Hasta La Ideas

Corten steel columns alternate with floor-to-ceiling glass to bring stripes of light and shadow into this funeral home outside Barcelona by Spanish firm Batlle i Riog Arquitectes (+ slideshow).

Located west of the city in the town of Sant Joan Despí, the stark concrete building nestles against a hillside and was designed by Batlle i Riog Arquitectes with a sloping grass roof that appears as an extension of the landscape.

At the front of the building, this roof pitches back up again to frame a long and narrow facade, where columns are arranged in two rows with a glazed perpendicular entrance in between.

“The steel pillars generate a light gradient, establishing visual filters and protecting the interior from the direct sunlight,” explained the architects.

The interior is divided into two sections that separate ceremonial activities from preparation areas. At the front, a succession of spaces lead guests from a spacious reception area into the main auditorium, then out via a private courtyard.

Each of these spaces features an assortment of raw materials that include stone floors, concrete ceilings and timber wall panels, as well as the vertical Corten elements.

Small plant-filled courtyards also intersperse the interiors and are surrounded by glazing to allow them to function as lightwells.

“The materiality generated by the assortment of exposed structural element textures together with the natural light qualify and determine the atmospheres of each space, accompanying the visitors’ mourning at every turn,” added the architects.

The rear spaces contain preparation areas where coffins can be housed before funerals take place.

Other funeral homes featured on Dezeen include a stone chapel with a sharply pointed gable in Germany and a whitewashed hall with a copper roof in Finland. See more memorial architecture »

Photography is by Jordi Surroca.

Here’s a project description from Batlle i Riog Arquitectes:

New Funeral Home in Sant Joan Despí

The building integration on site parts from the adaptation to the existing topography, with a set of pitched roofs on the terrain. The vegetation treatment of part of these roofs pretends to fade with the adjacent green slopes and improve the vision of the ensemble from the perimeter streets, on a higher level. With this strategy, in addition, the apparent building volume is reduced, lowering the vision of the construction and increasing the green surfaces.

The floor plan of the building, lays out an organisation in two areas clearly differentiated, by a public area composed by set of rooms designed to serve the users of the facility and a private area composed by the needed service rooms for the deceased preparation and the coffins movement between them. A system of patios completes the layout of the floor plan, these patios organise, rank and illuminate the spaces and establish filters between different ambiances.

The structural system is composed of walls and reinforced concrete slabs formed with pinewood boards and Corten steel pillars made of flat bars. All these elements define the building image and character providing simplicity to the materiality of the piece. The materialisation is completed with natural stone pavements and wooden vertical facing producing interior warmth. The steel pillars generate a light gradient, establishing visual filters and protecting the interior from the direct sunlight.

The materiality generated by the assortment of exposed structural element textures together with the natural light qualify and determinate the atmospheres of each space, accompanying the visitor’s mourning at every turn. In this way each space is illuminated by a specific light different from the rest. In essence, light and matter.

Authors: Enric Batlle I Durany, Joan Roig Duran, Albert Gil Margalef, Architects
Collaborators: Miriam Aranda, Architect / Dolors Feu, Agricultural Engineer & Landscape Designer / Diana Calicó, Elisabeth Torregrosa, Technical Architects / Sj12, Albert Colomer, Installation Engineering / Static, Gerardo Rodríguez, Structural Engineering

Builder: Vopi4
Surface: 700 Sqm
Location: Sant Joan Despí, Barcelona
Project & Execution Date: 2009-2011

The post New Funeral Home in Sant Joan Despí
by Batlle i Riog Arquitectes appeared first on Dezeen.

World Architecture Festival 2013: the Auckland Art Gallery by Australian studio Frances-Jones Morehen Thorp has been awarded World Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore.

Frances-Jones Morehen Thorp‘s Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki in New Zealand was designed in association with New Zealand studio Archimedia as an extension and refurbishment of the existing gallery, creating a new entrance and doubling the amount of flexible exhibition space.

Roofs over the forecourt, atrium and gallery spaces appear to float at different heights, patterned with wood panels on their undersides.

