Hasta La Ideas

Rooms and surfaces are generated from a complex web of hexagons at this contemporary arts centre in Córdoba, Spain, by Madrid office Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos (photography is by Roland Halbe).

Inspired by the patterns of traditional Islamic architecture, Nieto Sobejano planned the building as a non-linear sequence of connecting rooms that open out to one another in a variety of configurations.

“We have always been admirers of the hidden geometric laws through which those artists, artisans and master builders of a remote Islamic past were capable of creating a multiple and isotropic space within the mosque,” explain the architects. “We conceived the project as starting with a system, a law generated by a repeating geometric pattern, originating in a hexagonal shape.”

The six-sided rooms create a meandering trail through the building and each room can be used as either an exhibition area or as a space for art production. Every wall and surface is concrete, intended to evoke the atmosphere of a factory or warehouse.

“Walls and slabs of concrete and continuous concrete floors establish a spatial area capable of being transformed individually using different forms of intervention,” the architects add.

Hexagonal funnels stretch down from the roof to channel natural light into concentrated spaces. Meanwhile, tiny perforations bring narrow beams of light through the facade.

From the exterior, these perforations make up another pattern of hexagons that face out towards the adjacent Guadalquivir River. At night, LED lights illuminate these shapes to present a glowing pattern across the water.

As well as exhibition space, the building also contains artists’ workshops, laboratories and an auditorium for theatrical performances, films screenings and lectures.

The Contemporary Art Centre Córdoba was completed earlier this year, but while it was still under construction a Spanish graphics studio filmed a theatrical dance performance inside. Watch the movie below, or see a larger version in our earlier story.

Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos has become a specialist in museum and gallery design in recent years. Others to complete include the subterranean Interactive Museum of the History of Lugo and the perforated aluminium extension to the San Telmo Museum. See more architecture by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos.

Above: location plan – click for larger image

See more photography by Roland Halbe on Dezeen, or on the photographer’s website.

Above: ground floor plan – click for larger image

Here’s a project description from Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos:

Architecture nourishes itself constantly from images hidden in our memory, ideas which become sharp and clear and unexpectedly mark the beginning of a project. Perhaps this is why the echo of the Hispano-Islamic culture which is still latent in Cordoba has subconsciously signified more than a footnote in our proposal. In the face of the homogeneity which our global civilisation imposes in all aspects of life, the Centre of Contemporary Art aspires to interpret a different western culture, going beyond the cliché of this expression used so frequently.

Above: section one – click for larger image

Distrusting the supposed efficacy and flexibility of a neutral and universal container commonly used nowadays, let us image a building closely linked to a place and to a far memory, where every space is shaped individually, to a time which can transform itself and expand in sequences with different dimensions, uses and spatial qualities.

Above: section two – click for larger image

We have always been admirers of the hidden geometric laws through which those artists, artisans and master builders of a remote Islamic past were capable of creating a multiple and isotropic space within the Mosque, a building facetted with vaults and muqarna windows, permutations of ornamental motifs with lattice windows, paving and ataurique decorations, or the rules and narrative rhythms implicit in the poems and tales of Islamic tradition.

Above: section three – click for larger image

Like those literary structures which include a story within another story, within yet another… – a story without an end – we conceived the project as starting with a system, a law generated by a repeating geometric pattern, originating in a hexagonal shape, which in turn contains three different types of rooms, with 150 m², 90 m², and 60 m². Like a combinatorial game, the permutations of these three areas generate sequences of different spaces which possibly can come to create a single exhibition area.

Above: section four – click for larger image

The artists’ workshops on the ground floor and the laboratories on the upper floor are located adjacent to the exhibition halls, to the point where there is no strict difference between them: artistic works can be exhibited in the workshops while the exhibition halls can also be used as areas for artistic production. The assembly room – the black box – is designed as a stage area suitable for theatrical productions, conferences, film screenings, or even for audiovisual exhibitions.

Above: section five – click for larger image

The Centre of Contemporary Art is not a centralised organism: its centre moves from one area to another, it is everywhere. It is designed as a sequence of rooms linked to a public walkway, where the different functions of the building come together. Conceived as a crossroads and meeting place, it is a communal area for exhibitions and exchange of ideas, to view an installation, see exhibitions, visit the café, use the mediateque, wait for the start of a show in the black box, or perhaps gaze at the Guadalquivir river.

