Hasta La Ideas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photography is by Luke Hayes.

Here’s a statement from the architects:

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery, Zaha Hadid Architects

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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photographed by Luke Hayes appeared first on Dezeen.

News: the number of people riding the Wilkinson Eyre-designed Emirates Air Line has dropped by half since last year, fuelling criticism that the project is not fulfilling its intended role as a key part of London’s transportation infrastructure.

According to Transport for London, passenger numbers on the Emirates Air Line for the week ending 21 September 2013 were 25,046, compared with 47,604 for the week ending 22 September 2012.

The figures are the first to give an accurate indication of the cable car’s popularity one year on from its launch, discounting the inflated numbers that resulted from last summer’s London Olympics when weekly passengers reached over 180,000.

The cable car, which links the O2 arena at Greenwich Peninsula with the ExCeL centre at the Royal Docks, was described before its launch in June 2010 as “a unique and exciting new addition to London’s transport network,” by Transport for London commissioner Sir Peter Hendy.

However, the ridership statistics suggest that it has not been embraced by commuters and remains well short of its capacity to transport 2,500 people an hour in each direction. Critics of the £60 million project have pointed out that the cable car’s current route can be made using London Underground’s Jubilee line in two minutes for half the price.

Sir Peter Hendy has admitted he is unhappy with the numbers, pointing out that “passenger journeys for periods 3, 4 and 5 were 4 per cent down against budget.”

Commenting on the possible future of the cable car, leader of the Liberal Democrats at the London Assembly Caroline Pidgeon said: “If the cable car is to have any success in the long term it should either be run and operated as a privately run tourist attraction, or instead operated as an integral form of public transport, where people with a travelcard or a relevant pass can use it for free.”

Measures are being taken to address the poor ridership, including selling advance tickets online and partnering with the O2 arena to offer combination tickets that include different attractions.

Other projects by Wilkinson Eyre Architects on Dezeen include an elliptical timber-clad museum for a Tudor warship on England’s south coast, and last year’s World Building of the Year – Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. See more Wilkinson Eyre Architects »

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numbers fall by half appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in our next movie from the UK capital, senior curator at the V&A Kieran Long explains why the London museum has controversially acquired the world’s first 3D-printed gun.

As revealed first by Dezeen, earlier this month the V&A acquired two prototype 3D-printed guns developed and successfully fired by Texan law student Cody Wilson, displaying a copy of one of them during London Design Festival.

“I’m really passionate about this acquisition,” says Long, who is senior curator of contemporary architecture, design and digital at the V&A and was heavily involved in acquiring the gun.

“It has caused a lot of fuss in the press, that the V&A would acquire something like this. But what I’ve been pleased about is that most people have seen it not as something deliberately shocking but as a really good signpost to where manufacturing might be going and the implications of new technology.”

Long is also one of Dezeen’s new Opinion columnists and his first piece for us set out his guidelines for modern museum curation, where he asserted that “ugly and sinister objects demand the museum’s attention just as much as beautiful and beneficial ones do.”

The original prototypes did not arrive at the museum in time for London Design Festival, so the museum printed out a copy in London based on Wilson’s blueprints.

“We have guns in the collection; we have all the relevant licences to import firearms,” Long explains. “The only problem we have is getting an export licence. We’ve had the Department for Culture and Media here involved, we’ve had all of our technical services people involved. It’s been an immense bureaucratic effort.”

Wilson, a self-proclaimed anarchist, made the blueprints for the weapon available online through his Defence Distributed website, before the US government ordered them to be taken down. Long says that the politics of Wilson’s gun is what gets him excited.

“Something that I’m really passionate about at the V&A is to show the political backgrounds of things, even when they might not be palatable,” he says.

“I don’t believe everyone should be carrying guns and that’s not what we’re advocating here. What we are saying is this is possible and we might have to do something about it if we don’t want these things to happen.”

He continues: “The design of the gun and its distribution online is an act of politics as much as an act of design and that’s when I get really excited because I think design is something that can tell us about the world.”

Long believes the weapon has also turned the conversation about the future implications of 3D printing on its head.

“There’s been a lot of technocratic optimism around 3D printing, particularly in the design world,” he says.

“But when Cody Wilson released [the digital files for his 3D-printed gun online] it really transformed that conversation. It changed it into ethical issues around how we want to live together, how new technologies affect our relationships with one another. This gun, just sitting there, is pregnant with all of those questions.”

He continues: “Design for me is the thing that really focusses those questions. And when you see this thing for real you think: ‘All these things, can they go together and kill someone?’ The answer, simply, is yes.”

We drove to the V&A in our MINI Cooper S Paceman. The music featured in the movie is a track called Temple by London band Dead Red Sun.

