Hasta La Ideas

A polished steel canopy reflects visitors walking underneath at this events pavilion in Marseille’s harbour by UK firm Foster + Partners (+ slideshow).

Supported by eight slender columns, the stainless-steel structure stretches over the paving to create a sheltered events space in the city’s Old Port. The roof features sharply tapered edges, creating the impression of a paper-like thickness.

“The new pavilion is quite literally a reflection of its surroundings,” explained head of design Spencer de Grey. “Its lightweight steel structure is a minimal intervention and appears as a simple silver line on the horizon.”

The Vieux Port pavilion forms part of a masterplan of public realm projects that Foster + Partners has been working on along the seafront of the French city to tie in with its role as European Capital of Culture 2013. Other improvements includes new surfaces, wider pavements and a series of nautical pavilions.

“Our aim has been to make the Vieux Port accessible to all,” said De Grey. “The project is an invitation to the people of Marseille to enjoy and use this grand space for events, markets and celebrations once again.”

The architects worked alongside landscape designer Michel Desvigne, who added granite paving to complement the original limestone cobbles.

London-based Foster + Partners has also released plans for several new projects in recent months. Others include a concept to 3D print buildings on the moon and a renovation of New York Public Library’s flagship branch. See more projects by Foster + Partners.

Photography is by Nigel Young.

Here’s a project description from Foster + Partners:

President of Marseille leads opening celebrations for new Vieux Port pavilion

The transformation of Marseille’s World Heritage-listed harbour was officially inaugurated on Saturday during a ceremony attended by Eugène Caselli, President of Marseille Provence Métropole and Jean-Claude Gaudin, the Mayor of Marseille. The event marked the completion of the new ‘club nautique’ pavilions and a new sheltered events space on the Quai de la Fraternité at the eastern edge of the port, built to commemorate the city’s year as ‘European Capital of Culture’.

The new events pavilion is a simple, discreet canopy of highly reflective stainless steel, 46 by 22 metres in size, open on all sides and supported by slender pillars. Its polished, mirrored surface reflects the surrounding port and tapers towards the edges, minimising its profile and reducing the structure’s visual impact.

Reclaiming the quaysides as civic space and reconnecting the port with the city, the boat houses and technical installations that previously lined the quays have been moved to new platforms and clubhouses over the water. The pedestrian area around the harbour has been enlarged and traffic will be gradually reduced over the coming years to provide a safe, pedestrianised environment that extends to the water’s edge.

The landscape design, which was developed with Michel Desvigne, includes a new pale granite surface, in the same shade as the original limestone cobbles. The simple, hard-wearing, roughly textured materials are appropriate to the port setting, and to improve accessibility for all, kerbs and level changes have been eliminated.

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News: UK firm Foster + Partners has unveiled plans to overhaul New York Public Library’s flagship branch on Fifth Avenue by inserting a contemporary lending library into unused reading rooms and stacks at the back of the building.

At present only a third of the the Stephen A Schwarzman Building is accessible to the public, but Foster + Partners plans to insert a new corridor that will connect the main entrance with a new four-level atrium at the rear, where visitors can browse collections whilst enjoying a view of Bryant Park through the existing tall windows.

“We are reasserting the Library’s main axis and its very special sequence of spaces, from the main Fifth Avenue entrance and the Astor Hall, through the Gottesman Hall, into the dramatic volume of the new circulating library, with views through to the park,” said Norman Foster.

Located beneath the Rose Reading Room, the new section will replace seven relocated floors of closed stacks, while a 300-person workspace for students and researchers will take the place of several offices and storage areas.

Floorplates will be pulled back from the exterior wall to create a series of tiered balconies and visitors will enter the space via a grand staircase that descends from above.

Proposed materials include bronze, wood and stone, which the architects claims will age gracefully and fit in with the existing beaux-arts building designed by Carrère and Hastings in the early twentieth century.

