Hasta La Ideas

This image by German photographer Menno Aden offers a view down from the ceiling onto an empty pharmaceutical laboratory.

Menno Aden produced Lab as part of an ongoing project to document interiors from unconventional viewpoints. Previously he’s captured domestic interiors and public places, but this latest photograph focuses on the biological laboratory of a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland.

There are no people in the shot, but the cluttered desktops reveal some of the activities that take place inside the space.

“Through the steep top-view the deserted laboratory appears as a model,” said Aden. “As if the ceiling was removed, architectural structures and human traces of modern bio-laboratories become visible.”

To create a flattened bird’s-eye view, the photographer took over 1000 shots from different places on the laboratory ceiling, then collaged 600 of them together to remove perspective distortions.

It took two days to take all of the photographs, followed by three months of computer editing to create a single composite image.

Adden told Dezeen he believes this kind of image production provides a more accurate representation of reality than traditional photography.

“Interestingly photographs are still associated with ‘truth’ and ‘reality’, not only by consumers but also by many professional photographers who boast not to use Photoshop to distort authenticity,” he said.

“In my photographic work this situation is indeed exactly vice versa: only the digital image processing allows the representation of a reality,” he continued. “Like a radiograph, it sometimes requires special techniques to look ‘behind the curtain’ and come a bit closer to the truth.”

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by Menno Aden appeared first on Dezeen.

Crinkled polished metal wraps around this electrical testing facility in northern Spain by ACXT Architects (+ slideshow).

ACXT Architects designed the building for electricity firm Arteche to test dielectric transformers on an industrial estate north of Bilbao.

Specific conditions are needed to conduct the tests, such as inner dimensions of 57 metres long, 30 metres wide and 27 metres high.

A Faraday cage, an enclosure formed by conducting material, encompasses the testing hall that houses spheres of silver disks atop columns of various heights.

A two-storey block containing meeting and observation spaces sits to one side of the main volume.

These rooms have long windows into the large testing chamber so the experiments can be recorded.

The facades of the smaller block are patterned with vertical stripes, mimicking the pleated metal wall behind.

A couple of weeks ago we featured another laboratory in Spain that is hoisted up onto red metal stilts and we’ve also published a photography series documenting the architecture of science and research facilities.

More pleated buildings on Dezeen include a wedding centre in Japan with a zig-zagging facade and Zaha Hadid’s museum of contemporary art for Michigan State University.

See more laboratory design »
See more architecture and design in Spain »
See more pleated designs »

The following text was sent to us by the architects:

This building is a High Voltage Laboratory, for testing dielectric transformers up to 850 kV, which requires to be a diaphanous vessel of 57m long, 30m wide and 27m high (inner dimensions), surrounded completely by a Faraday cage needed for the extremely precise measurements performed inside.

The main hall can be divided into three main spaces, suitable for carrying out the Impulse and Resonant Tests, and SF6 equipment tests.

Annex to the main space, there is a technical block with views into the testing room, which features two control rooms/reception, a meeting room and space for presentations and meetings for up to 60 people.

The new Laboratory is intended as both a laboratory of the most advanced technology in the sector, a representation of the ARTECHE bet on innovation, reflected in a polished metal facade that vibrates and breaks along its perimeter, allowing integration in a volume so important in the environment that is characterised by buildings significantly lower than this building, which reaches 30 metres.

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by ACXT Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

News: the world’s first mobile research facility, designed by British firm Hugh Broughton Architects, has officially opened on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

Above: photography by Hugh Broughton Architects
Top: photograph by station chef Antony Dubber

The Halley VI Antarctic Research Station is designed to be relocated inland to avoid being stranded on an iceberg as the ice shelf drifts towards the sea. Huge tractors towed the modules on their ski-like feet over a prepared ice track to their current site.

Designed by Hugh Broughton Architects with AECOM and constructed by Galliford Try for the British Antarctic Survey, the £25.8 million station is built to withstand extreme winter weather and is raised on hydraulically elevated feet to stay above the many metres of expected snowfall.