See all our stories about 3D printing »
See all our Dezeen and MINI World Tour movies »
See all our stories about London Design Festival 2013 »

The post “Can these parts go together and
kill someone? The answer is yes.” appeared first on Dezeen.

Studio Webb has added a zinc-clad roof extension to a private school in south London, which sets off against the building’s existing brickwork (+ slideshow).

London-based Studio Webb added the red-zinc extension over the roof of the Victorian primary school in Battersea, creating two extra classrooms on a new second floor.

The 14-week project saw the steel-framed structure placed on top of the existing building, which Studio Webb director Rik Webb said was “the school’s only viable opportunity left on the site”.

The firm chose materials that would fit in with different kinds of brickwork. “Within close context to a conservation area and neighbouring red brick and copper church, a sensitive design approach and appropriate choice of materials was critical,” said Webb.

The architects continued the corbeled parapet detailing of the brick structure then added the new gabled structure above to create a generous space featuring numerous skylights.

Two light-filled classrooms are separated by a long corridor with a bathroom and storage room at one end. A triangular corner window offers views towards the cathedral next door and out over the city rooftops beyond.

Other school extensions we’ve featured include a gabled extension to a nineteenth-century boarding school in Brighton, a new facade inspired by post war system-built schools, also in London and a stark concrete extension to a secondary school in Lisbon.

See more extensions »
See more stories about schools »

Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Battersea School

Approached by a private school client, and inheriting a previous scheme, Studio Webb were appointed to undertake an appraisal period which enabled the design development of a second floor classroom extension in Battersea.

With a fast track programme and comprehensive consultant team a lightweight steel structure with external zinc cladding with was produced.

Within close context to a conservation area and neighbouring red brick / copper church, a sensitive design approach and appropriate choice of materials was critical.

A simple gable form extends above the existing brick Victorian school block below. An expanse of structural glazing to the corners brings an abundance of natural light to the teaching spaces, and provides a practical internal layout.

Vertical red zinc cladding was chosen to respond sympathetically to the adjacent church detail. The uniform surface of the material looks to offer a clean monolithic separation from the existing.

Project Type : Private school extension
Location : Battersea, London, UK
Tender date : 06.04.2013
Start date on site : 11.05.2013

Contract duration : 14 weeks
Gross internal floor area : 93m2
Contract / Procurment : JCT MWD 2001 / Traditional
Construction Cost : £234,000.00 exc. vat

Client : l’ecole de battersea
Architect : Studio Webb Architects Ltd
Structural engineer : lyons o’neill
Quanity surveyor : measur
Contractor : rem projects (interiors) ltd
Building control / CDM : Head Projects Building Control Ltd

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by Studio Webb appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: architect Alex de Rijke of dRMM talks to Dezeen about his practice’s Escher-inspired installation of staircases in this movie filmed outside Tate Modern in London. 

The Endless Stair installation, constructed on the bank of the River Thames as part of this years London Design Festival, comprises 15 interlocking staircases demonstrating a new cross-laminated timber material.

“Endless Stair is a prototype,” explains de Rijke, who is co-founder of architects de Rijke Marsh Morgan and dean of architecture at the Royal College of Art. “It’s a research project into making a new material, or a new version of a material, namely a hard wood version of laminated timber, which is generally soft wood.”

dRMM chose to create an installation of stairs to demonstrate the material because of the sculptural quality of staircases, de Rijke says.

“Stairs are one of the nicest things about architecture,” he explains. “Somebody once said sculpture’s gift to architecture is the staircase.”

He continues: “My team were interested in Escher’s endless stair as a conceptual conceit. We thought we would make a very simple version of Escher’s sophisticated ideas.”

To recreate one of Escher’s drawings in 3D would be impossible, and de Rijke admits that the installation is not literally endless.

“Endless Stair is obviously a real staircase with a real end,” he says. “The idea of Endless Stair is that it can be endlessly reconfigured; it’s something that can be recycled and reused. There are 15 flights in this example, and they can be reconfigured with more or less in many different contexts.”

De Rijke says that the sculpture is meant to be fun, but forms part of a serious research project.

“All useful architecture has its origins in some kind of experiment,” he says. “We wanted to make a new material and we wanted to apply it and we did so with a kind of sculpture, but actually there’s a serious intent behind it, which is the application at the scale of buildings and larger structures.”

We drove to Tate Modern in our MINI Cooper S Paceman. The music featured in the movie is a track called Temple by London band Dead Red Sun.

See all our Dezeen and MINI World Tour movies »
See all our stories about London Design Festival 2013 »
See Dezeen’s map and guide to London Design Festival 2013 »

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is the staircase” – Alex de Rijke appeared first on Dezeen.