Here is a complete set of photographs of the heavily criticised Museum of Liverpool by Danish architects 3XN, which opened to the public last month.
Top: photograph by Pete Carr
The bulky dockside museum features huge projecting windows at either end, one facing towards the city centre and the other out across the River Mersey.
Limestone panels surround the facade and are shaped as zig-zagging diamonds on the side elevations, creating the illusion that the building has been stretched.
A staircase spirals up through an atrium at the heart of the museum, leading to three floors of galleries that exhibit social history and popular culture.
Above: photograph by Pete Carr
Although designed by 3XN, the project was delivered by UK studio AEW Architects.
Above: photograph by Pete Carr
Since the museum’s opening it has been unpopular with critics (see our earlier Dezeen Wire) and has since been nominated by Building Design magazine to receive The Carbuncle Cup for the ugliest building completed in the UK in the past 12 months.
Photography is by Phillip Handforth, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here are some more details from 3XN:
3XN’s Museum of Liverpool: More than a Building, More than a Museum
The new Museum of Liverpool, opening on July 19th will not only tell the story of its importance as one of the World’s great ports or about its cultural influence, such as with the Beatles phenomenon. It will also serve as a meeting point for History, the People of Liverpool and visitors from around the globe. Therefore, according to the Architect, Kim Herforth Nielsen, the structure functions as much more than just a Building or a Museum.
The Result of a Rigorous Process
As the largest National Museum to be built in the UK in over 100 years, and situated on a UNESCO World Heritage Site next to Liverpool’s famous ’Three Graces,’ Principal Architect and Creative Director at 3XN Kim Herforth Nielsen was fully aware of the magnitude of the challenge, when it came to designing the new Museum of Liverpool.
’This is one of the largest and most prestigious projects in 3XN’s 25 year history. The Museum’s design is a result of a very rigorous process, where it was of utmost priority to listen to the city inhabitants, learn the city’s history and understand the potential of the historical site that the Museum now sits upon.’
The result is a dynamic low-rise structure which enters into a respectful dialogue with the harbour promenade’s taller historical buildings. This interaction facilitates a modern and lively urban space. The design is reminiscent of the trading ships which at one time dominated the harbour, while the façade’s relief pattern puts forward a new interpretation of the historical architectural detail in the ‘Three Graces.’ The enormous gabled windows open up towards the City and the Harbour, and therefore symbolically draw history into the Museum, while at the same time allow the curious to look in.
A Nexus
The Museum lies along the Mersey River in the center of Liverpool, and will function as a nexus, in that it physically connects the Harbour promenade with the Albert Dock, which today contains restaurants, museums and boutiques. The outdoor areas around the Museum offer seating with views to the water adding to the dynamic urban environment and serving as a meeting point for locals and visitors alike.
The theme is carried through into the Museum of Liverpool’s central atrium, with its sculptural sweeping staircase leading up to the galleries further encouraging social interaction. All of these functions result in Kim Herforth Nielsen choosing to describe the Museum as a structure that unites Liverpool.
’This Museum connects the city together on many levels – physically, socially and architecturally. The idea of creating a Museum as a nexus in both physical and symbolic expression has been central from the start. I am very satisfied to see that this ideal is carried out to the full in the completed structure.’
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A striking new addition to Liverpool
Dr David Fleming OBE, Director of National Museums Liverpool, is thrilled with 3XN’s design and looks forward to welcoming visitors to the museum: ‘To design the building we appointed Danish architects 3XN, who responded to our requirement (…) The resulting structure is a striking addition to the Liverpool cityscape. I can’t wait to open the doors to visitors to show off our new museum and encourage others to discover more about this extraordinary city.’
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Architect: 3XN Address: Mann Island, Liverpool, United Kingdom Client: National Museums Liverpool Size: 13.000 m2 Engineer: Buro Happold
A boomerang-shaped museum in Mexico is balanced on stilts and stabilised in the air by tensile cables, allowing it to bridge a road and cantilever over a lake.
The elevated Musevi museum is located beside a park in the city of Villahermosa, and was designed by Mexican architect Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos.
Visitors climb ramps and staircases to access the museum, which exhibits international art and culture.
Circular perforations create patterns on the surface of metal panels that wrap the building’s exterior.
A public amphitheatre on the ground is partially sheltered beneath the museum.
Enrique Norten and TEN Arquitectos previously designed a New York City tower – see our earlier story.
Photography is by Luis Gordoa.
Here are some more details from TEN Arquitectos:
Musevi
Villahermosa, Tabasco. Mexico 2011
A new elevated museum complete with an outdoor amphitheater at its base. MUSEVI is phase one of a three-phased Master Plan for Paseo Tabasco.
By physically connecting two otherwise insulated lakes, Vaso Cencalli and Lagoon of Illusions, MUSEVI proposes a new form of exhibition and public space that encourages connectivity and social gathering.
Likewise, the accompanying amphitheater has become a new focal point for Tomas Garrido Park. And with parts of the building protruding into and over the landscape, the museum, at the same time, encourages an intimate and reflective contemplation of the surrounding nature, if not acting as an unequivocal celebration thereof.
Beginning with MUSEVI, this multi-phased master plan for Paseo Tabasco aims to potentiate the city’s existing public spaces through contemporary design and environmental improvement.
Phase two consists of 1 km of streetscape and public spaces along Paseo Tabasco, including three parks (Parque Rovirosa, Parque Manuel Maestres and Parque Guacamayos), new street furnishing (ie: lighting, seating, bus and shade shelters) and gardens, along with the implementation of the latest in storm water management technology.
