Hasta La Ideas

The students and tutor of an architecture workshop in Ljubljana have built a wedge-shaped wooden pavilion containing a tiny pool of water and logs acting as stepping stones.

Located in a riverside park, the Water Temple has a wide, triangular set of steps leading to a narrow entrance behind a wooden sliding door.

The door leads to a walled interior space containing a pool of shallow water and logs which form stepping stones.

Architect Kieran Donnellan and a group of MEDS students designed and built the pavilion in August this year.

Last year we featured a seaside chapel in Istanbul designed by MEDS students with Donnellan and two of his fellow graduates.

“I’ve found that by using simple religious typologies as references, the team has a certain atmosphere and scale of spatial complexity in mind to guide them,” says Donnellan. “They help me to ensure that we build something with a strong spatial atmosphere, and that we do not simply build for the sake of building.”

Both the chapel and the water temple are “single cell spaces” with an exaggerated entrance area, he adds. “The exaggeration allows the small structures to take on a sense of scale and make an impact much grander than their modest volumes.”

See all our stories about pavilions »
See all our stories about temples »
See all our stories from Ljubljana »

Photographs are by Kieran Donnellan.

Here’s some more information from Donnellan:

This temporary exhibition pavilion was built during the MEDS, Meeting of Design Students, in Ljubljana during August 2012. It was a collaboration by an interdisciplinary team of 15 students and young graduates from the MEDS community and 2 representatives of project sponsor DamaHaus, a Slovenian construction firm. The team was led by Irish tutor Kieran Donnellan and the name of the pavilion relates to aspects of its spatial configuration and use.

The pavilion is a non-’white wall’ exhibition space whose character is meant to inspire exhibits of both existing and new work, relating to the concept that shaped the pavilion. The concept was inspired by the history of the Ljubljanica river, and in particular the change over time in the ways that locals interact with it.

Located in a narrow riverside park, the curved and pointed form of the wooden pavilion evoke the atmosphere of a boat that has been placed, seemingly at first, loosely among a line of trees beside a sluice gate built by Jose Plecnik. Upon further investigation, the subtleties of the orientation and the nature of the eccentric geometry become obvious.

Acknowledging the hierarchy in the directions of pedestrian movement on the site, the pavilion sits close to the water’s edge while reaching out through the tree-line towards the path. As it breaks the tree-line, the pavilion dissolves, encouraging movement towards the entrance of the pavilion, while also framing views of the sluice gate. The covered entryway is an exaggerated portico that addresses Plecnik’s monument. This creates a strong tension in a way that seems at once both formal and informal.

Site plan

The sliding door of the pavilion has no handle. Fluted carving, a reference to the features of the monument, offers grip over the entire surface of the door. Sliding back, it reveals the curved surfaces of the interior. The wooden floor of the entry lobby ends upon striking the elliptical curve of the interior exhibition space, where the most intriguing aspect of the concept is discovered – the floor of the exhibition space is a pool of water.

Plan

This is a reference to the way in which the Ljubljanica river was experienced by locals in the past, when the river lapped right onto some of the streets and the use of small boats was part of daily life. That moment of stepping from dry land onto a water based vessel is imitated in the Water Temple, when a visitor takes their first tentative step onto the sliced tree-trunks which are placed, unfixed, throughout the pool. Movement in the exhibition space is carefully balanced and considered.

Section

The elliptical shape of the interior was an experiment with the amplification of sound. An ellipse has two focal points, and any sound that occurs in the interior within certain directions will be loudest at those points. The effect is most obvious upon arrival at the first focal point inside the entrance, where the sound of the sluice gate is louder than at any position on the journey inside, and seems to surround the visitor.

Elevations

Exhibitors have the freedom to decide where the steps should be placed, or to use alternatives for their own exhibitions. Work can be mounted on steel supports fixed to the primary vertical structural members, and placed in or on the pool. The pavilion will remain in its current location for between 6 months to a year. A series of exhibitors will be allowed to use the pavilion in turn. Anybody interested in exhibiting in the Water Temple can make inquiries to MEDS.