The New York Public Library launched its £185 million renovation strategy earlier this year, but faced criticism as scholars and writers claimed the plans would comprise the library’s existing facilities.

Foster commented: “Our design does not seek to alter the character of the building, which will remain unmistakably a library in its feel, in its details, materials, and lighting. It will remain a wonderful place to study. The parts that are currently inaccessible will be opened up, inviting the whole of the community – it is a strategy that reflects the principles of a free institution upon which the library was first founded.”

Construction is scheduled to commence in the summer and is expected to complete in 2018.

Foster + Partners has been working on a number of projects in New York in recent months, including a vision for the future of Grand Central Terminal and a competition-winning design for a Park Avenue skyscraper.

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Here’s some more information from Foster + Partners:

Designs for the New York Public Library revealed

The New York Public Library today unveiled proposals for the integration of the Circulating Library into its flagship Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street – Lord Foster presented the plans at the launch of the public exhibition.

The project aims to safeguard the building’s legacy and precious books for future generations. The existing research library will be retained as it is today, with more space for researchers, as will many of the public spaces – the project will open twice as much of the building to the public and will restore the logic of the Neo-Classical design to improve the experience of the library’s historic halls. The two circulating collections will be housed in a spectacular new space previously occupied by book stacks.

The centrepiece of the 5th Avenue and 42nd Street building is the magnificent Rose Reading Room, below which are seven storeys of book stacks. However, these stacks are inaccessible to the public and no longer meet the needs of the books they contain, in terms of capacity, fire safety or preservation. The books will be moved to a large humidity-controlled chamber under Bryant Park, which was created in 1989 as part of the Bryant Park project, and provides the ideal environment for their conservation. Thus the stack space is freed to create a new ‘library within a library’ comprised of the Mid-Manhattan collections and the Science, Industry and Business Library – reinstating a circulating library to the NYPL main building, as had originally existed until the 1980s.

The 13,000 structural points of the existing stacks will be replaced with an innovative new vaulted stone and steel cradle. This move will free the floors from the west façade, allowing them to be peeled back to form a series of balconies – in the process revealing the full height of the slender windows internally for the first time. New study areas will line the perimeter of the balconies and new reading platforms will sit beneath the vaulted ceilings, which are carefully attuned to ensure excellent acoustic performance. The materials palette and design of the interiors will evolve with further development. The current combination shows bronze, wood and stone, which will age gracefully with the passage of time and use. A new internal atrium runs the full length of the base of the circulation library, connecting the visitor facilities to the building’s accessible entrance on 42nd Street.

Just 30 percent of the library is currently accessible to the public – the project will more than double this, opening 66 percent of the building by utilising unused reading rooms, back of house spaces, offices and book stacks. The design aims to make the building more inviting, more permeable and to bring the books to the fore rather than hide them away. Starting with the circulation strategy, the central axis through the Neo-Classical building will be reasserted. Visitors will be able to walk in a straight line through the grand Fifth Avenue portico and the majestic Astor Hall into Gottesman Hall, where a permanent treasures gallery will display some of the most important pieces from the collection. For the fist time, the westerly doors of the Gottesman Hall will be opened up, restoring a sense of symmetry and intuitive circulation across the building. Visitors will enter the new circulation library on a balcony in the centre of the former book stack space, where they will face elevated views of Bryant Park. From here, a grand staircase will sweep down to the main level, aligned with the park, and further to the state-of-the-art education and business library below.

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News: architecture firm Foster + Partners has unveiled proposals to increase the capacity of New York’s Grand Central Terminal by widening approach routes and pedestrianising streets (+ slideshow).

The architects were one of three teams invited by the Municipal Art Society of New York to re-think the public spaces in and around the 100-year-old station, which was designed to serve around 75,000 passengers a day but often sees as many as a million passing through.

Foster + Partners’ proposals include the pedestrianisation of Vanderbilt Avenue to the west of the station, creating a public square at the entrance to the new East Side Access lines, surrounded by trees, cafes and public art.

