Hasta La Ideas

This gymnasium in Utrecht by Dutch studio NL Architects has no windows but features walls that swell outwards to let light in from above (+ slideshow).

The architects wanted to fill the hall with natural light but were worried that glass walls would create glare and that gymnasts might become too distracted by the views outside.

“This is perhaps the main dilemma for this type of facility,” NL Architects explained. “In order to be ‘livable’, daylight is required, but for serious training and competitions, windows will cause undesired effects.”

The architects were also worried that transparent glass would attract unwanted spectators for female gymnasts. “Windows at eye level are not a good idea,” they added.

Instead of glass, the exterior walls are made from corrugated steel and they sweep outwards at the top to allow for a line of skylights around the perimeter of the roof.

These skylights allow daylight to reflect onto the inside surfaces of the walls but prevent direct sunlight from disrupting activities.

Changing rooms, toilets and storage areas are grouped together along one side of the hall and spectator seating is positioned on a mezzanine above.

This year Amsterdam studio NL Architects also designed a cycle-hire shop in China with a velodrome on the roof – see more stories about NL Architects.

See more sports centre on Dezeen »

Photography is by Luuk Kramer.

Here’s some more text from NL Architects:

Gym Hall, Turnzaal Nieuw Welgelegen, Utrecht

Turnaccommodatie Nieuw Welgelegen (TNW) is a sports hall dedicated to Gymnastics. It will not be used for any other sports. Four clubs combine efforts in this new facility. TNW is the 3rd and probably last building in the redevelopment of the sports complex in the center of Utrecht called Nieuw Welgelegen.

The brief excluded the possibility of creating windows in the hall. This turns out to be the main dilemma for this type of facility: in order to be ‘livable’, daylight is required, but for serious training and competitions windows will cause undesired effects: too much contrast and too much distraction. Windows at eye level are not a good idea.

Furthermore the vulnerability that comes with glass is an issue. Especially in this particular area: not long ago the streets around here used to be paved with shattered glass from cars that had been broken in to. But the most surprising problem of windows is their transparency: the suspicion is that perverts might try to get a glimpse of the elastic girls inside. As a consequence gymnastics halls often tend to be gloomy.

The idea of TNW is to ‘peel off’ the skin at the top to bring daylight into the interior. By partly bending out the facade a gap comes into being between the roof edge and the walls: indirect light will reflect into the hall.

The carefully deformed envelope creates a mildly glowing gradient that lights up towards the top. A pleasant side-effect of bending out the facade is that the building becomes sculptural: an optimistic gesture comes into being.

A two story service block with dressing rooms, storage spaces, technical installations is placed along side the room in such a way that the facade remains ‘free’.

A light-filled double-high corridor provides access to the changing rooms. Two stairs at both ends of the corridor lead to the grand stand that is placed on top the dressing rooms. The draught lobby bends out, clearly demarcating the entrance.

The traditional material to clad large halls – corrugated steel plate – has been deployed in a blissful way: even the obvious corner profile could be avoided.

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by NL Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch designer Chris Kabel has wrapped this house and studio in Amsterdam with a facade of perforated hexagons that catches the light like a hanging sheet of fabric.

Kabel was approached by architecture studio Abbink X de Haas to create a building exterior that would relate to the history of the area, which is within the city’s red light district but is also associated with the textile industry. “This was the area where wool and cloth were dyed in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, in fact one of Rembrandt’s paintings depicts the people that worked here,” the designer told Dezeen.

After considering a series of laser-cut screens, Kabel instead decided to use sheets of aluminium with perforated sections.

“With these industrially produced aluminium plates you can punch out a shape, then afterwards you can still bend the perforations, so then it can either catch light or cast a shadow,” he said. “If they are bent upwards they reflect the light and bending downwards they become darker pixels.”

Above: photograph is by Luuk Kramer

Using this technique, the designer was able to replicate a pixellated image of a curtain by twisting over a million of the perforated hexagons using a custom-made tool.

“On the back of the panel there was either a mark or not a mark,” revealed Kabel. ”If there was a mark you had to bend it upwards and if not then you bent it downwards, so actually everything was completely predetermined.”

Above: photograph is by Luuk Kramer

Each aluminium sheet is also powder-coated to keep the facade white. ”It had to be white because in Amsterdam all of the houses from the canals were always painted white to get as much light as possible into the inner courts,” said Kabel.

The textured panels cover the entire wall and even form shutters over the windows and doors.

“We made a maquette a long time ago where we punched paper from two sides with needles. If you look now at the building it looks exactly the same as this punched paper. It really has an almost textile feeling to it,” he said.