Above: section six – click for larger image

The materials will contribute to suggest the character of an art factory which pervades the project. In the interior, walls and slabs of concrete and continuous concrete floors establish a spatial area capable of being transformed individually using different forms of intervention. A network of electrical, digital, audio and lighting infrastructure creates the possibility of multiple views and connections everywhere.

Above: section seven – click for larger image

Outside, the building aspires to express itself through one material: GRC prefabricated panels that at the same time clad opaque and perforated façades, or make up the flat and sloping roofs of the halls. The industrialised concept of the system as well as the conditions of impermeability, insulation and lightness of the material, contribute to guarantee the precision and rationality of its execution but also plays a part in the combinatory concept which governs the whole project.

Above: east elevation – click for larger image

The facade onto the river, a true mask that protagonizes the exterior facade of the building, is conceived as a screen perforated by several polygonal openings with LED-type monochromatic maps behind them. With an appropriate computer program, video signals will generate images and texts that will be reflected on the river’s surface and enable installations specifically conceived for the place. During the day, natural light will filter through the perforations and penetrate the interior covered walkway.

Above: south elevation – click for larger image

In the Centre for Contemporary Art, artists, visitors, experts, researchers and the public, will meet as in a contemporary zouk, without an obvious spatial hierarchy. It will be a centre for creative artistic processes which will link closely the architectural space with the public: an open laboratory where architecture attempts to provoke new modes of expression.

Above: west elevation – click for larger image

Some of the most recent artistic proposals linked to the most recent technologies appear to move away from materiality and submerge themselves in a virtuality disconnected from a concrete place, but perhaps through it, disagreeing with this interpretation – which has become a commonplace – we are convinced that the building itself, the Guadalquivir river, the present and the past of Cordoba, will not simply be a casual circumstance but – as it has been for us as well – will be the start of a dialogue, agreement, or perhaps rejection. For are these not also emotions which underlie the search for all artistic expression?

Above: north elevation – click for larger image

The post Contemporary Art Centre Córdoba
by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos appeared first on Dezeen.

Having just closed the doors on its fourth edition in NYC this past Sunday, 10 March, Independent once again received much praise for their curatorial approach to the often stale art fair format, emerging from the shadow of the massive Armory Show. Once again back in their original location…

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British architect David Chipperfield has completed a new gallery building at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri (+ slideshow).

With walls of dark polished concrete, stone and glass, the East Building was designed as a contemporary counterpart to the Italian-inspired museum designed by Cass Gilbert for the 1904 World’s Fair.

David Chipperfield‘s design features a grand staircase that connects the old building with the extension. Visitors can choose to enter the museum through Gilbert’s original portico or though the glazed frontage of the new wing.

The polished dark concrete walls are speckled with aggregates from the Missouri River, while inside a coffered concrete ceiling runs through the building and integrates a grid of skylights that let daylight filter down onto an oak floor.

Above: photograph is c/o the Saint Louis Art Museum

Set to open on 29 June, the East Building will accommodate both permanent collections and special exhibitions, giving the museum around 30 percent more gallery space. Temporary exhibitions will no longer be held in the main building, which will now be dedicated to static exhibits.

Above: photograph is by Simon Menges

Additional spaces include a 100-seat restaurant, a 60-seat cafe and an underground parking zone.

David Chipperfield first revealed designs for the structure in 2005, but the project had been delayed by funding issues. Architecture firm HOK worked alongside Chipperfield to deliver the building.

Above: photograph is by Simon Menges

The London-based architect has worked on a number of museum projects over the years. In 2007 he won the Stirling Prize for the Museum of Modern Literature in Germany and he also designed the Hepworth Wakefield gallery in the UK. Recent projects include designs for a museum of fine arts in Reims, France. See more architecture by David Chipperfield.