The plans also include wider pavements and trees on the southern approach from 42nd Street and along Lexington Avenue to the east, while larger underground spaces would lead into the terminal from Park Avenue to the north.

Inside the station, wider concourses would help to ease congestion for travellers on the 4, 5, 6 and 7 metro lines.

“The quality of a city’s public realm reflects the level of civic pride and has a direct impact on the quality of everyday life,” said Norman Foster. “With the advent of the Long Island Rail Road East Side Access, along with the plan to re-zone the district, there has never been a better opportunity to tackle the issues of public access and mobility around one of the greatest rail terminals in the world.”

Foster + Partners presented their proposals yesterday at the third annual MAS Summit for New York City, alongside American firms SOM and WXY Architecture.

In the last year the firm has also won a competition to design a high-speed rail station for Spain and presented proposals for an airport and transport hub on the estuary outside London.

See more stories about Foster + Partners »

Here’s some more information from Foster + Partners:

Foster + Partners re-imagines Grand Central Terminal for 2013 Centenary

Norman Foster presented proposals for a masterplan to bring clarity back to Grand Central Terminal at The Municipal Art Society of New York’s annual Summit in New York last night.

Masterplan – click above for larger image

Grand Central Terminal is one of New York’s greatest landmarks and contains perhaps the city’s finest civic space. However, over time it has become a victim of its own success. A building designed to be used by 75,000 people per day now routinely handles ten times that number with up to a million on peak days.

The result is acute overcrowding; connections to the rail and subway lines beneath the concourse are inadequate; and the arrival and departure experience is poor. Added to that, the surrounding streets are choked with traffic and pedestrians are marginalised. The rapid growth of tall buildings in the vicinity has all but consumed the Terminal.

Within the station, the proposal creates wider concourses, with new and improved entrances. Externally, streets will be reconfigured as shared vehicle/pedestrian routes, and Vanderbilt Avenue fully pedestrianised. The proposal also creates new civic spaces that will provide Grand Central with an appropriate urban setting for the next 100 years.

Wider masterplan

The 42nd street entrance to the south, where access is severely constrained, will be widened to fill the entire elevation by using existing openings, thus greatly easing accessibility. The access via tunnels on the northern approach from Park Avenue will be rebalanced in favour of pedestrians by creating grander, enlarged underground spaces through the Helmsley building. Lexington Avenue to the east will be tree-lined with wider sidewalks and will benefit from more prominent and enhanced tunnel access to Grand Central Terminal. The idea already mooted to pedestrianise Vanderbilt Avenue to the west would be extended. The street would be anchored to the south by a major new enlarged civic space between 43rd Street and the west entrance to the Terminal and to the north by a plaza accommodating new entrances to the East Side Access lines. Trees, sculpture and street cafes will bring life and new breathing space to Grand Central Terminal.

At platform and concourse levels where congestion is particularly acute for travellers on the 4, 5, 6 and 7 lines, we will radically enlarge the connecting public areas, to address the huge increase in passenger traffic in the last 100 years. This will transform the experience for arriving and departing commuters and passengers. A generous new concourse will be created beneath the west entrance plaza on Vanderbilt Avenue connecting directly into the main station concourse.

This visionary masterplan with its focus on pedestrians and travellers will allow Grand Central Terminal to regain the civic stature that it deserves as a major New York landmark and an appropriate twenty-first century transport hub.

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Architect Norman Foster (above) has designed the entrance to the Corderie Arsenale exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale, where the names of generations of architects, critics, designers, landscape architects and planners are projected over the floor, columns and visitors.

The Gateway installation also features rapidly changing images of communal spaces flashing overhead in an installation by Carlos Carcas, one of the directors of 2010 film How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?

The images were sourced from architects, planners, photographers, critics, writers and artists around the world and show famous historic public spaces from western cities alongside meeting places in rapidly growing Asian and South American cities and favelas.

