Hasta La Ideas

Our second project this week from South Korean studio Mass Studies is a series of cafe and exhibition pavilions scattered across the rocky grounds of a museum at the Seogwang Dawon tea plantation on Jeju Island (+ slideshow).

Mass Studies designed the trio of new buildings for the O’Sulloc Tea Museum, an exhibition centre dedicated to the history of Korea’s traditional tea culture, and dotted them along a pathway winding between the main building and the surrounding green tea fields.

Unlike the circular form of the museum, the three pavilions were all designed as rectilinear volumes with similar sizes and proportions. Two are positioned on either side of a gotjawal – the Korean term for woodland on rocky ground – so that they face one another through the trees.

The first pavilion, named Tea Stone, is a two-storey concrete building that accommodates new exhibition spaces and a classroom where visitors can watch and participate in tea ceremonies.

Positioned close to the existing museum, the building has a polished dark concrete exterior that the architects compare to “a black ink-stone”.

“The glossy black surface of the building reflects the surrounding environment, that is, the gotjawal forest and the sky, making it possible to exist and give a sense of heaviness and lightness simultaneously,” they said.

Large expanses of glazing create floor-to-ceiling windows at both ends of the building, meaning anyone within the tea classroom can look out onto a still pool of water.

A shop and cafe building is the next structure revealed to visitors as they make their way across the grounds. Named Innisfree, the structure is glazed on all four sides to create views through to the tea fields beyond.

“Initially planned as a ‘forest gallery,’ the space was opened to the forest as much as possible, and designing all four walls with glass allows one to enjoy the scenic surroundings from any given spot,” said the architects.

Timber panels clad the upper sections of the walls, but were left unmilled on one side to give a rough texture to the pavilion’s facade.

Wooden ceiling rafters are exposed inside both Innisfree and Tea Stone, and help to support the saw-toothed roofs of the two buildings.

The last of the three pavilions is an annex containing staff areas, storage facilities and toilets. The walls of this building are made from stone, allowing it to camouflage against its surroundings.

Photography is by Yong-Kwan Kim.

Here’s a project description from Mass Studies:

Osulloc

Context

The scenic landscape of Seogwang Dawon, its main attraction being the tea farm, is located in Jeju Island, at a mid-mountain level, in a gotjawal (traditionally, Jeju locals call any forest on rocky ground “gotjawal”, but according to the Jeju Dialect Dictionary, “gotjawal” refers to an unmanned and unapproachable forest mixed with trees and bushes). The Osulloc Tea Museum, Tea Stone, Innisfree, and the Innisfree Annex are located at the northwestern side of the Seogwang Dawon tea fields, with the gotjawal to the north, and facing the green tea fields to the south.

The area is currently in the middle of a large scale development, where to the southeast the Shinhwa Historic Park is being developed, and to the southwest, the English Education City. The Aerospace Museum is immediately adjacent to the site to the northwest, and because of such surrounding developments, the road at the front of the site has been expanded into the 30m wide, Shinhwa Historic Road.

As for the walking tour course, the Jeju Olle-gil 14-1 course and the Jeoji-Mureung Olle approach the site from the green tea field on the other side of the road and leads to the northwestern side of the Osulloc Tea Museum, after passing through the front of Innisfree, across Tea Stone, and arrives at the 8km long ‘Path of Karma (Inyeoneui-gil)’, which starts from the Chusa-gwan (Hall) of Daejeong-Eub among ‘Chusa Exile Path (Yubae-Gil)’, and arrives at the Osulloc Tea Museum.

Tea Stone

Tea Stone, planned to accommodate additional functions, is immediately adjacent to the Osulloc Tea Museum, and is a simple box, extending 20.3 x 11m on the slope of a hill.

The main structure of this building, which connects to the Chusa Exile Path, a Jeju Olle trail, resembling a black ink-stone, is a polished black concrete mass. The glossy black surface of the building reflects the surrounding environment, that is, the gotjawal forest and the sky, making it possible to exist and give a sense of heaviness and lightness simultaneously.