Photography is by Jacob Sharp, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from the press release:

Expanded and Renovated Saint Louis Art Museum to Open its New East Building by Sir David Chipperfield on June 29-30, 2013

Brent R. Benjamin, director of the Saint Louis Art Museum, today announced details of the grand opening of the Museum’s more than 200,000-square-foot East Building, designed by renowned British architect Sir David Chipperfield with technical assistance from HOK. A weekend celebration, held on June 29 and 30, will welcome the public to the monumental new structure of dark polished concrete-and-stone panels and floor-to-ceiling windows, set in historic Forest Park as a contemporary counterpart to the scale and dignity of the original building, designed by Cass Gilbert for the 1904 World’s Fair.

All inaugural exhibitions in the East Building will be drawn from the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum, revealing as never before the riches of one of America’s premier encyclopedic art museums. The expansion adds 82,452 square feet of galleries and public space – an increase of about 30 percent – while linking the Museum more closely with Forest Park through a design by the celebrated French landscape architect Michel Desvigne. The project also adds a host of new visitor amenities to the Museum, all in support of a civic institution that is always open free to the public.

“The ideal of a democratic Palace of the Arts, which Cass Gilbert so powerfully embodied in our original building, now finds beautiful, modern-day expression, at once rigorous and elegant, in the adjoining masterwork by Sir David Chipperfield,” Brent R. Benjamin stated. “Celebrating the Forest Park site, harmonizing with the 1904 building, and creating a distinctive architectural work for our own time, the East Building will offer the people of St. Louis, and our visitors from around the world, a remarkable new view of the outstanding collections of this Museum and of the vital role that an art museum can play in public life.”

Barbara B. Taylor, president of the Saint Louis Art Museum, stated, “The unprecedented success of the East Building capital campaign, which to date has secured commitments of more than $160 million, surpassing its $145 million public goal, is a testament to the importance of the Saint Louis Art Museum in the life of our city, and a statement of confidence in this Museum’s position among national institutions.”

Inaugural exhibitions to celebrate the collections

The Museum’s collections span some 5,000 years and feature masterpieces from the ancient Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, the Islamic world, Europe and the Americas. All aspects of the collections will be celebrated at the time of the opening.

In the East Building, the inaugural installation in the new special exhibitions galleries will be Postwar German Art in the Collection, an extensive re-examination of this major aspect of the Museum’s holdings. The exhibition will address themes and groupings such as the legacy of Joseph Beuys; the large-scale works of Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Anselm Kiefer; and the influence of the Düsseldorf School of Photography. Drawing from impressive strengths in the Museum’s collections, these galleries will feature works by artists including Georg Baselitz, Jörg Immendorff, Martin Kippenberger, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer.

The East Building galleries dedicated to the permanent collection will explore developments in American art after World War II. Beginning with American responses to Surrealism and the emergence of Abstract Expressionism, the presentation will proceed to movements including Minimalism, Pop and Process art. Galleries also will address themes such as the return to figuration and contemporary modes of abstraction. Artists represented in the installation will include earlier figures such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Frank Stella,Ellsworth Kelly and Andy Warhol and more recent artists such as Leonardo Drew, Teresita Fernández, Kerry James Marshall and Julie Mehretu. Thirty percent of the works in the installation will not have been on view for approximately a decade.

The Museum’s former temporary exhibition galleries in the 1904 building will now be devoted to the permanent collection, and more than 50 galleries in the Cass Gilbert-designed Main Building recently have been reinstalled as part of a renovation project complementing the East Building expansion. Notable reinstallations in the original building include the galleries for 18th century European art, with works by Canaletto, Tiepolo, Chardin, Reynolds and Gainsborough presented within the context of the Grand Tour; the French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries, with works by masters from Manet, Monet and Renoir through van Gogh and Gauguin installed thematically; and a dedicated gallery to house the Museum’s collection of the work of Max Beckmann, the largest of its kind in the world.

Among the major reinstallations to be revealed at the time of the grand opening will be A New View: Surrealism, Abstraction and the Modern City. Exploring three great themes in the art of the first half of the 20th century, the installation will examine Surrealism as reflected in the work of Giorgio di Chirico and Max Ernst and the abstract approaches evident in works by Paul Klee, Roberto Matta, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Alberto Giacometti. A second section of the installation will focus on the pivotal role of Piet Mondrian in European abstraction. The third section will explore the importance of urban imagery in the work of artists including Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Amedeo Modigliani and Robert Delaunay.