The installation sets up a dual interpretation of biennale director David Chipperfield’s theme of Common Ground, highlighting both the heritage that architects share as a profession and the issues surrounding physical common spaces, before visitors move on to the rest of the Arsenale.

Meanwhile, over at the Central Pavilion in the Giardini, Foster presents an exhibition about the communal space at the base of his famous Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation headquarters below.

Above: Occupy the Bank, photo by John Nye

The biennale opens to the public tomorrow and runs until 25 November. See all our stories so far here, check out photos from the preview on Facebook and watch David Chipperfield talk about his chosen theme in our movie interview here.

See all our stories about Foster + Partners »

Portrait is by Paolo Rosselli. Exhibition photos are by Carlos Carcas.

Here’s some more information from Foster + Partners:

Norman Foster has curated two spaces for the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale: the ‘Gateway’ installation at the head of the Arsenale, which is the first gallery that visitors pass through within the Corderie. The second space is in the Central Pavilion in the Giardini.

Norman Foster has chosen to interpret the theme of Common Ground in two ways. First in words, as the body of knowledge represented by the names of generations of architects, critics, designers, landscape architects and planners, who from antiquity to today have influenced the urban world. Secondly though images, which show the communal gathering spaces that bring us all together socially, outside or inside buildings.

For the ‘Gateway’ installation in the Arsenale, Norman Foster brings these two interpretations of the theme together in the words and images which he selected to create a black box experience. Visitors enter via symmetrical ramps into an immersive space, in which the floor and audience are washed by projected words, white on black and constantly in motion. On the walls of the space, projections of huge, rapidly changing images flash above the heads of the audience in an installation by filmmaker Carlos Carcas. They range from the historic spaces of the western world, to the booming new cities of Asia and South America, as well as the favelas, which are an inseparable part of these emerging urbanities. In the spirit of Common Ground, these thousands of images have been solicited from a global network of architects, planners, photographers, critics, writers and artists. The fusion of names and images are accompanied by a background soundtrack specifically composed for the installation.

The installation has been made possible by the Norman Foster Foundation and Ivorypress.

In the Central Pavilion in the Giardini, an exhibition focuses on the plaza below the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank tower as a gathering space. There were several early design variations for the Bank, which culminated in the final scheme, completed in 1985. The common denominator from the outset was a civic space created by lifting the building up to ensure a flow of pedestrian movement across the site.

Through models, sketches, drawings and photographs, the exhibition shows the evolution of the design of this public space and the tower that defines it, culminating in a photograph of the building by the artist Andreas Gursky. On Sundays, this space is transformed into an outpost of the Philippines, as hundreds of maids establish a community, with an extraordinary variety of social activities and intimate spaces created by cardboard walls. This aspect of the Bank is also explored in the work of artist Marisa Gonzalez. The triptych painting of the banking hall by Ben Johnson complements the view of the plaza from above by the photographer John Nye.

In the Hong Kong Pavilion in the Arsenale, Foster + Partners’ design for the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, part of the redevelopment of the former airport site, has been selected and curated by Chris Law. Continuing the theme of Common Ground, the terminal features a large public roof garden, set against the stunning backdrop of the city.

Credits:

Gateway

Curator: Norman Foster
Concept & Design: Norman Foster with Ivorypress team
Production: Elena Ochoa Foster and Antonio Sanz (Ivorypress), Katy Harris and Matthew Foreman (Foster + Partners)
Film Director & Editor: Carlos Carcas
Art Installation: Charles Sandison
Sponsors: The Norman Foster Foundation and Ivorypress

Hongkong and Shanghai Bank HQ

Curator: Norman Foster
Concept & Design: Norman Foster
Artists: Norman Foster, Andreas Gursky, Ben Johnson, John Nye, Marisa Gonzalez
Production: Elena Ochoa Foster and Antonio Sanz (Ivorypress), Spencer de Grey and Katy Harris (Foster + Partners)
Lenders: Andreas Gursky, HSBC, The Norman Foster Foundation, Foster + Partners
Sponsors: The Norman Foster Foundation and Ivorypress

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Architeture Biennale 2012 appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Wire: Foster + Partners have been shortlisted to design the Xiqu Chinese Opera Centre, the first in a series of new arts and cultural venues for the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong.