Above: photograph by British Antarctic Survey

Seven interlinking blue modules comprise the laboratories, offices, energy plants and bedrooms, while a central two-storey red module provides a social space.

The station will be home to up to 52 crew members in summer and just 16 in the three winter months of total darkness, when temperatures drop as low as -56C.

Above: photograph by Hugh Broughton Architects

A trial assembly of the station took place in 2007 in Cape Town, South Africa, after which it was dismantled and shipped to Antarctica. The complexities of assembling the structure in such a harsh environment meant the station has only just become fully operational, in time for the arrival of its summer crew.

The new centre replaces the 20-year-old Halley V facility and is the sixth to be built on the Brunt Ice Shelf, a 100m-thick area of ice against the Weddell Sea. Data collected from an earlier Halley station led to the discovery of the ozone hole in 1985.

Above: photo by Sam Burrell

This is the first project in Antarctica we’ve featured on Dezeen, but we have reported on plans for an airport in the Arctic Circle and a hotel made of ice in northern Sweden.

Last year we featured Hugh Broughton Architects’ golden extension to a Tudor-style museum in Maidstone, England.

See all laboratories »

Here’s the press release from the architects:

World’s first re-locatable research centre officially opens in Antarctica

Hugh Broughton Architects

Halley VI Antarctic Research Station – the world’s first re-locatable research facility – officially opens today, signalling a new dawn for 21st Century polar research. Opening one hundred years after Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Antarctic expeditions, the new state-of-the-art research facility demonstrates the UK’s ambition to remain at the forefront of scientific endeavour.

Halley VI Antarctic Research Station is designed by Hugh Broughton Architects with AECOM and constructed by Galliford Try for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The project demonstrates an ability to create ground-breaking architecture characterised by a compelling concept, executed with fastidious attention to detail and exemplary levels of coordination. Pushing the boundaries of design in a life critical environment, it creates a beacon for sustainable living in the Polar Regions to draw attention to some of the most significant science conducted on our planet.

It is the product of an extraordinary and intense 8-year collaboration with BAS which began with an international competition-winning design for a modular facility. The challenge was to create excellent laboratory and living accommodation that was capable of withstanding extreme winter weather, of being raised sufficiently to stay above metres of annual snowfall, and of being relocated inland periodically to avoid being stranded on an iceberg as the floating ice shelf moves towards the sea.

The new research station, which replaces the 20-year old Halley V facility, is the sixth to be built on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf in a region that has established itself as an important natural laboratory for studying the Earth’s magnetic field and the near-space atmosphere. It was data from Halley that led to the 1985 BAS discovery of the ozone hole.

The £25.8 million station is built with an innovative concept featuring hydraulically elevated ski based modules, ensuring the station can be relocated inland periodically as the ice shelf flows towards the sea. The station combines seven interlinking blue modules used for bedrooms, laboratories, offices and energy plants, with a central two-storey red module featuring a double-height light filled social space. Interiors have been specially designed to support crew numbers ranging from 52 in summer to 16 during the three months of total darkness in winter when temperatures at the base drop as low as -56C.

Speaking at an event in London to celebrate the opening of the new station UK Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts says:

“The new Halley Research Station is a triumph of British design, innovation and engineering. The UK’s world-class polar science community now has a unique, cutting edge suite of laboratories on the ice. The legacy of Captain Scott, together with our strong track record of scientific discovery in Antarctica, is set to continue in this excellent new facility.”

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opens in Antarctica appeared first on Dezeen.

The angled columns of an earthquake-proof structure frame a series of window slits on the exterior of this Tokyo research laboratory by KINO Architects (+ slideshow).

Located in an industrial area beside Tokyo Bay, the building is used as a chemical research facility for a materials development brand and comprises a U-shaped block with a horizontal slice through its middle.