The lakefront, comprising the wetlands and the pier, will also be completed in this phase. Consisting of 1.7 km of streetscape and public space extending from MUSEVI to the Rio Grijalva, phase three will complete the pedestrian-ization of Paseo Tabasco.
This phase will also serve to catalyze private development along the strip, mitigate traffic issues and rejuvenate the public spaces.
Phase two consists of 1 km of streetscape and public spaces along Paseo Tabasco, including three parks (Parque Rovirosa, Parque Manuel Maestres and Parque Guacamayos), new street furnishing (ie: lighting, seating, bus and shade shelters) and gardens, along with the implementation of the latest in storm water management technology.
The lakefront, comprising the wetlands and the pier, will also be completed in this phase. Consisting of 1.7 km of streetscape and public space extending from MUSEVI to the Rio Grijalva, phase three will complete the pedestrian-ization of Paseo Tabasco.
This phase will also serve to catalyze private development along the strip, mitigate traffic issues and rejuvenate the public spaces.
Architecture: Enrique Norten and TEN Arquitectos Landscape architecture: W Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Interactive Museum of the History of Lugo 1st Prize Competition 2007
The building site, which until not long ago housed industrial structures- is located in a position relatively displaced from the historic centre of Lugo. However, it will soon become a point of arrival for visitors to the city.
It may well seem awkward to assimilate architecture into landscape, but this is one of the cases in which we would like to think that the relationship between the two is more than a set phrase. We propose a museum-park or a park-museum, which will be linked to the sequence of green areas in the city, hiding the parking areas underground and emerging in a constellation of cylindrical lanterns scattered throughout a continuous green field.
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As it happens every time an architectural idea is intended to be built –which very frequently emerges from intuition-, it is the analysis of the program and its location that causes the specific proposal to make sense. We will divide the program into two large, connected areas: the parking and the visitor centre. The strong difference in height between the East and West ends of the building site suggests the possibility of taking +444m as an average reference level, in such a way that the garage is developed nearly at street level, thus remaining half-buried.
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The Visitor Centre is essentially organised on a single floor illuminated through large circular courtyards, which allow natural light to penetrate and permit independent, controlled use. From the main courtyard, the most peculiar and tallest exhibition rooms will emerge -as contemporary cylindrical bastions-, which will become the image of the new building which is projected towards the exterior.
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The exhibiting area has been conceived from two types of spaces: one which is neutral, flexible, suitable for the exhibition of panels, and will contain interactive modules or glass cabinets with original pieces; the other is defined by three cylindrical bastions, which are peculiar spaces due to their shape and dimension, suitable for audiovisual installations and projections. Both the Museum and the Visitor Centre are articulated in a sequence of interior and exterior spaces with multiple itineraries in which the landscape and History will be able to convey the intimate link that unites them.
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Awareness towards environmental issues is a consequence of the project’s conception itself. The strong impact that a large amount of vehicles -cars and buses- would have produced on the surface is avoided by hiding the parking area under the undulating cover of vegetation. Likewise, the spaces destined for visitors and the museum occupy a half-buried floor under the same green foliage, which favours thermal inertia, thus reducing the need for energy contribution.
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The exhibition towers emerging from the garden will be externally re-covered by a light, metallic skin, which will accommodate the incorporation of solar panels and night-time lighting in its design, by way of a contemporary interpretation of the Roman wall’s bastions.
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The new Museum will entail the experience of a walk through a vegetative, metallic landscape, a luminous field whose night-time glow will seem to emerge from within the earth. The Lugo Museum will evoke images of fields and caves, walls and fortified towers –metaphors of a landscape and a culture that the inhabitants of Lugo carry within their own memory.
A forest of timber columns and a stone fireplace feign a woodland campsite inside a visitor centre at the Rocky Mountains.
Completed by American architects Bohlin Cywinski Jackson back in 2007, the Grand Teton Discovery and Visitor Centre is located in a national park in the Teton Range.
A chunky concrete chimney surges up from the stone fireplace at the corner of the main gallery and through a jolting roof.
A zig-zagging glass wall around the hall provides visitors with a panoramic view out to the surrounding landscape.
Stone ledges line this wall to create a length of benches.
Photography is by Nic Lehoux, apart from where otherwise stated.
The following information was provided by the architects:
Grand Teton Discovery and Visitor Center Grand Teton National Park
The realm of the Tetons is an extraordinary place in our western landscape. The tectonic uplift of the Tetons and the valley’s glacial past can be read easily. The building is placed at the edge of the riparian forest in a sagebrush meadow, enabling visitors to sense the meandering river and confront the great mountain range.
One is drawn around the edge of the building to a courtyard that all but occludes the Tetons. It is a calm, introspective place. A colonnade of massive tree trunks borders its perimeter to provide shade and shelter on three sides of the sunlit space.
Visitors passing through the entrance vestibule are compressed before emerging into an expansive light-filled space. They stand in a grove of great columns that recall the primeval forest, confronted by the jagged spires and drama of the Tetons.
As a counterpoint to the tranquil court, the interior’s geometry is fractured. This seemingly haphazard arrangement of logs choreographs the movement of people through uplifted forms that house interpretive exhibits.
A rugged fireplace is at the building’s psychological and physical heart. Stone outcroppings form sitting ledges and the base for timber-formed concrete planks stacked to make the chimney, a vertical marker in the landscape.
