Food with edible packaging is served around a circular counter at the WikiBar in Paris by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur.
The cafe is the first in a proposed chain of WikiBars selling an innovative range of WikiPearl foods that are protected by an edible skin. Products in the range include ice creams that don’t melt when touched, yoghurts that can be eaten without a spoon and cheeses that don’t need to be wrapped in foil.
Referencing the molecular structure of the food, Mathieu Lehanneur used a tessellated pattern of hexagons as the motif for the cafe’s interior.
This motif was applied to a mirrored light on the ceiling and a seating area beside the window. The outlines of hexagons also shine through the counter from lighting concealed underneath.
Glass cloches surround a selection of treats on sale, which can also be taken home using simple biodegradable bags to keep them clean. Meanwhile, the story of the brand is displayed across the rear wall.
Here’s a project description from the design team:
Wikibar by Mathieu Lehanneur
Mathieu Lehanneur is responsible for the interior design of the WikiBar, the first of many, that will open its doors at 4 Rue de Bouloi in the 1st district in Paris. A simple as well as radical concept: to offer good and eco-responsible food fighting and addressing the problem of pollution from packaging. This Wiki Food incorporates the natural principle of grapes: a sphere with an edible coating to protect the food. A principle adaptable to drinks, cream and from now onwards ice creams created in collaboration with Philippe Faure, the maestro of ice creams. Ice creams that do not melt in your hand are available in this first WikiBar!
Mathieu Lehanneur has created a decor symbolised by a mirror-light, an illuminating and reflective object formed of hexagons “a geometrical reference to the molecular structure of WikiPearl laminations (). A graphic design and a matter of cookery demonstrations for this revolutionary concept.” A symbol of the approximation of science and design, a logical onward step for the designer who has regularly collaborated with Le Laboratoire since the production of “Andrea,” the air purification system through plants. Mobile WikiBar, pop-up wiki bars are already on the horizon, and the next permanent Wiki Bar will be in the forthcoming Lab Cambridge, currently being designed. The American version of the Parisian Le Laboratoire initiated by David Edwards.
Metal trellises offer a framework for climbing plants and vines around these recently completed houses in Poitiers, France, by Bordeaux studio Lanoire & Courrian (+ slideshow).
Lanoire & Courrian has added 32 residences in the suburban district of Bel Air, including 22 rental properties and 10 houses for sale. Arranged in two rows, the houses create new streets that branch off a realigned Rue des Frères Morane.
Each of the houses is clad with corrugated metal, which has been powder-coated in shades of grey and lilac. Timber fencing lines the base of the walls and marks the borders of each property.
Rather than position the houses evenly, the architects used a staggered arrangement to break up the facades and create natural recesses. Narrow passageways were added between houses to offer visual corridors.
“We imagined the project as a series of strips on a plot,” say the architects. “The idea is to have an overall geometry of buildings and vegetation.”
A secondary road scoops in through the centre of the site, leading to some entrances and allowing access to driveways. Houses without driveways can make use of an underground car park with its entrance on Rue des Frères Morane.
“We wanted to create an island that is both an intimate space and a porous and fluid space, allowing different modes of travel with respect to both the outside and inside,” add the architects.
The houses follow a standard layout, with living rooms on the ground floor and bedrooms upstairs. Each residence also comes with a garden and a small shed.
Industrial designer Konstantin Grcic has furnished an apartment in Le Corbusier’s iconic Cité Radieuse housing block with his own products and blown-up pages from a punk fanzine (+ slideshow).
Products shown: Mayday lamp for Flos and Diana side tables for ClassiCon
Appartement N°50 is a privately owned home in the Modernist apartment block in Marseille, France, which retains the original layout and features designed by Le Corbusier in 1952.
Products shown: Pallas table for ClassiCon and Venice armchair for Magis
He also scanned pages of a punk fanzine, expanded them and hung them on the walls of the apartment, creating a deliberately enigmatic contrast with the sparsely decorated interior.
Products shown: Topkapi marble table for Marsotto and 360° chairs for Magis
“The punk motifs are tempting a slightly devious link between two completely unrelated worlds: Le Corbusier’s architecture and punk rock,” says Grcic.