This slice offers clues about the internal arrangement of the building, which is based on the abstraction of a linear plan. KINO Architects planned a route through a reception, an auditorium, meeting rooms and laboratories, then stretched it through all three floors to create a loop from one ground floor entrance to another.

Offices and meeting rooms required the most privacy, so the architects located them on the middle floor where they can be separated if necessary.

Meanwhile, laboratories can be found on the ground and second floors and feature a modular grid of power inlets, drainage and water points, enabling a variety of different desk layouts.

The architects named the building Spiralab, as a reference to its looping interior layout. “The spiral shape responds to the three requests: research efficiency, high-security and comfort,” they explained. “Also, the spiral form becomes the key to the last request – symbolism. We think that true symbolism of architecture comes from the architecture itself; designed through logical thinking.”

The earthquake-proof structure is described as a cross between a rigid frame and a truss framework, with angled columns that can take both horizontal and vertical stresses. A curtain wall structure is constructed in front and clad with concrete panels to give the building its smooth grey facades.

Japanese studio KINO Architects have offices in both Tokyo and Shiga. Previous projects by the firm include a house with four attics and a concrete residence with views of a nearby castle. See more stories about KINO Architects on Dezeen.

Photography is by Hiroyuki Hirai and Daici Ano.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Spiralab

A “Spiral” fills the needs.

This building is a new chemical research laboratory for a world leading materials development corporation. It is on a large site in an industrial area near Tokyo bay.

We responded to the request for “research efficiency” by using flexible experimental rooms where researchers can adjust their research space according to their needs. To the requests for “high security” and “comfort” we responded with high-security, and high-comfort offices and break areas throughout the entire building. We responded to the request for “symbolism” with symbolic architecture that helps promote the company’s abilities to the world.

First, we horizontally aligned the main rooms: laboratories, an office, meeting rooms, an auditorium and a reception room along a common corridor and put the guest entrance and the researchers entrance at either end. By adopting a plan with a common corridor, the clients can freely select doorways and move partitions in the experimental rooms according to their needs. The security door is easily adjustable due to the linear shape of the plan and the separation of guest and researcher entrances.

Next, we transformed this linear plan in three-dimensions. The office and the meeting rooms need the highest confidentiality, so these were separated from the linear plan. The linear plan spirals around the office and meeting rooms. As a result the office and the meeting rooms are untouched by other rooms on every side, horizontally.

Vertically these rooms are in the centre of the spiral. Therefore the access to the experimental rooms on the upper and lower floors becomes easy. Additionally while these rooms have high-security the walls are transparent, giving a comfortable open-air atmosphere.

The break areas were made by widening the main corridor. As a result, researchers can take a break while changing rooms. In addition, the linear break areas spirals around the court yard. Therefore, this vertical plan allows the researchers to see the court yard from various points of view.

Architect: Masahiro Kinoshita / KINO architects
Location: Chiba, Japan
Principal use: research laboratory
Structure: steel

Scale of building: 3 stories
Site area: 600 ha
Building area: about 1300 sqm
Total floor area: about 3000 sqm

Above: site plan

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: second floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: cross section one

Above: cross section two

Above: long section

Above: plan concept

Above: earthquake-proof structure

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KINO Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish architects 3XN have transformed a warehouse at popular Copenhagen restaurant Noma into an experimental food laboratory filled with modular wooden furniture and star-shaped lighting.

Restrictions placed on the existing structure prevented the architects from affixing anything to the walls or floor of the building, so they instead designed four central storage cabinets to divide the room into a laboratory, a herb garden, a staff area and an office.

Each fabricated from over 500 stacked wooden cubes, the four digitally-designed cabinets take the form of circular towers with protruding arms and are illuminated from inside.

The herb garden-on-wheels was also constructed from a set of digitally-designed components, which all slot together like pieces of a jigsaw.

Architects 3XN received a great deal of press coverage last year, following the opening of their heavily criticised Museum of Liverpool – contribute to the debate here.

Photography is by Adam Mõrk.