Another major reinstallation in the 1904 building will be A New View: Ancient American Art, presenting some 300 works from the ancient cultures of the WesternHemisphere. Constituting the first reconfiguration since 1981 of the Museum’s esteemed collection of ancient American art, the installation will include works from the Inca and Moche of South America, the Maya and Aztec of Mexico and the Mississippian cultures of the Midwest.

The opening of the East Building will also mark the inauguration of Stone Sea, a major new outdoor work commissioned by the Museum from the celebrated British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. Using stone from the Earthworks Quarry in Perryville, Mo., Goldsworthy has built 25 10-foot arches, each weighing approximately 13 tons, arranged in a dense composition that evokes the texture and movement of theancient shallow seas that once covered the Midwest.

Highlights of the East Building design

Visitors to the Saint Louis Art Museum may use the existing Sculpture Hall entrance in the 1904 building, where Cass Gilbert’s original main-floor layout has been restored as part of the expansion project, or may use the fully accessible new entrance to the East Building. Either way, the contrast is immediately apparent between the neo-classical 1904 building and the East Building, with its facade of floor-to-ceiling windows and twenty-three monumental panels of dark polished concrete gleaming with highlights of Missouri river aggregates.

David Chipperfield’s design joins the two buildings seamlessly with a new Grand Stair, which also establishes clear and organic connections among primary circulation axes. The new circulation path leads directly from the Grand Stair to lower-level galleries and a concourse with a new 60-seat cafe, a renovated museum shop and auditorium, and access to a new below-grade parking garage.

The outstanding design feature of the galleries of the East Building is an innovative coffered ceiling made of white concrete. The ceiling houses 698 coffers, most with scrimmed skylights to provide abundant but controlled natural light to the galleries. The lighting system is designed in collaboration with Arup.

Floors in the East Building are made of six-inch-wide planks of white oak, and the floor vents are stainless steel, both chosen to minimize distraction from the works of art.

The landscape design by Michel Desvigne features the installation of outdoor sculptures by artists including Alexander Calder, Henry Moore and George Rickey; as well as new plantings – including approximately 300 trees – in accordance with St. Louis’s existing Forest Park Master Plan. The landscape design will be executed in phases, with much of the most significant work to be completed after the June 2013 opening.

New visitor amenities

The outstanding new amenity in the East Building will be a new 2,500-square-foot restaurant, offering seating for 100 patrons with dramatic views overlooking Forest Park’s Art Hill. A private dining room in the restaurant will accommodate as many as 40 guests. Operating the restaurant and the new Museum cafe will be the Bon Appétit Management Company, which is known for its restaurant service at institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Seattle Art Museum and the Getty Center.

Among the other significant amenities offered as part of the expansion project are a renovated museum shop, a renovation and upgrade of the 480-seat auditorium, the provision of three new classrooms, a dedicated art-study space and a school-group entrance in the existing buildings and the development of a new 129,000-square-foot below-grade parking garage in the East Building, accommodating 300 vehicles.

The post Saint Louis Art Museum East Building
by David Chipperfield appeared first on Dezeen.

Chinese studio Archi-Union has converted an office block in Shanghai into an art gallery with a concrete staircase twisting through its middle (+ slideshow).

The facade of the building remains unchanged but the interior spaces are entirely renovated to accommodate two exhibition galleries and a bar, with a glazed atrium sandwiched between.

Made up of six components, the contorted concrete staircase creates a spiralling route through the three split-level floors, while additional corridors cut across at different levels.

“Faced with the change in the use of the building, we first deconstruct the straightforward logic of the space and blur the functions’ interface,” says Archi-Union.

“The complex logic of the staircase form breaks the traditional two dimensional layer relations, but it’s not an arbitrary treatment out of control,” add the architects. “Every perceived line has its logical necessity; but the curving surface softens this logic, it gives the visitor a feeling between rationale and randomness, creates an exciting spatial feeling at the edge of conflicting ideas.”