“Without forcing the idea of common grounds, I find that both have a rawness and uncompromising spirit which I have always found compellingly beautiful. Bringing both cultures together in this project felt most inspiring and, in the end, surprisingly fitting.”
Products shown: Medici chairs, side tables and foot stools for Mattiazzi; Mayday lamp for Flos
There is an apartment in Le Corbusier’s famous Cité Radieuse (radiant city) in Marseille, which is almost completely preserved in its original 1952 condition.
Appt.N°50 is privately owned and it is thanks to the generosity and passion of its owner/occupant that the place is made accessible to a wider public during the summer months of each year.
As proof that Le Corbusier’s visionary Unité d’Habitation has the same vibrancy today as when it was originally conceived the apartment is turned into a temporary stage for the ideas and works of contemporary designers.
A short series of scenographic installations has been realized over the years; my project is the third in line following Jasper Morrison (2008) and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec (2010).
Apart from placing a selection of my favorite furniture and objects I decided to tag the walls of the apartment with four blown up scans from an original punk fanzine. The punk motifs are tempting a slightly devious link between two completely unrelated worlds: Le Corbusier’s architecture and punk rock. Without forcing the idea of common grounds, I find that both have a rawness and uncompromising spirit which I have always found compellingly beautiful. Bringing both cultures together in this project felt most inspiring and, in the end, surprisingly fitting.
Exterior of Cité Radieuse
The objects in use are: 360° chairs (by Magis), Topkapi marble table (by Marsotto), Miura bar stool (by Plank), 2-Hands laundry basket (by Authentics), Pro chair (by Flötotto), Jerry stools (by Magis), Mayday lamps (by Flos), Medici chairs, side table and foot stool (all by Mattiazzi), 360° container (by Magis), Venice armchair (by Magis), Pallas table and Diana side tables (by ClassiCon), Myto chair (by Plank), Tip bin and H2O buckets (by Authentics), chair_ONE (by Magis).
In contrast to Le Corbusier ́s enigmatic color scheme of the interior, the intervention is kept in iconic red, black and white.
by Dora Haller Southern France’s Languedoc-Roussillon region is the single biggest wine-producing area in the whole world. Vineyards of all sizes can be found among the region’s 700,000 acres stretching from Provence to the border of Spain, but one standout we recently had…
Around a month ago I had the privilege of visiting Sri, a private gallery owned by Stephen Szczepanek that houses an incredible archive of rare vintage Japanese textiles. While the experience was educational and fascinating, it did little to curb my appetite…
News: a proposal by Rem Koolhaas’ firm OMA for a bridge that could accommodate different types of traffic as well as pedestrians and events has been selected by local authorities in Bordeaux, France, as one of two final competing designs.
The proposed design aims to “rethink the civic function and symbolism of a twenty-first century bridge” by creating a platform traversing the river Garonne that could be used by cars, trams, buses, bicycles and pedestrians.
A wide boulevard with a gentle gradient would make the bridge easy to walk across and allow it to be used to host events.
OMA project leader Clement Blanchet said the studio wanted to “provide the simplest expression – the least technical, least lyrical, an almost primitive structural solution. This simplicity allowed us to create a generous platform for pedestrians and public programs, as well as flexibility in accommodating the future needs of various types of traffic.”
Either OMA or French firm Dietmar Feichtinger will be awarded the project in December this year, with completion scheduled for 2018.
OMA leads the final round for Pont Jean-Jacques Bosc international competition in Bordeaux
OMA’s design for a new bridge across the river Garonne in Bordeaux has been selected as one of two final competing projects by the city authorities. OMA’s stripped-down design for the Pont Jean-Jacques Bosc attempts to rethink the civic function and symbolism of a 21st century bridge.
Clement Blanchet, leading the project for OMA with Rem Koolhaas said: “The bridge itself is not the ‘event’ in the city, but a platform that can accommodate all the events of the city. We wanted to provide the simplest expression – the least technical, least lyrical, an almost primitive structural solution. This simplicity allowed us to create a generous platform for pedestrians and public programs, as well as flexibility in accommodating the future needs of various types of traffic.”