Choreography and emotionally laden materials connect people viscerally to the Teton landscape. This is a building that is sensibly ordered and surprisingly evocative, shaped to the nature of the land and the people who visit it.
Location: Grand Teton National Park in Moose, Wyoming Dates: 2001 – 2007 Building Area: 23,000 gross square feet Principal for Design: Peter Q. Bohlin, FAIA Project Manager: Raymond S. Calabro AIA, Principal Project Architect: David Miller Project Team: Mark Adams, Zeke Busch, Christian Evans, Michelle Evans, Michael Maiese, Jessica O’Brien, Daniel Ralls Client: National Park Service, Grand Teton National Park Foundation, Grand Teton Association Project Consultants: Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Beaudette Consulting Engineers, GPD, P.C., Renfro Design Group, Inc., Swift Company LLC, The Greenbusch Group Inc., Davis Langdon, Nelson Engineering, Matrix IMA Jack Soeffing General Contractor: Intermountain Construction Inc. Photographers: Nic Lehous, Florence McCall, Edward Riddell
A veil of metal lace screened by thin concrete piers clads an extension to a baroque theatre and an adjacent commercial block in Germany.
German architects Trint + Kreuder d.n.a designed the extension to Landestheater Schwaben, the commercial building and a medical centre on the Elsbethen Site in the Bavarian town of Memmingen.
A mixture of both steep and shallow gables frame the roofs of each of the three buildings.
The theatre extension provides circulation, workshops, rehearsal areas and administrative facilities for the historic theatre, as well as a restaurant which spills out onto a secluded square.
The commercial block contains offices, cafes and shops.
Beside the health centre, diagonal metal beams cover the glass face of a gable that shelters the entrance to an underground car park.
Photography is by Christian Richters, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here’s some more information from the architects:
Elsbethen Site
Following the recent historical renovation of the market place and wine market in the northern and central part of Memmingen’s historic district, the Elsbethen area has now been restored. Extensive redevelopment of this area in the south of the old town and its characteristic Schrannenplatz will furnish this space with the vibrancy that will once again provide the neighbourhood with the urban impetus it needs.
Urban repairs at Schrannenplatz
The Medieval Schrannenplatz, site of the historic corn exchange, used to be much smaller. It was bounded by the main winterer corn exchange (Winterschranne) and by the summer corn exchange/barley store (Sommerschranne/Gerstenstadl) and the grain store (Haberhaus). Since the demolition of the Winterschranne in the early 1950s all attempts to transform the square into a dynamic urban space have been unsuccessful – the resulting space’s physical dimensions were too vast, its edges too diverse and the area’s functions too unattractive.
The demolition works that saw off the problematic 1960s buildings on the north-eastern edge of the square as well as parts of Lindenstraße helped to define a clear eastern edge to the square, which now forms the counterpart to the historic blue house on the corner of Hirschgasse. The buildings forming the square’s new perimeter acknowledge the scale of the Medieval buildings. The two-storey double facades of the ‘Neue Schranne’ building, with its side-gabled composition of facades and roof elevations, tie in with the scale of their historical surroundings.
Above photo is by Trint + Kreuder d.n.a
Gables facing Lindentorstraße add drama
The gable-shaped rooflines of the new offices and commercial buildings along Lindentorstraße present themselves as a dramatic counterpart to the Medieval forward-facing gables. This is achieved with three different reinterpretations: a representative continuation of the square’s elevation, a steep double gable, and a sculptural metal plaque in the form of the ‘Neue Schmiede’, the new forge, above the entrance to the underground car park.
Elsbethenhof within the urban fabric
The convent of the Order of Saint Augustine to the north of Schrannenplatz was founded in the 13th century. After the convent’s closure in the 16th century, its courtyard became the hub of young life as it served as the Elsbethenschule’s schoolyard. Not until the school’s relocation some 15 years ago did it lose its significance as a characteristic urban space, and was subsequently neglected as a backyard to the surrounding commercial properties. This space, which once sheltered nuns and schoolchildren from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, has once again become a contemplative place for slowing down. A moderate provision of new functions – the theatre restaurant and a health food shop – offers ample reason to visit the courtyard. New access routes to Schrannenplatz and the theatre courtyard ensure its appealing integration into the urban fabric. Here most of all, at the interface of theatre courtyard and Schrannenplatz, the project’s indulgence in ‘luxury’ becomes evident. It is the luxury of building the kinds of streets and squares that have evolved from picturesque Medieval roots and which are no longer a feature of modern urban planning.
Commercial buildings on Schrannenplatz
The ‘Neue Schranne‘ building has the difficult task of restoring character to Schrannenplatz after the disappearance of the historical grain stores as well as a number of recent architectural impositions. This has been achieved by subtle means; to begin with it allows the square much more space than ever before, and then contains it in the right place by restricting the width of Lindentorstraße. Additionally, the ‘gable’ of the roof restaurant provides an important accent in the square. It helps to centre the space for the first time when seen from the south and from the Frauenkirche.
The ‘Neue Schranne’ facade – a modern composition of traditional architectural elements, contemporary rhythm and vernacular visual quality
The underlying concept for the facades is based on the traditional double facades with side-gabled elevations found in Medieval dwellings whose elevations consist of facade and roof in equal parts. This double aspect leads to a composition of facades which alternates between muted stucco areas, large shop windows and areas that are structured by means of vertical concrete stelae, arranged in an abstract rhythm.