These canopies are designed to mirror the trees at nearby Albert Park, which can be seen through the large transparent walls of the exhibition spaces.

“Our inspiration was the beautiful natural landscape,” FJMT design director Richard Francis-Jones said after the announcement. “We saw the building as embedded in place. We wanted to use natural local materials, especially the beautiful kauri trees. But because these are protected, we could only use fallen trees or recycled wood.

‘The building is all about New Zealand, and it has the work of great Maori artists embedded in it.”

When the project won the Culture category at the awards yesterday, the WAF judges said: “This is a highly sensitive addition to Auckland Art Gallery which reanimates and reinvigorates the existing building. It responds brilliantly to context and site and gives the gallery a new architectural identity.”

The project beat 16 other category winners announced on day one and day two of the festival, including a whirlpool-shaped aquarium in Copenhagen by 3XN and two projects by last year’s winners Wilkinson Eyre.

Last year the World Building of the Year award went to Wilkinson Eyre Architects’ Gardens by the Bay project in Singapore. Watch our interview with the firm’s Paul Baker filmed moments after the announcement.

Dezeen is media partner for the World Architecture Festival, which concludes today at the Marina Bay Sands hotel and conference centre – see all our coverage of WAF 2013 here.

The event is held in conjunction with the biennial Inside Festival. This year’s World Interior of the Year was won by a tiled Barcelona apartment by David Kohn Architects. See all our coverage on Inside Festival 2013 »

The post Auckland Art Gallery wins
World Building of the Year 2013 appeared first on Dezeen.

Here’s a full set of photographs of Zaha Hadid’s new extension to the Serpentine Gallery, which features a glazed restaurant with an undulating fabric roof (+ slideshow).

Located five minutes walk from the main gallery building in London’s Kensington Gardens, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery opened earlier this week. Exhibition spaces occupy a renovated nineteenth century munitions store, while the restaurant is housed in a new structure that curves out from one side.

“The idea here was to use a new material – a tensile structure – and to look at domes and a shell structure to achieve a lightweight contemporary project,” said Zaha Hadid at the launch.

Built from a glass-fibre textile, the new tensile structure forms a free-flowing white canopy that is supported by five tapered steel columns and outlined by a frameless glass wall.

Describing the contrast between the new and old structures, she said: “We don’t look forward by looking backwards. It is necessary sometimes to to be able to match and be adjacent to historic buildings. The idea here was to really prove that you can have these two worlds, which are the new and the old, and then the garden and the park together in a seamless way.”

“This structure is meant to be a very contemporary light touch that leaves the existing structure autonomous,” added senior designer Patrick Schumacher. “I think we have achieved the acuity of space and structure, of sculptural elegance, lightness and transparency.”

Dezeen published the first photos of the gallery and restaurant from the press preview earlier this week.

This year’s Serpentine Gallery pavilion by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto is also still on show nearby and features a cloud-like grid of steel poles. See more stories about the Serpentine Gallery »

Other recently completed projects by Zaha Hadid include a building at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Heydar Aliyev Centre cultural centre in Azerbaijan. See more architecture by Zaha Hadid »

Photography is by Luke Hayes.

Here’s a statement from the architects:

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery, Zaha Hadid Architects

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery consists of two distinct parts, namely the conversion of a classical 19th century brick structure – The Magazine – and a 21st century tensile structure. The Serpentine Sackler Gallery is thus – after MAXXI in Rome – the second art space where Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher have created a synthesis of old and new.

The Magazine was designed as a Gunpowder Store in 1805. It comprises two raw-brick barrel-vaulted spaces (where the gunpowder was stored) and a lower square-shaped surrounding structure with a frontal colonnade. The building continued to be in military use until 1963. Since then The Royal Parks used the building for storage. The Magazine thus remained underutilised until now. Over time, much amendment and alteration hasoccurred inside the historic building and its surroundings.

Instrumental to the transformation into a public art gallery was the decision to reinstate the historic arrangement of The Magazine building as a free standing pavilion within an enclosure, whereby the former courtyards would be covered and become internal exhibition spaces.

