Hasta La Ideas

Slideshow: French architects Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Belgian studio MDW Architecture have collaborated on designs for a new police headquarters on a former police cavalry site in Charleroi, Belgium, which now also accommodates a dance school.

The Charleroi Danses occupy the two remaining wings of the cavalry buildings and will be extended as part of the proposals, while the 75-metre-high Hôtel de Police tower will be positioned between them.

Although the retained buildings feature red brick walls, the new tower will have a tapered form constructed from blue engineering bricks.

A public plaza will be created in the enclosed central spaces, while an adjacent series of smaller brick buildings will create studios for artists as well as dancers.

Other projects by Jean Nouvel we’ve featured on Dezeen include an open-air aquatic centre and a bright red pavilion – see all the stories here.

Here’s some explanation in French from Ateliers Jean Nouvel:

Hôtel de Police / Extension de Charleroi Danses

Un repère dans la ville

Un site déjà marqué par un bâti datant du XIXe siècle, la caserne de cavalerie occupée depuis longtemps par la gendarmerie. Comme de nombreuses friches investies par un programme culturel, l’ancien manège est occupé par une troupe de danse contemporaine internationalement reconnue. Un programme de regroupement de tous les services pour compléter la fusion de la police et de la gendarmerie, et de plus l’extension de Charleroi Danses…

Click above for larger image

L’hôtel de police

Notre proposition est de créer une image publique et accessible de la police, de dégager une place ouverte vers la rue, vers la ville, et un bâtiment repère sur ce site ainsi libéré.

Click above for larger image

Pour dégager le site, il faut d’abord démolir toutes les petites annexes qui furent construites au fil des ans à flanc du porche. On dégage ainsi la grande cour de « manœuvres » en la rendant directement accessible depuis la rue : c’est la place publique. Les deux corps de bâtiments de l’ancienne cavalerie sont de beaux édifices tout en longueur, tout en briques, abritant deux larges espaces d’écuries au rez-de-chaussée: ils méritent d’être conservés, ce seront les deux premières ailes du projet. Derrière ces deux bâtiments, un large espace, puis un mur d’enceinte en briques : cette configuration permet de faire circuler l’ensemble des voitures, livraisons, parkings à l’arrière du site, entre le bâti et le mur, libérant totalement la place publique de ces contraintes. Le programme est important, la surface demandée est grande. Les deux corps de bâtiment conservés couvrent à peine un tiers de la demande. Il faut créer une troisième aile pour l’ensemble : elle sera verticale. Les trois ailes sont reliées au rez-de-chaussée, par l’intermédiaire d’un hall où s’effectuent tous les contrôles nécessaires à la sécurité du fonctionnement du programme.

Click above for larger image

Pour la tour, la proposition faite est celle d’un immeuble d’une grande flexibilité et compacité où l’on peut, très facilement, changer d’affectation les niveaux ou les relations entre les services. Pour les bâtiments existants, c’est un lieu où l’on cherche à utiliser les qualités du bâti : peu de modifications dans les principes des espaces existants pour conserver leurs qualités spatiales: distribution généreuse, belle hauteur sous plafond…

Click above for larger image

Il s’agit avant tout de la constitution d’un repère dans la ville. La tour qui s’élève n’est pas trop haute pour ne pas être impressionnante. Pour jouer comme une réponse au beffroi de l’Hôtel de ville, elle sera limitée à environ 75 mètres. Elle est de forme elliptique, pour la rendre conviviale. La couleur du logo de la police est bleu foncé : c’est cette couleur qui va habiller la tour. Cela va permettre une appropriation rapide du bâtiment par la population. La place est pavée de briques comme l’environnement ancien, de grandes bandes de couleur bleue peintes sur le sol vont lier la tour avec la place. Cette place est active : les piétons sont dirigés vers l’auvent qui marque l’entrée, les voitures d’urgence policières sont autorisées à circuler, les vélos aussi, c’est un lieu vivant de la ville.