From the rear exit of the Tea Museum, a 1m wide basalt path crosses a dry creek and connects to the basement level of the Tea Stone, into a dark space, where one can experience and learn about fermented teas. A narrow staircase leads up into a triangular space, the Chusa Exhibition Gallery, on the first floor. The Chusa Exhibition space acts as the front room of the tea classroom. It faces the Tea Museum to the west, and has a dark glass exterior façade, making visible the landscape outside, yet able to contain the soft interior lighting.

As one passes through this space and enters the tea classroom, where workshops and lectures take place, the preserved gotjawal forest is revealed through the glass facade. From the tea class space, the concrete walls of the Chusa Exhibition space act as pillars that support 10m long cantilevered concrete beams that form and shape the perimeter of the roof structure. Wooden rafters sit in a single direction within the structure of the concrete roof support, and makes up a saw-tooth type ceiling on the entire roof. This wooden ceiling provides a warm environment, and at the same time, allows for a soft reflection of natural light. The structure, without other support, allows for the tea classroom to have three glass sides, and it maximises the feeling of openness as continued out to the gotjawal forest. The fireplace to the north also adds warmness to the space.

Two sides of the tea classroom, the north and south, used a dark glass, and a clear transparent glass for the east window toward the Innisfree building located across the gotjawal. With a 42m wide gotjawal in between, the two buildings face each other, creating a silent tension and as well as directionality to ones gaze.

A shallow, polished black concrete pool sits adjacent to the glass window, reflecting the building and the forest, heightening an aura of tranquil stillness for the tea classroom.

Innisfree

Innisfree is located on the highest point of the hill, and is a rectangular building, with the same width as that of the Tea Stone. The two building face each other in axis with the gotjawal in-between.

Initially planned as a ‘forest gallery,’ the space was opened to the forest as much as possible, and in designing all four walls with glass allows one to enjoy the scenic surroundings from any given spot. The materials used for the interior finishes come from the surround natural environment, such as wood and basalt, so that the 34.8 x 11m store and café space functions as one with nature.

A wall made out of cut stone, flush flat on one side, sits at the entrance. Through the glass doors, one enters the Innisfree shop, and to the right is the café, and through the transparent, frameless glass window, one can take in a panorama of the landscape of the surrounding tea fields to the east.

A 3.5m wide deck along the front of the café, as well as the folding doors between the café and deck makes it possible to have all sides ‘open’, making it possible to eat, drink, and relax in nature.

A 6.3 x 5.3m basalt stone volume attached to the north side of the building includes a preparation room on the first floor, and stairs that lead down to the underground kitchen and mechanical rooms, etc., all to supplement the main café space.

Similar to the Tea Stone, the wooden rafters, in a saw-tooth type ceiling throughout the entire roof of Innisfree provides a warm atmosphere and soft natural light.

Along the upper portion of the southern façade is an awning made out of roughly cut shingles, blocking direct sunlight. The north, east, and west sides are finished with milled shingles. All four shingled surfaces will weather together, naturally, as time passes.

Innisfree Annex

The Annex Building holds facilities such as a warehouse and a bakery, etc. and was designed to be seen not as a building, but rather the backdrop to Innisfree. The exterior wall facing the green tea fields utilises a stone fence, a material that that comes from the existing land, and is to be seen as a continuation of an element of the surrounding landscape (Jeju Island is known for the scenic stone fences that mark property, paths, and undulate with its natural terrain).

The land is raised about 1.5m to reduce the 3.5m high stone fence (exterior wall) to mimic the natural topography. Three courtyard gardens are placed inside and outside of the Annex Building, and by planting tall trees, it minimises the presence of the building when viewed from outside. The end of the building closest to Innisfree is the public bathroom, and from there, in sequence are the bakery, the employees’ dining hall, and the warehouse. To the rear of the stone fence, which sits symmetrically to the external wall of the bathroom, is the access and loading space for service vehicles.

Osulloc Extension

Providing more seating in the café, the extension was designed to minimise changes to the existing form and space, with a 3m-wide addition, following the curvature of the café space toward the north.

The interior extension utilises the existing curved windows, with the new exterior curve offset at a 3m distance, and was designed so that the extension is in harmony with the language of the existing building. Following this café extension, the length of the kitchen was expanded in the same direction, while the added cafe space is separate from the main circulation to allow for a space more quiet and calm. The new extension is faced with folding doors, and the entire space achieves a continuous flow to the landscape to the north, in fact becoming part of the outdoor space.