In order to reveal the original central spaces, all non-historic partition walls within the former gunpowder stores were removed. The flat gauged arches over the entrances were reinstated whilst the historic timber gantry crane was maintained. Necessary services and lighting were discreetly integrated as tonot interfere with the ‘as found’ quality of the spaces. These vaults are now part of the sequence of gallery spaces. The surrounding structure has been clarified and rationalised to become a continuous, open sequence of exhibition spaces looping around the two central powder rooms, thus following the simplicity and clarity of Leo von Klenze’s Glyptothek as an early model for a purpose-built gallery.

What was a courtyard before, became an interior top-lit gallery space. Longitudinal roof lights deliver natural daylight into the whole gallery sequence surrounding the central vaults and witha fixed louver system they create perfectly lit exhibition spaces. Retractable blinds allow for a complete black-out of the galleries. The continuous sky-light makes the vertical protrusion of the central core of the building (containing the two vaults) legible on the inside. These reconstructions and conversions were designed in collaboration with heritage specialist Liam O’Connor and in consultation with English Heritage and Westminster City Council. In addition to the exhibition spaces the restored and converted Magazine also houses the gallery shop and offices for the Serpentine’s curatorial team.

The extension contains a generous, open social space that we expect to enliven the Serpentine Sackler Gallery as a new cultural and culinary destination. The extension has been designed to complement the calm and solid classical building with a light, transparent, dynamic and distinctly contemporary space of the 21st century. The synthesis of old and new is thus a synthesis of contrasts. The new extension feels ephemeral, like a temporary structure, although it is a fully functional permanent building.

It is our first permanent tensile structure and realisation of our current research into curvelinear structural surfaces. The tailored, glass-fibre woven textile membrane is an integral part of the building’s loadbearing structure. It stretches between and connects a perimeter ring beam and a set of five interior columns that articulate the roof’s highpoints. Instead of using perimeter columns, the edge beam – a twisted ladder truss supported on three points – dips down to the supporting ground in front, in the back, and on the free west side. On the east side this edge beam (and thus the roof of the extension) swings above the parapet of The Magazine. A linear strip of glazing gives the appearance that the roof is hovering above The Magazine without touching. The Magazine’s western exterior brick wall thus becomes an interior wall within the new extension without losing its original function and beauty. This detail is coherent with the overall character of the extension as a ‘light touch’ intervention. The envelope is completed by a curved, frameless glass wall that cantilevers from the ground to reach the edge beam and fabric roof.

The interior of the new extension is a bright, open space with light pouring in from all sides and through the five steel columns that open up as light scoops. The anticlastic curvature of the roof animates the space with its sculptural, organic fluidity. The only fixed elements within the space are the kitchen island and a long smooth bar counter that flows along The Magazine’s brick wall. The tables, banquets and chairs are designed as a continuous Voronoi pattern, reminiscent of organic cell structures.

Our aim is to create an intense aesthetic experience, an atmosphere that seems to oscillate between being an extension of the delightful beauty of the surrounding nature and of being an alluring invitation into the enigma of contemporary art.

The post Serpentine Sackler Gallery by Zaha Hadid
photographed by Luke Hayes appeared first on Dezeen.

Lisbon Architecture Triennale: Portuguese artist Marta Wengorovius teamed up with architect Francisco Aires Mateus to create this small wooden library that can be used by only one person at a time.

On show as part of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, the reading cabin comprises a shed-like structure containing nothing but a single bookshelf and a raised seating area.

Daylight filters in through a skylight that punctures the gabled roof.

Marta Wengorovius invited 20 guests to choose books for the library, creating a collection of 60 volumes.

“Sharing this itinerant project creates a community between people who read the books, the guests who chose the books and the people who will read the books wherever the cabin shall pass,” she said.

Visitors can reserve time slots to occupy the library, whether it be an hour or a whole day.

The cabin first opened in Paredes and has since moved to Lisbon. The artist plans to relocate it each year, translating the books into different languages for foreign countries.