Vincent Feltesse, president of Urban Community of Bordeaux made the decision with the deliberation of a jury of 40 people, announcing that the municipality wanted something “bold.”
Image copyright Frans Parthesius
Beyond traditional fascinations with style and technical performance, OMA tried to design a 21st century bridge that exploits state-of-the-art techniques in order to create a contemporary boulevard. A platform 44 metres wide and 545 metres long is stretched beyond the water on either side, creating a seamless connection with the land. The bridge slopes gently, allowing an easy promenade while still giving necessary clearance for boats underneath. Each type of traffic – cars, RBD (tram/bus), bicycles – has its own lane, and is designed to meet changing vehicular needs. By far the largest strip is devoted to pedestrians.
The bridge is designed to cohere with the adjacent St. John Belcier urban redevelopment project. It also attempts to unify the different conditions of the two banks of the Garonne: from the Right Bank, strictly aligned on a poplar-lined meadow, to the urban landscape of the Left Bank, it aims solve the dual challenge of aura and performance in an environment steeped in history.
Image copyright Frans Parthesius
A final decision between designs by OMA and Dietmar Feichtinger will be made in December this year, with the bridge scheduled for completion in 2018.
The project is developed in collaboration with engineers WSP, the landscape architect Michel Desvigne, as well as the consultant EGIS and light design agency Lumières Studio.
A cantilevered exhibition floor and an underwater conference suite feature at this archive and research centre, designed by Italian office Boeri Studio and one of several new buildings on Marseille’s waterfront (photographs by Edmund Sumner + slideshow).
The building sits at the water’s edge and was designed by Stefano Boeri as “a place of thought and research that physically embraces the sea”.
“I have always been obsessed with harbour architecture,” says Boeri, describing his interest in naval stations, silos, observation towers and dry docks. “Villa Méditerranée is a construction that combines the characteristics of civic architecture with those of harbour infrastructure and off-shore platforms.”
The architect used a combination of reinforced concrete and steel to create the angular structure of the building, then added glazing across the front and rear elevations to allow views right through.
Porthole windows face out into the sea from the conference centre, which occupies an entire floor below ground level, while the third-floor exhibition gallery is contained within a 36-metre cantilever that frames and shelters a waterfront piazza.
A triple-height entrance hall connects the two main floors. Windows are dotted randomly across its facade, reappearing as skylights and transparent floor panels elsewhere around the exterior.
Villa Méditerranée, Centre International pour le dialogue et les échanges en Méditerranée, Marseille, France
Villa Méditerranée, Centre International pour le dialogue et les échanges en Méditerranée is a circa 9.000 square metre multipurpose building, overlooking the Port of Marseille’s docks, destined to house research activities and documentation spaces on the Mediterranean.
The sea is the main unifying element of the Mediterranean world, sailed by the innumerable travels, migrations and trade; it enhances the meeting and the exchange of the communities that live in its coast.
The sea is the central element of the project: the water square enclosed in the building’s interior is the new public space representing the institution.
It is not simply a basin with ornamental intentions, but rather the union, the means of contact that orients, animates, and organises the building as a whole.
The new Villa Méditerranée, Centre International pour le dialogue et les échanges en Méditerranée is articulated between earth and sea.
The water of the Gulf of Marseilles enters between the building’s two horizontal planes (that of the conference hall and exhibition centre) creating a water square capable of harbouring fishing boats, sail boats or simply serving as a swimming pool and moorings for small pleasure boats.
The building has been thought as a place in dialogue with the surrounded landscape (earth, city, sea…) revealing the site’s values and opening up to the Mediterranean.
A cantilever of 36m is suspended at 14m from the sea level hosting an exhibition area of ca. 1500 sqm, it is enlighten by side windows, roof-lights and walkable glasses in the floor.
A conference centre of 2500 smq is located underwater; here the contact with the sea is possible through portholes. A big vertical entrance hall links together the main spaces and other smaller rooms which host offices, restaurant and other services.