Osulloc: Tea Stone, Innisfree, Innisfree Annex
Design Period: 2011.06 – 2012.04
Construction Period: 2012.04-2012.12
Type: Commercial, Cultural
Location: Jeju, Korea

Architects: Mass Studies
Structural Engineer: TEO Structure
MEP Engineer: HANA Consulting & Engineers
Facade Consultant: FRONT Inc.
Lighting Engineer: Newlite
Landscape design: Seo Ahn Landscaping
Construction: Daerim Construction
Client: Amore Pacific

The post Mass Studies adds three pavilions
to Korean tea museum appeared first on Dezeen.

American studio Emerging Objects 3D-printed this pavilion using salt harvested from San Francisco Bay (+ slideshow).

“The structure is an experiment in 3D printing using locally harvested salt from the San Francisco Bay to produce a large-scale, lightweight, additive manufactured structures,” said Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello of additive manufacturing startup Emerging Objects.

They explained that 500,000 tonnes of sea salt are harvested each year in the San Francisco Bay Area using power from the sun and wind. “The salt is harvested from 109-year-old salt crystallisation ponds in Redwood City,” they said. “These ponds are the final stop in a five-year salt-making process that involves moving bay water through a series of evaporation ponds. In these ponds the highly saline water completes evaporation, leaving 8-12 inches of solid crystallised salt that is then harvested for industrial use.”

In addition to being a renewable resource, the salt is inexpensive compared to commercially available printing materials and creates strong lightweight components.

They claim that their pavilion is the first to be printed from salt but draws on traditional techniques for building with the material. “No one has ever 3D-printed a building out of salt,” Rael told Dezeen. “However, there is a long tradition of architecture constructed of salt blocks, particularly in the Middle East and in desert environments.”

The 336 unique translucent panels of the Saltygloo structure were made in a powder-based 3D printing process where a layer of salt is applied then fixed in place selectively with a binding agent, before the next layer of salt is deposited and the process is repeated.

The panels were then connected together to form a rigid shell, further supported with lightweight aluminium rods flexed in tension.

“Each panel recalls the crystalline form of salt and is randomly rotated and aggregated to create a larger structure where all tiles in the structure are unique,” explained the designers.

“The form of the Saltygloo is drawn from the forms found in the Inuit igloos, but also the shapes and forms of tools and equipment found in the ancient process of boiling brine,” they added. “The translucent qualities of the material, a product of the fabrication process and the natural properties of salt, allow for natural light to permeate the space, highlight the assembly and structure, and reveal the unique qualities of one of humankind’s most essential minerals.”

Rael and San Fratello are professors of architecture and design at the University of California Berkeley and San Jose State University. They founded Emerging Objects six months to focus on printing architecture from a diverse set of materials, largely renewable or sources from industrial waste, including some they have developed themselves.

Besides salt, they are also working in 3D-printed wood, cement and paper, adapting old models of 3D-printers to suit their materials and processes. “Emerging Objects is interested in the creation of 3D printed architecture, building components and furnishings that can be seen as sustainable, inexpensive, stronger, smarter, recyclable, customisable and perhaps even reparable to the environment,” they explain.

The Saltygloo pavilion follows a piece of furniture printed in the same way and the firm is now gearing up to produce a large-scale architectural room. “We see possibilities to create building enclosures and building cladding systems, as well as free standing walls using the salt material,” Rael told us.

The project is on display at the Museum of Craft Design as part of an exhibition called New West Coast Design 2 until 5 January 2014.

Design team: Ronald Rael, Virginia San Fratello, Seong Koo Lee.
Fabrication team: Ronald Rael, Seong Koo Lee, Eleftheria Stavridi
Material development: Ronald Rael, Mark Kelly, Kent Wilson
Special thanks: Professor Mark Ganter, Solheim Lab, University of Washington, Ehren Tool, Department of Art Practice, University of California Berkeley, Department of Architecture, University of California Berkeley, Department of Design, San Jose State University, Kwang Min Ryu and Chaewoo Rhee.

The post Pavilion made of 3D-printed salt
by Emerging Objects appeared first on Dezeen.