Chris Kabel is a professor at the Design Academy Eindhoven and also at the Ecole Cantonale d’Art in Lausanne. See more projects by Kabel on Dezeen.

Other buildings we’ve featured with perforated metal facades include a set of decorative steel gates and a golden library.

See more projects with perforated metal facades »

Photography is by Jan Peter Föllmi IC4U, apart from where otherwise stated.

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Chris Kabel appeared first on Dezeen.

A loosely curving wall of timber shingles spirals around this visitor centre that Dutch studio Emma Architecten has constructed beside one of the coastal batteries of Amsterdam’s historic defence line (+ slideshow).

Fort Diemerdam is one of only two coastal fortifications along the Stelling of Amsterdam, which comprises a series of armed forts dating back to the late nineteenth century and is classified as a World Heritage Site.

Paviljoen Puur is constructed over the plot of the old soldier’s shelter and the new plan was derived from the footprint of the original building.

Architect Marten de Jong told Dezeen how the curves of the landscape inspired the undulating curves of the wooden walls, which angle in different directions so that in some places they face the ground and in others they point up towards the sky.

“We wanted anybody visiting the building to be puzzled about when it was built, and whether it is the future they’re looking at or the past,” said De Jong. “To do this, the building had to have little or no reference to architectural elements. A window or a door usually depicts a specific age of architectural thinking, which would make it easy to pinpoint the year of its creation. Instead, the building comes forth from the landscape.”

The glazed entrance is nestled back between the folds of the walls, while windows appear in slices that face the historic gun bays, as well as the next fort on Pampus Island.

Timber shingles were used for the exterior so that the building would comply with the historic Dutch law that required all buildings within the firing range of guns to be constructed from wood so that they can be shot when enemies hide behind them.

“I especially like how the wooden cladding will age over the years,” said De Jong. “Due to its curved shape it will change colour gradually, soft like nature, without sharp edges or hard lines.”

There are three floors inside the building, including two above ground and one below, which can also be used for private functions such as weddings or corporate events.

Photography is by John Lewis Marshall.

Here’s a project description from Emma Architecten:

Fort Diemerdam / Paviljoen Puur

Brief

Fort Diemerdam is part of the “Stelling of Amsterdam’. This historical defence line was recently put on the UNESCO world heritage list. This ignited a re-development plan for Fort Diemerdam to make it accessible to visitors, tourists and those interested.

The existing bunkers and fortress guardian house have been restored. The original plan of slopes and strongholds is restored and a nature conservation program has started. Emma architects has designed a new pavilion in which and from which puur produkties revives the fortress again with events, tours and catering.

Paviljoen Puur can be exclusively reserved for corporate and private events such as product presentations, meetings, corporate events and weddings. On Sunday and in the summer Paviljoen Puur is a place where everyone feels at home: young and old can enjoy indoor and outdoor atmospheric seasonal meals, tastings and a cultural program with theater and music.

Paviljoen Puur is located on the exact site of a former soldiers shelter. The footprint of this shelter was taken as the basis for the pavilion. Around its base a wooden wall curves up to protect the site and encompass the program. The design is inspired by the undulating forms of the slopes and the surrounding landscape. Openings in the sloping wall give views of the gun bays, a terrace and the direction of the island Pampus, the next fortress of defence line.

The stelling of Amsterdam, a UNESCO World heritage site

The coastal battery Fortress Diemerdam is part of the Stelling of Amsterdam, a former defence line around the capital, which was constructed between 1880 and 1914. The defence line consists of 46 forts and batteries, dikes and sluices at about 15 kilometres from Amsterdam, that by means of inundation would protect the lands of Amsterdam.

The Stelling of Amsterdam is protected in its entirety as a monument by the Province of Noord-Holland and the state. Since 1996, the Stelling of Amsterdam features on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Fort Diemerdam is particular within the Defence Line of Amsterdam, because it is one of only two coastal batteries.

Site plan – click above for larger image

Redevelopment

In 2006 Stadsherstel Amsterdam NV became the owner of Fort Diemerdam. They wanted to establish a cultural location in the fort. In such a location visitors get information about the fort, about the Defence Line of Amsterdam. Also, the grounds and buildings would be highly suitable for events such as open air theater, lectures and music.

Basement plan – click above for larger image

To this end, a plan was developed which entailed for the restoration of existing buildings, earthworks and the surrounding nature and the rebuilding of a former guard house. This plan was rejected by the advisory board, there would be no historicist building rebuilt, something new was needed for the fort to look again towards the future, instead of back into the past. Emma Architects from Amsterdam was commissioned a building that should give the fort a future alongside such a prominent past.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Architecture

Now, how to create something new in a place where it is fixed that the old is protected? Emma started looking for ways to simultaneously imagine the future and the past. To convey both an air of positive futurism, as well as a strong sense of the past. They found leads in the history of the fort and in the special landscape that surrounds her.