Frame assembly diagram

The pavilion was built using CNC technology and wood bending techniques. DamaHaus used their CNC machine to manufacture the primary structural components, all made from pine. This included cutting a mixture of traditional blind tenon and exposed dovetail joints. The curved walls were made on-site by cold-bending and glueing 2 thin layers of wood together following immersion in the Ljubljanica river.

Wall assembly diagram

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by Kieran Donnellan and MEDS students 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.

Steel trees with sprawling branches support the glass roof of this greenhouse in Switzerland by Buehrer Wuest Architekten (+ slideshow).

Located in a botanical garden outside the village of Grüningen, the greenhouse is used for growing subtropical plants such as banana and papaya.

The architects borrowed structural patterns found in nature, like the membranes of a leaf, to create the geometric structure of the roof.

Glass screens subdivide the space to create different planting areas.

Other greenhouses we’ve featured include one made from Lego and another with a temporary restaurant inside.

Photography is by Markus Bertschi.

Here are a few words from the architects:

The new pavilion at the botanical garden at Grueningen relates strongly to its context. The design was inspired by the surrounding forest, not the built environment.

Both the formal vocabulary and the structural concept derive from nature. The pavilion is conceived to harmonize with and expand the forest.

Site plan – click above for larger image

The form was developed using Voronoi tessellation, also known as natural neighbor interpolation. Analogous to cell division in nature, the geometry of the roof as surrounding membrane was determined by the position of the old and new trunks.

Column plan detail – click above for larger image

The forest was augmented by four steel trees that form the primary structural system of the pavilion.

Column detail – click above for larger image

At about five meters, the trunks branch toward the treetop, which forms the natural roof. A secondary glass construction, suspended from the steel branches, encloses the inner space of the greenhouse.

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by Buehrer Wuest Architekten appeared first on Dezeen.

Every surface inside the top floor of the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale is covered in QR codes, which visitors decode using tablet computers to explore ideas for a new Russian city dedicated to science.

Downstairs, visitors can peer through lenses to catch a glimpse of the gated and secretive science towns established under the Soviet Union, intended to provide a contrast with the open and collaborative vision presented upstairs.

The Skolkovo science and technology centre will be located near Moscow by 2017 and bring together 500 companies working on IT, biomedical research, nuclear research, energy and space technology plus a university and homes.

The architectural team includes Pierre de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, Kazuyo Sejima and the Venice Architecture Biennale’s director David Chipperfield, plus the winners of several rounds of competitions to be held as the project progresses.

The exhibition is curated by Sergei Tchoban and Sergey Kuznetsov of SPEECH Tchoban & Kuznetsov, who are masterplanning the Skolkovo project and were part of the team behind The Russia Factory exhibition at the same pavilion two years ago.

The 13th Venice Architecture Biennale opens to the public today and continues until 25 November.

More stories about Venice Architecture Biennale 2012 »
Our photos from the biennale on Facebook »
Our movie interview with biennale director David Chipperfield »

Photographs are by Patricia Parinejad.

Here’s some more information from the curators:

In this part of the exhibition we show plans for a new city of science located near Moscow, in Russia. This project already involves some of the most important scientific centres in the world and will include a new university and homes for more than 500 firms working in distinct fields of science – IT, biomedical research, nuclear research, energy, and space technology.

Currently,these firms are situated in different parts of the world and interact with one another as a network. Our objective is to construct a city for this new community.

In our pavilion we have tried to find an architecture metaphor for connecting the real and the virtual. People today live at the intersection of on- and off-line; ‘our common ground’ is becoming a cipher for infinite mental spaces.

What will the city of the future look like, and, in particular, the city of science? The answer is to be found in the Skolkovo project. For the moment, these are plans; but their implementation should be competed in 2017.

The core of the architectural team for the project consists of Pierre de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, Kazuyo Sejima, Mohsen Mostafavi, Sergei Tchoban, Sergey Kuznetsov, David Chipperfield, Yury Grigoryan, and Steano Boeri. The team is continually growing. We recently held our first competition to find additional architects for some apartment buildings. 600 architects took part in the competition, of whom 10 received commissions. Another three large competitions are to be held. Come and join in!