News: robotic tractors will create patterns across a field of crops on the roof of this pavilion that Italian architect Carlo Ratti has designed for the World Expo 2015 in Milan.

Working alongside engineering firm RecchiEngineering, Carlo Ratti Associati has designed the pavilion for agricultural brand New Holland, which plans to present an exhibition dedicated to sustainable farming at the international exhibition opening next spring.

Two self-driving tractors will be positioned on the gently sloping roof of the building, intended to demonstrate the growing role that robotics plays in agriculture.

“The idea of Earth Screening is not just about self-driving tractors that can draw patterns on the roof of the building,” said Ratti. “It is about how we can sense and respond to the conditions of the soil to a degree that was impossible before. This points to a future where an agricultural field could be considered as a giant base for ‘agricultural printing’, with major advantages foreseen in terms of plant biodiversity and resource preservation.”

Responding to the exhibition theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, the zero-emissions tractors will be powered entirely by electricity generated onsite.

“In the same way as self-driving cars are expected to revolutionise urban mobility, advanced robotic technologies are reshaping agriculture, with a new wave of innovations helping us to better respond to local terrain conditions,” added the architect.

The interior spaces of the pavilion will present an exhibition of other agricultural equipment using large digital displays.

“While the roof uses real moving tractors, inside the pavilion we tried to reproduce the working conditions of other key pieces of agricultural equipment – from tractors to combine harvesters – in a physical and digital way,” said Walter Nicolino, an architect at Carlo Ratti Associati.

The pavilion will remain in place for the duration of the expo, which takes place between May and October, before being dismantled and reconstructed in a new location.

The post Robot tractors to farm crops on sloping roof
of Milan expo pavilion appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Dutch architects Mecanoo have won a competition to design a garden and an underground pavilion with a corkscrew staircase in the Polish capital, Warsaw (+ slideshow).

The garden and pavilion proposed by Mecanoo will be located in the city’s popular Lazienki Park, which was designed around a series of buildings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Called the Garden of the 21st Century, this new addition comprises a triangular sliver of landscaped parkland criss-crossed by an undulating path, with exhibition spaces hidden underneath.

“The Garden of the 21st Century is special, because the design of the pavilion follows from that of the landscape,” said the architects.

Mecanoo collaborated with Dutch landscape architect Michael van Gessel, Delva Landscape Architects and Polish firm Jojko Nawrocki Architekci on the design of the landscaping and pavilion.

Entrances in the walls that run along both of the park’s long edges lead into the pavilion, which can also be entered from a public plaza that slices into the landscape.

“Two entry points are carved out of the side walls and another one out of the landscape,” explained the architects. “All give access to a central hall, which connects two major exhibition spaces and two smaller ones that have modular layouts.”

This entrance foyer contains a spiralling staircase connecting two levels and a series of skylights that appear above ground as rounded oculi embedded in the garden.

The pavilion is designed to house temporary exhibitions, while the garden will be used for educational as well as recreational purposes.

Here’s a brief project description from the architects:

Garden of the 21st Century in Warsaw

A team consisting of Mecanoo, Michael van Gessel, Delva Landscape Architects and Jojko Nawrocki Architekci has won the competition to design the new Garden of the 21st Century with integrated exhibition pavilion in Warsaw. In a ceremony at the Royal Lazienki Museum on Friday 16 November, the Polish Minister of Culture & National Heritage and the Minister of Environment jointly announced the result of an international competition with 80 submissions.

The new 2,5 hectare garden will be part of Lazienki Park, one of the most important touristic destinations in Warsaw that includes many 18th and 19th century buildings such as the Royal Baths, a Roman-inspired theatre and a water tower. The existing gardens in the park were all designed around these historic buildings. The Garden of the 21st Century is special, because the design of the pavilion follows from that of the landscape.

The 1800 m2, underground exhibition pavilion seems to grow out of the undulating walkway that surrounds the garden. Two entry points are carved out of the sidewalls and another one out of the landscape. All give access to a central hall, which connects two major exhibition spaces and two smaller ones that have modular lay-outs. Several oculi, or large round skylights, protrude through the walkway and the vegetation creating a mysterious play of light in the garden, but also providing carefully controlled daylight in the pavilion.