Collaborating with local studio O Studio Architects, the firm is one of five in a shortlist that also includes Safdie Architects, Mecanoo Architecten, Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd. and Bing Thom Architects.

Foster + Partners won a competition to design the masterplan for the district in 2010, beating entries by OMA and Rocco Design Architects.

See all our stories about Foster + Partners »
See all our stories about the West Kowloon Cultural District »

Read the full press release below:

Leading British architectural firm Foster + Partners shortlisted for arts venue in one of worlds largest cultural infrastructure projects.

Shortlisted design teams announced for the first arts venue in the West Kowloon Cultural District.

(17 July 2012, Hong Kong) The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) announced today a shortlist of five design teams that have been invited to submit proposals for the architectural design of the Xiqu Centre, one of the landmark cultural venues for the West Kowloon Cultural District.

The five shortlisted teams are:

» BTA & RLP Company Limited (Bing Thom Architects, Vancouver, and Ronald Lu and Partners, HK)
» Foster + Partners (UK) with O Studio Architects (HK)
» Mecanoo architecten (the Netherlands) / Leigh & Orange (HK)
» Safdie Architects LLC (US & Israel)
» Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd. (in collaboration with Diamond and Schmitt, Canada)

The Xiqu Centre, scheduled for completion at the end of 2015, will be the first of 17 core arts and cultural venues to be opened within the District and one of 15 proposed performing arts venues. The Chinese opera venue will provide a world-class facility for the preservation and development of the art form in Hong Kong and will be designed to host and produce the finest examples of Cantonese and other Chinese opera performances. Occupying a prime site at the eastern edge of the District on the corner of Canton Road and Austin Road West, the centre will provide a gateway of access to the Cultural District. The competition covers the design of a 1,100-seat main theatre, a 400-seat small theatre, a Tea House for performances for audiences up to 280 and ancillary training and education facilities.

The teams were shortlisted by the West Kowloon Cultural Authority Board following the recommendation of an independent Steering Committee set up to oversee the design competition, assisted by an Independent Professional Advisor, and with the participation of the Jury Panel.

Mr Louis Yu, Executive Director, Performing Arts, said:
“There has been a fantastic response to our plans for the Xiqu Centre from design teams from across the world. We are working hard to find the right team to work with to fulfill our ambitions. The shortlisted teams will meet with representatives of the Chinese opera artform, engaging with stakeholders so we can conceive together a world-class building for Hong Kong and for the development and promotion of this important form of Chinese cultural heritage”.

The shortlisted design teams will be invited to submit schematic designs of their concepts before 5 October, 2012. Entries from the shortlisted design teams will be assessed by a Jury Panel made up of prominent leaders in the relevant professional and arts and culture fields from Hong Kong, China and internationally: Mr. Cui Kai, Architect, China; Prof. Odile Decq, Architect/ Urbanist, France; Mr. Jordi Farrando, Architect, Spain; Mr. Lee Shing See GBS, OBE, JP, WKCDA Development Committee member and Chairman of the Steering Committee and Engineer – Hong Kong, China; Mr. Mao Chun Fai, Fredric BBS, Theatre Director, Hong Kong, China; Mr. Pau Shiu Hung SBS, Architect, Hong Kong, China; Mr. Yuen Siu Fai, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Artists Association of Hong Kong.

Further details on the Design Competition are available on the WKCDA website: http://www.wkcda.hk/en/architectural_competition/xiqucentre

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