Click above for larger image

Charleroi Danses

La place est bordée au Nord et à l’Est par le bâti ancien, à l’Ouest par la rue et au Sud par Charleroi Danses. Les locaux de Charleroi Danses sont caractérisés par un esprit «village» donné par une succession de petits bâtiments en briques desservis par une voirie intérieure. Cette atmosphère est propice pour garder une échelle humaine, par exemple lors d’événements type spectacles de rues… Cet esprit village sera conservé et continué en introduisant les nouveaux programmes sous forme de bâtiments du même type que l’existant distribués le long de la voirie intérieure : petits bâtiments de briques abritant les logements d’artistes et les studios de danse. Le lieu conservera son identité paisible et créative.

Click above for larger image

L’entrée a été faite par des architectes belges reconnus, Lhoas et Lhoas, et nous proposons de la conserver: on conserve le mur d’enceinte et les grandes baies qui ont été percées pour accéder à la salle. Cependant l’accès est aménagé de plein pied avec la rue pour inviter le promeneur à pénétrer à l’intérieur, attiré par un atrium en transparence sur la rue sur toute la hauteur de la baie. Une baie vitrée sur la façade opposée de l’atrium laisse deviner la continuité du site en surplomb. Le grand mur de briques qui longe la rue est conservé: il devient la façade sur rue du grand studio de danse, accessible depuis l’atrium et depuis les loges-vestiaires. Un nouvel accès dans la salle de spectacle est aménagé au niveau du balcon haut de la salle: ceci permet au public de découvrir l’ensemble de la salle par le haut en entrant au spectacle. Ce nouvel accès est aussi le niveau du Foyer.

Sur la terrasse formée par la dalle haute du grand studio de danse, petite construction légère, le Foyer est posé comme une tente nomade renvoyant à la vie des artistes, à la légèreté des danseurs. Sur la bâche qui recouvre cette tente, le logo et la typo de Charleroi Danses sont imprimés, signal contemporain. La terrasse est ouverte sur trois côtés : la rue, le village, et la place. Jouant avec l’ambiguïté de la proximité de ces deux programmes (Police / Danse).

Construction will begin this week on the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC designed by architect David Adjaye.

Adjaye Associates teamed up with American architects The Freelon Group and Davis Brody Bond to win the design competition for the museum back in 2009, under the collaborative name Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup (FAB).

Sited beside the National Museum of American History and the Washington Monument, the museum will accommodate more than half of its volume below ground.

Bronze plates will cover the tiered exterior of the building, perforated in patterns that reference the history of African American craftsmanship.

The museum is scheduled to open in 2015, and you can see the original competition-winning proposals for it in our earlier story.

You can also see more stories about David Adjaye here.

Here’s a longer description of the project from Adjaye Associates:

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
Washington DC, USA, April 2009 – September 2015

Winning the competition to design the National Museum of African American History and Culture has consolidated the practice’s US portfolio with arguably the nation’s most prestigious new building. Located on Constitution Avenue, adjacent to the National Museum of American History and the Washington Monument, the museum will house exhibit galleries, administrative spaces, theatre space and collections storage space for the NMAAHC. As lead designer for the Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup (FAB) team, David Adjaye’s approach has been to establish both a meaningful relationship to this unique site as well as a strong conceptual resonance with America’s deep and longstanding African heritage. The design rests on three cornerstones: the “corona” shape and form of the building; the extension of the building out into the landscape – the porch; and the bronze filigree envelope.

Situated on the Washington Monument grounds the museum maintains a subtle profile in the landscape – more than half is below ground – with five storeys above. The corona is based on elements of the Washington Monument, closely matching the 17-degree angle of the capstone and the panel size and pattern has been developed using the Monument stones as a reference. The entire building is wrapped in an ornamental bronze lattice that is a historical reference to African American craftsmanship. The density of the pattern can be modulated to control the amount of sun¬light and transparency into the interior. The south entry is composed of the Porch and a central water feature. An extension of the building out into the landscape, the porch creates an outdoor room that bridges the gap between the interior and exterior.

At 50m (49’-2”) deep, the setback is similar to other buildings on the north side of the Mall. The underside of the porch roof is tilted upward allowing reflection of the moving water below. This covered area creates a microclimate where breezes combine with the cooling waters to generate a place of refuge from the hot summer sun. There is also an outdoor patio on the porch rooftop that is accessed from a mezzanine level within the building.