Here are some more details from 3XN:

NOMA Lab: An Architectural Cookbook for the Nordic Cuisine

3XNs interior for NOMA Restaurant’s food lab unites the creative worlds of gastronomy and architecture in a modern expression of the Nordic aesthetic.

New Inspiration

As the number one ranked restaurant on theworlds50best.com for two years in a row, the expectations for creative innovation at NOMA are higher than ever before. Therein lay the need for an inspiring ‘experimentarium’ where chefs could continue to take their skills further in the evolution and development of Nordic cuisine. This commission was given to 3XN’s Innovation Unit, GXN, whose experimental design was an excellent match for NOMA’s innovative gastronomy.

We have been happy to work with GXN on the transformation of our former meeting rooms. The result is great and has contributed to not only the space, but also organizational life and inspiration,’ says Founder and Chef of NOMA, Rene Redzepi.

Head of GXN, Kasper Guldager Jørgensen refers to the project as an Architectural Cookbook and says of the collaboration, ‘We move in parallel worlds. NOMA’s dedicated and creative engagement in gastronomy is similar in many ways to GXN’s experimental take on new materials and ingredients in the architectural world.’

Nordic, Raw and Playful

The NOMA Lab is connected to NOMA situated in a former warehouse on the national registry of protected buildings. The tight restrictions meant that GXN was required to design the interior without using so much as one single nail in the walls or flooring. The approach was to design four central multi-functional storage units; each composed from over five hundred uniquely formed wooden cubes. Curving playfully throughout the space, these units divide the 200M2 room into smaller areas accommodating the Food Lab, the herb garden, staff areas and office. Raw and simple, through colours and forms, it captures a unique Nordic aesthetic. True to the restaurant’s philosophy, the NOMA Lab is developed exclusively using Nordic materials.

The organic forms of the furniture pieces stand out through use of integrated light features, which also give the interior a lighter feel. The additional lighting is provided by GXN’s specially developed STAR lamp, whose reflective light casts dramatic geometric shadows into the surroundings.

Three Dimensional Puzzle

The NOMA Lab has been an opportunity for GXN to experiment with digital design methods. ‘For the project, we developed a ‘living software’ which made it possible to send drawings direct to fabrication from the computer. It’s kind of similar to printing a text one has just typed – but instead we are printing furniture pieces,’ explains Kasper Guldager Jørgensen on the design method. In practice, it meant that the interior was delivered as a three dimensional puzzle of over 5000 pieces that were assembled without the help of any carpenters.

In addition to the ‘direct from computer to printer’ interior pieces, furniture manufacturers GUBI, CPH Square and Gaggenau have been major contributors to the NOMA Lab.

Management:
Architect: GXN (Innovation Unit of 3XN)
Project Director: Kasper Guldager Jørgensen, Head of GXN
Project team: Kim Herforth Nielsen, Kasper Guldager Jørgensen, André van Leth, Lila Held, Morten Norman Lund, Lars-Erik Eriksson, Pedram Seddighzadeh, Matthew Scarlett, Bjørk Christensen, Kyle Baumgardner, Elliot Mistur, Tore Banke, Simon McKenzie and Jacob HilmerProject:

Client: Restaurant NOMA
Project Type: Interior Design
Use: Experimental food laboratory, storage, office, personel lounge, meeting room, herb garden
Location: Strandgade 93, 1401 Copenhagen, Denmark
Completion: January 2012
Size: 200 m2
Materials: All done in Nordic wood, for example plywood
Price: Confidential

Click above for larger image

Suppliers and Production:
Kitchen: CPH Square. Contact person Thomas Seloy: Thomas@cphsquare.dk
Household appliances: Gaggenau. Contact person Anne Herskov: anne.herskov@bshg.com
Furniture: GUBI. Contact person Allan Torp: ato@gubi.com
Lighting: Normann Copenhagen (STAR Lamp by GXN). Contact person Johanne Toft: johanne@normann-copenhagen.com
Production: 1:1 Production. Contact person Frederik Agdrup: frederik@eentileen.dk