The new construction combines an apparent simplicity with a real richness of spaces, paths and functions. The patio is a fundamental element of the mediterranean architecture and it has been chosen as the central element in the design process. Its ability to create at the same time an interior space and a filter towards the exterior is the key point to read and dialogue with the esplanade j4 and with the entire port. The result is a generous place, flexible and multifunctional, capable to host the unexpected.
Architecture: Boeri Studio (Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca, Giovanni La Varra) Ivan di Pol, Jean Pierre Manfredi, Alain Goetschy, AR&C; Design Team: Mario Bastianelli (Project Leader), Davor Popovic (project leader building phase), Marco Brega (project leader competition phase) Collaborators: Alessandro Agosti, Marco Bernardini, Daniele Barillari, Fabio Continanza, Massimo Cutini, Angela Parrozzani
Japanese firm Kengo Kuma and Associates has completed an art and culture centre with a chequered timber facade on the banks of the Doubs river in Besançon, France (+ slideshow).
Entitled Cité des Arts, the centre comprises the Besançon Art Centre, which includes a gallery for regional collections and an art college, and the Cité de la Musique, a music school with its own auditorium.
Kengo Kuma and Associates won a competition to design the centre with plans for a timber-clad complex united beneath a single roof. This roof bridges the gap between a pair of three-storey buildings, creating a sheltered terrace in the space between.
“We did not want to propose a simple box,” say the architects. “By covering the gorgeous riverside with one generous roof, we aimed to give a unity to a site characterised by heterogeneous existing elements, and to create a special space under the roof, a ‘shade of trees’ space where the wind from the river could blow and pass through.”
Steel and glass panels are interspersed between the chequerboard of timber that blankets the exterior, creating different transparencies to various spaces inside the two buildings. Reception spaces are filled with natural light, while classrooms and exhibition galleries are made more opaque.
“A beautiful shade may pass through this mosaic and enfold the people on the riverside,” say the architects.
The music school wraps around a small courtyard garden filled with mossy plants and low trees, while the art centre takes in a converted 1930s warehouse for use as an extra gallery.
Solar panels and sedum roof panels help to improve the sustainability of the centre. The structure is also elevated above ground level to decrease the risks of flooding.
Photography is by Stephan Girard, apart from where otherwise indicated.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Cité des Arts
The 7th July of 2008, the city of Besancon has been recognised as UNESCO world heritage for his outstanding fortification system erected by Vauban during the XVII century. The site of the future art and culture centre reflects the historical richness of the city: located in-between the bastions called Rivotte and Bregille, remarkable vestige of a prestigious history, the existing building in bricks attest of the industrial river traffic and activity of the region. Besancon is well known for being precursory in the green development in France. The site is inscribes in a generous natural environment in-between hill planted of forest, over hanged by the Citadelle and close to the riverside of the Doubs.
Concept
This project is the result of the union between history and architecture, water and light, city and nature.
We wish that the Besancon Art and Culture Centre strikes a chord with the environment by the fusion of the different scale of reading, from the details to the entire project, by blurring the limit between interior and exterior, to create a building able to enter in resonance with its environment: the hills, the river and the city of Besancon.
The roof creates the link between the building and its environment and makes the project blatant. Semi-transparent, the roof symbolises the fusion between built and not-built and act as camouflage when people discover it from the Citadelle which is height overlooking. It is an invitation to the citizen to gather below his protection. It symbolised the encounter between the city and the nature, the citizen and the riverbank, the public and the culture.
The site brings with itself both its own history and the history of the city. The riverbank always has been either a protection or a barrier. The project is a continuity of this history, its longitudinal geometry is following the orientation given by Vauban, the warehouse, old storage of wood, is kept and participate in the richness of the building. The Besancon Art and Culture Centre perpetuate the notion of protection, but can be read as well as a monumental gate between the city and the river, outstanding object and symbol of the unification of the city and his river.
It is a landmark, recognisable by a sober design and the quality of his materiality. We wish to reinforce the genius loci of the site through a strong and clearly identifiable building, but still respecting the relationship with the existing bastion, the river and the city.
Organisation Principle
Unified below the large roof, the two functions are identifiable by subtle differences in the patterns of the façade composed by wood panels and steel panels. The pattern dimensions are for the FRAC: 5000 X 2500 Horizontal while for the CRR 1625 X half floor height vertically.