First floor plan – click above for larger image

In and around the fort site the kringenwet (‘law of circles’) applied. This required that all buildings within the firing range of the guns must be constructed out of wood. When the enemy would approach, all buildings were shot so they could no longer hide. A plinth of just 60 centimetres was allowed to be built from stone, all wooden houses would not last long in this wetland area.

Long section – click above for larger image

Emma brought the footprint of a former soldiers shelter, which emerged in an archaeological research, into the design. At the exact spot, the historical plan is pushed 60 cm into the ground, instead of above it. Visitors will sit slightly lowered, sheltered in the fortress grounds. A wooden wall curves up around this base plan to protect the site and encompass the required spatial program.

East elevation – click above for larger image

The wooden wall is draped along the features of the surrounding landscape. The Dutch engineers work of embankments, bastions and ramparts is characterized by the military precision of elevations, slopes and curves which could strategically hide troops and artillery from view. The wooden facade leans forward and backward, bends around the program and nestles the building deep in the stronghold. It plays with the landscape.

South elevation – click above for larger image

The openings in the wall and the terrace on the first floor offer visitors a focused view of the earthworks, the bunkers, the sky and let your gaze to the horizon. The differentiation of heights and openings creates a dynamic play looking and being looked at, of gradual and continuous disclosure.

West elevation – click above for larger image

Underneath the pavilion a large basement is built inside the major earthwork. This allowed the rear entrance to be realized outside the pavilion, towards the road. Thus the pavilion addresses the landscape on all sides. The technical installations are also integrated in the earthwork. The pavilion has been equipped with air heat pumps and the sewage discharges on a helofyte filter. The wooden facade is lined with 40,000 WRC natural shingles.

North elevation – click above for larger image

Due to the variable differences in orientation, the facade will naturally change colour as differently. Depending its inclination towards the sky or the earth, orientation on south or north, on prevailing wind direction or close to the trees; in time, the surrounding nature and the elements will define the appearance of the building.

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Emma Architecten appeared first on Dezeen.

Workspaces are gathered in islands of red, blue, orange or green throughout this office in Delft by Dutch interior architects i29.

Combiwerk Delft is a “social workplace” company that helps to reintegrate people with physical or mental difficulties into the workforce, so i29 tried to reflect this purpose in the design.

The designers found that the workers were very attached to their surroundings and routines, so they recruited another social workplace company to restore 250 different second-hand chairs so that each worker could choose their own.

Social involvement was the main theme, the designers explained. “We aimed for empowerment by creating a serious and distinguished interior,” they said. “Not a nondescript backwater building, but something sparkling, colourful and unique. We hope that this will contribute to a sense of pride in the users.”

The building’s grey exterior is continued through the walls, floors and ceilings of the interior and then broken up with islands of colour.

Each island has desks, chairs, shelves and cabinets in various tones of the same hue.

Other projects by i29 we’ve featured recently include a pop-up furniture shop where every item is painted grey and an advertising office where the walls, furniture and lights are covered in felt.

We’ve featured lots of other colourful workspaces, including an office for a Russian internet company with pixellated patterns on the walls and a Lego office that has a slide as well as stairs.

See all our stories about i29 »
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See all our stories about interiors »

Photography is by i29 except where stated.

Here’s some extra information from the designers:

Social 01

Combiwerk Delft is a Social Workplace (SW) company and offers custom work to people who, due to a physical, psychological or mental limitation, are not able to find a regular job. Besides these limitations, the possibilities and talents are especially looked at. A lot has changed and the emphasis lately has been shifted more to reintegration into the regular work force. The job centre (career square) has become much more important with respect to workplaces. Training is offered and tests are done in the kitchen of the company restaurant, the cleaning service and the office. Assembling, sorting and packing are done at the workplaces. Green and environmental services are also an important branch of the social workplace.

The ambitious attitude of the company is striking. There is a strong, positive culture. The new construction was intended to clearly reflect this. Despite the limited resources and a clear wish for a sober approach, the building and decoration had to radiate quality. It had to convey attention and involvement, in order to stimulate a sense of pride in its users. An environment that supports that valuable work is being done here, with special people.

Secret garden

The building was designed by VMX Architects and has a total surface area of 8500 square metres. For the interior, which includes 4000 square metres of office space, a company restaurant, the career square, entrance ways and a lobby, i29 interior architects was consulted. The central space is a large atrium where the restaurant, the career square and the reception are situated. The building itself is a completely closed, grey monolithic shape. The same grey can also be found in the walls, floors and ceilings of the interior. When you come in, you are surprised by colourful islands, which are placed freely in the space and which only show themselves after you enter the premises. In an almost fairytale-like way, the building contains a secret garden full of colour and vitality, which is, of course, a wonderful reference to the contrast between external appearances and inner richness.