Traditional and vegetal origins of metallic ornamentation
The ‘Neue Schranne‘ sees itself as standing in the tradition of corn exchanges, those historic warehouses and markets where various grains were stored and traded. On the other hand, it must cater for a wide mix of new uses, including a large fashion store, a bakery, a health food shop as well as many doctors’ surgeries and therapy clinics in the medical centre under the large glazed roof of the atrium. The linking element between these uses lies in their vegetal origins; be it the yarn in textiles, or grain as the basic ingredient of organic products, medicines and a range of therapies.
Above photo is by Trint + Kreuder d.n.a
The aim was to provide the building behind the protective concrete stelae with a visual identity that addresses both past and present uses, and which offers an experience from both within and outside the building. The result is a laser-cut image based on a traditional etched lace pattern, which has been developed to suit the technical requirements of sheet metalwork. Its filigree inner pattern evokes the arrangement of cereal grains within an ear. The traditional importance of the Schrannenplatz as the venue for the annual ‘Fischertag‘ festival is also incorporated in the pattern of the perforated metal in the form of repeated images of trout and ‘the area’s traditional semi-circular fishing nets.
Commercial buildings along Lindentorstraße
The smaller commercial building and medical centre on Lindentorstraße is duplicated. Thanks to its twinned form, the design twice mirrors the classical Memminger Stadthaus and the irregular fenestration of its punctuated facade; it is equally a reflection of itself and its surroundings. Residential units are incorporated in and between the steep gables, offering spectacular views over the roofscape of Memmingen’s south. The ‘Neue Schmiede’ has a special position; following the exact outline of the previous building’s gable it hovers above the access to the underground car park. Between Lindentorstraße and the theatre courtyard its modest size allows it to shine in an expressive plasticity with a pristine, unhistoric aluminium skin.
Above photo is by Trint + Kreuder d.n.a
Landestheater Schwaben
Extension of Landestheater Schwaben Solitaire theatre space in the Zehntstadel The distinctive eaves cornice and half-hipped roof of the Baroque theatre within the walls of the former Zehntstadel (tithe barn), which was also used as an armoury, was originally erected as a freestanding building in the former cloister garden. For this reason, the extension maintains a respectable distance from its southern facade, which has endured neglect and alterations since the 19th century. The design allows the historical facade and its slightly undulating stucco area to be viewed by theatregoers from the three levels of the 1970s foyer.
Stage access route as a linking element
The space thus created by the design serves as a glass covered stage access route which offers views into the theatre workshops. This transforms the production conditions at the Landestheater which, as a touring theatre, stages plays in other theatres, and especially within the region, into a focal point for visitors. This striking space will be the centre of activity during a variety of theatre events.
Extension of the Landestheater Schwaben uses the right scale of urban components The new building volumes of the theatre extension begin beyond the lofty and airy stage access route. In accordance with spatial requirements the building volumes are graduated and form a gently rising roofscape in a scale appropriate to the context of Elsbethenhof and the corner of Schwesternstraße.
Theatre of short distances
In order to create the best possible working conditions for the production and admin staff, we chose a compact organisation of short distances within and between each department. Therefore, almost all the workshops are connected to the assembly shop and are directly linked to the stage areas, rehearsal rooms and stores. The rehearsal space, stage, workshops and foyer are all easily accessible from the admin offices.
Glass theatre workshops
The interpretation of the directorship’s wish for ‘transparent workshops’ was rigorously applied. Hence, the workshops’ extensive glazing opens onto the proposed theatre courtyard, and is equally generous with regard to the stage access route, thereby allowing views from the stage access route into the theatre courtyard.
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Studio theatre provides foyer with new building component
The studio theatre is connected to the existing foyer at the height of the upper circle, its attractive extension offering views onto Elsbethenhof. Step-free access to the foyer is improved by the addition of a lift at the interface between existing foyer and extension, which links all levels of the foyer.
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Rehearsal complex is extension’s centrepiece
The rehearsal area is arranged around an extensive circulation area (rehearsals access route) at the same level as the studio theatre. This area has direct links to all areas of the theatre, its workshops, store, stages, administration, foyer and the new guest apartments.
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Theatre restaurant links foyer, cloister and Elsbethenhof
The theatre restaurant has been located at the junction where the convent’s historical cloister turns to the south. It allows glimpses into the cloister and is directly connected to the foyer.
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Concrete core with slurry-pointed external skin
The extension was designed as a robust and functional fairfaced concrete structure. The concrete is complemented by fumed oak, but only in primary areas. Adjacent to the new buildings on Schrannenplatz and the Baroque theatre, the extension of the Landestheater appears both elegant and unassuming. Its elevations are serene and make clear reference to the slurry-pointed brick facade of the adjacent and recently restored cloister fragment. With a somewhat theatrical gesture, the Landestheater rises up to Elsbethenhof and towards Schwesternstraße, and with its stone steps to the guest apartments it turns into an almost picturesque space in the passage to Gerberplatz.
The first-ever building to have a carbon fibre structure is a mobile studio-cum-stage by Japanese architects Atelier Bow-Wow, which just opened in New York.
The BMW Guggenheim Lab comprises a black mesh-clad box, elevated by the lightweight framework that makes it easily transportable.
Nestled between two existing buildings, the structure shelters a courtyard studio that is open to the street at both ends.