The FRAC is partially located in the old brick warehouse building. After taking out two of the existing slabs, the void created is containing the main exhibition room. The large lobby of the FRAC is as much as possible transparent, open to both “art passage” and city side. The natural top light is diffused thanks to the random positioned glass panels of the roof, in order to achieve to communicate the feeling of being below a canopy of tree, where the light gently come through leaves down to the ground. The CRR is more an introverted space, except for his lobby which is 14 m height and largely transparent. Both lobby of FRAC and CRR are connected by the roof, creating a semi-outdoor space, the “art passage”, which is flooded of natural light through the semi-transparent roof. This passage, a large void, is structuring the overall buildings: it acts simultaneously as a gate and a shelter; it emphasises the particularity of this project witch gathering two different functions.
The roof
The roof is the emblematic and unifying element of the project. Composed in a random way with different element such as glass, solar panel, vegetation and metal panels with different color finish, the natural light vibrates on its surface, depending of the absorption and reflection of the different elements composing it. It creates a pixelised layer where the apparent aleatory position of the “pixels” define a unique image, abstract and confounded with the environment hue. The transparency is partially defined by the necessity of the program below: opaque on top of the rooms such as classroom, administration, or exhibition room. It gets more transparent when it is on top of the lobby or when it is covering the outdoor spaces.
Suspended by a wood framework, this fifth façade made of variation of transparency and opacity represent a unique and innovative design, a thin pixelised layer floating on top of the Doubs river and becoming at night a landmark reinforcing the entrance of the city. The only element emerging from the roof is the old warehouse converted in exhibition gallery, reminding the industrial period of the site.
The landscape design takes part in the pedestrian path along the river: it extend and connect the existing promenade. The main constrain of the site is the flood risk. We have reinforced the embankment and built on top of that dike. This is the reason why the building is installed on top of a pedestal. This pedestal can be physically experimented walking below the “art passage” semi-outdoor space, overhanging the street and connected to the river by a large stair.
The CRR is organised around a garden, called “harmony garden”, a wet garden combining moss and low trees. In continuity with the “art passage”, along the FRAC, a water pond planted with filtering rush is creating the soft transition between the city and the building. Partially covered by the semi-transparent roof, the shadow and light variations interweaves with the reflections on the reflection pond.
Wood, glass, or metal meshes are combined with subtleties in order to generate a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. The wood frameworks supporting the roofing appear in the lobbies, terraces and in the last floors, which intensify the presence of the roof. The views to the exterior are precisely framed either to the water pond, the river, the double or triple height spaces manage to offer different space experiences.
This place which always has been perceived as a physical barrier for the citizens (either fortification or industrial area) we propose to generate an open and welcoming cultural centre, a gate and a roof between the river and the city, in harmony with the environment.
Project Credits:
Architects: Kengo Kuma, Paris and Tokyo Project team: Sarah Markert, Elise Fauquembergue, Jun Shibata, Yuki Ikeguchi
Architect associate: Archidev, Cachan, France Structure and MEP engineer: Egis, Strasbourg, France Landscaper: L’Anton, Arcueil, France Acoustic engineer: Lamoureux, Paris, France Scenographer: Changement à Vu, Paris, France Quantity surveyor: Cabinet Cholley, Besançon, France Sustainable engineer: Alto, Lyon, France Site Area: 20 603 sqm Built area: 11 389 sqm Client: Communauté d’agglomération, Franche-Comté, Ville de Besançon, Budget: 26 900 000 Euros
The faceted surfaces of this library in the French town of Montauban by Paris architecture studio Colboc Franzen & Associés follow the lines of historical roads bordering the site (+ slideshow).
A former royal road created by Louis XIV influenced the alignment of the second floor, while the ground floor and first floor echo the orientation of a nineteenth century bypass.
There’s a foyer, auditorium, café and exhibition space on the ground floor, a large reading space on the first floor, and reference and work areas above.
Colboc Franzen & Associés twisted the top floor to face a different direction from the levels below, creating a mezzanine that projects through the centre of the building and a tiered seating area in the triangular space that connects it to the floor below.