Both the garden and pavilion will provide new cultural life to the park with its many museums. The pavilion will host large temporary exhibitions, whereas the garden will play a role in local environmental education as well as be an example of 21st century landscape architecture.

The post Mecanoo designs a pavilion with a spiral
staircase underneath a garden in Warsaw appeared first on Dezeen.

This golden public toilet in Wembley, London aims to evoke the days when lavatories were “civic buildings that aimed to inspire confidence and pride in a place”.

With a perforated diamond pattern on its metal facade the Wembley WC Pavilion, designed by architects Gort Scott, sits in a newly landscaped and pedestrianised area and is intended to be “a singular and figurative building”.

The project comes at a time when public toilet provision is declining. “The aim was, after all, for a special building that harks back to the days when public toilet buildings were types of civic buildings that aimed to inspire confidence and pride in a place,” architect Jay Gort told Dezeen.

It was commissioned by Brent Council to develop the public convenience for a busy street in Wembley in northwest London. It consists of four urinals, a separate WC, a caretakers store and landscaped surroundings.

The exterior of the structure is made from a shimmering golden aluminium, which is more perforated near the roof. During the day the perforations filter sunlight into the toilets, while at night the structure appears to light up from within.

“We wanted a material that would allow the building to change depending on the weather and time of day,” said Gort. “On a sunny day, the reflectivity and shade of panels make the most of the faceted form, and then at night the perforations allow the building to glow.”

The architects used a traditional stamping machine to create the angular perforations. “A custom-made diamond-shaped cutting tool was produced after many prototype test sheets that were cut in our office to gauge the scale, shape and spacing of the holes,” he added.

Interior walls are lined with white ceramic tiles. There’s also a rainwater collection tank concealed behind a mirror, which uses recycled water for flushing the toilets.

The building has a four-sided concrete base, but looks like a star when viewed from above. Photography is by David Grandorge.

Here’s some project information from Gort Scott:

Wembley WC Pavilion

Gort Scott won the commission to design some new public conveniences on Empire Way in Wembley after an invited competition by Brent Council. The proposal is a modest, freestanding pavilion that will sit within a new garden and pedestrianised area that has been reclaimed from recent road realignments.

This is an unusual commission given the decline in provision of such services by local authorities. The brief called for a public toilet building, containing 4 urinals, a separate WC and caretakers store and landscaping to the immediate area. Gort Scott won the commission via an invited competition by Brent Council. The client required a building that could underpin the aspirations of the borough in terms of quality design and sustainability and form a key part in the regeneration of the pocket park and mixed area in which the pavilion sits.

The design intention was to produce a singular and figurative building that also related to its context and helps to define a sense of place. Standing over five meters tall the WC pavilion commands a presence at the high point of the surrounding topography and can be seen as walking up the gentle slope of Empire Way towards the Town Centre. Each of the building’s sides is subtly differentiated in response to the specific contexts, whether a busy road or public space. The design was conceived developed through a number of physical models.

The ground floor plan was developed to satisfy the brief requirements in a compact and efficient arrangement. It is based on a simple geometry, derived from a square, which suggests movement or rotation and allowing for a simple repeated construction, to minimise costs while ensuring quality.

The base of the building is constructed from concrete and will stand up to the anticipated knocks and scrapes of heavy use. Above head-height the structure becomes a filigree, shiny metal screen, allowing for light and ventilation without letting views in. The perforated water-cut screen further creates the effect of a glowing lantern during the evening.

The interior of the WC and urinals is robust and elegant: Up to 2.1m above ground, the walls are concrete, and tiled in utilitarian white ceramic tiles. A rainwater collection tank sits above the service room, clad in mirror, disappearing in its reflections of the surrounding perforated screen.

Although a small building the project acts as a showpiece for green technologies including rain water collection for flushing, natural ventilation, and PVs that power the lights, hand dryers and insulated D.W.C.

Client: LB Brent
Location: Wembley, London
Start date: December 2012
Completion date: May 2013
Construction cost: £245,000 including landscaping
Architects: Gort Scott
Contractor: Brac Contracts
Structure: Price & Myers
M&E: Skelly and Couch
Planting: Brent Council
CDM: MLM

The post Golden public toilet by Gort Scott
aims to “inspire confidence” appeared first on Dezeen.