A rigging of lighting, screens, audio equipment and other tools is suspended behind the mesh and can be lowered into the studio for different activities.
A timber hut provides a cafe for visitors where picnic benches are sheltered beneath a fabric canopy.
The lab is hosting a series of programs around the theme of comfort in the city, including talks, exhibitions, discussions, screenings, workshops and games.
As part of a six-year tour of mobile studios, the lab will later be relocated to Berlin and Mumbai, before being replaced by a new structure and theme.
Here are some more details from the BMW Guggenheim Lab:
BMW Guggenheim Lab Opens Aug 3 in New York, Launching Six-Year Worldwide Tour
Berlin and Mumbai are Next Stops in Nine-City Global Initiative
New York, NY, August 2, 2011 – The BMW Guggenheim Lab launches its nine-city worldwide tour tomorrow in Manhattan’s East Village. A combination of think tank, public forum, and community center, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will offer free programs that explore the challenges of today’s cities within a mobile structure that was designed to house this urban experiment. Over the next six years, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will go through three successive cycles, each with its own theme and specially designed mobile structure. Each structure will travel to three different locations, building on-site and online communities around the BMW Guggenheim Lab that raise awareness of important issues, generate ideas specific to each urban situation, and engage with innovative and sustainable designs, yielding lasting benefits for cities around the world. At the conclusion of the first cycle, in 2013, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York will present a special exhibition of the findings of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s inaugural three-city tour—to New York, Berlin, and Mumbai. The itineraries of the subsequent two-year cycles will be announced at a later date.
The inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab is located at First Park, Houston at 2nd Avenue, a New York City Parks property, and is open free of charge Wednesdays to Sundays, from August 3 through October 16. A diverse range of more than 100 programs will address the theme for the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s first cycle, Confronting Comfort, exploring how urban environments can be made more responsive to people’s needs, how a balance can be found between notions of individual versus collective comfort, and how the urgent need for environmental and social responsibility can be met. Programs include Urbanology, a large-scale interactive group game that can be played both on-site and online, as well as workshops, experiments, discussions, screenings, and off-site tours.
The BMW Guggenheim Lab website and blog at bmwguggenheimlab.org offer a global audience a variety of ways to participate in this multidisciplinary urban project. Activities at the BMW Guggenheim Lab will be reported on through the blog, which will also feature posts by notable guest writers and regular interviews with the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s collaborators. Members of the public are invited to join the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s dedicated social communities on Twitter (@BMWGuggLab, use hashtag #BGLab), Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and foursquare.
“New York City has long been an urban laboratory for new ideas and innovative enterprises, so we are pleased to host the inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab experiment,” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “This creative project provides an important opportunity for New Yorkers to connect and share ideas, and we look forward to the conversations that will take place when the Lab travels around the world.”
“Tomorrow’s launch of the BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York City is just the beginning of what we expect to be an incredible journey,” stated Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. “The Guggenheim is taking its commitment to education, scholarship, and design innovation one step further. We’re taking it on the road. From New York to Berlin to Mumbai and beyond, we will address the enormously important issues our major cities are facing today and engage others along the way. We sincerely thank BMW for collaborating with us on this worthy endeavor.”
“As a company, we like to take action,” said Harald Krüger, Member of the Board of Management BMW AG. “We are interested in fostering an open dialogue about the challenges ahead for all of us. The world premiere of the global, six-year BMW Guggenheim Lab initiative is a true milestone for BMW, building upon our experience in both sustainability and cultural engagement. We are thrilled to support a multidisciplinary platform for forward-looking ideas and new solutions for megacities. With a great collaborator like the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, we are confident the BMW Guggenheim Lab will thrive.”
BMW Guggenheim Lab Programming in New York
The BMW Guggenheim Lab addresses issues of contemporary urban life through free programs designed to spark curiosity and interaction, encouraging visitors to participate in the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s research by generating questions, answers, ideas, and dialogue.
A central component of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s programming in New York is Urbanology, a large group game that can be played on-site, in an interactive installation, as well as online at bmwguggenheimlab.org/urbanology. Participants role-play scenarios for city transformation and become advocates for education, housing, health care, sustainability, infrastructure, and mobility as they build a city that matches their specific needs and values. The game experience for Urbanology was developed by Local Projects, and the physical design was created by ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles].
Leading architects, academics, innovators, and entrepreneurs who will give public talks at the BMW Guggenheim Lab in New York include BMW Guggenheim Lab design architect Yoshiharu Tsukamoto (co-principal of Atelier Bow-Wow); BMW Guggenheim Lab Advisory Committee members Elizabeth Diller (founding principal of Diller Scofidio + Renfro), Nicholas Humphrey (emeritus professor of psychology at the London School of Economics), and Juliet Schor (professor of sociology at Boston College); Saskia Sassen (Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University); and Gabrielle Hamilton (chef and owner of the restaurant Prune).
An ongoing series of off-site experiments will allow participants to use special equipment to measure the effect that different areas of the city have on the brain and body. Another series, organized by spurse, a creative consulting and design collaborative, will explore the complexities of comfort through a multiweek series of on- and off-site programs with public participation.
Screenings will take place at the BMW Guggenheim Lab on Wednesdays and Sundays. The first two screenings will feature Blank City by Celine Danhier (2011, USA/France, 94 min.) on August 3; and Last Address by Ira Sachs (2010, USA, 9 min.) and Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell by Matt Wolf (2008, USA, 71 min.) on August 7.