A permanent exhibition occupies the ground floor gallery and is dispersed between a collection of rectilinear space dividers. A second gallery for special exhibitions sits directly above, but is instead sectioned off by undulating surfaces.

Recesses in these new volumes provide display areas for artworks, while a doorway in the first floor gallery leads through to a small seating area referred to as “the teahouse”.

A smaller exhibition room is also located on the first floor, while the floor above contains a meditation room, a study room and a staff kitchen and dining room.

Archi-Union is a Shanghai-based studio led by Philip F. Yuan. The studio previously created a similar concrete staircase in the Tea House library, which was one of our most popular stories of 2012. Another recent project is the Lan Xi Curtilage restaurant and members’ club in Chengdu.

See more recent architecture in China, including a new mixed-use complex by architect Steven Holl.

Photography is by Xia Zhi.

Here’s the full project description from Archi-Union:

Jade Museum by Archi-Union

Located in the high-density Xuhui District, in downtown Shanghai, Jade Museum is a renovation from an office building. For this project we were commissioned to convert the noncomplex office space into a multi-functional communication art museum on the premise of keeping the original building structure. Faced with the change in the use of the building, we first deconstruct the straightforward logic of the space and blur the functions’ interface. We implement the tools of digital design early in the conceptual phase, to help us rebuild the logic of space and translate the folding of the circulation flows into a folding of space itself.

Different layers of functions are organized around the main circulation space, facing the central courtyard. The simple single-layer mode was redefined with the introduction of a non-linear space. The simple vertical and horizontal circulation movements influence each other in the inserted space, the blur of the interface and boundaries make the space fold and integrated. The circulation flow adapts itself to this incision in the body of space. The antithesis between sloping and balance, continuity and boundary turns the simple coexistence of elements into a discussion of geometry. The complex logic of the staircase form breaks the traditional two dimensional layer relations, but it’s not an arbitrary treatment out of control: steps, door openings, handrails, beams and roof are distinguished components of the building structure that have a delicate and reasonable interconnecting relation. Every perceived line has its logical necessity; but the curving surface softens this logic, it gives the visitor a feeling between rationale and randomness, creates an exciting spatial feeling at the edge of conflicting ideas.

The folding of circulation lines and the twisted form of the inserted space create an entrance on the first floor, which faces the central courtyard. The permanent exhibition hall is located in front of the entrance. Via the stairs near the exhibition hall, one reaches the VIP exhibition space. The curving walls divide space into several micro spaces and also guide the visitors’ flow. The artworks are placed into the curving walls. Resting and communication space peer from behind these walls. In front of the VIP exhibition space is the teahouse, which is connected to the outdoors terrace.

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image and key

Digital fabrication, as a methodology, is implemented throughout the design and construction process. Non-linear form and geometrical decomposition lie in the core of fabrication. The abstract multi-dimensional surface generated by the computer is decomposed into workable and controllable CNC panels; their exact position controls the 3D assembly. The curving form is transferred into linear machine logic closely following the geometrical principles. The three-dimensional space that the traditional two-dimensional drawings cannot express is eloquently expressed through the fabrication logic. This combination of digital lofting and CNC fabrication reduced the construction budget and at the same time improved construction quality and speed without compromising the design integrity.

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image and key

In addition to geometry and fabrication, light, as a third key-element in design coordinates with the folding, irregular spatial module and the flowing exhibition hall design to enhance this multi-dimensional experience.

Above: second floor plan – click above for larger image and key

Project Name: Jade Museum
Location: Xuhui District, Shanghai
Area: approx 1000 sqm
Design/Completion: 2012/2013
Client: Jade Museum
Architect: Philip F. Yuan / Archi-Union Architects
Design Team: Alex Han, Fuzi He

Above: ground floor axonometric – click above for larger image

Above: first floor axonometric – click above for larger image

Above: staircase concept diagram and plans – click above for larger image

Above: staircase sections – click above for larger image

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by Archi-Union appeared first on Dezeen.

The Sonoran desert and foothills of the McDowell Mountains in Scottsdale inspired Frank Lloyd Wright to build Taliesin West as his personal winter home in 1937, and since that time the gorgeous topography has continued to draw people to the region. In the growing resort town known for galleries filled…

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