Hasta La Ideas

Designer Hella Jongerius and architect Rem Koolhaas have renovated the North Delegates’ Lounge at the United Nations buildings in New York (+ slideshow).

Working alongside a team of Dutch creatives that included graphic designer Irma Boom, artist Gabriel Lester and theorist Louise Schouwenberg, Jongerius and Koolhaas have reconfigured the layout and added new furniture to the lounge – one of the key spaces in the complex designed during the 1960s by a team of architects including Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.

Koolhaas’ OMA began by removing a mezzanine that had been added in 1978, opening up a view towards the East River. Hella Jongerius then added a bead curtain made from hand-knotted yarn and 30,000 porcelain beads.

Furniture is arranged so that one end of the lounge accommodates formal meetings and the other is more suited to coffee and drinks. Jongerius designed two new pieces for the space – the Sphere Table and the UN Lounge Chair – which are accompanied by original Knoll chairs.

A new bar is made from black resin, while the existing information desk is retained and repositioned alongside the original clock and signage.

Jongerius was responsible for the colour palette, adding an orange carpet alongside the purple, blue and green upholstery.

“The renovation and redesign of the lounge is a gift from the Netherlands to the UN,” said the designers.

Dezeen recently filmed a series of interviews with Jongerius discussing her latest projects and why she chose to relocate to Berlin. Watch the movies »

See more stories about Hella Jongerius »
See more stories about Rem Koolhaas »

Photography is by Frank Oudeman.

Here’s a project description from Jongeriuslab:

New interior for United Nations North Delegates’ Lounge (New York)

More than sixty years after the opening of the UN North Delegates’ Lounge, Hella Jongerius has redesigned the lounge in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas, Irma Boom, Gabriel Lester and Louise Schouwenberg.

Their aim was to create a space of both comfort and professional informality. The team carefully edited the history of the space, retaining some of the iconic Scandinavian designs and creating a new perspective on the works of art already on display. They removed the mezzanine that had blocked the view of the East River, restoring the open architectural space.

Jongerius designed two new pieces of furniture for the lounge: the Sphere Table and the UN Lounge Chair, produced by Vitra. For the East Facade Jongerius designed the Knots & Beads Curtain, with hand-knotted yarn and 30,000 porcelain beads made from Dutch clay by Royal Tichelaar Makkum. Jongerius was also responsible for revitalizing the colour palette, selecting the furniture and designing the cradle-to-cradle Grid Carpet.

The UN buildings in New York date from 1951, six years after the foundation of the UN. Referred to as ‘A Workshop for Peace’, the complex was designed by a team of architects including Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and Wallace K. Harrison. In 2009, the UN launched a large-scale renovation project, which is now nearly complete. At the request of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hella Jongerius formed a team to redesign the lounge and bring it into a new era. The renovation and redesign of the lounge is a gift from the Netherlands to the UN.

The lounge will be officially opened on September 25, 2013 by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frans Timmermans, in the presence of Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Year: 2013
Material: Various
Dimensions: Various
Commission: United Nations/ Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Category: Industrial production

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by Hella Jongerius and Rem Koolhaas appeared first on Dezeen.

News: architecture studios OMA and BIG are among the ten collaborative design teams selected for an initiative to revitalise parts of the USA devastated by Hurricane Sandy.

The Rebuild by Design competition was launched in June by US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Shaun Donovan and asked architects, landscape architects, engineers and urban designers to come up with proposals that would help revitalise communities affected by the hurricane that struck the east coast in October 2012.

Danish studio BIG and Dutch firm OMA were both named on the shortlist, alongside New York studio WXY Architecture, landscape architects West 8 and a design team from the University of Pennsylvania.

The ten teams will spend the next three months studying the region and building relationships with local stakeholders. Designs will be focused on four areas: coastal communities; high-density urban environments; ecological and waterbody networks; and the unknown and unexpected.

“The projects that come out of this competition will save lives and protect communities in this region and – as the Task Force will emphasise in the Rebuilding Strategy to be released in the coming weeks – serve as models as we prepare communities across the country for the impacts of a changing climate,” said Donovan, who also chairs the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force.

Implementation of the resulting designs will begin in March 2014, funded in part by community grants.

Top image of Hurricane Sandy devastation courtesy of Shutterstock.

Read on more for information and to see the full shortlist:

Ten design teams selected to proceed to stage two of Rebuild By Design competition

The Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force has announced the selection of ten Design Teams to proceed to Stage Two of REBUILD BY DESIGN, a multi-stage regional design competition that will develop innovative projects to protect and enhance Sandy-affected communities. U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, who also chairs the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, launched the competition on June 20, 2013 in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation.

Over 140 potential teams from more than 15 countries submitted proposals, representing the top engineering, architecture, design, landscape architecture and planning firms as well as research institutes and universities worldwide. Thanks to the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation and JPB Foundation, as well as the New Jersey Recovery Fund and the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, ten Design Teams will participate in an intense eight-month process broken into two distinct stages: analysis and design.