Inside the building, visitors will be guided on a historical and emotional journey, characterised by vast, column free spaces, a dramatic infusion of natural light and a diverse material palette comprising pre-cast concrete, timber and a glazed skin that sits within the bronze lattice. Below ground, the ambience is contemplative and monumental, achieved by the triple height history gallery and symbolised by the memorial space – the “oculus” – that brings light diffused by a cascade of water into the contemplative space from the Monument grounds. Moving upwards, the views become pivotal, as one circulates along the corona with unrivalled panoramas of the Mall, Federal Triangle buildings and Monument Grounds.

Architect: Adjaye Associates
Client: Smithsonian
Structural Engineer: Guy Nordenson and Associates, Rober Silman Associates
Mechanical Engineer: WSP Flack + Kurtz
Total Area: 313,000 sqf
Contract Value: $500m

Danish architects BIG have won a competition to renovate and extend an art centre in Utah with proposals that will be built from reclaimed railway sleepers.

The new five-storey-high wing of the Kimball Art Centre will provide exhibition galleries both at basement level and upstairs, connected to each another and to a restaurant between by a winding staircase.

A rooftop terrace will overlook the existing building, which the architects intend to convert into an educational centre.

Visitors will enter both buildings though a double-height reception lobby where openings will provide peeping views to the galleries below.

The project is due to start on site next year, for completion in 2015.

BIG won the competition ahead of four other shortlisted firms – you can see the proposals of Californian architects Brooks + Scarpa here.

Here’s a statement from the Kimball Art Centre:

Kimball Art Center Announces BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group as the Winner of Architectural Design Competition for Its Renovation and Expansion

BIG’s Design for Kimball Art Center Projected for Completion by Mid-2015

Park City, UT—The Kimball Art Center announces that BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group (New York, NY, and Copenhagen, Denmark) has been selected by a jury as the winning firm in its architectural design competition for its renovation and expansion project. The project comprises an interior renovation of the existing Kimball Art Center (KAC), located on the corner of Park Avenue and Main Street in Park City, Utah, and the construction of a new building directly adjacent to the original. This phased project is expected to begin in mid-2013, and be completed in mid-2015.

BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group proposed a new Kimball Art Center made of massive stacked timber elements reclaimed from train track piles from the Great Salt Lake—just one of many green solutions in the innovative plan—enclosing a spiral staircase, exhibition spaces, a restaurant, and topped by a terrace.

For the historic Kimball Art Center building, BIG proposed that it be renovated into an educational hub with a rooftop sculpture garden. BIG will partner with local firm, Architectural Nexus (Salt Lake City, UT), which has a proven record of designing and building in mountain areas similar to that of Park City. Other local consultants include Dunn Associates, Van Boerum & Frank Associates, Envision Engineering, and Big D Construction.

In addition to BIG, the five finalists in the competition included Brooks + Scarpa Architects (Los Angeles, CA), Sparano + Mooney Architecture (Salt Lake City, UT), Will Bruder + Partners Ltd. (Phoenix, AZ), and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (New York, NY).

Robin Marrouche, Executive Director, Kimball Art Center, explains, “BIG built the strongest case for the continuity of Park City’s history—a bold, poetic new landmark to resurrect the spirit of the Coalition Mine Building that burned down in the 1980s. The design concept supports our mission to present engaging exhibitions, education, and events, and enhances the natural flow between the three in a uniquely free-form way. As the Kimball Art Center expands in scope and reputation, embracing both the local community and a growing group of international visitors and art collectors, BIG’s design sets a course for the future.”

BIG Founder & Partner Bjarke Ingels, comments, “The raw charm of Park City and the Kimball Art Center is rooted in a culture of appropriating the structures of past industry to accommodate spaces for cultural life and leisure. With our design for the new Kimball Art Center, we seek to continue this tradition by using the construction technique of the old mines and the railroad trestles that have marinated for decades in the Great Salt Lake to create a raw spacious framework for the art and artists of Park City—a traditional material and technique deployed to produce a highly contemporary expression.”