A large overhang covers the entrance, sheltering visitors from the prevailing winds and noise from the nearby bypass.
Baked clay shingles that reference the brick typically used in the region cover the external walls.
The construction of Montauban’s new multimedia library is the spearhead of an urban redevelopment project in the eastern parts of town. It will form a gateway into the town, an create an identity for neglected neighbourhoods and provide an emblem for the town of Montauban.It also had to reinvent what a library is for. Knowledge is going digital, so what issues have a bearing on this kind of programme? Montauban’s multimedia library gives a spatial context to and a material representation of information and how it is shared.
The land on which the multimedia library is to be built is bordered and intersected by the geometrical lines left by history. The road that cuts across the site is a former royal road laid out by Louis XIV; the old layout and therefore part of the buildings neighbouring the library are governed by this geometry.
The road that runs along the southern side of the site is a 19th-century bypass, whereas the roads and buildings to the north are influenced by the construction of the Chaumes complex between the 1960s and the late 1970s. Designing the project induced us to divide the building into three equal parts – a citizens’ forum, a large reading space called “Imaginary Worlds” that encourages people to explore and meet each other, and reading and working rooms.
By setting the three different parts of the project on top of each other and swivelling the top floor so that it shares a diagonal with two storeys below it and then connecting them by triangulation, we establish an interesting internal space that addresses the project’s needs and takes account of the site’s geometry.
The ground floor and the first floor therefore follow the line of the 19th-century road. The overhang is slightly truncated to echo the bend in the bypass. The second floor is laid out perpendicular to Louis XIV’s road, ensuring that the building and the roof ridge are aligned with the geometry of history. Lastly, the triangulation matches the geometry of the recent urban development in the northern part of the site.
Visitors will therefore approach the library under the northern overhang from the areas where development work is ongoing. The building protects them from the noise from the bypass and from the prevailing southeasterly wind. It also gives architectural expression to the political desire to welcome in local residents, for who have lived through some hard times and whose future development is ongoing.The citizens’ forum on the ground floor is there for use by passers-by and to welcome visitors inside. There is a large foyer that gives the latest news, a literary café, a 120-seater auditorium, and an exhibition room.
It also contains the service entrance and the administrative offices. The central foyer has a direct visual link to the first floor, which houses the “Imaginary Worlds”, a place of exploration and discovery for visitors of all ages. It has tiered reading areas to ensure a visual and spatial connection with the second storey, which is positioned as a mezzanine above the “Imaginary Worlds”, giving it the benefit of natural light when the sun is high in the sky.
Big plate glass windows at the edges of the two flat reading corners frame the stand-out features of the surrounding area, which are the gateway into town, a copse of hundred-year-old trees, and Montauban town centre. The initial geometrical positioning of the building ensures that the interior of the library resonate with the town outside.
Positioning it this way lends structural support to the overhangs. Two main steel girders run along the top floor and carry it, and they are propped up by four posts. Two of these are positioned at the corners of the lower levels, while the other two hold up the points of the overhangs and situated on the sides of the lower floors. This means that there are no carrying walls inside, allowing for extremely flexible usage.
Basement plan
The building is cloaked in a baked clay skin, which is a reference to Montauban’s typical brick exteriors. This skin consists of shingles, which operate as shading devices on some of the ground floor walls. They keep the staff’s offices cool and private. Only the large glass panes of the reading areas pierce the unusual baked clay-coated mass. The use of dyed concrete for the outside areas brings to mind the pebblestones used in the pavements of the old town.
Brief: Subject reference areas, cafeteria, 120-seater auditorium, exhibition room, car parks
Sustainable development: – Green Building project (Targets 1, 4, 8 and 10) – Complies with RT 2005 thermal insulation standards – Use of certified materials – Balanced ventilation with heat recovery – Low noise pollution
by Laila Gohar All over the world, from Tokyo to Beirut, a handful of compelling food journals are being published. Here we bring you a filtered selection of foodzines that have an international perspective and offer a peek into a unique food culture. Whether you’re intrigued by the relationship between…
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