“The ten teams we selected stood out because of the talent they bring to the table, their pioneering ideas and their commitment to innovating with a purpose and competing not just to design but to build something,” said Secretary Donovan.

“The projects that come out of this competition will save lives and protect communities in this region and – as the Task Force will emphasise in the Rebuilding Strategy to be released in the coming weeks – serve as models as we prepare communities across the country for the impacts of a changing climate.”

“As cities around the world face increasing shocks and stresses, it is more critical than ever that we find ways to integrate resilient design into our urban future,” said Judith Rodin, President, The Rockefeller Foundation. “The Rebuild by Design competition is an innovative model, bringing together some of the greatest minds around the world to improve how our cities manage, cope with and bounce back stronger from disasters. I am confident that the ten extraordinary teams chosen will create innovative and replicable projects that will strengthen our cities and help them thrive in the face of climate change.”

“Hurricane Sandy brought to the fore difficult and challenging questions for the metropolitan area,” said Robert D. Yaro, President, Regional Plan Association. “The Rebuild by Design competition is an important and innovative process to bring design professionals and the affected communities together to deliver the best answers.”

David van der Leer, Executive Director of Van Alen Institute, said, “By bringing together local communities with world-class, interdisciplinary design teams, we aim to produce extraordinarily innovative projects that highlight next generation perspectives and trends that will catalyse regional approaches to resilience for the United States and beyond.”

Eric Klinenberg, Research Director for Rebuild by Design’s Research Stage and Director of NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, said, “Rebuild By Design is an unprecedented opportunity to think deeply about the great challenges for cities as the climate changes, and to act boldly, too. We look forward to learning from communities and working collaboratively with the Design Teams as we spend the next several months bringing positive action throughout the region.”

“MAS heralds the leadership of the Hurricane Sandy Task Force, and its philanthropy partners, in challenging the world’s best planners and designers to work with communities and develop innovative approaches ” said Vin Cipolla, President, Municipal Art Society of New York. “Our priority is to strengthen the capacity of local communities across the city and region to build their environmental, economic, social and cultural resilience. RBD brings tremendous resources and expertise into the city and region.”

The selection of the teams marks the beginning of the second of four phases of the design competition, which will ultimately result in resilience projects that will be built or implemented in communities in the Sandy-impacted region:

Stage Two: Analysis

Starting today, the Design Teams will begin a three-month research and analysis process, facilitated by New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge (IPK). IPK, known for bridging the gap between serious scholarship and practical action, will present the outcome of Stage Two in a detailed report cataloguing the Design Teams’ research reports and synthesizing their findings into one resource kit for local communities throughout the region.

Stage Three: Design

Building off the comprehensive analysis of the region’s vulnerabilities and existing initiatives developed during Stage Two, each Design Team will then work on one site-specific design proposal. Design Teams will partner with a local or state government entity to identify specific sites and projects that will improve the resilience of communities. During this stage, the Regional Plan Association, Municipal Art Society of New York and Van Alen Institute will collaboratively facilitate this design process for the teams to develop implementable solutions for the opportunities they identified in Stage Two.

Stage Four: Implementation

The projects that come out of this innovative process will be evaluated by the Rebuild by Design jury – made up of world-renowned experts in hazard mitigation, resilience, public health, landscape architecture, urbanism, real estate, design, and other fields – to ensure that winning projects are implementable and have the maximum impact on the region’s resilience.

Background on Design Teams:

1. Interboro Partners with the New Jersey Institute of Technology Infrastructure Planning Program; TU Delft; Project Projects; RFA Investments; IMG Rebel; Center for Urban Pedagogy; David Rusk; Apex; Deltares; Bosch Slabbers; H+N+S; and Palmbout Urban Landscapes.
2. PennDesign/OLIN with PennPraxis, Buro Happold, HR&A Advisors, and E-Design Dynamics
3. WXY architecture + urban design / West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture with ARCADIS Engineering and the Stevens Institute of Technology, Rutgers University; Maxine Griffith; Parsons the New School for Design; Duke University; BJH Advisors; and Mary Edna Fraser.
4. Office of Metropolitan Architecture with Royal Haskoning DHV; Balmori Associaties; R/GA; and HR&A Advisors.
5. HR&A Advisors with Cooper, Robertson, & Partners; Grimshaw; Langan Engineering; W Architecture; Hargreaves Associates; Alamo Architects; Urban Green Council; Ironstate Development; Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation; New City America.
6. SCAPE with Parsons Brinckerhoff; SeARC Ecological Consulting; Ocean and Coastal Consultants; The New York Harbor School; Phil Orton/Stevens Institute; Paul Greenberg; LOT-EK; and MTWTF.
7. MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism and the Dutch Delta Collective by ZUS; with De Urbanisten; Deltares; 75B; and Volker Infra Design.
8. Sasaki Associates with Rutgers University and ARUP.
9. Bjarke Ingels Group with One Architecture; Starr Whitehouse; James Lima Planning & Development; Green Shield Ecology; Buro Happold; AEA Consulting; and Project Projects.
10. Unabridged Architecture with Mississippi State University; Waggoner and Ball Architects; Gulf Coast Community Design; and the Center for Urban Pedagogy.