Architecture and Graphic Design
The mobile structure for the first cycle of the BMW Guggenheim Lab has been designed by the Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow as a lightweight and compact “traveling toolbox.” The 2,200-square-foot structure can easily fit into dense neighborhoods and be transported from city to city. In New York, the two-story structure is nestled between two buildings on a three-quarter-acre T-shaped site; at its southern end, it opens out onto an inviting landscaped public space and cafe.
The lower half of the BMW Guggenheim Lab structure is an open space that can be configured to meet the particular needs of the various programs, shifting from a formal lecture setting with a stage to the scene for a celebratory gathering or a workshop. The upper, “toolbox” portion of the structure is loosely wrapped in two layers of semitransparent mesh, which creates a shimmering moiré effect and allows visitors to catch glimpses of the extensive apparatus of “tools” that can be raised or lowered on a rigging system to configure the lower space for the different programs. Remarkably, the BMW Guggenheim Lab is the first building designed with a structural framework composed of carbon fiber. Videos and images of the structure and the construction process can be viewed at youtube.com/bmwguggenheimlab and flickr.com/bmwguggenheimlab.
“Rather than architects educating the public on how to behave within spaces, it is the public who should have the autonomy of spatial practice in their cities,” stated Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima of Atelier Bow-Wow. “We have always been advocates of people regaining ownership in order to shape the city around them, and are very pleased to participate in the launch of the BMW Guggenheim Lab. We always conceived the Lab as a public space without enclosure.”
The inaugural BMW Guggenheim Lab will leave behind permanent improvements to the once-vacant East Village lot on which it sits, including the stabilization and paving of the site, replacement of sidewalks, and new wrought-iron fencing and gates.
The graphic identity of the BMW Guggenheim Lab has been developed by Seoul-based graphic designers Sulki & Min.
BMW Guggenheim Lab Team
The BMW Guggenheim Lab is organized by David van der Leer, Assistant Curator, Architecture and Urban Studies, and Maria Nicanor, Assistant Curator, Architecture, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Selected by an international Advisory Committee composed of experts from various disciplines, the members of the New York Lab Team are: Omar Freilla, a Bronx, New York–based environmental justice activist, cooperative developer, and founder and coordinator of Green Worker Cooperatives; Charles Montgomery, Canadian journalist and urban experimentalist, who investigates the link between urban design and well-being; Olatunbosun Obayomi, Nigerian microbiologist and inventor and 2010 TEDGlobal Fellow; and architects and urbanists Elma van Boxel and Kristian Koreman of the Rotterdam-based architecture studio ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles].
Public Information and Amenities
The BMW Guggenheim Lab and all programs are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis during operating hours. Advance registration for selected programs will be available online. Hours of operation are 1 to 9 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 1 to 10 pm on Fridays, and 10 am to 10 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The 42-seat BMW Guggenheim Lab cafe, operated by the Brooklyn-based restaurant Roberta’s, is open 1 to 9 pm on Wednesdays to Fridays and 10 am to 9 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Future Venues
Following the New York presentation, the BMW Guggenheim Lab will move on to Berlin in the spring of 2012, where it will be presented in collaboration with the ANCB Metropolitan Laboratory in Pfefferberg, a former industrial complex. In winter 2012–13, the first three-city cycle will be completed when the BMW Guggenheim Lab travels to Mumbai. The Mumbai presentation will be organized in collaboration with the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum.
Dezeen Screen: BMW Guggenheim Lab by Atelier Bow-Wow
A seafront auditorium in southern Spain has concave walls that resemble the deflated cheeks of someone taking a deep breath (photographs by Julien Lanoo).
Designed by Barcelona-based architects Estudio Barozzi Veiga, the Auditorium and Congress Palace Infanta Doña Elena provides a hall for theatre and concerts in the town of Aguilas.
Located on the seaside promenade, the building provides sheltered terraces within recessed balconies.
Two large rectangular windows on the south facade offer sea views from the central lobby and stairwell.
Auditorium and Congress Palace Infanta Doña Elena in Águilas, Spain
The project is a natural response to the particular stimulus, offered by the location.
On one hand the need to respect the urban tissue that growths inside, on the other, the one’s to preserve the expressive hue of the natural landscape.
It is through from this contrast, that we define and articulate tensions which allows the project to organize itself while a coherent response to the constraints of place.
The building is a dialectic reflection, simple but at the same time strong, between the urban artificiality and the organic naturalness.
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Thus, the building results in a large mass, shaped in function of the tensions that proceeds from the different character of the spaces surround it.
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Tangent to the town, the facades are clean, orderly and paused, while tangent to the sea, the facades translate the surrounding space and the configuration offered by the landscape and geography, through large and concave surfaces, that provides a direct and intensive relation with the surrounding natural environment.
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International Competition: I Prize Project: 2004 Construction: 2008- 2011 Investor: City of Aguilas Use area: 10 200m2 Architects: Estudio Barozzi Veiga S.L.P. Team: Alberto Fernandez Veiga, Fabrizio Barozzi, Luca Colomban, Paulo Lopes , Tanja Oppowa, Antonio Pinto, Agnieszka Samsel , Antonis Vourexakis
A ring of mesh thorns crowns the roof of this convention centre in Zlín, Czech Republic, by London studio Eva Jiricna Architects and Prague architects A.I Design s.r.o.
The centre is situated beside the University Library at the heart of a valley, so the roof is entirely visible to approaching visitors.