The determination of the winning architect by the jury involved a rigorous evaluation of the designs, including how the architect would partner with the Kimball Art Center in moving the project to reality. Explains jury member Maurice Cox, “It was hard for the jury to choose between the five excellent finalists. BIG won the competition by proposing an iconic building that honors the spirit of Park City’s past and looks ahead into the 21st century. BIG’s design boldly reinterprets the Kimball Art Center’s place in the city skyline with this amazing new structure for the arts.”

Existing Kimball Art Center

In addition to the jury vote, visitors to the Kimball Art Center—including those who recently attended the two-week Sundance Film Festival in January—were invited to look at models and designs of the five proposed buildings, and weigh in on their favorites via an online poll at http://www.kimballartcenter.org/transformation-project, where links to the Facebook and Twitter discussion pages are accessible. Comments could also be sent to feedback@kimballartcenter.org, or tweeted with hashtag #kimballtransformationproject. These comments were shared with the jury.

Two new galleries

Don Stastny, Competition Advisor, comments, “The Kimball Art Center and Park City have begun a great journey together, one that has engaged both the local community and its many visitors through a thoughtful process that was transparent and interactive. The New Kimball will invite exploration, reward discovery, and deliver inspiration.”

Street gallery

Details of BIG’s Design:

The building footprint and lower gallery face Main Street and the city grid, and as the building rises, it turns to greet visitors entering the city via Heber Ave. It will be an iconic yet contextual building at the city’s doorstep. Referencing Park City’s mining heritage, the façade of the building is constructed of massive stacked timber elements.

Sky gallery

The twisting façade encloses a continuous spiral staircase that leads visitors from the ground floor to the roof terrace. In between two galleries is a restaurant, which spills out onto a sculpture garden on the rooftop of the existing, historic Kimball Art Center building. That building is converted into an educational hub. At its heart is a flexible, double-height auditorium. The roof of the existing building is equipped with solar thermal panels concealed by indigenous plants. An outdoor sculpture garden loops around the perimeter of the roof.

Unified twist

The new Kimball Art Center takes advantage of Park City’s climate, with an objective to meet a LEED platinum rating by harnessing sources of natural heat, using natural daylight, maximizing ventilation, and recycling rainwater. Generous skylights and large ribbon windows flood the building with diffused natural light, greatly reducing energy costs for lighting.

Program

Operable skylights trigger natural stack ventilation. A ground-coupled heat exchanger is drilled deep into the ground in non-built areas. The heat pumps either extract heat from the circulating water (heating mode) in the winter, or reject heat (cooling mode) in the summer.

Hundreds of circular holes puncture a faceted bronze extension to a fortified museum in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland, that is set to reopen next month.

Added during a renovation by Swiss architects :mlzd, the shiny four-storey volume reconnects the two halves of the town museum, which comprise a thirteenth century stone tower and a former residence.

An exposed concrete wall separates the new central staircase from the ground-floor entrance, which leads into a double-height gallery.

The museum’s north elevation is left unchanged to respect the historic townscape.

We also featured a museum extension in Switzerland by Herzog & de Meuron quite recently – take a look here.

Photography is by Dominique Marc Wehrli.

Here’s some more text from the architects:

janus_Extension and renewal of the Rapperswil-Jona municipal museum

The ensemble of buildings that today makes up the Rapperswil-Jona municipal museum looks back on a history of more than 700 years. In 2010/11, it underwent extensive renewal and restructuring.

Starting at the end of the 13th century, a small fortified complex was built inside the town walls of Rapperswil on Lake Zurich. It was comprised of a fortified tower and a residential building, which were linked to one another by a utility building constructed along the town wall. A number of the extravagant interiors from halfway through the 16th century have been preserved until the present and they formed the origin of the museum, which was established in three buildings from 1943 onwards. The new use as a museum called for a number of adaptations, and they included, in particular, the conversion work performed in 1960, during which the connecting building was given a ‘medieval’ mock-historical timber-truss façade including open galleries.

By 2002, it was obvious that the property, which was known as “Breny” after its last owners, would have to undergo thorough renovation, and considerable structural shortcomings had been detected, especially affecting the connecting building from 1960.

Another factor was that the layout of the buildings, which had evolved gradually over time, was such that the ways of getting through them were convoluted, which rendered it impossible to satisfy the requirements of safety and security as well as those of present-day museology. At the same time, the idea was progressively taking shape on the political front of merging the towns of Rapperswil and Jona, which became reality in 2007. Renovation of the museum was thus the first joint project as a step into the cultural policy of the future.