Francisco Aires Mateus designed the structure. His studio also recently completed a pair of waterfront cabins in Grândola, Portugal.

Other buildings designed specifically for a single inhabitant include a micro home by Renzo Piano and a travelling performance venue.

See more stories from the Lisbon Architecture Triennale »

Photography is by João Wengorovius.

Here’s a project description from Marta Wengorovius:

Um, Dois e Muitos (One, Two and Many)

The project is an itinerant library that aims to be a compass of reflection concerning the themes: “One”, “Two” and “Many”. The 60 books in the library relate to: “One” (every single one chosen), “two” (every single one two chosen) and “many” (every single one many chosen).

The books were chosen by 20 guests invited to collaborate with the artist and to be part of this project. With the intersection of these various books there is a desire to produce a sort of manifest, a synthesis to enlighten our roots, and searching some earth (roots?). I believe that the truthful ones cross our past and present, and give flowers throughout the ages, enlightening the time that goes by.

The library was planned to be in one different place per year. If exhibited in a foreign country the books will be translated to the native language of the country.

This art project had its first opening on December 2012 as part of the public art project in Paredes, north of Portugal.

Using Instructions

The Reading Cabin is to be used by one person at a time. The books can be read inside the cabin and requested to the entity where the Library is located. Sharing this itinerant project creates a community between people who read the books, the guests who chose the books and the people who will read the books wherever the cabin shall pass. The cabin was designed by Francisco Aires Mateus.

A Project by: Marta Wengorovius
In collaboration with: Francisco Aires Mateus and Ana Almada Pimentel
Photographs: João Wengorovius
Construction: Cenário Perfeito
Graphic design: barbara says…

The post One, Two and Many
by Marta Wengorovius appeared first on Dezeen.

Here are some new renders of Beijing studio MAD‘s Harbin Cultural Centre, which is well under construction (+ slideshow).

MAD designed the undulating arts and culture venue for the city of Harbin, in China’s far north-east corner.

Situated on an island surrounded by wetlands of the Songhua River, the meandering site plan echoes the form of the river cutting through the land.

To disguise the centre in the often snowy landscape, the buildings will be predominantly clad in white aluminium and also use white stone and concrete.

The complex is split into two parts, separated by a man-made lake but connected by a long straight bridge.

On one side is the Harbin Grand Theatre, which will contain two different-sized theatres to host performances from large-scale operas to small independent shows.

A ribbon-like structure rises up from the ground to wrap around the back of both theatres, pinching in at the front of each.

This element will continue outward from the larger volume to create landscaping around a plaza.

Glass panels will form the roofs over the foyers, filling the gaps between the ribbon shape.

Inside, the larger theatre will be lined with wood panels to aid acoustics and add warmth to the otherwise white spaces.

The Harbin Labour Recreation Centre will sit on other side of the lake, containing facilities for conferences, cultural education and exhibitions, plus a hotel and catering space.

The project is due to complete next year, in time for Harbin’s summer concert in July.

MAD has also completed a wood sculpture museum shaped like an icicle in Harbin.

Last week the studio’s director Ma Yangsong revealed plans for a mixed-use complex in Beijing featuring skyscrapers, office blocks and public spaces modelled on mountains, hills and lakes.

See more projects by MAD »
See more architecture and design in China »

Read on for more information from MAD:

Harbin Cultural Island is located in the natural landscape of the riverside wetland north of Songhua River. The entire project covers an area of ​​1.8 square kilometres, with a construction area of ​​79,000 square meters. It is part of the development north of Sun Island, which is an important natural habitat in the north. In February 2010, MAD won the competition to design the cultural center on the island. The entire building is expected to be completed in 2014 when the Harbin July summer concert will be held.

Influenced by both Chinese and Russian culture, Harbin is reputed as the music capital of the north. Different from other theatre buildings that are normally located in the urban centre, Harbin Grand Theatre will not act as an isolated landmark for the city, but the natural continuation of the human spirit. Apart from regional protection and utilisation of the wetland ecosystem, Harbin Theatre, Harbin Labour Recreation Centre, Harbin Great Square and the Wetland Park together compose the Harbin Cultural Island, to join culture, art and nature in an integrated environment.