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Sandy-affected communities appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Dutch firm OMA has seen off competition from Danish studio BIG to land the high-profile commission to renovate Miami Beach Convention Center, home to the annual Art Basel/Miami and Design Miami trade fairs.

In a meeting held last night, Miami Beach City Commission named the winning development team as South Beach Ace, the group comprising OMA, property developers Tishman and UIA, local architect TVSdesign and landscape architects MVVA and Raymond Jungles.

OMA’s design will see a new 800-room hotel constructed over the roof of the existing convention centre, which itself will be expanded and reorganised by a 90-degree rotation that relocates the entrance on the south side of the site.

OMA’s Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu commented: “We are thrilled to be chosen to develop one of the most significant urban districts in the US. Our design will reintegrate Miami’s vital convention centre with the area’s existing neighbours, offering new connections as well as amplifying the character of this vibrant and exciting city.”

Reports claim that Miami Beach city manager Jimmy Morales had recommended BIG‘s Portman CMC team because it would be a cheaper and quicker construction, but that eventually OMA’s proposal was selected on a vote of five to two.

A public vote on the plans will take place in November, and if successful the renovated building could be open by 2018.

Here’s an animated fly-through of the winning design:

See more images of OMA’s proposal in our earlier story, or see the opposing design by BIG.

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Convention Center commission appeared first on Dezeen.

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.

Yesterday, Thomas Heatherwick unveiled a design for a pedestrian bridge housing a garden to span the River Thames in London.

OMA is up against Danish firm BIG in a competition to redevelop the site of a convention centre in Miami.

In a movie filmed in Milan as part of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour, journalist Justin McGuirk described OMA’s Tools for Life collection of furniture as a nostalgic statement about the decline of industry in the city.

See all stories about OMA »
See all stories about bridges »

Images copyright OMA unless otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from OMA:

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.”

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.

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.

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boulevard for Bordeaux appeared first on Dezeen.

News: work has begun on the OMA-designed headquarters of Denmark’s national centre for architecture in Copenhagen.

Scheduled for completion in early 2017, the 27,000-square-metre Bryghusprojektet is a mixed-use development on the site of an old brewery, which will include residential units, community spaces and a playground.

In the middle of the development will be the new offices for the Danish Architecture Centre, an organisation set up to spread knowledge about architecture and the built environment.

The centre will be surrounded by its own subjects of study and research, explains Ellen van Loon, who is OMA’s partner-in-charge on the project along with the firm’s co-founder Rem Koolhaas.

“Instead of stacking a mixed-use programme in a traditional way, we positioned the Danish Architecture Centre in the centre of the volume, surrounded by and embedded within its objects of study: housing, offices and parking,” said van Loon.

The centre will include exhibition areas, research facilities, conference rooms, an auditorium, a bookshop and a cafe.

OMA’s design for Bryghusprojektet, which is being funded by the philanthropic Realdania Foundation, was first revealed in 2006.

The Dutch firm is currently going head to head with Danish firm BIG in a competition to transform a convention centre in Miami, USA, while work is nearly complete on the OMA’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China – see all architecture by OMA.

Images are courtesy of OMA.

Here’s some more information from OMA:

The Bryghusgrunden Project is located on the harbor on the site of an old brewery, the Bryghusgrunden, one of the few remaining areas with the potential to link the city to the waterfront. The building itself will straddle the busy Christians Brygge ring road, creating new urban connections for pedestrians and cyclists between the waterfront and Denmark’s houses of government.

Construction begins today on the OMA-designed Bryghusprojektet in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 27,000 sq m mixed-use project will accommodate a new headquarters for the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC). The building will act as the missing link between the city centre, the historic waterfront and the culturally rich Slotsholmen district of Copenhagen.

OMA partner-in-charge Ellen van Loon explained: “Instead of stacking a mixed-use programme in a traditional way, we positioned the DAC in the centre of the volume, surrounded by and embedded within its objects of study: housing, offices and parking. The urban routes reach into the heart of the building and create a broad range of interactions between the different programme parts and the urban environment.”

Situated among landmarks in the history of Danish architecture, Bryghusprojektet shares with the indigenous modernism tenets of simplicity, monumentality and urbanity. The site is bound by a cluster of historic monuments, including the Christiansborg Palace and the Old Brewery, whilst sharing the riverside with many other bold, contemporary interventions.

To capitalise on the site’s potential, the building is an ‘urban motor’ to actively link the city and the waterfront. Providing a connection under the busy Christians Brygge, where entrances to the different program elements are strategically located, the site becomes both a destination and a connector at the hinge of the waterfront and the ‘entrance’ to the city.

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Bryghusprojektet in Copenhagen appeared first on Dezeen.