The “janus” project, which won a competition held in 2007, is giving the Rapperswil-Jona municipal museum a new profile commensurate with its public significance. It is designed to attract the attention of members of the public interested in culture without stopping at the municipal boundaries and presents the museum and the town as an appealing destination for excursions. The project to put up the new building has been sensitively integrated in the historic town.

The view from the north, which is important for the overall visual impression of the town, is to remain unchanged. The building fits discreetly into the background of the historic picture presented by the narrow town-centre streets.

With the new terrain situation and the tasteful bronze façade, the building imposes a new emphasis on its immediate surroundings and can easily be read as the main entrance to a modern museum complex.

In addition to a new main entrance, the Breny House and Breny Tower parts of the museum now benefit from disabled access thanks to the new building.

As a new part of the whole complex, “janus” satisfies the all building-services and operational requirements of a modern, round-the-year museum operation and thus makes it possible for the legacy buildings too to justify their existence as authentic witnesses of their day and age.

It is with this same respectful attitude that the shape of the new building has been developed out of the lateral façades of the old buildings. Its façade and roof have been designed in such a way that the existing windows and doors of the old buildings are not intersected anywhere.

The newly created rooms are extending the museum’s spectrum in terms of space, operations and the possibilities available to the curator. The ground floor, for example, fulfils several functions.

After entering the complex, visitors immediately move into the main room, which is two floors high. Given its central position and the model of the town on display there, this room is a suitable starting point for conducted tours of the museum or the town. For prestigious events, it can be combined with the forecourt or the gallery floor.

Many different rooms are also available in addition to the main one and are appropriate for a variety of exhibition purposes. One example is the second floor, where the rooms have had plenty of windows incorporated in their walls, affording marvellous views. Another is the third floor, which is drenched in bright light, making it possible, on the one hand, to admire the impressive roof timbering of Breny House, which had previously not been visible, and, on the other hand, to provide a setting for a modern presentation of contemporary contents.

The way that different types of natural light are brought into play adds another interesting dimension to the building in the course of the day and the succession of the seasons.

Illumination of the building through its roof and the transmission of light from floor to floor deliberately create a stark internal contrast with the legacy buildings. Firstly, that makes it easier for people to find their way around the whole complex and, secondly, the new is clearly offset against the old, heightening awareness for the threshold to the latter. Stepping into the legacy buildings thus becomes an eventful journey in time, back into the past. Thanks to spatial references of this nature, the new building kindles visitors’ curiosity and stimulates them to set out on this journey of discovery.

Various direct lines of vision show up the town and museum in unexpected perspectives and vistas. They create the desire to move around in the museum and to get to know the buildings and the exhibitions on display in them.

Key figures:

Surface area 370 m2: (old buildings 290 m2, new building 80 m2)
Floor space 990 m2: (old buildings 820 m2, new building 170 m2)
Façade of new building: 200 m2
Costs of construction (including exhibition): CHF 5.8 million

:mlzd architects, 2011

Following last week’s announcement that writer Alain de Botton plans to build a series of temples for atheists, here are some more images of the first structure planned for the City of London.

Each centimetre of the hollow stone tower’s 46 metre height will represent a million years of the earth’s existence so far, while a millimetre-thick band of gold around the base will denote how long humans have been part of that history.

Images of the Temple to Perspective and other temples designed by architects Tom Greenall and Jordan Hodgson are included in de Botton’s latest book, Religion for Atheists – find out more in our earlier Dezeen Wire.

Since we announced news of the proposals last week, Guardian critic Steve Rose has described them as unlikely to “convince any religious adherent to cross over”, while Dezeen readers found them “beautiful”, ”perplexing” and “a waste of time” in equal measures – join the debate here.

Here’s some more text from Tom Greenall:

Temple to Perspective

Standing 46-metres tall and in the heart of the City of London, the temple represents the entire history of life on earth: each centimetre of its height equates to one million years of life. One metre from the ground, a single line of gold – no more than a millimetre thick – represents the entire existence of humankind. A visit to the temple is intended to leave one with a renewed sense of perspective.