Duing the cold-war period from 1945 until 1989 more than 60 gated towns and cities were created in the Soviet Union for scientific and technological research. The existence of these cities was kept secret. They were everywhere in the country, and yet it was as if they did not exist.

The people who worked within were isolated from society and were sometimes, for the sake of secrecy, given new names and surnames. These cities and their inhabitants were invisible except to the watchful eyes of the secret service.

For the exhibition we named this secret country ‘i-land’. It is the subject of the exhibition on the ground floor of the Russian Pavilion.

The new city – the Skolkovo innovation centre – is an instrument for transforming science after the end of the cold war. This is an open city which is being created by some of the world’s most acknowledged architects, and we hoe to attract some of the world’s advanced scientists. We called this city of the future ‘i-city’. You will find it on the upper level.

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Architeture Biennale 2012 appeared first on Dezeen.

German architects HENN have created a streamlined pavilion with a curled-over steel roof for car brand Porsche at the Autostadt theme park in Wolfsburg.

The structure is located in the south-eastern corner of the park, which is dedicated to the exhibition of cars and is located beside the Volkswagen factory in the north of the city.

The curved roof of the pavilion shelters two doorways and cantilevers out towards a pool of water that winds around the park.

Inside the pavilion, a ramp linking the upper and lower doors spirals round an exhibition hall where some of Porsche’s cars are on show beside 25 silver miniatures.

A Porsche museum was also completed a few years ago in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen – see it here – and read more about a permanent exhibition on sustainability designed by J. Mayer H. for the Autostadt park here.

See all our stories about Porsche »

Photography is by HG Esch.

Here’s some text from HENN:

Porsche Pavilion at the Autostadt in Wolfsburg

Architecture, landscape design and exhibition concept

A few weeks ago the Dr .Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG celebrated the opening of their Porsche Pavilion at the Autostadt in Wolfsburg in the presence of 200 guests of honor.

For the first time since its opening in 2000, the theme park receives another building structure in the form of the new Porsche Pavilion, which expresses the importance of Porsche within the Volkswagen Group family.

‘The building is unique and its construction is extraordinary. This pavilion also has a symbolic and historical dimension, as it hints at the common roots through which Porsche and Volkswagen have been connected from the very beginning and will continue to be connected also in future’, says Matthias Müller, CEO of Porsche AG. ‘As a worldwide leading automobile destination and communication platform for Volkswagen, we provide insights into our brands, values and philosophy for our guests. With the Porsche Pavilion we start a new chapter in the history of the Autostadt’, adds Otto F. Wachs, Director of the Autostadt.

The organically shaped building is sitting – in mirrored location to the Volkswagen Pavilion- at the central axis of the theme park and offers 400 m2 of space for exhibitions and presentations. Its characteristic silhouette will become a distinctive icon amid the lagoon landscape of the Autostadt.

Curving lines and exciting bends make the Pavilion a dynamic yet reduced sculpture with its characteristics derived from the Porsche brand image. As designed by HENN, the structure captures the dynamic flow of driving with a seamless building skin. Its lines pick up speed and slow down just to plunge forward in large curves with ever-changing radii.

A matte-finished stainless steel cladding forms the flush envelope of this vibrant structure, creating the impression of a homogeneous unity, whilst creating a continuously changing appearance depending on light and weather conditions. At the entrance the pavilion cantilevers 25m over the lagoon’s water surface in front.

Below the cantilever of the large asymmetrical roof, a sheltered external space opens up. This space is visually connected to the surrounding landscape, but forms its own acoustic enclosure, providing seating for a few hundred guests.

Architecture and landscape, interior and exterior as well as roof and facade are brought together by HENN in their architectural concept of a coherent, flowing continuum. The external area around the pavilion was designed by landscape architects WES and integrated into the overall concept of the theme park.

This is how the new piazzetta creates a connection between the Porsche Pavilion and the adjacent Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Pavilion by means of water features and trees. By walking around the sculptural Porsche Pavilion, further highlights of the Autostadt can be discovered.