Colourful islands

People are often pigeon-holed or end up that way unintentionally. Such a ‘box’ is only a part of the story and often there are many nuances. This was the foundation for the design theme to i29. Everyone at Combiwerk is unique and special, nuanced and varied. We have translated this theme into the interior in an abstract way. The custom-designed furniture contains many ‘boxes’ where every user (so to speak) can tell his own story. In various colour nuances and variation possibilities, together with the carpets, they form colourful islands in an otherwise grey world. Most the users have a psychological or mental limitation, to a smaller or larger degree, and are therefore often very attached to their surroundings and routines (this was shown in interviews we conducted). We were going to create a completely new environment for people who generally are not fond of change. That is why an important point of departure in the design was that, in tandem with all the new things, old and authentic elements also had to return. This led us to the collection of over 250 different second-hand wooden chairs that were restored and re-used. Not only can everyone pick their favourite chair, they are also a nice analogy for the variety of the unique people occupying the space.

Above: photograph is by Ronald Tilleman

Social involvement

A social workplace must be social; that was the starting point for all the parties involved. Social involvement was therefore the main theme in the design and realisation on various levels. At the level of the design, we aimed for empowerment by creating a serious and distinguished interior. Not a nondescript backwater building, but something sparkling, colourful and unique. We hope that this will contribute to a sense of pride in the users. In terms of sustainability, where possible, we aimed for recycling and re-use. All the wooden chairs in the atrium were bought second-hand and restored by another SW-company, just like all the furniture for the 4000 m2 office space, including desks, chairs, cabinets and filing drawers. A new colourful top layer was applied to the re-used furniture so that they are as good as new and also fit beautifully into the colour spectrum in combination with the carpets.

Client: Combiwerk Delft
Size: 8500 m2
Interior architect: i29 l interior architects
Architect: VMX Architects

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by i29 appeared first on Dezeen.

Visitors to this temporary theatre in the Netherlands designed by TAAT perform their own play by reading from wooden cubes based on Buddhist prayer wheels.

Named Khor I, the wooden pavilion is constructed from slim timber batons arranged vertically to form overlapping pyramid shapes which vary on each side.

The structure was inspired by a walk through a bamboo forest, explained architect Breg Horemans. “The vertical wooden elements define the space without closing it off. This creates an intimacy that opens itself to the public and embraces the public at the same time,” he said.

The theatre is designed for a play that can be performed without any guidance. Visitors are invited to read the script from the rotating cubes as they circulate, echoing the way Buddhist worshippers spin wooden prayer wheels as they move around a temple.

The pavilion was designed for Floriade, the World Horticultural Expo in Venlo. TAAT, which stands for Theatre as Architecture, Architecture as Theatre, is a newly founded company comprising Horemans and theatre practitioner Gert-Jan Stam.

We’ve featured a number of temporary theatres recently, including a tiny mobile performance space topped with red coal scuttles and a venue made from sheets of pond liner and scaffolding.

See all stories about pavilions »
See all stories about theatres »

Photographs are by Sina Maleki.

Here’s some more information about the theatre:

Khor I by TAAT – a do-it-yourself theatre pavilion exhibited at Floriade, World Horticultural Expo 2012, Venlo, The Netherlands.

In Khor I, the specific challenge is to perform a play without any guidance or introduction. The dramatic situation is simply available and can be ‘filled-in’ and approached freely. Four people read the script out loud every time, without any support or supervision.”

The installation is about movement and meditation. The script, written by Gert-Jan Stam, is incorporated in an installation based on the mechanism of Buddhist “prayer wheels”. In order to read the text, the participants move from one wheel to the next thus performing a slow circle dance around the installation. The experience bears a mantra-like quality: the participants immerse themselves in the performance, momentarily losing any sense of time and space.

Khor I could be considered a theatre-installation. With its monumental quality, it represents a common ground between theatre, architecture and the visual arts. The pavilion, designed by Breg Horemans, is as much an essential part of the installation as is the script. It provides a setting for the play that is both intimate and in touch with the surroundings. Architectural elements are used to introduce the visitors to the play they are about to perform.

The project was initiated by Huis van Bourgondïe in Maastricht, The Netherlands. TAAT (Theatre as Architecture, Architecture as Theatre) was founded in 2012 to support, develop and facilitate the concept and construction of HALL33, KHOR II, ATAT and other theatre-as-architecture/architecture-as-theatre productions.

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by TAAT appeared first on Dezeen.