Covered in metallic mesh, the triangular roof structures conceal smoke outlets, air conditioning and other service vents that would otherwise be visible from above whilst providing support for the external walls.
Glass blocks fill a series of zig-zagging screens below the fins and are illuminated with colour by night.
A multi-purpose auditorium at the centre of the oval-shaped building provides a venue for concerts, theatre, orchestra, conferences and exhibitions.
Glass butterflies decorate the purple ceiling and furniture can be stored below the floor.
A lobby circles the hall, providing access to rehearsal rooms, offices and a bar.
Above photo by Dušan Tománek
Czech architect Eva Jiricna moved to London in the 1960′s and had her big break on the Lloyd’s Building – listen to Eva discussing her early career here in our earlier interview.
This building is nominated for the Inside Awards. Eva Jiricna is also one of the judges and Dezeen is proud to be online media partner for the awards, taking place in Barcelona on 2-3 November.
Photography is by Richard Davies apart from where otherwise stated.
More information is provided by the architects:
Cultural Centre, Zlin, Czech Republic
The Cultural and University Centre is situated in the town of Zlin, the only modern town constructed between the two world wars in central Europe, by the industrialist and philanthropist, Tomas Bata. The site belongs to the town of Zlin who has shared it between the University Library and the Cultural Centre.
Photo by Filip Šlapal
The founder of the town was very keen on culture and education, hence adult ‘schools’ were situated in the very centre of the town, a few steps away from the main factories, becoming an integral part of the city concept and their configuration forming the famous ‘Y’ (two rectangular buildings meeting in an angle) creating a public space with a statue of the first Czechoslovakian President. Although the original school buildings collapsed about 15 years ago, a condition for the new development of this site was to maintain this urban concept.
The site for the Cultural Centre serves multiple functions: a concert hall & theatre, conference centre, home for the administration of the Philharmonic Orchestra, the Centre’s own offices, rehearsal and recording studios, exhibition spaces, and bars.
The main hall accommodates 850 seats, and approx 50 standing. The Conference Centre caters for roughly the same amount. Balls and other functions can take care of up to eleven hundred persons.
Since the building is situated close to a major intersection, the main auditorium had to be fully isolated from all external noise, vibration etc. Also, for operational reasons, a circulation zone around the auditorium was a strict requirement. With this concept, the oval central space is surrounded by offices, rehearsal rooms etc., all in need of natural ventilation and daylight. Another external layer was required as extra sound insulation and sun protection.
Photo by Filip Šlapal
The urban space, in the form of a ‘V’ opens on to the town centre and the incoming visitors proceed to the entrances situated close to the sharp part of the ‘V’. There is also an entrance to a glazed connecting ‘bubble’, a public restaurant shared by both organisations.
Approaching from the town and main intersection the first visual is the glass brick ‘pallisade’ which absorbs the initial impact of noise and climatic conditions and unifies aesthetically the building whilst also allowing the daylight through. It can be backlit at night and is easy to maintain.
At the point where the entrance and three storey foyer begins, the external envelope ends and opens the view into the interior of the building with plants, bars and exhibition spaces. The external area is enriched by a water fountain with changing coloured lights.
Since the town is located in a valley and the centre is at the very bottom of it, the roofs are a very important element of the architectural solution. They are being looked at from a substantial part of the other development.
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The elliptical roof of the auditorium looks like a seamless efficient concrete shell, but contains all the service penetrations, smoke outlets etc, and air-conditioning plant, which does not present the most exciting view. For this reason the external envelope is interconnected with the roof by a perforated metal skin, supported by two large tubes with fins tensioned by vertical cables, also stabilising the external envelope.
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A great deal of attention had to be given to the inside of the concert hall. An elliptical space is not a good shape acoustically to begin with, therefore convex louvred cast white concrete panels were proposed, which proved a very effective solution. Because of the flexible demands of the space, the seats have been designed in such a way that they can be pushed under the podium and totally free up the central space for other functions.
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The building was built on a shoestring budget and had to be tendered twice since European funding has very strict requirements. The only luxury was the choice of colours for the seats, and a ‘flutter’ of glass butterflies across the acoustic ceiling.
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As far as the few weeks of this Cultural Centre’s existence seem to indicate, the Philharmonic Orchestra is performing very successfully with a rich and varied list of prominent international artists, and other functions are truly enriching the cultural and architectural reputation of this most remarkable city.
The following information is provided by the architects:
Location: Skoone Bastion, Tallinn, Estonia Credits: Maarja Kask, Karli Luik, Ralf Lõoke, Pelle-Sten Viiburg Project year: 2010-2011
NO99 Straw Theatre is an object standing on the verge of being a pure functional container on one hand, and an art installation on the other.
The Straw Theatre is built on the occasion of Tallinn being the European Capital of Culture, to house a special summer season programme of theatre NO99, lasting from May to October 2011. Thus it is a temporary building, operating for half a year, built for a specific purpose, programme and location.
The Straw Theatre is built in central Tallinn, on top of the former Skoone bastion, one of the best preserved baroque fortifications of Tallinn. At the beginning of the 20th century, the bastion worked as a public garden, and during the Soviet era it was more or less restricted recreational area for the Soviet navy with a wooden summer theatre and a park on top.
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With the summer theatre having burnt down and the Soviet troops gone, for the last 20 years the bastion has remained a closed and neglected spot in the centre of town with real estate controversies and several failed large-scale development plans. In such a context, the Straw Theatre is an attempt to acknowledge and temporarily reactivate the location, test its potential and bring it back to use, doing all this with equally due respect to all historical layers of the site.