Surrounded by rivers, the Cultural Island embraces the wide riverbank as its background appearing as a glacier stretching and connecting to each other into a cohesive whole. The main entrance mimics a jade belt bridge spanning the wetlands and connecting the city and the cultural centre together. The movement of the terrain strategically directs the flow of people from different directions to the entrance of Harbin Theatre and Harbin Labor Recreation Centre.

The external ramp of the Grand Theatre, resembling a mountain path formed by gusting winds, guides people from the interior to the exterior. Walking along the landscape passage, visitors are able to appreciate the surrounding cultural and natural landscape. Atop the highest point of these buildings, visitors are able to enjoy a panoramic view of the surrounding scenery as if they are on top of a mountain.

The grand theatre takes the natural beauty of the north as its premise. In an attempt to reduce such a large volume, the architectural form is a continuation of the natural environment as it becomes part of the landscape. The entire building acts as an undulating snow covered mountain, following a natural rhythm.

The cladding of the building is custom-made pure white aluminium. White stone and concrete are also used as part of the wall, introducing a pure feeling as ice and snow. The skylight above of the auditorium utilises natural daylight. During the day, the need for interior lighting can be completely satisfied with energy-saving and special lighting effects. The Grand Theatre is made up of two different sized theatres. The larger theatre can accommodate up to 1,600 guests and it is formed with lower level stalls and a two-floor gallery. The interior space uses a large amount of wood to provide the best possible acoustical effects for the Performance Hall of the Grand Theatre. Also, the wood and the white wall form a balanced contrast between warm and cold colours, resembling the unique warm atmosphere of mountain huts.

The stage design for the theatre is not only suitable for western opera and modern drama performances, but also meets the requirement of traditional Chinese theatre plays. The acoustics and lighting design provide a high level of performance for the various venues in the theatre. Covered by curved acrylic lamps, the second floor VIP lounge appears as a glowing clear crystal floating in the theatre. The standardised stage is equipped with a versatile orchestral pit, designed to meet large-scale performances of Opera, Ballet and other various needs.

The 400 seat small theatre that connects with the larger theatre serves as the venue for small drama performances, chamber music, and operas. The design of the backstage curtain allows the stage to expand like a wide screen with natural landscape in the background integrating the indoor and outdoor view. The outdoor water section can also be used as an outdoor auditorium, therefore when the curtain opens, it becomes a panoramic arena with unobstructed views. This ingenious design creates a great space and a delicate dramatic effect for the Grand Theatre to adapt to the innovation and changes of the modern theatre art.

The art centre demonstrates the rich scale of the city, the nature and the people. It encourages the publicity and mass participation of Harbin’s art and culture activities. People can get a different sensory experience from different distances. The huge man-made lake between the Grand Theatre and the Culture and Art Centre contrasts the building with a long landscape bridge wedged in-between to form a Buddhist concept of “Void”.

Along the landscape bridge, visitors can reach the Labour Recreation Centre west of the Great Square. With a construction area of 41,000 square meters, this building is a comprehensive building complementing the Grand Theatre. Its functions include staff training, conferences, cultural education, exhibitions, hotel and catering space. These facilities will provide a diversified space for visitors, spectators and the staff. The boundary of the Cultural Centre interconnects with the river bank and wetland, blurring the boundaries of the natural and the artificial. Open spaces like ramps, bridges, sky terrace and squares bridge the distance between man and nature.

From the design’s initial startup in 2010 to August 2013, the overall structure of the Cultural Centre was completed and the entire project began to take shape. In the coming year, the building façade, the interior design and landscape design will be finished. This new cultural island in Harbin is emerging to facilitate the blend of humanity, art and nature in the north and it will become the centre of this city’s spirit.

The post Harbin Cultural Centre
by MAD appeared first on Dezeen.