Similar to the monocoque construction technology used for lightweight structures in the automotive and aerospace industries, the building envelope forms a spatial enclosure whilst at the same time acting as load-bearing structure. A total of 620 sheets of stainless steel cladding with welded ribs were prefabricated in a ship-yard in Stralsund and assembled on site.

Inside the pavilion a concentrated space opens up, allowing visitors to experience the sports car brand Porsche and its history, yet, casting aside the conventional limits and restraints to perception. The elliptically curved ramp embraces the dynamic principle of the architecture and leads the visitor to the lower exhibition stage areas. The exhibition and staging concept created by hg merz architekten museumsgestalter and jangled nerves combines evolution, engineering and the fascination of Porsche into an impressive image of future-oriented tradition. The Original Porsche – a 356 No.1 built in 1948 – is the starting point for a swarm of 25 silver coloured vehicle models at the scale of 1:3, on show in the main exhibition area.

Tradition and innovation, performance and day-to-day-practicality, design and functionality, exclusiveness and social acceptance: These four antagonistic terms characterise Porsche’s values and philosophy. They are also picked up as themes in short films. A film about the company history, sound stories about selected Porsche models as well as tablet PCs with further information about the exhibited vehicles make this visit’s experience perfect.

Site plan – click above for larger image

CLIENT: Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG / Autostadt GmbH

ARCHITECTS AND LEAD CONSULTANT: HENN
Principal: Prof. Dr. Gunter Henn
Programming: Andreas Fuchs, Martin Rath
Design: Martin Henn, Klaus Ransmayr Paul Langley
Planning: Georg Pichler, Hans Funk, Florian Goscheff, Katrin Lind, Birgit Schönbrodt, Yves Six, Wolfram Schneider, Sebastian Schuttwolf, Maximilian Thumfart
Quantity Surveying: Paul Lawrence, Lars Becker, Wolfgang Malisius
Construction Management: Wolfgang Wrba, Siegfried Kruse, Hendrik Noack, Karl Rosebrock

Lower floor exhibition level – click above for larger image

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS: Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, Prof. Dr. Mike Schlaich, Achim Bleicher, Thomas Schoknecht, Sebastian Linden

TECHNICAL BUILDING SERVICES: ZWP Ingenieur-AG

LIGHTING: Kardorff Ingenieure Lichtplanung GmbH

INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN: Niermann Consult

Upper floor entrance level – click above for larger image

LANDSCAPE DESIGN: WES Landschaftsarchitekten, Prof. Hinnerk Wehberg, Michael Kaschke, Maxie Strauch
Coordination/Costing: Claus Rödding
Project Team: Thomas Bohr, Frank Fischer, Rainer König, Axel Koch, Yushu Liu, Walter Maas, Barbara Tieke
Tendering, construction management: Klaus Werner Rose, Frank Bolle, Werner Hüsing, Thorsten Heitmann, Robert Holldorf

Click above for larger image

STAGE DESIGN AND MEDIA: hg merz architekten museumsgestalter and jangled nerves
Principals: Prof. HG Merz, Ingo Zirngibl
Project management: Markus Betz, Jochen Zink
Team: Johannes Brommer, Alexander Franzem, Heiko Geiger, Stefanie Heinecke, Bjørn Kantereit, Fabiola Maldonado, Marcel Michalski, Marc Schleiss, Jörg Stierle, Christian Stindl, Sylvia Stoll, Patrick Wais
Acoustic space design: Klangerfinder

Click above for larger image

DESIGN PERIOD: March 2011 to February 2012
CONSTRUCTION PERIOD: August 2011 to May 2012
Gross floor area: 1,400 m2
Net floor area: 1,045 m2
Roofed, paved outdoor area: 290 m2
Exhibition area: 400 m2
Monocoque: 2,550 m2
Weight: 425 t
Material: Stainless steel plate 10-30 mm
Envelope Contractor: Centraalstaal B.V., Groningen

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by HENN appeared first on Dezeen.