistics, and the relations between the auditoriums themselves. The main stage theatre hall is located so that the stage opens directly to the set-building workshops. This unit is on the southern end of the building to allow for easier loading and unloading of material. The flerbruksal and the biscene are located on both sides of the main stage for easy co-operation and share of facilities.

The concert hall is located at the northern end of the production street. The underbelly of the auditorium creates a memorable beginning for the curving foyer wall. The support facility zone diminishes next to the concert hall, allowing for the chamfered corner of the volume at the tightest corner of the building site.

FOUR ZONES

The Theater- og konserthus consists of four parallel zones. The public foyer zone is the expressive, free flowing area of improvisation. The public meets each other. Temporary exhibitions and performances are presented. Parties and congresses are held. The foyer zone is easy to navigate- the public can easily find their way to the different auditoriums and support functions.

The auditoriums form the second zone between the foyer and the production street. They are conceived as individual, high-performance instruments for music and theatre production and performance. The architectural expression of the halls is formal and precise. They have a touch and feel of units with multiple uses and a very high level of technical functionality.

The production street is the third functional zone. The street is six meters wide and has full-height doors in both ends. The street ensures great flexibility between the auditoriums and the production facilities. The street also acts as an extra production and assembly space, as well as short-term storage.

The fourth functional zone consists of the production workshops, storage units and workplaces for the staff. This zone opens both to the production streets and the corridors directly above it, and to the outside through windows of the long eastern elevation.

SUSTAINABILITY

Public buildings are an integral part of a socially sustainable environment.

The materials are of local sources. Kristiansand was built on the export of oak to Europe in the 16th century: The main undulating façade of Kilden is built of local oak, CNC milled and fully treated in Kristiansand.

The other three facades are to be made of aluminium from the factory across the fjord. The concrete factory supplying the building site is located 200 meters down the pier. Where relevant, local companies are supplying the project with their expertise, workforce and materials.

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The building is heated and cooled by district systems covering the whole of central Kristiansand.

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Kilden will become a truly local social hub.

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LOCATION:
Kristiansand, Norway

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STATUS:
International Architecture Competition 2005, 1st prize
Construction start 2007
Core finished October 2010
Construction work complete July 2011
Opening January 2012

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COMPETITION TEAM:
ALA Architects ltd
Juho Grönholm, Antti Nousjoki, Janne Teräsvirta, Samuli Woolston

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PROJECT TEAM:
ALA Architects ltd / Helsinki, Kristiansand
in collaboration with:
SMS Arkitekter AS / Kristiansand

Acoustical designer:
BSA: RUP Acoustics / London with BS akustikk / Oslo
Theatre technical designer:
Theatre Projects Consultants / London
Building engineering:
Multiconsult AS / Oslo, Kristiansand
Mechanical Engineering:
Sweco Groner / Oslo
Electrical Engineering:
COWI / Oslo, Kristiansand

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CLIENT:
Teater- og Konserthus for Sørlandet IKS

Hjem

PROGRAM:
Approx. 27000m2
Concert hall with 1200 seats, Theatre-/Opera hall with 750 seats, multipurpose hall and small theatre hall, offices, workshops, rehearsal spaces, car park for 400 cars.

Slideshow: dozens of square windows are scattered across the facade of this crematorium in Lithuania with fortress-like concrete walls.

Designed by Lithuanian studio Architektu Biuras G.Natkevicius ir Partneriai, the single-storey building is located on an industrial site alongside sugar mills and fertiliser factories.

One cluster of windows reveals the location of a private courtyard behind the perimeter wall, which also parts in two places to create entrances.

Interior surfaces are finished in materials with muted colours including concrete, glass and white plaster to maintain a sombre mood.

See more stories relating to funerals and memorials here.

Photography is by G.Česonis.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Crematorium in Kėdainiai

This is the first crematorium in Lithuania. The idea to build a crematorium was born in the interwar period, but at that time only furnace to reduce medical waste in Kaunas hospital was built. Increasing cremation traditions Lithunians use cremation services in Latvia and Poland.

To make a path for the first crematorium in Lithuania wasn’t easy. Despite the big enthusiasm, the catholic mind and political hypocrisy, the lack and imperfections of environmental and other laws were overcome only in 2011. The owners of Kedainiai crematorium, doctor and environmentalist, showed the strength.

Building site- industrial town Kėdainiai with 31000 inhabitants in the center of Lithuania. The area for the building was chosen in industrial park. New building is surrounded by a chaotic, unaesthetical industry: sugar mills, fertilizer factories with smoky chimneys. So the surroundings don’t even have a smell of sacred place.

At the beginning of design process we analyzed the experience of other countries: inspiring examples of crematoriums such as Treptow crematorium in Berlin, Dresden crematorium and crematorium designed by Toyo Ito in Japan, Gifu. These examples were impressive, large monumental buildings with inspiring scenario however crematorium in Kedainiai- small building of 770 m2 and there were almost no place to create sacred script.

Unaesthetical industrial environment provoked to create minimalistic and even ascetic scenario. It is one storey concrete building which external and internal quality and unity was created with concrete surfaces. In order to distance itself from the industrial environment the building was designed closed like a human introvert. Even the chimney, which cause bad feelings, is hidden in the volume of building. The main goal of the script- to create the inner Japanese style courtyard with a growing pendulum elm before the main entrance. Yard creates an intimate space, the accumulation zone before entering the building. Being inside the yard visually expands the space. It creates like an emotional filter to reduce human’s experience of stress.

Crematorium interior scenario: courtyard- lobby with resting area- two final disposition halls- cremation hall, cremation equipment room with chimney. The interior is created with four surfaces: concrete, wood veneer, glass with aluminum and white plaster. The ascetic inside allows families to concentrate on a solemnly sad hour with no interference of a colors and details. Every man and his face become very important part of the interior.

Three levels of modern cremation and exhaust air cleaning equipment, conforming to the strictest environments requirements was produced by known German firm IFZW. The building is fully equipped for two line cremation.

Location: Metalistų st., Kėdainiai, Lithuania
Completed: 2011
Building area: 775 m2
Architects: G.Natkevičius, A.Rimšelis
Structural engineering: JSC CONSTR, Adomas Sabaliauskas/ JSC KONSTRUKTORIŲ CECHAS, Kęstutis Matijošaitis
Lighting: PROMODUS IO