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The rectangular main volume of the theatre is situated exactly on the same spot as the navy summer theatre, and one descending flight of stairs of the latter is used as a covered walkway and entrance area to the Straw Theatre. The building is surrounded by various outdoor recreational functions including an oversized chess board, table tennis, swings, and a baking oven, all with a non-commercial and pleasantly low-key feel.
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The dramatic appeal of the building stems from its contextual setting on the site and its black, uncompromisingly mute main volume contrasting with a descending „tail“ with an articulate angular roof. And of course one cannot escape the effect of the material – uncovered straw bales, spraypainted black.
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The Straw Theatre is a unique occasion where straw has been used for a large public building and adjusted to a refined architectural form. For reinforcement purposes, the straw walls have been secured with trusses, which is a type of construction previously unused. As the building is temporary, it has not been insulated as normal straw construction would require but has been kept open to experience the raw tactile qualities of the material and accentuate the symbolic level of the life cycle of this sustainable material.
This small art gallery in Japan by Tokyo architects Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP has a softly curved exterior shape, sliced at one end to create a wide entranceway.
The asphalt-clad exterior of Roku Museum matches the colour of surrounding trees and the curved chimneys are intended to mirror their branches.
On the interior the curved walls showcase paintings collected by the owner’s late father.
A cafe is situated at the far end of the building, with intentionally low ceilings that force visitors to sit down.
“Bringing Nature, Buildings and People Closer Together”
There is a small private art museum in the city of Oyama in Tochigi prefecture. The owner wanted to build a room to showcase paintings that were collected by his late father, Roku Tsukada, and a cafe where people can drop in anytime that has the ambiance of a salon. There is a lack of greenery in the area, and the site is on a road with a lot of traffic.
Therefore, we decided to plant a grove of trees to create a tranquil environment in the city that was suitable for the appreciation of paintings. We planted three rows of six trees each in a pattern that is close to being grid shaped so as to allow sunlight to equally reach each tree, and ensure the area above the site will be fully covered in the future.
In much the same manner as trees in the garden combined with the architecture of traditional private homes in Japan in the past to create a pleasant environment inside the home, evergreen trees were planted on the north side of the site to block the cold north wind in the winter, and deciduous trees were planted on the south side to block out the sunshine in the summer and let the sun shine through in the winter. Different types of trees were used depending upon the location on the site, and the building was designed to match the layout of the trees and intermingle with them.
The gallery room is inserted between two rows of trees at the rear portion of the site, and rather than partition the cafe with a door, it is offset and has a higher floor to provide a subtle distinction between the two. Three dimensional measurements of the lower branches on the trees that were to be planted were made and computer processed to allow the shape of the building to be fine tuned so that it would not interfere with the tree branches, trunks or roots, and enable swaying of the branches in strong winds to be taken into consideration.
Buildings can be considered the overlapping of layers between the inside and the outside, but for this building, the trees consist of a thick membrane that represent another layer on top of the inner wall, insulation, water-proofing material and outer wall. The trees control the sunshine and wind according to the season, control moisture and cooling with the transpiration effect and absorb carbon dioxide and polluting gases. In addition, this layer emits oxygen and fragrances called phytoncides, and softly envelop the building and the people inside.
A desire to directly reflect the shapes of the trees inside resulted in soft curves in the ceiling and walls. Visitors feel the presence of the trees while inside the museum, and it is an entirely different space from a white cube that eliminates all elements other than the paintings.
In particular, the ceiling in the entrance is low with an average height of 1.7 meters due to the fact that branches and leaves are close to the roof in this area. This makes it necessary for people to bend over and discard their social status and pretense and return to their real self. This provides them with a unique opportunity to appreciate the paintings in a different manner. The ceiling in a portion of the coffee shop is so low that you cannot stand. A bench zone was created in this area where visitors are surrounded by the walls and ceiling, and it provides an experience that is similar to sitting down against a tree and taking a rest. In addition, there are window sills that can also be used as a bench or desk, or as a space to put books.
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This building uses the techniques that we have continuously since the “House SH” to foster a close relationship between people and buildings. Our hope is to create a special type of communication between nature, people and the building by tailoring the shape of the building to the trees surrounding the structure, and using a design that makes people feel at ease and want to snuggle up against the building.
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“Building Form Snuggles Up Against Trees”
Wood columns and beams were used since they can be easily worked to match the complicated shapes of the walls and ceiling, and structural plywood was applied to create a monocoque structure. FG board (strengthened with inorganic fibers) was used on the inside to follow the many curves, and it was finished with an elastic coating material.
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Specially ordered asphalt shingles that likewise follow the curves and still have a good appearance when there are leaves on them were applied to the outside. The trees were planted according to the plan formulated when the building was designed after all other work was completed. The sun that filters through the trees creates a phenomenal façade that changes from one moment to the next.
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Project name: Roku-mueum Credit: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Site area: 705.13m2 Building area: 106.91m2 Total floor area: 99.95m2 Structure: Wooden structure Height of the building: 6.50m Number of stories: 1 Design period: December 2009 Construction period: October 2010 Materials used for interior and exterior : Outer wall, roof: Asphalt single Interior floor: Mortar finish with a steel trowel, and then resin flooring paint /clear Inside wall and ceiling: Elastic plastered wall materials finish with a trowel
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